Kerry Bringing It On!

I am not making this up - a mere three years too late, Kerry has pieced together his autobiography:

John Kerry: I'm Now Prepared to Fight Off Swift Boat Veterans

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, perhaps preparing to get back into the presidential ring one day, claims he's now armed with materials that will make war record critics from his 2004 presidential campaign go running tail between legs.

The 63-year-old Democratic senator told The Patriot-Ledger on Tuesday that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group of Navy servicemen who served with Kerry and criticized his record in Vietnam, will be revealed as liars.

"We have put together a documented portfolio that frankly puts their lies in such a total light of absurdity and indecency, that should they ever rear their ugly heads again, we have every single 't’ crossed and 'i’ dotted, and I welcome that in a sense,'' Kerry said after addressing Boston's South Shore Chamber of Commerce. "It’s a shame we weren’t able to produce all that at the time.''

Cool - Kerry has finally wrestled his personal history to the canvas.  Did Douglas Brinkley, Tour of Duty author, finally allow Kerry access to Kerry's "War Notes"?  The WaPo couldn't get ahold of them back when a decisive rebuttal of the Swifties might have won Kerry the election, but maybe time heals all wounds.

Whatever - we spun this oldie back in May 2006, the last time Kerry claimed he was ready to bring it on against the Swifties.  I know everyone who followed the Swifties has a personal favorite, but mine is this - what in the record suggests that the two members of the Band of Brothers who now claim to have been with Kerry when he won his first Purple Heart were actually there?

The glaringly obvious reason for doubting their presence is this - Zaladonis was a crewman on Kerry's first boat from December 1968 to Jan 1969; because he was a former crewman for Kerry, he was interviewed by both the Boston Globe and historian Douglas Brinkley in 2003, as Kerry geared up his Presidential run.  In fact, in his book intro Brinkley claims he interviewed Zaladonis repeatedly.  Yet neither Brinkley nor the Globe reporters got from Zaladonis the news that he was with Kerry for Kerry's first combat and his first Purple Heart
- that only emerged in 2004.  Either Brinkley and the Globe share a glaring deficiency  in interviewing technique or the Zaladonis story evolved over time.

I still hope that reporters ask to see the relevant portions of Kerry's War Notes to evaluate his contemporaneous account of his first combat and first medal - should be easy, now that Kerry is ready.

UPDATE:  Critics, including our own Other Tom, get some ink in a follow-up.

Comments

[anduril]

what a sad excuse for a man.

[OPO]

Ya know, Jane introduced them after Ketchup's Republican died in a wierd plane wreck. He didn't want to be President, Kerry sure does. I like the foreign born South Afrcian spy theory for Heinz. It might be the truth.

Jane was a spy too. She spied for those Tom Tuttle people. Kerry forced the vets to 'sign the papers' in the states. She married the CNN guy who we all liked. CNN did alot of busines in China. Anyway, you ever wonder if Jane the matchmaker knew Plame?

Spies everywhere and see how they moved up? See who they are; dems.

[RichatUF]

I guess its not a full moon but Comet Holmes is visible. Took me a couple of days to figure out what the hell was in the NE sky...

Anyway-Sen. Kerry finally looking to kick ass and take names. I wonder if this ass-kicking includes signing a SF-180 so the issues can be put to rest. Funny passage about SBVT and the Plame book-goes to progressives not being able to detect irony.

[Jane]

Jane was a spy too.

I'd make a really good spy - until the grey goose kicked in.

[PeterUK]

So we get the Christmas Pantomime "Carry on Kerry in Cambodia" again this year?

[TruthIsHere]

What I want to know is WHEN are we going to impeach TORTURE-DENT Bush!!!1!!!1!! Time is running out before he get's away SCOTT FREE with his CrIMES AGAiNST HUmANITY!!!

[RichatUF]

Boston Globe re the SF180

Interesting that they didn't include the documents [iirc the only things on the Kerry 04 website were the award certificates and the DD 215 and not much else]

Bay Hap from CPT.Ed

[justoneminute]

http://www.crossville-chronicle.com/opinion/local_story_310184039.html?keyword=secondarystory

Delta IVs?

[PeterUK]

Truthishere,

"CrIMES AGAiNST HUmANITY!!!"

Do you cut up newspapers to make ransom notes as well?

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

The rich are different from you and me. They can help themselves living in a fantasy world.

[centralcal]

aw heck, Jane . . . you'd be an even more superior spy after the Grey Goose kicked in!

