September 24, 2004

Listen to and/or watch the speech online at C-Span.org.
President Allawi's speech is a bit hard to understand in places, but for all that, his English very good and there's something endearing about his accent. I like him a lot and feel that Iraq is in good hands.
Allawi: 'Thank You, America'

Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi had one big message to deliver from his people to the people of the United States: "Thank you, America."
[...]
Allawi, a 59-year-old trained neurologist who lived for years in exile from Saddam Hussein and has survived numerous assassination attempts, said democracy is beginning to flourish in parts of Iraq, and that the growing insurgent attacks do not mean that the guerrillas are gaining the upper hand, but rather that they are becoming more desperate.
[...]
Allawi also stressed the need for the international community, despite the terrorist violence against coalition partners in Iraq, to stand its ground in its mission there and to not negotiate with the killers.

"I know the pain this has caused, I know it's difficult, but the coalition must stand firm," he said, receiving a standing ovation. "When governments negotiate with terrorists, everyone in the free world suffers … working together, we will defeat the killers and we will do this while refusing to bargain with our most fundamental principles."
[Couldn't put it any better, Dr. Allawi!--Jen]
[...]
For the first time in history, the Iraqi people can look forward to controlling our own destiny. This would not have been possible without the help and sacrifices of this country and its coalition partners. I thank you again from the bottom of my heart," Allawi said.

"Neither tyranny nor terrorism has a place in our region or our world. That is why we Iraqis will stand by you, America ... in the global battle for freedom."
[...]
"Every day we grow in strength and determination to defeat the terrorists and their barbarism," Allawi said, referring to the beheadings this week of two Americans.

"As we mourn these losses, we must not forget the progress we are making … we are fighting for freedom and democracy, ours and yours."
[...]
"These killers may be just a tiny fraction of our 27 million population, but with their guns and their suicide bombs, to intimidate and frighten the people of Iraq — I can tell you today, they will not succeed," he added. "These murderers have no political program or cause other than to push our country back to tyranny."

Allawi says it all right here, however:

"My friends, today we are better off, you are better off and the world is better off, without Saddam Hussein," Allawi said. "Your decision to go into Iraq was not an easy one, but it was the right one."

Can anyone doubt it? (except the French and the Democrats, who have and will.)
I was very moved by this man's address and by the moment at the end, when he went out to be greeted by the audience and publicly embraced both Sen. Joe Lieberman and Paul Wolfowitz (whom he kissed on both cheeks! Fancy! Both Jews!).

Here's the link to the video and transcript of the press conference that PM Allawi and President Bush had with the presstitutes of the DNC at the White House later that afternoon after Allawi met with the President in the Oval Office:
President Bush and Prime Minister Allawi Press Conference
Check out this little nugget from what Allawi had to say:

[...]
Here, Iraqis are getting on with their daily lives, hungry for the new political and economic freedoms they are enjoying. Although, this is not what you see in your media, it is a fact.

The Media have a lot to answer for, not the least of which is the "reporting" they've done on the war in Iraq--dwelling on the bad news and simply ignoring the good things.
(They learned from Uncle Walter Cronkite, who called our decisive victory over the VC Tet Offensive in Vietnam a "massive defeat," that the way you report a war can lose it at home and they're still at it, right up until....What time is it? NOW.)
Later, when President Bush called on the members of the 4th Estate/5th Column for questions, he specifically asked for the reporter from CBS.
I've never heard him do this before--I wonder why he did it now...?
Hmmm.
The world is full of amazing sights these days and one of them for me has to be that of the Iraq flag, which we saw so many times behind Saddam making a new threat against America, being flown side by side with the Stars and Stripes at the White House.
All in all, it was another good day for the U.S.A. and for Iraq!
And John sKerry can just go pound sand or wind or whatever it is that wealthy Boston gigolos do, better that than give a nasty little press conference of his own as he seemingly felt compelled to do yesterday.
The Wall Street Journal takes him to task for it thusly:
[...]

Mr. Kerry, for one, must not have been listening too carefully to those remarks, given his ungracious reaction to Mr. Allawi's speech. The Senator accused the Prime Minister of "contradicting his own statement[s]" and of putting the "best face" on the situation.

