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NY Times: Getting (Slightly) Tougher
The so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth who mounted the lying attacks on John Kerry's military record are still at it, according to a frontpage story in today's New York Times. The story shows that every new fact that has emerged since the election gives the lie to the SBVT's claims.
Yet the paper is still pulling its punches, as if despite the new evidence, we should all still be treating this pack of lies as if there must have been some factual foundation in there somewhere.
What will it take for a major news outlet like the New York Times to finally denounce the SBVT's role in the 2004 election, and show us the web of money and connections that linked its work to the Bush campaign? Or even easier, perhaps someone at the NSA could simply leak a few phone conversations as the arrangements were being made?
Part of the mystery is why the SBVT claims took hold in August, when they'd apppeared before. I first saw the SBVT claims as the blogmaster for the Kerry campaign in the fall of 2003, when they began to pop up on the blog, although they did not appear to be part of an organized campaign at the time. The bloggers responded quickly with the facts and the attacks ended rather quickly.
Then there was an organized effort in the spring of 2004, but it didn't gain any traction in the mainstream media. There was a lot more material out there on the Kerry blog and all the other blogs supporting the campaign about John's military record, but there was no major stir on the blogosphere either.
The Convention showcased John Kerry's military heroism. It may be that we thought the most challenging record we needed to be defending was John Kerry's outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War once he came back home, and that was the characterization that needed the most counterbalancing. Instead, the image of Kerry in navy whites, the salutes, the "reporting for duty" became the perfect opportunity to give the SBVT the spotlight and to take JK down a notch.
Something happened after the convention. Instead of ignoring or going lightly over the new SVBT allegations and moving on, all of a sudden there was wall-to-wall coverage, with the totally undocumented claims of the SBVT being treated as if they were on the same level of credibility as all of Kerry's military records. All of this clamor occurred without a single shred of documentary evidence to back up the SBVT's claims.
Would I have liked the campaign to have counter-attacked earlier? Yes. But we should not be under any illusions about whether such a counter-attack would have succeeded in the poisonous atmosphere that the media created.
As Bob Somerby has shown so clearly at The Daily Howler in his analysis of how the media croaked Al Gore in 2000, if the national media are collectively framing a candidate in an unquestioned negative way, it is very difficult for a campaign to overcome this negative frame.
I remember hoping after Nixon's 2nd victory that I would live long enough to see him disgraced. I find myself having the same feeling now about the media's handling of the SBVT. The media's failure to treat the SBVT in 2004 as a bunch of right-wing funded liars, has gone a long way towards keeping America safe for corporate profiteerism and the realm of our 21st century robber barons.
Glad you wrote that, Dick. It takes me right back to the Fleet Center, 2 summers ago! I just posted the Raw Story version about the Swift Boats on here yesterday, given me to Elizabeth Walters from here.
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Kerry_still_fighting_Swiftboat_Veterans_about_0527.html
Nolie wrote something too.
http://www.progressiveu.org/115408-oy-vey-mainstream-media-still-lending-soapbox-to-swift-boat-liers-kerry-begins-to-defend-himself
Love this excerpt that shows up on the google search:
Oy Vey, mainstream media STILL lending soapbox to Swift Boat Liers ...
ProgressiveU.org, CA - 35 minutes ago
The media: CNN, MSNBC, ABC, FOX, NBC, CBS and newspapers like the NYT's, WAPO, Washington Times, WSJ, ect. behaved like irresponsible journalists! ...
Some of you may have already seen this, and it is relevant to today's thread. This article nicely summarizes the media's double standards and complete lack of objectivity when discussing politicians.
I really don't know how we win this war when we have to beat the media and force them to report the truth and to stop perpetuating Republican talking points.
I feel as if I have been condemned just like Sisyphus.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200605260016
OC...lost your email! Email me so we can compare schedules.
~V
OnCall
I had read that when you sent it & loved it & sent it on to others.
