John Kerry bashing continues...

[sabra]

RW blogs are going bananas over this pic...

http://areavoices.com/hottalk/?blog=5053

A picture tells a 1000 words.....

A friend of mine serving in Iraq sent me this photo and note. I received it before Christmas, but was out of the office. Priceless story it tells....



"This is a true story.....Check out this photo from our mess hall at the US Embassy yesterday
morning. Sen. Kerry found himself all alone while he was over here. He
cancelled his press conference because no one came, he worked out alone
in the gym w/o any soldiers even going up to say hi or ask for an
autograph (I was one of those who was in the gym at the same time), and
he found himself eating breakfast with only a couple of folks who are
obviously not troops.

What is amazing is Bill O'Reilly came to visit with us and the troops at
the CSH the same day and the line for autographs extended through the
palace and people waited for two hours to shake his hand. You decide who
is more respected and loved by us servicemen and women!"

Again I say..."GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS!!"

Here's an enhanced version of the pic:

Check out this pic @ the Basrah Air Station, where low and behold US troops actually did have lunch with him.

U.S. Senator John Kerry (R) joins U.S. troops for lunch at the Basrah Air Station in southern Iraq is this undated handout photograph released by the Ministry of Defence on December 16, 2006.

** edit: I am not sure where the RW blog pic was taken

[MrCoffee]

1. the tables are set differently...

there are no flowers or whatever that white box is in the bottom picture.

[sabra]

2. I edited the post, thanks.

[New Earth]

4. maybe he switched seats?

[MrCoffee]

8. i read way to many Highlights magazines as a child.

[blm]

3. So someone thought people's minds could be manipulated with photoshopping

imagine that.

My challenge to whoever believes Kerry is the enemy of troops, to try and name the lawmaker in DC they would most want to be in a foxhole with in a gunbattle? And try and name a lawmaker who has helped benefit the troops, their welfare and their families more than John Kerry has over the last 36 years.

[wryter2000]

14. Please 'splain to a photoshop ignoramus

How can you tell this is photoshopped? I ask because a freeper at work passes along all of these things, and I'd like to be prepared for it.

[blm]

16. There are flowers in one that don't appear in the other -

plus, some of DU's photoshop experts have already weighed in on other threads.

[mnhtnbb]

32. Yes, the first two pix have flowers on table; the third one does not

[babylonsister]

5. How ridiculous! What did he do in the top two pics prior to sitting

down, where was he sitting, etc? Perhaps he had just sat down to chat? Yea, real convincing.

[Sparkly]

6. Bill "They Were Shooting At Me, Roger" O'Reilly?

This is ridiculous. Another anonymous letter from a "friend." Another attempt to make people like O'Reilly into war heroes, and erase the fact that John Kerry IS one.

The idea that Republicans are "pro-military" is evaporating fast, and they know it.

[Leilani]

7. Funny, that is not an American flag on the wall

& Basra is controlled by the Brits.

So I don't think they are American troops.

[stillcool]

9. That (R) next to Kerry's name...

is hysterical....

[Contrary1]

10. Really stupid for them to latch onto this as "proof"...

Top photo was taken at the US Embassy. Do troops fighting a war
usually get invited to dine there?

[talk hard]

11. they put up same type pics of Cindy Sheehan

saying nobody showed up at her book signing. Too much time on their hands.

[tridim]

12. Kerry and his place setting were photoshopped onto a photo of some empty seats

in a banquet hall. The contrast of Kerry and the rest of the photo is way off.

It's just a bad photoshop job.

Regardless of that, what point are these RW loons trying to make? I can't think of any reason the troops wouldn't respect Kerry, he's their brother.

[Redstone]

17. It's one of the CLUMSIEST "Photoshop jobs" I've ever seen. Only an ignorant freeper would

buy that bullshit.