While Mr. Kerry has every right to criticize U.S. conduct of the war, one would think he'd be wiser than to attack Mr. Allawi for saying it will be possible to hold the same elections that Mr. Kerry said just this Monday were his own exit strategy from Iraq. Or to accuse Iraq's Prime Minister of painting an unrealistic picture about a country the Senator has never visited. Having described the U.S. allies who liberated Iraq as a "coalition of the bribed," Mr. Kerry now insults the Iraqis he'd be working with if he becomes President.

Not to mention the lack of courtesy and good manners to even attend PM Allawi's speech as a member of the Senate.
(Does Kerry ever show up in the Senate for anything?)
Should America have the ill fortune to have Kerry as president--God forbid it, I beg you!--he'd have to work with PM Allawi, even if it's only to pull our troops out of the "quagmire" of Iraq.
Speaking of lack of manners and common courtesy, I thought more than quite a few Dimocrats in the Congressional audience acted rudely during Allawi's speech, as if praising and being interested in anything or anyone that has come to the fore during Bush's Administration just wasn't going to happen.
This man was a grateful, gracious guest in our country and this is the way you treat him!
For shame.

September 23, 2004

From the brilliant talk radio pundit and blogger Hugh Hewitt, of course:
Ghosting for Les
Check out this one juicy taste of the brutally frank "speech," but definitely read the whole wonderful thing!

[...]... We aren't losing the audience--we are driving the audience away!

Ask yourself why, and don't tell me it is because we don't have a bureau in Vienna. It's because we don't have a clue. We aren't the news anymore. We are the echo chamber of the center-left establishment of America. We are seminar material for j-schools. We are well-paid, well-educated yes-men to Manhattan and Beltway elitism, and guess what, America hates us.

Yeppers, I hate them and you know what else?
I don't believe hardly anything they say and haven't for quite some time.
The only "news" coverage of late that could be considered credible was in the few days right after the 9/11 attacks, during the "March Up to Baghdad" because their reporters were implanted with the military and during the week of Ronald Reagan's funeral...because they were actually reporting what was happening and not trying to make the news "happen" by "reporting" their partisan lies as "truth."
I'd love to think Moonves will give a speech not too different from this, but I'll bet he won't.
They're playing "Duck & Cover" over at the Big Eye and hoping the whole thing will go away but it won't.
Press on, America!
Keep calling and emailing your local CBS affiliates.
If you need some help, check out a new member of the Pajamahadeen--Rathergate.com-- where a form is provided that enables you to email all 200 CBS TV affiliates with just one click o' the mouse.
Our outrage is being heard and some affiliates are already dropping their CBS news:
WNIS Dumps CBS News From Air

Yes, it's only one radio station, but it's a start and I think they'll have company soon.

The NYPost has more on why former "rock star" Cat Stevens, now calling himself Yusuf Islam, was taken off a plane and denied entry to the U.S.:
PUTTING OUT THE CAT

[...]
Why was Islam denied entry to America?

"Because of his activities that could be potentially linked to terrorism," Homeland Security spokesman Brian Doyle said. "The intelligence community has come into possession of additional information that further raises our concern [about the singer]."

One official said the United States had information that Islam had donated money to the terrorist Islamic group Hamas. In 2000, he was barred from Israel for his alleged support of Hamas. "He is not on a watchlist for making verbal threats," an official said.

A Homeland Security official said concerns involved financial support given to a terrorist group since May.
[This would explain why Stevens/Islam was able to visit the U.S. for a musical tour in April, but was stopped now.--Jen]

"It's stuff that he recently did," the official said. "We've had our eye on him, and have known about him," the official said, referring to past charges (denied by Islam) that he had donated money to Hamas.

Indeed, Israeli terror experts alleged that Islam has worked as a cash-mule for London-based jihadists, having smuggled as much as a half-million dollars into Israel, handing it over to an arch-terrorist killed by the Israelis earlier this year.

So surely officials were right to act.

But the incident was troubling for a host of other reasons.

Starting with the fact that if Islam was on a watchlist, how is it possible that he got aboard the plane in the first place — and that it was allowed to take off?
[Was this poor security on the British end? We should definitely find out!--J.T.]

At the same time,the fact that — despite the star's fame — officials did not hesitate to divert the airborne plane once they realized he was aboard is a point in favor of America's post-9/11 air security apparatus.
[I thought about this, too.
It means they're checking the list against passenger manifests and it's got to be at least partially current to catch a "recent" suspect like Islam.
I'm satisfied with what our officials did and feel like they're on the ball!]

