… for staying on top of what appears to be internal malfeasance at Amazon and Barnes and Noble Online, regarding Unfit for Command. The book, however, seems to be doing just fine. As of now it is number one on Amazon.
But speaking of books, I am curious what Douglas Brinkley, author of the laudatory Kerry bio Tour of Duty, would have to say about The Cambodia Affair. He makes no reference to Kerry’s having crossed the border into Cambodia. To the contrary, he indicates Kerry’s awareness that, to use a former president’s words, “That would be wrong.”
Yet, Brinkley must surely have been aware of Kerry’s various peculiar pronouncements on the subject, now available all over the Internet, if not in The New York Times, which evidently does not (yet) consider this news. Did he ever ask Il Capitano about it? Perhaps he preferred not to. After all, a gig’s a gig.
UPDATE: The movie version is already out!
Roger,
Don’t you remember “Apocolypse Now”? Don’t rely on memory, pop it into your player (or better, “…Redux”) and watch it again. Kerry has put himself in the position of the boat commander in the movie. Even the “Christmas fireworks” story is in the movie. So is the “USO” show that he supposedly got lost trying to find. Everything he has said so far is in the movie. As I read somewhere, Hewitt, I think, “What’s next, dinner with Kurtz?”
I am wary of the historian turned talking head
as Brinkley is. Dave Maraniss is Clinton’s first biographer, Brinkley whips out a bio on Kerry. They both are called at one time or another by Chris Matthews to add weight to a particularly slow Tuesday shout fest with Chris and here they are reigning experts on their subjects. Questionable !!!
Mark in Mexico:
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to find where Kerry claims he traded a drum of diesel fuel for Teresa’s services.
I’m wondering what song he blared out of his speakers as he charged into combat. Hail To The Chief perhaps?
If Kerry had an old Yankee hat, would he have hit before or after Mickey Mantle ?
Should we assume, as President, Kerry would bring that kind of mentality into the War on Terror?
Personally, I don’t think the enemy–terrorists–should have any safe havens.
Wow, you’re really hopped up about this, aren’t you, Roger?
I can remember the days when you thought people making election-year accusations, and selling a book at the same time, were inherently not credible. Ah, yes, that was just five months ago, wasn’t it?
For someone who pretends to high-minded nonpartisanship and civility, you sure are easily led into partisan mud-throwing. Especially when the target of the mud is anyone who challenges Dubya’s stewardship of the “War on Terror.” First it was Howard Dean, then Richard Clarke, Joe Wilson, Michael Moore, and now John Kerry have each taken their turn as Roger Simon’s Public Enemy #1.
What’s up with that? If Bush is doing such a sturdy job, why not defend him instead of devoting yourself to vicious (and often dubious) ad-hominem attacks?
Swopa,
First it was Howard Dean, then Richard Clarke, Joe Wilson, Michael Moore, and now John Kerry have each taken their turn as Roger Simon’s Public Enemy #1.
Seems as if our host has a nose for liars and doesn’t like ‘em much. One of the Gift’s My Father Gave Me was a pretty good sense of the quality of other people’s character. JMO, but I think Roger has no worries on the character front.
Didn’t Steven Den Beste cover this on the difference between idealistic honor and practical honor. It sounds like Roger is opting for the practical version ( http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2004/06/SportsClausewitzandyou.shtml ).
Maybe the secret mission for the CIA involved vampires.
Mr. Simon,
I would love to know what Mr. Brinkley would say about how Rassman and Kerry keep saying Rassman was on Kerry’s boat, while Mr. Brinkley wrote in extensive detail of the battle and how Rassman was in another boat.
I mean, how could he have gotten that so wrong?
Or did he get it so wrong?
Gerry
Forgot to tip my hat to Captain’s Quarters on the first mention I have seen on the one boat vs. two boats detail contradiction.
Swopa-
You little Lefty Shits are so cute when you’re scared. And you are a Shit and it is ad hominem to say so and who gives a fat rat’s ass…
Everyone-
Could it be Kerry drifted into Cambodia while chasing the great white whale?
John Forbes Kerry? John Fibber Kerry is a better fit.
