FORGED OR NOT?

If you're committed to vote for John Kerry or if you're consumed by an obsessive hatred of all things Bush, you will never bring yourself to admit this, though you know it in your soul.  Those documents that CBS came up with last week are forgeries.  Forged by who?  We don't know ... yet.  But forgeries they are. 

I've been gone for a week ... so many of you are probably more up to speed on this than I am.  But here's somewhat of a recap and some of the latest info:

As you know, Dan Rather took to the air early last week with new documents that were supposed to prove that Bush was a complete slacker toward the end of his National Guard duty.  These documents were supposedly from the private files of Bush's National Guard commander Lt. Col. J.B. Killian.  Among other things, these memos were supposed to represent Killian's concern over being pressured by his superior, Col. Walter Staudt, to "sugarcoat" reports of Bush's effectiveness as a National Guard officer.  The papers were also supposed to show that Bush was ordered to take a flight physical, but refused or failed to do so. 

Virtually within hours of Rather's reports the questions began.  The type on those documents simply couldn't have been produced by any typewriter likely to be in the possession of Col. Killian in 1973, the date on the memos.   The issue was quickly picked up by talk radio ... and it was on.

CBS, of course, immediately went on the defense.  They trusted their source. They trusted the man they had authenticate the documents.  The documents were genuine, and that was that.

Well ... things seem to be falling apart for poor, poor pitiful CBS.  Let's just look at the high points.

1.  Col. Walter Staudt was pressuring Lt. Col. J.B. Killian to "sugarcoat" Bush's proficiency reports.  There's just one problem here.  Staudt had retired from the National Guard by the time these memos were written.  He no longer had any command authority over Killian.  Would Killian be writing memos about pressure he was receiving from a National Guard commander who had retired some time before?  Or .. did whoever made up these documents fail to check some important dates, like retirement dates.  Oh well.

2.  CBS had the documents "authenticated" before Dan Rather brought his story to the air.  By who?  Retired National Guard Maj. General Bobby Hodges, that's who.  Rather said that Hodges was "familiar with the documents" and that it took great courage for him to come forward as he did and authenticate him.  Well, General Hodges has a different story to tell.  Hodges says that yes, CBS did talk to him.  According to Hodges a CBS reporter read him extracts from the documents that Killian was supposed to have written.  Hodges did tell CBS that he had some conversations with Killian about Bush, but that he never confirmed the authenticity of the documents.  What is CBS's response?  CBS says that they believed Hodges the first time they talked to him.  In other words, he was telling CBS the truth then, but that he is lying now.  In other words, when Hodges provides information that hurts Bush, he's telling the truth.  When he provides information that might help Bush, he's lying.  Hodges, the man CBS referred to as their "trump card," now says that the documents are forgeries.

3.  Both J.B. Killian's widow and his son say that the documents obtained by CBS are fakes.  But what do they know .... they only knew this man better than anyone else alive.

Now, the latest.  All CBS had to do to make the case that these documents were real was to come up with a typewriter capable of producing these documents in 1973.  Oh ... and it has to be a typewriter that one could reasonably expect a National Guard Lt. Colonel who doesn't type might have available for his use.  So, Saturday night CBS did just that.  They came out with a report that the IBM Selectric Composer could produce the type and the effects that were found on Killian's memos.  The Boston Globe also reported Saturday that their document expert said that the documents could have been composed on an IBM Selectric Composer which was available at the time the documents were written.  U.S. News & World Report is getting in on the action by referring to an "IBM Selectric Composer typewriter which [was] commonly used in 1972.z'

Not so fast.  Even though CBS referred to the IBM Selectric Composer as a "typewriter,"  that's like referring to a Mont Blanc as a "ballpoint."  Just do a little Googling with the words "IBM Selectric Composer" and you'll find that it isn't just a "typewriter," it's a typesetting machine.  It was used to produce justified camera-ready copy for publications.   The price for this machine in the early 1970's was from $3,500 to $4,500 dollars.  In 2004 dollars that would be from $16,000 to $22,000.  If you want to believe that a National Guard Lt. Col. typed memos in 1973 on a "typewriter" with an equivalent cost of $20,000, you go ahead.  You should know, however, that the Air National Guard, then and now, generally receives much of its equipment as hand-me-downs from the Air Force.

