Is the New Swiftboating Called "Sealed"? One Can Hope

Back in 2004, John Kerry ran as some kind of war hero. It didn't play well. We were inundated by the media portraying the man who married into money (twice) as a real-life Rambo who single-handedly beat back the Viet Cong and NVA. Not the man who sold out our good men who fought and died for their country he really was.

 Those who served with him didn't see things quite that way and Swift Boat Veterans For truth was started to dismantle the false claims Kerry was making. In spite of the media self-imposed ban on reporting the swifties claims, they still trickled out and that, in conjunction with Rathergate and the fact that Kerry is completely devoid of a sense of humor, humility and personality sunk him.

 Could this happen to Obama?

 Here we sit on the verge of having two candidates who've never served our nation in uniform. There is no military angle to this...at least until today.

Meet Navy Commander Ryan Zinske--a special forces operator and former leader in SEAL Team 6. He's a state senator and has started a PAC to combat Obama's claims that he was the one who took down Osama and his reckless disregard for the safety of our special forces personnel who would rather not see their methods and strategies leaked to the press to make Obama look like a tough leader. Quoth Cdr. Zinske, a man who this country owes a debt it can never repay:

“The President has failed and he is jeopardizing the safety of our troops, their families and our National security for political gain. Obama has exposed the identity of special operations units, leaked classified information, and limited the rules of engagement of forces on the ground,” said Mr. Zinke. “For those who have taken an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic, it is a call of duty to take back America from a Commander-in-Chief that is incapable of understanding the sacrifices that have been made for the values that have made America great.”

This may well be a huge turning point in the campaign. While Americans were happy we got bin-Laden, the excessive victory laps by Obama and other liberals whose actions always showed disdain for the military did not endear him to the military and those who've served. We should never have known the details--at least not two minutes after the mission was completed. This was Obama letting the world know our special forces doctrine and planning and at this point, they are the most active part of our military in the War on Terror.

 But no, to the Obama campaign and his supporters, it was all political. The fact that their gloating and victory dance may have or may well lead to the deaths of our men and women in uniform means nothing to them because they look at our military as a necessary evil that is expendable as long as the liberal leader sending them to battle can prop up his street cred. It was not a bold move to okay the mission (especially since he laid the final call on a subordinate so he could blame someone if it failed).

Anyone would have made the call and accepted responsibility if it failed like a man or humbly gave credit to those who were on the trigger side of the gun and put themselves in harms way. Instead we have had to hear pussy liberals tell us how brave Obama was in making the call.

 I support Commander Zinske and hope he can survive the coming media garage he's about to face. But as a hardened hero who faced real men in combat, a bunch of weak-spined, beta male writers shouldn't be much of a problem.

Democrats Polling Well With Dead People

The USA Today unearths (pun definitely intended) a few facts about the political donation habits of those who aren't with us anymore:

WASHINGTON — Harold Schooler died in 2003, but his political activism lives on.

The former piano salesman and musician is among more than 160 dead people who have given more than $540,000 to political committees and candidates for the White House and Congress over the past eight years, an analysis of political donations shows.

The estate of Schooler, who lived in Palm Springs, Calif., has donated $28,500 this year to the Democratic National Committee.

Federal rules allow such donations as long as contributions don't exceed legal limits and the intentions of the deceased were known, said Federal Election Commission spokesman Bob Biersack. Such gifts are fairly rare, he said.

Now how would the intentions of the deceased be known exactly?

Note that donations to the Dems far outpaced the donations to the GOP and when you add in donations to individual candidates or PAC's, the gap is even more pronounced. The following Dems or Dem supporters received donations from the deceased: John Kerry, Dianne Feinstein, The Green Party, Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund (victory over what or whom?), California Democratic Council, Colorado Democratic Party, Represntative Bob Filner and so on.

I guess one good thing for Kerry is that at least he has the graveyard vote.

As they say; if you ain't cheatin' you ain't tryin'.

T. Boone Pickens Calls Kerry's Bluff

The T. Boone Pickens/John F. Kerry scrum has not gotten much attention outside of the blogosphere but bears watching.

Here's some background: T. Boone Pickens was a supporter of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, they chastised Kerry during the 2004 campaign for, among other things, Kerry's lies and distortions during the 1971 "Winter Soldier" hearing in front of Congress in which Kerry uttered the following:

I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command....

They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.

Kerry used this as a springboard to elected aoffice that led to the Senate and a run at the Oval Office. Many veterans were appalled by what Kerry accused them of and many of his compadres in the Vietnam Veterans Against the War group were proven to not be veterans at all.

Pickens said last week at a dinner that he would give $1-million to anyone who could disprove what the Swift Boat group alleged, Kerry took the challenge but didn't elaborate much on how he would disprove the allegations.

Pickens has now responded and challenged Kerry to produce:

1) The journal you maintained during your service in Vietnam.
2) Your military record, specifically your service records for the years 1971-1978, and copies of all movies and tapes made during your service.

In other words, he's calling on Kerry to produce documents Kerry has promised to release numerous times over the years and never has.

A few thoughts, Pickens played Kerry like a drum here and Kerry alowed himself to be sucked in again. In Kerry's mind, the only reason he lost to Bush in 2004 is because of the Swifties while the real truth is that America didn't take to the arrogant New Englander. He turned against his military brothers for nothing more than blind ambition and if there's anything Americans can't abide, it's someone who is a backstabber. Kerry was exactly that and he paid for it.

Release the records without any redactions and we'll see who was right and who's been a liar, my guess is that Kerry will be the latter. He should have let this die but couldn't control his emotions and will have to produce or look like a fool.