TWO BITS ON THE SWIFT BOAT VETS

(huh? twenty-five cents?)

--Ooh goody, a one-stop shop for debunking the Swift Boat Lying Liars for Lying. (link via Ailes)

--Bill O'Reilly -- Bill O'Reilly? -- comes out against attacking Kerry's war record. There are two possibilities. The first is that O'Reilly is sincerely making this judgment, and for that he should be cheered. The second is that this is a case of O'Reilly self-consciously trying to create an aura of (faux) independence for himself by criticizing something stupid (glad to see O'Neill, Corsi and their ilk likened to NAMBLA, haha). Either way, the end result is fine.

Just one problem though:

Remember, Gen. Wesley Clark was knocked out of the presidential sweepstakes when he would not disown Michael Moore's insane remark that President Bush was a "deserter." Bush received an honorable discharge from the National Guard.

Er, no. Wesley Clark got knocked out of the Democratic primary campaign because his campaign never got off the ground. He screwed up the "would you have supported the war" question on the very first day of his campaign, and he made the idiotic decision to skip Iowa. The media also wanted him out in February, since they had an interest in thinning out the herd (costs, the drama of a 2-man race, etc). The real reason O'Reilly said what he said is to raise a familiar GOP bogeyman (Moore) as a way of saying "Don't worry, I'm on your side!"

Okay, back to packing...