He Knows Where To Find Us

Speaking to the New Hampshire Examiner as part of their "Meet The Candidates" series John Kerry promises to deal manfully and vigorously with the Swift Boat Veterans:

Asked if he dreads the prospect of being “Swift-Boated” all over again, Kerry counters that he would relish such a fight.

“I’m prepared to kick their ass from one end of America to the other,” he declares. “I am so confident of my abilities to address that and to demolish it and to even turn it into a positive.”

John O'Neill responded sensibly [and in this column]:

Kerry’s tough talk triggers laughter from John O’Neill, a fellow Vietnam veteran who helped found Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth and wrote a blistering 2004 book on Kerry, “Unfit for Command.”

“Well, he’s got eight times as much time to prepare for us as he spent in Vietnam,” says O’Neill, referring to Kerry’s short tour of duty.

Will John Kerry hold the Tough Guy pose until 2008?  Please - John has as many personas to try on before the Iowa caucuses as Teresa has scarves.

Meanwhile, the last we heard on this topic was an absurd Times puffer by Kate Zernike.  We cited a specific error here, and noted many other open questions about Kerry's Swift Boat service; perhaps he will take a break from his ass-kicking to clear up a few simple points:

(1)  Will he ever, ever, pretty please sign a non-restricted 180 disclosure form so that John Q. Public can get access to his military record?  Where we stand now is that Kerry has signed a 180 authorizing release only to some friendly media.  What kind of ass-kicking is that?  C'mon John, bring it on!

(2) Where oh where are Kerry's "War Notes", Kerry's diary and collection of letters which formed the basis for the Brinkley "Tour of Duty" book?  I hope Kerry is not planning to kick our asses while keeping that secret - surely the press won't allow that sort of selective non-disclosure, will they?

If I could pick one issue on which to see some documentation it would be Kerry's first Purple Heart.  Two of the Band of Brothers, Zaladonis and Runyon, back up Kerry's account of the incident, described by Runyon as tthe scariest night of his life.  However, press accounts do not make this link until early 2004 (I recall a February story, but can link to an April one).

Yet oddly, Zaladonis said nothing about this to Douglas Brinkley when he was interviewed (repeatedly) for Brinkley's book back in (I presume) 2003.  Zaladonis sailed on PCF-44, Kerry's first boat, just a few days later, yet he never mentioned his first encounter with Kerry, where Kerry had his first combat and earned his first medal.  That is some odd memory by Zaladonis and quite a ghastly interview technique by Brinkley.  (What did Brinkley ask, anyway - "Tell me about the second time you first met John Kerry?  Do you remember any dramatic events other than ones that led to medals?).

Also oddly, Brinkley makes no reference whatsoever to Kerry's War Notes to recreate the night of Kerry's first combat and first Purple Heart.  One might have thought Kerry would have jotted down a few thoughts, or maybe even mentioned who was with him that night.

Well.  Presumably this will all come out in the ass-kicking.

I have no doubt that Kerry's remaining admirers thrill to his manly talk, but his only hope is that media such as the Times remain firmly in the tank for him.  And that is not a bad strategy, since at this point, it may very well serve their interest to do so.  For example, almost any Times follow-up on the Swift story would reveal Ms. Zernike to have prepared a flawed, uncorrected story, and would further reveal that the Times gave short shrift to a legitimate series of stories during the election campaign; better for the Times to continue to pretend this is a non-story.

My guess - the most logical explanation for Kerry's ongoing non-disclosure is that the facts are against him.  Consequently he will try to deliver just enough that his cheerleaders in the media can pretend that the Swift Boat Veterans have been rebutted.  However, the  Times and others will not apply any investigatory muscle, in order to paper over their past non-coverage.  "Nothing to see here, move on".  Dot Org.

MORE:  Look, the Times will never correct that old Zernike piece, and I wasted pixels writing to the public editor a while back, but...  [email protected]

Comments

[Slartibartfast]

I'm wondering if, while kicking ass, Kerry will give a straight answer on whether he sought (and failed to obtain) a deferment before enlisting in the Navy. That'd be interesting.

You know, I think Kerry deserves due recognition for having been there, but I think he doesn't deserve hyperinflated recognition. He didn't want to go, he signed up for the least hazardous duty he could find, and when faced with action he comported himself well, as far as we know.

Sure, there are questions. But I think that there are some things we know pretty well, and one of those things is that Kerry wasn't exactly champing at the bit to get into action.