DtP,
J’ai portÈ ce chapeau quand Quint et je flottais dans l’OcÈan Pacifique aprËs une torpille japonaise a coulÈ les Etats-Unis Indianapolis aprËs nous avons livrÈ la bombe ‡ Tinian. Et le PrÈsident d’Etats-Unis n’a pas pris d’action pour nous Èpargner. Pow.
Roger–
I’m with you. It is amazing–flabbergasting–incredible–that this story is buried; overshadowed, as it were, by the story of unbiased minority journalists cheering John Kerry and jeering the President.
I don’t care if it’s legit or not. But it sure seems, doesn’t it, potentially legit enough to be worth debunking, for the unbiased newshound the-truth-is-all-there-is press?
OTish: Kerry’s foreign policy advisor Dr. Rice was just on John Gibson.
So what if our allies were quoted as saying no more help – she didn’t know about the LA Times article, when John Kerry is pres he will have ways (a plan) to bring them on board.
She’s talking another 30K troops from NATO.
Whoopee!
There are many, many things to be done.
Do I smell coalition of the bribed?
Are we going to have to sign Kyoto? Join the ICC? Roll over at the UN?
What is his plan?
And would someone translate that girlyman talk? Thanks.
John Mendenhall:
Since you apparently can’t get in touch with your feminine side…
I wore this hat when Quint and I were floating in the Pacific Ocean after a Japanese torpedo sank the USS Indianapolis after we delivered the bomb to Tinian. And the US President took no action to save us. Pow.
Honest to God, Kerry has got his special mission to Cambodia posted on his official campaign web site.
I know various bloggers have reported this, but you really have to see it to believe it.
John Kerry, Hunter, Dreamer, Realist Complexity Infuses Senator’s Ambition
The hat was a little mildewy. The green camouflage was fading, the seams fraying.
“My good luck hat,” Kerry said, happy to see it. “Given to me by a CIA guy as we went in for a special mission in Cambodia.”
Kerry put on the hat, pulling the brim over his forehead. His blue button-down shirt and tie clashed with the camouflage. He pointed his finger and raised his thumb, creating an imaginary gun. He looked silly, yet suddenly his campaign message was clear: Citizen-soldier. Linking patriotism to public service. It wasn’t complex after all; it was Kerry.
He smiled and aimed his finger: “Pow.”
http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/news/news_2003_0601.html
Here’s Ledeen over at The Corner:
Josh is certainly right to say that what’s important is Kerry himself, not some obscure event in the past. But the “Cambodia” episode is all about Kerry today. It comes from his own contemporary mouth and is posted on his own website. And it’s pure fantasy. So the reason that Instapundit and Rogerlsimon and Powerline and the rest of the precious and wonderful bloggers are so agitated…is that it strongly suggests that Kerry is nuts. Today. Because he is inventing his own past. And that business about carrying the little cap around in his briefcase. Wow.
Posted at 04:42 PM
OTOH, I’m not sure confabulation (in the everyday, not the psychiatric, sense of the word) is a disqualifier for the presidency. Reagan did quite a bit of it, didn’t he?
And apparently FDR made stuff up–exactly this kind of thing, stories that glamorized his past or wildly exaggerated his role in events. (My husband’s working his way through Conrad Black’s bio of FDR, and says Black reports this.)
I always thought this kind of thing meant you were nuts, but after Conrad Black I’m not so sure . . . .
Swopa:
Fact- Sen Kerry on numerous occasions told very dramatic tales about his Christmas in Cambodia. He told it on the Senate floor, he told it in numerous articles.
Fact- Sen. Kerry has made his service in Vietnam one of the main reasons for voting for him. There is no subject that Sen. Kerry has brought up more often or spent more time on then his Vietnam service.
Fact- A group of Vietnam veterans who served with Sen. Kerry have written a book in which they state that his Cambodia story is pure fabrication. They make a very strong case. Sen. Kerry has not responded to the Cambodia charge, has not disputed one fact on this story that they have presented.
The best that SWOPA can come up with is a whiney attack on our host. So far he has not made one substantial argument on the truth or untruth of the Cambodia charge. We get this isn’t relevant, this is mean, this is beneath you Roger. SWOPA, instead of whining to Roger why don’t you write to the Kerry campaign and get them to send you some facts that make the Cambodia story go away. Have him release his ENTIRE war record and this story will go away. If the SVB’s are wrong about the Cambodia charge then let Kerry provide the info that you can use to make Roger and the rest of us look like fools. It should be a easy thing to do.
