Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (55627)	9/13/2004 10:44:59 AM
From: Gersh Avery	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Please provide me with the link for this: Of course, that only works if people don't take the time to debunk the lies. So with that in mind, let's deconstruct the four major planks of the right wing's attack on the 60 Minutes Story: 1. Times New Roman Fonts did not exist in 1972 The Times New Roman font was developed in 1931 by Stanley Morison, Typographical Advisor to the Monotype Corporation who adapted the font to the IBM selectric Typewriter in 1947. 2. Documents back then didn't have superscripted 'th' characters Superscripted fonts appear on other documents in Bush's flight school record, and had been available on IBM electric typewriters since 1947. 3. The document used proportional spacing which was not available in 1972 Proportional spacing had been available on typewriters since 1941. Press advertisements dating back to 1952 and 1953 suggest that the feature was widely available, and was even used on Richard Nixon's resignation letter in 1974. 4. The document used curlycue apostrophes which did not exist on typewriters in 1972. Print advertisements for the IBM Exectuive typewriter show that curlycue apostrophes were used as early as 1953. Proof that the air force was using typewriters capable of producing documents as early as 1966 can be found here.

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (55627)	9/13/2004 12:08:05 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

Tickets to Bush magic show only thing 1,000 deaths bought ________________________ By Leonard Pitts Jr. Syndicated columnist Sunday, September 12, 2004 Three years later, Osama bin Laden is still free, apparently hiding somewhere in the mountains of Afghanistan. Three years later, a spirited presidential campaign is in full swing, the candidates sparring over Vietnam. Three years later, there comes news that the American death toll in Iraq has surpassed a thousand. Iraq, as you know, is the front line in the War on Terror that began Sept. 11, 2001. Or at least, that's what the president keeps stubbornly saying and polls indicate half of us keep stubbornly believing. And never mind that intelligence experts say Iraq had about as much to do with Sept. 11 as Canada did. No need to focus too closely on that. We're watching a sort of magic show, after all, public opinion manipulated like a handkerchief borrowed out of the audience. Nothing up his sleeve, presto! The lie becomes the truth. And a thousand people die. It's one of those numbers that always gets the news media's attention, carrying as it does the weight of a milestone. But I am reminded of something a reader told me after an earlier column lamenting the death toll that, at that point, stood just south of 600. That's not that many, he said. By the grim mathematics of war, he has a point. Even a thousand deaths represents the barest fraction of those who were lost in Vietnam. During the Civil War, many times that number often were lost in a single day. Besides, the death count is slightly misleading, given that it includes not just Americans killed in action, but also those who died from accidents, suicides and other causes. But the weight of the milestone is not so easily shrugged aside and, even given those caveats, a thousand lives lost is not an insignificant thing. "One" life lost is not insignificant. Especially when you consider all the mothers, fathers, children, husbands, wives, co-workers and friends each loss affects. Of course, the sobering truth is that life is the currency of war, the means by which a nation purchases its goals when they cannot be obtained by peaceful means. Or when the nation refuses to wait for peaceful means to bear fruit. Given that this currency is so precious, we're morally obligated to spend it carefully. So even though we're talking about "only" a thousand lives, it seems fair to pause and consider what they have bought. Actually, it's easier to list the things they have not bought. They have not bought a sense of security. Pollsters say more than half of us expect a terrorist strike in the near future. They have not bought peace in Iraq. The death toll rose by four while I was writing this column. They have not bought the world's respect. We are feared by allies and vilified by people we purported to liberate. So what have those lives bought? As near as I can tell, only tickets to a magic show. Maybe you consider that an insult to those who lost their lives in their country's service. I would only point out that the search for meaning in death has nothing to do with the dead. It is, rather, a comfort the living give themselves to soften the rough edges of mourning. Will we insist on that comfort even if doing so requires us to believe what is not true? That's a question I could not have imagined asking that September morning three years ago. But three years later, the man who authored that unholy day is on the back burner. Three years later, our moral authority is squandered, our sense of purpose wasted. Three years later, the death toll in an unnecessary and unrelated war climbs above a milestone number. And the president presents a magic show. Abracadabra! A quagmire becomes a showcase of his iron resolve. Maybe for his next trick, he will pull an election out of a hat. You might be able to enjoy his act. I keep thinking we paid way too much to get in. _______________________________ Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr.'s column appears Sunday on editorial pages of The Times. seattletimes.nwsource.com