Kaloogian Fires Back in Photo Flap
Late yesterday Howard Kaloogian’s campaign sent out a press release responding to the photo flap (Istanbul/Baghdad) where he puts on the boxing gloves.
I’d post a link to the press release on his website, but he apparently is without a website right now.
Sorry about the ugly formatting. Having trouble pasting it out of my email and making it look right.
"SAN DIEGO) – Republican Congressional Candidate, Howard Kaloogian (website: www.KaloogianForCongress.com ), has released a statement responding to a controversy surrounding a photograph from Kaloogian’s "Voices of Soldiers" tour to Iraq. In July 2005 Kaloogian led a delegation of radio talk show hosts to Iraq to interview our troops who are serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The purpose of the trip was to allow the men and women of the United States military to report on the progress being made in Iraq direct to the American people and without the media filter that has repeatedly ignored the news of success in the war effort.
One photograph from the Iraq trip was uploaded to Kaloogian’s congressional campaign website. It was labeled as being from "Baghdad, Iraq" when in fact the photograph was actually taken in Istanbul, Turkey, where part of the delegation made a brief stop on their way back to the United States. Kaloogian has had the photograph replaced immediately when he became aware of the mistake with a correct photograph from Baghdad.
He has issued this response:
"My campaign mistakenly mislabeled a photograph as being from Baghdad, Iraq when it is in fact from Istanbul, Turkey. Immediately after I realized this error I had the photograph replaced with one we took from Baghdad.
"I made a mistake in posting the wrong picture, and I accept full responsibility for it.
"However, the anti-war activists who are supporting Democrat Francine Busby are trying to use this clerical mistake as justification for opposing the war. How silly.
"I will not apologize for supporting the missions our troops are serving in Iraq.
"I will not apologize for traveling to Iraq to afford our troops the opportunity to report back home the progress being made that is not being reported by the mainstream news media.
"I will not back down from supporting the mission our troops are serving in Iraq to defeat the terrorist threat. By bringing stability, democracy and freedom to the people who were long terrorized by the brutal dictator, Saddam Hussein, and eliminating safe havens for terrorists, we are ensuring American security at home.
"And, most importantly, I will not allow Francine Busby, her "Blame America First" friends, and the anti-military contingent to undermine America’s support for our military men and women and their mission in Iraq."
His statement no doubt will only energize his base, especially by calling out Busby specifically.
But again, the many moderates that I know are getting really sick of the “Blame America First”, “anti-troops” rhetoric.
Either way, his response seems well thought-out (politically), even though it’s a bunch of empty inflamatory garbage. I particularly liked his “how silly” line. Especially since his very next line completely shifts the focus — “I will not apologize for supporting the troops!!!” Please! As if anyone “hates the troops”. That’s getting really, really, really tired.
Also, the very notion that it’s the “media’s fault” that Iraq is (or at least seems to be) going so badly is itself being talked about in the media, and many journalists in Iraq are angry about that characterization and are standing up for themselves.
As the violence continues in Iraq, with a civil war breaking out, the media will not last long as the scapegoat for the source of all the “bad news”.
It should also be noted that Busby has largely kept quiet about this — whether you want to call her actions “staying above the fray” or whatever else is up to you. I suspect that she was waiting for Kaloogian’s GOP opponents to jump on him about it to try and eek out an advantage as Apr 11 approaches.
By specifically targetting Busby and the “anti-troop” crowd for being the bad guys here, especially before any GOP contenders got in a couple of hits, they’re much more likely to let the issue die on it’s own than take the risk that they’ll somehow be tied to the “far-left anti-troop Blame America First” crowd.
Sigh
Comment by Nik — March 30, 2006 @ 6:47 pm
I’m sick and tired of GOP politicians claiming anyone who disagrees with them hates America, doesn’t support the troops, aids terrorists etc. It’s such absolute cowardice, avoiding any debate or argument by trying to frame political opponents as the enemy of America.
If Kaloogian’s too much of a coward to debate the merits of his views, then he should at least have enough intellectual honesty to not engage in pathetic demagoguery. All he had to say was “Whoops!”, but instead he attacks people, the man is pathetic.