Certainly, officials needn't bother answering silly questions from Muslim groups about the actions that were taken regarding Islam's flight.

There's a war on.

America has a right to defend itself.

Case closed.

Amen, Post and good work, Homeland Security, Customs and TSA!
We Baby Boomers have got our 30-year-old Cat Stevens LPs and can listen to them along with the other "golden oldies" of the 70's, but it's clear that he's not the same guy who made those records.
What a shame.

September 22, 2004

Vexed, lies & videotape: Kerry blasts GOP on CBS ploy

Sen. John F. Kerry's campaign fired back hard at the White House yesterday, saying President Bush was using the CBS documents scandal as a "gutless political attack'' and smokescreen to duck questions about Bush's National Guard service.

"You have to question the motives of the people who are asking these questions,'' senior Kerry campaign adviser Joe Lockhart said. "The White House is raising questions about this because they don't want to answer questions.''

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Are these people dumber than a box of hammers or what?!
Why don't JF'nK and Lockhart both just announce that the Kerry Campaign coordinated their whole "Fortunate Son" attack with CBS News and Dan Rather?!
I love it!
Just when they need to be quiet about the whole subject of anybody's service during the Vietnam years--especially Kerry's, 'cause the Swifties have another kick-*ss ad coming out this week!-- and quietly praying that the question of DNC collusion with CBS will go away, they keep screeching about it!
(And this in spite of the fact that they've brought President Bush's [perfectly honorable] TANG service up before at least 5 other times in the last few years and it was clear then that the American people weren't interested!)
Kerry's going to get the campaign in some real legal trouble (some may even do time if they play it right!) and spend most of the next 50 days left until the election babbling about this non-issue.
Quagmire, Sen. Ketchup?
You're soaking in it!

Reuters Asks a Chain to Remove Its Bylines

Having their bylines appear in newspapers is an unexpected bonus for news agency reporters. But now Reuters has asked Canada's largest newspaper chain to remove its writers' names from some articles.

The dispute centers on a policy adopted earlier this year by CanWest Global Communications - the publisher of 13 daily newspapers including The National Post in Toronto and The Calgary Herald, which both use Reuters dispatches - to substitute the word "terrorist" in articles for terms like "insurgents" and "rebels."

Don't forget "hostage-takers," "insurgents" and the ever popular "militants!"
(And it isn't it just too funny and ironic to see this story reported in the "militant"-abusing NYSlimes, too?!)
Actually, what CanWest was doing was to un-substitute the weasel words for the real word that the killers are, which is terrorists--no sneer quotes.
We can only hope that the whole Rathergate mess, along with the newly increased awareness of the WOT globally since the Beslan child murders, will usher in a new Age of Honesty in Reporting and that proper changes to morally equivalent (or worse) editorial treatment of the Enemy such as CanWest has tried to effect are the wave of the future.
I hope this company resists this pressure by Al-Reuters and sticks with their guns.
Perhaps a Theresa-esque "Shove it!" will work and if that fails, they should try what VP Cheney said to Sen. Leaky Leahy.
Heh.

Source Denies Story of Drugs in Bush Book

A Texas man who is quoted in Kitty Kelley's new book about the Bush family as saying that the first lady, Laura Bush, smoked and sold marijuana in her college days, said on Tuesday that his remarks were taken out of context. He said he had no firsthand information about any drug-related activity by Mrs. Bush.

The man, Robert Nash, is quoted on Page 575 of Ms. Kelley's book, "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty." Speaking of Mrs. Bush, Ms. Kelley writes: "She graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1968 and had been known in her college days as a go-to girl for dime bags of marijuana. 'She not only smoked dope,' said Robert Nash, an Austin friend of many in Laura's S.M.U. class, 'but she sold dope.'"

