Someone tell Dan Rather that clairvoyance is not a "source"

The hat tip for this one goes to Roger H via this tweet. Get this: it turns out that not only did former President George W. Bush not dodge going to Vietnam, but he volunteered to go! However at that time he was 200 hours short on experience so he was not able to under the military regulations. Here's the pertinent excerpt:

Retired Col. Ed Morrisey, the man who swore Bush into the Guard, told CBS affiliate WVLT in Knoxville, Tenn., a different story. "The Air Force, in their ultimate wisdom, assembled a group of F-102s and took them to Southeast Asia. Bush volunteered to go. But he needed to have 500 (flight) hours, but he had just over 300 hours, so he wasn't able to go," Morrisey said.

Fact is, Bush enlisted as an airman basic in the 147th Fighter-Interceptor Group at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston on May 28, 1968 — when the 147th was participating in combat in Vietnam. From 1968 through 1970, pilots from the 147th participated in operation Palace Alert.

The F-102 Bush flew was designed primarily for defense against the threat of Soviet bombers, and units charged with this task were the best of the best. Only a return of his unit's mission to continental air defense before Bush completed his flight training made it unlikely he'd fly in combat. Bush avoided nothing.

The heart of the Mapes-Rather hatchet job was that Bush was a coward who avoided action in Vietnam. That was false, and CBS' own report on the matter shows that Mapes knew it was false.

Hey, maybe someone should tell Dan Rather! Forget it—that jerk knew.

Glad this article wasn't written using Microsoft word—that weird little "th" character screws up the blog for some web browsers.

Couldn't find many good Ted Kennedy jokes online

I was really disappointed, but I found a few. They were from really dumb sites which contained some I didn't like for various reasons, so I'm not going to bother linking them. But since we're assuming Ted went to Heaven (right?) we know he'll be laughing at these. Let's laugh along with him, shall we.

Ted Kennedy has been sober since August 25, 2009.

Q: Why did Teddy Kennedy's staff call him "Mr. Bookmark"?
A: He can most often be found wedged between two pages.

Ted Kennedy had a plan to stimulate the Auto industry, but his program was called “Cash for Kerplunkers”.

How did people find out Ted was dead? He didn’t show up to the bar this morning.

With news of Ted’s death, the Massachusetts liquor industry is now going to need a bailout.

Q: What did Ted Kennedy's office staff do when they need to refill the
petty cash drawer?
A: Turn in all of Teddy's empties.

If the Liberals can talk about Camelot then we can talk about the Lady in the Lake.

Ted Kennedy never became president because unlike George Washington, he couldn’t cross a river.

Q: What do you call a Kennedy, vodka, and water?
A: A fuzzy recollection.

Ted Kennedy would have passed away a long time ago if only the government could find a safe place to bury his liver.

Did you hear the latest about Iran? There’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that Jane Fonda is going to Tehran. The good news is that Ted Kennedy is driving her to the airport.

Q: How many Kennedys does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: Two: one to hold the lightbulb, and one to drink until the room spins.

Teddy: The "Third Tower"

From Fred Barnes' article:

Of course, if Obama follows Kennedy's path, he will retain the affection of one important group until the end: the press corps. The senator's death was treated in the media as the tragic loss of an irreplaceable leader of the nation. One journalist reported that on Martha's Vineyard, where Kennedy took his holidays in the summer, "it feels a bit like 9/11... end-of-summer weather is achingly beautiful but the mood is melancholy because of Teddy".

So... where are the truthers? Was Kennedy's cancer an "inside job"? No, don't answer that, please.

You could be laughing more

If you aren't laughing enough today, read this. Warning: crude language. Via Pikkumatti, via Jonah.

Only my son

Only my seven-year-old son says, upon whipping out his blue, plastic Star Wars light-saber, "Say 'hello' to my little friend!!" Heh-heh... where'd he learn that? I wonder....

Then my wife in her best Yoda voice: "To my little friend, say 'Hello'!" She's certainly the comedian in the family.

Postmortem Rehab Begins

From CNN: "Kennedy called a man of quiet faith". Sure, I'll buy it. But was he quiet in any other aspect of his life? Or was his faith the only thing about which he was quiet?

Damaged III?

Via Tammy Bruce. Henry Rollins--the "Lion of the American Punk Senate"--asks "Where's Mary Jo Kopechne's Eulogy?":

Not Far Under The Surface. Let’s say I am driving myself and a passenger in my car at night. I accidentally drive off a bridge into the water below. I am able to get out of the submerged vehicle but for some reason, I am unable to free the passenger. I gather two friends, a relative and my lawyer and return to the scene. We are unable to rescue the person trapped in the car. Several hours later, myself nor the two others I took to the site have called the authorities. In fact, it’s two fishermen who find the car the next morning as even then, no one has been called to the scene. The car is removed from the water and it is determined that its occupant is dead. This tragic incident is made international news by my circumstances. I am very well known, a United States senator. My family is incredibly powerful. There are allegations that I had been drinking heavily hours up to the time I got into the vehicle with the passenger. I deny this for the rest of my life. That at no point did I make an attempt to call for rescue would probably be considered by many people to be outrageous and horrible, perhaps a crime that would carry a prison sentence. Can you imagine what the parents of the deceased would be going through when they found out that their 28-year-old daughter died alone in total darkness? I serve no time. Not inconvenienced by the burdensome obstacle of incarceration, I seek to maintain my elected position. I am successful and remain a senator for the next four decades. Would any deed I performed in that time, besides going to prison for the negligent homicide I committed all those years ago, be enough to wipe the slate clean? After my passing, would you fail to mention the incident and the death of this innocent person in reviewing the events of my long and lauded life? You wouldn't forget about her, would you? That would be negligent.

Poetic.

Don't think Rollins is a Lion? Well, hear him roar.

Crunchy Kennedy Commentary by Pikkumatti

[the following guest-post was submitted by Dallas correspondent, Pikkumatti.]

Nothing livens up the Pauli-blog like a little of the Crunchy One's fine work. Well, down here in Dallas, we are frequently treated by some of Rod Dreher's output landing on our front door step. In today's edition of the local rag,, we get the following moral relativism, Crunchy-style, regarding the Greatest Senator of Our Time:

Today, it's almost unthinkable that a politician could get away with what Ted Kennedy did, which is good. Still, it's worth thinking about how much we lose because a Ted Kennedy is not really possible today.

Whatever their motives, if the people of that era hadn't been so tolerant of a Ted Kennedy's vices, America would have been a different place – and, for liberals, a worse place. Why are so many great men also morally mad? Moralism may make for a more sane politics – it's certainly more sanitized since the day the priapic lion of the Senate roared after whisky-soaked lunches at Capitol Hill brasseries – but it also makes the world safer for mediocrity.

The great thing about writing a blog post about what Rod Dreher writes is that his words speak for themselves.

[P.S. For a description of what Crunchy refers to as "Ted Kennedy's vices", I refer to the GQ article by the late great Michael Kelly. According to Rod Dreher, if only we would tolerate a few "whiskey-soaked lunches" like those described in the article, we would continue to receive the greatness that comes with it. Good thing Senator Dodd continues to serve, or we'd have to muddle along without his great leadership, too (read the Kelly article).]