Well now I'm really confused.

[colmurph]

After downloading and reading Kerry's military records I find that his first Purple Heart was awarded for wounds received on 2 December 1968. When I looked at his fitness reports (Officer Efficiency Reports for you grunts) I find that he did not report for duty to the unit until 8 December 1968 (6 days after he was allegedly wounded in action) His reporting period for his first fitness report in Vietnam is 6 december to 13 december 1968 (Where was he from 6 December until he showed up for duty on 8 December? His last fitness report indicates that during the rating period 14 December 1968 to 26 March 1969 he was awarded the BSM/V, SS and 3 PH Medals yet the 1st Purple heart is dated 2 December 1968. Something is very, very fishy here folks.

[catman]

Col...that is just one of many kettles that stink of fish or other substances concerning Kerry. Let's not forget his love of money or is that women with money. His alliances with Hanoi Jane and all those "medals" he threw over the fence. And his famous "Keep all jobs but those that my wife has control of in the U.S.A."

Trav

[SuperScout]

I believe the phrase, ...curiouser and curiouser..." might be applied here. Or maybe this is just part of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy cabal, forcing Kerry to post his military records, and then those of us who can read, having the audacity to thoroughly examine them. And lo and behold, holes appear.

What we may be witnessing is the anticipated implosion of John F**king Kerry. Right now, I suspect that he is rueing the day he ever decided to join the military, or when he cozied up to Hanoi Jane, or when he threw or didn't throw his medals and/ribbons and/or somebody else's medals or ribbons, or decided to subject himself to the real light of scrutiny. For all of his public life, he's been given a pass by the press, and now all of a sudden, serious questions about his past have arisen.

In another thead, I'm going to post some information about Kerry that will make your blood boil, if you're not already pissed enough at him for his waffling and weaving and quibbling.

[Gimpy]

alright! Just like Karen Hughs is also!

###START####

Karen Hughes' high-octane gall

April 27, 2004 |

With amazing chutzpah, the Bush flack says reporters should ask more questions about John Kerry's military history. What they really ought to explore is her role in covering up Bush's spotty National Guard record.

For George W. Bush's surrogates to question John Kerry's war record, as they have continued to do in recent days, requires a special Republican brand of super-high-octane gall. Why would the president want to draw additional attention to the most unflattering contrast between him and the Democratic challenger?

Why would his flacks reopen the painful issues of that era by questioning Kerry's undoubted heroism? If anyone ever earned the right to talk about what he had seen in Vietnam and why no more Americans should kill or die there, it was the young, highly decorated Navy lieutenant who had volunteered for duty.

Perhaps Bush and his strategists believe that offense is the only way to play defense on his spotty National Guard record. Perhaps they think that with enough money and enough noise, they can erase Kerry's medals and heroism. (After all, according to a recent Harris poll, millions of Americans evidently believe that U.S. troops actually found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, so it is reasonable to think they would believe almost anything.) And perhaps they expect the mainstream media to assist in defacing Kerry's character -- just as important media organizations smeared Al Gore four years ago with Republican spin points.


More likely Hughes was just being her disingenuous self when suggesting Kerry's wartime behavior hadn't gotten enough scrutiny. At any rate, she isn't in the best position to accuse Kerry or anyone else of false pretenses. Among the press corps that covered the 2000 campaign, her instinct to conceal and dissemble was well known. Indeed, conservative journalist Tucker Carlson suggested last year that her willingness to lie for Bush "almost crosses over ... into mental illness."

Feigning indigation over comments made by Kerry more than 30 years ago would pose no challenge for Hughes.

She deserves to be challenged, however, about her own role in the concealment of Bush's actual service record.

Although she is currently peddling her new bestseller, the most pertinent questions concern "A Charge to Keep," that slim promotional volume with Bush's name and likeness on the cover.
While including plenty of filler and self-serving rhetoric, Hughes needed only five pages to recount Bush's military career -- from his decision to apply for pilot training to the lessons he learned during his National Guard service. The deceptions begin on Page 51, when Bush claims that during Christmas vacation in Houston, he "heard from contemporaries that there were openings for pilots in the Texas Air National Guard, and I called to ask about them ... I met the qualifications and was accepted into the Texas Air National Guard." It's a nice, simple story, but it omits most of the facts and distorts others, as this investigation by the Los Angeles Times explains.

The gripping but brief account of Bush's training and service ends vaguely, with this sentence: "I continued flying with my unit for the next several years." That's false; he quit flying after less than two years. He and his ghostwriter don't mention that he quit flying no later than August 1972, after he missed a flight physical and was suspended. His disappearance into Alabama to work on a Republican Senate race, when he was supposed to be pulling duty, is also left out.


On that chapter's concluding page, Bush proclaims: "I am proud of my service. Yet I know it was nothing comparable to what our soldiers and pilots were doing in battle in Vietnam." Having written those words, Hughes should remember them whenever she feels the urge to demean Kerry, who still carries a piece of shrapnel in his left buttock. And should she open her mouth about this subject again, someone should ask her what the president did with his medals.

####END####

AMEN!

[colmurph]

Aw Gimpy. STFU! Download his records and check for yourself! I suppose you have enough intelligence to find his first Purple heart and write down the date of the action then look for his fitness reports and check the dates! They don't gibe! His first purple heart was earned 6 days before he reported for duty and 4 days BEFORE the rating period began! The First fitness report covers the period 6 December to 13 December which I find highly suspicious. Usually the ONLY reason a fitness report is rendered for such a short period is 1. Change of Rater. and 2. Diciplinary Matters, and it states that he reported for duty on 8 December which leaves a 2 day gap that may have been an AWOL. His SECOND fitness report which covers the period 14 December to 29 March says that he earned the Silver Star, BSM with "Combat V" and 3 Purple Hearts DURING that rating period. Which would place the first Purple Heart 12 days BEFORE the period covered by the fitness report. You'd have to be a MORON or a Democrat not to figure this one out. It's basic 3d grade math!