http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13267-2004Aug18.html?nav=rss_politics
This article is both funny and pretty funny.
This article is both funny and pretty funny.
Fraudulent indeed. This is absolutely priceless. I fully expect Mr. Thurlow to return his Bronze Star to the appropriate authorities. Unless he was lying then. Or is he lying now? You never can tell when you're dealing with Bush's cronies, can you?Larry Thurlow in an anti-John Kerry ad. Thurlow said he would consider his own Bronze Star "fraudulent" if coming under enemy fire was the basis for it. (AP)
"I never heard a shot," Thurlow said in his affidavit
A document recommending Thurlow for the Bronze Star noted that all his actions "took place under constant enemy small arms fire which LTJG THURLOW completely ignored in providing immediate assistance" to the disabled boat and its crew. The citation states that all other units in the flotilla also came under fire.
bishoptl said:Pretty sweet to ride that "misunderstanding" into piles of money and a national profile based on fraud.
But he has refused repeated requests for an interview after issuing conflicting statements to the Boston Globe about whether Kerry deserved a Silver Star.
"It's like a Hollywood presentation here, which wasn't the case," Thurlow said last night after being read the full text of his Bronze Star citation. "My personal feeling was always that I got the award for coming to the rescue of the boat that was mined. This casts doubt on anybody's awards. It is sickening and disgusting."
A courageous, soft spoken man of the Midwest, Larry Thurlow has a heart bigger than the great plains and a commitment to truth and honesty that is boundless.
Do you have an independent source for this claim, other than the Swift Vets? The Post article said quite clearly that the responsibility for filing the report would have fallen to Thurlow, as the senior captain. If Kerry did file an incorrect report -- where the hell was Thurlow at that time?Ripclawe said:The Post piece made it even worse for Kerry, because now the question is who filed the report that was the basis of the citation.
According to the swiftvets the only person to file a report was Kerry.
...which has NOTHING to do with the truth or falsity of the claim against Kerry. Bringing up poll numbers is totally disingenuous.The fact he has responded and running an ad during August when the campaign said they wouldn't means the charges are having an effect, there is a poll that Josh marshall has citied as saying the Ad had an effect on undecided voters.
Again -- what does this have to do with ANYTHING? Not a fucking thing.O'neill was on Sean Hannity show and Kerry's people were supposed to come on afterwards, they have now bailed
But Thurlow's military records, portions of which were released yesterday to The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act, contain several references to "enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire" directed at "all units" of the five-boat flotilla. Thurlow won his own Bronze Star that day, and the citation praises him for providing assistance to a damaged Swift boat "despite enemy bullets flying about him."
Do you have an independent source for this claim, other than the Swift Vets? The Post article said quite clearly that the responsibility for filing the report would have fallen to Thurlow, as the senior captain. If Kerry did file an incorrect report -- where the hell was Thurlow at that time?
Thurlow and other anti-Kerry veterans have repeatedly alleged that Kerry was the author of an after-action report that described how his boat came under enemy fire. Kerry campaign researchers dispute that assertion, and there is no convincing documentary evidence to settle the argument. As the senior skipper in the flotilla, Thurlow might have been expected to write the after-action report for March 13, but he said that Kerry routinely "duked the system" to present his version of events.
For much of the episode, Kerry was not in a position to know firsthand what was happening on Thurlow's boat, as Kerry's boat had sped down the river after the mine exploded under another boat. He later returned to provide assistance to the stricken boat.
On March 13, 1969, Rassmann, a Green Beret, was traveling down the Bay Hap river in a boat behind Kerrys when both were ambushed by exploding land mines and enemy fire coming from the shore. Kerry was hit in the arm, while a mine blew Rassmanns boat out of the water. With enemy fire coming from both sides of the river and swift boats evacuating from the area, Kerrys crew chose to turn their boat toward the ambush to save Rassmann.
On March 13, 1969, John Kerry's courage and leadership saved my life.
While returning from a SEA LORDS operation along the Bay Hap River, a mine detonated under another swift boat. Machine-gun fire erupted from both banks of the river, and a second explosion followed moments later. The second blast blew me off John's swift boat, PCF-94, throwing me into the river. Fearing that the other boats would run me over, I swam to the bottom of the river and stayed there as long as I could hold my breath.
After the mine exploded, leaving swift boat three dead in the water, John Kerry's boat, which was on the opposite side of the river, fled the scene.
US Army Special Forces officer Jim Rassmann, who was on Kerry's boat at the time, fell off the boat and into the water. Kerry's boat returned several minutes later-under no hail of enemy gunfire-to retrieve Rassmann from the river only seconds before another boat was going to pick him up.
Kerry campaign spokespersons have conflicting accounts of this incident-the latest one being that Kerry's boat did leave but only briefly and returned under withering enemy fire to rescue Mr. Rassmann. However, none of the other boats on the river that day reported enemy fire nor was anyone wounded by small arms action. The only damage on that day was done to boat three-a result of the underwater mine. None of the other swift boats received damage from enemy gunfire.
Two other skippers, Jack Chenoweth and Richard Pees, have said they do not remember coming under "enemy fire." A fourth commander, Don Droz, who was one of Kerry's closest friends in Vietnam, was killed in action a month later.
...which has NOTHING to do with the truth or falsity of the claim against Kerry. Bringing up poll numbers is totally disingenuous.
What medals he earned or did not earn have ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY NOTHING TO DO with his qualifications to be President.
Asshole hunting in Texas is like looking for water in the pacific ocean.Doesn't this asshole live in Texas? Someone get me an address.