What Did Dan Rather Know? And When Did He Know It?

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCCLXXII

CBS covers itself in shame.

By now, Faithful Reader, you have surely heard about the infamous memos.

I will briefly set forth some of the reasons I've come across for concluding that they are really, really bad, bad forgeries. None of this analysis is original to me. First, the documents (click each for a 100% image, which will open in a new window).

So, how do we know — and I do mean know, with certainty — that these documents are forgeries?

1. Several of the documents contain superscripted ordinals. That is, for instance, 187^th instead of 187th. In 2004, software does that. To have done such a thing in 1972 and '73 would have required the typist to either have (1) switched from one ball to another (if using something like an IBM Selectric) and/or (2) have put the paper in a different typewriter just to type the superscripted ordinal.
2. At least one of the documents has curly apostrophes (single quotes). You know, ’ instead of '. In 2004, software does that. To have done such a thing in 1972-3 would have had requirements similar to the previous item, assuming it could have been done at all.
3. At least one of the documents is kerned. That is, the spacing of the letters is tweaked so that sometimes they overlap. In the 18 August 1973 document, kerning can be easily seen in the word "my" in the third line of the body and in the word "not" in the fourth line: the top of "y" overlaps "m"; the top of "t" overlaps "o". In 2004, software does that. In 1972-3, typesetting could have done it. But it has not ever been possible to do this with a typewriter.
4. Add 1 + 2 + 3 and you don't get 4. You get 0. You get zero possibility that documents created in 1972-3 could have had all three of these characteristics. (I'm not considering each document separately, because it is rather obvious that their overwhelming similarities indicate a common, fraudulent, source.)

I will merely note in passing that it occurs to me that the documents have been doctored to make them look as if they have been photocopied many times — perhaps by actually photocopying them many times — without any apparent reason for having to be photocopied many times other than to make them look old.

FWIW, here is my personal experience. First, when I bought my first personal computer, in 1989, I bought with it an Epson dot-matrix printer. So new was the concept of superscripting and/or subscripting text, I specifically asked the salesman if the printer was capable of it. He said sure, but it's software that does that. And I said yes, I know that. Second, some of the documents have ordinals that are not superscripted; they are usually separated from the numerals by a space. That's how you get software to skip performing the automatic conversion to superscripting. Third, I have occasion at work to want to use a regular apostrophe (') sometimes instead of a curly apostrophe (’). You either have to set the software so it will not convert the regular to the curly, and then have to do something special to get the curly; or, you have to let the software convert from regular to curly and do something special to get the regular. Fourth, I am even (believe it or not) familiar with kerning. Having been a geek for a long time, I used to spend hours and hours with WordPerfect 5.1 and its 1,020 page manual, which I purchased on Feb. 23, 1990. In fact, I have it before me right now: so geeky am I, I've kept it as a souvenir of my early PC days. (I also still have the six 5.25" floppy disks the WordPerfect software came on.) Kerning is discussed on page 331. :-)

Here are some of the more significant posts elsewhere, presenting all the evidence and analysis in more detail:

• The sixty-first minute
• Bush Guard Documents: Forged
• Did CBS Present Forged Documents Last Night?
• Was Rather Duped by Anti-Bush Hoax?

I think the person responsible for this incredibly botched forgery must possess several qualities: (1) remarkable deviousness, (2) breathtaking amorality, (3) an intellectual facility for generating possibilities rather than probabilities, and (4) a lack of solid experience with typewriters and word processors by which to verify the possibilities generated by his imagination.

Do these documents, therefore, demonstrate that James Carville can type?

Let's now get to the heart of the matter. The story here is not Bush's TANG service. The story is not these documents. The story is not even forged memos. The story is

Many questions are raised by this scenario: Who, precisely, actually forged the documents? How did CBS get them? What expert(s) did CBS have examine the documents for authenticity? Elmer Fudd? Daffy Duck? And, did anybody at CBS have any clue that the documents are forgeries?

So, these are my most important questions:

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 09/09/04 10:23:56 PM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode & Media.

Why the Press Disdains Republican Presidents

Lege.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 09/09/04 05:39:58 PM
Categorized as Political.

Faith Essentials for the Catholic College Student

It's starting this week:

The Association of Students at Catholic Colleges is excited to announce Faith Essentials for the Catholic College Student! Faith Essentials is a monthly electronic publication for all college students — those who are Catholic, curious about Catholicism, or just looking for solid Catholic viewpoints — and even for those out of college or not yet in college looking to learn about the Church!...

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 09/09/04 05:27:17 PM
Categorized as Religious.

All of Us Are Now on a First-Name Basis with the Senator from Georgia

Michael Novak writes perceptively about Zell Miller's speech, at NRO yesterday:

.... To quibble over whether Zell was right on this or that point, or as fair and balanced as the reporters of the Associated Press, or as evenhanded as Joe Klein, is to miss the point when listening to a Baptist sermon, rendered by a Southern populist who relishes his heritage. He has the obligation of fitting into a literary form, as demanding in its way as a sonnet. His task is to penetrate through the details, fire like a laser straight into the heart, spear the essential sin and betrayal thriving there, and explode the grip of their tentacles. His task is to lead the sinner, with the light of that explosion, to mend his ways.

Zell Miller nailed the political correctness of the little liberal in the heart of all of us (driven into us by the monolithic liberal media of the last generation) — the political correctness that leads us to be ashamed to speak forthrightly about good and evil, ashamed to face the desperate need to rally to the defense of our country against one of the worst evils to ever threaten it.

The left wing of the Democratic party doesn't like either the war on terror or the war in Iraq, and refuses to see the vividly clear connection between the two. The left wing wants to change the subject to domestic policy, and even that is absurdly characterized by them. The left wing wants to forget its own wartime heroes Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John Kennedy — "bear any burden, meet any hardship." ....

(Thanks, Joel.)

For comparison (brackets in original):

To Sen. Zell Miller:

You seem to have forgotten that loyal Democrats elected you as mayor [of Young Harris] and as state senator. Loyal Democrats, including members of my family and me, elected you as state senator, lieutenant governor and governor. It was a loyal Democrat, Lester Maddox, who assigned you to high positions in the state government when you were out of office. It was a loyal Democrat, Roy Barnes, who appointed you as U.S. senator when you were out of office. By your historically unprecedented disloyalty, you have betrayed our trust.

Great Georgia Democrats who served in the past, including Walter George, Richard Russell, Herman Talmadge and Sam Nunn, disagreed strongly with the policies of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and me, but they remained loyal to the party in which they gained their public office. Other Democrats, because of philosophical differences or the race issue, like Bo Callaway and Strom Thurmond, at least had the decency to become Republicans.

Everyone knows that you were chosen to speak at the Republican National Convention because of your being a "Democrat," and it's quite possible that your rabid speech damaged our party and paid the GOP some transient dividends.

Perhaps more troublesome of all is seeing you adopt an established and very effective Republican campaign technique of destroying the character of opponents by wild and false allegations. The Bush campaign's personal attacks on the character of John McCain in South Carolina in 2000 was a vivid example. The claim that war hero Max Cleland was a disloyal American and an ally of Osama bin Laden should have given you pause, but you have joined in this ploy by your bizarre claims that another war hero, John Kerry, would not defend the security of our nation except with spitballs. (This is the same man whom you described previously as "one of this nation's authentic heroes, one of this party's best-known and greatest leaders — and a good friend.")

I, myself, served in the Navy from 1942 to 1953, and, as president, greatly strengthened our military forces and protected our nation and its interests in every way. I don't believe this warrants your referring to me as a pacifist.

