undergroundclips

Jon Stewart on CBS 60 Min.

Jon Stewart on CBS 60 Minutes (quicktime)

Enough said....

Kerry vs O'Neill on Dick Cavett Show: "When right, keep it right; when wrong, put it right"

Kerry vs O'Neill on Dick Cavett show

I finally found this on c-span. In this June 1971 video we see John Kerry debating John O'Neill who is freaking out on the Dick Cavett show. In the Nightline video previously in this blog, O'Neill hasn't let up, that's clear.

But more importantly we see Kerry at 27 already remarkably precocious in his rhetorical command, actively debating and demolishing O'Neill's arguments. An important part of the end of the debate concerns Vietnamization, which is not at all dissimilar to what the current administration is proposing vis a vis Iraqi soldiers today. That Iraqization is going, as we all know, quite poorly despite anything Bush or Rumsfeld has said. Most of the new Iraqi troops are poorly trained and the insurgents are blowing them up daily.

After watching this, when I hear George Bush and Dick Cheney question the qualifications and abilities of John Kerry to lead, I am more flabbergastered than ever. For 40 years Kerry has been in public service, he had the courage to question his government when it was wrong, and as we all know and contrary to what Bush and Cheney say, dissent is neither un-American nor is it collusion with terrorism.

Here are a couple of excerpts from the transcript, I don't believe it's necessary for me to detail how well this correlates with our current situation:

[Kerry]:I think that what we're doing is we're trying in a sense to show where the country went wrong, and we believe that as veterans who took part in this war, we have nothing to gain by coming back here and talking about those things that have happened except to try and point the way to America, to try and say, "Here is where we went wrong and we've got to change." And I think that the attitude of the Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace is really one sort of of my country, right or wrong, which is really on the intellectual level, I think, of saying my mother, drunk or sober.

[Kerry]: And I think that just as when your mother is drunk, you take her and dry her out – God forbid that she is – you take your country, in the words of Senator Carl Schurz, who said, "My country, right or wrong. When right, keep it right; when wrong, put it right." And I think that that's what we veterans are trying to do.

On Vietnamization:

[Kerry]: "Whether or not the group on the other side knows it or not – in fact, they should change their name from Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace to Vietnam Veterans for a Continued War because that in fact is really what Vietnamization is. It is nothing more than a way of getting the United States out of Vietnam by changing the colors of the bodies in that country. It's a military solution in a problem that requires a very, very sophisticated political solution. And all that it will do in the end is possibly intricate us into a much, much deeper war than we are in now or at least allow us to withdraw in time for the elections of next year when the president can say, "Yes, indeed, we did withdraw," at which time more Americans will have lost their lives and more Vietnamese will have lost their lives needlessly."

Need I say more?

Bush: The Jesus Factor

Frontline: The Jesus Factor

How did George W. Bush become a born-again Christian? Does he really believe that 'God wants [him] to be president' and if so what impact has that had and what are the probably implications if he wins a second term? The Jesus Factor is a disturbing portrait of George W. Bush, at least if you are concerned about how his peculiar brand of certainty affects his judgement. Please comment and post, I know my thoughts on this, what are yours?

Producer Raney Aronson created the one-hour documentary which chronicles George W. Bush's 'religious journey' and the political influence of Evangelical Christians. It originally aired back in April, on PBS's Frontline.

This past Sunday, the NY Times's Ron Susskind "Without a Doubt" published a piece by Ron Suskind on essentially the same subject from a more politically critical view. Indeed it is downright frightening at times...as Kerry said, "It's possible to be certain, and wrong." In case the link goes down, here is a pdf of the article.

The Washington Post had an interview with Raney Aronson where he was asked about the way in which he depicts Bush:

"Seattle, Wash.: A friend of mine was outraged. He felt you made Bush look almost heroic and you did not underscore the implications of such a lifeview. Please respond to this comment?

Raney Aronson: I expected some viewers to feel that way. What I felt was the most important when producing this story is not to judge the President's faith - as offensive as some might find it - others find it comforting. So for me, and for FRONTLINE, it was just important to show both sides, and try to start a discussion. I hope you'll pass this on to your friend. Thanks."

Jon Stewart on CNN's Crossfire

Jon Stewart on CNN's Crossfire 64mb

This just in: I was able to get the CNN Crossfire video of Jon Stewart from October 15, 2004. It's progressive QuickTime, so you shouldn't wait more than a few seconds to watch it. Thanks to Lisa Rein of OnLisaReinsRadar.com for the links. I'll write something about this later, but I wanted to get it up for those of you having trouble with the bittorrent...oh, I converted it to a .mov Quicktime and my AI video transcoder seems to have left out the commercials...sorry...but their gone...

If you are having trouble seeing the video, try installing the 3ivx MPEG4 codec, it's free. And for QuickTime 6.x, click here.

Credit where credit is due department: I originally discovered that Stewart had been on Crossfire via my friend Dave Winer's scriptingnews.com blog...people forget now, but Dave started all this with Manilla and his Frontier software from Userland.com. I was convinced he was on to something big in 1999 when I first met him...but that's a long story.....

Here is the bittorrent link: http://dv.open4all.info/?postid=84 and here is a link to the CNN transcript: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0410/15/cf.01.html

Stay Tuned...next up: Nightline goes to Vietnam to investigate the Swift Boat Veteran's claims.