Author Archives: Marshall Poison

Swiftboat Veterans for “truth”

So, the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth (more acurately “liars who will trample over anything resembling the truth get their man elected”) have struck again.

Appearantly they’ve been circulating a letter questioning Kerry’s service supposedly signed by about 300 swift boat veterans. The problem is, more than one of the veterans named didn’t give consent for their names to be used, they weren’t even asked. Even if they were asked, they wouldn’t have consented.

One vet saw the letter and contacted some of the other vets listed. Of the dozen he contacted 3 hadn’t given permission. Hmm, wonder how many of the other names on the letter have been appropriated.

I went to look at their website which contains quotes like:

We think that he[Kerry] knew he was lying when he made the charges, and we think that they’re unsupportable. We intend to bring the truth about that to the American people.

We believe, based on our experience with him, that he is totally unfit to be the Commander-in-Chief.”

— John O’Neill, spokesman, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth

and

“I do not believe John Kerry is fit to be Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the United States. This is not a political issue. It is a matter of his judgment, truthfulness, reliability, loyalty and trust — all absolute tenets of command.

— Rear Admiral Roy Hoffmann, USN (retired), chairman, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth

Now, what am I to make of such righteousness from such complete and utter frauds?

Get to know someone new.

I have a great idea. Find out the names and addresses of some of your local Republican Party functionaries. It’s easy to do. Just google for the website of your state Republican party and then look for local members of the state commitee. Washington state residents can get a head start here.

Next step is to take some time to pay them a friendly visit. Introduce yourself. Establish common ground around shared values like the importance of friends and family Let them know how concerned you are about this next presidential election. How important its outcome is to the country. How bad things could get for all of us if there were any questions about the way the polling was collected anywhere in the country. Engage them in a creative discussion about how we work togeather to be sure the results of polling are valid, no matter what the juristiction.

We are all in this together after all. We all have so much to loose. We can’t let a few people risk it all for their own gain.

Safer? My Ass!

I think of myself as pretty moderate, and not particularly partisan, though its hard to be anything but a bit disgusted during campaign season. The Democrats have been turning my stomach, and now the Republican Convention is boiling my blood a little.

Listening to and reading the foreign policy rationale spewed during the convention really makes me uneasy. I think having a military, and using it when necessary, is an important part of defending our country from a very real threat.

The thing is, I think its important to use it wisely. Using it wisely would mean making sure there were enough troops on the ground in Afghanistan to keep it from disintegrating back into terrorist playground. Using it wisely would mean not invading Iraq under false or dubious pretenses. Whether or not one was invading under false pretenses, using it wisely would mean not invading without sufficient troop strength and post-war planning in place to insure the country doesn’t disintegrate into another terrorist playground. Using it wisely would mean holding the secretary of defense accountable for such mistakes, and the others, like the torture of prisoners (including children) that occurred during his watch. Using it wisely would mean being aware that doing a sloppy job is just going to make a difficult job even harder.

The Republican standard bearers demonstrate no wisdom in this regard. They seem inclined to sweep all these bungles and mistakes under the rug, happy to sacrifice our safety and security in order to secure another term for a Republican president. They paint anyone critical of this bungling as cowards, or even traitors. They surely can’t see how this bungling could come back and bite us on the ass in the form of 20 years of terrorist attacks on American soil and 20 years of national insecurity as we constantly fear for our oil supply.

RSS Bandit

I’ve been using Sharpreader as my RSS aggregator for 6 months or so. I picked it largely because of the way it managed feeds. I just tried RSS Bandit again though. It seems to have similar features these days, as well as the ablility to sync state (feeds subscribed, articles read) across installs via a variety of methods, including an FTP share.

Zell Miller

So, what is it that ever made Zell Miller a democrat? I tuned in to some polemic, delivered to loud applause after each sentence or two. I figured it was the GOP convention, but I didn’t know who was speaking until he said something in the midst of something foreign-policy related along the lines of “my party has become a party full of people who think that America is the problem.” When this statement received loud applause, I had to assume that this guy wasn’t speaking to “his own.”

What I don’t get is why this guy ever thought of himself as a Democrat. His stereotypes of his “fellow Democrats” sound like the type of rhetoric Republican’s were using against Anti-war Democrats in the Vietnam era.

Someone in the DNC should have revoked Zell’s papers long ago.