Comment by Hannibal — March 30, 2006 @ 7:13 pm
Kaloogian’s response is quite infantile and doesn’t actually address the key issues raised in his “clerical” error.
If you want an overview of how all this came about, I’ve drafted a summary and analysis of the thing here. It does not reflect well on Kaloogian at all.
Folks on dKos and other sites have done some excellent research and watchdogging here, and ought to be commended, regardless of whether one agrees with their politics.
Comment by Geo — March 30, 2006 @ 7:16 pm
All the bluster in the world will not cover the fact that Kaloogian thought, through his statement accompanying the falsely labelled image, that he could malign journalists by equating them with terrorists.
What Kaloogian does not admit is that his Move America Forward tour did not stop in Istanbul. Which begs the question, how did he come by that picture, and why was it mixed up with images from an unrelated trip? Not only that, but the image restored in it’s place is a far cry from the image of placid normalcy that Kaloogian is trying to pass off as representative of the Baghdad reality on the street.
I’m not interested in blaming America or anything else. But I am interested in having our elected representatives uphold the truth in all their dealings. Kaloogian has a long way to go to convince me that the placement of the image was an honest mistake. When one takes into account the offensive statement that was attached to the bogus photo, it sure does seem like there was a deliberate attempt to mislead.
Comment by Mr Blifil — March 30, 2006 @ 7:18 pm
Why did they not have a “ground-level” photo of Baghdad?
Is that the only good news from Iraq that he could post on his website? Surely there is more good news than a photo of several buildings in Baghdad, which was taken from great distance.
Sheesh!
Comment by Chris — March 30, 2006 @ 7:20 pm
This politician is making lots of comments about the state of Iraq using his impressions that are close to a year old. The page itself is still misleading — it says that he just got back from Iraq. He has not been in Iraq since the mosque attacks and the ensuing carnage. This web page is deliberately mis-leading at best, and with the previous picture, I’d say downright untruthful.
This isn’t a page buried deep in his website, it is prominently displayed and had the wrong picture for several weeks before it was noticed. I cannot believe that no one on his own staff wouldn’t have looked and said: “hey, that’s a picture from turkey”. The picture they did put up, one from a cozy hotel in the heavily-fortified green zone looking down on a police station (at such a distance you can’t see people) hardly backs up his claim. The bottom line is, he didn’t have a good picture of Iraq to make the case so his staff *deliberately* put in one of Turkey hoping that his constituents wouldn’t notice. This was a simple lie, meant to distort the truth.
Comment by Howard Kosel — March 30, 2006 @ 7:24 pm
“Blame America First”?
No, Mr. Kaloogian. It was not “America” who placed a photo of Istanbul on a campaign site and then falsely claimed it showed “downtown Baghdad.” It was not “America” who lied in an effort to make the ludicrous claim that things in Iraq are just peachy and the Big Bad Media, for some reason, just won’t admit it.
It was you, Mr. Kaloogian. We blame you. Take responsibility for your actions, rather than trying to weasel out of it, rather than resorting to cowardly dishonesty about your opponents.
Those who love America have no time for fools like Kaloogian, because if we left it up to his ilk they would run this country even further into the ground.
Comment by Paul Curtis — March 30, 2006 @ 7:32 pm
Kaloogian’s denial doesn’t quite compute does it?
First, he says, in the name of TRUTH, I posted a picture of Istanbul claiming that it was a photo of a quiet, tranquil Iraq as opposed to how the media (mostly in the pocket of the corporatist Bushies) betrayed it.
Next, I insisted to all who disbelieved that this was actually a picture of the Baghdad that I had visited.
Then, when presented with irrefutable proof that the picture was, in fact, a suburb of Istanbul, I blamed it on my webmaster.
Then I posted another picture of Baghdad, taken from the top of the Greenzone, which was too distant to observe any actual disturbances on the ground, ignoring that at least one of the buildings portrayed therein had been leveled since the photo.
Then I removed all photos from my website.
Finally, I accused all of those who refused to subsribe to the Big Lie of being unpatriotic.
Sadly, typical of the Bush League Republicans.