CBS, the Boston Globe and other media outlets have a problem.  They are institutionally dedicated to the idea of doing everything they can get away with to make sure that George Bush is defeated in November and that John Kerry becomes the 44th president of the United States.  60 Minutes, which, by the way, has quite a history of using false and forged documents in its stories, apparently has done so again.  Dan Rather and his associates know that if CBS steps forward and admits that it was duped, that they used faked and forged documents in a story designed to attack the credibility of George Bush, the assumption is going to be that those documents came from the Kerry campaign.  Now I know of no evidence whatsoever that Kerry or his campaign staff was behind these forged documents, but millions of Americans, Americans who may now be on the electoral fence, are going to think that's the case.  How, then, does CBS come forward and admit that they were duped without creating a backlash against Kerry?

I suspect that they're working on that problem at this very moment.

DOES KERRY REALLY THINK YOU'RE THIS STUPID?

Well ... of course the answer is "yes."  He does think most of the voters are stupid.  He's putting quite a bit of reliance on that stupidity in his quest for the presidency --- that plus obsessive-compulsive Bush hatred and the tendency of all-too-many Americans to rely on government for the things that they should be providing for themselves.

OK ... back to the "does he really think we're this stupid" thing:

Reading a recent Time magazine interview of Kerry and you'll find this amazing statement:

"They're taking money from Social Security and transferring it to the wealthiest people in America to drive us into debt."

A few things:

First, during a good part of the past forty years the Democrats were in charge of the Social Security purse strings, and every single year that they had control they took all of the Social Security taxes that weren't needed to pay current benefits and spent that money on their pet spending programs. 

Second -- and this is where Kerry really depends on the economic stupidity of Americans -- no money is being "[transferred] to the wealthiest people in America."  Kerry is talking about tax cuts, of course, and tax cuts do not transfer any money.  Tax cuts allow people to keep more of the money they earn ... nothing more.  No money is taken away from any one person to give to any other person.  You earn the money through hard work ... and you get to keep it.  How can it be that Americans don't understand this?  Two words:  Government education.

Finally, remember that a huge number of the "wealthiest people" that Kerry was talking about are actually small business owners ... the very small business owners who provide nearly 80% of the jobs in our economy.  Who do you want to have that money?  The government, or the people who will use it to create private sector jobs?

THE GORE MELTDOWN CONTINUES

Speaking of the 2000 election, could things get any worse for Al Gore?  Rather than simply accept the 2000 election results and realize it was all out of his hands, the sad antics of this bitter man continue.  He has now been hired as the hatchet man for the DNC...and you could almost feel sorry for him.  After all ... here is a man who was groomed from the day he completed toilet training to eventually be the president, and he blew it by not carrying his own home state.  I'm surprised he's not suicidal!

Last week, Gore lashed out at Vice-President Dick Cheney for his "sleazy and despicable" comments about Democrats.  He has criticized the Bush campaign for moral cowardice, all while doing plenty of yelling.  Of course, then you have his comments that somehow the president betrayed the country in going to war in Iraq.  Never mind that it was the policy of the Clinton administration (of which he was a prominent member) to change the regime in Iraq.

Anyway, Gore's screaming and his insane comments are not only tarnishing his legacy, but they aren't helping the Democrats either.  The Poodle's campaign seems content to go down with the ship, however.   A Kerry adviser says "Gore will be a tremendous asset to us in a number of targeted battleground states and we're happy to have his help,"

It's kind of pathetic....but then again, his insane rantings are good for the talk radio business.

THE ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN

Do you notice the media panic?  The assault weapons ban expires at midnight tonight!  By tomorrow morning our streets will be packed with roving gangs carrying machine guns.

