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Campaign panic in perfect Times Roman (Former Army Clerk/Typist Discusses CBS Memos)
Christian Science Monitor ^ | September 14, 2004 | Michael Caputo

Posted on 09/13/2004 6:56:42 PM PDT by PJ-Comix

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A liberal friend explained the whole thing to me.

You see, they KNOW Bush got special treatment. So, the absence of documents is no big deal. The forging of documents is no big deal either. They KNOW such documents should have existed. Forging them just fills a gap that was created when Bush had the original documents destroyed.

The key "fact" in this campaign is that Kerry volunteered to go to Viet Nam. No other consideration is of any importance in this election. That Kerry admits he committed war crimes--irrelevant. That Kerry slandered others--irrelevant. That Kerry helped undermine the war effort--irrelevant. That Kerry has been against every military weapon since he joined the Senate--irrelevant.

The ONLY thing that matters--Kerry went to Viet Nam, Bush didn't.

See how simple it is.


21 posted on 09/13/2004 7:25:01 PM PDT by John Semmens
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To: PJ-Comix

Great post, PJ!

BTW, I was stationed at Pearl, 74-77.


22 posted on 09/13/2004 7:30:10 PM PDT by PhilipFreneau
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To: Rheo

Rheo! Rheo! Rheo!!! Where the heck have you been?????? I am fine, and you?


23 posted on 09/13/2004 7:44:26 PM PDT by MistyCA
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To: Rheo

I was so happy to see you I forgot to comment on your post! :)

Why am I not surprised about what you said? Bush held the high road in that campaign and that is why, imo, he got run over by the most ambitious and dishonest people we have ever seen, until now. But I am happy to know that integrity counts. Clinton was a flawed person who it was very easy to get true dirt on. But to manufacture dirt like the other side does can only be dealt with when they meet their maker. I suspect that will be one very interesting day! ;)


24 posted on 09/13/2004 7:48:37 PM PDT by MistyCA
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To: Rheo

Hmmmm. That just brought to mind some other dirt manufacturers we have been exposed to in our time! Huh! Funny in hindsight.


25 posted on 09/13/2004 7:50:43 PM PDT by MistyCA
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To: MistyCA

You have mail!


26 posted on 09/13/2004 8:24:54 PM PDT by Rheo
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To: MissAmericanPie
Dwelling on past military glories??? No. A couple of current military efforts are often mentioned but hardly dwelled upon. The difference is that we are in the middle (some would say late beginning) of the War On Terror and discussion of how the rest of the WOT plays out is not only germaine but essential when choosing the next Commander in Chief.

Perhaps you can cite some examples where Bush / Cheney has dwelled upon past military glories?

27 posted on 09/13/2004 8:32:32 PM PDT by NonValueAdded (hey, hey, ho, ho ... Kerry, sign the one-eight-oh!)
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To: PJ-Comix

Kerry set this Vietnam trap and ended up getting caught in it himself.


28 posted on 09/13/2004 8:34:25 PM PDT by buckster
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To: NonValueAdded

"If I hear one more Vietnam war story out of either presidential campaign I might just sit out this election".

I think you misunderstood me. I was addressing the above quote from the author. The Kerry campaign is the only one betting the farm on past military glory, glory that Kerry won't back up by allowing his military record to be made public.


29 posted on 09/13/2004 8:38:34 PM PDT by MissAmericanPie
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To: PJ-Comix

Dan Rather isn't giving in. Tonight's CBS Evening News had short pieces with new "experts" saying the funny parts of the memos were available in the early 70's. CBS is standing firm.


30 posted on 09/13/2004 8:50:36 PM PDT by etcetera
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To: MissAmericanPie

Sorry, you are correct and I did misunderstand you. I sit corrected.


31 posted on 09/13/2004 8:54:21 PM PDT by NonValueAdded (hey, hey, ho, ho ... Kerry, sign the one-eight-oh!)
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To: PJ-Comix; dighton; aculeus; general_re; L,TOWM; Constitution Day; hellinahandcart; Poohbah; ...
From 1978 until 1995, I worked as a court reporter in division- and corps-level SJA offices. Now, a court reporter earns his bread through typing ... the in-court stuff is important because it gets it to that point, but, in the end, it's the original and four or five copies of the transcript of the record of trial that the Staff Judge Advocate, the Convening Authority (the Commanding General of the Corps or Division), and the military appellate courts are waiting to pounce on. Nothing can proceed in the processing of the appellate process until the record of trial is prepared, reviewed by both counsel, and authenticated by the military judge. Speed and accuracy are required: take too long and it doesn't matter how clean the copy is; do it too fast, with too much errata, and they're sending it back to you for a retype.

When I became a court reporter in 1978, we were using Royal 550 manual typewriters, one typewritten original and a five-carbon paper snap set for the copies. Xeroxing was too expensive for the Army at that time, so we did it in an original and five carbon copies. Make a mistake, you carefully roll the paper set out far enough to get to the carbons with an eraser, making sure not to smear the work around the error. In those days before saving the record of trial to memory, making errata corrections from the trial and defense counsel on the saved copy, and giving the military judge a clean record, if the counsel came back with errata, it meant pen-and-inking the changes on the face of the record and presenting your disgrace to the whole military legal field .. and posterity, because these things get stored for a LONG time.

