The politics of despair

From the first article:



The overtime pay was eliminated for a large number of workers -- estimates vary. Bush is decreasing veteran's benefits.

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=31983
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=853894#853894 (lots of cites there.)

That was the first article, and took a while to do the searching and cutting and pasting and such, and didn't encourage me as to the content of the rest. But articles which inaccurately accuse MoveOn of being inaccurate aren't quite what is being looked for, IMO.

Note -- I am not saying that MoveOn is always 100% accurate and free of hyperbole. Just, boomer asked a pretty straightforward question, and I was pointing out that it wasn't straightforwardly answered. Thanks for making the attempt.

McGentrix! You're serious? You haven't seen enough of that enormous thread-stretching graph? Do you deny any of the contents of the graph?

Deny it? No. Do you deny that there are members of Kerry's campaign directly associated with MoveOn.org?

link

That's a gorgeous little strawman, McGentrix, cute hat. I don't deny it, but I also never made any assertion on the subject.

[walks away rubbing temples]

Of for heaven's sake.

The articles I listed were just the ones in my local paper TODAY. I certainly didn't go looking across the internet to come up with them.

John Kerry just won the democratic nomination last month so whatever the democratic party partnered with last May clearly wasn't a just a Kerry thing.

I partnered (through the business I own) with the letter carriers this year during their food drive. That doesn't make me a mailman.

Sorry, just taking a page from PDiddies playbook, but it does have legs and it does have to do with the topic at hand.

Why?
Harper said she was beginning to understand my response to dys' mention of the unpopularity of the JGs.

I took this as a good thing...unless I missed something.

I agree with dys' (and my husband's) contention that while an education is fabulous--an education is not the best indicator of who should be leading who in war. I think, in this case, experience is more important.

I didn't consider this line of conversation to be a Kerry slam, but a criticism of at least one bit of military protocol.

"Run!" was good advice assuming you prefer your head remaining at its current location affixed to your torso and yes, you did miss something.

What is the connection between John O'Neill & Richard Ni
"I saw some war heroes ... John Kerry is not a war hero," said John O'Neill, a Houston lawyer who joined the Navy's Coastal Division 11 two months after the future senator left Vietnam. "He couldn't tie the shoes of some of the people in Coastal Division 11."

O'Neill claims he is a political independent, but political independents don't clerk for Justice Rehnquist.

The following is on his law firm's website:

Born San Diego, California, February 19, 1946; admitted to bar, 1974, Texas. Education: United States Naval Academy (B.S., cum laude, 1967); University of Texas (J.D., summa cum laude, 1973). Order of the Coif. Member, Chancellors (Grand Chancellor, 1972-1973). Member, Texas Law Review, 1972-1973. Member, President's National Advisory Counsel on Supplemental Services and Centers, 1973-1974. Member, Federal Regulation of Securities Committee, Section of Corporation, Banking and Business Law, American Bar Association, 1978-. Law Clerk to Justice William H. Rehnquist, U.S. Supreme Court, 1974-1975.(Emphasis mine.)

O'Neill was also used by Nixon to try and discredit Kerry's post-service anti-war efforts. Now two Republican presidents have used the guy to try and attack Kerry.

Even better is the c.v. of another of O'Neill's law firm's partners: Margaret Wilson:

Born Waco, Texas, December 5, 1958; admitted to bar 1984, Texas. Education: Baylor University (B.A., summa cum laude, 1981); (J.D., with honors, 1983). Associate Editor of the Baylor Law Review; Adjunct Professor, South Texas College of Law, 1988-1989; Deputy General Counsel, Department of Commerce, 2001-2002. General Counsel to Governor George W. Bush, 1998-2000. Member State Bar of Texas; Texas Bar Foundation. (Emphasis mine again.)

Update: From the Houston Chronicle:

In 1971, O'Neill squared off against Kerry on the Dick Cavett Show in a 90-minute, televised forum in which the two Vietnam War veterans sparred over the U.S. role in Southeast Asia.

President Nixon and top aide Charles Colson had taken a keen interest in O'Neill as part of their effort to discredit Kerry and the anti-war movement, according to memos and tapes in the National Archives. A clean-cut Naval Academy graduate, O'Neill was viewed by Nixon's team as an effective messenger against Kerry, who was causing the administration headaches as the leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

And, for a good dose of irony:

In a series of memos, Nixon aide Colson, who later went to prison for his role in the Watergate scandal, referred to the administration's efforts to promote O'Neill and to challenge Kerry to debate him.

On June 15, 1971, Colson noted that Kerry first turned down a debate offer with O'Neill and that he was "beginning to take a tremendous beating in the press."

"Let's destroy this young demagogue before he becomes another Ralph Nader," Colson wrote about Kerry.

A bold statement.

Waiting for you to back it up.

I think it's Pistoff sans testes.

Interesting set of facts, BBB. Any comment from the anti-Kerry revisionists out there?

The O'Neill / various Bush connections are certainly getting a lot of media coverage. Don't know that I much care. What either Bush or Kerry did, or didn't do, 30 something years ago is not particularly relevant, IMNSHO, to what either of them has to offer now.

What Bush has not being doing in terms of getting serious about OBL/A-Q, the U.S. economy, the environment ... catches my ear and eye more than the dragging up of old cr@p. We can see what he is/isn't doing now. We all know he mangles the English language with great facility.

What is he actually doing for the U.S. ?

Watch the Convention, and your questions will be answered.

I can't believe you don't give him credit for what has happened to AQ's funding sources and the global network that has been arresting AQ members in droves...

Forget the convention. Anybody can trot out pretty soundbites for a convention. It's all about what is happening to America and Americans everyday that should matter to the electorate.

What I get in my daily updates on various economic indicators has not been pretty for the last year.





Both ^^^ are from today's updates from a trucking industry newsletter.
(Transport Topics, you need to subscribe)

Listening to/reading to non-U.S. media sources would suggest that any progress on the OBL/A-Q front is no thanks to the U.S.

Really?

Who's taking credit for it?

Canada?

Sofia, does it really appear to you that what the US (and its motley crew of allies) is doing in Iraq is helping to stop Islamic terrorism? Or have we given them a recruitment tool?

Really? What credit should I give him?

I mean, AQ is alive and kicking. Last year was horrible from a terrorism standpoint. We keep hearing that AQ is planning an attack inside America right before the election - how can they do that if we are doing a good job breaking them up?

The statements you make and reality are inconsistent.

Cycloptichorn

From today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer. David Horsey, cartoonist: