Hey all you hicks out there who care about the people who died on 9/11, stop it! You're offending some, but not all, of the people at the Democratic Underground who want you to forget all about it.

Just read this sickening post called "To the citizens of Dirtsville USA: Quit grieving for NYC............." and some of the posts after it and you'll see how vile the left can be when they think their political agenda is threatened...

Joanne98: "Since tomorrow is the anniversary of the "excuse" the cowboy uses to attack anybody he wants to. I'm bracing myself for the ongoing images of people in small red state towns exploiting the victims of 9/11.

I know this is harsh and I know not all people in small rural towns are Republicans but they ARE voting for Bush, who is only making big cities more dangerous. This is how I feel about it. Flame away."

Sterling: "Here here. I'm from Oklahoma and places like that are full of people who are causing most of the problems in the world. There are some very good people in those places but they generally have little political power."

sandnsea: "It "was". But the poster is right, it isn't anymore. Now it's about waving the big hick d*ck and kicking @ss because that's what they like to do. I don't know why they have no self esteem unless they're putting somebody else down, but that's the way it is. The poster is exactly right and if New York City doesn't want George Bush, maybe the rural people who will never be hit by a terrorist attack ought to listen."

OnionPatch: "Hear Hear!!! I'm out here on the left coast and I've long wondered why all these smalltown rednecks are so quick to get teared up about 9-11 but insult people from the big cities every day. Remember the anti-Howard Dean commercial that made fun of everyone who drinks latte and drives a volvo? They hate New York. They're a bunch of phonies. The same as their patriotism."

BiggJawn "Thank you. I was out in "Dirtsville Indiana" last weekend, and I was mildly disgusted at the local volunteer firemen walking around the festival in their beer guts and "FDNY" hats and "Never Forget" T-shirts like they were some f*cking honorary members of FDNY or something.

Hey, shout-out and hugs to any NYC folks who still hurt, but you know what? it didn't happen here. I'm sick of seeing the locals 1,000 miles away from NYC here in the corn belt acting like they breathed the smoke or something."

PROGRESSIVE1: "Here Here!!! As an East Coaster who is only an hour from NYC... I thank you for this rant. Granted that good people do exist in Middle America, there are many more who want to use our National Tradgedy to hurt the world and to show their own "David Duke" Bigotry.

All we here from the the middle of the country is how bad the coasts are. If we are so bad and "immoral" than why do you care what happens to us?"

devinsgram: "You are right on the money. Could not have said it better. I was thinking the same thing the other day. Everybody in middle American crying, putting out their flags and their show of emotion. Phooey on them, they are the ones responsible for what happened in NYC on 9-11. They are the ones who put this idiot in office."

Kerry needs to catch up in the polls. For that, he'll need some powerful commercials. There are a few issues he needs to hit, and I think I know how he should do them.

First, he needs to settle the controversy about his Vietnam service once and for all:

* * * *

AD: I SERVED IN VIETNAM!

[Fade to black and show the logo "John Kerry: He commits war crimes."]

* * * *

Next Kerry need to let people know exactly where he stands on the war in Iraq:

* * * *

AD: WHERE I STAND ON IRAQ

[Fade to black with the slogan "John Kerry: He has heavy views on heavy issues."]

* * * *

A poll of other countries shows that Kerry would win in a landslide if this were a worldwide election. Hmm. People who hate America and don't want it to be a superpower would vote for Kerry.

Anyway, maybe it's time for Kerry to show his foreign support.

* * * *

AD: ANONYMOUS BACKERS

[Fade to black with the slogan "John Kerry: Anonymous foreign people think he should be president; shouldn't you?"]

If you enjoyed this satire by Frank J., you can read more of his work here.

Ah, there's nothing better than watching a mainstream media liberal like Dan Rather sink deeper and deeper into a trap of his own making.

That's right, not only was Dan Rather dumb enough to stand by documents that were obviously forged in Microsoft Word tonight, he was arrogant enough to say that there isn't even an investigation in progress! Then as an extra added bonus, Rather trotted an anti-Bush author Jim Moore as an "expert" witness.

This is soooo sweeet because this story has no chance of holding up when even the Associated Press, Washington Post, & ABCNEWS are trotting out experts who're pointing out that these documents are bogus.

