Interesting story on "60 Minutes" tonight. .

[momof2inPA]

My mom went into labor when my dad was scheduled to attend reserve training during the Vietnam War. Do you know how long he was able to delay showing up for training? One hour.

George Bush got out of his training for months to get drunk.

 

[peachgirl]

Originally posted by faithinkarma
Now see, when the writer adds that line, it gves me pause about the entire article. I know this phrase has been repeated to the point of being accepted as gospel, but it is my understanding that the only records Kerry has not released are his medical records ( nor has the president release his medical records ). And that Kerry has opened his medical records for reporters to see ( but not copy ).

That's correct as far as I've been able to tell. I believe Bush also opened his medical records for a few hours for the press to look at as well.

The problem with what Bush has released is that they seem to "lose" the really important stuff.

 

[bsnyder]

I fully admit I don't have all the facts about this.

We lost our power due to Hurricane Frances on Saturday afternoon, and it JUST got restored this morning. So I've been totally removed from the internet, and and the political debate, until today. Been too busy searching for elusive every day items like a fresh gallon of milk. (finally able to secure THAT last night!)

Anyway, I've been briefly looking at the blogosphere this afternoon, and the conservative blogs are abuzz with the news that the new documents cited in the Boston Globe story may be forgeries.

I'll try to keep ya'll posted but I don't have as much time as I'd like to spend reading up on this. I've got to go out and forage for some items to restock our hurricane supplies. Bleah!

In addition to the War on Terror, I think we a new war....A War on Hurricanes!

 

[richiebaseball]

Is this the same Ben Barnes that is on the DNC's Kerry Trustee Leader Board? It seems like he has personally raised over $500,000 for Kerry through the DNC. Or does who one donates to not matter now?

Kerry Keeping Eye On Big Donors

WASHINGTON, June 18, 2004

(CBS) By Beth Lester,
CBS News Political Unit
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Kerry campaign has begun tracking major fundraisers using a Trustee Leader Board, CBS News has learned. While keeping tabs on fundraisers is nothing new, the twist is that the Kerry campaign is tracking donations to the Democratic National Committee, not to the campaign itself.

Under current campaign finance laws, donors can give a maximum of $2,000 to a presidential candidate per election cycle and up to $25,000 per year to party committees. Thus donors can give only $2,000 to Sen. Kerry himself but up to $50,000 to the DNC to support its activities this cycle. These large donations to the DNC allow donors to skirt the contribution cap to the Kerry campaign and give big bucks to the Democratic/Kerry effort through the backdoor.

The Kerry campaign is quick to point out that the Trustee Leader Board is maintained by the DNC and "is a DNC thing." But several donors, who spoke to CBS News on the condition of anonymity, said that the money was being carefully tracked by the Kerry campaign, most likely for recognition should Kerry win the presidency. In a sign of the campaign's involvement, last week's Leader Board memo was sent around by the Kerry campaign itself.

The Kerry Trustee Leader Board is tracking donations made since March 1, 2004, when Kerry became the effective nominee. The goal, said one DC fundraiser familiar with the operation, is to encourage and recognize donors and fundraisers who go beyond the $2K limit and pony up the bigger bucks for the DNC as the election approaches.

The Trustee Leader Board comes out every week and shows how much various fundraisers have contributed personally or convinced their friends to donate. The highest level is for those raising $500,000 or more. Other levels include $250,000–$500,000, $150,000-$250,000 and those who raise over $100,000.

As of last week, according to information received by CBS News, 20 donors have given and/or raised more than $250,000, enough to earn them the designation of Trustee. Of those, eight have actually raised more than $500K. Those half-millions include Texas lobbyist Ben Barnes, Wall Street financier Stan Shuman, Iranian American PAC Board of Trustees member Hassan Nemazee and Texas lawyer Mark Iola. Eventually, says a source inside the process, the over-$500K raisers will have a special name designation but no moniker has been chosen yet.

Other familiar names who've raised more than $250,000 (and possibly more than $500K) are former DNC finance chair and Denise Rich friend Beth Dozoretz, former Clinton ambassador to the Bahamas Arthur Schechter, Saban Entertainment head Haim Saban, former Dick Gephard deputy campaign manager Richard Sullivan, old Kerry friend Sam Grossman and AIPAC stalwart Alan Solomont.

In the over-$100,000 category, 189 people have reached the “Patriot” level. Approximately 60 of those names have anted up since March 1, when the Kerry campaign began keeping score and almost 20 of those donors have actually raised/given between $150,000 and $250,000. That level of donor will also have a special name designation at some point in the future.

Among those competing along the $100-250K axis are well-known givers like former Gore finance director Johnny Hayes, UBS Warburg LLC's Blair Effron, Seinfeld creator Larry David and American Trial Lawyers Association head (and former John Edwards supporter) Fred Baron.

Also in that section are a number of new donors. Says one DC lobbyist, "these are not names you're going to know." These donors include former Bush-backer and Cuban-American activist Fernando Amandi; Lori Bonn of Hillsborough, Calif., whose first political donation was this year; Sandy River Health Systems chair David Friedman, another first-time giver; Tax Payers Against Fraud board member Gregory Lawler; and Capital City Group founder Gerald Harrington, who gave his first big check ($25,000) to the DNC on April 7, 2004.

The Kerry campaign is, not surprisingly, thrilled with the outpouring of cash, and various donors who spoke to CBS News were also exceptionally pleased with the turnout. Said a major Texas fundraiser, it is a "record-breaking" turnout, "larger than when Clinton was in office."