But we rarely see anyone on the Left pointing out that Navy casualties were only about 3% of the total, and that when Kerry entered the Navy, he was assigned to duty that, up until then, wasn't exactly in-country.

[clarice]

Well, I hope you bookmark and report this when Kerry starts "kicking ass". The last I recall of Brinkley he was boating with Sean Penn in another staged water scene--the rescue of the Katrina victims. Does he have a thing for self-dramatizing actors?

Kerry is pathological , and his running dog pressies are , too.

(BTW if you check the Armitage thread, you'll see that Teresa's consort and friends (Johnson Drumheller, Marcinkowski (SP?) etc are now running the sequel to Bush Lied, this time with the assistance of one of her Beers' guys whom Hagel unaccountably (?) hired to be his staffer on the Senate Intel committee. (Frontpage has done a fine job on exposing their work).

Start your engines! We're off to the races again.

[Other Tom]

I'd also like to see all relevant documents pertaining to the third purple heart. I believe that the medal was awarded on the basis of the wounds he admittedly received from his own grenade in the rice-pile, which did not occur during an engagement with the enemy. He seems to contend that it was awarded because of the "wound" he received to his arm later in the day while fleeing from the scene at which another PCF had been struck by a mine (the other three boats immediately came to the aid of their comrades). I have never been persuaded that Kerry's arm injury was occasioned by a mine detonating near his boat; I believe he simply fell during a high-speed turn. The evidence of any mine detonation is extremely dubious.

The larger question is whether this fool is going to campaign on the basis of his war-hero status again.

[Other Tom]

Having been there myself, I can attest to the fact that, while Navy casualties in that war were small in comparison to the other services, that is attributable to the fact that there were so few navy forces in country. The casualty rates in the PBR's, and in the SWIFTS after November, 1968 (when they finally came up into the rivers) were astronomical.

[Pofarmer]

Is anybody going to point out that Kerry joined the Naval Reserve then had the unfortunate occurance to be called to active duty?

Nah, that takes all the steam away from criticisms of Bush's TANG duty, which also begs the question-When are the left going to quit campaigning against Bush?

[RogerA]

Kerry is the political equivalent of genital herpes: the gift that keeps on giving! You just can't make this stuff up about him! I for one can not wait for the democratic primaries--esp the run up before the restructured dem primary system. Better than a Steven Segal movie.

[bgates]

It appears it is not in Kerry's interests to discuss these points, and it's obviously not in the press' interests to harm the Democratic nominee. Kerry is no longer that, and is probably weak enough, as a defeated former candidate and an ass, to get beaten in the primaries without mention of this issue. But if Kerry does well in early primaries, might this story be revisited by a primary opponent? Perhaps someone insulated from the chickenhawk slur by her gender? I think Hillary is the best chance we have of getting this story resolved.

[Slartibartfast]

Thanks, OtherTom. I wasn't able to find statistics on that sort of thing. In Kerry's own words, though: "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing."

In my mind, he deserves credit for having served, but also marks for trying to avoid it to the best of his ability.

And, certainly, he was less able to avoid it than, for instance, Bill Clinton. Or Dick Cheney.

[owl]

Well.....uh.....do you suppose he has had ENOUGH time and money to clean up that lil problem?

[Tom Maguire]

You know, I think Kerry deserves due recognition for having been there, but I think he doesn't deserve hyperinflated recognition. He didn't want to go, he signed up for the least hazardous duty he could find, and when faced with action he comported himself well, as far as we know.

I have heard of a (very) few people who disliked Kerry in-country at the time, and many, many more who decided they did not like him based on his Senate testimony and Winter Soldier effort.

That does give the debate a certain phony quality - maybe critics ought to direct themselves to their real issue.

But at this point, I'm stuck on one side.

RE casualties - that reminds me of a Times classic:

Mr. Kerry's time in combat was relatively short — four months — but it was intense, with forays into rivers and canals while under constant threat of ambush from Vietcong on the banks. Mr. Kerry was wounded three times, and anyone with three Purple Hearts qualified for transfer to a safe post.

Adm. Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr., who devised the swift boat operation, said officers on the boats had a 75 percent chance of being killed by enemy fire.

Wow, John is a near-suicidal hero! Well, they eventually came back to reality and revised that to "75 percent chance of being killed **or wounded** by enemy fire."

But oddly, the version to which I am linking does not even note that a correction was made (it tok a few weeks, IIRC).

The Times just went into the tank all the times on these issues, partly becau they wanted to boost Kerry, and partly because they just don't have anyone with any militray experience (honestly - a 75% death rate?).

