THANKS, KRYSTAL

I had a great time at the Marriott resort at TCP Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra, Florida last night speaking to the annual convention for Krystal franchisees and suppliers.  My thanks to everyone who made that even and my participation possible.  And thanks for making sure there were plenty of Krystal Cheeseburgers at the table.

TIME TO STEP FORWARD AND HELP THE CAUSE

As you know, I write a weekly (more or less) column for Townhall.com.  I was surprised to see one of those Townhall.com columns referenced in the nationally syndicated Mallard Fillmore cartoon strip last Friday.  Townhall.com is widely accepted as a virtual treasure trove of conservative thought and ideas by opinion makers, politicians, businessmen and ordinary citizens who check in every day to see who is saying what about whom.  Townhall.com is engaged in their Fall pledge drive, and I'm asking you to step forward and help with a few bucks.  Townhall.com pays a small fee for each one of my columns.  I donate that fee back to the cause.  Can you help out a bit too so that this website can continue to present it's valued content to the rest of the nation?  Click here to make a donation to the cause!

SORRY DIDN'T DO IT, DAN DID

So last night on the CBS Evening News, Dan Rather finally sucked it up and apologized for the disastrous forged Bush National Guard documents story.  It's about time, but now the probe into just what happened begins, and that's where it could really get interesting.  So what about Dan's "apology" last night?  Let's take a look.

Said his Ratherness: "Now, after extensive additional interviews, I no longer have the confidence in these documents that would allow us to continue vouching for them journalistically."  Notice that he simply did not say that they have concluded the documents are forgeries.  He didn't say what is overwhelmingly obvious, and that is the documents are fake.  They're not real Dan, somebody made them up.  The best we're apparently going to get is that they can't vouch for them anymore.  The underlying premise being that they don't want to say they're forgeries....they're just saying they don't have any confidence.  Figures.

He went on: " I find we have been misled on the key question of how our source for the documents came into possession of these papers. That, combined with some of the questions that have been raised in public and in the press, leads me to a point where if I knew then what I know now I would not have gone ahead with the story as it was aired, and I certainly would not have used the documents in question."  Oh really?  This is a bit of a stretch, isn't it?  We know that CBS' own experts questioned the authenticity of the documents before they were even aired.  Why didn't Rather and company listen to those people?  He didn't listen to those people, or he ignored them completely because he wanted the contents of those memos to be true so badly that he wasn't ready to listen to anybody who was trying to throw on the brakes.  So in essence, Dan did know then what he knows now: there are questions about the authenticity of the documents.  Then again, any first-grader could've helped CBS with that.

Then he really laid it on thick...and this is off the charts: "It was an error that was made, however, in good faith and in the spirit of trying to carry on a CBS News tradition of investigative reporting without fear or favoritism."  Good faith?  Good faith my glutes.  If that was good faith, I'd hate to see their bad faith.  How does knowingly broadcasting marginal (at best) evidence in an effort to destroy the reputation of the president of the United States amount to "good faith?"  Then there's this nonsense about the CBS News tradition of investigative reporting without fear or favoritism...what a load.  The CBS News tradition is one of extreme liberal bias and Bush-bashing, and they certainly carried on with that tradition.

CBS affiliates around the country have stopped defending the network as they continue to take calls from angry viewers.  At the end of the day, CBS and Dan Rather were done in by their own blind hatred for George Bush and nothing else. 

But hey..Dan did say he was sorry.  Interestingly, he did not apologize directly to the president.

KERRY CAMPAIGN BEHIND THE MEMOS?

Now the plot thickens. It turns out that CBS arranged for their "confidential source" (bitter Bush-basher extraordinaire Bill Burkett) to speak with Joe Lockhart, who is a top aide to The Poodle's campaign.  Lockhart says a producer talked to him a few days before the piece aired on 60 Minutes  and asked him to call Burkett, who gave CBS the documents.  No surprise here....CBS running interference for the Kerry campaign behind the scenes.  Hardly shocking.

According to Burkett (who is an admitted liar, so who knows,) he wouldn't turn the documents over to CBS unless they arranged a conversation with the Kerry campaign.  This, my friends,  is the point where CBS could have showed a shred of integrity and turned him down.  Didn't happen.  I am sure this producer...Mary Mapes...said 'no problem, I've got the Kerry campaign on speed dial right here!'  Burkett also says he talked to Max Cleland and Howard Dean.  So that's two people on The Poodle's campaign....Lockhart and Cleland.  And the Kerry campaign says they had nothing to do with the documents? 

