STACY TABB is requesting help.

IN THE MAIL: Jeff Hawkins’ new book, On Intelligence, which looks very interesting.

JOURNALIST RYAN PITTS writes on CBS and Ra^therGate:

Other news outlets have jumped in admirably with investigations into the forgery story, but it’s time to see some harsher words for the failure of journalism that CBS has displayed in its wake. (Andy Rooney should have used a bigger curmudgeon stick, but maybe this Chicago Tribune piece is a start.) Would the media be eating one of its own? Too bad. CBS has screwed all of us over — both with the way it ran the story and with the way it’s handled the backlash. The network’s behavior has confirmed every single nasty thing that everybody believes about the media, and it’s not like we’ve got a nice fat reserve of goodwill to squander right now.

This is where CBS jumps on the grenade. Only fair, considering they pulled the pin and fumbled it in the first place.

Fair, but how likely?

“WHAT BLOGS HAVE WROUGHT:” Nice history of Ra^therGate to date. And what’s really nice is that it doesn’t mention InstaPundit. Nor should it. I’ve written about this, but other blogs did all the heavy lifting. As I wrote earlier, the blogosphere has matured into a full-fledged system in which no node is of vital importance, which is a very good thing.

UPDATE: Oops. InstaPundit actually is mentioned in passing toward the end — I just missed it because it wasn’t a link. The point still holds, though.

STUART BUCK WRITES that efforts by The New Republic and Kevin Drum to draw a parallel between CBS’s faked-document reportage and Fox News’ reporting of a doctored Kerry/Fonda photo are unfair and wrong, as Fox repeatedly noted that the photo was fake.

NAVY: Kerry’s medals properly approved. This report says that there was nothing wrong with the approval process where Kerry’s medals were concerned. That doesn’t explain his claim of a nonexistent “V” on his Silver Star, and it doesn’t get at the underlying facts, but it’s probably enough to put this issue to bed. But as I’ve said before, it’s a distraction anyway.

Beldar has much more on this.

UPDATE: Tom Maguire, as is his wont, notes something that I missed:

This latest AP story demonstrates that the Navy has military records for John Kerry that have not been disclosed. John Kerry promised to fully disclose his military records in an appearance with Tim Russert, and claims that he has fulfilled that pledge. However, he has refused to sign the Form 180 authorizing the Navy to release files protected by his privacy rights so that his claim can be independently verified. We now have compelling new evidence that his file has not been fully disclosed.

Read the whole thing.

BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND: Amusing Kerry commercial, if somewhat reminiscent of this George McGovern flipflop commercial from 1972 (5th down in the lefthand column). But with better music!

VARIOUS PEOPLE have asked me questions about the blogads on the site, and I thought I’d round up some of the more common ones:

Does it help you if I click through the ads? Yes and no. I don’t get paid by the click-through, but I suppose that if you do — and especially if you buy stuff from the people who are selling things — it makes them more likely to advertise again. So don’t kill yourself, but as Hugh Hewitt points out, you should always try to patronize the advertisers of sites you like.

Why do you run ads from so many lefty sites? I decided early on to take ads from pretty much anybody unless I thought they were offensive to me or to too many readers. I’m not easily offended by political views short of Nazis, Communists, etc. I don’t do porn sites — I’ve got nothing against porn, but it’s not my idiom, as they say — and I won’t do hate groups. Otherwise it’s pretty open. Most of my political ads have been from the left (though my biggest advertiser has been an art gallery) and I’m pretty sure that most of them were funded by George Soros one way or another. I figure the money’s doing more good in my pocket than his, and at any rate this insulates me from claims that my content is dictated by advertisers! And of course, some of the lefty groups — like Planned Parenthood or the pro-gay-marriage folks — are groups that I support.

Are you getting rich? Will you buy a Gulfstream? The answer to that question is summed up by the headline to this article: Bloggers find clicks don’t equal cash. Considering that I’m getting money for doing something I used to do for free, blogads are a great deal. But I won’t quit the day job.

What about donations? I still get those, and I have to say that a dollar of donation money makes me happier than a dollar of ad money. There’s something about someone paying you when they don’t have to that makes it nice. It offsets any number of hatemails. . . .

Do you recommend blogads? Yeah. It’s very easy, costs you nothing, and I’ve been pretty happy.