[Other Tom]

I'll tell you the largest single question remaining in my mind about the whole, sorry, failed campaign of self-aggrandizement and shameless, fraudulent exploitation of four months' service in a combat zone. It's not the first purple heart (absolutely no doubt in my mind what happened there, regardless of who was or was not in the skimmer), it's the third one. If anyone here knows the answer, please let me know.

As I recall, earlier that day Kerry had sustained a self-inflicted wound when he tossed a grenade into a pile of rice to disperse it and make it useless to the VC. Unfortunately, he didn't run fast enough and got shrapnel and rice imbedded in his backside and legs. Neither he nor anyone else asserts that he was engaged with the enemy at the time, so the wound did not even arguably qualify for a purple heart.

Hours later, when the mine incident occurred in the Bay Hap, he sustained an injury to his arm. I have never been certain of the cause of the injury, but I believe it may have occurred when he fell against the bulkhead of the Swift, either because a mine went off or when the boat made a sharp high-speed turn to return to where the other three unhit boats were attending to the stricken Swift.

Somewhere, some corpsman treated the grenade wound (Kerry acknowledges that). I'll assume that some corpsman also treated his arm, and thus that there are medical records of both injuries. Which one was the subject of the purple heart? The earlier wound would not even technically qualify, but had it been sustained in combat would not have raised an eyebrow when the purple heart was awarded. As Kerry no doubt knew, however, plenty of eyebrows would go up if he sought or accepted the award for the arm injury.

So: did someone move the purple heart papers forward on the assumption that Kerry's shrapnel wounds had been incurred during the Bay Hap incident? In short, did he capitalize on an unqualifying but mildly serious wound in place of a technically qualifying but ridiculous one?

(Once my PBR base was mortared, and we scrambled to the boats to get underway. In the darkness a guy slipped and fell into his boat, injuring his hand. He told his boss he wanted the paperwork done for a purple heart, and was damn near hooted out of the country. And he didn't get it.)

[centralcal]

Kerry is just pitiful.

Thank god he never became President.

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

Oops, that should have been CAN'T help themselves.

[Topsecretk9]

"CrIMES AGAiNST HUmANITY!!!"

Do you cut up newspapers to make ransom notes as well?

Posted by: PeterUK | November 06, 2007 at 07:38 PM

hEh

[PeterUK]

"I have never been certain of the cause of the injury, but I believe it may have occurred when he fell against the bulkhead of the Swift, either because a mine went off or when the boat made a sharp high-speed turn.."

Or could it simply be that Swift Boats are not design for a tall streak of piss like Kerry and he simply didn't duck going through a door or a hatch?

[hit and run]

Jane:
I'd make a really good spy - until the grey goose kicked in.

Dude. That's hawt.

Oh and Jane, I was wondering if this was you. From Mark Hemingway at the Corner:

Oh and by the way, if any of you reading this happen to be the student at CU in the early seventies who took it upon himself to knock unconscious an SDS organizer with a bullhorn because he was disrupting ROTC field drills — my father is still looking for you, so he can personally offer the thanks of a grateful nation.

Or was that Charlie?

[Sue]

Damn. I miss him. I sure wish he hadn't made that stupid remark about the troops that caused him to have to rethink running again. He was so much fun to make fun of.

[hit and run]

Day late and dollar short and all that but, I figured TM should be aware...because this could potentially bring together my two favoritest bloggers...one of them is asking about the home state of the other, regarding that other's preferred Republican candidate.

From Geraghty:

A Few More Thoughts on Giuliani's Chances in Connecticut

Earlier today, responding to a quote from Republican House candidate David Cappiello suggesting that Rudy Giuliani could put the state of Connecticut “in play,” I asked, “Could Connecticut really go from a Republican Senate candidate getting 9.6 percent of the vote in a three way race to turning red in a presidential race two years later?”

A few Connecticut readers have a bone to pick with my implied skepticism.

Alas, it was a more than a few posts ago at the Campaign Spot, and Jim seems to have moved on dot org...(oh and don't worry, Jim has already gotten the message about the 9.6 percent being due to a large number of republicans voting for Lieberman as an independent).

[PaulL]

It's very convenient that IT IS ILLEGAL for anyone in the know to comment on Kerry's original less-than-honorable discharge. Jimmy Carter upped it to an honorable discharge and all previous paperwork to the contrary was destroyed.

But since Kerry is now on crack, has he worked up enough courage to finally accept a debate with John O'Neill?

[Jane]

Jane, I was wondering if this was you.

I wish it was. And it wasn't Charlie either. he never went to CU - too smart I suspect.

I was a hippie in Boulder, working for Mcgovern and sure that Nixon was behind Watergate months and months and months before it broke. We turned out to be right about Watergate, not so much about McGovern.