Comment by steve — March 30, 2006 @ 7:33 pm
He falls back on “I really didn’t make a mistake “and it is all the LIBERULS fault in the true dirty tricks Rovian Republican way. when will they ever own up to the truth? Agree with me or you are not a patriot baahumbug!
Comment by libbie — March 30, 2006 @ 7:33 pm
Nik:
Many liberals don’t support the troops. See this op-ed by Joel Stein in the LA Times.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-stein24jan24,0,4137172.column?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
I’m no Kaloogian supporter, but he’s right when he says many in the media want to see us fail in Iraq.
Comment by the other DC guy — March 30, 2006 @ 7:34 pm
Go ahead and send some more “premium coffee” to the troops, Kaloogian.
Cause they have time to stop and brew it while trying to avoid IED’s. Thanks a lot.
Comment by John — March 30, 2006 @ 7:37 pm
What is wrong with being anti-war? The right uses this like it’s some sort of derogatory epithet. Is being “pro-war” better? Republicans think it’s wrong to view war as undesirable? I’m against war, am I wrong to hold that view? I’d become instantly correct in my world view if I recanted and proclaimed “I’m for war, I’m pro-war, down with those who are anti-war!!”? Republicans are insane, that’s the explanation for all this.
Comment by STEVE DUNCAN — March 30, 2006 @ 7:39 pm
who is this “Blame America First” group that Kaloogian mentions in his response and how can I join it? I assume its a legit organization, i mean its not like he would make something like that up. Right?
Comment by Wilhelm — March 30, 2006 @ 7:42 pm
http://aapics.nfshost.com/
One of the buildings in his picture that proves how stable Iraq is has been blown to bits since he’s been there. Oops…he did it again!
Comment by Dick Woodcock — March 30, 2006 @ 7:43 pm
Also, how does a picture that is a year old from a hotel balcony in the most heavily fortified section of Baghdad “prove” that Iraq is safer than the media would have you believe? Even one of the buildings in the photo has since been bombed.
Also, the fact that his campaign was unable to produce a single picture with, you know, actual people, suggests that they knew the Turkey picture was from Turkey but posted it anyway assuming no one would be able to tell the difference.
Comment by JoshA — March 30, 2006 @ 7:45 pm
Who is the writer behind Kaloogian’s PR? It sounds an awful lot like the ‘cut and run’ writer.
Comment by Sailmaker — March 30, 2006 @ 7:46 pm
Hey, other DC guy–One guy does not equal many.
Comment by Caseynm — March 30, 2006 @ 7:46 pm
Joel Stein? He’s a comic or something. I really doubt he speaks for “many liberals.”
Comment by Steve — March 30, 2006 @ 7:48 pm
I’m no Kaloogian supporter, but he’s right when he says many in the media want to see us fail in Iraq.
Bullshit.
“Many in the media” - please, name names.
“want” - point to links, or reference articles or interviews where this is clearly the case.
“fail” - failure and success for this whole escapade are not clearly defined in the first place, making allegations like this self-serving in their ambiguity.
Comment by Irony Man — March 30, 2006 @ 7:51 pm
Wilhelm - The “Blame America First” headquarters office is in downtown Bagdhad. Just across the street from the subway entrance, next to the Notary.
Comment by Paul Curtis — March 30, 2006 @ 7:52 pm
other DC guy:
That Joel Stein article has been talked up and down as evidence that liberals don’t support the troops. Joel Stein is an op-ed columnist and a humorist.
Granted, his slap-in-the-face opening line of “I don’t support the troops” is all that’s really needed to fire up the talk-radio/FoxNews crowd into thinking that liberals don’t support the troops.
If you actually read the article, you’ll see that he takes the entire rest of the article explaining what he means by it.
I don’t think that the article is that funny, but he’s obviously making some ham-fisted attempts at dark humor.
Although — you can NOT simply make the argument that people who do NOT support the Iraq war want the US to fail. That’s absurd on it’s face, and you should know better.
It’s not an intellectually complex argument to say that failing in Iraq would be disastrous for the US and the world and no one wants that — but we would have been MUCH better off having never set foot in that country.