(the Media Matters)
Here is something I got from a new local group called Seattle Voice. It's so ironic. Illegal immigrants are fighting fires but may be pulled away. Think about what might happen if the House wins and there is a crackdown on illegal immigration.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/28/us/28fire.html?th&emc=th
With Illegal Immigrants Fighting Wildfires, West Faces a Dilemma
SALEM, Ore. The debate over immigration, which has filtered into almost every corner of American life in recent months, is now sweeping through the woods, and the implications could be immense for the coming fire season in the West.
As many as half of the roughly 5,000 private firefighters based in the Pacific Northwest and contracted by state and federal governments to fight forest fires are immigrants, mostly from Mexico. And an untold number of them are working here illegally.
A recent report by the inspector general for the United States Forest Service said illegal immigrants had been fighting fires for several years. The Forest Service said in response that it would work with immigration and customs enforcement officers and the Social Security Administration to improve the process of identifying violators.
At the same time, the State of Oregon, which administers private fire contracts for the Forest Service, imposed tougher rules on companies that employ firefighters, including a requirement that firefighting crew leaders have a working command of English and a formal business location where crew members can assemble.
V are you going to that area? Can you detour east a little?
V,
You got mail.
meat
Scott Ritter: The Hardest Word
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/052806X.shtml
Scott Ritter wonders "what must have been going through the minds of those who were advising George W. Bush and Tony Blair to 'come clean,' so to speak, about their respective shortcomings regarding the conduct of the war in Iraq."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5851320,00.html
Reagan's Navy Secretary Takes on Senate
Sunday May 28, 2006 5:16 PM
By BOB LEWIS
Associated Press Writer
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) - Thirty-seven summers ago, in the swelter of An Hua Basin, Marine Lt. James H. Webb saw more bloodshed and death than most people see in a lifetime.
Since his decorated tenure in Vietnam, Webb has added hitches as President Reagan's Navy secretary, an Emmy-winning journalist and author of best-selling, military-suspense novels to his made-for-the-movies biography.
Why, then, suddenly run this year as a Democrat to unseat Sen. George Allen, a Republican former governor whom Webb endorsed just six years ago?
``When I look at where this administration has taken its own party, I cannot help but think about the pendulum of history,'' Webb said. ``The pendulum has swung, I think, as far as it can swing given the principles this party had once espoused.''
Webb says Allen is part of an arrogant Republican majority in Washington bent on repeating in Iraq the blunders that killed so many of his buddies in Vietnam a generation ago.
He accuses President Bush, whom he backed in 2000, of betraying conservative fiscal governance by pushing the federal debt toward $9 trillion. He claims the GOP, his former party, and Allen in particular are Bush's eager accomplices.
``We really need to get back to a time when the members of Congress will stand up to an administration that is abusing its constitutional privileges,'' Webb said.
Allen campaign spokesman Dick Wadhams dismissed Webb's criticism with a chuckle, a rhetorical question his only reply: ``So is Jim Webb still a Democrat today or did he switch back over to being a Republican?''
Sparrow
Good one! My husband is at a family reunion in Nebraska.
His family is Republican and conservative. It turns out his younger brother who is a Navy vet has just registered Democrat. His wife, who is Hispanic, convinced him & I inadvertently did a few months ago too, by reminding him that the government has been infiltrated by fanatical "born agains." He was never into that. & now he is well aware of the chickenhawk thing, plus the immigrant baiting doesn't play well.
Posted by: sparrow at May 28, 2006 02:34 PM
Sparrow, how far east are you thinking? Email me...
Is the GOP Losing its Grip on Power
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_455756.html
Some good history & pragmatic hints in here.
Joe Biden vs Nick Morris & on & on.