[Rickter]

OT, but Freepers are all over Hill's Huma... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1921983/posts

[hit and run]

By the way, covertiness now available at UrbanDictionary.com

There's thumb's up, thumb's down voting there...if you wanna give it a vote..uh, yeah, that's all we need something else to vote on.

[hit and run]

Jane:
And it wasn't Charlie either. he never went to CU - too smart I suspect.

Ooops, wrong about you...but....whadabout...

Sylvia, honey, as a graduate of U of Colorado and Duke, and a sometime faculty member at CU now, I can tell you that you ain't seen nothin'.
...
Posted by: Charlie (Colorado) | April 12, 2007 at 03:28 PM

[motionview]

My favorite, Thomas Lipscomb at SBVT, "Hanoi Approved of Role Played By Anti-War Vets".

...
Mr. Kerry had already had, in June of 1970, a meeting in Paris with enemy diplomats, ostensibly, he has indicated, to get a sense of how American prisoners held in Hanoi might be freed. Two historians believe Mr. Kerry made a second trip to Paris in the summer of 1971 and held further talks with the North Vietnamese. The Kerry campaign has denied this.

FBI surveillance and Mr. Kerry's own statements have established his two visits to Paris to meet with the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong delegations to the Paris Peace Talks as taking place in June of 1970 and August of 1971.

...

One trip or two? Regardless of the nuances Kerry & Co. have prepared over the last 3 years on all the other Swift Boat charges, this is really the core issue. This bears on PaulL's comment on the discharge. Believe it or not, even if you really, really want to, commissioned officers in the US Military are prohibited from treating with the enemy. If he had a less-than-honorable I think this would be the actioned offense that led to it.

It would be great if Lipscomb could nail down the FBI proof of the second trip. And it would be really nice if Kerry, in this burst of activity, releases his complete military records, not just his navy records.

[reliapundit]

John Kerry was and remains Unfit for Command.

The truly sad thiong is, he is still more qualified to be POTUS than Hillary or Edwards or Obama!

[Ann]

" a tall streak of piss like Kerry"

Posted by: PeterUK | November 06, 2007 at 08:17 PM

LOL, Made me think of an old southern saying about a compliment to a fine young man. It goes something like:

That PUK and H&R are like a tall, cooool, glass of lemonade.

"Kerry is a tall streak of piss"

Will never forget it! Love ya

[pagar]

Just saw this on Redstate, anyone know any more about It

"At tonight's American Spectator dinner in Washington, the venerable T. Boone Pickens apparently just staked $1 Million (yes, he's got the money) betting that no one - not even John Kerry and his magic hat - can prove anything the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth said in 2004 was false."

Would love to see T. Boone Pickens win this one.

[Other Tom]

I'm happy to be quoted, more or less accurately, in a follow-up article. Too bad he misspelled the name of my home town, but what the hell.

http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2007/11/06/news/news0l-kerry.txt

[martin]

"We have put together a documented portfolio that frankly puts their lies in such a total light of absurdity and indecency, that should they ever rear their ugly heads again, we have every single 't' crossed and 'i' dotted, and I welcome that in a sense,"

Remind me never to steal this man's strawberries...

[Sue]

How do you vote?

[hit and run]

Go Other Tom!

I do like this at the end of that article:

Kerry aide David Wade said Tuesday in a prepared statement: ``What was true in 1969 and true in 2004 is still true today: Sen. Kerry served his country with honor, and the right wing was disgustingly wrong to smear a decorated combat veteran. An assault on one veterans’ service is an attack on all veterans.

That makes sense, in context:

"And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs."
--John Kerry, CBS Face the Nation, December 3, 2006

See? I mean, this is why Kerry didn't just claim one soldier was responsible for terrorizing women and children in Iraq. Attacking just one would have been attacking all of them. So...He went ahead and attacked all of them.

Principle.

[hit and run]

Sue:
How do you vote?

Click on my name to vote for Jmax!

But if you meant covertiness, just click on the thumbs up icon on the page...oh, gosh that was presumptuous. Click on whichever thumb best represents your sentiment.

[Sue]

I clicked on the thumbs up and unless someone was voting at exactly the same time I did, it showed up as a thumbs down. I assure, I like it and I voted thumbs up.

[Clarice]

pagar, I wsa there. He DID say that.

[Ralph L]

Coronada? What does that mean in Spanish? An empty crown?

Kerry is too pigheaded to realize that the real and permanent damage to his prospects was caused by his recorded testimony to the Senate. Pricking the balloon of his war record was done to get enough publicity and funds to show people how he shat all over his former brothers-in-arms.