THE WASHINGTON POST has been doing some investigative journalism where Bill Burkett — thought by many to be the source of forged CBS Ra^therGate documents — is concerned:

The former Texas National Guard officer suspected of providing CBS News with possibly forged records on President Bush’s military service called on Democratic activists to wage “war” against Republican “dirty tricks” in a series of Internet postings in which he also used phrases similar to several employed in the disputed documents. . . .

In e-mail messages to a Yahoo discussion group for Texas Democrats, Burkett laid out a rationale for using what he termed “down and dirty” tactics against Bush. He said that he had passed his ideas to the Democratic National Committee but that the DNC seemed “afraid to do what I suggest.” . . .

The CBS documents include several phrases that crop up in Web logs signed by Burkett, including “run interference,” and references to a pilot’s “billet.” Former Air National Guard officers have pointed out that “billet” is an Army expression, not an Air Force one. Burkett has also used the expression “cover your six,” a military variant of the vulgar abbreviation “CYA,” which appears in one of the CBS documents.

In a somewhat less impressive feat of investigative journalism, the Los Angeles Times has discovered that a poster on Free Republic is a “conservative activist.” (“Stunning news!” — Patterico). They need to get out more. . . .

IRAQ UPDATE: Ed Morrissey posts a letter from a Marine Corps Major in Iraq. It’s a must-read.

Stephen Green also has a lengthy post that’s worth reading. And M. Simon observes: “Wars are never competently managed. Projects can be managed. People can be managed. . . . Wars cannot be managed because there is active and relatively unpredictable opposition. Even if you know what the opposition can do the actual mix of possible actions is always in doubt. So what can we do about wars? Win them or lose them.”

Victor Davis Hanson has further thoughts that are very much worth reading.

As Andrew Sullivan wrote a while ago (in response to this post of mine), “the notion that this was all going to be perfect and easy is as foolish as the notion that it is doomed.”

Constructive criticism is good. Doomsaying and MoveOn-style surrendermongering isn’t.

UPDATE: This long post from Varifrank is worth reading, too, as is this one on pre-war exit plans.

And Rand Simberg has thoughts on Iraq and the evolution of democracy.

ANOTHER UPDATE: The Belmont Club has more in its ongoing analysis of the Iraqi military situation. Conclusion:

If the pattern of American casualties shows that most fighting is happening in Al-Anbar it is not because Administration officials are manufacturing the results to camouflage a “widening insurgency”. It is because there is no power vacuum among Kurds and Shi’ias as complete as that in the Sunni triangle. Civil war, if it eventuates, will not be result of military failure but from a lack of commitment to create a replacement Iraqi State. If we build it, it will come.

Read the whole thing.

A PICTURE A DAY OF WANDA: I think I’ve linked to this lovely photo-tribute from a man to his wife before, but it’s worth looking at again.

ERNEST MILLER HAS POSTED a lengthy and thorough chronology of Ra^therGate (or as some are calling it, “Danron”).

BRAVO FOR THE AP, which (at the behest of bloggers) has corrected a story quoting a Navy SEAL — who turned out not to be a Navy SEAL — criticizing Bush’s National Guard record. The whole chronology is here.

ANOTHER GENDER GAP:

By 49 percent to 42 percent, women are supporting Bush over Kerry (this was true in last week’s poll as well).

The bellicose-women trend identified here, here, and here almost three years ago would seem to be alive and well.

UPDATE: Reader Gina Vener offers an alternative explanation.

But, actually, I think they go together. Thanks, Dan!

A DC-AREA PR FIRM IS CLAIMING CREDIT for Ra^therGate. I don’t recall getting anything from them. Neither does Charles Johnson. This seems to have been a story largely generated by blogs, not email, anyway.

And if they were really smart enough to do something like this, would they be dumb enough to be bragging about it before it was over? I certainly wouldn’t hire a PR firm that did mind-bogglingly stupid things like that, and I can’t imagine why anyone with any sense would do so. Perhaps I’m wrong, but this looks like rank, and transparent, opportunism.

UPDATE: Power Line: “Victory has many fathers. You know the Rathergate battle has been won when PR firms step into the breach and try to take credit.” Timing issues with their claims are noted.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Bill Ardolino: “Horsecrap.”

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: The PR firm apologizes handsomely. They’ve raised themselves in my estimation. (A quick apology — good PR. Maybe CBS should hire them!) Click “read more” for the full text, as I don’t think the link above is permanent.