Zell, I have known you for 42 years and have, in the past, respected you as a trustworthy political leader and a personal friend. But now, there are many of us loyal Democrats who feel uncomfortable in seeing that you have chosen the rich over the poor, unilateral pre-emptive war over a strong nation united with others for peace, lies and obfuscation over the truth, and the political technique of personal character assassination as a way to win elections or to garner a few moments of applause. These are not the characteristics of great Democrats whose legacy you and I have inherited.

Sincerely, and with deepest regrets,

Jimmy Carter

James Taranto looks at Carter vs. Zell at OpinionJournal yesterday (ellipses in original):

Gov. Pot vs. Sen. Kettle

Former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter "is accusing fellow Georgia Democrat Zell Miller of 'unprecedented disloyalty' for the senator's speech at the Republican convention," reports the Associated Press. Josh Marshall has the full text of the Carter letter, in which he praises the segregationist former governor Lester Maddox as "a loyal Democrat." Here's a sample:

Everyone knows that you were chosen to speak at the Republican Convention because of your being a "Democrat," and it's quite possible that your rabid and mean-spirited speech damaged our party and paid the Republicans some transient dividends.

Let's set aside for the moment the question of whether Miller showed "disloyalty" to his party. What he did was hardly unprecedented. In December 2002, Jimmy Carter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, even though, as The Weekly Standard noted when the award was announced in October, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said the award " 'should be interpreted' as a 'kick in the leg' to current President George W. Bush's 'belligerent' foreign policy."

In other words, everyone knows that Carter was chosen to deliver the Nobel Lecture because of his being an American who opposes American foreign policy. To be fair, Carter's Nobel Lecture was pretty tepid, but at this year's Democratic National Convention, he delivered a rabid and mean-spirited speech attacking current U.S. foreign policy. A sample:

After 9/11, America stood proud, wounded but determined and united.... But in just 34 months, we have watched with deep concern as all this goodwill has been squandered by a virtually unbroken series of mistakes and miscalculations. Unilateral acts and demands have isolated the United States from the very nations we need to join us in combating terrorism....

Recent policies have cost our nation its reputation as the world's most admired champion of freedom and justice. What a difference these few months of extremism have made!

The United States has alienated its allies, dismayed its friends, and inadvertently gratified its enemies by proclaiming a confused and disturbing strategy of "preemptive" war. With our allies disunited, the world resenting us, and the Middle East ablaze, we need John Kerry to restore life to the global war against terrorism.

Now, in our view this is all horribly misguided. But citizens in a democracy are free to dissent. Carter and his defenders would no doubt tell us that he spoke as a patriotic American who is troubled by the direction in which his country's leaders have taken it of late. Which of course is exactly what Zell Miller says about the Democratic Party.

So, did Zell Miller betray his party? Well, first things first: Did Jimmy Carter betray his country?

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 09/09/04 07:52:28 AM
Categorized as Political.

Not Exactly Perry Como. Not Even Bobby Vinton.

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCCLXXI

"Dale Rhome first learned that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry was coming to his house from an unusual source – his poodle."

John Kerry was in the neighborhood, Monday:

.... Mr. Kerry stepped boldly into the verbal minefield early, arriving at a front-porch session with supporters in Canonsburg, Pa., near Pittsburgh. As he likes to do, he brandished a bit of local color to show he wasn't just any interloping politician blowing through town.

But in so doing he seemed to forget that Republicans have been tearing him down for months as a vacillating, indecisive, finger-in-the-wind politician of the worst order.

"Everybody told me, 'God, if you're coming to Canonsburg, you've got to find time to go to Toy's, and he'll take care of you,'" Mr. Kerry said, dropping the name of a restaurant his motorcade had passed on the way in. "I understand it's my kind of place, because you don't have to - you know, when they give you the menu, I'm always struggling: Ah, what do you want?

"He just gives you what he's got, right?" Mr. Kerry added, continuing steadily off a gangplank of his own making: "And you don't have to worry, it's whatever he's cooked up that day. And I think that's the way it ought to work, for confused people like me who can't make up our minds." ....