Personnally I hope John Kerry sues these folks for libel or defamation or something and takes a stand that in this country you don't just smear and succeed....
i do dream a lot
At the Apple Store - what a haul from WR Pitt
Marines Accused in Haditha Massacre, US Braced for Scandal
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/052806A.shtml
Maureen Dowd: Don't Become Them
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/052806D.shtml
Maureen Dowd refers to the massacre at Haditha as "A My Lai acid flashback." She finds irony in "The force that sacked Saddam to stop him from killing innocents is now accused of killing innocents."
Female Vets Come Home to War on Trauma
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/052806G.shtml
Memorial Day offers time to remember US casualties in Iraq
Danny Schechter: Political Amnesia Is the Enemy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/052806H.shtml
Danny Schechter finds "Our amnesia about recent developments seems to be induced and reinforced by the very fast-paced entertainment-oriented formats
FYI, journalists heard us !
SJK
"Vietnam war is finished, but Sixth Avenue construction is never finished."
------------
One race to watch: Clinton vs. Gore
By James P. Pinkerton
Newsday
Can you imagine Hillary Rodham Clinton running against Al Gore for the 2008 presidential nomination? Or do you wonder where Bill Clinton would stand in a political struggle between his wife and his ex-vice president?
Soap operas take improbable situations - and then make them more improbable. Yet, the scriptwriters at "As the World Turns" would have a hard time topping the real-life saga of "As the Clintons and Gores Turn." Let's consider some of those twists :
An Illinois-born first lady, widely reviled for being impolitic, turns into a popular and extremely political senator from New York. A president, brilliant but flawed, enjoys roller-coaster popularity as president, even as he enjoys, well, you know. Now he's a lovably roguish ex-president who has even managed to ingratiate himself with the venerated ex-president he once defeated.
Finally, as the third side of our improbable triangle, we have the ex-vice president. By all accounts, he was a straight arrow, too straight for the normal crookeries of politics - so he was first mocked, and then defeated, when he ran for the White House. But this ex-VP has been on a spiritual pilgrimage; he spent time in San Francisco, falling in with rich California environmentalists who made him the star of a Green movie.
So now, tanned, rested and ready with a new eco-agenda - and looking pretty good in contrast to the beleaguered incumbent president, who is the son of the elderly ex-president - the ex-veep is thinking about running for president himself, against the woman he once worked with in the White House. Needless to say, the ex-veep and the former first lady didn't like each other then, and they sure don't like each other now.
Yup, it would make for a heckuva soap opera. Except it can't be a TV show, because it's real. The story is already being lived out by actual people. Life has pre-empted "art."
So the storyline will have to be covered by real journalists - plus of course, pseudo-journalists - and everyone else in between who has access to a camera or a computer.
But make no mistake, the coming campaign - call it "Days of Our Clintons and Gores" - is going to be treated like a melodrama. In a profile of Gore in the current New York magazine, one source speculated that Bill might secretly help both Hillary and Al with their dueling presidential ambitions. Hard to top that.
But other outlets will try. Consider these tabloid-y words from a recent article on the Clintons' marriage: "Mr. Clinton is rarely without company in public, yet the company he keeps rarely includes his wife. Nights out find him zipping around Los Angeles with his bachelor buddy, Ronald W. Burkle, or hitting parties and fund-raisers in Manhattan." Burkle, of course, is the billionaire best known for accusing a former New York Post gossip columnist of trying to extort money from him. But where, by the way, is Sen. Clinton? The piece continues: "She is yoked to work in Washington or New York - her Senate career and political ambitions consuming her time."
Sounds like something from The National Enquirer, right? Actually, no. It was in Tuesday's New York Times, right there on the front page, above the fold. The Times story didn't dish any real dirt on the Clintons' marriage, but if that august broadsheet can lead with it, every other mainstream media outlet will feel emboldened - or challenged - to chase after tales of skirt-chasing or other foibles.
And, of course, bloggers and other new-mediators know that they can claw to prominence by hooking a scoop, or pseudo-scoop, about these bold-print names and their families. So on April 17, hotelchatter.com reported that Chelsea Clinton was checking into a hotel in Santa Monica, Calif., "with two guys."
