The New York Times is so blatantly out of control, it is almost meaningless to fisk them anymore. It is sort of like when your sports team is having a bad year and the fake schedule goes around that next year they are playing the “Lighthouse for the Blind” in the season opener. Fisking the Times is not even sport anymore. But they are the “paper of record” so I guess it is still worth doing.
At least Nicholas Kristof is completely honest about his bias. The Swifties hurt Kerry so he is going to attack Bush.
I’ve steered clear until now of how Mr. Bush evaded service in Vietnam because I thought other issues were more important. But if Bush supporters attack John Kerry for his conduct after he volunteered for dangerous duty in Vietnam, it’s only fair to scrutinize Mr. Bush’s behavior.
There is a difference Mr. Kristof, John Kerry ran on his service in Vietnam to the exclusion of all other issues. It was obvious people were going to question it.
It’s not a pretty sight. Mr. Bush was saved from active duty, and perhaps Vietnam, only after the speaker of the Texas House intervened for him because of his family’s influence.
Your knowledge of the subject is not a pretty sight Mr. Kristof. Your source, Ben Barnes, testified under oath that he was never asked by anyone in the Bush family to get him into the National Guard. Further, he has donated or raised almost a quarter million dollars for John Kerry.
Mr. Bush signed up in May 1968 for a six-year commitment, justifying the $1 million investment in training him as a pilot. But after less than two years, Mr. Bush abruptly stopped flying, didn’t show up for his physical and asked to transfer to Alabama. He never again flew a military plane.
That is patently and demonstrable false. He served 2 years full time. After that he was required to get 50 “points” a year to fulfill his obligation in the National Guard:
1968 Bush earned 253 points.
1969 Bush earned 340 points.
1970 Bush earned 137 points.
1971 Bush earned 112 points.
After 1971 we had an abundance of pilots but Bush still earned his points for 2 more years.
1972 Bush earned 56 points.
1973 Bush earned 56 points.
Then Kristof tells us why his source is so credible.
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First of all, John Kerry did not “volunteer” to go to Vietnam. He joined the naval reserve and was unfortunate enough to have been called to service. He knew that 3 purple hearts would get him out of Vietnam and back to the states which is where he wanted to be. So he made sure he got purple hearts by whining even over the littlest scratch that was probably self-inflicted just to get back hom and out of Vietnam (or Cambodia). He has already taken the high ground by saying he’s not going to compete with a guy who signed up to stay home so he would not have to go to Vietnam when he did the very same thing. Joining the reserves and the guards was so he could not be drafted into going to war. While he put down our soldiers in Vietnam, he was still a Navy reservist.
Five new people were added to his campaign since the RNC, one to just “handle” Kerry himself. Last night on Anderson Cooper, two people from each camp, with the one for Kerry’s campaign saying they are going all out to attack President Bush and to defile his record as a national guardsmen. They even have an add out by someone that was in the same unit as President Bush saying he never saw George Bush there even once. This has already been hashed already, now he’s really aiming for direct hits, not only putting down those who went to Vietnam but for those who didn’t. He joined the reserves so he wouldn’t go to Vietnam. Had George Bush been called up for duty during that time, he would have gone to Vietnam. Based on your numbers from 1968 to 1973, that’s six years, much longer than Kerry was in the reserves.
~C
As a Nam vet there is something about the entire Kerry’s “Great and excellant War Adventure” that puzzles almost every fellow vet I know who served in that war. First off Kerry didn’t serve 4 months in combat zones. One month was an obligatory pre-action training period. Another 3-5 weeks was spent on an island encampment off the coast that was basically R&R where everyone spent their days fishing with percussion hand gernades, boffing the natives, and drinking an awful version of booze affectionately called “hooch”. Actual “in theater” time had to be a month and a half. So this four month thing is pure BS. But setting that aside, no one can figure out to this day how anyone could get three purple hearts, a Silver and Bronze, in the space of that short of time, with no injuries serious enough to require real medical attention or some sort of Medical disability. It just makes no sense. Well unless you write your own action reports and have a movie camera handy. It has to be a record among the greater than 250,000 Americans that served. John Wayne would have been seriously jeolous. After the DNC pundummies wring every once of political cash they can out of Bushes National Gaurd record look for the Bush bad boys to trot out the rest of Kerry’s “slightly embarassing” post war activities like the guys he bullied to make false statements for the “Winter soldiers” rally, the multiple trips to Paris to meet with the North Vietnamese officials while he was still a Naval officer (the last time I looked that is a treasonous offense), and the fact that he finally got out of dodge when his fellow “comrades” at the St. Loius meeting of the VVAW proposed offing a Senator just to prove their ideals of “peace and love”. Kerry and his adalpated campaign managers are going down. He’s the worst sort of opportunistic braggert who shames most vets to even be associated with him.
Yes. Fisking is worthwhile and necessary for exactly the reason you state–the NYTimes puports itself to be “the paper of record“. Someone has to hold them responsible for their biases and tell the real and objective story.
It’s pretty sad that democrats would be waiting on the sidelines, that if terrorists attack the USA again, as their only hope of winning the election. They would go into a fearmongering frenzy indeed.
Pretty darn sad.
Another good reason Bush will win.
BUSH/CHENEY 20041
Guess flying onto an aircraft carrier in full flight suit, having the media go nuts about Bush and his National Guard Pilot info was not bringing his military record to the forefront. Lets face it, we need a do over, get rid of both of them and get someone that is willing to debate the issues, and bring real peace and real stability and real patriotism and a love for liberty back to Washington.
“Ben Barnes, testified under oath that he was never asked by anyone in the Bush family to get him into the National Guard.”
So that eliminates GHWB and Barbara, what about advisors, lawyers, campaign workers, etc. ?
People who operate at the level of GHWB never get their hands dirty with details. It eliminates “plausible deniability”
The question remains “Why did Bush disobey a direct order by a superior officer to appear to take his physical?”
Or are the documents that show that fakes?
Well, the documents could be fakes. Just look at all the citations for Kerry’s medals. One citation is signed by former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman who says he has no idea how his name got on that citation — the third one written on the same medal. Those citations may be fakes. Kerry’s entire biography is fake. He’s a fake, phony fraud.
Putting aside my fear of being ignorant, could someone explain what the term “fisk” means?
Franklin, please give me a link for that claim.
Jim, google is your friend
http://www.samizdata.net/blog/glossary_archives/001961.html
As alleged above:
“After 1971 we had an abundance of pilots but Bush still earned his points for 2 more years.
1972 Bush earned 56 points.
1973 Bush earned 56 points.”
Yet Lechliter’s report states:
[Lloyd is supposedly an expert in these matters, but his simple
mathematical calculations are wrong. He says,