Comments on: Why I don’t like Mickey Kaus

By: Adam Kotsko

Adam Kotsko — Sat, 01 May 2004 15:21:46 +0000

The double standard for Bush and Kerry reveals the liberal bias of the media—reporters and pundits believe liberal Democrats to be superior human beings and so hold them up to a higher standard than the “Re-thug-licans” or whatever we’re supposed to call them. Of course Republican presidents lie to us about an unnecessary and immoral war—the public would have to be a bunch of idiots not to just assume that—but when a Democrat lies about his sex life, or his medals, or whatever other minor point Democrats lie about, it’s a big deal. It’s like, you expect Saddam Hussein to kill people, but if Billy Graham accidentally bumps into someone and fails to say he’s sorry, that’s news. I personally agree with conservatives that this pernicious liberal bias is completely unfair.

By: Nat Whilk

Nat Whilk — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 19:43:11 +0000

Jon R. Koppenhoefer writes: “. . . read . . . about atrocities committed by American soldiers in Vietnam. . . . Maybe John Kerry didn’t commit them, maybe his mates didn’t either, but by God somebody sure did.” I think it was Bob Kerrey and his mates.

By: Sage, Hollywood

Sage, Hollywood — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 17:57:45 +0000

I’ve been trying to send this e-mail to Kaus, but my @#%! e-mail program won’t send it for some reason. If anyone wants to cut and paste and send it for me, I’d be much obliged. Anyway, here is is: From: Sage in Hollywood To: mickey_kaus@msn.com Subject: Dude, quit the nitpicking Mr. Kaus, Do you actually take yourself seriously? Do you ever step back from your anti-Kerry blog and look at the big picture? You take a single blustery comment from a 27-year-old war protestor, a guy who has been targeted by Nixon’s secret police, and you blow it up into a huge character issue thirty years later. WTF??? Who CARES if they were ribbons or medals? John Kerry threw his ribbons over the fence, he threw some medals that other veterans asked him to throw, and yeah, maybe he took a macho stance on a TV interview. Big fucking deal Maybe he didn’t want to admit that he didn’t have his other medals with him, because then the reporter would have questioned his resolve. He never said straight up that he threw the stars or the Purple Hearts, he just let the reporter believe what he wanted to believe. Protester types do that all the time when trying to get their point across. He’s not gonna shoot the movement in the foot by saying “No, I wanted to keep my best medals.” If you spent as much time nitpicking George W. Bush’s character flaws, your brain would explode from the sheer input overload. Why not write a blog about W.’s drunk driving? Hey, he could have killed somebody! Thousands die every year from drunk driving. How about W.’s challenge to go mano-a-mano with his father? If W. is so tough, why didn’t he go “mano-a-mano” with the Viet Cong like John Kerry? Why not blog about W.’s disappearance from the Air National Guard. That’s not a matter of ribbons vs. medals, that’s a matter of FAILURE TO APPEAR for MILITARY SERVICE. In my mind, Kerry’s indiscretions aren’t even close. And it doesn’t end there. W.’s stinky business deals over the years, his mocking of death row inmate Karla Fay Tucker, his use of surrogates to impugn the sanity and patriotism of political rivals…..I just can’t believe you take yourself seriously with these petty—yes, PETTY —John Kerry attacks. And hey—while we’re at it, let’s talk about things that happened in the last four years. Yeah, Kerry failed to take credit for his wife’s SUV. Bush failed to take credit for misleading the nation into WAR. Kerry said he voted for the $87 billion before he voted against it (the truth, even if clumsily told). Bush said “We’ve found the weapons of mass destruction” (a lie, plain and simple). Bush’s campaign has said that Kerry voted to raise taxes 350 times, a number that was totally debunked by your pal Michael Kinsley. Bush pretended to Bob Woodward that he was reluctant to go to war with Iraq, when in “Bush at War” he had Iraq on his hitlist the first weekend after 9/11. Bush wasn’t reluctant at all, nor was he skeptical of the shaky WMD evidence. If he was skeptical, wouldn’t he be angry now that the evidence turned out to be false? Wouldn’t he fire George Tenet for claiming it was a “slam dunk”, if Bush was some champion of truth? It’s all b.s. Now that the truth is out for everyone to see (nod to David Kay), Bush is still peddling the same old lies about Saddam Hussein being a threat to America. Saddam wasn’t a threat to anyone except Shiites and Kurds in Iraq. One of my high school friends, a Marine, died in Fallujah on April 8th. For what? WMD? No. Fighting al-Qaeda? No. Spreading democracy? Is that the current rationale? Who would have approved this war if that was the goal? Does America want to be responsible for creating democracies at the point of a gun? If so, there’s a lot of countries yet to occupy. But if we implement democracy as poorly as Bush has done in Afghanistan and Iraq, all that blood and treasure will be wasted on a failed mission. Why aren’t we taking on real threats (Iran, North Korea, Al Qaeda) if Bush is such a tough cowboy? The guy is a total faker, a chump, and it’s too bad people like you can’t see it. You can call John Kerry a pompous liberal all you want, but the truth is he killed twenty men in Vietnam. He’s got real guts, not fake bluster like this short-sighted slug we have in the White House. Go ahead and predict buyer’s remorse by Democrats all you want. I predict buyer’s remorse by the American people, once they see that Bush has no clothes. If only there weren’t mealy-mouthed nitpickers like you peddling the moronic RNC spin. Sincerely, Sage V.H. Hollywood, CA

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 13:56:18 +0000

I haven’t decided if Mr. Vandal is certifiable or just a very bored performance artist. Could be he’s both.

By: Zizka

Zizka — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 13:11:36 +0000

Everybody go to Ricky Vandal’s site. The guy may be certifiable. Ricky, go play with your My Little Pony collection and quit bothering the guests. Justin, putting your fingers in your ears and saying nonny-nonny isn’t an argument. We’ve all seen it before many times. You want “Contradiction”—it’s down the hall. This is “Argument” here.

By: justin @ RSR

justin @ RSR — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 05:04:34 +0000

Licanin, Wish I had all the time in world to respond at a moments notice. But since you persist… so will I. Somersby it is. Below are responses to his post today. LET THEM EAT PEANUT BUTTER First, somersby has issues with the NY Times publishing a letter to the editor. (If I had a nickel) Pick up any newspaper and you find outrageous letters to the editor. Yes, Somersby is correct that the conterversy is about Kerry’s first medal. He claims that the fingernail scrape claim “was shown to be blatantly false.” There’s nothing blatant about it. It is a legitimate question. I think it’s pithy and not worth our time… but hardly blatantly false. Somersby then goes on to berate Maurine Dowd. I’m no fan of Dowd, but what is Somersby’s complaint? That she uses rhetoric?! Shocking. Somersby continues to rail against the media, justifiably I might add. Then he loses himself in the opinions of Woodward and Schweizer about a supposed “holy war.” He’s entitled to it… but it’s no different than what Dowd and Wilogren do. He adds opinion to opinion, spins it his way and then complains when others do the same. see my blog to continue this pointless dialogue… :)

By: licanin

licanin — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 04:13:58 +0000

Justin: Thank you for saving me some time in the future, by teaching me never to respond to your posts. As others have stated, Somersby is serious about documenting his allegations. I guess you just don’t want to see.

By: Keith M Ellis

Keith M Ellis — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 03:36:56 +0000

Kaus lost it a long time ago. And Fray is infested with vandals, which is why I don’t go there very much these days.

By: Jon R. Koppenhoefer

Jon R. Koppenhoefer — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 03:31:47 +0000

While we’re on the subject of war atrocities, try a Google on the name “Lieutenant William Calley” or “My Lai”. Or, for that matter, read the recent series in the Toledo Blade about atrocities committed by American soldiers in Vietnam. I’m frankly surprised that any honest person denies that these things happened. Maybe John Kerry didn’t commit them, maybe his mates didn’t either, but by God somebody sure did.

By: Ricky Vandal

Ricky Vandal — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 02:52:59 +0000

JP, Thank you for the Slate fray hint. I’m on it and getting quite some attention. I think there are a lot of independents who are looking for reasons to vote for Bush, because they absolutely loath Cut and Run Kerry. I’m trying to provide them with reasons. Bush has made America strong again. He is worth reelecting.

By: justin @ RSR

justin @ RSR — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 02:37:31 +0000

Jeremy, ”brick wall” I’m not sure why you think you’re talking to a brick wall? I’ve posted several responses to some valid questions. Is it because I haven’t accepted your opinion? explitive I stand by my statement: “Bush is not on the record denying or defining what the ‘grounding’ was all about.” If you read my posts above you’ll see that I’m not defending Bush… (although I am admittedly pro-Bush). The purpose of my post was to demonstrate that Kerry’s medal flap is more prominent news because he did deny and define his history in multiple and sometimes conflicting ways. records Should Bush release all of his records? I’ll be honest about it. Sure. But again, my point is this: Kerry has said many things on records that have differed over the last 30 years which is why it becomes headline news and Bush’s record has not been prominently featured.

By: Phoenix Woman

Phoenix Woman — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 02:27:55 +0000

Mickey Kaus sleeps with dead goats! Pass it on!

By: riume

riume — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 02:17:28 +0000

I would have thought by now, especially given that ole Feiler Faster Thesis, Kaus would have had an extended stay in a country home near akron or somesuch and then would have written a book called “blinded by the right, well not exactly the right, more like my own pretension” and gone on to fame and fortune as a staight talker on Air America…..

By: riume

riume — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 02:17:21 +0000

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 01:42:24 +0000

At the risk of speaking to a brick wall, I have one more comment for Justin, regarding the assertion that “GWB is not on the record denying or defining what the “grounding” was all about.” Bullshit. Bush has still not released all of his records. He gave the press a big pile of stuff which his advisors vetted twice before releasing, but he did not take the far simpler step of signing a release form to allow his full military record to be reviewed… as John Kerry did… and as John McCain did in 2000 when the Bush campaign was making false claims about his mental health. As it stands, we have only Bush’s word that this is the complete file, and many key pieces of information that would be present in any military file are missing, indicating that… yep, you guessed it… Bush lied. In addition, portions of the “complete” file Bush gave to the press were redacted… including the name of the other man who was grounded at the same time as Bush… a man who turned out to be Bush friend and Saudi family contact James Bath. Now, why do you suppose that kind of thing would be such a threat to national security that Bush would have it deleted from documents he then claimed represented his “complete” record. Could it be that Bush was interested in suppressing potentially embarassing information? So, let’s review: Bush says he’ll release all his records on MTP. He pretends to do so but does not actually do so. He edits the things he does present. He then accuses Kerry of not releasing his records. Kerry signs a release allowing public scrutiny of all his military records. Finding nothing but a stellar record in Kerry’s files, Bush allies (and hacks like Kaus) instead attack Kerry’s record with vague accusations and unsupported suggestions. And the final step… people like Justin stick they’re fingers in their ears and say “La la la la la! I can’t hear you! La la la la la!” The cycle is complete.