Some will ask: Where does it end? And the answer is the whole hoped-for point about soap operas: They never end.
Are they straddling the `crazy base'?
Sorry I don't have the link & I'm not at home, but it's from Sebastien, Clinton intern just returned to Paris.
For what it's worth .. personally I'm wondering if we won't have two contenders most of the American public has never heard of at the present time ..
mhk,
Me too. I'd like to see him sue them and then sue the media.
DIck and I are cleaning out the basement and going through boxes of memos from the JK Senate campaign in 1986 to the DNC online entry in 1995, to the 2004 campaign and to the early days of the DCP.
It has been fun to think back, but also frustrating to see how much work it has taken to convince political leaders of the value of the netroots. (Not JK, btw, but others...). What a SLOG...
Anyway, we found some printouts of some of the more wonderful Kerry Blog posts, including some from lou and Mark from Iowa, Fe, DiAnne and others. Brilliant stuff; just wonderful.
Maybe it's time to think about writing that book...but who would believe half of what we went through???
Certainly not the media. Facts just confuse them.
I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday weekend; it's HOT in DC finally, and we are thinking about an air conditioned movie theatre.
I think I need this in a t'shirt to wear around my fundie inlaws.
http://rogouski.com/loose-photos/protest-west-point-smaller/35.jpg
Posted by: karen at May 28, 2006 07:28 PM
The progressive books are booming. As soon as the Republicans realize this, they'll start publishing progressive books too. Then nobody will know the real facts from the really true progressive facts. (Sort of like what they did with the so-called progressive media.)
This will sink Bush and his party.
http://www.comcast.net/news/politics/index.jsp?cat=POLITICS&fn=/2006/05/28/402043.html&cvqh=itn_scandal
To some extent, we will all pay, but the truth comes out.
Karen
I'll help with the book. There is a huge box of stuff in the John Kerry room in my basement & a bunch more not yet filed!
Progressive books ARE booming. I checked it out yesterday and today but don't have lists with me. There was a bit of a lull after the election but authors have had time to keep them coming. Now if people would just read instead of watching television.
Tomorrow I'll check the mood at Folklife. Couldn't face the rain today. It's unseasonably overcast, even for Seattle.
After the Murtha story (& he was on Sunday television) about how devastating the killing of civilians, how senseless, how inexcusable, don't miss the 2nd story (same page)
about Bush landing in the same hole as his dad.
http://www.comcast.net/news/politics/index.jsp?cat=POLITICS&fn=/2006/05/28/402041.html
Frist attacking gays instead of helping the working (or rather non-working but want to be) citizens of the US.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/05/28.html#a8476
If all else fails...go back to those hate mongering gay bashers.
Bizarre things going on over at the Toledo Blade. They investigated, then fired a reporter, George Tanber, who sent an anonymous letter to the Puliter board that was critical of the Blade's long-time political reporter Fritz Wenzel, who coincidentally had a son on the GOP payroll and who also was elected to the GOP county party central committee when Bernadette & Tom Noe were in charge.
Its a long story but well worth reading - showing how even a paper like the Blade can be compromised. Instead of firing, George Tanber should have gotten a promotion.
Other things Tanber revealed:
On May 17, 2005, the Monday after leaving The Blade to start his political consulting firm, Mr. Wenzel received the first of two $30,000 payments to handle media buys for the Cincinnati-area congressional campaign of Jean Schmidt.
While working at The Blade, Mr. Wenzel had an improperly close relationship with the Noes, and Mr. Noe offered to help Mr. Wenzel start his own consulting business.
