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Six Degrees of Collusion
By Lisa Sarrach
September 13, 2004

As John Kerry would say, bring it on! As anyone with any sense can tell, the media is running amok. The mainstream media only likes a juicy story if it involves President Bush not John Kerry. Media bias has been replaced with media activism and they could care less.

This is the same elite media that refuses to accept the obvious, that they are quickly becoming irrelevant. The same media that belittles the success of Fox News, the cable outlet that cleaned their collective clock during the Republican convention.

Yesterday was George W. Bush National Guard Day in the mainstream media. Headlines all over the country purported to tell us how President Bush failed to show up in Alabama for his guard service. Again. Election 2000 wasn't enough, two weeks of stories this past February wasn't enough.

No, what was enough was a month of the Swift Boat Vets and a lot of video in their ads showing Senator Kerry testifying before the Senate in 1971 calling Vietnam Vets war criminals.

The Swift Boat Vets, Kerry's own flip-flops combined with a boffo Republican convention and the president's numbers soaring in the battleground states have caused our friends in the media to choke on their righteous indignation and moved them into high gear to save their candidate.

And, of course, they're not about to let facts get in the way of their agenda.

For the final time, the president served just short of 6 years in the National Guard. Two years of flight training, active duty, full time. Two years of weekly flying, again, full time. It was after this period of intense training and flying, after 4 years of active service that President Bush requested and received a transfer to Alabama to work on a Senate campaign.

The Alabama Guard did not have a unit for the plane he flew, the F-102, and therefore was reduced to showing up for either office work or drills. At this point, the Vietnam War was winding down and there was a glut of pilots and not enough planes to put them in.

Subject to call up at any time, if there was a need for Lt. Bush to be in Texas or to go to Vietnam or anywhere else, his request would have been refused, and he would have been reactivated for duty. Does anyone doubt that? Of course not.

For the years in question by his critics, 1973 and 1974, he acquired enough points to fulfill his service to the Guard. He requested and received a discharge from the Guard in the Fall of 1973 to attend Harvard Business School after accruing more than enough points to have fulfilled his 6 YEAR obligation.

Case closed.

Now's let's talk about Senator Kerry. He also signed an enlistment contract for 6 years of service. 5 years of active duty and active reserves, and 1 year of inactive reserves.

He enlisted in February of 1966. He left Vietnam in April of 1969. He was discharged from active duty service in January of 1970. That's a little less than four years active duty service. So that begs the question of where are the records showing his attendance at drills and meetings? How is it that he completes his service after less than four years when both his enlistment contract and his officer candidate enlistment contract states he signed on for a 6 year commitment?

Why does Senator Kerry's own campaign website stop his military time line when he leaves active duty in March of 1970?

Why is no one asking? Why hasn't John Kerry answered ANY reporters' questions for a month?

Maybe because our friends in the media know that the minute they ask questions, they will be forced to remind voters that when he was still a Naval Reserve officer:

• he was protesting the Vietnam War as a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War

• he threw his medals or ribbons or whatever over the fence at the Capitol

• he testified before the Senate calling all Viet Nam vets war criminals and

• he visited Communist leaders in Paris to try and negotiate an end to the war

That's why.

President Bush may not have seen combat, but he was ready to, trained to and would have gone if called. As for the Guard, I swell with pride every time an F-16 flies over my house from the nearby Air National Guard base. I don't demean these brave souls because they aren't in Iraq. I don't compare them to draft dodgers as the Democrats do. I praise their courage and the knowledge and training that allows them to fly a jet over my house to protect our homeland.

And here's another "fact" for you Bush bashers, the support of the military that President Bush enjoys.

Why? Because the current choice in this election is between the current Commander in Chief that stands with them and by them as we prosecute the War Against Terror or the radical sixties anti-war peacenik who disparaged a generation of soldiers by smearing their good name and calling them all war criminals. That's why.

And don't you love the hypocrisy of the Dems now versus when President (draft dodging) Clinton ran for office?

In 1992 and 1996, John Kerry and the Democrats had no problem with a draft dodger as president. Back then, it was time to forget, time to move on. That was a difficult time; we shouldn't be judging what people chose to do during that difficult time in our history, blah, blah, blah. Especially when you're running against two war heroes, right?

The mainstream media has abdicated its throne to Fox News. They no longer question statements or positions from Camp Kerry and its surrogates, they just air them unchallenged. They don't question his inaccuracies, his flip-flops, the gaps in HIS service; they just impart the democrat party line.

Being roundly beaten by Fox News during the Republican convention, the mainstream media has apparently decided to leave the world of journalism to Fox and form their own 527, Kerry-Great/Bush-Sucks.org.

Mark this day, our friends in the "mainstream" media - on November 2, 2004 when we clean your clock and the truth wins, your descent into irrelevancy will be complete and you'll be relegated into the dustbin of history right along with your candidate.

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Lisa Sarrach is president of Hollywood-Hero (www.hollywood-hero.us), GOPUSA.COM (www.gopusa.com) national columnist and freelance writer focusing on cultural and domestic policy issues. You can contact her at lsarrach@hollywood-hero.us.

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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.