Redstone

[TheCowsCameHome]

13. Too bad none of the RW Freeps have the balls to be in uniform.

[MethuenProgressive]

15. Great thread, thanks -

looks like I started a similar one a few minutes ago.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[BuyingThyme]

18. If any of this is true, it proves one thing:

The likes of Free Republic and Fox News have made morons of "our troops."

That's the only thing Pukes can hope for these days. And they need a captive audience to carry what's left of their message. They need to keep "the troops" in harm's way.

Now, I know this photo is nothing but nothingness, but let's pretend otherwise for just a moment:

Let's give credit to the Pukes who worked so hard to destroy our military. Let's give them credit for putting a permanent stain on the institutions which previously set the highest standards of honor. Let's give credit to the Pukes who turned uniformed Americans into uniformed Americans. And let's give credit to the Pukes who turned America against America.

Nice goin' Pukes! You've done it! Victory!

[globalvillage]

19. The Portuguese flag is a dead giveaway.

Portugal pulled out of Iraq in Feb '05.

[wisteria]

20. The repubs are stupid, who would fall this junk? I don't believe for a minute that the troops

wouldn't welcome Senator Kerry. Republicans don't give the troops much credit for being intelligent.They are smart enough not to fall for a white house lie and smear tactic. They are too busy doing their job and staying safe to buy into the Rove political smear at their expense.

[ContraBass Black]

21. The Pic of Kerry alone was taken in Britain.

There were no American soldiers to avoid him.

[_dynamicdems]

22. This just goes to show how fundamentally ignorant these Freepers are.

They can't deal with truth in any shape, form or way. It is beyond ridiculous. It is pathetic.

Instead of worrying about the country, the troops or the deteriorating situation in Iraq, these dunderheads are Photoshopping a United States Senator who is actually trying to do something about the mess we are in.

This is how they deal with not getting their own way. It is about as intelligent as drawing a nasty picture of the teacher on the blackboard at school.

I'm so sick of the immaturity, the lies and the scumbag tactics of these lowlifes. What a bunch of losers! Not a one of them is above the mental age of twelve and most twelve-year-olds I know are a HELL of a lot smarter.

Well, if any of you Freeper losers is perusing this site (go look it up if you don't know what the word means), I've got a message for you: you can huff and puff and the bottom line is WE STILL WON BACK THE HOUSE AND THE SENATE! Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

[karynnj]

23. Wonder what the freepers would think of this little news item?

The source is not a liberal leaning magazine.

It tells of Marines who liked Kerry enough to joke and drink with him. It wasn't beer, but I bet they had a better time than they would drinking with te President.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/washingtonwhisper...

[demdiva]

24. Here's some proof

I messed around with the pic posted in photoshop a bit, but DID NOT ALTER ANY OF THE CONTENT. All I did was grab pieces of it to view. It's a clear fake.

In the first pic you can tell the area around Kerry was cut out of another picture and pasted there. It's in large contrast to the rest of the picture. And in the second picture you can tell that the area around his head was smoothed out...it can be difficult to cut around hair because it doesn't have a sharp line.

[Parche]

25. right wingers

How low will they go to get what they want in the media?

[eagler]

26. One more reason for the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE

NT

[beachmom]

27. Right winger on Powerline just debunked story

I just found a Kos diary on this with some more info:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/12/28/113944/82

Between Rosemary's story on the other DU thread, and now this from Powerline, this story has just completely fallen apart:

This article is half the truth. My friend told me more details and was there.

Kerry apparently showed up during the last 10 minutes of when the chow hall was open. So there were not so many people there to begin with. Additionallly he had a crowd of security surrounding him and I dont believe his intentions in that chow hall were to greet the troops based upon the real facts. Additionally the military folks in the mess hall would not have felt comfortable approaching him in these surroundings. That doesn’t necessarily paint the picture in the article.

Finally - this is typical treatment for famous people there.

Don’t get me wrong - I don’t like his politics but this isn’t factual reporting according to my sources (which are my friends not second hand spew from reporters making money).