[noah]

I just hope he wins the nomination again!!

[The Unbeliever]

Asked if he dreads the prospect of being "Swift-Boated" all over again, Kerry counters that he would relish such a fight.

Strange, I don't seem to recall such zeal for the fight back when it was an issue in the 2004 campaign. I rather recall an attempt to bury the story and cry about patriotism, instead of taking a head-on fight.

I guess Kerry was against kicking ass before he was for kicking ass?

[Jane]

I am utterly convinced that Kerry modeled his entire career on JFK. I recall a seeing a pix of him as a boy on a boat with JFK out of Hyannis. You could almost hear his mind ticking.

He has a reputation around here of cutting in front of kids in the ice cream line - while saying: "Don't you know who I am?" Even the local dem pols can't stand him altho they don't have the balls to say so out loud.

[Rick Ballard]

Owl,

Do you think the Beast of Chapaqua would sell him the documentation she has in hand? Bubba sure, there's nothing that Bubba wouldn't sell but that's simply not true of his wife.

If Magic Hat signs the 180 for complete release then records which may have been purged in theory could turn up without fear of legal redress against the person who stole them - or had them stolen.

Ain't.

Gonna.

Happen.

The 900 FBI files weren't the only documents lifted by Miz Lightfingers.

[BumperStickerist]

I finally admitted to a liberal friend the obvious truth - I voted for Bush because he's both pure evil *and* the luckiest bastard on the face of the earth. I mean, seriously, look at just a couple key events:

Bush joins the Texas ANG - Kerry joins the Navy Reserves.

Bush completes TANG training for jets, flies jets, volunteers for Vietnam only to be told that the pilot skills he has aren't needed.

Kerry joins the Swift Boats at time they were patrolling off coas - the duty changes to river patrolling, Kerry gets shot at by people intent on killing him and his crew. Kerry leaves by choice after three months.

Advantage: Bush

Bush skates through the last two years of his TANG duty, but does so with such foresight as to bury almost all traces of his duty record leaving only notes from a dental record exam

Kerry works as an admirals aide for the balance of his active duty stint - but manages to get caught on tape during a meeting where assassination is discussed, travels to Vietnam while on Reserve status to meet with the enemy, has his Silver Star citation ammended twice times, publishes an anti-war book that's later debunked.

Advantage: Bush

Bush: Sat for 6.5 minutes after hearing about the 9/11 attacks in a room with a bunch of kids, a teacher, and a camera crew.

Kerry: Sat for an hour, stunned to the point of inaction, in a room full of adult elected officials with no camera present.

Advantage: Bush

Bush: Able to surround himself with a cadre of people able to engineer election fraud on a massive scale in Democratic-controlled precincts undetected, destroy two huge buildings in the middle of a major US city without any actual, you know, evidence left behind, destroy our basic Constitutional rights in pursuit of his neocon vision of a Unitary Executive and still have the energy to clear brush from his ranch while on vacation.

Kerry: Can't get the balloons to release on cue.

Advantage: Bush

There comes a point where you just marvel at the timing of events in favor of Bush and the way the Democrats clusterfuck their way through life and decide 'fuck it - Bush'

Seriously, if the Left can't defeat the Evil that is Bush, how the hell can they be trusted to defeat actual Evil?

[Wilson's a Liar]

The next ass John Kerry actually kicks will be the first. Maybe someday the Democrats will produce someone who actually will kick some ass. I'm not holding my breath.

[clarice]

ROFLOL Bumper..That's a keeper!

[jim]

BumperStickerist -

Omigod! I'd post more but I have to wipe off the monitor first.

;-))

[Larry]

I'm willing to give Kerry full credit for his combat service. However, John Kerry: 1) Lied to congress at the Winter Soldier hearings. 2) Attended meetings where assassination of elected officials was proposed. 3) While a commissioned USN officer met not once, but twice, with representatives of the enemy. That John Kerry? These are publicly known facts, not innuendo. Not "fake, but accurate". Youthful indiscretion? Show us how he's changed. I was sorely disappointed that this despicable piece of shit was the best the once-great democratic party could come up with. But, oh well, Gore was the best they could do in '00.

OT: I misid'd Butch Viccellio's position in the discussion about the military draw down. Correct: GENERAL HENRY VICCELLIO JR. May 1991 - December 1992, director, the Joint Staff, Washington, D.C.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

The only fight Kerry is winning is the title belt in Ultimate Forehead Championships.

