A news photo of Preznit supporters attacking a protestor at a Bush campaign appearance on Thursday in Colmar, Pa.

Rat writes:

On Bush & the Guard:

The story in and of itself may not be damaging. Still, the meme seeps into the public's consciousness. If the Dems can make the Guard story a data point in a broader narrative -- about Bush's "unreliability," say -- the story could damage Bush. Polls that say the National Guard story isn't important miss this possibility. The next time Kerry claims that Bush "lied" -- in quotation marks to observe the possibility of spin -- people will remember the "lying" in the National Guard story. With repetition, charges, as the Swift Boat people proved, become relevant whether or not they're true.

Giuseppe Abote replies:

Yes, there has to be a larger context. Bush is a shirker of all sorts of responsibilities. Responsibility for serving in the guard. Responsibility for keeping the country safe before 9/11. Responsiblity for lying about Iraq. Responsiblity for the miscalculations there. Responsiblity, in general, for any of the words coming from his mouth. He's a dull-witted child of privilege. Responsibility means nothing to him.

In the short term, the Guard story helps (even with these forgery claims) because it makes Bush passive. There is a battle of personalities going on here in addition to a battle over issues and facts. Kerry has to show that he can stand up to the bully. When the White House whined that Kerry was behind these attacks, they must have been high-fiving in Kerry HQ.

Giuseppe Abote writes:

Here's all you need to know about these charges of forgery: they're untrue.

Typewriters have produced proportional fonts since the 1940s. The typeface in the memos is the same one commonly used in IBM Selectric machines of the time. And yes, kids, you can type superscript on a typewriter. And furthermore CBS has pointed out the same supposed signs of "forgery" in other Texas National Guard memos found in the public record and previously released by the White House.

In short, the memos are authentic. We've got Killian's son and widow saying he's not the kind of man, in their opinion, who would write such things. How would they know? Think about your own dad. Would you really be able to identify his memos?

What this really is, you know, is a concession by the Bush team that the memos are absolutely damning and that they are shitting themselves over them. That's why they've attempted this ridiculous Hail Mary pass.

A pretty awesome cover.



Here's the article.

The campaign of Richard Morrison (the guy running against DeLay in his Texas district) provides us with this truly bizarre, yet not at all surprising, item:

According to a recently circulated invitation, DeLay will be receiving the Spirit of the Eagle Award from the Boy Scouts of America at a black tie reception on September 17. The confusion lies in just what award the Boy Scouts will be handing out. The Spirit of the Eagle award is, according to the Boy Scouts’ website, “an honorary posthumous special recognition for a registered youth member who has lost his life in a tragic accident or through illness.” Since DeLay survived his scouting days, his image consultants came up with a new award for him - the “Golden Eagle” award. The problem is the Boy Scouts of America don’t have a “Golden Eagle” award.

Want to give DeLay the ol' "Golden Eagle" right where it counts? Give some dough to Morrison.

Dawkins writes:

Bush Now Backs Budget Powers in New Spy Post

WASHINGTON,Sept. 8 - President Bush said on Wednesday that he wanted to give a new nationalintelligence director "full budgetary authority,'' a sharp shift from anearlier position and an acquiescence to a major recommendation of the Sept.11 commission.

Can someone out there in the world point out how egregious a “flip flop” this one is?

Actually, Rand Beers puts it pretty well:

"The pattern is pretty clear that the president stakes out positions and holds them as long as it is politically tenable," Mr. Beers said. "And when it becomes politically untenable, he puts forward partial measures in order to appear to be a proponent and to co-opt the issue. And then he slow-rolls to avoid doing anything serious to follow up."

But who’s going to toss out the “FF” word? Might as well do it.

Meanwhile, in the chickens-come-home-to-roost department:

Memos Show Bush Suspended From Flying

Says the Votemaster:

In the 3-day rolling average poll, Rasmussen now has Kerry and Bush exactly tied at 47.3% each nationally, with Kerry 1.2% ahead in the battleground states. If we compare this to the 3-day rolling average poll published Aug. 30, Bush is at exactly the same level he was then and Kerry is 0.9% higher. From these data, it appears that the postconvention bounce is already played out. In short, all the hand-wringing and cheering based on the Time and Newsweek polls was a bit premature. If you are a Democrat, you can stop crying in your beer; if you are a Republican, carefully try to pour the champagne back into the bottle. It is still very close.

Oh, and Zogby has Kerry still leading in 12 of 16 battleground states. (You'll recall that Zogby was the only pollster to accurately predict the national outcome of the 2000 election.)

1.

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. (Reuters) - President Bush offered an unexpected reason on Monday for cracking down on frivolous medical lawsuits: "Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country."

2.

"Bush did coke at Camp David when his father was president, and not just once either,'' Kelley quotes former sister-in-law Sharon Bush as saying, according The Daily Mirror of London.

Watch the ad. If you think it'll be effective (I do) contribute a few bucks--these guys aren't nearly as loaded at the SBVFT.

