[Air-l] Kerry campaign condemns blogger's Fallujah remarks!

[Paul Chenoweth]

Art,
Help me out with this post...
Are you looking for a political reponse from AOIR?
Are you asking for participation in Kerry's blog? the Daily Kos?

Am I missing something?

Paul Chenoweth, Web Developer
Belmont University
615-460-6867

"Experience is the thing you have left when everyting else is gone."
Unknown

----- Original Message -----
From: Art McGee <amcgee at virtualidentity.org>
Date: Sunday, April 4, 2004 6:34 pm
Subject: [Air-l] Kerry campaign condemns blogger's Fallujah remarks!

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Sun, 04 Apr 2004 17:00:28 -0000
> From: rcade <mailing at drudge.com>
> Subject: Kerry campaign condemns blogger's Fallujah remarks!
> 
> XXXX DRUDGE RETORT XXXX 10:36:03 EST APR 04 2004 XXXX
> 
> Kerry campaign repudiates blogger's remarks about Fallujah victims!
> 
> By Rogers Cadenhead
> **Drudge Retort**
> 
> Version of this story with links:
> http://www.drudge.com/2004/20040404.php
> 
> In a move comparable to Bill Clinton's condemnation of Sister Souljah
> in 1992, John Kerry's presidential campaign has publicly repudiated
> the Daily Kos weblog over remarks publisher Markos Zuniga made about
> the contractors killed in Iraq.
> 
> "In light of the unacceptable statement about the death of Americans
> made by Daily Kos, we have removed the link to this blog from our
> website," Kerry's weblog announced late Saturday night.
> 
> Zuniga, a 32-year-old attorney and political consultant whose weblog
> receives in excess of 90,000 hits a day, wrote on his site April 1
> that he was indifferent to the deaths of the four security 
contractors
> ambushed in Fallujah and mutilated by a mob.
> 
> "I feel nothing over the death of merceneries [sic]," he wrote. "They
> aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to
> help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war
> for profit. Screw them."
> 
> Shortly after Zuniga posted the remark in a discussion at another
> weblogger's site on Daily Kos, Michael Friedman orchestrated a
> campaign to persuade Zuniga's advertisers to drop their 
> sponsorship of
> the site.
> 
> Several Democratic Congressional candidates quickly pulled their ads
> in response to Friedman's campaign: U.S. Reps. Martin Frost (D.-Tx.)
> and Joe Hoeffel (D.-Pa.) and House candidate Joe Donnelly in Indiana.
> 
> "As a former Army Reserves member, spouse of an Army General on 
active
> duty and an American, Martin finds these words extremely 
irresponsible
> and highly offensive," Frost Campaign Manager Jess Fassler e-mailed
> Friedman. "As soon as this posting was brought to our attention we
> immediately severed any tie to the website."
> 
> Zuniga, a military veteran who served in the U.S. Army from 1989 to
> 1992, expressed contrition the next day in a post on the front 
> page of
> his site. He said his remarks were borne of anger fueled by 
> murders he
> witnessed during his childhood in El Salvador.
> 
> "I actually grew up in a war zone," he wrote. "I witnessed communist
> guerillas execute students accused of being government collaborators.
> I was 8 years old, and I remember stepping over a dead body, warm
> blood flowing from a fresh wound. ...
> 
> "[N]ot only was I wrong to say I felt nothing over their deaths, I 
was
> lying. I felt way too much. Nobody deserves to die. But in the 
greater
> scheme of things, there are a lot of greater tragedies going on in
> Iraq (51 last month, plus countless civilians and Iraqi police)."
> 
> [Because the Daily Kos weblog is presently offline, the Drudge Retort
> offers a full transcript of his remarks.]
> 
> To no surprise, the controversy has been warmly received by right-
wing
> writers in the "blogosphere," the raucous community of weblogs.
> InstaPundit author Glenn Reynolds, who helped publicize Friedman's ad
> boycott effort, wrote: "Kos -- who I used to think of as a reasonable
> if partisan lefty -- seems to be infested with a degree of hatred 
that
> I previously associated with the Democratic Underground and other
> fringe sites."
> 
> Support was hard to come by among left-wing bloggers as well. "I wish
> Kos would just step up to the plate and apologize," wrote Kevin Drum
> on his Washington Monthly weblog. "I really don't think it matters if
> they were private contractors ... Nor does it matter much that you
> don't like the war. Some of the wingnuts on the right gloated over 
the
> deaths of UN workers in last August's bombing, and that was wrong as
> well, regardless of what they thought of the UN."
> 
> In a political season marked by unprecedented donations from Internet
> users, Daily Kos has become one of the most popular venues for
> candidate ads, selling at rates from $700 to $2,000 a month, 
according
> to price quotes on Blogads, the broker representing the site.
> 
> Several months ago, Ben Chandler spent $2,000 advertising his House
> candidacy on Daily Kos, InstaPundit, and nine other weblogs. After 
his
> campaign manager said in subsequent interviews that the two-week ad
> buy prompted $80,000 in contributions (and Chandler won), Kos and
> other politically themed weblogs began selling out their ad space to
> candidates.
> 
> While campaigning for president in 1992, Bill Clinton blasted remarks
> made by African-American rapper Sister Souljah, who said in a
> newspaper interview, "If black people kill black people every day, 
why
> not have a week and kill white people?"
> 
> "If you took the words 'white' and 'black' and you reversed them, you
> might think David Duke was giving that speech," Clinton responded,
> drawing criticism from Rev. Jesse Jackson and others. The exchange 
has
> become enshrined as jargon -- a politician's efforts to distance
> himself from an extremist in his own party is viewed as a "Sister
> Souljah moment."
> 
> After the rapid success of his boycott and his site's spiking
> popularity, Michael Friedman expressed a bit of newfound concern: "If
> I start selling blog ads next week will Kos's readers organize 
against
> me? ... I hope not."
> 
> [Disclosure: The Drudge Retort has bought ads from Blogads, the
> company that represents Daily Kos.]
> 
> http://www.drudge.com/2004/20040404.php
> 
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