Yours truly is a 3-time graduate of Lady Laura's alma mater S.M.U. (I got my B.A. in '76, my M.B.A. in '79 and my M.A. in '96) and I can tell you this: the very idea of the well-brought up, clean-cut, polite and rather shy Laura Welch dealing drugs out of the Kappa Alpha Theta house at SMU is so completely ludicrous as to be totally hilarious!
Clearly, Kitty Kelley has done no research at all!
SMU is so conservative and even retarditaire as to be like a trip back in time!
When I saw the movie "Animal House" for the first time, which is set in 1962, Farber College looked like and functioned socially almost identically to SMU almost 20 years later.
If Miss Laura had been trying to peddle dime bags in the Theta house, her "sisters" would have tossed her out so fast and so viciously, she'd be begging to be arrested by campus police just to avoid the brutalities!
It just wasn't done and wasn't tolerated and Laura Welch Bush isn't the type to do it and never has been.
(Isn't it obvious?! She's a good, West Texas, Methodist girl!)
Get a grip, Dimocrats!
(The NYSlimes better watch it!
They're treading close to CBS/Dan Rather territory now by treating Kelley's dreadful tabloid book, for which not a single supposed source would go on the record when they related their atrocious gossip about the Bushes, as "news.")

Find the full text of the speech here:President Speaks to the United Nations General Assembly
It was yet another fine Bush address and it stirred my pride and my faith in my country and my President...but I'll bet it made some of the 3rd World (and even some from the 1st and 2nd!) crooks, tyrants and thugs nervous and angry like those Sudanese potentates when the President mentioned the Darfur crisis.
Too bad!
We've liberated 2 countries of 50 million people and are working to see that they stay free forever and in the last 3 years since 9/11, we've had no major attacks on Americans at home.
U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
(4 more years!)

Matt over at Blogs for Bush found at least one Marine "over there" who's caught the Re-Elect Bush/Cheney Fever!

Semper Fi, you wonderful Jarhead!

September 21, 2004

Passenger ID'd as Cat Stevens

A London-to-Washington flight was diverted to Maine on Tuesday when it was discovered passenger Yusuf Islam — formerly known as singer Cat Stevens — was on a government watch list and barred from entering the country, federal officials said.

Oh, baby! It is a wild world!
I'm guessing that we've gotten intell from some of the AQ bad boys we've been rounding up around the world that Stevens/Islam is the "front man" for an Islamist terrorist organization.
After converting to Islam, Cat/Yusuf stopped making or even selling records because his music was "un-Islamic."
Curiously, however, in the last year or 2, they became available again on the market.
(True Confession Time: Like an idiot, I bought the whole "Tea for the Tillerman" download on iTunes because I've loved that album for over 30 years.)
What I'm afraid of is that the IslamoFascist Enemy is using Yusuf Islam's music sales and concerts to proselytize (Can you say "Johnny Jihads welcome?") and to raise money to kill more of us in jihad attacks and I'm fairly sure we have hard evidence to prove it or tonight's incident wouldn't have happened and he wouldn't have been denied entry to the U.S.
Please, my friends, resist and don't buy his tunes!
And I'll continue to feel bad about my part in it: I should have known better.

Syria troops in Lebanon to begin pullback

Syria's ambassador to Washington said yesterday his country's forces in Lebanon will begin a major redeployment toward their own border this morning.
    
The diplomat also said Syrian and U.S. troops will partake in joint security operations along the Syrian-Iraqi border, although State Department officials contradicted that claim.
[I think we all know by now that the State Department is usually part of the problem and not the solution.--Jen]
[...]
He said the plan [for joint U.S.-Syrian military cooperation] was approved during a visit to Damascus last week by Peter Rodman, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, and William Burns, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs.
    
The ambassador did not say whether American troops would cross into Syria or Syrian troops into Iraq to conduct the patrols, but much of the border area is open desert with an ill-defined frontier.
[And needless to say, bad guys have been sneaking across this border to make war on our troops and Iraqi security forces since OIF began.]
[...]
U.S. authorities in Baghdad have long been concerned that the border area is being used both by arms smugglers and foreign fighters seeking to join the resistance in Iraq.
    
A redeployment of Syrian forces in Lebanon should ease strains in U.S.-Syrian relations, which hit a low when President Bush signed into law the Syrian Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Act on Dec. 12.
    
The act imposed economic sanctions on Syria for what the U.S. government deems to be support of terrorist organizations, and also called for the withdrawal of Syrian troops who have been in Lebanon since that country's 1975 civil war.
[...]
The United States has also accused Syria of supporting terrorism and of taking in fleeing Iraqi Ba'athists in the opening weeks of the Iraq war.
[...]
Mr. Mustapha said that this move comes at a time when Syria is trying to cooperate with the United States.
[We'll see...--Jen]
    
Despite the setbacks in diplomatic relations, Syria has continued to cooperate with the United States in the war against terrorism, according to high-ranking Syrian officials, who said their actions had "saved American lives."