CBS says they're going to investigate.  I don't know about you, but I have a tremendous amount of confidence in a CBS investigation at this point.  Suuuuuure I do.  I wonder if that investigation will wind up and be made public prior to the November 2nd election?  Probably not, because despite this all blowing up in their faces, they still want to do everything possible to elect The Poodle.  Our best hope is that other news organizations are continuing to investigate this story thoroughly.  Just what was the role of Joe Lockhart?  What about Max Cleland's call to Bill Burkett?  Did Dan Rather and CBS believe in those documents because someone who occupies a much more prominent public position vouched for them?  What that person working for the DNC or the Kerry campaign?  CBS knows.  How long will it take them to fess up?

By the way .. could you imagine the outrage if FoxNews had fallen for forged documents about John Kerry?

THE POODLE FLIP-FLOPS ON IRAQ

Another day, another Iraq position.  This is becoming laughable, but then we've come to expect nothing less from The Souffle.  At any rate, he is now saying that he would not have ousted Saddam Hussein.  That's an interesting position to take, since it completely contradicts what he has said in the past.  Here are just a few of The Poodle's Iraqisms.  In the interest of space, we'll only go back so far.  In a period of just over 2 years, John Kerry:

• Voted to authorize President Bush to go to war in Iraq, having seen the same intelligence the administration relied on
• Reaffirmed that decision 40 days ago when he said that he still would have done the same thing, knowing what he knows now
• Said back in 2002 that he agreed with the administration's policy of regime change in Iraq
• Said in a 2003 Democratic debate that he supported the president's decision to disarm Saddam Hussein
• Disagreed last year when Howard Dean said the world was not safer with Saddam gone.  Kerry said anybody who believes that doesn't have the judgment to be president.  (I couldn't agree more.)

ISLAMIC TERRORISTS MURDER AMERICAN

By the way ... these Islamic bastards also shoot children in the back.

The Poodle wants to get out of Iraq.  What...so it can be taken over by these thugs?  I think not.  We need somebody that is going to find them where they are, and blow the Islamic murderers to smithereens.

AL QAEDA PLANNING ELECTION ATTACK

There's a report out today that says U.S. intelligence agencies believe that Al-Qaeda is moving ahead with plans for a major, "spectacular" attack  between now and Inauguration Day.  The intelligence reports also say that it is Al Qaeda's goal to use some sort of a weapon of mass destruction in the attack.   Of course, the plan would be to try and influence the November 2nd elections. According to someone familiar with the intelligence, Al-Qaeda believes their credibility is on the line because there hasn't been a major terrorist attack since September 11, 2001.  I wonder what they have planned this time?

Potential targets include The White House, Pentagon, U.S. Capitol, congressional buildings along with other buildings in New York.  What will their bomb of choice be?  Another airplane?  A car bomb?  A suicide bomber?  A dirty or nuclear bomb?  Imagine the damage one nuclear bomb set off in a major population center could do. 

People seem to forget that Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden are still out there, still planning to kill as many Americans as possible.  They have said that for their next attack, they want to kill millions of Americans.  Are people listening?  Do you understand that as you are sitting there at home, in your office or at school, that half way around the world, Islamic terrorists are plotting your destruction?  One thing's for sure...the left doesn't get it.

If God forbid another terrorist attack happens, count on the Democrats (except Zell Miller) to blame it on Bush's Iraq policy.

JACQUES CHIRAC SLAMS U.S.

Remember back in the summer when George Bush said that the European Union should admit Turkey into the E.U.?    Do you also remember who came out and said that President Bush and the United States should stay out of official European Union business?  That's right...it was none other than French President Jacques Chirac.  I'm not sure what the French word for hypocrisy is, but Chirac is at it again.

This time he is slamming the United States.  What for, you ask?  No, it has nothing to do with Iraq.  At a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, Mr. Chirac accused the United States of obstructing a worldwide campaign to eradicate poverty.  Chirac's panties are in a knot because the United States would not go along with a non-binding declaration calling for a "renewed political mobilization" to help more than 1 billion people living in poverty around the world.  The mean, evil United States strikes again!