But look out, Ted Danson is hot on his tail.

[Sue]

Seriously, if the Left can't defeat the Evil that is Bush, how the hell can they be trusted to defeat actual Evil?

LOL.

[paul]

A kerry nomination in 08?

No chance they will let Shrummy run the campaign and keep Dean as chairman.

Talk about pursuing failed policies...

[Sara (Squiggler)]

I have heard of a (very) few people who disliked Kerry in-country at the time,

TM - I don't know about dislike, but as I've stated publicly here before, my husband at the time was attached to the Mobile Riverine Force and ran one of the Tiger teams that did salvage and rescue for the Swifties and river patrol boats. He served at the same time as Kerry, only he was there well over a year. When he came home, mid '69, he talked about a cowardly LT and when Kerry's picture was published after the Winter Soldier testimony, he said to me, "that's the guy I told you about." So, I don't know about dislike, but I know at least one other Navy guy who was there who has absolutely zero respect for the man.

[maryrose]

I agree that Kerry is the gift that keeps on giving. As I contemplate him actually kicking someone's ass I dissolve into uncontrollable laughter. That fop would be lucky to come out alive in any type of smackdown. Hillary could probably hand him a can od whup-ass.

[Other Tom]

A "75% death rate" is pure bullshit. I recall Zumwalt putting the figure at a 75% chance of being killed or wounded in the course of a year's tour, and that sounds about right to me. I was in the PBR's, and I was the only one of the six officers in my division not to get hit--I took command of the unit when my boss and best friend was killed. I never kept any tabs on numbers like this because there were about 65 men in the unit, but they all had different start and end dates on their tours, so the total number with whom I served was over 100. Whatever the numbers, in 1967-68 we were getting the shit shot out of us, and once Zumwalt brought the SWIFTS up into the delta (two months after I left) they were, too.

[vnjagvet]

God I love the smell of napalm in the morning. Or something like that. Bring it on, John. Report for duty again. I can't wait. Put me in coach.

I will gladly volunteer for any decent democrat who I think has the best chance of successfully running against Kerry. Even Gore or Hillary. Then, I will do what I want in the general election, depending on who the Repubs put up.

[pagar]

""I have heard of a (very) few people who disliked Kerry in-country at the time, and many, many more who decided they did not like him based on his Senate testimony and Winter Soldier effort.

That does give the debate a certain phony quality - maybe critics ought to direct themselves to their real issue.""

Here's my real issue:
""""
John Kerry and the VVAW: Hanoi's American Puppets?

Newly discovered documents link Vietnam Veterans Against the War to Vietnamese communists
Two recently discovered documents captured from the Vietnamese communists during the Vietnam War strongly support the contention that a close link existed between the Hanoi regime and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) while John Kerry served as the group's leading national spokesman.

The Circular: International Coordination of Antiwar Propaganda

The first document is a 1971 "Circular" distributed by the Vietnamese communists within Vietnam."""""""

The above quote comes from:
http://ice.he.net/~freepnet/kerry/staticpages/index.php?page=puppets

I urge every American to read the whole article, plus hundreds of others that detail the effect John Kerry's Anti-American
activities had on this nation. The soldiers
that went to Vietnam, the POW's held by North Vietnam, having the words of John Kerry's anti American stand flung in their face. The families of soldiers and POW's
have been the victims of John Kerry's efforts to hinder recovery of POWs or their remains from Vietnam every since he was elected to Congress, actions that continued into this century. John Kerry's own words,
22 Apr 1971 speech to Senate Committee on Foreign Relations tell America that he met with America's enemies; in addition to declaring all Americans who fought in Vietnam as war criminals.

John Kerry's nomination as the Democrat
Presidential candidate was a direct insult to every American who believes in America.

[The Unbeliever]

BumperStickerist: to borrow a quote, "If someone has consistently good luck... it ain't luck."

[Elroy Jetson]

Tom,
I have enjoyed your commentary on all things Plame as well as other topics. This post was one of the funniest ones you have written.
"Well. Presumably this will all come out in the ass-kicking."
What a buffoon!!!

[Florence Schmieg]

Please let the long American nightmare that is John Kerry be over!

[Sue]

Take a moment and allow yourself to hear John Kerry's voice...then say these words...I’m prepared to kick their ass from one end of America to the other...it doesn't work.

[owl]

BumperStickerist ....too funny. I say what I heard Ann Richards trying her best to warn her fellow Dems....she said 'you better not underestimate this guy' (not exact quote), but she KNEW they were not listening. Now we know.....it was all LUCK.