Well, Syria has still got a lonnnnnnnnnnnngggggg way to go to prove it's really a partner nation with us in the WOT, but this is a start!
It's another small victory, nonetheless.
Having a firmer border with Iraq will help that situation and the Israelis will breathe a little more easily knowing there are less soldiers staring at them with guns drawn across the Bekka Valley.
The Bush Doctrine keeps on working and working...!

CBS Apologizes, Says They Were Duped

Apologizing for a "mistake in judgment" in its story questioning President Bush's Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard, CBS News said Monday it was misled by the source of documents that many experts
[Hurray for the PajamaHadeen and especially for Charles Johnson of littlegreenfootballs and PowerLine blog!--Jen]
have singled out as fakes.

The network said it would appoint an independent panel to look at its reporting about the memos.
[As if they didn't know already!]
The story has mushroomed into a major media scandal, threatening the reputations of CBS News and chief anchor Dan Rather.

It also has become an issue in the presidential campaign. The White House said the affair raises questions about the connections between CBS' source — retired Texas [Army] National Guard officer Bill Burkett — and Democrat John Kerry's campaign.
[Ed. note: There's a difference between the Texas Air National Guard, in which President Bush served, and the Texas Army National Guard, in which Burkett apparently served.--J.T.]

Rather joined CBS News President Andrew Heyward in issuing an apology Monday.
[...]

Almost immediately after the story aired Sept. 8, document experts questioned memos purportedly written by Bush's late squadron leader, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, saying they appeared to have been created on a computer and not on the kind of typewriter in use during the 1970s.
[Doesn't CBS and Dan owe Jerry Killian (or at least his surviving family members an apology for needlessly maligning their father and husband?
And what about an apology to President Bush while they're at it?!--Jen]

CBS strongly defended its story. It wasn't until a week later — after Killian's former secretary said she believed the memos were fake — that the news division admitted they were questionable.
[And wasn't this poor old dear convincing...asserting that the memos were "fake, but accurate?"]

*****
Burkett admitted this weekend to CBS that he lied about obtaining the documents from another former National Guard member, the network said. CBS hasn't been able to conclusively tell how he got them, or even definitely tell whether they're fakes or not. But the network has given up trying to defend them.
[Ya don't think old Bill Burkett cooked these "memos" up himself on his little old computer, then printed them out and faxed the result from his local Abilene Kinko's to the DNC Kerry Campaign CBS News, do you? 'Cause I do!]

CBS said it approached Burkett initially about the documents.
[This is one of the key things about this whole incident that's striking: CBS called Burkett, not vice versa!]
Rather said Burkett was well known in National Guard circles for several years for trying to discredit Bush's military record.

Burkett, in an interview with Rather aired on the "CBS Evening News," said he was pressured by CBS to reveal his source for the documents, and "I simply threw out a name that was basically, I guess, to get a little pressure off for the moment."

He said he didn't fake or forge any documents.

"I didn't totally mislead you," he said. "I did mislead you about one individual."
[Would that individual be the President, perchance?]

Burkett said he also insisted that CBS authenticate the documents on its own.
[And apparently, "CBS" was OK with that. Hmmm.]
Two document experts consulted by CBS later said they raised red flags that network officials apparently disregarded. Rather acknowledged CBS failed to properly determine whether the documents were genuine.

"'60 Minutes Wednesday' had full confidence
[What in the H-E-Double-hockey-sticks does that mean?!]
in the original report or it would not have aired," Heyward said in a statement.

"However, in the wake of serious and disturbing questions that came up after the broadcast, CBS News has done extensive additional reporting in an effort to confirm the documents' authenticity. … Based on what we now know, CBS News cannot prove that the documents are authentic, which is the only acceptable journalistic standard to justify using them in the report. We should not have used them. That was a mistake, which we deeply regret. Nothing is more important to us than our credibility and keeping faith with the millions of people who count on us for fair, accurate, reliable, and independent reporting. We will continue to work tirelessly to be worthy of that trust."
[Isn't it a little late for them to be worried about restoring or retaining their credibility, now that it's so obvious they shouldn't have any!]

Rather himself also issued a written statement, saying, "I no longer have the confidence in these documents that would allow us to continue vouching for them journalistically," adding that airing the documents was an "error in judgment."

