Novemver 1, 2006:

The Republican spin machine is in high gear over Sen. Kerry's poorly delivered joke. Admittedly, taken out of context, it sounds bad. But let's face it, everything Kerry ever said in the 2004 Election was taken out of context and used against him. Kerry is a brilliant politician who assumes his audience can follow his nuance, but delivering a punchline is not his forte. No one who voted for Kerry in 2004 did so because he was a good comedian or was warm and fuzzy.

That said, anyone who read the transcript or heard the lines before know that Kerry was in the joke-telling segment of his speech, and would know that the jokes were all aimed at President Bush. But just as President Bush cherry picked the facts he wanted in Iraq to suit his purposes, the President took Sen. Kerry's words out of context and used them against the troops. So who is really to blame? I would say the President who took this opportunity to use the troops as a target in order to wound Kerry and the Democrats. It is just another of Bush's attempts to mislead, misquote, mismanage and misrepresent the facts, just as he has done all along since taking office. Who mislead about WMD? Who mislead about our reasons for invading Iraq? Who mislead about the end of the war? Who cut Military benefits? Who instated a "back door draft" to keep troops in an endless cycle of service? For these and many other reasons, it is the President owes the troops an apology, not Senator Kerry.

We accept President Bush's verbal flubs as part of the package, and even joke about it, not taking it seriously that a C+ average student is the most powerful man in the world. But when a Democrat who happens to be a decorated war veteran and who has fought for the welfare of the men and women in the U.S. Military flubs a punchline, then he should be taken to task and publicly flogged. Please, give me a break. Perhaps those people who really think a Military Veteran would disparage his brothers and sisters in arms, are just as dim-witted as Kerry implied that the President was.

And for all the Ann Coulters who point to Kerry calling some soldiers in Vietnam murderers upon his return as evidence that Kerry is a "serial troop slanderer", don't be swiftboated again. Kerry named names of soldiers who committed atrocities in wartime; illegal and immoral attrocities that the military code of honor demands be reported. Just like Abu Grabe, yet the wing-nuts continue to confuse the two issues.

Lying, immoral, unethical and contemptible liars.