[Lerkfish]

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/4939470.html

highly subjective, but interesting nonetheless.

John H. Hinderaker and Scott W. Johnson had a jolly good time in a Wednesday commentary "fact-checking" Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's statements about operating his Swift boat in Cambodian waters. When the checkers are acting as surrogate smear artists for the Bush campaign, however, it is necessary to fact-check them as well. What you'll find doesn't reflect well on Hinderaker and Johnson. The fraudulence of what they have written is easy to verify, for those with a mind to look and a desire to know the truth.


They began by quoting a 1986 Senate floor speech in which Kerry said, "I remember Christmas of 1968, sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and having the president of the United States telling the American people I was not there."


H & J claim: "Kerry attributed responsibility for his illegal 1968 mission to Richard Nixon, despite the fact that Lyndon Johnson was president at the time." Fact: Indeed, at Christmas 1968, Nixon had been elected but wouldn't take office until January. The discrepancy is understandable, even the more after Kerry corrected the record to say he'd been in error; his runs into Cambodia came in early 1969. H & J have an accurate but niggling criticism -- Kerry was off by a month.


H & J claim: Kerry biographer Douglas Brinkley omitted a mention of the Cambodian runs from his account of Kerry's life. The implication is, of course, they never happened. Fact: Brinkley, who had access to all of Kerry's journals, told the London Telegraph that, indeed, Kerry was wrong about Christmas 1968. But, Brinkley added, "Kerry went into Cambodian waters three or four times in January and February 1969 on clandestine missions. He had a run dropping off U.S. Seals, Green Berets and CIA guys." Brinkley said, "He was a ferry master, a drop-off guy, but it was dangerous as hell. Kerry carries a hat he was given by one CIA operative. In a part of his journals which I didn't use he writes about discussions with CIA guys he was dropping off."


H & J claim: "The Khmer Rouge who allegedly shot at Kerry during his 'secret' mission did not take the field until 1972." Fact: The Khmer Rouge, military wing of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, began its armed combat against the government of Prince Norhodom Sihanouk in 1967, five years earlier than H & J claim. Such a sweet touch, too, by H & J, that use of "allegedly."

[spacefreak]

Nope. Nice try. No "smears". Kerry is the one who on numerous occaisions stated that spending Christmas Eve and Christmas in Cambodia was "seared" into his memory.

Read the book.

[CreepingDeth]

Read? Are you ****ing kidding?
I spent my money on it, and it was worth it. You should read the last couple chapters. The anti-war stuff. One expresion: