CBS' “new” Bush guard memos a hoax (Update w/ conclusive proof of forgeries!)

ChronicallyBiased - keeping tabs on the Houston Chronicle ^ | 9/9

[claudiustg]

---Reader Amar Sarwal points out that General Staudt, who thought very highly of Lt. Bush, retired in 1972.---

Well, that expalains why Killian was having so much trouble doing his job. He was worrying about superiors who were no longer in his chain of command.

[hershey]

Courage.

[Doogle]

is dan's (Ralph Kramden's) hummada hummada hummada far behind?

just too funny

Doogle

[MistyCA]

Thanks for the ping. It makes me sick to my stomach to think this country has so many dishonest, wreckless people trying to float to the top.

[somemoreequalthanothers]

I just read on Newsmax that the Kelly book is imploding due to the star witness denying the coke at Camp David non story. It is all going wrong for the...others.

[hershey]

Exactly right. The MSM is in bed with Muslim terrorists and Al Jazeera. They should register as foreign agents.

[PogySailor]

Powerline has an update that points out the kerning in the text of the "memos":

UPDATE 10: Reader Jon-Erik Prichard adds what strikes me as an especially persuasive point:

[A]nother aspect of the type on [the August 18, 1973 memo] suggests, perhaps proves, forgery. 1. The type in the document is KERNED. Kerning is the typsetter's art of spacing various letters in such a manner that they are 'grouped' for better readability. Word processors do this automatically. NO TYPEWRITER CAN PHYSICALLY DO THIS.

To explain: the letter 'O' is curved on the outside. A letter such as 'T' has indented space under its cross bar. On a typewriter if one types an 'O' next to a 'T' then both letters remain separated by their physical space. When you type the same letters on a computer next to each other the are automatically 'kerned' or 'grouped' so that their individual spaces actually overlap. e. g., TO. As one can readily see the curvature of the 'O' nestles neatly under the cross bar of the 'T'. Two good kerning examples in the alleged memo are the word 'my' in the second line where 'm' and 'y' are neatly kerned and also the word 'not' in the fourth line where the 'o' and 't' overlap empty space. A typewriter doesn't 'know' what particular letter is next to another and can't make those types of aesthetic adjustments.

2. The kerning and proportional spacing in each of the lines of type track EXACTLY with 12 point Times Roman font on a six inch margin (left justified). Inother words, the sentences break just as they would on a computer and not as they would on a typewriter. Since the type on the memo is both proportionally spaced and kerned the lines of type break at certain instances (i.e., the last word in each line of the first paragraph are - 1. running, 2. regarding, 3. rating, 4. is, 5. either). If the memo was created on a typewriter the line breaks would be at different words (e. g., the word 'running' is at the absolute outside edge of the sentence and would probably not be on the first line).

3. The sentences have a wide variance in their AMOUNT of kerning and proportional spacing. Notice how the first line of the first paragraph seems squished together and little hard to read but the last line of the first paragraph has wider more open spacing. Even the characters themselves are squished in the first line (as a computer does automatically) and more spread out on the last line where there is more room.

There's no way a typewriter could 'set' the type in this memo and even a good typesetter using a Linotype machine of the era would have to spend hours getting this effect.

[Capricam]

As I recall, there was like a half-space back button for squeezing type into a smaller space. But I could be mistaken. I do know there was no automatic centering back then though. That much is certain.

[Mad Dawgg]

"Overlap of both images for pantograph replication test"

Ouch, that's gonna leave a mark!

[McGavin999]

That's right, you went to the center of the page and backspaced for every other letter.

[bray]

Why would anyone manually center an address for a memo. It was a complete pain and often wouldn't line if the spaces were odd or even numbers. They would have left justified it.

Pray for W and Our Troops

[Alouette]

The "font" on the old Selectrics was in the form of a type ball, which was replaceable.

I used to have a Selectric. The font ball came in three flavors (that I know of): elite, courier, and lettergothic. No proportional, no kerning, no Times New Roman. You could move up half a line for superscript or down half a line for subscript but NO WAY did that change the size of the font.

[VRWC_minion]

In all fairness, back in the stone ages we used to center on mechanical typewriters all the time. It's just that the typist did the math rather than having the computer figure it out. :-)

But you miss the point. The lines are centered based on the length, not the number of letters. Look closely at the first e in Intercepter. This is the center. Now look down and notice that the O in Box is slightly to the left of the e above. The typist had to be so good at centering he had to take into account the proportionate spacing.

[LibLieSlayer]

The point is that even if you did this, the type set would never align perfectly. This is due to the algorithm used in MS Word. Not all of the letters are of the same exact size, and this unique signature cannot be duplicated on a typewriter of this era (as per experts in Weekly Standard Investigative Report due out tonight). Overlaying the two documsnts would yield some difference in spacing.

Check out the sloppy "cut and paste" job on the signature in two of the memos.

LLS

[alnick]

But you miss the point

Yes, I did, and I've been properly set straight by several Freepers on this thread. :-)

[musicman]

#147 WoW BTTT !!!!

[GOPcapitalist]

Ping!

[gswilder]

PO Box 34567 ..... Guess it could be, but what another coindidence. What I am amazed by is how bad this forgery is.

[Shmokey]

Holy backspace Batman!!