SwiftVets.com

[factman]

In August and September, 2002, a short two years ago, Democratic presidential candidates were coming out of the woodwork (Howard Dean, Al Sharpton, John Kerry, Dennis Kucinich, etc,). The N.Y. Yimes was keeping its powder dry. It had already decided it would back the Democratic candidate,whoever it was, but it had no dog in this fight.

Bill Keller, then a "respected" columnist for the N.Y. Times, and now the Executive Editor after the Jason Blair fiasco, wrote a column on August 10,2002 evaluating the numerous candidates. When he got to John Kerry, he made a very enlightened observation when he wrote the following:

-So what's the alternative? John Kerry, the ersatz J.F.K., who
fancies himself a global strategist because 30 years ago he faced
down a Vietcong ambush? (And, by the way, with all due respect for
his exploit, how utterly weird is it that he then took out his handy
8-millimeter camera and re-enacted his heroism on film?)-

Honestly, this was the considered opinion of John Kerry as held by the now executive editor of the N.Y. Times. To save the reader time and effort the dictionary definition of "ersatz"=substitute,artificial. How
appropriate. As previously mentioned, Kerry was just one of many Democratic candidates, so the Times' censors let this blasphemy slip by.
(blasphemy=a contemptuous or profane act, utterance or writing concerning God [aka John Kerry])

As one would expect, Kerry and his people did not take kindly to such candidness, and they let Keller know it. The ever sensative Kerry invited Keller to stop by his senate office to get a sneak preview of his cinamatic talents and the resulting 8-mm war movies.

Keller then dashed out another column on September 10, 2002 entitled- "Watching Movies with Senator Kerry". The first four paragraphs of that column were as follows:

-A couple of columns ago, while plowing through a crowd of Democrats who want to be president, I threw an elbow at Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. I suggested that his claim to be a global thinker leaned rather excessively on his 30-year-old heroism in Vietnam. And, relying on a report in the usually dependable Boston Globe, I mocked him for pulling out a movie camera after a shootout in the Mekong Delta and re-enacting the exploit, as if preening for campaign commercials to come.

Cheap shot, the senator's people said of the notion that he belabors his war record. And just plain wrong about those movies.

Which is how I came to be sitting in a wing chair in the senator's office the other day while he plugged in a videocassette and fumbled with a balky remote.

"It is so innocent," he said by way of introducing his youthful cinamatic effort, adding a little defensively, "I have no intention of using it" for campaign purposes.-

Regardless of your political persuasion, take a deep breath and read the second and fourth paragraphs again:

-Cheap shot, the senator's people said of the notion that he belabors his war record. And just wrong about those movies.-

-"It is so innocent," he said by way of introducing his youthful cinamatic effort, adding a little defensively, "I have no intention of using it' for campaign purposes.-

Let's give Keller the benefit of the doubt-he doesn't watch television, he doesn't read his own newspaper, and he was on vacation during the Democratic convention. Thus, he is not aware of the snow job that Senator Kerry pulled on him. But what about the legion of avid Times readers? Shouldn't they expect that Kerry be the recipient of at least a slap on the wrist by Keller or the Times? Don't hold your breath.

There are at least two explantions for Kerry's behavior on this matter, they are: he just flip-flopped, so what's new, or he lied to Keller. As Dan Rather is prone to say, there is definitive proof that he lied to Keller and the N.Y. Times.

Possibly there is one or more intrepid souls in the mainstream or alternative media that will give this cave-in on the part of the N.Y.Times and its executive editor the attention and notoriety it deserves. Any reader of this who is more computer literate than I, please find some way to communicate the facts to those in the various media who might make use of it.

[J. Toy]

Excellent photograph of a bad actor.

Great post!
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Corpsman, 1969-1973

[Billman]

Lest a newcomer not know exactly what's meant, go here to view his home movies incorporated into the "Under Fire" video and the "Lifetime" TV spot, among others.
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-- Bill in Seattle