Again — the vast majority of Democratics are unified in a simple message: “I’m not anti-war, I’m anti THIS war.” That’s why by an overwhelming majority, there are so many more Iraq war veterans running for office as Democrats. Not because they switched parties, but because they’ve always been democrats and are finally so fed up with the Republican civilian leadership abusing and misusing our military.
Our action there has inflamed anti-US sentiment in the world, has distracted us from real emerging threats of a nuclear Iran and North Korea, has plunged our country into the deepest debt in history, has stretched our military thin, has forced members of the Armed Forces RESERVES into multiple tours of combat duty, has cut veterans benefits, has lost (yes LOST) about $10 BILLION in cash in Iraq.
For what it’s worth, what does it actually mean, for you, to succeed in Iraq at this point?
Comment by Nik — March 30, 2006 @ 7:55 pm
I can’t help but notice that the only working link on this website is the one for campaign contributions…What a classless dirtbag.
Comment by MF — March 30, 2006 @ 8:00 pm
“Our action there has inflamed anti-US sentiment in the world, has distracted us from real emerging threats of a nuclear Iran and North Korea, has plunged our country into the deepest debt in history, has stretched our military thin, has forced members of the Armed Forces RESERVES into multiple tours of combat duty, has cut veterans benefits, has lost (yes LOST) about $10 BILLION in cash in Iraq.”
Well said. Which is why one could argue that “supporters” of this war are objectively anti-American.
Comment by Paul Curtis — March 30, 2006 @ 8:06 pm
Check out Kaloogian’s website. He brags about knowing Rep. Tancredo, the bigot from Colorado.
Are we surprised by any of this?
As the son and grandson of Army officers, I can tell you there is no doubt my family supports the troops. What they don’t support are bigots, or people who feel they need to lie to make a point.
Comment by Jeremy — March 30, 2006 @ 8:12 pm
Paul Curtis — Aaaaah. I see it now. Its between the Notary and the GAP, across from McDonalds! See you there?
Comment by Wilhelm — March 30, 2006 @ 8:13 pm
If Kaloogian wants to wrap himself in the war and then attack everyone who is against war by saying they ‘don’t support the troops’… isn’t that exploiting the troops?
Comment by sasha deuce — March 30, 2006 @ 8:21 pm
Wilhelm - See you there! I’ll come in a yellow taxi.
Comment by Paul Curtis — March 30, 2006 @ 8:33 pm
Mr. Kaloogian has other problems:
State Senator Tom McClintock just released the following statement from Sacramento:
“It has come to my attention that a campaign mailing on behalf of Howard Kaloogian includes a picture and quote from me that suggests that I have endorsed his candidacy for U.S. Congress. I have not.
“Although I have a very high regard for Howard, I also greatly respect and admire Senator Bill Morrow, and for this reason have remained neutral in this race. The Quote attributed to me was from my endorsement of Howard’s canidacy for U.S. Senate in 2004.”
Comment by John — March 30, 2006 @ 8:33 pm
I COULD give Kaloogian the benefit of the doubt of his staff MISTAKENLY posting the wrong pictures. I mean, they are Republicans. Republican = incompetency. Just look at the Administration, The House, and the Senate. But if the best picture they could replace it with was one picture taken from a balcony in the green zone focusing on nothing….
Kind of disproves the point he is trying to make. Unless the point is he’s full of crap.
Comment by Cynical — March 30, 2006 @ 8:54 pm
This guy blathers the GOP right wing talk with the best of them. It will be interesting to see if the CA50 buys it or not. I live in the 50th and plan on voting for FB, although she is not as dynamic as I like. I also supported the invasion of Iraq, but feel the strong need to have clean vision about the situation on the ground, not to BS ourselves like we did in Nam. I think other people in the 50th feel the same way and as a result, view this jokers rhetoric as BS at best, and antiquated at worst. Maybe a year ago, he could get away with with shit, but today, must people see need real thinkers to make the best policy decisions regarding iraq and the US.
Comment by The fake fake Al — March 30, 2006 @ 9:04 pm
In a parallel universe where Republicans tell the truth, the press release said, “I couldn’t find a photo from Baghdad that looked peaceful, so I replaced it with one from Instanbul, Turkey, hoping nobody would notice. I got busted, so now you can find an arial shot of Baghdad that doesn’t show shit.”
