Posted on 02/01/2008 10:47:50 AM PST by Bob J
Since losing the 2004 presidential election, John Kerry and his supporters have continued to claim "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak out against John Kerry" and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have been "discredited" for spreading a pack of lies about Kerry's military service in Vietnam and his subsequent leadership in the anti-war movement....
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
This is an excellent review by a man who knows what he is talking about. He was the co-author of Unfit For Command.
Ping
One source says the word McCarthyism was coined by Washington Post political cartoonist Herbert Block (Herblock).
Another source makes more sense to me. To wit, it was the Soviet-financed and controlled CP/USA invention. That makes more sense to me because it was the Communists' 24/7 job to discredit anti-communists.
Besides an American, even one as left-wing as Herblock, would have IMO come up with calling the Senator a sot. Herblock's images of McCarthy clearly portrayed a drunk. Perhaps Herblock picked up the word at one of his cell meetings. :)
As is the wont of the left, the real issues are swept aside and the person raising the issues becomes the issue. It seems to work every time, ask Ann Coulter.
History has proved that McCarthy's issues were mostly on target and therefore (IMO) the correct definition of the word should be the one that he adopted once the Communists' pejorative version was out there.
Nevertheless, McCarthy was certainly charismatically challenged.
Of course, it's considerably more difficult to overturn conventional wisdom 50 years after the fact...
Thank you for the reference.
Evans, actually... my mistake.
Thanks for the ping!
We'd better get real busy correcting the misconception about the meaning of swift boating.
Here's an example of the former: a news item about the recent passing of 89-year-old Mr. Mel Fiske, "a member of Communist Party U.S.A. [who] worked as a reporter for the party's newspaper, the Daily Worker, from 1940 until 1956, when he realized Soviet-style communism was not aligned with his vision of a socialist utopia."
(Of course 1956 was when Khruschev admitted the truth about Stalin causing many "American" Communists to leave the Party and -- some say -- spawning the New Left when the Party's young turned to Mao and their own plans for revolution and "paradise.")
Here's the funny part: "As a reporter for the Daily Worker he covered Congress, the Supreme Court, the White House and the Pentagon, focusing on the opposition to labor organizing, political dissent and the rise of McCarthyism."
The San Francisco Chronicle employee is totally oblivious to the absurdity; to wit, a Communist reporting on the rise of an evil that was looking for something (Communists) who many wanted us to believe didn't exist -- or at least Mr. Fiske the Communist was busy stirring up hatred against that "evil" McCarthyism!
(I stopped listening to Bill O'Reilly for about a year because of his swift boat ignorance, also.)
LOL!
Like there’s no bias in Jerome Corsi reviewing this one! LOL!!
Not that there’s anything wrong with that!
It occurred to me (borrowing on the SF Chronicle article in post #49) that some time many years from now there might be this in the news:
"Former Senator John Kerry passed away today at age 99. Blah, blah... It was learned a few years ago that his charges of war crimes against his fellow Viet Nam veterans were lies and his service records did not comport with his public claims. He is best remembered as a victim of swift boating."
Yes, when BOR was sucking up to Jon Cary and smearing the Swift Boat Vets for Truth I tuned him out for good and haven’t watched him since. For a guy who supposedly prides himself on critical judgment and good reporting, BOR proved himself an incredible sucker for liberal b.s.
“(i.e., that “swift boating” means getting the truth out)”
I’m all for the political swiftboating of McCain & his congressional record.
It's true that he's inclined to be sympathetic. It's also true that he knows what he's talking about...
Yep, and they'd write it without a trace of irony.
Oh, sure, just because he was in Vietnam at the same time as Kerry and knows Kerry lied, like that matters!
< who loves ya, babe? >
Actually, Jerry is a civilian. He did a lot of research into political violence and the antiwar movement after completing his doctorate at Harvard, and became very familiar with Kerry and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War during that time.
When Jerry volunteered to work with me at WinterSoldier.com in early 2004, he sent me a 1,000-page study of the police response to the antiwar protests at the 1972 Republican Convention in Miami that he had written, by way of introduction. After that, we worked closely together throughout the campaign developing stories on Kerry and the VVAW. Much of that material found its way into Unfit for Command, which of course Jerry co-authored.
Good sales and 23 (out of 23) five star ratings at Amazon.com (the 24th rating was 4 out of 5 - not sure why a point was knocked off, but the reviewer complains (?? I’m guessing a little that here’s his complaint) that the main point was made early in the book).
"Setting the Record Straight" from our own Scott Swett and Tim Zielger, long time FReepers and ex Board of Director members of the Free Republic Network.
To Set the Record Straight is an excellent book.Chapter 13: Rather's Ruin and the Rise of the Pajamahadeen is an FR thread which the authors had posted.
The whole book is a pretty fast read.
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