Amid all this money, some watchdogs are raising eyebrows. Although the Kerry campaign's tracking is perfectly legal, Larry Noble of the Center for Responsive Politics notes that tracking donors is a sign that "campaigns, political parties and donors do all understand that this is a system of giving and getting rewards for giving." And, Noble continues, "Kerry, like Bush, plans to acknowledge these people if he wins the election. And that could be in the form of government appointments, ambassordorships, favorable hearings on administration policies."

The possible impropriety between major donors and major appointments is not lost on anyone. After CBS News obtained a copy of the memo, several donors were alerted by the DNC and members of the Kerry campaign. Some of those donors then asked to have their names removed from the list and to remain anonymous to avoid even the appearance of impropriety in the future, said one donor whose name remains on the list.

Although the Trustee Leader Board will continue to be updated every week, it seems unlikely that memos will keep going out to every fundraiser. For now, the Kerry campaign is keeping much more mum on its tracking.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/18/politics/main624711.shtml

Edited to add the link.

 

[KarenC]

Originally posted by richiebaseball
Is this the same Ben Barnes that is on the DNC's Kerry Trustee Leader Board? It seems like he has personally raised over $500,000 for Kerry through the DNC. Or does who one donates to not matter now?

It's also the same Ben Barnes who made heavy donations to the Republican mother of Scott McClellan, the President's press secretary.

 

[richiebaseball]

Originally posted by KarenC
It's also the same Ben Barnes who made heavy donations to the Republican mother of Scott McClellan, the President's press secretary.

And I'll repeat, does who one donates to matter or not?

Richard

 

[peachgirl]

Originally posted by richiebaseball
And I'll repeat, does who one donates to matter or not?

Richard

It depends...if the donations are all to a particular person or party, then it would certainly explain motivation.

 

[snarfer1]

I thought that there was a post stating Laura Ingram said 48 hours instead of sixty minutes on the radio today. I can't seem to find it now, but between 9 and 9:45 AM today she did say 60 minutes not 48 hours.

Tony

 

[snarfer1]

Originally posted by KarenC
I saw this on the Political Animal blog and thought it was worth posting here:

This story is a perfect demonstration of the difference between the Swift Boat controversy and the National Guard controversy. Both are tales from long ago and both are related to Vietnam, but the documentary evidence in the two cases is like night and day. In the Swift Boat case, practically every new piece of documentary evidence indicates that Kerry's accusers are lying. Conversely, in the National Guard case, practically every new piece of documentary evidence provides additional confirmation that the charges against Bush are true.

Whoops, I think you got this one backwards!

 

[SoCalKDG]

First, I don't really care what either of them did 30 years ago. What have they been doing the last 5-10 years is what is most important, to me.

Here is the AP article on the authenticity of the memo.



"CBS, which reported on the memos on its "60 Minutes" program, said its experts who examined the documents concluded that they were authentic. They ostensibly were written by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, one of Bush's commanders in 1972 and 1973.

A co-worker of Killian's quoted in the CBS broadcast told The Associated Press Friday he had no reason to doubt the memos, although he can't verify them.

But Killian's son, one of Killian's fellow officers and an independent document examiner questioned the memos. Gary Killian, who served in the Guard with his father and retired as a captain in 1991, said he doubted his father would have written an unsigned memo which said there was pressure to "sugar coat" Bush's performance review.

"It just wouldn't happen," he said. "No officer in his right mind would write a memo like that."

Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said Friday the White House, which distributed the memos after obtaining them from CBS, was not trying to verify their authenticity. "We don't know if the documents are fabricated or authentic," McClellan told reporters traveling with the president to West Virginia.

McClellan suggested the memos surfaced as part of "an orchestrated effort by Democrats and the Kerry campaign to tear down the president."

The personnel chief in Killian's unit at the time said he believes the documents are fake.

"They looked to me like forgeries," said Rufus Martin. "I don't think Killian would do that, and I knew him for 17 years." Killian died in 1984.

Independent document examiner Sandra Ramsey Lines said the memos looked like they had been produced on a computer using Microsoft Word software. Lines, a document expert and fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, pointed to a superscript — a smaller, raised "th" in "111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron" — as evidence indicating forgery.

Microsoft Word automatically inserts superscripts in the same style as the two on the memos obtained by CBS, she said.

"I'm virtually certain these were computer generated," Lines said after reviewing copies of the documents at her office in Paradise Valley, Ariz. She produced a nearly identical document using her computer's Microsoft Word software."

 

[faithinkarma]

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/09-10-2004/0002248214&EDATE=


NEW YORK, Sept. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Later today, CBS News will address on
the air and in detail the issues surrounding the documents broadcast in the 60
MINUTES report on President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard. At
this time, however, CBS News states with absolute certainty that the ability
to produce the "th" superscript mentioned in reports about the documents did
exist on typewriters as early as 1968, and in fact is in President Bush's
official military records released by the White House. This and other issues
surrounding the authenticity of the documents and more on this developing
story will be reported on tonight on THE CBS EVENING NEWS WITH DAN RATHER.

 

[Mermaid02]

Interesting- but I won't be upping their ratings- I'll wait and see what the other networks say. Nice spin from them though

 

[faithinkarma]

well, they went over it point by point, interviewed experts, proved that the nonsense about the type face not being available in the 70s is just that ( it has been around since 1931 ) showed how the "th" in question appears on other documents from that time period, and basically refuted the charges. Not sure how one can call facts spin, but whatever.

 

[snarfer1]

Wouldn't want everyone to miss the exclusive!

BUMP