Tim Blair

This is our chance to shine.

Whereas CBS apparently thought this stuff was "too good to check," and so reproduced it without question, maybe we can do some real work.

No, DU, it's not whether someone typing veeeerrrry carefully can reproduce the alleged Killian memo. No, it should be a simple matter to produce ("produce," not "reproduce", people) reams and reams of similar memos from the '70's. Bring 'em on!

Man, anyone who's read accounts of the Mormon forger knows to what extreme lengths he went to ensure that his documents passed all manner of tests by the experts. And the Mormon forger was big news in the US, because he murdered two people and blackmailed the Mormon church. You mean to say MSM has such a short memory they could be hoodwinked so easily, when they covered the Mormon forger's case so thoroughly?

Goldfish memories. And they expect us to have the same.

Well the good news for Kerry is that after the dust settles he will likely be eligible for another purple heart.

Powerline has just posted that Rather told CNN today that he is STANDING BY the authenticity of the docs. No investigation, no retraction, no apologies. Wow.

"Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin had a strong reaction to newly released records about President George W. Bush's service in the Texas National Guard."

Isn't this the same Harkin who lied about being a fighter pilot in Vietnam? Sheesh.

Powerline has just posted that Rather told CNN today that he is STANDING BY the authenticity of the docs. No investigation, no retraction, no apologies. Wow.

Powerline also thinks that the reason Rather is putting his neck on the line is that HE is the one who got hold of these documents and pushed CBS to run with the story. Rather has no choice now but to stick with his story to the bitter end because if the documents are phony he's screwed.

Sounds about right to me.

Just to share an observance from a post-op Major Dad, who, even in his percocet laced state, is always thinking clearly when it's military:

Thinking about it, a LtCol gives a Lt a direct order, the little snuffy blows him off and all the LtCol can do is write whiney notes to himself? (And a typewritten not handwritten one at that?) That doesn't happen. If he missed his flight phys., he'd be suspended automatically. And if he disobeyed a direct order from his Commanding Officer (i.e. the memo sig~commander? what's with that sh*t?), why is there no reprimand or more punitive action? Lt's don't get away with squat, it doesn't matter who their daddy is. A LtCol is the master of his domain at a squadron. Obviously he got good Fitness Reports (FITREPS) and an Honorable Discharge. These memos disparage the deceased LtCol, portraying him as a weak leader, with no spine. Do the memos authors realize that's what they convey?

Time to join the Dan Rather Career Deathwatch. (Start at that post and scroll down.)

Magic Hat is an excellent microbrewery in South Burlington, VT, USA. Perhaps John Kerry's been crying in a few of their beers.

"John Kerry’s Magic Hat (note to Dave Barry: great name for a band or what?"
Yeah, about the right era, too... c.a. 1969-72 bubblegum rock (Strawberry Alarm Clock) or psychadelic (Small Faces).
Damn you Blair, I thought I'd buried those memories!

This is obviously a dastardly dirty trick by Bush: Planting forged documents with the Kerry camp, knowing they'd be passed on to CBS. Only question is... how does such a dumb guy as Bush keep outsmarting the anointed elite?

The LLL is is now trying to spin this story in another direction, claiming if the documents are forgeries then they must have been planted by Karl Rove.

Damn, both Genius and Evil. Screw Bush! I want to see a Cheney/Rove ticket.

Leave it to people like Blumenthal and Krugman and Rather to think they had finally found THE story to bring down Dubya - a story that virtually no one in the US gave a single solitary crap about in the first place - only to see it blow up in their faces.

I've never seen a bunch of flaming pacifist liberals get so geeked up about military service.

mrs bingley pointed out the the MSM are exactly like academics, in that only they have the knowledge to speak for us unwashed types and they will tolerate no criticism.

Damn you Blair, I thought I'd buried those memories!

If you remember the '60s, you obviously weren't there.

And another question on the memos - why have we only seen crappy reproductions that have been copied a dozen times? Does that sound like something that you would do with your personal files? Where are the originals?

Where are the originals?

They're probably saved in the My Documents file on the hard drive of the master forgerer who was too damn lazy to even pick up an old typewriter for the job.

Tree Hugging Sister! The author of that memo doesn't give a rip about the memory of that officer or anything military!!!! These are the same people who were just waiting for the death count to reach 1000!! He was just another baby killer. Geez!

And it's going to get worse the closer we get. Like I said over at Charles Austin's blog: Lie, cheat, steal, murder? It's all good so long as Bush is gone. This is a pathology. Expect Photoshoped pics of Prescott Bush shaking hands with Hitler, and recut tapes of Bush praising Saddam before November.

I wonder if Rather realises that, in the real world, forged documents don't raise questions.

Well, not about the thing they refer to, at any rate - they do raise questions about his and CBS' competence.

If they have the original documents - just take a sample of the ink on the page, send it for analysis and bingo - you should be able to tell if it is computer ink or 30 year old typewriter ink yes?

Analysis of the spots of moisture on the pages will no doubt show them to be week old tears from Dan Rathers.

