Gyroscope

A newsletter for those unmoved by spin.
No. 47, Aug 23, 2004

Subscribe

Change Address

Unsubscribe

Comment

If you just read the mass media, you're aware of a 'controversy' about John Kerry's war record. A group of people, described as his 'crewmates' who 'served with him' now say that he lied about almost everything, didn't deserve a Silver Star, forced the Navy to issue him a Purple Heart when he wasn't wounded or when it was self inflicted, got his other awards under false pretenses and probably was mean to a child and kicked a dog.

Given how long this has been kicking around, you probably would be excused for thinking that there was something murky about what happened, that Kerry maybe is playing up his record for political advantage.

That isn't what the evidence looks like at all. Let's review what we know:

The Navy gave Kerry those medals and three Purple Hearts. The Navy hasn't started any investigation to take them back. The Navy citations for those awards, and the citations for the awards given to others for the same actions all state reasons for the awards and were based on some investigation at the time. Those veterans who attack the awarding of these medals are attacking the standards the Navy used and also attacking many other Veterans who earned the same awards for the same sort of conditions.

It's been implied that Kerry somehow gave himself the medals, or that he "left Vietnam after only 4 months" as if he just sauntered out. Bush used political pull to get into the National Guard, no one has any evidence Kerry used political influence to award the medals. And he was ordered out of Vietnam according to standing policy that those wounded three times had their tours ended early. Again, to attack Kerry on this is really to attack the military - odd behavior for the 'patriotic', 'conservatives' who are leading the attack.

Every member of the boat Kerry commanded support Kerry's version of events and the version in the reports for Kerry's medals. It's been claimed there was no enemy fire when a wounded Kerry pulled a guy out of the water. The guy he pulled out supports Kerry. In the past few days, other members of other boats are starting to come forward to support Kerry.

The veterans mad at Kerry served on other boats or were in other parts of the country or came later or heard someone else object to Kerry. That's right: there is precious little eyewitness testimony among those who attack Kerry. Some of those attacking Kerry now wrote supportive comments about Kerry at the time and have only changed their minds later.

So why has this controversy continued? Well, go look at your media today. Are you seeing headlines like "Attacks on Kerry run aground"? No you're not. I surveyed a half-dozen national media outlets today and none were running with any story of how the case against Kerry is falling apart. Some featured Bush's vague repudiation of 'those adds', but none gave air play to what the eyewitnesses are saying.

And then there is Bob Dole. He popped up over the weekend to claim that

Ah, Kerry has shrapnel in his leg, so presumably he did give up a little blood. But the best reply is this:

And who is Dole to object to superficial wounds, or even wounds self-inflicted (another charge against Kerry:

So it all comes back to double standards. Dole has somehow acquired a genial reputation, sort of a straight-talking uncle reminiscent of McCain and Goldwater: you know he's conservative but you like his honest style. Rubbish. Dole has a history of vicious campaigning. He was made Ford's vice presidential candidate to be the 'hatchet man' for the kinder Ford. And I grew up in Kansas so I've seen Dole for decades. When I was in High School he ran for reelection against a congressman who was both a lawyer and a medical doctor. As a doctor, he'd performed a half-dozen of therapeutic abortions for the health of the mother. Dole ran adds of fetuses being thrown into trash bins.

So we have Bush: used influence to get in the National Guard, did nothing, didn't show up, and for a year no one can even find him. When that issue surfaced last year the media tip-towed around it and let it die with many questions unanswered. And we have Kerry:

and this:

But this time the media sustains the story despite what the evidence says.

So while I am certainly cognizant of the limited influence of this publication, nonetheless, we endorse Kerry for President and urge you to vote this fall.

http://www.johnkerry.com/index.html

Trundling along at a stately 9.5 mph, open to the air they are a wonderfully de-stressing trip. You are part of the city you pass through, not isolated behind Plexiglas. On the first trip I took, the 'gripman' was a Sikh. He kindly introduced all the tourists to the customs of the car. He guided people to seats, encouraged the timid to enjoy standing on the running board on the outside of the car and kept the careless from getting hit by close encounters with cars. What a perfect image of the America we all dream of: this man, bearded and turbaned, from a very small minority population, enabling with quiet dignity the white-bread Americans to experience a lost part of their own history.

At this point in the essay, I fully expected to have to write a paragraph about how, of course, the cars are archaic and inefficient, but efficiency isn't everything. However, a visit to the museum revealed that each line is propelled by a single 500hp electric motor. Not bad for moving several cars and a two-mile long cable. Especially when you realize that there is zero pollution from the cars themselves. So maybe there is something to be said for this mode after all. I suspect that electric trolleys are still more efficient, but compared to a fleet of diesel busses, the cars look pretty good.

Combine that with the conductors who will take your picture, the car I rode with a scrawled note that "H. Bogart rode this car, ca. 1946-47 'Dark Passage'" (which was shot in SF, I believe), a small but free museum and all the Victorian era mechanical engineering you could want.

That, and the most important fact of all: that one can journey and arrive feeling better than when you started, a feat not capable of being performed on the highway or in the packed airliners we assume are the height of progress.

Many cities had cable cars - Seattle, Chicago and Kansas City among them - but all that are left are the four lines in San Francisco.