AP: Johnny Ramone of ‘The Ramones’ Dies At 55

Ap is reporting:

“LOS ANGELES – Johnny Ramone, guitarist and co-founder of the seminal punk band “The Ramones” that influenced a generation of rockers, has died. He was 55.

Ramone, who had been fighting a five-year battle with prostate cancer, died in his sleep Wednesday afternoon at his Los Angeles home surrounded by friends and family, said the band’s longtime artistic director Arturo Vega. “

Here’s a point you won’t see in many sources, though….

In addition to his financial conservatism, the guitarist was politically conservative — the late Ronald Reagan (news – web sites) was Ramone’s favorite president, Vega said.

(Bit’s Ballcap tip: Improved Clinch)

Ann Coulter asks a pointed question in her new column of today.

“What are the odds that Dan Rather would have accepted such patently phony documents from, say, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth?”

Read it all.

Boortz thinks he knows. And so does WaPo as of early this morning. Boortz break it down thus:

So where did the now-discredited Bush National Guard forgeries come from?  According to one source one of the documents has a header on it showing that it was faxed from a Kinko’s in Abeline, Texas.  So what’s in Abilene, Texas, besides a Kinko’s?  Who would go through all the trouble to anonymously fax the documents to CBS News?

That Kinko’s is 21 miles from Baird, Texas where Bill Burkett lives.  Who is Bill Burkett?  I told you about him yesterday. He is a retired Texas Air National Guard officer who is and has been hell bent on the political destruction of George W. Bush.  In short, a partisan operator.  This is the same character that made the allegation that he overheard a telephone conversation in 1997 in which then-Governor Bush’s aides tried to get the head of the Texas Air National Guard to sanitize his files.  All involved have denied the allegation…in other words, it’s probably a lie. On top of that, Burkett has given conflicting, unsubstantiated accounts of just what Bush documents the Guard threw away while trying to clean up the president’s files.

This Burkett guy is also suspected by other news organizations of being the source for the forged documents.  Of course, CBS won’t say if he is…but they also won’t say that he’s not.  So what could this guy’s motivation be?  Hatred of George Bush?  An axe to grind?  Well, it turns out there is one.

Burkett has been in a dispute with the Texas National Guard over medical benefits.  Apparently he contracted some disease during an assignment in Panama. Since leaving the guard, he has suffered a nervous breakdown and been hospitalized for depression.  Doesn’t exactly sound like a stable source to rely on when you’re trying to bring down a president.

Neal has more on this at the link. I’m mindful of Esmay’s admonition the other day about guesswork on this stuff, but I have to say this is starting to look like an interesting line of investigation. The question becomes, will anyone do so? I think they will, but you likely won’t hear about CBS News doing so.

And who would have thought a year ago we’d see any serious investigation of such a story from WaPo, eh?

Since Kerry’s old campaign wasn’t doing so well, he’s trying a new one. Well, an old one, really. He tried dealing with domestic issues but knows he can’t win there. So, he’s run back to Vietnam, again. Did you see him on the TV last night, calling “Unfit for Command” (available lower right column) a ‘pack of lies’?

Hey, Johnboy, if that’s so, then you should have no problem with a lawsuit, right?

I mean, if it’s just so much slander, if there’s no truth oin the book… indeed, if there was one… ONE a single charge in it, that wasn’t true, you could end the whole thing by simply leveling a lawsuit and proving your case, which if what you say is correct, should be easy for someone who went to Harvard Law School, huh?

If there was no truth to the book, how is it that so many of the Kerry campaign’s stories have had to be changed, after the book came out? Bottom line on that is that the charges, you see, are true, and Kerry knows it.

And guess what? Nobody had to forge any documents to make the case against John Kerry. And there’s the key to the American people figuring out who’s telling the truth. The most obvious take on this past week is that Kerry’s people are somewhere near the bottom of this forged document business… at least that’s the perception.

Regardless of who is responsible for the forgery itself, the documents that the Democrats are basing the entire case against President George W. Bush on, are just that; forgeries….. lies. The documents are so laughably bad any 12 year old with a computer could figure out how to do it. 

The SwiftVet’s Book, on the other hand, uses no forged documents to make a very compelling case against John Kerry. In fact, in the telling of the story, the Swiftees reveal some questions about falsifying official records BY John Kerry.

One of the measures of fitness of command is character.  And yes, character still matters to the American people. They will judge accordingly come November.

Slant Point was apparently watcjing CBS tonight. (I wonder what this scandal of theirs has done for their ratings?)

Says SlantPoint:

“Rather closinng statement: “Those who have criticized aspects of out story have failed to address the heart of the story.” True, but so what?”

Sorry, wrong answer, SlantPoint.