For 4½ years, I drove past Canonsburg to and from work. It's the hometown of Perry Como & Bobby Vinton. But it's more famous now for Sarris Candies. :-)

P.S. Thanks to Paul for letting me know that a local paper has the scoop:

Dale Rhome first learned that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry was coming to his house from an unusual source – his poodle.

"I got home from work last Tuesday and was 'puttsying' around in the cellar when my little poodle started barking and barking," Rhome said. "So I went upstairs and there was my dad out in the yard with five men and a woman. I asked them what was going on and my dad said, 'What would you think about John Kerry coming over for a visit?"

For a moment, Rhome thought his dad was kidding, but the seriousness of the other people in the yard made it clear this was no joke.

"We'd like permission to use your porch for one of his appearances," Caleb Marshall, one of Kerry's campaign members told Rhome. "I said, 'No problem,' and then this real hectic week began," Rhome said Tuesday.

The seeds for that week were actually planted a few days earlier when state Rep. Tim Solobay received an inquiry from the Kerry campaign about a possible location for a Labor Day front porch rally. Solobay suggested that one of his fellow Canonsburg firefighters, David Rhome, escort Kerry campaign workers around town to scout for a fitting house. Rhome was preoccupied at his pizza shop, so asked his father to fill in as the driver. While driving down West College Street, the elder Rhome pointed out his youngest son's home, and the campaign officials liked it.

After getting permission to use the home, Kerry staffers were there every day. "At first, they were mostly doing a background check. They'd take all of the information I gave them, and send it to D.C. I swear they knew my whole life story," he said. In addition, Rhome's phone line was tapped as a security measure.

The neighbors, of course, were curious about all the activity, and kept asking questions. "We just said we couldn't tell them anything," Dale said. "And for a few days we honestly didn't know whether anything was going to happen." At 5 p.m. Friday, the visit was confirmed.

By that time, Dale's wife, Jody, was scrambling around the house, doing what he described as "an entire spring cleaning in two days."

On Sunday morning, the Rhomes and Kerry campaign workers went door-to-door on the street, alerting neighbors of Kerry's upcoming visit. "We also told them they had to get their cars off the street because the street was being shut down. We had a couple of people who were fully Bush supporters, but they didn't say too much."

Rhome was asked to introduce Kerry, and his nervousness about that short introduction kept him up most of Sunday night. "I think I finally laid down about 4:15, and I was back up at 5:30, finishing up odds and ends."

Two buses pulled onto West College Street about 8 a.m. Monday, an hour before Kerry arrived at Rhome's back door. In an effort to block out the few dozen Bush supporters on one end of the street, Kerry officials provided volunteers with various Kerry signs in key positions to block Bush signage.

When Kerry arrived, he was introduced to Dale, who then introduced Kerry to other members of his family.

"We went into the kitchen, and he asked me about my family, my job, and about being a volunteer fireman. I told him how my (volunteer) hours had dropped because I had to do so many part-time jobs to make ends meet. You know, he really talked like we had been friends for a long time. He came across like a regular guy. He sure didn't seem like he had let it go to his head."

When Kerry left, he got a hug from the Rhomes' daughter, Carly, 4.

The Rhomes may get something from Kerry as well. He promised the family that, should he win the election, the Rhomes will be invited to the inauguration.

The Blog from the Core asserts Fair Use for non-commercial, non-profit educational purposes.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 09/09/04 07:35:50 AM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCCLXX

Actually, here Sunday, gone Monday.

A press release from Kedwards so bad that it appeared on Sep. 5 but was gone from their website by evening, Sep. 6. Fortunately, the Internet has lots of storage:

• The 2004 GOP Convention: Four Days Filled With Lies, Mischaracterizations, Distortions, And Half-Truths
• The 2004 GOP Convention: Four Days Filled With Lies, Mischaracterizations, Distortions, And Half-Truths
• The 2004 GOP Convention: Four Days Filled With Lies, Mischaracterizations, Distortions, And Half-Truths

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 09/09/04 07:07:26 AM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode.