Unfit for Office

What's the difference between the two?[/quote]

Beelzebub has demonstrated time and again that he is articulate and intelligent.

Plus, he's not likely to invoke God to justify such dubious endeavors as pre-emptive war...

It's the Devil's job to fool you so he has to be smart (although not really metaphysical). It is necessary for those in power to convince those who don't have power that they have a choice. That's Machiavelli (well, and also quoted in the script of "The Matrix Reloaded" which is after all, about those in power controlling the masses -- albeit done before and better in "1984".)

The joke was all over the media the next day after Jon Stewart used it despite the fact that one might give credit to some friend who may have uttered it
ten years ago. My, in what context? If your memory is that good, surely you can answer that question. If not, make something up.

Bush is a One-Step miracle, don't you know, D'artagnan. He's got faith, so much so that he is willing to do anything he might suspect is wrong and will attribute it not to his will but the will of God.

Those statements are still available on tape, and people have been listening to them and extracting interesting statements. I've heard one Kerry quote where he said that even he had committed atrocities. I'm not sure if that would be considered "war crimes" or not. In the sound bite I heard he didn't specify what he had done.

Cite?

Again, I encourage you to follow the link to Piffka's full post. It's very informative.

Better link:

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=584203#584203

Another quote:



Do you actually think that no atrocities were committed by American soldiers, at all? If your answer is yes, why is it so hard to believe that Kerry -- in a position that was specifically intended to gather those stories -- would have heard them? And if your answer is no, well, again from Piffka's post:

Yes, this single unsubstantiated claim casts doubt upon Kerry's long list of military credentials from his voluntary service in the vietnam war; especially when compared to George Bush and his courageous stint (also voluntary) in the vaunted National Guard in war-torn Alabama. Just like to put things in context.

Before an article is readied for publication at a newspaper, editors squabble over something called the pull-quote (also known variously as the billboard, or teaser, or blurb). Boxed off, printed in a larger font, the pull-quote is a typographical device that calls attention to a compelling passage in a piece, or highlights the underlying theme. It's standard practice -- ie, journalistic ethics -- to "pull" the passage verbatim from the article, and to put quote marks around it if it is in fact a direct quotation.

Unfortunately, at The Wall Street Journal, standard practice went down the toilet with the pull-quote the newspaper employed in the op-ed article by outspoken Kerry critic (and Vietnam veteran) John O'Neill.

Here's the pull-quote verbatim:



I understand the appeal that passage has to an editor. It's a memorable quote.

It would be even more memorable if it were something O'Neill wrote.

But it isn't. Those words are nowhere to be found in the accompanying article.

What O'Neill does write is that, while he was "on" the same boat that Kerry commanded, he wasn't there when Kerry was. As he makes clear, he in fact was shipped in to succeed Kerry as commander of the boat once Kerry was removed from the combat zone.

Without verification (and that's impossible, since this is a subjective judgment anyway), inferences such as these...



...don't pass muster in light of Kerry's stellar evaluations by his superiors, and the stories of the men whose lives he saved.

Additionally, while it's safe to conclude that John O'Neill isn't going to be voting for John Kerry, at no point in the article does he write the words, "he doesn't deserve to be commander in chief." He writes some other words, words that sort of mean the same thing, but to quote exactly what he did write would not be as provocative.

So instead they quoted John O'Neill as saying something he did not actually say.

The WSJ's ethical lapse aside, I continue to be simply delighted at the fact that George Bush's lickspittles keep bringing up Kerry's service records in comparison to the President's valiant fight against tooth decay in Alabama.

They seem to be too stupid to stop doing so, and the distinction is winning them no converts.

But y'all keep on, please. It's working real good.

Maybe O'Neill presumes to be lily white and should be considered to be Commander-in-Chief. There simply aren't any perfect people on this planet and passing judgements is a national passtime. I'm not willing to assume O'Neill has no buggers up his
nose and no axe to grind.

!
I recently saw the debate between the two. J. O'Neil was a real azzhole then and I notice that he still is! Just another bootlickin', boot clickin' Right Wing jerk-off!

Navy Veterans Fire On Kerry
The Democrat's supporters question the motives and ties of the newly formed group.
By Stephen Braun
Times Staff Writer

May 4, 2004

WASHINGTON ?- A newly formed group of Navy Vietnam War veterans has joined the political fray over Sen. John F. Kerry's military experience, demanding that the prospective Democratic presidential nominee release all his service records from the period he spent in Vietnam's river battle zone.

Preparing to unveil a sharply worded letter today to Kerry from more than 200 veterans, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth claims to represent a majority of Navy officers and enlisted men who served on the patrol boat detail that Kerry joined for nearly five months in 1968 and 1969.