Comment by dem boy — March 30, 2006 @ 9:19 pm
Kaloogian is so desparate he has to mention Busby’s name 3 times to try and bring her into the mix. She never said anything about the mess he brought upon himself. Maybe he should try honesty and integrity for a change.
Comment by Mike — March 30, 2006 @ 9:21 pm
Fuck the so called “moderates” who might be offended. They are the same worthless shits who were only too happy to watch 50,000 Americans killed in Vietnam while they went about their business.
There is zero difference between the Vietnam war, started with a lie and a coverup, and the Iraq war started with a never ending series of lies and an ongoing coverup.
If you support the troops today then you support all the killing and maiming of innocent women and children along with it. You can’t have it both ways.
Never support troops fighting in your name with your tax dollars who are not protecting you from jack shit and waging an unjust war against people who are not our enemey.
I hope you’re reading this too you NSA limp dicks. If you could only satisfy your partners sexually maybe you wouldn’t be the brainless sadists we all know you are today.
Wiretap that motherfucker.
Comment by The Angry Buddhist — March 30, 2006 @ 9:22 pm
What absolute bull%$#@. The original photo was posted as supporting evidence of the claim that the press is *deliberately* exaggerating the violence in Bagdad and Iraq. The fake Bagdad shot showed people walking around and it did indeed look like a very calm and tranquil street scene, albeit from another country.
His “replacement” photo of Bagdad is a telephoto shot from his hotel room in which you can’t see people at all. This new photo doesn’t allow you to form *any* opinion on the violence in Bagdad; and it certainly does not support the modified caption.
This “error” was blamed first on a staffer, then on the webmaster; only now is Howard taking responsibility. I guess he had to ask his PR people how to try and weasel out of this one.
And this “error” was discovered by a bunch of dailyKos bloggers with no connection to Busby’s campaign, unless you want to count a common appreciation for the truth.
No-one asked Howard to apologize for any of the strawmen he is refusing to apologize for. He *should* apologize for his cowardly attacks on the press, which is what the fake photo was used for. But, no, Howard instead wants to play the victim. He responds with faux outrage to a litany of accusations that nobody has made; and ignores the *one* that was made.
Gee, it’s like Duke never really left the district.
Comment by Court Jester — March 30, 2006 @ 9:32 pm
Bet they had to call Karl to write that for them….
Comment by donna — March 30, 2006 @ 9:43 pm
Really, if things are going so great in Baghdad, how hard would it have been for them to take some pictures of themselves cavorting through the streets?
Comment by Rsa — March 30, 2006 @ 10:00 pm
After hearing the news story on the “wron” photo i looked at Howard’s site and the other photographs. the photos of him with Bush, REagan and Dole all look photoshoped. In none of them are they interacting with each other or even looking at each other. Since we know that at least one post was, shall we say, less thatn candid, i wonder about the others…
Comment by Phil Hack — March 30, 2006 @ 10:26 pm
Let Kaloogian support the troops by going over joining up and going over to Iraq. I am sick of the cowardly right who bluster on and on about war and against anti-war who refuse to take up arms themselves. Look at the crowd who got us into this: Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rove, etc and their cheerleaders, Kristol, Krauthammer, Hewitt, and so on.
So, Kaloogian goes to Iraq a year ago. Stays in the fortified green zone for four days - not ten -posts a picture of lovely peaceful Istanbul and claims that is downtown Iraq and in so doing intimates that the scene is more typical of Iraq then the picture painted by journalists. Now, to replace the picture with another of the 100’s of photos they took of Iraq, he gives us a photo taken from the safety of his hotel room in the green zone. Does that not tell you where brave Kaloogian is coming from?
Comment by mickeyd — March 30, 2006 @ 10:29 pm
This is the first time there has been this many comments to one post on this site! That’s terribly exciting. I knew this site would catch on in the S.D. Community…
Comment by Cross Tabs — March 30, 2006 @ 10:52 pm
Move America Forward
2004 Disclosure Form 990
Line 39 TRAVEL expenses $5114.31
Only $5,114.31 travel expenses for a company with $546,964.38 total revenue?
