Peter Daou goes after the media bias

[Mass]

I only excerpted the part concerning Kerry, but the rest is worth reading.

http://daoureport.salon.com/synopsis.aspx?synopsisId=bb135cb7-8551-4817-8ec1-41d25aeecc5d

4. BEVAN: “The flip-flop label stuck to John Kerry because he got caught uttering one of the most stupefying phrases in election history ("I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it") which struck the American people as incontrovertible evidence that he was, in fact, a flip-flopper.

OK Tom, explain this:

• Bush is against campaign finance reform; then he's for it. • Bush is against a Homeland Security Department; then he's for it. • Bush is against a 9/11 commission; then he's for it. • Bush is against an Iraq WMD investigation; then he's for it. • Bush is against nation building; then he's for it. • Bush is against deficits; then he's for them. • Bush is for free trade; then he's for tariffs on steel; then he's against them again. • Bush is against the U.S. taking a role in the Israeli Palestinian conflict; then he pushes for a "road map" and a Palestinian State. • Bush is for states' right to decide on gay marriage, then he is for changing the Constitution. • Bush first says he'll provide money for first responders (fire, police, emergency), then he doesn't. • Bush first says that 'help is on the way' to the military ... then he cuts benefits • Bush: "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden." Bush: "I don't know where he is. I have no idea and I really don't care." .......

All that from a blog post that's almost two years old. There must be dozens more examples by now.

So again, who's the flip-flopper?

5. BEVAN: "The charge that Kerry was somehow treated unfairly by the media because more than a hundred of his fellow veterans came forward to say he was unfit to be Commander in Chief because of his actions both during and after Vietnam also falls flat. The press did just as big of a number on Bush over a few missing records from his days in the Texas Air National Guard. Someone even went so far as to forge documents about the story and the nice folks at CBS were good enough to put them on air for a national audience in the run up to the election. The mind strains to imagine what the press would have done if 100 of Bush's fellow Air National Guardsman had come forward to say he was unfit to serve."

Um, Tom, not to rehash an old argument, but Kerry is a decorated war hero, Bush anything but. Color me old-fashioned, but when you volunteer to take enemy fire for your country, and when you get hit more than once, you've earned America's respect (Purple Heart Band-Aids. I wonder what that says to other Purple Heart recipients.)

Out of millions of veterans, I'll find a hundred who agree that religion is superstition, that UFO's are real, that Celine Dion is a genius, that Cindy Sheehan is a hero, that Bush went into Iraq illegally. Do you stand by your implication that because 100 vets said it, it's true? And do you agree that any 100 vets have the right to question the medals and service of any other decorated vet?

[ProSense]

1. This is brilliant. n/t

[sandnsea]

2. He's been great!

Really going right to the heart of it lately. Way to go Pete!

[blm]

3. Thread in GD, too. Keep it kicked - Pete deserves it.

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