I’m not sure if Jeff is speaking about Kerry’s Vietnam testimony or about the medals. Kerry’s accounts have been verified on each.

With regards to Kerry’s testimony on Vietnam, there was no doubt as to accuracy of Kerry’s testimony even before the article you link to. The right wingers often complain about Kerry saying war crimes were committed. This generally comes down to Kerry’s testimony about the free fire zones, which are both a war crime and which have been verified to have occurred. What the right wingers leave out is that a major point of Kerry’s testimony was to defend the soldiers who were placed in such a position due to improper orders from those running the war.

As for the medals, Kerry’s word has been verified by the military record, by historians who have reviewed the case, and by those who actually witnessed the events. The claims of the Swift Boat Liars not only contradict all available evidence, they sometimes even contradicted their own claims about Kerry. There are plenty of articles on the topic on the site here if anyone wants to see the evidence.

It is you who cannot accept the facts. John Kerry was telling the truth. This LA Times article from a year ago uses recently declassified Pentagon papers, so you can’t dismiss it.

Headline: Civilian Killings Went Unpunished
Declassified papers show U.S. atrocities went far beyond My Lai.

http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....-headlines

Knowing Daily Kos, any off the wall thing could have been said by an individual. However, there is also the possibility in cases such as this of a conservative troll. From time to time tracking back controversial comments leads to various conservative forums where they are laughing about what they posted, unaware of how easy it is to track where someone came from.

We have absolutely no interest in your distorted accounts here.

The evidence has supported Kerry and demonstrated that the Swifties were fabricating politically motivated lies. The evidence was quite clear that there was a concerted effort to discredit Wilson and obstruct justice by people in Cheney’s office and the White House. Despite the claims on the right wing blogs, the accusations against Wilson have not held up and his statements have been verified.

As I said, use of such smears is standard operating procedure of the right as people like you contine to spread them regardless of how throughly they have been discredited.

I didn’t realize it was front page. That makes things a little different, but still one person’s writing at a site like Kos can hardly be used to characterize the liberal blogosphere..

These things are fair gaime if you want to say that some liberal bloggers hold a certain belief, but not to extrapolate such beliefs to all. For that matter, Daily Kos as a site/community is not entirely representative of the full liberal blogosphere.

I get very tired of so many on the left that cite “Swift Boat” and “Plamegate” as being smears by the right. A smear label is accurate if in fact what is being touted is incorrect. Unfortunately it has been shown time and time again that what over 200 Swift Boat sailors said against Jon Kerry was in fact TRUE. John Kerry lied and you guys on the left still won’t own up to the facts. Same with Valerie Plame, Libby and Cheney had NOTHING to do with her “outing”. Richard Armitage admitted that it was he that told Robert Novak and Armitage was no friend of Bush/Cheney. I would’t be at all surprised if it comes out eventually that he was doing it with Colin Powell’s tacit approval. Third, it has been well establishe that the left’s hero Joe Wilson is a LIAR. He lied about what his report said and he lied to congress.

“When I saw that post about Drudge being supposedly gay (which is a lie), I rolled my eyes and skipped over that subthread.”

I’ve heard ocassional rumors regarding Drudge being gay which I haven’t paid any attention to them, primarily as even if he is gay it wouldn’t matter as well as assuming that they were just slurs.

There’s far too much garbage (along with good stuff) at Kos and personally I couldn’t see wasting the with posts of this nature. As you say, such diaries on a site as big as Kos’s are not a fair way to judge the site. It says something when the conservative blogs have to dig for diaries as opposed to commenting on the actual front page entries. They come up with their slurs first, and then dig for such weak evidence.

When I first saw conservative blogs attacking this post I checked the link. As soon as I saw it was a diary and not a front page entry I considered it irrelevant and didn’t waste any more time on either that post or the posts attacking it.

It’s just not right to characterize an entire community, especially one as big as DailyKos, based on a stray comment even if a few people agreed with him/her. Instead, I think it best to judge a site on the following: front page entries, recommended diaries, a majority of comments in a certain direction (although sometimes you can’t do that, if there is a roughly 50/50 argument). I’m just talking about being fair and being truthful. Obviously, the likes of Bill O’Reilly will never care about the truth. Clearly, that is not true of many on the Right (at least that is my hope).

It is also particularly absurd to base your argument on asking, “Why not address the homophobic and racist smears coming from the left?” While I’m sure you could find examples, homophobia and racism is far more prevalent on the right. More importantly, they have been a part of the instutionalized election strategy. The Republican southern strategy was largely based upon pandering to racism. It is hardly a coincidence that a map of the red states is virtually identical to the former slave-owning states and territories.

Homophobia has also became a major aspect of Republican strategy iwth the use of gay marriage to bring out the vote. It is notable that not a single Republican was willing to attend the HRC/LOGO forum.

Racism and homophobia aren’t topics I’ve written on very much with respect to either side, but if I did there are far more meaningful things to say about the right than the left. When you have to resort ot hunting down a diary on a group blog to make a case it only shows how desperate the rigtht is to fabricate their case against the left.

“Or did I miss something?”

Yes, you did miss something. You totally misunderstand my post. I am not touting you as an example of the right wing smear machine. I am touting you as one who is repeating the bogus claim that the actions obscure individuals are representative of all liberals.

“Why not address the homophobic and racist smears coming from the left, Ron?”

Have you actually read this blog before coming to that conclusion? I’ve often criticized things at Kos and other liberal sites when objectionable and signficant. I generally do not consider a diary at Kos to be something of enough significance to talk about. Not only have I criticized both left and right, this blog was established when I left The Democratic Daily in protest because of their attitudes on anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial. Since then the blog has been the target of a number of attacks from their corner of the looney left for the “sin” of criticizing others on the left.

As I’ve written many times, there are plenty of kooks on the left and right. Using them to characterize either side is falacious. The real difference is that the Republican establishment uses smears as a major tactic to a much greater degree than any establishment liberal groups.

And funny thing, you have avoided the points I raised. Why not address the homophobic and racist smears coming from the left, Ron? Doesn’t fit the model you have formulated?

A diarist and people commenting on a blog don’t mean all that much. I already gave a few examples of the institutionalization of smear tactics by the right. This has nothing to do with mailing lists or whether you read your email.