We don't see a lot of campaign television ads here in the New York City media market. But this evening I caught this Bush campaign ad, in which President "My Pet Goat" Bush speaks to television viewers in the tri-state (New York/New Jersey/Connecticut) viewing area.

My most solemn duty is to lead our nation to protect ourselves. I can’t imagine the great agony of a mom or a dad having to make the decision about which child to pick up first on September the 11th. We cannot hesitate, we cannot yield, we must do everything in our power to bring an enemy to justice before they hurt us again.

Yeah, right. So how come you haven't caught Osama?

 

Swiftie Update: "Bush Supporter Leaves Campaign Over Role in Ad"

 

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A series of interviews and a review of documents show a web of connections to the Bush family, high-profile Texas political figures and President Bush's chief political aide, Karl Rove.

Records show that the group received the bulk of its initial financing from two men with ties to the president and his family - one a longtime political associate of Mr. Rove's, the other a trustee of the foundation for Mr. Bush's father's presidential library. A Texas publicist who once helped prepare Mr. Bush's father for his debate when he was running for vice president provided them with strategic advice. And the group's television commercial was produced by the same team that made the devastating ad mocking Michael S. Dukakis in an oversized tank helmet when he and Mr. Bush's father faced off in the 1988 presidential election.

In fact, some of the swifties who today call Kerry a cheat and a liar lavished praise on him in the past, and in some cases the recent past. The Times reporters document that several of the swifties had lived lo these many years since Vietnam with a positive impression of Kerry. But then Republican operatives like Merrie Spaeth (who is not, I believe, a veteran) recruited them for the SBVfT and cleverly persuaded them that their own memories were wrong.

After which, the vets began to remember all sorts of things they had never remembered before.   

(It's very possible IMO that most of the swifties do not believe they are lying. Memory is a lot less reliable than video, and it's well documented that humans can be manipulated into "remembering" all sorts of things that never happened.)

In other swiftie news -- last night on "Hardball" the credibility-challenged Michelle Malkin claimed "the Boston Globe" backed the swiftie allegations against Kerry. So I did a keyword search ("swift boat") on the Globe web site for the past month. This search revealed that the enormous majority of Globe stories about the swifties were either straight news stories about the allegations -- no opinion offered as to veracity -- or opinion pieces backing Kerry. 

Today, by coincidence, one of the Globe's regular columnists, Scott Lehigh, weighs in with an op ed called "Kerry Comrades Have Credibility on Their Side."

So Malkin was lying. Big surprise.

See also Jon Stewart's commentary (video).

...Thurlow's military records, portions of which were released yesterday to The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act, contain several references to "enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire" directed at "all units" of the five-boat flotilla. Thurlow won his own Bronze Star that day, and the citation praises him for providing assistance to a damaged Swift boat "despite enemy bullets flying about him."

"This group isn't interested in the truth -- and they're not telling the truth. They didn't even exist until I won the nomination for president," Kerry told a few thousand firefighters at the International Association of Firefighters meeting here. "They're funded by hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Republican contributor out of Texas. They're a front for the Bush campaign. And the fact that the president won't denounce what they're up to tells you everything you need to know -- he wants them to do his dirty work."   

Whether you support and believe the Swift Boat people or not, one thing is for certain: from now on, we veterans and our service to country will forever be in doubt.  From this day forward, no matter what is in your military record or mine can no longer be viewed as the definitive description of our time in service.

The relatively insane notion that the Swift Boat people have put forward concerning Kerry’s service, that what is in his records is all false and cannot be trusted will now apply to one and all veterans.  All that will be required to wipe out the honor, integrity and value of your service is for one, ten or two hundred people with an agenda to step forward and proclaim they, and not the military know the truth.  In the doing, everything you did that was documented will be null and void.

IMO, that's what Moveon should say in its ad.

America has been in too many wars for any of our wishes, but not a one of them was ever won by being "sensitive." (Applause.) President Abraham Lincoln and General Grant did not wage sensitive wars. President Roosevelt and Generals Eisenhower and MacArthur did not wage a sensitive war.

LINCOLN: I never said that.

TURNER: ... and you want the "house" to unite as a free-soil nation?

LINCOLN: I never said I would abolish slavery. I never said that at all.

I was asked a question about the abolition of slavery, and I answered by saying I am not pledged to abolish slavery in the slave states, or in the District of Columbia. What I have said is that Congress has a right and a duty to prohibit slavery in all the United States Territories.

TURNER: Mr. Douglas, would you care to respond?

DOUGLAS: Thank you. My opponent refuses to take a firm position, but I say it’s simple — either you’re for Southern property rights, or against them …

State police officers have gone into the homes of elderly black voters in Orlando and interrogated them as part of an odd "investigation" that has frightened many voters, intimidated elderly volunteers and thrown a chill over efforts to get out the black vote in November.

The officers, from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which reports to Gov. Jeb Bush, say they are investigating allegations of voter fraud that came up during the Orlando mayoral election in March.

Remarkably, the "random sample" of voters under investigation not only includes mostly black, elderly citizens, but a number of them are active in the Orlando League of Voters. The League has an impressive record of mobilizing black voters.

Remarkable that a "random sample" would have turned out like that, huh?

Yesterday, Molly Ivins reviewed more of Jeb Bush's efforts to keep blacks from voting, such as the "felon" purge that worked so well in 2000.

This year, same song, second verse. Jeb Bush tried to purge 47,000 supposed ex-felons. A Miami Herald investigation of the new list found that it wrongly listed 2,100 people whose right to vote had already been restored through a clemency process.

The Tampa Tribune produced an even more startling discovery: While half of those on this year's list are black, the list contains the names of few Hispanics. Hispanics in Florida tend to be Republican-leaning Cuban-Americans. Gosh, Jeb Bush was just astonished about the no-Hispanics thing -- except that the state had been repeatedly warned about it.

Florida finally withdrew the list on July 11. Then, on July 14, the 1st District U.S. Court of Appeals in Tallahassee ruled that the state must help felons fill out the form that they need to win back the right to vote after serving their time. Instead, Bush eliminated the form.

If it weren't for those pesky voting rights acts that force states to comply with the 15th Amendment, poor Jeb wouldn't have to do all this twisting and turning to steal the Florida vote for his bro'. Such a trial.