So why is Dan Rather chaining his credibility to this sinking anvil of a story? I have a THEORY, just a THEORY. I think he may be trying to protect the Kerry campaign.

Keep in mind that this is PURE SPECULATION inspired by Dan Rather's performance tonight, but I SUSPECT that this story broken by The American Spectator is true...

More than six weeks ago, an opposition research staffer for the Democratic National Committee received documents purportedly written by President George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard squadron commander, the late Col. Jerry Killian.

....Now, the producer says, there is growing concern inside the building on 57th Street that they may have been suckered by the Kerry campaign. "There is a school of thought here that the Kerry people dumped this in our laps, figuring we'd do the heavy lifting on the story. That maybe they had doubts about these documents but hoped we'd get more information," says the producer. "If that's the case, then we're bigger fools than we already appear to be judging by all the chatter about how these documents could be forgeries."

Folks, if it turns out that anybody from the Kerry campaign provided these forged documents to CBS then "Holy Richard Nixon's bag of dirty tricks Batman" does John Kerry have a HUGE scandal on his hands and Dan Rather knows it. Ahhhh...imagine Dan Rather of all people helping to sink John Kerry's campaign. Now that would be irony and boy would I love to watch it play out ]=[

Images swiped from the fine folks at Politicalities & Country Store. Make sure to check out their blogs!

***Update #1***: The mainstream media is smelling blood now too and they're rapidly following up on stories first broken in the blogosphere and talk radio.

From ABC,

"Retired Maj. General Hodges, Killian's supervisor at the Grd, tells ABC News that he feels CBS misled him about the documents they uncovered. According to Hodges, CBS told him the documents were "handwritten" and after CBS read him excerpts he said, "well if he wrote them that's what he felt."

Hodges also said he did not see the documents in the 70's and he cannot authenticate the documents or the contents. His personal belief is that the documents have been "computer generated" and are a "fraud"."

Here's an even more devastating report from The Seattle Times which points out that,

"The man named (Col. Walter "Buck" Staudt) in a disputed memo as exerting pressure to "sugarcoat" George W. Bush's military record left the Texas Air National Guard a year and a half before the memo supposedly was written, his service record shows."

Amazingly enough, that doesn't even seem to have effected CBS...

"Rather's interview with The Morning News concluded before the newspaper determined the date of Staudt's departure, but a CBS staffer with extensive knowledge of the story said later that the departure doesn't derail the story. "From what we've learned, Staudt remained very active after he retired," the staffer said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "He was a very bullying type, and that could have continued."

Here's a suggestion for all of the conservative reporters and liberal reporters who value getting a big scoop more than ideology: start trying to find out where these documents came from and more importantly, if anyone in the Kerry campaign & DNC had their hands on them before they went to CBS. Not only does the American Spectator story above indicate that happened, campaigns give this sort of material to friendly reporters all the time.

But, if John Kerry's campaign fed these forgeries to CBS, then there are all kinds of interesting questions that need to be asked. First and foremost among them being: did someone in the Kerry campaign forge these documents and provide them to CBS in an effort to try to hurt the Bush campaign? If not, then they should be able to explain exactly where these documents came from, right? Oh and did John Kerry, John Edwards, or any of the higher-ups in the campaign see these forgeries and approve of their being handed over to CBS?

Cover-ups, scandals, dirty tricks -- that's exactly what a campaign loves to be dealing with less than 60 days from an election. Ah, a story that could end Kerry's chances of getting elected, bring down Dan Rather, and elevate the blogosphere all in one fell swoop! I'm lovin' it...

CBS reporter Dan Rather today released the text of a recently discovered email from then-Lt. George W. Bush's Air National Guard commanding officer which casts more doubt upon the military service of the man who would become the 43rd President of the United States.

The revelation of the email comes just hours after questions were raised about the authenticity of typewritten memos from the same officer, shown yesterday by Mr. Rather on 60 Minutes.

According to the previously unseen email message sent in May 1972 by squadron commander Jerry Killian, Lt. Bush phoned Col. Killian because "his internet connection was on the fritz and he couldn't IM me."

Lt. Bush apparently wanted to talk about "how he can get out of coming to drill from now through November."

According to Col. Killian's email, the young Bush wanted to go to Alabama to work as webmaster for a Republican candidate's website.

Mr. Rather said the authenticity of the 32-year-old email has been confirmed by several Nigerian officials who specialize in electronic funds transfer by email.