"I find we have been misled on the key question of how our source for the documents came into possession of these papers," Rather continued. "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."
[To put it plainly to Dan: BULLSH*T.
I think that Dan and Co. knew perfectly well from the start that the docs were phony and that the lies about President Bush's service contained therein were nothing but sheer smears which they hoped to use to influence the American public to vote against Bush, coming as the story did 2 months before the election.
Not only were they going to use these memos to put forward the allegation that Bush was a liar who served dishonorably, in conjunction with the DNC's "Fortunate Son" ad campaign, but the Leftist MSM was hoping to build on the "liar" thing and connect it to the present day and Bush's "lies" to the American people as President.
Despiccable. (And no, I don't mean it to sound silly, like Daffy Duck.)
It truly is despicable.
Don't forget that these forged memos also went hand-in-hand with Ben Barnes's "testimony" that President Bush used his family connections to get in the "cushy" National Guard and to "get out of" having to fight in combat in Vietnam.
Ben Barnes, presented as a "troubled by conscience" good guy on "60 Minutes II," has also been thoroughly discredited--by among other people, his own daughter!--and yet everyone's forgotten Barnes's smears in the nuclear fallout from Memogate.]

The original CBS report mainly relied on four memos purportedly written by Killian. Dated in the early 1970s, the papers say that Killian was pressured to "sugarcoat" the young Lt. Bush's record and that Bush ignored a direct order to take a physical.
[We've been over this and over this many times.
For those of us in Texas, this makes the 4th time and the 4th election that the Left has tried to malign Bush's honorable service in the Texas Air National Guard.
Lt Bush didn't have to take a physical because the type of plane he was flying was being taken out of active use and he no longer needed a physical to qualify to fly it because no Guardsmen were flying it.]

"It's about time. I think CBS is the last group in America that doesn't understand these are forgeries — and really abusive forgeries," former Republican National Committee Chairman Bill Brock told FOX News after the statement was released. "Hallelujah they are finally admitted they were wrong and I hope they will be very forthcoming about their source and that they were duped."

The president was told about the CBS statement while aboard Air Force One.

"We appreciate that they deeply regret this, but there are still questions to be answered," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters traveling with the president,
[Right on, Scott, and we want those answers and we want them now!]
adding that Burkett has in the past been discredited and has had senior-level contacts with the Kerry campaign, which raise serious questions.

"Where I come from, if you make a mistake or spread lies or allegations, you damn well better apologize to the guy you're offending. In my opinion, they owe the president of the United States an apology directly," Joe Allbaugh, who served as chief of staff for then-Gov. George Bush, told FOX News Monday after CBS released its statement.

"They [CBS] were trying to directly, with false information, affect the outcome of this presidential election. Someone needs to pay the price," Allbaugh added.

Top CBS executives huddled throughout the weekend and refined the wording of its correction and apology throughout Monday morning.

"This is a fact of CBS being used by a wide wrap of Democratic operatives," Terry Holt, a senior RNC adviser, told FOX News.

"I think that [Democratic Party Chairman] Terry McAuliffe, John Kerry — they've been at the heart of a wide range of groups over the past several months designed to attack the president and take him down and I think that's unfortunate."

Holt opined that the Kerry camp was "desperate to find any way they could to change the subject" from the Vietnam swift boat tangle it found itself in after some Vietnam vets charged that Kerry exaggerated some stories of valor from the war and that he didn't deserve all his war medals.
[And yet, all the Liberal MSM, not just CBS, continue to focus on President Bush's TANG service and refuse to address the Swift Boat Veterans' charges on their merits or to demand that Kerry release his military and medical records.]

"They had motive, they had opportunity and they definitely had desperation," Holt added.

CBS went into a "defensive crouch" and should have acknowledged sooner the possibility they were duped, Richard Cohen, a syndicated columnist for The Washington Post, told FOX News on Monday.
[Cohen's no Bush fan, either, and he's another media shill for the DNC, so it must be pretty clear to all of them what's transpired and now the rest of the DNC propaganda machine is trying to get distance from Rather and pretend that they're more "honest" and "objective" in a hurry. Too late!]

But "I essentially think it's a tempest in the teapot — it was a mistake … all news organizations make mistakes … if they're aggressive and really care about covering the news … it's part of the business."

Some Democratic insiders, however, point out that despite the source of the documents, CBS is standing by its contents and the fact that few are disputing the inconsistencies described in Bush's military record.