Oh, and Swopa, if you have in mind pulling out this story about Corsi, do us a favor and look up the “ad hominem circumstantial” first?
Rel‚cher les rapports ! Pow.
Good grief, Catherine! The loon thinks he’s JFK (the first one, not the bad remake) as it is, don’t give him an out to morph into FDR.
Catherine,
it’s true that leaders, great and not so great, can have fantasy lives. However, Kerry offers the nation nothing BUT his Vietnam story, so its weirdness is REALLY IMPORTANT. One can only wonder if he thinks he is Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen or Marlon Brando, or if he drifts around among them, given changing circumstance???
Swopa–I hear you on defending your guy, which is what you are really saying, right? I mean, you’ve got no practical beef with RS, correct?
I would not like it one bit if in a hotly contested election my guy–george Bush, full disclosure–was found to be weaving compelling narratives about surviving AA fire in the Ia Drang valley in 1965 when he was really a sophomore at Yale.
But the fact here is that the guy has based much of his candidacy on his Vietnam experience: Im brave, I have balls and I have made tough calls. I know Im impressed with his service. And if some of that service turns out to be bullshit, if you’ll excuse me, then what precisely is left to vote for?
Stem cells? gay marriage (where he is identical to Bush)? ABortion?
Roger has cred on this because this matters and he has been all over it from the get go; I wish i was, and Im a reporter….
best, R.
Hmmm…. maybe we should back off on the Christmas in Cambodia business considerting this
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/007424.php
Heather
It’s true that leaders, great and not so great, can have fantasy lives.
Yes?
What do you know about this?
I was kind of stunned to “discover” this, assuming it’s actually true . . .
Knucklehead
Well, I don’t think Kerry’s supporters are going to be touting him as the next Roosevelt-slash-Ronald-Reagan because he makes stuff up.
Do you remember Hillary’s story the day after 9/11?
She told Katie Couric a whole, long, harrowing narrative about how Chelsea had gone for a run around the WTCs, and was unreachable after the attacks, and Hillary was waiting to see if she was dead or alive.
A month later Chelsea gave an interview saying she’d been staying with a friend in Midtown and had spoken to her mother’s aide to tell her she was OK immediately after the planes hit.
That just blew me away.
(I also attended a speech given by Hillary to an autism group in which she had clearly invented the major anecdote anchoring the text. The story she told was so wrenching that the mother beside me, who was pregnant, was crying, and I was intensely upset myself. On the way home I realized the whole thing was baloney, start to finish.)
Heather
It’s always interesting to learn what actor famous people want to play them in a movie.
I have a memory that awhile back every U.S. politician wanted Kevin Costner for the role, BUT I could be making that up!
(I wish to heck I could remember, for sure.)
I’d love to know who Kerry wants—–and I’d put money on it he’s got an answer.
OK, I’m thinking Matt Damon.
In Bourne Supremacy.
Catherine,
Given his fantasy life, I’d bet he’d pick John Kerry.
You know, the irony is that if Brinkley had backed Kerry up on the Christmas in Cambodia, I probably would not have posted on it, and maybe the story would not be out there. Obviously I have no way of knowing whether the Swiftees got the story from our post on May 21st, but I can dream that we cued them into this story. At any rate, as Hugh commented, we appear to be the first people who posted on the story.
This is the dream of all bloggers I think–that something you come up with becomes big news.
Fantasy?
One of Canada’s Prime Ministers, Mackenzie King, had long chats with his dog, while he (Mackenzie, not the dog) was in office. I believe (I am sure there is someone here who knows about this) that he also had chats with his dead mother….
But then you look at someone as remarkable as Winston Churchill: there was an element of fantasy in his vision on The English Speaking People, and his own role as Chivalrous Knight who was tasked with saving the world from a Long Night of Barbarism. Without that romantic fantasy, I don’t think he would, or could, have stood up to Hitler in May of 1940. It certainly was not logical or even sane, to do so at that time.
The trouble with Kerry’s fantasy is that it is completely disconnected with anything other than a very old movie. And unlike Churchill, this fantasy does not include anyone else but John – certainly it does not include the American nation. This is a dangerous man, people.
Knucklehead:
I know you think I can’t speak French. Perhaps you misunderestimate me and my educational background: Donnez-le-tout je suis un bibliotheque? Danke schoen par le l’vous.
Heather:
John Kerry most likely wants Martin Sheen to play him.
Rick B
Given his fantasy life, I’d bet he’d pick John Kerry
LOL!
Heather
Without that romantic fantasy, I don’t think he would, or could, have stood up to Hitler in May of 1940. It certainly was not logical or even sane, to do so at that time
Well, that’s what we wondered, immediately.
A self-aggrandizing fantasy life might be just the thing to get you through A) the Great Depression and B) WW II all the while being C) crippled by polio.
Not to be a smart aleck about it.
And unlike Churchill, this fantasy does not include anyone else but John – certainly it does not include the American nation.
I was just about to say that, and then noticed that you already had.
This fantasy is like his sports, all of them solitary & rare.
Why do you think he’s dangerous? (Not that I don’t . . . I have a creepy feeling about him, but don’t know what to make of it.)
Where do you see this kind of fantasy life taking him as President?
Pat Curley
Wow!
Congratulations!
Good one——-
All right, the hat incident convinces me: the poor guy is mental. Probably, as Samuel assures us, not exactly dangerous to himself and his familyñand-acquaintance circle, but clearly there is something deranged in his upper works.
I personally do not feel comfortable to play part in his fantasy life. As it was so abruptly demonstrated in 2001, we did not arrived at the end of history and there is bunch of homicidal maniacs out there bent on killing as many of us as possible. In times like this we need a leader with strong sense of reality who will not be afraid to directly look at the danger and take action, not somebody fitting the real world events into narrative of his “Memoirs of a Hero”.
Catherine:
There is something Nixonian about his need to lie in order to be liked by those he admires.
Bad news.
Or rather, there is something Nixonian about his need to lie. Period.
Une histoire probable! Pow.
Skookumchuk
Nixon!
Good Lord.
How much lying does Kerry do???
Do we know?
I’ve been getting the sense that the problem is something else, but the man mystifies me. I can’t get a handle on him at all.
Don’t know how many of you read the long profile of Kerry awhile back in the TIMES, but this passage is something I see over and over again in personal writing about Kerry (you can no longer pull this for free, so I’m going to quote a long-ish section):
Prep School Peers Found Kerry Talented, Ambitious and Apart
By TODD S. PURDUM
CONCORD, N.H. ÔøΩ He was a champion debater, a good student, a strong and graceful athlete in a small, judgmental universe that prized such skills and knew him well. But for five formative years, John Kerry stood a step apart at St. Paul’s School, gaining achievement more than acceptance.
Danny Barbiero, a middle-class boy from suburban Long Island who was Mr. Kerry’s best friend, remembers how they made common cause in a boarding school full of Pillsburys, Peabodys, Pierponts and Pells. One day, Mr. Barbiero went to see a favorite teacher, the school’s first black faculty member, and found someone else already there.
“I went into his apartment,” recalled Mr. Barbiero, now an employee benefits consultant. “And he said, `This is Johnny Kerry. He’s just feeling a little out of sorts because he thinks people don’t like him.’ I said, `Who cares what people think! You’re obviously a terrific person.’ ”
Mr. Kerry is 60 now and running for president of his country, not of his class. But to a striking degree, the personal qualities that propel him ÔøΩ and daunt him ÔøΩ are the same ones that buoyed and bedeviled him when he was 16 and striving to succeed at St. Paul’s, then an austere all-boys enclave, the seventh school Mr. Kerry had attended by the time he arrived here in eighth grade.
Mr. Kerry has always been a pace apart in every world he has inhabited ÔøΩ from grade school to college to Vietnam to the Senate ÔøΩ moving forcefully and successfully through diverse milieus without ever being fully of them. To his critics, his ambition has always been just a little too obvious, his manner too calculating. To his friends, his tenderheartedness and complexities have been too little understood. Always and everywhere, his seriousness has stood out.