George Tanber also alleged that Fritz Wenzel sat on the Noe Coingate story and the Blade didn't begin reporting it until after Fritz Wenzel left..
according to Noe's reporter friend Wentzel
"The letter claims the politics reporter met three times in 2004 with Joe Kidd, then director of the Lucas County Board of Elections, and was told by the GOP insider about a scheme by Mr. Noe, the Maumee coin dealer, to illegally launder money to the Bush-Cheney campaign.
Mr. Kidd said that he met with Mr. Wenzel in January, February, and September, 2004, and says that at each meeting he told Mr. Wenzel about the scheme.
Mr. Wenzel says he does not remember being told of the money laundering until the meeting in September, 2004. He says he did not believe Mr. Kidd because the former election director failed to give him evidence to back up the claims and because Mr. Kidd had been fired by Bernadette Noe.
“These rumors that Noe was involved in funneling money to the Bush campaign would occasionally come up, but nobody could substantiate them in any way,” Mr. Wenzel said."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2651436
Sparrow
Frist also now says it's ok for the FBI to search Congressional offices, breaking with some others in his party, such as Hastert.
He's already cleaned out his perhaps?
Posted by: sparrow at May 28, 2006 09:13 PM
That's obscene, and what's more obscene? Homophobes have enough voting power to be taken seriously.
Even here in the Bay Area, homophobes are a tiny minority, but are vocal enough to get their voices heard in the media. Just go hang out at San Francisco's tourist hangouts, and those homophobe pastors are there blabbering their crap. (And for you politically correct types, sorry, they are all ethnic minorities.)
At least spending the weekend up here, instead of down in Red California where I live, has restored my sanity. Fe would like me to relocate here, and I'll consider that.
Ally in San Francisco
Ally in San Francisco sounds good! I think you'd like it there.
Ally
Consider SF!!!!
I love San Francisco Bay Area.
There are some drawbacks, but all in all one of the best places in the world to Live. You can pick any Nation on earth and find a restaurant, or club that represents it. The weather is awesome.
I belong to Italian Clubs, Egyptian, Turkish, Afghan, Iranian, Brazilian, Argentine...there is everything and anything to do here.
The commonwealth club in SF hosts meetings that discuss worldwide social issues, as well as tragic domestic ones, and records for broadcast to NPR. I go to these as much as possible.
The Honorable Senators Boxer and Feinstein kick butt in DC, and the Honorable Pete Stark is my local congressman, who does a heck of a job fighting social causes and putting conservatives feet to the Fire.
We got plenty of room for ya Ally.
What We're Listening To:
They say that heaven is 10 zillion light years away
And just the pure at heart will walk her righteous streets someday
They say that heaven is 10 zillion light years away
But if there is a God, we need Him now
"Where is your God"
That's what my friends ask me
And I say it's taken Him so long
'Cause we've got so far to come...
Tell me people
Why can't they say that hate is 10 zillion light years away
Why can't the light of good shine God's love in every soul
Why must my color black make me a lesser man
I thought this world was made for every man
He loves us all, that's what my God tells me
And I say it's taken Him so long
'Cause we've got so far to come...
Stevie Wonder
To Dick Bell from Chuck in Houston:
I think we need to fight this so-called SVFT to the mat and then some. We can't let this stand. This has nothing to do with presidential politics at this point; it's just plain personal for a lot of us. I don't want this particular fight but I won't back away from it. I could say more but I probably shouldn't.
Chuck in Houston
PS to Sparrow: I like Jim Webb. I think he is part of the solution, not part of the problem. We a need a well-intentioned dialog on this stuff now more than ever. We have to get past the emotional roller-coaster and find some ballast that can get us on the right tack.
Final Thought:
Hey, all, let's not forget tomorrow is Memorial Day.
Chuck in Houston
Posted by: chuck at May 29, 2006 03:32 AM
Thanks for reminding me, Chuck.
I'll definitely keep that in mind today, as I drive back to SoCal and pass by California's Korean War Memorial in Santa Nella, in San Joaquin Valley.