[fooj]

28. The RWers certainly have a hard-on for Kerry...

Smells like FEAR to me.

[blm]

30. They haven't let up one inch in their efforts. They want his voice shut down

because he's one of the few truthtellers in DC who believes in open government.

[seabeyond]

35. personally, i think he is the one they most DON'T want to run is kerry

they used up every lying thing they could on the guy. since after election has been debunked. in after thought many voters are wishin they had voted kerry nad 2008 would feel pretty confident in voting for him. he has learned to NOT keep his mouth shut and NOT play nice like so many dems still do.

i feel kerry is exactly who they do not want to run

[DesertRat]

29. Michelle Malkin is insisting that the photos are real

She and her readers must feel very threatened if they are spending so much time and energy on this non-story.

edited for spelling...

[Contrary1]

34. Yeah, and she's probably a virgin too.

[Dr Ron]

31. How George Bush would have handled this

There are a number of theories going around about this picture which I note at this post. More importantly, I show how George Bush would have handled this problem:

http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=816

[mloutre]

33. another thing about this propaganda-propagation campaign...

It seems well worth noting that “Ben of Mesopotamia” — aka Benjamin Runkle — one of the RW bloggers who first really pushed hard on this non-story about the photo in question, is a self-described communications specialist (which means, in some quarters, ‘propaganda specialist’) who has worked for the DOD, the NSC, and according to his blog’s ‘About Me’ blurb is a “Harvard PhD and Presidential speechwriter called back to Active Duty for Operation Iraqi Freedom.”

Is this another example of BushCo’s proven policy of planting propaganda mouthpieces into supposedly non-partisan bailiwicks so that they can churn out pro-administration spin and misinformation? Could this be another sock-puppet soldier embedded with the troops so that he can influence them on the ground and feed back pre-canned points to the folks at home?

I’m not saying that he’s just another paid BushCo spokespuppet hiding behind a blogname, because I don’t have access to enough facts to prove or disprove that. But given the little bit of facts that are available to us on this end, especially coupled with this administration’s known history of using plants and fake pundits to feed false information to the public, it certainly seems to me like this is something that bears further investigation by those with more access to the details.

[_dynamicdems]

36. Why this matters - and it's not just about John Kerry.

This matters. And it doesn't necessarily matter because the subject in this case happens to be John Kerry. What matters is that an entire section of our political spectrum still thinks that it is acceptable to use distortion and lies to manipulate the facts of any situation, individual or party they oppose.

This is not truth, justice or the American way. This is UN-AMERICAN. PERIOD. This is a disgrace and a direct insult to our troops because they are fighting and dying for the values our country represents. Lying and manipulation are not American values.

I'm one person who is sick to death of the swiftboating and the lies. They attack Kerry on a regular basis. They obviously think he is a threat which IS very telling even though the man isn't running for anything at the moment. Even the potential that he may has them creating fiction to discredit him, which is quite revealing if you think about it.

But it isn't just John Kerry who this is done too. These winger types attack anyone they feel threatened by. And they don't use the issues or the truth. No, as usual they present distortion and spread it as malicious gossip. They obviously haven't learned anything from the midterm elections. This isn't a surprise. They follow Bush and he hasn't learned a damn thing either. They are history and they don't even know it. America spoke in the midterms and the winger voice was left a distant chorus in the background. And it is becoming more distant with each passing day.

This kind of crap is what America responded to in the midterm election. The country was sick of corruption and lies. To continue in this vein is a fool's errand. These folks are not only petty, deceitful and vicious, they are also too dumb to learn from their past mistakes.

Wingers: you are doing an excellent job of doing our job for us! Keep posting stupid photos and casting your slant on them. You only succeed in digging yourselves deeper and deeper into the hole into which you belong. America knows you for what you are and you do a much better job you for keeping them reminded of it than any of us liberals ever could.