The Kerry campaign and its Vietnam veteran supporters questioned the group's numbers and its influence Monday night, accusing the organization of close ties to Republican loyalists and President Bush's reelection campaign.

A spokesman for Bush's campaign denied any connection.

The anti-Kerry group coalesced in recent weeks around a former admiral who had been Kerry's commander in Vietnam and another Swift boat veteran who publicly debated Kerry in 1971 after he joined the antiwar movement.

Leaders of the group flew to Washington on Monday and planned to rebuke Kerry for his 1971 Senate testimony that referred to American "atrocities" in Vietnam and urge him to sign a waiver authorizing the release of his military records.

"Releasing his records would aid in telling the real story," said John O'Neill, a Texas lawyer and former Navy lieutenant whose heated debates with Kerry over the Vietnam War were acclaimed by then-President Nixon. "The portrayal of [Kerry] as a hero was absurd. He couldn't tie the shoes of people I knew who were heroes in Vietnam."

Others involved in the anti-Kerry group include former Rear Adm. Roy F. Hoffmann, who commanded the swift boat operation that Kerry joined as a Navy lieutenant, and former Lt. Grant Hibbard, who briefly supervised Kerry during his perilous stint in Vietnam's Mekong Delta. Hibbard recently questioned whether Kerry deserved the first of three Purple Hearts he was awarded, suggesting that a shrapnel wound Kerry received in December 1968 was no more than a scratch.

The Kerry campaign has found itself on the defensive about a heroic military record that would have seemed to be a prime campaign asset. After dismissing Hibbard's account, the Kerry campaign released a sheaf of medical records to justify the candidate's three decorations for war wounds ?- only to be caught up in old questions about whether Kerry pretended to have thrown away his own medals during a 1971 protest against the war.

Former Deputy Asst. Secretary of the Navy Wade R. Sanders, a Kerry supporter who also commanded a swift boat during the war, dismissed O'Neill's group as "a Bush campaign tool."

Sanders and Kerry campaign staffers questioned the group's claims of hundreds of supporters.

Merrie Spaeth, a Dallas public relations strategist helping the anti-Kerry group, acknowledged Monday night that "we're trying very hard to verify all the names on our letter." Spaeth said that some Vietnam veterans supporting Kerry had been trying to pressure some of the signers to reconsider their support.

"They've got an obvious political agenda," said Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton.

Clanton cited the involvement of Spaeth's Dallas-based firm, Spaeth Communications, as evidence of the group's ties to the Republican Party.

Spaeth is a former Reagan administration media official. Her late husband, H.J. "Tex" Lezar, was the Republican nominee for Texas lieutenant governor in 1994, the same year Bush ran for governor. But while Bush won, Lezar lost.

Link

I see that PDiddie gained so sense of proportion, let alone propriety, since leaving Abuzz.

and I see your sense of humor is intact Finn. :wink:

How lovely of you to drop by. Welcome.

In 1968-70 I worked in the Flag Office of the Commander Amphibious Forces Pacific (COMPHBPAC). Anyone who questions the bravery of any of the sailors that manned the swift boats on the Delta have not got their heads on straight but have a simple political agenda. While I was not in the Navy I was in close contact with the Admiral and his staff.

This reminds me of why Ollie North did not win his race of the GOP senate seat in Virginia. He accused Senator Robb of being a "ceremonial marine". Forgetting or overlooking his two tours in country and his bravery in calling in air support on his own position to save some downed Navy pilots. Well as a result North did not even carry Stafford County where he lived and where the Quantico Marine base is located. All Ollie did by misstating the facts about a fellow Marine was to inflame those Marines who have honor and understand what a real Marine is.

Anyone who has ever been to the Wall in D.C. will see most of the dead are from the "Brown Water Navy". A good book about the subject written by Admiral Elmo Zumwalt is quite informative about what went on as he was the in country Commander. What is interested in his book written in the late 70s is that he predicted the type of wars we are fighting now.

Another great place to visit in D.C., and it is open to the public though they rarely visit, is the Naval Medical Command Medal of Honor Hall. It is decorated with the pictures of Navy Corpsmen who have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor Posthumously. They were killed in the company of Marines and Navy amphibious forces.

The Brown Water Navy In Vietnam

Sailors In Country Vietnam

[quote="Lightwizard"]There simply aren't any perfect people on this planet and passing judgements is a national passtime. [/quote]

I can think of one ..... but my tremendous modesty prevents me naming him.

I say put John Stewart in as a write-in candidate. He probably has no idea how to run the country, but it seems no legitimate candidate does either, but Stewart could keep the nation laughing while it combusts Nero-like in flames.

The Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club