[Slartibartfast]

Take a moment and allow yourself to hear John Kerry's voice...then say these words...I’m prepared to kick their ass from one end of America to the other...

But if you do it in Herman Munster's voice, it's amusing.

Or, for a change of pace, SpongeBob.

[Sue]

I've never heard SpongeBob.

[davod]

On a more serious note. The Kerryites are still capable of doing real damage.

Has anyone heard the status of the lawsuit(SP) against those vets who apeared in the POW video.

[Tom Maguire]

Bush: Able to surround himself with a cadre of people able to engineer election fraud on a massive scale in Democratic-controlled precincts undetected, destroy two huge buildings in the middle of a major US city without any actual, you know, evidence left behind, destroy our basic Constitutional rights in pursuit of his neocon vision of a Unitary Executive and still have the energy to clear brush from his ranch while on vacation.

Kerry: Can't get the balloons to release on cue.

LOL, and then some. Folks with a long memory will recall that "Go, balloons" was the site motto here for a while (Now it is "Running with the virtual mongol horde...").

I have enjoyed your commentary on all things Plame as well as other topics. This post was one of the funniest ones you have written.

Thanks very much, but wait'll they get a load of the BumperStickerist. (I may have to just move that into the post when I get a minute)

[Tom Maguire]

Bush: Able to surround himself with a cadre of people able to engineer election fraud on a massive scale in Democratic-controlled precincts undetected, destroy two huge buildings in the middle of a major US city without any actual, you know, evidence left behind, destroy our basic Constitutional rights in pursuit of his neocon vision of a Unitary Executive and still have the energy to clear brush from his ranch while on vacation.

Kerry: Can't get the balloons to release on cue.

LOL, and then some. Folks with a long memory will recall that "Go, balloons" was the site motto here for a while (Now it is "Running with the virtual mongol horde...").

I have enjoyed your commentary on all things Plame as well as other topics. This post was one of the funniest ones you have written.

Thanks very much, but wait'll they get a load of the BumperStickerist. (I may have to just move that into the post when I get a minute)

[Tom Maguire]

Bush: Able to surround himself with a cadre of people able to engineer election fraud on a massive scale in Democratic-controlled precincts undetected, destroy two huge buildings in the middle of a major US city without any actual, you know, evidence left behind, destroy our basic Constitutional rights in pursuit of his neocon vision of a Unitary Executive and still have the energy to clear brush from his ranch while on vacation.

Kerry: Can't get the balloons to release on cue.

LOL, and then some. Folks with a long memory will recall that "Go, balloons" was the site motto here for a while (Now it is "Running with the virtual mongol horde...").

I have enjoyed your commentary on all things Plame as well as other topics. This post was one of the funniest ones you have written.

Thanks very much, but wait'll they get a load of the BumperStickerist. (I may have to just move that into the post when I get a minute)

[Les Nessman]

New motto for JOM:

'Comments so nice, we say 'em thrice!'

[PeterUK]

Vietnam Veterans for Kerry

[MJW]

"I’m prepared to kick their ass from one end of America to the other," he declares. "And, let me tell you, Teresa just bought me a pair of cocoa-brown Gucci calfskin loafers just right for some ass kicking!"

[Sara (Squiggler)]

Swift Boat Leader Responds to Kerry

By John O'Neill:

John Kerry recently volunteered that he was prepared to “kick [the Swift Boat Veterans’] ass from one end of America to the other” and that he would “demolish” us. He ought to take a Christmas cruise to Cambodia to calm down. Maybe he could take a side trip to tour “Genghis Khan” ruins.

It is a little difficult to imagine Kerry (“I voted for it before I voted against it”) kicking the most decorated living serviceman, Bud Day, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, or our salty commander, Adm. Roy Hoffman, anywhere. Perhaps Kerry had in mind using a “Rice Fanny Grenade” as he did by mistake on himself shortly before leaving Vietnam. If so, based on the record, he is in far more danger than anyone else.

Kerry and his friends certainly seem to show much greater anger and hatred toward us than toward the murderous al Qaeda terrorists. This is actually a positive thing. Based on his record of switching to adopt the North Vietnamese position in 1971 and (after voting to send our kids to Iraq) proposing to cut and run in Iraq, it is likely that Kerry will be endorsing our positions by 2008 and (in his words) “Swift Boating” himself. If not, it is OK. After living for 34 years with his claim that our comrades, living and dead, were like the army of Genghis Khan, we will always remember and be grateful for the support of the American people in 2004. Nothing he will ever say can demolish that or will speak nearly so loudly.