If you enjoyed this satire by Scott Ott, you can read more of his work at Scrappleface.

There are lots of good reasons to vote for Bush in Nov. He's serious about fighting terrorism and Kerry isn't, making the tax cuts permanent, the pro-marriage constitutional Amendment, multiple Supreme Court Justices may be selected by the next President, Social Security Reform, tort reform, etc, etc, etc.

But, as an extra added bonus, there are apparently some lefties at the DU already planning to run for the border if Bush wins! So in effect, a vote for Bush, means less of those ka-ray-zee libs at the Democratic Underground will be walking the streets. Here are a few comments from the DU to give you an idea of what they're saying...

G_j: "On leaving the country. I am one who would consider leaving the country if Bush remains in office. However I am unemployed and can't imagine how I could afford it, or what countries would want people with no money showing up at their door. This makes me think of how many other people must be in a similar situation. Would there be countries who would recognize Americans as refugees?"

coalition_unwilling: "The need for a new "underground railroad". There was a huge exodus of intellectuals and refugees from post-1933 Germany and I would expect a similar trend to start developing after November.

From what I've heard on the grapevine, the American Friends Service Committee already has something of the sort set up for war resisters. I don't know the truth of that, as I can't seem to find a source for it right now, but I will be donating funds to AFSC this year precisely b/c of it."

ellie: "I feel the same way. Why would I stay in a country with people who welcome fascism? That a lot of people think smirky is a brave and glorious leader scares the hell out of me. I don't want my taxes to pay for wars and injustice. I don't want injustice perpetrated in my name. Let the True Believers™ pay. I will be out of here in a heartbeat."

T Wolf: "guerilla warfare. There are many things that can be done on an individual basis to monkey-wrench the system if it is totally corrupted. But you first have to recognize that you are in a war. Throw out the Marquess of Queensberry rules and use every weapon you have.

And yes, it is tempting to just leave (if you can) and "let them Cheney themselves" but the reality is that (1) many here will suffer if we quit and (2) they will spread their destruction everywhere in the world so it will catch up to you whereever you go. Just like pollution, repuke evil recognizes no boundaries."

donkeyotay: "I keep having the same thoughts about leaving and where to go. Some of the reactions to this post remind me of an article Michael Ruppert wrote back before bush got his war. He was responding to folks who had just gotten involved and how some of them seemed to have an overly confident view of their power to change the political outcome. Ruppert noted that many people had fought many battles, and many of them had been spent in the process. The fresh horses come in and think that surely they can turn the tide.

There are practical issues of where to go and what country would accept us, as we would be refugees."

Zorra: "LOL. Americans didn't do anything after Bu$h stole the election in 2000 and they won't do anything if he steals the next one. Americans are so fat they couldn't even boycott donuts, or go on strike for an hour to save their freedom.

And what are you going to do to "help" the cause that someone who leaves the country can't do? At least someone that leaves the country can stop paying taxes and is no longer participating in the the financial system that supports the dictatorship. At the same time, someone living outside the country can still vote, donate, and participate in the political system."

The totally non-partisan journalists at "Sixty Minutes" have come up with another totally authentic "smoking gun" memo from George W. Bush's squadron commander, Col. Jerry Killian, and this one is a blockbuster!

Yes, this very credible memo, vetted by experts provided to CBS by the Democratic National Committee, proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that George Bush was really AWOL from the National Guard!

Read it and weep you Republicans, it's all over for you now!

Well, well, well, it looks like the "new" 30 year old memos from Bush's squadron commander, Col. Jerry Killian's "personal file" that "Sixty Minutes" came up with are fakes!

To the best of my knowledge, Power Line originally broke the story and then things picked up from there.

Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs pointed out that the memos, which are supposed to be more than 30 years old, appear to have been designed using the default settings of Microsoft Word!

Bill at INDC Journal tracked down a "rather notable Forensic Document Examiner named Dr. Philip Bouffard", and his conclusion was that he was "At Least" 90% Positive They're Fake".

The folks over at Cybercast News Service also had some experts take a look at these memos and,

"Three independent typography experts told CNSNews.com they were suspicious of the documents from 1972 and 1973 because they were typed using a proportional font, not common at that time, and they used a superscript font feature found in today's Microsoft Word program.