We HAVE been dealing with the heart of the story. It’s Rather that’s been avoiding it.

Think; What story would there be on the matter WITHOUT these documents? None.

Their entire story is based on these documents. Thereby when the documnents are forged, they have no story… and the story then becomes their stonewalling on the issue of their source.

Backcountry Conservative is apparently liveblogging 60 minutes II tonight.

The New York Observer‘s Joe Hagen says:

With respect: answer the questions,” said Dan Rather, the CBS News anchor. He was asking a direct question to President George W. Bush, his re-election campaign and his political allies in the press and on the Web. “We’ve heard what you have to say about the documents and what you’ve said and what your surrogates have said, but for the moment, answer the questions.
…
“It’s never been fully, completely denied by the Bush-Cheney campaign or even the White House that he was suspended for meeting the standards of the Air Force or that he didn’t show up for a physical,” he said. “The longer we go without a denial of such things—this story is true.”
…
“I think the public, even decent people who may be well-disposed toward President Bush, understand that powerful and extremely well-financed forces are concentrating on questions about the documents because they can’t deny the fundamental truth of the story,” he said. “If you can’t deny the information, then attack and seek to destroy the credibility of the messenger, the bearer of the information. And in this case, it’s change the subject from the truth of the information to the truth of the documents.

“This is your basic fogging machine, which is set up to cloud the issue, to obscure the truth,” he said.

Uh huh.

So when did you stop beating your wife, Dan? I say that with respect, of course… but I really think your credibility as a newscaster would be strengthened by your simply answering my question. You’ve never answered that question, you know. The longer we go on without a denial of such things, this story is true.

I think the public, even decent people who may be well-disposed toward you, and CBS news, understand that powerful and extremely well-financed forces are concentrating on questions about this wife-beating because they can’t deny the fundamental truth of the story.

Oh, is THAT your attitude Dan ? You going to cop a ‘tude with ME? 

Look, Dan, I gotta say this: Your denials are NOT helping your case, here. If you can’t deny the information, then attack and seek to destroy the credibility of the messenger, the bearer of the information.

Your non-answer is is your basic fogging machine, which is set up to cloud the issue, to obscure the truth, Dan.
Time to fess up.

When DID you stop beating the snot out of your wife? Answer the question and quit dodging.

Ps to the reader:
OK, you get the point.
I know what this is; Ratings. I reported a poll by ABC/WaPo yesterday that says Joe McCarthy rates higher on the approval scale than the person CBS is intent on getting into the WhiteHouse… John Kerry. So, perhaps, Dan’s just trying to get better approval ratings… Kerry’s tactics of lying didn’t work… why not try lies combined with flawed logic and strong-arming like McCarthy did?

Is Rather really senile enough to try to push an attack any Freshman in journalism school would tell you is just soooooo flat out wrong? I guess the evdience points to an answer of “yes”.

Hat tip to Q and O who has more.

Found this on DizzyGirl, and though this might be fun.

01. What’s playing in your cd player right now? Pick your favorite track and tell us why you picked it.
Well, not a directly fair question.  At the moment, my MP3 player has around 5000 songs loaded in rotation, here at work. (an old computer with a fairly large hard drive… continuous music, I haven’t got to mess with… and nobody can steal my disks this way). At the moment, it’s playing Some George Benson, off the Breezin’ LP.A moment ago, it was playing some Bruce Hornsby, some Bela Fleck, and before that, some Trace Adkins. I’m all over the board.

02. What’s your theme song? Why?
Ooh. Tough one. I would have to say Don Williams’ “Miracles” Read the lyrics; it’s fair self-explainitory.

03. Everyone has one song that takes them back to a particular place, time, etc. I’d have to say Bob Seeger’s LIKE A ROCK. Again, the lyrics explain themselves. Bob’s vocals and Pete Carr’s playing in combo… Ouch.

04. What’s the one song that makes you grit your teeth and bang your head against the pavement? In other words: what’s the shittest song EVER?

Multiple choice question, depening on my mood. Anything by Madoona, Streisand, Dave Matthews, and/or just about anything found on Radio Disney.

05. What’s your favorite song of all time? Why?
That’s tended to change over time. Dave Loggins’ “We’ve Got a Good Fire Going” rates pretty high for my romantic moods. Don Williams covered it a few years back, too, and did a GREAT job with it.

In my bluesier moods, “Stormy Monday” as recorded by MOUNTAIN at the Atlanta pop Fest some years ago. 20 minutes of really great stuff.

If you care to give these questions a crack, the comment section is there…

The noon eadline has come and gone. CBS’s announcement was simply more of the same.

CBS will not continue to get away with THIS. They will have to admit what everyone already knows, eventually.