MORE: Kathy Kinsley has the right idea! “I’d also like to add, that if they want to communicate with me and ask me to push a story, they can stuff it or buy a blogad. Their choice.”

(more…)

EVERYTHING WENT FINE, but I don’t want to be blogging under the influence, so serious blogging will have to wait. But don’t miss this piece on UNScam, and the links between oil-for-food money and Osama.

And note still more trouble for Dan Rather:

ABC News has just within the last 15 minutes or so posted an exclusive report based on exclusive interview with Col. Walter Staudt, the retired former brigadier general of the Texas Air National Guard. ABC News reports that Staudt is refuting CBS News’ assertions (based on those now-infamous forged documents) that Staudt pressured others in the TANG to help cover for George W. Bush during his stint in the TANG. Staudt also says Bush didn’t get preferential treatment to get into the TANG, and nobody pressured him to accept Bush into the Guard.

Pajama-wearers might want to read these thoughts from Jim Geraghty. And then read this post. Back later.

TODAY IS DENTAL-SURGERY DAY, which I’m not too happy about. It also means that blogging will be limited, and not until later. (I may hang out and watch the DVD of Barcelona, which I bought a while back and still haven’t watched. Or it may just be more Gilligan). I wish I had the almost-out Neal Stephenson book, but it’s not out until next week.

Thanks to all the people who sent sympathy email when I mentioned this. It’s a lingering consequence of a car accident some years ago. Given what happened to the other people involved, I got off pretty light (thanks to wearing a seatbelt, and leaning against the back of the seat ahead of me at the last minute), though I’d prefer not to have to deal with this. But that’s life. See you later.

“THE CAMERA BLINKS: A nation of fact-checkers, a network in denial.”

UPDATE: From fake boos to fake cheers?

INSTAPUNDIT READERS will know that I think the 21-year-old drinking age “spearheaded” by Liddy Dole is a terrible idea. But now Radley Balko has much more on the latest developments in this ill-conceived, and dangerous, policy.

DAN RATHER VS. THE PAJAMA-BLOGGERS: Amusing cartoon.

UPDATE: Kinko’s surveillance tapes explain all!

ANOTHER UPDATE: On the other hand, this guy clearly hasn’t been following the story. Get him some pajamas!

THEY’RE BAAACCKKK! Pretty funny.

HERE’S THE FULL STORY on the Gallup poll mentioned below, which shows Bush with a 13-point lead. Still seems like an implausibly large lead for Bush, despite all the help he’s been getting from Dan Rather and MoveOn. (Compare it with the other polls listed here.) But what do I know?

I don’t think Al Hunt knows, either, but this has him worried.

UPDATE: Lots more on polls and reactions thereto here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Mickey Kaus says it’s the CBS forgery business that’s killing Kerry:

One obvious possible way to half-reconcile the divergent polls, suggested by Rassmussen’s robo-survey: Wednesday 9/15, when the probable Danron forgery began to sink in, was a gruesome day for Kerry. The Harris poll (Kerry up 1) stopped Monday. The Pew poll (Kerry down 1) stopped on Tuesday. Gallup (Kerry down 14) includes Kerry’s bleak Wednesday.

Thanks, Dan!

Meanwhile, Scott Koenig forecasts the next self-defeating attack — but surely the Dems are smarter than that.

DON’T REINVENT THE WHEEL: Thoughts on intelligence reform.

THE BELMONT CLUB has more thoughts on what’s going on in Iraq. (Via Power & Control).

COULD THIS BE RIGHT? “A Gallup poll being released Friday has Bush up 54-40 in a three-way matchup.” Thanks, Dan!

But I suspect that this is a fluke. (Via who else?)

UPDATE: Well, if it’s not true now, it might be after this story: “Three-year-old Sophia Parlock cries while seated on the shoulders of her father, Phil Parlock, after having their Bush-Cheney sign torn up by Kerry-Edwards supporters on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004, at the Tri-State Airport in Huntington, W.Va.” I guess it’s part of the new climate of fear in America. Sheesh.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Power Line has more.

MORE: Here’s a claim that Parlock is the Greg Packer of protesters.

My new position: The incident may be fake, but the story is true!

MORE STILL: A handsome apology from the union. So I guess it’s true? Kip thinks so.

But Captain Ed is skeptical: “this one smells pretty bad, folks.”