Best of the Web Today - September 14, 2004
By JAMES TARANTO
To 'L' With Dan Rather
How long before they start including a laugh track in the "CBS Evening News"? Each night anchor Dan Rather appears to offer an increasingly hilarious defense of his reliance on fraudulent documents for last week's abortive hit piece against President Bush. Last night Rather trotted out two new "experts":
"Everything that's in those documents, that people are saying can't be done, as you said, 32 years ago, is just totally false. Not true. Proportional spacing was available. Superscripts were available as a custom feature. Proportional spacing between lines was available. You can order that any way you'd like," said document expert Bill Glennon.
Richard Katz, a software designer, found some other indications in the documents. He noted that the letter "L" is used in those documents, instead of the numeral "one." That would be difficult to reproduce on a computer today. . . .
Several of the document examiners said one clue that the documents may be forgeries was the presence of superscripts--in this case, a raised, smaller "th" in two references to Guard units.
But Katz, the software expert, pointed out that the documents have both the so-called "superscript" th (where the letters are slightly higher than the rest of the sentence, such as 6th) and a regular-sized "th". That would be common on a typewriter, not a computer.
"There's one document from May 1972 that contains a normal "th" on the top. To produce that in Microsoft Word, you would have to go out of your way to type the letters and then turn the "th" setting off, or back up and then type it again," said Katz.
OK, last things first. All you have to do to produce the "normal 'th' " in Microsoft Word is hit CTRL-Z or select "undo" from the menu after the program has superscripted the letters. The idea that it's "difficult" to use a lowercase L instead of the number 1 on a computer keyboard is just silly. Blogger Ernest Miller has a long post on this rather arcane topic, the bottom line of which is that the CBS "memos" actually appear to contain 1s instead of little L's.
As for "document expert" Bill Glennon, blogger Charles Johnson notes that Time magazine earlier described him rather more humbly, as a "a technology consultant in New York City who worked for IBM repairing typewriters from 1973 to 1985." Blogger Tim Blair tracks down Glennon; it turns out he first weighed in on the subject in the comments section of Kevin Drum's blog for The Washington Monthly, a liberal magazine.
Rather needs a new "expert" each day because his old experts and sources keep abandoning him. From today's Washington Post:
The lead expert retained by CBS News to examine disputed memos from President Bush's former squadron commander in the National Guard said yesterday that he examined only the late officer's signature and made no attempt to authenticate the documents themselves.
"There's no way that I, as a document expert, can authenticate them," Marcel Matley said in a telephone interview from San Francisco. The main reason, he said, is that they are "copies" that are "far removed" from the originals.
Last Friday, as we noted yesterday, Rather cited Matley's point about copies as if it were evidence of authenticity. The New York Post, meanwhile, reports that Matley is "rather wacky":
The expert chosen by CBS to check Dan Rather's disputed National Guard documents got his start as a graphologist analyzing "Spirituality in Handwriting" and lacks recognized document training, The Post has learned. . . . In "Spirituality in Handwriting," Matley assesses a woman's "libidinal energy" based on her handwriting.
The most important question in all this, however, remains unanswered: Who gave CBS the fraudulent documents? If it was someone in the Kerry campaign or the Democratic National Committee, then Dan Rather is engaging in a partisan coverup.
The "CBS Evening News" Web page contains this notice:
CONSUMER ALERT: Know of a scam that needs investigating? Tell us about it! Email us at scams@cbsnews.com.
Hmm, we can think of one.
Forging Ahead With eBay
An eBay seller is auctioning off a "rare 1961 IBM 72 Selectric typewriter." Here's the item description, quoted verbatim:
Now you can create those forged documents right the very first time. . . . Yes, this is the one CBS should have used to forge there documents. So to give your forged documents that original look use the original equipment. All you need is some old typing paper to give your forged documents that unique original professional look!
Coincidentally, the seller, a company called Marshalls Merchandising, is based in Aurora, Colo., where John Kerry was born. Kerry, by the way, later served in Vietnam.
The Whine Spectator
CBS isn't the only liberal media organ to find itself on the defensive. Blogger Edward Morrissey notes that Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger Jr., publisher of the New York Times, delivered a vintage whine at Kansas State University yesterday:
The publisher of The New York Times complained Monday about what he called a cheapening of the public debate but said he thinks news organizations can improve the situation.
Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., speaking at Kansas State University, said newspapers and broadcast stations that try to give unbiased information face increased skepticism and even cynicism from the public.
Morrissey gives an example of why people are right to be skeptical and even cynical about the Times' claims that they "try to give unbiased information": The Times devoted 70 stories to Joe Wilson's various claims about Niger, uranium, his "secret agent" wife, etc., but only three stories to the collapse of Wilson's credibility.
Sulzberger also "expressed concern about what he said was the growing shrillness of political debate":
He criticized talk radio for too often having a "trial by insult format," television programs that provide little more than "barroom chatter" and authors who increase book sales by becoming more shrill in their writing.
Gee, Pinch, would that include Maureen Dowd and former Enron adviser Paul Krugman?
On Second Thought, Let's Talk About the Issues
Newsweek's Jonathan Alter makes a pretty good point:
Does anyone beyond the rankest partisans seriously believe that either Kerry or Bush deserves to lose because of something that happened more than 30 years ago? In a more peaceful election year, perhaps we could afford to obsess over whether Kerry bled enough for his Purple Hearts or Bush shirked his National Guard duty. But this is not such an election. We have a bumper crop of real issues this year.
Who can disagree? Of course, John Kerry has spent the entire campaign talking about things that happened more than 30 years ago. Alter would have done better--and, for that matter, so would Kerry, had he listened--if he'd pointed this out before it became clear that the events of 30 years ago are a politically liability for the haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat.
Kerry: More Popular Than O.J.
The Washington Post's Dana Milbank notes (third item) that John Kerry's approval rating in the latest Post-ABC poll is an anemic 36%. By comparison, former Kerry boss Michael Dukakis had a 47% approval rating in 1988. Kerry ties with the 2004 approval rating of Martha Stewart and edges out Joseph McCarthy (35% in 1954), Rush Limbaugh (34% in 2003), Pete Rose (34% in 2004) and O.J. Simpson (29% in 1995).
Oh, well at least Kerry still leads President Bush in New Jersey, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer--but not by much. The latest poll gives Kerry a 43% to 39% lead over the president, in a state Al Gore won by nearly 16%.
The Price Is Wrong
Lately John Kerry has taken to whining about how expensive the war in Iraq has been, and how that has meant less money for such pressing needs as "afterschool programs." Kerry doesn't exactly live up to the real JFK's determination to "pay any price, bear any burden . . . in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty." And now it turns out that KERRY LIED!!!! about the cost of the war.
"Kerry is . . . claiming in the latest version of his standard stump speech that the war in Iraq has cost '$200 billion and counting,' " reports Factcheck.org, a Web site of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania:
But so far, the bill for the war is still under $120 billion, according to the Office of Management and Budget. Kerry runs the figure up to $200 billion by counting money scheduled to be spent next fiscal year, plus additional funds for the future that haven't even been requested yet. He also is counting money projected to be spent for operations in Afghanistan and to protect US cities, not for Iraq.
Nuance Alert
In an interview with Time magazine, John Kerry offers this criticism of the Bush administration: "They haven't even engaged in a legitimate effort to try to really transform the ability of Israel to find a legitimate entity to negotiate with."
This shows what a model of clarity we can expect Kerry's foreign policy to be. He'll engage in a legitimate effort to try to really transform the ability of Israel to find a legitimate entity to negotiate with! What could be simpler than that?
On "Meet the Press" Sunday, Kerry adviser Madeleine Albright gave Tim Russert this explanation of the North Korean situation:
Russert: But didn't North Korea develop a nuclear bomb on Bill Clinton's watch?
Albright: No, what they were doing, as it turns out, they were cheating. And the reason that you have arms control agreements is you don't make them with your friends, you make them with your enemies. And it's the process that is required to hold countries accountable. The worst part that has happened under the agreed framework, there was these fuel rods, and the nuclear program was frozen. Those fuel rods have now been reprocessed, as far as we know, and North Korea has a capability, which at one time might have been two potential nuclear weapons, up to six to eight now, we're not really clear. But in this period of time when there has not enough action been taken, I think that the threat from North Korea has increased.
Shouldn't that "no" have been a "yes"?
Left-Wing Lemmings
In the pages of the Carolinian, a student newspaper of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, one Joe Killian predicts mass suicide if President Bush wins re-election:
It's not hard to imagine that on November 3rd, if the election can be called by then, there might be a sort of grim mass exodus from this sad planet should Bush pull this election out. My generation may be particularly vulnerable to the urge to lay back in a warm bath and open up their veins as chants of "Four More Years" echo horribly from every 24 hour cable news station.
