Saturday, February 14, 2004

The last two posts from my esteemed colleague have some issues.

First, Clark. Let's make sure we read the entire article, because at the bottom we have this kind of important bit:

"Editor's note: Since publishing the original story in Wired about Clark's interest in time travel, the writer of the article, Brian S. McWilliams, has informed WorldNetDaily his "faulty understanding of physics" led him to report the candidate hoped to work toward time travel when in fact he mentioned only the desire to travel faster than the speed of light. While some experts have said traveling faster than light implies time travel, Clark did not specifically profess an interest in it."

Clark's belief in faster than the speed of light travel runs counter to Einstein's e=mc2, and I suppose we should go with old Albert on all things physics. But I also happen to think Clark is right. The light barrier is a very real thing, but if you don't believe there is some way around it, well, I have an Atlantic Ocean and some sound barrier to sell you. Real cheap.

Second, Kerry. That article is more misleading than the Bush ad. The article says: "The ad claims Kerry got "more special interest money than any other senator," which is false." Then the article proves that Bush has gotten more special interest money in this campaign than Kerry. Last time I checked, George W. Bush was not a senator. The article does say that Kerry does not take PAC money, and other senators do, but it provides no overall comparison of total special interest money to senators during Kerry's tenure. The Bush ad was trying to show that Kerry's railing against special interests is hypocritical because, as FactCheck writes, "Kerry got "millions from executives at HMO's, telecoms, drug companies," which is true -- for Kerry's entire political career." (Note the FactCheck editorial addendum "for Kerry's entire political career," when nowhere does the ad say "Kerry got more during this campaign," or "Kerry got more than any other senator this year.") Since FactCheck hasn't proven that Kerry hasn't gotten more special interest money than any other senator, I think they need to check their facts before they declare things "false."

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