“I wish I could give you fresh material, but I can’t,” said Max King, another classmate, who went on to edit The Philadelphia Inquirer and now, by coincidence, is president of the Heinz Endowments, the wealthy Pittsburgh charity of which Mr. Kerry’s wife, Teresa, is the chairwoman. “He was at 13 and 14 as serious and earnest and idealistic as he is today, and very much like the person he is today.”
If only because life is like high school, Mr. Kerry’s adolescent experiences are worth examining in some detail. But for him, those years may loom even larger, since as the son of a diplomat, he grew up in various temporary quarters in America and Europe. From 1957 to 1962, his real home was St. Paul’s, and it was here that enduring patterns were set.
“The culture was alien,” Mr. Kerry recalled in one of two long interviews late last year. “It had a language that I didn’t know at first, kind of a body language. It was just a little different. I came from a very different experience. It took some learning.”
In an 11th- or 12th-grade student production of “Julius Caesar,” Mr. Kerry played a memorable Cassius, warning in his already sonorous voice, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,/But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
“And he still has that lean and hungry look,” said another classmate, Philip Heckscher, now a teacher and Chinese calligrapher, who played Marc Antony. “He was a very good actor.” He was also, Mr. Heckscher said, “a very focused person, and that might have made him seem ruthless to some. He was very focused in a culture where people were generally indirect about things, and that made him stand out a bit.”
Mr. Kerry had his detractors then, but also many skills, said John Rousmaniere, a nautical historian who played with him on a hockey team led by the class’s best athlete, Robert S. Mueller, now the director of the F.B.I.
“I think hatred is too strong a word,” Mr. Rousmaniere said. “Loathing is too strong a word. He may have seemed a little calculating to some people, and perhaps to me as well at the time, but he wanted to be liked. He may have just been a little more obvious about it. Not bad training for a politician. He wanted recognition, and in a place like that, anybody who did stand out in a noneccentric, nonsarcastic way, some people might be a little suspicious of.”
When I read this passage, on the front page of the NYTIMES, I was blown away.
“Hatred is too strong a word.”
“Loathing is too strong a word.”
I had to read it twice to confirm that this guy really was talking about how the other kids at the school universally felt about John Kerry.
How often, speaking of a high school classmate, would you use the words “hatred is too strong a word”?
Skookumchuk & Heather and all you other history savants
Have we elected loners to the Presidency in the past?
Who were they?
What were they like?
(OK, Typepad seems to have removed ALL of the apostrophes in this passage, and I just can’t deal with it.)
Kerry reminds me more of the “shy actor” type. Not a politician.
There is something of the old “Carry On” films about it all.Christmas in Cambodia,Lucky Hat,getting his arse peppered with rice,poncing about in lycra cycling outfits,getting dressed up as a giant sperm.Jacques will be carrying those pictures close to his heart,the Mullahs must be laughing so much that they are unravelling their turbans.
Kerry On Cambodia
Catherine ó How about “Moody Loner with Shotgun”?
John Kerry IS “Voting for Columbine…”
I wonder… does he think NOBODY ELSE saw Apocalypse Now….?
First of all, will somebody please smack Knucklehead upside his. I don’t pay good money to come to this site to listen to FrogTalk. Actually, I don’t pay any money to come to this site, but that’s not the point. The point is you can excuse Roger for talking Frog because it his his nickle; the rest of you have no excuse.
Besides, I was a Latin boy:
Si me amas, id fac mihi. Baby.
Knucklehead-
What the hell did you say to me, anyway?
Heather-
One can only wonder if he thinks he is Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen or Marlon Brando, or if he drifts around among them, given changing circumstance???
It doesn’t matter who he thinks he is, if this keeps up he’s gonna be played by Dennis Hopper whether he likes it or not.
John Mendenhall-
Which half of Kerry would Martin Sheen play?
Thanks, Catherine! I’ve been wandering around with a goofy grin on my face for the last four days or so. To be honest, my post after reading the Swiftee chapter was kind of “ho hum, they wrote about Christmas in Cambodia, which we covered back in May”. Shows what a nose for news I’ve got, eh?
Whoops.
Now I see the translation.
Duh.