For those who think me being in the Bay Area is a good thing, I previously lived in Concord and worked for the Gore 2000 campaign from there. I had been forced to leave because of the dot-com crash (and my subsequent switch to the finance sector, where I had to work with hardcore Republicans as my bosses - and they didn't like having a transgender secretary). But I would be happy to return here - or at least expand here while keeping my SoCal presence - as a professional engineer that I have now become. Thanks for the thoughts, though for now, I will need to strengthen my portfolio first in SoCal.
Ally in San Francisco
Posted by: chuck at May 29, 2006 02:15 AM
Chuck,
One important reason we need to take down the Swifties and the phoney media is because there are many great people who would want to be a public servant but they don't run because they don't want their families to have to deal with the personal attacks. And then to make them deal with personal attacks that are lies too...!
I'd like to throw this lure out into the cyber-pond and get some feedback on something that has been really setting me off this weekend...
Tell me what goes through your mind when you hear Memorial Day references like "they gave their lives so you may enjoy the freedoms you have today"?
West Poignant
Posted by: monkey at May 29, 2006 07:44 AM
As the descendent of soldiers who fought in the American Revolution, the Civil War, WWI, & WWII, I honor & respect the military for the many wars they've fought for our freedoms. This current war, however, is not about "our" freedom. In fact, as a result of this war, we're losing more of our freedom & civil rights.
I support the troops who are in the Middle East right now but I believe they are there fighting to save each other at this point. The best way I can think to continue to show my support is to continue to work for peace so that they can come home to their families, hopefully as whole a being as possible.
BTW...pose these questions to the patriotic RWers you encounter today:
- How many of the Republican "leaders" currently in office served in the military?
- How many Iraqi War veterans are running for Congress in '06 as Democrats vs. those running as Republicans?
monkey: here's an interesting op-ed you might want to read; it eloquently expresses democracy & freedom...
The Freedoms And The Fallen We Honor
Tell A Friend
by Todd Huffman, M.D.
Americans often read our founding documents as if they pertained to another place and time, but the ideals enshrined therein are as true today as then, the struggles described as difficult. This year perhaps more than any before we would do well to use the opportunity of Memorial Day to remind ourselves of the freedoms, unique in all the world and modeled since, for which untold Americans over the course of more than two centuries have fought or even given their lives.
--snip--
As Americans, we hold foremost dear the ideal that people and the press should be free to speak of politics or religion without fear of government or private retribution. In fact, we should remind ourselves that they should be encouraged to do so. After all, democracy itself is an ideal, and it needs idealism. And criticism. And the ar guments that follow.
A democracy invites and tolerates the clash of opinions, and understands its obligation to search for common ground. A democracy recognizes that there are intelligent people supporting each side of every issue. Every truth has an answering truth. There exists no issue facing us truly as simple as a choice between two absolutes. If we cannot have open discourse about the ideals by which we live, then we do not live in a democracy.
Upholding the ideal of democracy means never suppressing an opposing opinion. Upholding the ideal of democracy means never dissuading ourselves from speaking out, despite those who would criticize, ridicule, or otherwise attempt to prevent us from doing so. After all, contrary opinion is not treason; dissent is not weakness in the national resolve. Freedom dies when citizens follow leaders without question.
Democracy begins in conversation, and ends in silence. It is fueled by truth, and crippled by fear. By reminding ourselves this and every Memorial Day that the survival of our democracy and our ideals rests on our freedom to think and speak our minds, we honor our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, and the countless Americans who have died to defend them.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_todd_huf_060529_the_freedoms_and_the.htm
FOCUS | Jason Leopold: George W. Bush and Kenneth Lay
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/052906Z.shtml
Jason Leopold reports that with Thursday's guilty verdicts against Lay and Skilling on numerous counts of accounting fraud, conspiracy, and dozens of other charges, perhaps Enron should be remembered as - in addition to a symbol of greed - the first in what has become a long list of scandals that can be directly linked to the White House.