"However strong the Americans may be, in the long term, you cannot successfully oppose a position taken by 110 countries," Chirac said.  "You can't oppose that forever."  Really?  Could someone please tell me where it's written that the United States has to go along with whatever policy initiative 110 nations might adopt just because we're outnumbered?   What if 110 nations get together and decide that the United States should levy a 5% income tax surcharge against all American wage earners, and that the funds raised from that tax should be turned over to the UN for poverty relief work ... UN style?  Is the US compelled to go along?  

Apparently that idea would appeal to Chirac.  Listen to this gem:   "The price of selfishness is rebellion.  We should ensure that the world's unprecedented wealth becomes a vehicle for the integration, rather than exclusion, of the most underprivileged."  In other words, we should ensure that wealth is confiscated from people who earned it (The United States) and given to countries that did not earn it.  Where have we heard this before?  Oh yeah ... the Democratic party platform...never mind.

With their plans for worldwide hand outs, leftist socialist countries like France want to impose a global tax to redistribute the wealth of the world more evenly.  And guess who gets to decide that?  That's right...the United Nations.  If they had their way, before long you would be paying into the United Nations, to help those less fortunate around the world.  Only then could poverty be "eradicated."

So with all of that Chirac stormed out of town and won't be here for President Bush's speech to the U.N. today.  Good riddance.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

Bob Schieffer of CBS is scheduled to be the moderator of one of the presidential debates.  Will he recuse himself?  Looks like the Bush campaign might ask for somebody else, in light of the forged documents. We'll see what happens.

A Republican senator says he might not vote for President Bush.  Who is it?  A liberal, of course.  As usual, the media will deem him "principled" for his stand.

Even Michael Moore is admitting that The Poodle is a lousy candidate.  Sure looks like everybody is starting to abandon ship.

CBS affiliates are distancing themselves from CBS.  This is where it's really going to hurt....because unhappy affiliates hit the pocketbook.  Will Viacom sit idly by while that happens?  Stay tuned.

Iraq's Prime Minister says Saddam is depressed.  Poor baby...can't we work a little Prozac in for the Butcher of Baghdad?

The Republican National Committee counted 14 flip-flops in a speech by The Poodle yesterday.  That's a record, but give him time.  There's still 6 weeks to go before the election.

Can anyone read John  Kerry's mind?  William Safire gives it a shot, along with some subtle advice for the Democratic nominee.

The media and the left love to fan the flames of global warming.  Neil Collins says people should just chill out....it's not global warming, it's just hot air.

Does anyone know what the Poodle's economic plan is?  Bruce Bartlett says he doesn't have one.  That's interesting, because the election was supposed to hinge on the economy.

Now that sKerry has decided to focus on Iraq, David Limbaugh has some questions for the would-be president.  For instance, if the war in Iraq is a mistake, why not withdraw the troops right away?  Read on.

Thomas Sowell talks about the premise of Michelle Malkin's new book about the WWII internment camps, and how it applies to today's war on terror.

The Poodle has spun the wheel and bet his entire political fortune on Iraq.  Rich Lowry says it just might work, but only if certain things fall into line.

There is a strong feeling inside the Bush administration that the United States will leave Iraq next year.  Robert Novak explains what the conventional wisdom is saying.

A blind man has been jailed for eight years for killing a deaf man because his stereo and TV were too loud.

Neal will be the Master of Ceremonies at this year's Ronald Reagan Award Gala in Washington DC honoring Senator Zell Miller. Tickets are available to the public.

WHAT THE HECK ARE THOSE POINTY HAND THINGS?
These are links to each individual story on the Nuze, p-links for the geeks out there. Plus, they work today and they'll work tomorrow. Now you can easily discuss/debate/rip apart the Nuze without worrying about the links going bad. Enjoy!

BOORTZ BLAST NEWSLETTER
Everyone is talking about the Boortz Blast newsletter. Do you want yours? Sign up here and we'll deliver it directly to your inbox every 2 weeks. If you signed up but aren't receiving it, either your company or your spam filter could be keeping it from you. Try using a personal email address and check your spam filter's junk folder for wayward newsletters.

NEAL'S FANS GET TOGETHER
If you like Neal and are looking for like minded people to hang out with online or off, check out these places:

• Talkmaster Yahoo Group
• Meet Boortz fans in your area
• alt.fan.neal.boortz newsgroup (note, you're going to have to figure out newsgroups all on your own)

Belinda Skelton, Ken Rogers, Laura Nunemaker and Brian Ganey assist in the daily preparation of Nealz Nuze!