Two things.  First ... these so-called "assault weapons" have played a very minor role in the American crime picture over the years.  There were a few incidents in California involving some rather ugly semi-automatic weapons and Barbara Boxer went nuts.  And that brings us to our second point.  Do you know how the various weapons listed in the soon-to-expire ban were chosen?  Barbara Boxer and some staffers got their hands on a weapons catalogue and decided which weapons looked the most dangerous.  These were the weapons ultimately banned.  The decision was based on cosmetics.

Legislation written the way this law was written deserves to die.

TALKING BACK TO "THE VENT"

I really don't think that this will turn out to be a very good idea, but I just get so tired or reading so many stupid comments phoned in to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's "Vent" column that I just feel compelled to respond to a few.  So here we go:

• Vent:   "Anybody who calls Jimmy Carter "loony" needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror."

Yeah ... and anyone who allows themselves to be so completely and thoroughly conned by the likes of Korea's dictator Kim Jong Ill and Venezuela's strongman Chavez is either a fool, or something much worse.

• Vent:  "This is not witty, I'm just mad as hell: A thousand die, and Bush was AWOL."

Another Democratic leftist Bush-hating idiot who believes Terry McAuliffe over National Guard officials.  You need to pay just a bit more attention to the news, my friend.  Can you spell "forgery?"

• Vent:    "My son had to have emergency bypass surgery in Sweden, where they have socialized medicine. He's doing fine now. It cost him a little over $100"

And just how much did it cost the taxpayers of Sweden?  Oh wait, don't tell me.  You're one of those who thinks that anything you don't actually have to pay for out of your own pocket is free, right?  Everything is just wonderful if you can get someone else to foot the bill for you.

God help us.  These people may be eligible to vote.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

A lot of people have had some ugly things to say about Zell Miller.  Here's Miller's response.

Is CBS stonewalling or are they in a blind panic?  And just who are the "guys in pajamas."

I stuck something into the Nuze last week about this one.  Now you can click here to read it for yourself.  It's a 1,500 word column from Senator Joseph Biden, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  The column is about how wonderful America's foreign relations would be if only John Kerry were president.  Note, please, that in all of Biden's references to terrorism and radicals and such .. not once could he bring himself to say the words "Muslim" or "Islamic." 

As the third anniversary of 9/11 passes, the media remains in denial about just who the enemy is: Islamic terrorists. Michelle Malkin has more.

According to Doug Maceachern, there is a far worse candidate than Bush or Kerry running in this fall's presidential election: Libertarian party candidate Michael Badnarik.

Despite what he's been saying on the stump and his speech at the convention, The Poodle is unquestionably weak on national defense.  Mike Rosen explains.

The rise of global Islamo-fascism has brought back an old alliance: The United States, Great Britain and Russia.  Zev Chafets explains.

CBS fell for the fake National Guard sucker memos hook, line and sinker.  Mark Steyn explains how it all went down.

With only 50 days to go until the election and Bush's big bounce from the convention, The Poodle's battleground may be smaller than expected.  Dan Balz explains.

So how's come sKerry is running such an inept campaign?  Ann McFeatters wonders the same thing.

The post-mortems are already rolling in from the media....Michael Barone explains what the Democrats' real problem is.

Even though the memos look more and more every day like complete and total fakes, that's not stopping the media from continually quoting them.  The Media Research Center has more.

The Poodle's problem is that he has no vision or personality...what can he do about it?  Not much, says Paul Greenberg.

Every columnist gets hate mail....but Professor Mike Adams likes to share his.  Click away...but be warned that it might contain potentially naughty language.

The Poodle likes to tell jokes...and he's told some real knee-slappers in the past.  Jeff Jacoby runs them down.

Trouble is lurking for John Kerry on November 2nd...and it can best be described using two words: Ralph Nader.  Robert Novak has more.

Atlanta listeners, check out the Boortzapalooza special Tuesday, September 14 at 10PM on WSB-TV Channel 2.

Live television footage of a young woman having her nipple pierced on German reality TV show Big Brother has outraged politicians and child protection agencies.

Scientists have been scattering dead piglets around London in a grisly experiment to help police trace the time of death in murder investigations.

The Washington Prowler at American Spectator has all the skinny on Bill Burkett and other theories in today's gossip inside CBS. Compare the documents yourself. [flash]

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