Doesn’t that seem awfully low?
Who’s supplying the corporate jet rides?
Comment by Here in DC — March 30, 2006 @ 10:55 pm
I find one little point to be of interest. I don’t know why all of the dems on this site are working so hard to torpedo Howard. He is certainly not my choice, but if I were a dem I would guess Busby would have a better chance against him than most of the other Reps. I may have waited until after April to release this if I were Kos…hoping Howard may win the primary, and then be very vulnerable in the general. But hey, that said, I’m glad y’all are doing this since I didn’t want him to get the nomination anyway!
Comment by Cross Tabs — March 30, 2006 @ 11:01 pm
This is exactly what you can expect for the next few weeks. With Busby polling anywhere from 35-45%, and the polls showing her rising, all the Reps are starting to realize that if they’re not careful, there WON’T be a runoff. To win, they need to keep Busby no higher than 45%, and that won’t happen if they give Busby a pass.
That said, what an interesting group of candidates on the Rep side: Bilbray (lobbyist and Abramoff/ephedra buddy), Kaloogian (serial liar, about both the picture and 2 endorsements), Roach (first campaign, already has a campaign finance violation), Uke and Morrow (who no one is voting for — why?). Hey, why isn’t Morrow gaining any traction?
BTW, just found this site a few days ago. Its kinda cool to have a site where Dems and Reps square off.
Comment by Jim — March 30, 2006 @ 11:03 pm
I’ve worked media relations on a few campaigns and have hung around way too many politicians to be healty. No experienced politician, ever, would allow a major media play to go out without his okay. TV and radio ads, campaign literature, and the website require the candidate’s approval. Kaloogian blaming staff doesn’t pass the smell test.
Comment by KnightErrant — March 30, 2006 @ 11:12 pm
Don’t worry. Busby’s numbers will come crashing down once someone does a poll that doens’t have a grossly inflated number of dems in the sample. A runoff is guaranteed. Sorry, Busby-ites.
Comment by Cross Tabs — March 30, 2006 @ 11:24 pm
Congrats to sdpoliticsblog on getting so many comments! The site is catching on. And to whoever said Kos and/or Busby shouldn’t have posted this until after the April election, neither Kos nor Busby had anything to do with this. A Democrat from LA who was just interested in this race because it is an important race dug it up. For all we know, Busby is mad about it, who knows. And Kos’ site allows anybody to post things, and anybody else to respond. Kos probably didn’t even see the post until there were already several hundred comments on it. That’s how it works these days, pretty much a free-for-all.
Comment by yeah right — March 30, 2006 @ 11:43 pm
Cross Tabs: You said “I may have waited until after April to release this if I were Kos…”
I thought that being a commenter here, you’d know how blogs work. Kos doesn’t write everything posted to his blog. The original Turkey picture was discovered on another blog, went viral, and a *commenter* on dailykos figured out the actual location of the picture.
There’s rarely any coordinated campaign strategy on liberal blogs. If something seems newsworthy, people pick it up and run with it in real-time.
News is news, truth is discovered and the chips fall where they may. I’ve read more news and facts about the alleged corruption of William Jefferson (D-LA) on left-leaning blogs than I have in the news or on right-leaning blogs.
Liberals in “left-blogistan” have almost an advantage over their conservative counterparts in that they have the freedom to try and rebuild their party and majority by seeking out and supporting the candidates that best represent their political ideologies.
Conservatives, on the other hand, are really just trying to maintain their majority, so they’ve mostly been defending incumbents at all levels — From Bush and his illegal NSA warrantless-wiretapping (e.g. Powerline, Instapundit), to Scooter Libby and the rest of “PlameGate”, to Ann Coulter’s criminal voter fraud problem in Florida, to Rush Limbaugh’s criminal narcotics problem, all the way down to the recently-fired Washington Post Blogger-and-plagiarist Ben Domenech.
All of these conservatives, while exposed and attacked primarily on liberal blogs, have been blindly defended by their supporters on the right.
