Lunch Hour Metablog

A lot of stuff about the numerous articles on the Swift Boat Liars that are finally popping up in the mainstream press. TPM had a feature that pretty much captured what I was feeling about the Washington Post article of this past weekend -- that is, that the Post's version seems to be that both sides have explaining to do, whereas pretty much every piece of objective evidence seems to back Kerry up. Similar take on Daily Howler. Other SBL stuff on Kos, Eschaton, Alterman, etc. -- often taking the opportunity to highlight the comparative lack of military service for the Bush/Cheney crowd.

My take: It seems, frankly, amazing to me that, at a time when we're mired in an unwinnable foreign war, when my kids' job prospects are looking increasingly circumscribed, when environmental and workplace rules are being rolled back, etc., etc., the coverage of this campaign is being driven by who did (or didn't) do what during the Vietnam War.

There's also some non-SBL stuff worth reading. Nice essay posted on Daily Kos, for example, about the appearance-versus-reality of the upcoming Republican Convention. And Tapped links to a Knight-Ridder article documenting that "many members of the Iraqi security forces seem to have roughly the fighting spirit of the Vietnam-era George W. Bush." (Oops. I guess we're back to Vietnam again . . .)