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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (216762)	2/7/2007 2:55:53 PM
From: Katelew	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Actually, I followed it very intently all the way through. I knew I would probably vote straight democrat, so I was looking at all the commentary to see whether or not it could derail the election. But yes, you could say I was already in a biased position. I can also say, however, that my propaganda radar went up immediately upon hearing the swift boat accusations. I'm from a military family, so I was suspicious of any claim that someone (Kerry) could fabricate a story sufficient to win them a medal. The testimony of witnesses is the basis for awarding medals. So at that point I was suspicious because it didn't make sense. But I followed it closely because those were strong accusations and people were, as you say, putting their name, reputations, etc. on the line. All I personally was interested in, though, was whether or not Kerry had somehow gotten his medals dishonestly. The other stuff, for ex. the swift boaters anger at Kerry's youthful anti-war efforts was nothing more than them expressing an opinion to which they were entitled. Eventually, I was satisfied that Kerry's account of his war experiences were truthful. As for buying the book, I scanned it at Barnes and Noble. But I didn't spend much time on it when I saw the publisher was Regnery. I have a strong, visceral antagonism toward this company. I first encountered Regnery publishing about 20 years ago. I was browsing in a local Christian bookstore and found a small section of video rentals, most of which were about different religions as well as the main sects of Christianity. I was excited and thought this would be a cool way to introduce my children to the basic tenets of other faiths. We live in a totally WASPISH part of the country. I rented two....one on Catholicism and one on Mormonism....and took them home to preview before my kids got out of school. What I saw just stunned me. I didn't even know such things were out there for public consumption. Both videos were cartoon like in structure. Hateful commentary...sometimes audio but mostly in print...that was followed by cartoon like drawings. The thing I remember most clearly was a recommendation that if mormon missionaries came to your door, you should run them off your porch with a garden hose and it showed a drawing of two young men being blasted over porch railings. Another showed someone holding a big cross up to a 'mormon' like you would to Dracula because Mormons supposedly didn't believe in wearing a cross (I think, but memory a little fuzzy on that one.) The Catholic one went into a lot of conspiracy and secret ritual stuff and had drawings of sinister looking bishops, etc. At any rate, it made me angry to think that this crud was being peddled in what was then our first community Christian bookstore. I thought maybe the store owner didn't relize what he had bought. It took a little effort, but eventually I persuaded the store owner to remove them. I wrote Regnery a letter of complaint and that was the end of it. During the Clinton admin. I came across a Regnery published video at my local Blockbuster. This one strung together some supposed string of events that involved the Clintons in drug smuggling and even murder. No evidence, of course, just alot of speculation and really bizarre things that were being passed off as circumstantial evidence. That one was easy to get off the shelves. Once the store manager looked at it himself, it was gone the next week. I went to the Regnery website, ilaine, to try and find a listing, catalog number, etc. for those religion videos to show you, but turned up nothing. That was twenty years ago. Maybe the company has cleaned up a little. You were critical of my Southern Poverty Law Center post, but I believe, based on my experience, that that is the mindset and worldview of the family that built Regnery. It would be really hard for me to support them by buying any of their books, just based on principle.