Alert! The goddamn Smearvet discharge story will be all over the net today

[geek tragedy]

Glenn "Instagoebbels" Reynolds is going to be pushing this story hard. WIth his viewership, it's going to spread. We need to be armed and waiting for it.

Here is the quick and dirty debunking:

The basis is this very cleverly assembled, but ultimately deceptive story:

http://www.nysun.com/article/4040

The key language is:

"If that is the case," Mr. Sullivan said, "the true story isn't what was on the Web site. It's what's missing. There should have been an honorable discharge certificate issued to Kerry in 1975,if not earlier, three years after his transfer to the Standby Reserve-Inactive.""

This is a willful distortion.

The pertinent regulations actually state:

http://www.navy-reserve.org/files/public/100139d.pdf


"Officers with fewer than 20 years of qualifying service may normally remain in the USNR-S2 for 1-3 years. After that time members will be screened and considered for discharge unless . . ."

"Normally" and "screened and considered" are the crucial words. It does not state that such officers WILL be summarily discharged within three years.

Rather, it states that they will be screened and considered for discharge.

Such discharge could only take place through a board or panel convened under 10 usc 1162 (now repealed).

This includes Reductions in Force (RIF's), the process by which Kerry received his administrative discharge.

Bottom line, this is a goddamn dishonest smear. We should take this fight to the reichwing bloggers now.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

1. Beat that fucking dead horse.

Beat that goddamn rotting thing.

[geek tragedy]

2. I'm sick of it too. I want to burn its corpse and scatter the ashes.

And I love animals. ;)

Seriously, though, they are going to push this hard, regardless of the patent falseness.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

5. And Sisyphus is going to push that big rock ...

[unfrigginreal]

3. lol - you're really worried about this?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. ROTFLMFAO

if that's all you have to worry about you lead a blessed existence...

[geek tragedy]

6. It's not all, but we know how crap like this floasts upstream.

Instagoebbels pushes it, Drudge carries it, and before you know it Fox is blaring it by noon.

I may be going mental because of the election, I admit it. But no detail is too small when the stakes are this large.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

11. Seriously, gt, I was watching the morning Fox nitwits

a week ago & some story came up about the swiftvets,
and even those idiots basically said, "That's run
its course. Nobody cares."

[geek tragedy]

14. Drudge doesn't care either, he said.

I just don't trust the Great Rightwing Slime Machine to go down so easily, I guess.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

16. I'm not saying they wouldnt try anything, but the SBV fiasco

has had its day. They must know they're going down,
and youre right, I cant see them lying down, so what
can they do. Fallujah? God knows what theyre thinking.
If it's as bad as it looks for them, or worse, maybe at some
point they do say, "We're going down, hold on." Theyll
keep talking big today, but they could also be already
packing their bags.

[ClintonTyree]

7. They're wasting their money...............

which doesn't bother me. No one is going to change their mind by viewing this propaganda. They're merely preaching to the choir with this, nobody voting for Kerry could give a crap about it now. Screw 'em, let them waste their money, that's money that won't be used for bombs or more propaganda. Fools.

[IronLionZion]

9. it's to fire up their own sheep to turn out tomorrow

[ima_sinnic]

8. I truly believe nobody cares about this at all anymore

... except the pathetic and desperate foam-mouthed losers who are pushing it.
It actually helps Kerry because it again reminds people of how grim and deceitful his opponents are. I feel that Kerry's sincerity has resonated with the people and this appears tawdry and desperate by comparison.

on edit: on looking more closely, I feel even more strongly that this is "technical stuff" that the average voter will pass over quickly, with glazed eyes and feel no relevance whatsoever to his or her particular reasons for wanting the Bush regime to be crushed.

[Zero Division]

15. Exactly right. To use one of Instapundit's own quotes: "Heh. Indeed."

This whole non-issue is already dead to most of the American public. However, I'm sure these losers will continue to mentally masturbate over it for the next 4 years of the Kerry presidency.

[izzie]

10. I am not going to hear people who say these things.

Every time I hear them say he did his own Purple hearts etc I just feel so bad. What does that do to the 58,000 names on that wall. I do not blame the men who fought for the mess of that war it was the people in DC and DOD. Leave Kerry alone.Even Bush did what his class of people did and in the service world we used to laugh at them. Even Clinton had his problems which I do not fault.

[npincus]

12. nobody gives a shit at this point, OBL tape makes 35 year-old griping

irrelevant

[f1 dad]

13. I got your discharge, Glenn Reynolds

[newyawker99]

18. hi f1 dad!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[LynnTheDem]

17. Kerry was Navy Active Duty until 1972, and Navy RESERVES until 1978

This is all such total rightwingnut BULLSHIT.