The Democratic Party allies itself to a long list of dishonest people like Clarke, Wilson, Moore etc. and nominates someone as unfit as John Kerry and its Roger’s fault for point that out?
That’s hilarious.
I also enjoy the misuse of the ad hominem logical fallacy response.
DtP,
I still can’t figure out why John Mendenhall thinks that he’s a library.
Siete tutti matti!
Let’s not confuse Kerry’s activity here with some harmless quirk. The loon keeps a nasty old Vietnam hat in a secret compartment in his briefcase and takes it out and makes up stories about it.
Catherine:
Legend is Jackson used to talk to his dead wife and Lincoln was a loner, but neither of them seem creepy.
Did you ever see the movie The Bad Seed? Old movie, made in the early 50′s. Very daring for its time. Anyway the child in that movie would fit the description for Kerry as a child in that article. He is alien somehow. I know that is subjective and probably unfair, but it is my impression.
Swopa:
I kinda thought the whole Awol, war for oil, moron, Halliburton, right wing Christian fanatic, cowboy, idiot, war monger, rascist, homophobe, line of crap was over the top but they you guys jumped in there anyway. You get a little of it back and you cry like babies.
Forgive me for intruding into the conversation with something that actually relates to Roger’s original post, BUT, does anyone notice how sensitive the Dems are about criticism? Those on the Right (like me), simply say that Michael Moore is an idiot. We don’t try to change the websites at Amazon, BN, etc. to make it sound like a book that is critical of our guy actually isn’t. The Left, OTOH, has a history of trying to stiffle statements critical of their fellow travellers (as demonstrated here, with the threatened lawsuit against the Swifties, etc.). It’s almost as if they think this election is a high school popularity contest. I think this says something about the Lefties’ seriousness.
OR, maybe not.
Ben:
It has something to do with the fact that they are sore loser cry babies.
Republicans are supposed to take it like men and Dems are supposed to run scraming like a bunch of little girls.
sad but true.
I dunno Ben. Based upon my personal experience, the employees at the major bookstore chains are at the root vegetable-level of intelligence, not to mention 7th-grade level of maturity. Your average Democrat is at least at the 10th-grade level of maturity.
Terrye: According to the Governor of California, the term is “girlie men.”
Dennis the Peasant ó Well, he can’t have John Ford! I have John Ford! Directing Ben Johnson: “Well, Colonel, thinkin’ ain’t my department, but I was asking for your vote and I had a pile of papers as would prove everythin’ I have to say, I might just trot ‘em all out…”
Catherine,
I think what is different about Kerry is that he seems to have little life outside of fantasies. Churchill and Roosevelt accomplished much, even apart from their roles as national leaders; the interest of their lives was not based on fantasy events. As to their story telling, we all know how stories morph as they get repeated, and Lord knows that by the time someone is our age, some stories have been repeated a lot, especially by those in the schmoozing professions.
Knucklehead,
I’m looking, I’m looking.
Pat Curley
To be honest, my post after reading the Swiftee chapter was kind of “ho hum, they wrote about Christmas in Cambodia, which we covered back in May”. Shows what a nose for news I’ve got, eh
I know what you’re saying——you can stumble onto things without realizing their importance. (I’m getting tired—-can’t think of an example, but I know I’ve seen this—-)
DtP
It doesn’t matter who he thinks he is, if this keeps up he’s gonna be played by Dennis Hopper whether he likes it or not.
OK, I’m writing that one down.
Chuck
Churchill and Roosevelt accomplished much, even apart from their roles as national leaders; the interest of their lives was not based on fantasy events
It’s true; they had all kinds of stuff going on. Picasso apparently said that if Churchill had stuck to his painting he would have been a major artist. And the guy wrote five zillion books to boot.
Kerry’s as hyperactive as great leaders seem to be, but he doesn’t get much done.
I remember Kaus posting about Kerry’s normal pattern, which is to coast and then get energized by a “guillotine deadline” (a little term I picked up while writing my last book.)
He’s an oddly passive person.
Terrye
“bad seed”
OK, now you’re scaring me.
CAtherine:
See the movie.
Give me those shoes. You give me those shoes right now.
I’ve got the nicest mother, I’ve got the prettiest mother…….
goosebumps….
