Holy Christ that southpark clip is too much... you're making me cry!

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/14/politics/campaign/14guard.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1095134600-4t5DBj0FA/RO76En2B1KxA

the NYT

Too funny!

Two comments, then I'm off to bed:

1. I think we should all give props to the Washington Post. I know they're not our favorite paper, and they tend to lean to the left, but throughout this whole controversy they've been even-handed, acknowledged the many arguments against the memos' authenticity (even while giving CBS the benefit of the doubt) and now that CBS' own supposed experts are melting away they had the honesty to pull the plug on the charade. The bottom line is that the Washington Post has a conscience. If the MSM were more like the folks at the Post, we'd all be better off for it.

2. If it's true that the Kerry campaign had custody of these documents, then the Kerry campaign is hanging by a thread right now. The last thing they need is to get dragged into a forgery scandal. The only thing that might save them is the fact that this forgery was so amateurish. Folks might figure it was an intern acting like a fool rather than a serious attempt to discredit the President.

That's enough, time to put on my jammies and hit the sack.

K-Smooth

'Questioned about the discrepancy over the weekend, CBS officials
said that Staudt was a "mythic figure" in the Guard who exercised
influence from behind the scenes even after his retirement.'

That is about the lamest thing I've heard out of CBS during this whole affair -- "mythic figure" -- WTF?

The Post are Lefties, but have integrity. That's why I still read them. They all want to be Woodward or Bernstein. Now the Watergate questions:

1. What did Dan know and when did he know it?

2. Who wrote the memo's? with the format flaws and that terrible use of ranks and OETR rather than OER, it could not have been Killian or any other officer. It would seem to be a non-prior service REMF working for a campaign or a news organization. Young enough never to have used a typewriter.

But wait ... theres more ... From the Ron Popiel house of Home brewed documents...

- Newcomer drew an analogy with an art expert trying to determine whether a painting of unknown provenance was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci. "If I was looking for a Da Vinci, I would look for characteristic brush strokes," he said. "If I found something that was painted with a modern synthetic brush, I would know that I have a forgery."

( Ok...So they were really painted by Da Vinci using a 1483AD version of Paintbrush )

Meanwhile, Laura Bush became the first person from the White House to say the documents are likely forgeries. "You know they are probably altered," she told Radio Iowa in Des Moines yesterday. "And they probably are forgeries, and I think that's terrible, really."

( Hey...If the first lady can spot them as fakes what more does anyone need....)

Citing confidentiality issues, CBS News has declined to reveal the source of the disputed documents -- which have been in the network's possession for more than a month -- or to explain how they came to light after more than three decades. Yesterday, USA Today said that it had independently obtained copies of the documents "from a person with knowledge of Texas Air National Guard operations" who declined to be named "for fear of retaliation."

- ( Yeh....I bet....I wouldn't want retaliation from the FBI or DOD either.....)

- Tell me we're finally starting to see the walls of stone crumbling so I can take an Alka seltzer and relax.... Heh

http://www.flounder.com/bush.htm

He has some more analysis of the one-versus-ell issue.

He conclusively identifies several of the "1"'s as such. Although not all. He probably doesn't keep up-to-date on the blogs, and hasn't realized that some of the forged documents actually do use an ell in place of a one.

(I've already e-mailed him about another issue, so I'm not gonna saturate his inbox. I'll leave that up to you kind folks. ;) )

Nice quote:

"I'd say that [CBS] are yet once again demonstrating that they are incompetent to do the simplest and most obvious analysis of fonts."

- I have to imagine Rathers hair dresser is getting mondo nervous - Staff is usually the first to bite it when the Boss takes a header...

Scrub Rather
Sept. 21

I'd say a tasteful level of Jammie Brigade triumphalism is in order. Perhaps some new Carter's for the whole crew?

Hey Bill:
Fox-Baltimore has located the after action report on Kerry's silver star. You can get it at this site:

http://itznewstome.blogspot.com/2004/09/silver-star-after-action-report-found.html

Guess what? The Swiftees are right!

OMG

there really is blood in the water at CBS. read

http://www.nationalreview.com/kerry/kerryspot.asp

This individual told the Kerry Spot late Monday night that some of CBS’ news talent who were campaigning for the anchor desk when Rather retires, are more than a little pleased with the recent turn of events. These individuals, who, admittedly, have a great personal stake in getting Rather out the door, are contending in internal discussions that the blame belongs with Rather, not with any lower-ranking producer.

Brutal!

A detailed comparison by The Washington Post of memos obtained by CBS News with authenticated documents on Bush's National Guard service reveals dozens of inconsistencies, ranging from conflicting military terminology to different word-processing techniques...

CBS executives have pointed to Matley as their lead expert on whether the memos are genuine, and included him in a "CBS Evening News" defense of the story Friday. Matley said he spent five to eight hours examining the memos. "I knew I could not prove them authentic just from my expertise," he said. "I can't say either way from my expertise, the narrow, narrow little field of my expertise."

Awww....poor Marcel... :)

I give Rather, oh, about a week before he's fired (or commits suicide, who knows). And maybe one more week before this gets traced back to the Kerry campaign...which will END it. It is Watergate 2 if DNC/Kerry operatives are found to have peddled forged documents to 60 Minutes. Using forged military documents on national television to influence a presidential election? We're talking some criminal shiznit....Oh, I LOVE IT.

Go Blogs! Great work, Bill. And I agree with K-Smooth above that we have to give some props to the WaPo for going against the grain...though I should point out that this is partly an intermedia thing as well as a political issue. Remember, the MSM closed ranks on the Swift Boat issue as that was a pure test of ideological leftism rather than an opportunity to stick the shiv into one of their competitors.

The real test of professionalism over ideology will be to see if any of these guys - especially CBS - follows the forgery trail back to DNC/Kerry operatives. I can only imagine how angry the post-Rather CBS execs will be at their source...perhaps they'll pull off little Kill Bill style vengeance against their former leftist fellow travellers? Time will tell...

On Brett Hume tonight he had a forensics expert compare the signatures and it was so obvious that they were not Jerry Killian's. Now what will Danny Boy do??

I've got more on the "1" vs. "l" issue here:
http://www.corante.com/importance/archives/006148.php

Lots of pictures to prove that CBS's "expert" Richard Katz is incorrect.

- It's 6 AM and the DNC is due for todays pearl of campaigning wisdom...They'er going on Ophra with papers translated in Swahili and typed on a 1917 Olivetti that show Bush and Hillery have a love child...

- Whizbang and others are already showing the order detailing Bush's 120 active service in the Airforce...
"Project Fortunate Son" chrashes on takeoff... We gotta slow down a little... Let the DemDorks at least hit the enter key before we do the smackdowns....

I'm a little disappointed that the CBS story only made A8. What, there was that much more important stuff going on in Washington yesterday?

It's time to put Danny in a yellow raincoat & send him down to the Gulf Coast to work the hurricane detail next to Geraldo.

I think you just violated Dr. Leopold Stotch's copyright.