Sounding like one of those celebrities threatening to move if the election doesn't go their way, Killian then says, "Though I finally have my own bathroom this year, you won't find me dead in my tub on November 3rd."
Fight Terror, Visit a Shut-In
Yesterday we poked fun at Washington's Gov. Gary Locke for giving this advice on how to fight terrorism: "Sign up as a volunteer. Pledge to contribute to a non-profit organization. Drop off some groceries at a food bank. Give blood. Clean up a park. Help a neighbor. Help a stranger." In the interest of bipartisanship, we note this quote from President Bush, at an Oregon campaign appearance in August 2002:
People say, well, Mr. President, I want to be a part of the war on terror, what can I do? And my answer is, love a neighbor just like you'd like to be loved yourself. If you want to fight evil, do some good. It is the gathering momentum of millions of acts of kindness and decency which define the true character of America. It's when somebody mentors a child, when somebody says, I love you, to somebody who is wondering love is possible. That's part of being a part of defining America. It's going to a shut-in's house, and saying, what can I do to help you today? It's a simple act of loving your child every day. It's all part of the goodness that will come out of America.
All the things Locke and Bush suggest are worthy, of course, but mentoring a child or dropping off groceries at a food bank has never produced one dead terrorist.
The Real Cycle of Violence
"Bicycling Palestinian Suicide Bomber Wounds Two Israeli Soldiers"--headline, Agence France-Presse, Sept. 14
How Gun Ban Enriched Gun Dealers
Yesterday we noted a New York Times editorial that said "greedier gun dealers" stand to benefit from the end of the "assault weapon" ban. An article in the New Hampshire Sunday News underscores the economic illiteracy of Gail Collins & Co.:
About the only material difference New Hampshire gun enthusiasts are likely to see after the federal assault weapons ban expires tomorrow are lower prices for high-capacity gun cartridges that hold more than 10 bullets, gun owners and dealers said.
Under the 10-year-old ban, semi-automatic assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips that hold more than 10 bullets were not allowed to be imported or manufactured. It was, however, still legal to own, buy and sell these guns and magazines that were already in the country before the ban took effect.
During the 10-year ban, there was still a supply of these guns and clips. It's just that the prices had gone up considerably, said Ralph Demicco, co-owner of Riley's Sport Shop in Hooksett.
Demicco says he expects magazines he's been selling for $125 will fetch a mere $25--an 80% drop in value. Still, putting principle before profit, he's happy to see the ban go.
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What's Black and White and Red All Over?
"Journalists applying to the Commission on Presidential Debates for credentials to cover the presidential debates are being asked to provide their racial data, a move that has some upset," reports the Associated Press:
John Butler, news director at St. Louis radio station KMOX, said he found the question offensive.
"Here's the deal: It's not their . . . business," he said. "We're journalists, period. We're not white, black, green, purple, male or female. End of story."
We agree with Butler, but our impression is that our revulsion over race-consciousness puts us in a distinct minority in this profession. One wonders if the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Asian-American Journalists Association, the South Asian Journalists Association and the Native American Journalists Association are scandalized at the prospect of journalists identifying themselves by race or ethnicity.
Not Too Brite--CLXIV
"Zambian police have arrested a man who exhumed, cooked and ate part of his grandson's corpse," Reuters reports from Lusaka.
Oddly Enough!
(For an explanation of the "Not Too Brite" series, click here.)
Self-Serious Swede
Remember Hans Blix, the U.N. "weapons inspector"? In today's Guardian, Blix tries his hand at theater criticism, reviewing "Stuff Happens," a play by David Hare about the run-up to Iraq's liberation. Blix writes that in the play, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz "are, I think deservedly, painted with less mercy. They are men who want to strike and smash, and loathe anything 'sensitive' as soft and sissy."
We can't help but think Blix is a bit insecure about his masculinity. After all, why would he, in the twilight of his life, suddenly become a theater critic? Could it be that he wants to be a he-man like Frank Rich, a former theater critic who thinks even fighter pilots are sissies?
Blix actually appears in the play as a character, and his sharpest criticism is of his own depiction: "I don't quite recognise myself in the play, however. Hare has made me look a little silly." Indeed, someone only a little silly is unrecognizable as Hans Blix |