Terrye, Catherine ó Patty McCormack, the Bad Seed girl herself, came back a couple years ago and did two moves, Mommy, and Mommy 2; she’s still got the chops…
richard:
She gave me the willies.
I really liked the movie, the actors were so good. So what do you think?
nature or nurture?
I think in discussing some of the silliness of Kerry’s stories that some people may be missing some context. I think people believe that Kerry was commanding a boat that looked like the ones in iconic film Apocalypse Now – small patrol boats. And they might just buy into the idea that Kerry took his own little Martin Sheen upriver – face shimmering in the water …
But in fact, the boat from that film were approx 30 or so feet long and were called PBR’s. The Swift boats that Kerry was briefly in, were larger boats – approx 50+ feet long, quite heavier and with enclosed boathouses and larger crews. Originally tasked because of their size with coastal patrol and later moved into riverine patrol to supplement the PBR’s.
Roberts,
50+ feet? That is a serious MF of a boat. How many crewmembers?
“I remember Kaus posting about Kerry’s normal pattern, which is to coast and then get energized by a “guillotine deadline” (a little term I picked up while writing my last book.)”
Classic adult ADHD. Also notice he has basically not had much of a career his whole life. He has lived off his wives’ money and showed up in the Senate once in a while to keep his hand in. And they talk about Bush taking too much vacation!
I believe the SWIFT boat (yeah, SWIFT is an acronym for something or other) has a crew of one officer and five enlisted men.
I am not sure what the armament was. I know there was a tub-mounted twin 50 caliber, which is a nasty weapon. Beyond that, I don’t know.
DtP
It’s time for us all to admit that it’s increasingly clear that Mr Kerry only has one half.
Rick Ballard
I was purposely speaking an unusual dialect from the Kharkhov region of the Don. My statement actually translates: “I possess as much knowledge as certain libraries.”
Everybody
How do you get the site to do italics and uppercase bold, etc? Thanks.
John Moore:
I believe SWIFT is an acronym for Shallow Water Inland Fast Tactical. Unfortunately swiftboats.net seems to be down and swiftboats.org relieas on it for tech info.
John Mendenhall:
The gang educated me about doing italics and bold.
Put “less than symbol” then “i” than “greater than symbol” (how the bleep does one escape a character in this infernally aggravating system!?) to start italics and “less than” “forward slash” “i” to end it. Same for bold only use “b” rather than “i”. Not sure how to do uppercase bold other than to bold your uppercase typing.
If someone can give the magic incantation to get a “hot link” that there relying on the site’s automagic conversion of URLs to “Link…” I’d be grateful. Also, what about block quotes? I’ve tried using straight html captured from every html editor I have access to, but none of it works as intended when I preview. And after the spanking y’all gave me last time I ain’t puttin up nuttin out of the ordinary that don’t preview properly
For urls I just type in the regular html for them. I usually copy the url to the clipboard then…
1) Less than symbol
2) a href=”
3) paste
4) ” plus the greater than symbol
5) the text I want for the link
6) Less than symbol
7) slash a
greater than symbol
For blockquotes I think it’s just
1) Less than symbol
2) blockquote
3) greater than symbol
4) your text
5) less than symbol
6) slash
7) blockquote
greater than symbol
I’ve never tried the blockquote though. But one thing I suspect is that previewing may mess somethings up.
I don’t preview. I’m a risk taker
John:
Block quoting:
<blockquote> lorem ipsum etc yadda yadda </blockquote> gives
Italics:
<i>emphatic</i> gives emphatic
Bold: as with italics, but substitue ‘b’ for ‘i’, giving even more emphatic
Blank lines are paragraphs, or force a paragraph with <p/>.
Put in an actual ampersand & with ‘&’ put in the angle brackets/ less-than/ greater-than with < and > respectively.
This looked correct when I previewed it, so if it goes wrong when I post it we’ve exposed a bug in Roger’s code.
I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to explain how I then coded this.
John Moore ó Swift Boat specs
Just looking at, you can see why the PBR’s were designed. Swift boats work fine coastal and on deep rivers, but they have too much draft for shallow stretches and they don’t carry much firepower for their size. I think a PBR carried as much or more, on a much smaller hull.