"There's still a ton of unanswered questions by this president about his military service," such as whether he got enough points for an honorable discharge, as questioned by The New York Times in a Monday article, said Democratic consultant Jenny Backus.
[Just to put a tent on the circus, Terry McAwful joined in this chorus late Monday, too:
Democrats insist Bush still lied about his service
President Bush doesn't lie and he's not lying about this. It's against his religion...literally! And the American people know that he tells them the truth instinctually. But the Dims just don't get the whole "truth" thing at all.]

"I think the thing that we need to look at … is the pattern inside this White house and this president in terms of their credibility … and how they're talking about this Guard story and how they're talking about the war in Iraq today … he has not answered any questions about where he was that year" or in Iraq today, she added.

Adding more fuel to the fire, Burkett, who lives in Abilene, Texas, has now also said that he passed the documents on to former Sen. Max Cleland, a Georgia Democrat and triple amputee from Vietnam, who is working with the Kerry campaign. Burkett also has urged Democratic activists to wage "war" against Republican "dirty tricks."
[...presumably by using their own dirty tricks.
*Update: As of late Monday night, it was being reported that Joe Lockhart
had also "just talked" to Burkett before the memos were aired on TV, in addition to Cleland.
There's a fire behind this smoke, I guar-an-tee.
We should be all over the Kerry Campaign/CBS connection like white on rice.
And while we're at it, wouldn't this constitute CBS giving an entire hour of programming to the Kerry campaign as "free" advertising?
Where's the FCC, FEC and McCain-Feingold on that?
I wanna know and I know you do, too!]

Burkett's had a long-running feud with Bush over health benefits and the Texas National Guard. Bob Hunter, a Republican legislator who investigated Burkett's charges, told FOX News he found them to be groundless.

Over the weekend, Bush commented publicly on the issue for the first time.

"There are a lot of questions about the documents, and they need to be answered," he told The Union Leader of Manchester, N.H. The president has continued to maintain that he is proud to have served in the Guard.

The Bush-Cheney campaign has maintained that Kerry campaign staffers are behind the memo snafu.
[And I maintain that they're right, too!]

"The timing is not in question and the coordinated effort by the Democrats and the Kerry campaign to use these old recycled attacks is not in question," McClellan said.

I got busy yesterday afternoon (It was "Digital Brownshirt Day" at my house but the dress code is "pajamas" every day!) and wrote emails to the entire crew of "60 Minutes" (naming Morley Safer, Ed Bradley, Mike Wallace, Leslie Stahl and Mary Mapes), to Tim Russert and Chris Matthews at DNC NBC, and to the local CBS affiliate and demanded that they take a stand against Dan Rather's use of forged memos to smear the sitting President during wartime less than 2 months before the election.
I urge you to do the same and don't let your local affiliate beg off that they "have to" give their audience the CBS Network feed.
(Here's a handy-dandy link to all CBS affiliate email addies:CBS Affiliates.)
And don't let on-air personalities like Russert, Matthews, Jennings, Brokaw and CNN's crew off the hook because they work for other networks!
This isn't just about CBS or Dan Rather--Memogate is an exposure of the Liberal Bias of the entire MainStreamMedia, make no mistake!
Let's quit watching and boycott their advertisers and see where that gets us if they don't stop patronizing us with their mindless partisan agenda and bias that they've been passing off as "news" for years.
The whole MSM is a forgery designed to help the Democrat Party get political power and stay in power and they're using our public airwaves to do it!
I hope that the fallout from this bomb has just begun and that it will continue.
What else has CBS News lied about recently?
Wasn't Ms. Mapes also behind the Abu Ghraib "story?" Oh, yes!
And didn't "60 Minutes" bring us those stalwarts of American security Amb. Joe Wilson and Richard Clarke (who also had a forthcoming book published by CBS's parent company Viacom)?
I believe they did.
Don't forget: we've already had to jump ugly on CBS 10 months ago when they tried to show that "mockumentary" about President and Mrs. Reagan.
Let's pump up the volume and let the Media know they've lied to us for the last time!
Here's hoping that Memogate is the first wave of a tsunami of justified American anger!

September 20, 2004

These mullahs aren't birdwatching and they're not interested in missiles for "peaceful purposes!"

