September 10, 2004
OUTING THEMSELVES (via The Other Brother):
Bush Guard Memos Questioned (CBS/AP, Sept. 10, 2004)
Independent document examiner Sandra Ramsey Lines said the memos looked like they had been produced on a computer using Microsoft Word software. Lines, a document expert and fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, pointed to a superscript — a smaller, raised "th" in "111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron" — as evidence indicating forgery.Microsoft Word automatically inserts superscripts in the same style as the two on the memos obtained by 60 Minutes, she said.
"I'm virtually certain these were computer generated," Lines said to the Associated Press after reviewing copies of the documents at her office in Paradise Valley, Ariz. She produced a nearly identical document using her computer's Microsoft Word software.
In the Wednesday broadcast, 60 Minutes said the memos were "documents we are told were taken from Col. Killian's personal file." The program says it consulted a handwriting analyst and document expert who believes the material is authentic.
Can't be fun to post that on your own website. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 10, 2004 10:55 AM
The question now really is, if someone had gone to CBS and pointed out all the problems with the modern stylings within the documents, would they have spiked the story as a fraud or gone to their sources and told them to buy a manual typewritter and come back later?
Posted by: John at September 10, 2004 11:51 AMThere was a case in my local high school of a girl who was suspended on confirmation from a 'document expert' that a threatening note was from her.
Her family took it to court and discovered that the 'expert' had a certificate from a diploma mill and not much other qualifications; the school ended up with considerable egg on its face from the matter.
It's interesting that it has become so hard to tell a self-consistant lie.
Posted by: mike earl at September 10, 2004 11:53 AMAbsolutely do not care about the National Guard story...or the Cambodia stories about Kerry, for that matter. I'll admit I'm a little concerned by Kerry's war-criminal testimony, because it indicates a not very reassuring mindset on terrorism today.
But this forgery story has got me smiling. Every campaign needs some comedy, and CBS has apparently stepped into a steaming mound of chuckles.
Posted by: Casey Abell at September 10, 2004 11:56 AM>The question now really is, if someone had gone
>to CBS and pointed out all the problems with
>the modern stylings within the documents, would
>they have spiked the story as a fraud or gone
>to their sources and told them to buy a manual
>typewritter and come back later?
Do you really need to ask the question? The answer is so obvious.
Putting a Dem in the White House is a Holy Crusade (TM), a Cause So Righteous (TM) as to justify anything whatsoever to bring it about, the perfect omelette that justifies cracking more and more eggs.
"The only object of Power is Power."
-- Comrade O'Brian, Inner Party, Airstrip One, Oceania, 1984