"That would not be possible on a typewriter or even a word processor at that time," said John Collins, vice president and chief technology officer at Bitstream Inc., the parent of MyFonts.com."

Folks, the questions raised by this are absolutely fascinating.

For example, which "experts" looked at documents that anybody in America with Microsoft Word and access to a copy machine could produce and pronounced them genuine? Were there any dissenting opinions? Did "Sixty Minutes" let their obvious ideological bias towards Kerry override their judgement in this case? Who gave these documents to "Sixty Minutes" and are they affiliated in any way with the Kerry campaign?

Boy, it should be a blast watching where this goes and seeing "Sixty Minutes" receive the same sort of anal exam on this issue that they regularly administer to everybody else. I wonder how they'll like their turn under the Microscope?

*** Update #1***: Lookie, lookie, lookie, The Weekly Standard has been running these documents past a few experts and they all seem to be reaching the same conclusion...

"(A)ccording to several forensic document experts contacted by THE WEEKLY STANDARD say the Killian memos appear to be forgeries. Although it is nearly impossible to establish with certainty the authenticity of documents without a careful examination of the originals, several irregularities in the Killian memos suggest that CBS may have been the victim of a hoax.

Says Flynn: "This looks pretty much like a hoax at this point in time."

During this campaign season, I don't think the Bush administration has put enough emphasis on the great job they've done with the economy.

Consider that when Bush came into office, he was saddled with a recession that started almost the moment he arrived, huge corporate accounting scandals that began before he came into office, the bursting of the tech bubble which also began during the Clinton administration, and then 9/11.

Quite frankly, given all of those negatives, it seems to me that we were lucky that the economy and job losses weren't MUCH WORSE than they actually turned out to be.

But in any case, Bush was offering exactly the right medicine for an economy that desperately needed a pick-me-up -- tax cuts. Due in no small part to those tax cuts, the economy over the last year has been booming. Notice that I didn't say "turning the corner" or "doing Ok," I said "booming".

We've now had 12 straight months of job growth, the unemployment rate is at 5.4% (down from 6.0% in Dec of 2002), and here's how job creation has looked during the first 8 months of this year...

Jan - +159,000 jobs
Feb - +83,000 jobs
Mar - +353,000 jobs
Apr - +324,000 jobs
May - +208,000 jobs
June - + 96,000 jobs
July - + 73,000 jobs (Preliminary)
Aug - + 144,000 jobs (Preliminary)

That's 1,296,000 jobs in just 8 months (162,000 per month avg) for those of you who are keeping track.

Now take a look at GDP.

3rd quarter of 2003 - GDP +7.4%
4th quarter of 2003 - GDP +4.2%
1st quarter of 2004 - GDP +4.5%
2nd quarter of 2004 - GDP + 2.8%

Average GDP growth over the last year - +4.7%
Average GDP growth in the 90s - +3.1%
Average GDP growth in the 80s - +2.9%

At the Republican National Convention, Arnold Schwarzenegger talked about "economic girlie men" who were pessimistic about the US economy.

Well, let me tell ya, anybody who looks at an economy that is growing at a +4.7 GDP per quarter clip and is averaging 162,000 jobs created per month and tries to tell ya that's anything other than outstanding, isn't just an economic girlie man, they're either clueless or full of it.

Poor, sensitive Rosario Iaconis. It seems that he's all upset about the new kids pic from Dreamworks, Shark Tale. Just take a look at this column and you'll see how riled up some people get over kid's movies featuring cartoon fish...

"Shark Tale," an animated DreamWorks film that glorifies gangsters, celebrates violence and promotes anti-Italian bigotry to children, could well sever the mystic chords that bond Italo-Americans to their ancestral homeland.

The government should not grant De Niro's honorary citizenship."

So portraying some Italians as gangsters is supposed to be "anti-Italian bigotry"?

Ahem, let me counter that by saying...John Gotti. Heard of him? How 'bout Al Capone? Sammy "The Bull" Gravano? Frank Costello? Lucky Luciano? La Cosa Nostra? "The Family"?

If figures from the Italian Mafia show up in film, it's because there have been plenty of Italian mobsters that caught the public's eye over the years.

But, so what? That doesn't mean the public assumes EVERY ITALIAN is a Mafioso. Heck, if people bought everything they saw in the movies they'd think all Japanese were in the Yokuza, every cop they ran into was corrupt, and every young, boy wearing glasses was a wizard who might cast a spell on them.