Mr. O'Neill is a Houston attorney who clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist during the Supreme Court's October 1974 term. He authored the New York Times No. 1 bestseller, "Unfit for Command" in 2004.

[Sara (Squiggler)]

I think between Bumperstickerist and John O'Neill, the verdict is in ... John Kerry is nothing but a laughinstock.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ROFL

[Redhand]

Could even the Democrats be stupid enough to run this disgusting douchebag again? God Almighty, the guy is a lying, f*cking traitor of the highest order, right up there with Hanoi Jane. His entire Senate career has been worthless too; I can't think of an emptier suit on Capitol Hill.

Most revolting of all is Kerry's preening self-importance. All the Heinz ketchup money makes him think he's actually worth notice. In fact, the only thing noteworthy about Kerry is how utterly devoid of ideas, intelligence, charisma, decisiveness and just about every other quality one needs to see in a real leader.

Having this useless bastard as our President would be like having "Prince Charming" in Shreck 2 take over the White House. His whacko wife would be the de facto President.

No, thank you.

[Other Tom]

The guy puts me in mind of Harold Stassen. For some of these dolts, once they come close they can never face reality again. As someone once said, they become addicted to the smell of marble. I'll take napalm in the morning any day.

[richard mcenroe]

"The next ass John Kerry actually kicks will be the first. "

Well, not counting two year old Vietnamese babies.

Although rumor has it his diaries and war notes were accidentally shredded in Sandy Berger's pants...

[maryrose]

richard mcenroe;
Again I agree-Kerry never kicked anybody's ass in his life. Teraysuh handles all that for him.

[JorgXMcKie]

Isn't this the same guy that said in that sonorous voice (or is that soporific?) "Bring. It. On." and then promptly began whining and begging for it to stop?

The only ass he might kick would be his own, but if he did he'd also kick himself in the head.

[capitano]

Maybe we can get Alexandra Polier to join the Swift Boaters as a auxiliary member.

[furious]

Take a moment and allow yourself to hear John Kerry's voice...then say these words...I’m prepared to kick their ass from one end of America to the other...it doesn't work.

Sure it does, if you visualize Judge Smails from Caddyshack saying it.

[mark c.]

I'll make a deal with "tall,that's all." John. I'll let him kick my ass if he'll order his delusioned minions to remove their Kerry/Edwards bumber stickers before the elements do it for them.

[stan]

Why don't we also remember that Kerry put up after-action reports on his web site claiming he was the skipper of the boat described therein which was involved in very heavy fighting. Except the fighting happened before he was skipper of that boat. The reports just vanished from his site after the Swift Vets reported for duty. Do you think it was hackers?

Oh, and one of the men on the boat during that heavy fighting suffered a very bad head wound and was hospitalized for a good while. He was gone before Kerry took command of the boat. Yet somehow, he was able to speak at the Dems national convention for Kerry in 2004 about Kerry's heroism leading the boat. That's a real head scratcher.

Surely the crack investigative journalists of the NY Times and Wash Post will clear it all up for us. Maybe Mary Mapes and Dan Rather can help. And if OJ ever gets tired looking for the killer, I'm sure he can lend a hand, too.

[Doug Reese]

"Oh, and one of the men on the boat during that heavy fighting suffered a very bad head wound and was hospitalized for a good while. He was gone before Kerry took command of the boat. Yet somehow, he was able to speak at the Dems national convention for Kerry in 2004 about Kerry's heroism leading the boat. That's a real head scratcher."

It wouldn't be a head scratcher if you had your facts straight.

You are calling David Alston and all of Kerry's crew liars, by the way, as they all claim he was on PCF-94.

And then there's that photo of Kerry's crew, with Alston included. Or are you claiming that was photo-shopped?

He was there, no matter what the bandit (he's the guy who originated this false rumor you've picked up on) claims.

Doug Reese

[maryrose]

Doug Reese-still in the tank for Kerry. Tell me honestly Doug; Do you think Kerry is capable of kicking anyone's ass?

[liontooth]

http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200408160842.asp

And it appears that while Alston was in fact on board PCF-94 when Kerry was in command, his total time of service under Kerry was quite brief — perhaps as little as seven days. According to records of Kerry's service posted on his campaign's website, it appears the two men were in actual combat together on two of those days.