My assignment from Fort Hood to Korea in 1979 meant that I remained using the Royal 550, except we had to make the typing ribbon last as long as we could, which meant rewinding it, reversing it, and hoping that there was enough ink remaining in the spaces between the letters to continue to make clear copies.

I thought I was in hog-heaven when I was assigned to Mannheim and we had LANIER word processors...big hulking pseudo-computers that were only good for typing. But you could save your work product and it made errata corrections easy. 21st Support Command probably had about 10 .. all in court reporter shops in Mannheim and K'Town. None of the Division or Corps staffs had anything remotely resembling such treasures.

When I returned to Fort Hood in 1985, it was back to the Royal 550s for awhile, then Selectrics (with the golf-ball heads) and Swintecs (partial memory typewriters which could back you out of trouble with correct-tape almost as fast as you could get into it). When computers finally came to the court reporters, in about 1987, I decided to keep using the Swintec because I could make corrections on the face of the original record faster than most could figure out the keyboard corrections in the pre-mouse days. It still meant that I couldn't "save" the copy for post-errata cleanliness, but, by this time, I was both accurate and fast. Meanwhile, those unfortunate to use the computers went through a myriad of word processing program incarnations .. WordPerfect (in varying numbers), ENABLE, proto-Word, and too many other titles that flashed through the "official" requirements for word processing.

Finally, in about 1989, I was required to give up my typewriter and go to Microsoft Word.

Throughout my stint as a military court reporter (and now as a DoD civilian one), we were required by regulation to use the "standard" font, either Courier or New Courier, for processing courts-martial and other legal documents. Times New Roman was not allowed per AR 27-10 or the Manual for Courts-Martial.

As typing goes, military court reporters are pretty much the elite, the Rear Echelon Rangers. Yet, in my career as a military court reporter, until the time I was given a computer .. even including the old univac-type LANIER word processing system .. we never had the ability to superscript "th", unless we wanted to give the roller a half-turn down and try to keep the two letters even while typing with one finger and holding the roller. It wasn't worth the effort .. 1st Cavalry Division, 2nd Infantry Division, 21st Support Command, 2nd Armored Division, they all remained number-and-letters on the same level.

So, no, I do NOT believe that some obscure ANG unit was given equipment that the military's "professional" typists never saw and could only dream of. Anyone who thinks so, obviously hasn't spent enough time in the rear with us REMFs or in uniform at all.

32 posted on 09/13/2004 9:16:21 PM PDT by BlueLancer (Der Elite Møøsënspåånkængrüppen ØberKømmändø (EMØØK))
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To: PJ-Comix
Just to save my pride ... I would like to say that I wasn't always a REMF. I enlisted in 1975 as an infantryman, was assigned to 1st Cav (when they were still airmobile), then became mech infantry during the transition. I spent three years in the infantry, being promoted to Sergeant E-5 and squad leader before leaving to become a REMF. Until my promotion as squad leader, I trained on the M60 machinegun as a door gunner and then a dismounted 60-gunner when we became mech. I humped that mother for three years, all 5'6" and 125 pounds of me. I loved it and didn't want to part with it when I became a squad leader.

So, even we REMFs sometimes have a history ...

33 posted on 09/13/2004 9:22:35 PM PDT by BlueLancer (Der Elite Møøsënspåånkængrüppen ØberKømmändø (EMØØK))
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To: NonValueAdded

no problem.


34 posted on 09/13/2004 9:32:47 PM PDT by MissAmericanPie
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To: PJ-Comix

You have to check out the 1961 Typewriter on Ebay. It is advertised as "great for forging". Sorry I don't know how to make it into a link, but here is the site for you to cut and paste.

http://search.ebay.com/1961-typewriter_W0QQsokeywordredirectZ1QQfromZR8


35 posted on 09/13/2004 9:35:23 PM PDT by fetts
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To: fetts

Wow, it worked as a link all by itself. I'm better than I thought I was!!


36 posted on 09/13/2004 9:35:52 PM PDT by fetts
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To: PJ-Comix

"...golly... e-mail from Mr. Rather... hmm... good job... but...
problems... hmm... no more memos needed... hmm... blogosphere...
hmm... lay-off... hmm... gee... wonder what a 'lay-off' is... hmm..."


37 posted on 09/13/2004 9:57:44 PM PDT by badgerlandjim (Hillary Clinton is to politics as Helen Thomas is to beauty)
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To: BlueLancer

You need to give this post a thread of it's own...it deserves one...


38 posted on 09/13/2004 10:05:51 PM PDT by DouglasKC
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To: potlatch

PING


39 posted on 09/13/2004 10:13:27 PM PDT by ntnychik
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To: potlatch

PING


40 posted on 09/13/2004 10:14:10 PM PDT by ntnychik
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