So Rosario, give everyone a break and stop the politically correct whining about the gangster sharks in this kid's movie. It's just no big deal...

Hat tip to Tongue Tied for finding this story.

I'm Afraid He's Suffering from a Severe Form of "Being a Democrat"
Democrats are going crazy from the latest poll numbers showing Bush got a huge bounce from the convention and want to slime the president in anyway possible and somehow prop up John F'n Kerry. How can you tell if they've completely lost it? I'll tell you:

TOP NINE SIGNS THE DEMOCRATS HAVE GONE COMPLETELY CRAZY IN REACTION TO THE POLLS

9. Strategy for debates: Answer every question with "I served in Vietnam!"

8. Instead of comparing Bush to Hitler, they try to prove he actually is him in disguise.

7. They give up on the Kerry campaign and start working fulltime on the "Bush Stole the Election!" campaign.

6. Elephants are found mysteriously murdered throughout the nation's zoos (or, alternatively, Democrats are found mysteriously stomped to death in Elephant pens throughout the nation while others are mistakenly placed in cages in the monkey house).

5. Kerry's campaign staff is replaced with the smartest animal of all - dolphins. Kerry's campaign become much more focused on procuring fish than usual.

4. Find Bush permanent record for more dirt. "Do you want someone who was 'sometimes disruptive' to be your president?"

3. Since the $1000 haircut didn't seem to help John Kerry, they try a $2000 haircut.

2. They try to use VP candidate John Edwards's talking to the dead powers to get the support of John F. Kennedy.

And the number one sign the Democrats have gone completely crazy in reaction to the polls…

To be honest, I think most went insane sometime during the primary when they thought Kerry was "electable."

If you enjoyed this satire by Frank J., you can read more of his work at IMAO.

Sadly, we've finally passed a 1000 deaths in Iraq. That's certainly tragic, especially for the families and friends of the soldiers who were killed. There is no such thing as "light casualties" to someone who loses a father, a brother, or child in a battle in a foreign land.

That being said, if we send our military into combat, we must accept that there may be losses. Unfortunately, that just goes with the territory. And when we look at past conflicts, wars, even certain battles, the number of men we've lost in Iraq is small indeed. Here are a few statistics just to show you what I mean...

1002: Soldiers killed in Iraq
1500: The top end of my own pre-war estimate of how many troops we could lose just invading Iraq
2403: Americans killed at Pearl Harbor
2976: Americans lost on 9/11
9,386: American soldiers killed taking Normandy
12,500: American soldiers killed taking Okinawa in WW2
24,000: American soldiers on both sides killed at the battle of Antietam during the Civil War
54,246: American troops killed in Korea
58,198: American soldiers killed in Vietnam
116,516: American soldiers killed in World War 1
133,811: Confederate troops killed in the Civil War
295,000: American soldiers killed in World War 2
364,511: Union Soldiers killed during the Civil War

Losing American soldiers is never easy for us to take back at home, nor should it be. But, every terrorist our soldiers kill in Iraq is one less terrorist who might turn up in our country in a school, behind the controls of an airplane, or strapped with dynamite. Our soldiers are risking their lives so civilians here in the states don't have to do so.

Moreover, our troops are not just helping 25 million Iraqis form a Democracy, but are setting a precedent that will help Democracy spread across the region. Not only will Democracy help drain the poisonous bile of radical Islam & the terrorism that goes with it from the region, it's the right thing for us to do.

Americans have been at the forefront of the fight for freedom so many times in WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, and during the Cold War, and we're there again today. Maybe some people look back and regret that, but I don't, and I don't believe most Americans do either. George Bush and our soldiers are doing the right thing, for the right reasons, and while it may not be easy, nothing worthwhile ever is.

*** Note ***: I've found that getting an official number of soldiers lost in each war is more difficult that you'd think. Different sources sometimes list radically different numbers. If anyone knows of an "official" or even highly reliable source that breaks down soldiers KIA, soldiers lost in theater, wounded, etc, please post it in the comments section.

On Friday of last week, I sat down with John O'Neill from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth for a 25 minute phone interview. We discussed John Kerry's first and third Purple Hearts, his Bronze Star, his Senate testimony, Cambodia, Chris Matthews, and several other topics of note.

Read and enjoy. (Cont)