Comment by Nik — March 30, 2006 @ 11:54 pm
No, you are absolutely right. I never read Kos. I had assumed that is was posted by the hosters themselves. I guess it makes more sense knowing it came from an individual.
Comment by Cross Tabs — March 30, 2006 @ 11:57 pm
There must have been a typo on his birth certificate. He’s really Coward Kaloogian.
Comment by right on left coast — March 31, 2006 @ 12:21 am
All you holier-than-thou Busby people sure are quick to point out Kaloogian’s mistake, while at the same time giving Busby a complete “pass” on breaking the law and coercing students on her Cal State San Marcos class page website. ****Is a picture really worse than breaking the law?****Especially when her platform is ethics and integrity. At least Kaloogian said he accepted full responsibility, which is more than I can say for Busby.
Comment by Liberal Against Lying — March 31, 2006 @ 2:05 am
Liberal_Against_Lying: Howard brought this on himself. He didn’t just post an incorrect picture on his site. He posted a picture that was *chosen* to support the odious claim that the press were exaggerating the violence and were “opposed to the U.S. effort to fight terrorism”. That’s why people started looked closely at the actual picture. You claim Busby has broken the law and coerced students. Don’t be a Howard, show us the *facts* and the links. If not, you’re just throwing around allegations.
What many on the right don’t get is that we dislike corrupt politicians - regardless of their party. We won’t look away just because it’s one on our side. We won’t blindly defend a Democrat against facts and evidence. You think we will because you do it for Republicans. I will have zero allegiance to or sympathy for William Jefferson *IF* it’s proven he broke the law.
I’ve seen too many on the right willing to do whatever it takes to win, as if the fate of the nation is a some kind of game. Howard is just the one that got caught this time.
Is it such a difficult idea to put your country ahead of your party? Do you really want your politicians to tell you lies, or do you want to hear the truth? As long as you keep asking for lies and believing them, you’ll never get the truth.
Comment by Court Jester — March 31, 2006 @ 2:30 am
Who is this Phil Paule guy on Flashreport.org. He appears to be a Republican, ( says he works for Rep. Issa) but really has it out for Kaloogian. He has stuff about all the other lies Kaloogian has told in this campaign. I guess us libs are not the only ones that think this Kaloogian guy is a total snake oil salesman.
Comment by Barbara Boxer Rules — March 31, 2006 @ 6:10 am
Did you catch the latest at TalkingPointMemo?
The new excuse is blaming the military. They didn’t want him to show anything identifiable because it could become a target. Of course, that makes the whole “Iraq is calm and stable” meme look very silly. To quote from my blog, “It’s pretty bad when you get caught in a lie so bad your only way out is to call yourself a liar.”
Comment by KnightErrant — March 31, 2006 @ 6:13 am
Did you notice in Howard’s press release it says “In July 2005 Kaloogian led a delegation of radio talk show hosts to Iraq to interview our troops who are serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom.”
I’d really like to know if he “lead the group” or just managed to hook a ride and then take all the credit. Kind of sounds like the Governor’s recall.
Comment by Meatball — March 31, 2006 @ 8:26 am
Court Jester, you need to quit clowning around and do your own homework. The allegations against Busby are there and they are real. Just wait- she is going to be indicted. Oh, and excellent use of the Chris Young platform. I agree- patriotism should always come before party. Thats why I am a liberal against lying. I don’t support a democrat just because she is a democrat- as the San Diego Democratic party has suggested, no, screamed at me to do.
Comment by Liberal Against Lying — March 31, 2006 @ 3:58 pm
I think liberal against lying and Wendy are the same person. Anyone with me on that?
Comment by Cross Tabs — March 31, 2006 @ 5:46 pm
Possibly, but it doesn’t really matter.
I’d like Liberal Against Lying to find me an article, press release, anything anywhere showing me screenshots of the “illegal campaign web page” or describing (using more than a single sentence) what Busby “did” and how it’s illegal.
This was a big to-do for about a day, and disappeared. Probably for good reason.
It’s not uncommon for professors or special guest speakers at a university forum to have a biography posted to the university web page. Busby is running for congress, it doesn’t take a huge stretch of the imagination to understand why her bio would include a link to her campaign website.