[Elroy Jetson]

Maybe John Kerry wants to take the goreacle's place and be the one who is going to rescue the party from Hillary!
Bring it on, Johnny! Remember you almost won in '04, and some of miss you in the spotlight. There hasn't been a lot of laughs on the campaign trail lately....
Please?

[Ann]

Clarice,

Pagar's link is to vote for Redstate. Please tell us more about the bet. If it is true, wow!

[narciso]

You know there really is no history of an avowed anti-war political figure, rising
to power in the US; due to his slandering
of a whole generation of his fellow vets, continuing by spreading toxic rumors about
US intelligence operations through collusion
with left wing conspiracy kooks; I refer to the Christics. Now one might say Harkin &
Bonior, the air force cargo pilot and the
Senate aide who publicized the 'tiger cages'
;the Abu Ghraib of the period are kindred
spirits. In other news the Vipsers headed
by Saudi shill; excuse me CIA station chief
Riyadh, during the oil embargo; Ray Close,
Larry Johnson, Vincent Cannistraro, et al have taken the waterboarding tack on the Mukasey front. This is highly ironic because
we know that the reports dealing with interrogation by Saudi national police, General Intelligence or National Guard to use Close and Cannistraro's experience; not
to mention the G-2 reports that Larry wrote
as an analyst at the Central America desk;
were let us say not obtained due to warrants. News flash; everything we knew about 'Curveball' was wrong; including the
fact that much of his information was validated by the Duelfer and Kay reports.
This brings us the distressing question; do we know anything for sure when it comes to intelligence; ie; has anyone actually seen
Bin Laden alive in person in the last three
years; where did the WMD stockpiles actually
end up, why don't we have a definitive source as to whether Ahmadinejad was one of
the embassy hijackers; or his other work with the vevak Sepah pasdaran; including the
hit on Quassemlou in Vienna, 1989?

[Sue]

Kerry's critics swing back

Other Tom's linky...

Good job OT.

[Ann]

Pagar's Post

Please Read!!

[Clarice]

Ann, that's it, basically. The acoustics were bad and though I was sitting in front, I couldn't hear much more of what he said but that.

[Ann]

Sue,
Thanks for the link!

[TM]

Re Kerry's third Purple Heart, the WaPo story linked in the post had this:

An unsigned "personnel casualty report," however, erroneously implies that Kerry suffered "shrapnel wounds in his left buttocks" later in the day, following the mine explosion incident, when he also received "contusions to his right forearm."

Anti-Kerry veterans have accused Kerry of conflating the two injuries to strengthen his case for a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Kerry's Bronze Star citation, however, refers only to his arm injury.

Something for everyone.

[juinute]

Just 1 minute and the lost war:

Dipo(State Department) blog deleted all references to the UN tax imposed by the Law of the Sea Treaty and native rights to the land and water.

The tax is not American or Canadian or Russian or British; it is a foreign body taxing authority.

Terrorism was the result in England(Live 8 G8 bombings)

They are passing the law as it is native month.

Another war lost.

[Sara]

"contusions to his right forearm."

Contusions means bruises. We give Purple Hearts for bruises? That seems a real stretch.

[Mustang0302]

Did he really claim he had a "dossier"? He couldn't find a non-French word?

[Capt. America]

In promoting his movie, "Lions For Lambs," Robert Redford is sponsoring a contest on You Tube entitled "What Do You Stand For?"

Please find the URL:
http://www.youtube.com/lionsforlambs

One of the Top 10 finalists is a virulently anti-America clip entitled, "What I Stand For In Under 30 Seconds." It looks jihadist but it was made by an American (under the moniker of prime63). Yet another unhinged Leftist.

[pagar]

Thanks for your confirmation on what T. Boone Pickens said at the supper, Clarice.

My apologies for the ad at the front of the link I posted last night. It was my last post before I went to bed so I must not have checked the link. I only meant to post the
statement of the bet made by Mr Pickens.

Here is the entire quote of the post by Ben Domenech.

"At tonight's American Spectator dinner in Washington, the venerable T. Boone Pickens apparently just staked $1 Million (yes, he's got the money) betting that no one - not even John Kerry and his magic hat - can prove anything the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth said in 2004 was false.

Media Matters, here's looking at you, kids.

BTW, congratulations to Jeff Emanuel, in attendance tonight, who got at least a free dinner out of his excellent cover story for AmSpec. Kudos, Jeff."

It contains two more links inside it, but neither adds anything about Mr. Pickens. You can get to the other two embedded links by checking my original link.

[Jane]

wrong about you...but....whadabout...

H&R,

That was what I thought too, but once when I referred to "our alma mater" Charlie said "not me". My guess is he went there for grad school. I demand he come back and straighten us out.