Boortz points out this morning that the numbers tell the story on President Bush’s service in the Guard. The President made his obligations evry single year:

“At the time of Bush’s service National Guard regulations required a minimum of 50 service points to satisfy a yearly obligation.  Since Bush joined the Guard in May of 1968, his ‘year’ ran from May to May.  Byron York writing in The Hill gives us the total number of points he earned for each year of service.
May 1968 to May 1969 253 points
May 1969 to May 1970 340 points
May 1970 to May 1971 137 points
May 1971 to May 1972 112 points
May 1972 to May 1973 56 points
May 1973 to May 1974 56 points”

Perhaps Dan Rather should spend less time on fake documents and paying more attention to the real ones already on file.

Backcountry Conservative says CBS has scheduled a statement regarding the forgieries they tried to pass off as legit at noon. No confirmation on FNC’s website, though.

Dan Drezner is two years old.

Update: Actually, Dan’s BLOG is two years old. I have it on good authority Dan’s at least a year older than that.

Ace of Spades HQ has a rather interesting take on CBS.
You’ll need to be in a LOTR frame of mind to figure this one out.
Great stuff.

Well, almost. The DRUDGE REPORT today, has a report that Kerry’s favorability ratings on the ABC/WaPo polling is near whalepoop on the overall scale of things.

Kerry’s pulling 36% approval ratings.
36%.
That’s down 18 points in 6 months, gang.

Says Drudge,

“Kerry finds himself in a dead heat with Martha Stewart and Joseph McCarthy, and behind Herbert Hoover — although he narrowly beats O.J. Simpson.”

Ummm… Yeah.
And this is before anyone from the Bush campaign actually campaigns against Kerry.

Let’s see who else is in front of Kerry on this poll, just for laughs.

Enough, I suppose.
I want a closer look at that poll, myself.

CBS has come to symbolize all that is bad with the so-called Mainstream Media in our country today. I wonder if they even begin to understand just how deep a hole they’ve dug themselves. Thing is, they continue to dig.

The forged document thing has gotten that bad. Everyone on the planet knows the documents CBS tried to push were forged. CBS, apparently, is on location, someplace other than planet earth, and hasn’t heard. Even the ‘experts’ that CBS mis-quoted, are not backing the CBS claims.

The question becomes now, the source of these documents. CBS claims it’s source for these is unimpeachable. On what basis do they make this claim? Is it because this source shares their political viewpoints? Who could this source be? CBS itself? Someone high up in the DNC? Someone high up in the Kerry Campaign?  The implications are too grave here to ignore. CBS needs to cough up it’s source on these documents.

One major reason they might not want the source revealed is criminal proceedings against the source. I pointed out why, yesterday…. Forging federal documents is a felony. The other reason clearly is fear of throwing the election totally towards George W. Bush. This would certainly be an issue if the source is, as I’ve mentioned, someone in the DNC or Kamp Kerry.

And frankly, given the timing of the DNC/Kamp Kerry response to the documents, (most notably the tagteam liars Algore and Tom Harkin) which gave the look and feel of a long- coordinated attack, the DNC and Kamp Kerry now seems the most likely source.

Granted, gang, this is guesswork… (unlike CBS, I’ll admit that when I partake in it)… and I’ll take Dean Esmay’s comments under advisement; At the moment, I will make no direct accusations here.

I will, however, make the point in my strongest possible terms, that the American people are coming to their own conclusions about the source with or without the help of Bloggers, CBS or anyone else, for that matter. And that’s a problem for CBS, and the Democrats.

The most common conclusion, here, even among Democrats… and certainly it is the most logical, is that someone connected directly or indirectly with Kamp Kerry, the DNC or their more radical 527’s is involved. I get E-mail daily to this effect, at the rate of 3 per day. (Given I’m pulling at best 200-250 HPD, this makes for a fairly substantial margin of my readership!) The majority of these consider that CBS was directly involved in this ruse, or at the very least is guilty of falling down on the job given that a five minute examination of the documents would have shown them for what they are…. fakes. The general feel I get here is that most people think CBS was directly involved, based on their history of leaning left.

If the source is not in the list of possible sources above, and is in fact someone with some degree of credibility, CBS could do a lot to salvage the situation for themselves, and the remainder of the mainstream media, to say nothing of removing a huge stain from the Kerry Campaign, by revealing the source for these documents.

If, on the other hand, the source IS on this list, that information would kill off the Kerry campaign, and the DNC, and would likely kill off CBS news as well.  They know this would be the outcome of revealing their source. I suspect this is the reason we’re being stonewalled here.

Either way, CBS needs to have some real courage… And tell us the truth.

If they do not stop the stonewalling tactics, Americans will respond by simply assuming the latter… that the source was in the DNC, Kamp Kerry or one of the far-left 527’s, and they will vote accordingly.

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