Comment by Nik — March 31, 2006 @ 6:12 pm
If the wrong photo was “accidentally” uploaded, where is the CORRECT photo that should have posted on his site???? If no photo exists, then clearly he is LYING!
Comment by Andra — March 31, 2006 @ 6:18 pm
I have seen the actual complaint filed against Busby. It isn’t going to go away. And if you can’t find the web links, it is because 2 hours after the allegations were made- the web pages were shut down. Now how is it that she has “no control over the content” yet it was pulled off the web so quickly? I am not going to do your homework for you. If you wanna see it you just need to open your eyes and look. You just don’t WANT to find it. Typical.
Comment by Liberal Against Lying — April 1, 2006 @ 4:22 am
Just so that you have no more excuses for ignorance, here is an OBVIOUS place to start.
http://www.google.com/u/csusm?q=francine+busby
But your a blogger, so you knew that…and more. Lies don’t become us.
Comment by Liberal Against Lying — April 1, 2006 @ 4:26 am
LAL: Yes, I’m a blogger, and I assumed you were. I simply asked for a link to back up a pecific claim (”breaking a law”). That’s SOP for bloggers isn’t it. I abhor blind obediance in a party. And I abhor the Lieberman approach as well. I wasn’t aware of the *allegations* against Busby, and since you were saying she broke the law, I hoped for a link to it to educate myself. but *you* made the claim, the onus is on *you* to provide support. Your snark does not seem justified. You have now given me a link, so I’ll follow it and educate myself. And when it comes right down to it, unless you are willing to believe everything Howard claims, Busby people weren’t involved in the discovery of the fake picture; nor did they bring it forward. You act more like GOP than Dem.
Comment by Court Jester — April 1, 2006 @ 4:36 pm
LAL: Don’t include me in your “us”. I don’t know who you are. You are very comfortable repeating verbatim talking points lifted from Howards site, while attacking others who dare to ask you to back up accusations with some facts.
The only real question, I guess, is whether you are a GOP troll trying to attack the Dem frontrunner; or someone who supports another Dem candidate and is willing to defend the GOP in order to attack the Dem frontrunner.
Your link was garbage. If your claims have any merit, it should be easy to point to something substantive. Apparently there has been a complaint against Busby filed by the GOP. It shows that they’re taking her campaign seriously, as they should. It’s an *allegation* at this point. Remember that whole “innocent until proven guilty” thing? The FEC gets to decide if the law was broken, not you, not the GOP. (Assuming there’s a difference)
Shouldn’t a real Dem be pointing out the merits of the candidate they *do* support rather than sniping at other Dem candidates? Feel free to take the high road; or continue telling those that want facts liars and ignorant.
Comment by Court Jester — April 1, 2006 @ 6:03 pm
LAL: It would be awesome if your link actually worked.
I spent quite some time looking for any descriptive article or summary of the complaint against Busby, and couldn’t find anything more than a sentence or two long.
That’s why I asked you to provide a real link.
Go away, you bother me.
Comment by Nik — April 3, 2006 @ 4:25 pm
LAL, I looked for something using your link and didn’t finad anything either.
If you aren’t a Con you sure sound like one. It has become a really tiring (and now totally transparent) feature of GOP followers to throw out allegetions without a shread of evidence and expect others to prove you wrong. That is decietful and disingenous. And it is starting to backfire today because thinking Americans are aware of the trick.
The “swiftboating” of America is over. We’ve had 15 years of allegations like “have you stopped cheating on your wife?” which is a trick question. Stop jerking our chains, or at least come up with a more entertaining way to do it. Meritless allogations are getting old and boring.
Comment by defender — April 3, 2006 @ 7:58 pm
San Diego Politics Blog on Kaloogian Photo Hubbub
The whole Kaloogian thing has been big news, though we have managed to avoid it. To get your hands dirty, check out the San Diego Politics Blog:
(and for the lighter side, web 2.0 silly-style, check out denounce today!)
San Diego Politics Blog :: Kaloo…
Trackback by San Diego Blog — August 29, 2006 @ 10:38 pm