N. Korea Says Will Not Give Up Nukes

North Korea said Monday that it will not give up nuclear development in light of unauthorized nuclear experiments by South Korea,
[Yeah, whatever! Any port in a storm when it comes to Krazy Kim.--Jen]
where U.N. inspectors nuclear inspectors were conducting an investigation.
[...]
The comments, which echoed other North Korean statements in recent days, were another blow to troubled efforts to hold another round of talks aimed at persuading North Korea to end its nuclear weapons development. Last Thursday, North Korea said it would not attend planned six-party talks on its nuclear activities until South Korea fully discloses the details of its secret atomic experiments.

Aren't you glad you're not a South Korean, living next door to these nutburgers and wondering if they're going to blow you up?
(Boy, am I glad we're moving our troops off the border!)
Life must get pretty tiresome with all their sabre-rattling (or nuke-rattling, really) then they'll try and "make nice."
But, the NorK's threat was preceded by the mullahs':
Iran rejects UN nuclear demands

Iran has defiantly rejected calls from the UN nuclear watchdog to suspend all its uranium enrichment activities.

Tehran also vowed to block snap inspections of its nuclear sites if the issue is sent to the Security Council.
[...]
"This demand is illegal and does not put any obligation on Iran. The IAEA board of governors has no right to make such a suspension obligatory for any country."
[Well, they're right about that...and one step ahead of Kofi Annan on "international law," which is only as valid as the country(ies) involved want to acknowledge, but that being said, they've still subjected their country's nuclear program to the process.]

He said European countries were wrong in thinking Iran was only one step away from full enrichment; Iran was already at that point and could complete the nuclear fuel cycle "today" if it wanted.
[Who knows if they're telling the truth, but they probably are. Yikes!--Jen]

And he added that, if Iran was referred to the UN Security Council for punitive action, it would consider pulling out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty altogether.
[Can you say "blackmail?"
The West is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't.
We might as well put the mullahs' feet to the fire.
I wonder what President Bush is gonna' say to U.N. on Tuesday....--J.T.]
[...]
The US has strong suspicions that Iran is using its nuclear programme to make weapons in secret.

Along with Israel, it is pushing the IAEA to refer Iran to the Security Council if it does not comply with the agency's demands. The Security Council could then impose sanctions.
[Oh, Lord...not "sanctions" like we tried to deal with Saddam's Iraq!
They're much closer to nukes than Saddam was...and sanctions don't work!
We know that now...thanks to Fox News's excellent special report that aired last night and Claudia Rossett's investigative journalism--Hint, hint, Dan Rather: This is what real investigative journalism looks like!]

"With every passing week, Iran moves that much closer to reaching the point where neither we, nor any other international body, will be able to prevent it from achieving nuclear weapons capacity," said chief US delegate Jackie Sanders on Saturday.

Nuclear experts have said the Parchin military complex, south-east of Tehran, may be a site for the research, testing and production of nuclear arms.
[...]
Iran also accused Britain, France and Germany of breaking an accord reached last year on Iran's co-operation with the IAEA.
[What Islamist BS!
We're not too fond of the weasel powers, but with Tony Blair helping them, I know they made their best efforts to run interference for Iran and the mullahs stabbed them in the back for their troubles!
Notice they refuse to take the blame for their own bellicosity and weapons-proliferation, but blame it on the West (European) not "keeping faith" with them and hiding their crimes for them from the rest of the international community. B@stards.]
[...]
In its resolution, the IAEA said its board of governors had judged that an Iranian promise made to the three European nations last year to suspend uranium enrichment activities had fallen short of expectations.
[Typical British understatement meaning "lied."]
[...]

The IAEA board of governors is next set to meet on 25 November to review Iran's alleged nuclear weapons programme.

This is our Thanksgiving.
The U.S. has a lot to be thankful for, but I don't think Iranian "clean hands" will be one of the blessings we'll be able to celebrate.
Hope I'm wrong, but these IslamoFacist tyrants are spoiling for bear now that their next door neighbors, Iraq and Afghanistan, have been liberated from Islamist theocracies and the al-Sadr insurgency in Iraq that they instigated, supported and funded didn't work either to re-establish the status quo.

With both the NorKs and the Mullahs making these bellicose announcements within 24 hours of each other, you've gotta believe that these 2 remaining members of the Axis of Evil are really functioning as an Axis.
(I'm sure it gives President Bush as little satisfaction as it does me to be right about this, however.)