Rather is more nervous than a rented mule on Arbor Day (or whatever Ratherism you want to come up with that couldn't be as weird as the shit he actually does come up with).

Joel over at Calblog (http://www.calblog.com/) came to an interesting conclusion while parsing Rather's statement:

"I KNOW that this story is true. I BELIEVE that the witnesses and the documents are authentic." (emphasis added)

As Joel notes, this sounds like a tacit admission by Rather that he can't authenticate the memo.

Well I guess it would be nice
To verify the memo
You know not every memo
Has got the kerning like this do...

Gotta have faith-a-faith-a-faith!

Tonight

Dan Blather blustered and media cred died.

RIP old media.

Just heard Dan Rather say on the evening news that they are not forgeries because he knows they are not forgeries....so, take that, all you naysayers!

I am enjoying following this story as it unfolds on various blogs. When the authenticity of the documents started to be questioned it became like an interactive story developed on the web by several blogs.

Some posters knew all about fonts, typewriters, and typesetting and the differences between documents produced on a computer vs. documents produced on a typewriter circa 1970. Others knew about style sheets governing how military documents had to be written AND how the styles changed over the years (even the size of the paper used by the military).

So many arcane, for me, bits of information all contributed on various blogs by people examining the documents. It was, and still is, fascinating to see it all come together. There are still a lot of unanswered questions so it's something to follow and see what else gets uncovered.

If anyone visited one of the anti-Bush blogs it was fun watching the implosions. I do hope some of them calm down. Some were raging so much you could imagine flecks of foam on their screens.

Theories as to who is behind the forgeries range from Bush and the RNC to the Clintons and even the MSM (US' ABC trying to discredit CBS). I hope the forger is uncovered, it's too good a mystery to just let it drop and never know.

Best comment I read was in a thread about the MSM possibly learning a lesson and changing. A poster chimed in and said the lesson learned by the MSM will be: NEVER release documents to the public.

I wonder if there are any lawsuits that will be filed, because of this, against CBS? The family of the documents' supposed author claim he never wrote them and they are extremely upset.

Oh, and at the end of the broadcast, a janitor had to come in and mop up the excess indignation that was clearly oozing from Rather's every pore!

I notice that Rather still didn't name the "experts" who he claims verified the documents.

Is this because his "experts" don't exist?

Some posters knew all about fonts, typewriters, and typesetting and the differences between documents produced on a computer vs. documents produced on a typewriter circa 1970. Others knew about style sheets governing how military documents had to be written AND how the styles changed over the years (even the size of the paper used by the military).

It was a collaborative effort that would make communists or multilateralists cry with joy.

I am enjoying the unravelling of CBS and Dan Rather over this issue.I am hopeful that something similar could happen about our ABC in Australia.Particularly David Marr of media watch.Nothing would give me greater joy than to see him get his comeuppance.

Dan gotta be one dum bunny.How come this stuff is just turning up now.

Here's what John Kerry should worry about.

I was watching O'Reilly Factor with guest host Tony Snow. He had Stephen Hayes from the Weekly Standard and some former CBS/60 Minutes employee discussing the forgery. Bottom-line position of the former CBS employee is that the journolists/producers involved are top-notch investigative reporters, and that 60 Minutes has fact checkers and layers of verification unlike, and I quote (approximately), *someone on the internet sitting at home in his pajamas.* Therefore, he believes Dan Rather and hihs producers. It took awhile to get there, but the man's arrogance about the old media came shining through.

Polly, I saw that same Fox News segment and it was simply ridiculous to me. It was perhaps the only TV-news item I've seen on this story, and coming off of a day and a half of online investigation or whatever you would call it, that segment advanced nothing. Nothing. It did show the CBS guy to be an arrogant old-media diehard bigot, but it was totally lacking in the incredible detail I was able to get off the Internet. Plus I was able to contribute here and there. The feedback was great. You post something, bam, there was someone else with a great point. It was (and still is) a great moment in blogdom/Internet history.

The academics weigh in with their vast intellect and informative commentary:

"Blogs have been characterized as places where people just go to mouth off, but what this brings out is the ability of blogs to actually help report a story," said Paul Grabowitz, professor of new media at the University of California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

How would we know anything without academics?

It's now pretty clear that the documents are fake. The blogosphere now needs to "get its pyjamas on" and find out who is behind the forgeries. What did Kerry know, and when did he know it?

With respect the to the source of CBS’s forge documents, the DNC’s Terry McAuliffe states: “No one at the DNC had relations with that word processing software, Microsoft Word, not once, not ever. The DNC has to get back to the business doing the people’s work!”

[NOT A THREAT OF VIOLENCE]In a perfect world, Rather would already be chained to a boiler and clobbered with scrap wood.[/NOT A THREAT OF VIOLENCE] Darryl Hammond must be pissed that he can't do his Rather impersonation on national TV tomorrow night. Wouldn't that be fun.

You've all missed the point: this is a work of genius by the Kerry Campaign! It has completely wiped the Swiftvets off the radar screen!!!!

Richard does have a point. I wonder if that was the real purpose of this "memo." Well -- in that case, we here in the Pajamasphere will simply have to get on the ball.