MoveOn writes:

Today, a group in Texas, Texans for Truth, is launching an ad campaign that highlights Bush's absence from duty in 1972. The first ad, featuring a National Guardsman at the base where Bush was supposedly posted, will air as soon as Texans for Truth can raise their $200,000 budget for the ad.

Let's help get this ad on the air now. You can make this possible by going to

http://www.texansfortruth.com/contribute.html

The ad features Robert Mintz, who served in Alabama's 187th Air National Guard when Bush claims to have been there. In the ad, Robert Mintz says simply and powerfully that

"I heard George Bush get up and say 'I served in the 187th Air National Guard in Montgomery Alabama.' Really? That was my unit. And I don't remember seeing you there. So I called friends. 'Did you know that George served in our unit?' 'Naw. I never saw him there.' It would be impossible to be unseen in a unit of that size."

Spurred by Bush's cynical and ugly attacks on Kerry, people who have never spoken out before have now begun to come forward to talk about this period in Bush's career. And journalists are now also ready to cover the story of Bush's evasion of service. Many are embarrassed that their outlets reported the false charges against John Kerry without checking the facts. And it's well known that the Bush campaign has been stonewalling on details of the President's service.

On Sunday, the Associated Press reported on their continuing fight to get records of Bush's service released... The AP, which is a cooperative of almost every newspaper in the nation, has sued the Bush administration for records of Bush's service, which are still being withheld even though President Bush agreed on national television to release everything about his service.

http://www.texansfortruth.com/contribute.html

...and it's all pretty good.

E.J. Dionne says Kerry should conduct a show & tell fight: show that he's a strong leader by taking the fight to Bush while explaining to voters what he's fighting for for them.

Krugman says Kerry should puncture the bubble of Bush's "war leadership" with a combination of hard facts and the codpiece flight-suit landing.

Tom Schaller at Daily Kos advocates a four-part strategy: 1) "reconnect" Iraq and the TWAT in order to show that Bush's TWAT isn't working and terrorism is growing, not diminishing; 2) use Bush's "balking" in both Afghanistan and Iraq to show that he's a shitty war leader; 3) Bush is the "petrified" prez, scared to face reporters, scared speak in public, specifically about his record; 4) Bush fatigue: we've had Bushes in 6 of the last 7 elections and Americans want a change.

And: for anyone still freaked out about the poll numbers, Gallup says that "Bush's bounce is the smallest an incumbent president has received," and puts the race within the margin of error among registered voters.

Sent to the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd, Gail Collins, and Daniel Okrent:

Subj: 'Who among us does not love Nascar?'
Date: 9/6/04; 12:30pm
To: liberties@nytimes.com, editorialboard@nytimes.com, public@nytimes.com
Dear Ms. Dowd, Ms. Collins, and Mr. Okrent,

As usual, I thoroughly enjoyed Frank Rich’s column ("How Kerry Became A Girlie-Man," September 5, 2004) in yesterday’s paper. Among Rich’s brilliant zingers was the line, "When the Democrat asks ‘Who among us does not love Nascar?’ and lets reporters follow him around on a ‘day off’ when his errands include buying a jock strap, he is asking to be ridiculed as an ‘International Man of Mystery.’"

The Nascar line is priceless, and intriguing, too.

My question to the Times is not whether the line is quintessentially Kerry (which it certainly seems to be), but whether Kerry ever actually said it.

I searched for the quote (and its possible permutations) on Lexis-Nexis and the web to try to find its first usage. For sure, it’s been picked up and parroted by commentators and columnists in newspapers across the country, but I found that the first use of the line comes from no transcript or datelined reporter’s filing. Rather, the first mention I found appeared here on the Times’ Op-Ed page.

Maureen Dowd (in "Pride and Prejudice," March 18, 2004) wrote, "Even when he puts on that barn jacket over his expensive suit to look less lockjaw -- and says things like, ‘Who among us doesn't like Nascar?’ -- he can come across like Mr. Collins, Elizabeth Bennet's pretentious cousin in ‘Pride and Prejudice.’"
On Nexis, there are no references to the quote before Ms. Dowd’s March 18 column.

It’s a great line, no doubt, but I’d like to respectfully ask Ms. Dowd if Kerry actually said it.

Did Ms. Dowd mean to say in her March 18 column that John Kerry merely "says things like" "Who among us doesn't like Nascar?" (but didn’t actually utter these particular words), or did she mean to say that he actually said it?

And if she meant to say that he actually said it, may I respectfully ask to know when and where he said it?

Now that the quote has wedged itself into the conventional wisdom as a piece of the historical record, and has been used again and again to flog Mr. Kerry for his supposed patrician aloofness (he’s "asking to be ridiculed" for saying such things, Mr. Rich reminds us), it would be useful to know whether or not it’s something the man ever said.

Thanks for your consideration and attention. I look forward to hearing back from you soon.

A devoted reader,

[Friend of AmCop]