This is about the recent scandal that Mark Kirk repeatedly lied about his military records, as far back as the 1990s. This man is a deranged flip-flopping bastard who has no sense of any decency. He is a self-loathing homophobe who voted against DADT. Here is the proof that Mark Kirk may harm Illinois if he is ever elected to Senate to replace Obama/Burris's seat. I want to see the seat stay in Blue hands even if Alexi Giannoulias has some issues of his own. Also, this could lead to some Repubs voting 3rd party or staying home altogether. He is from my home state, so he will shame our Illinois politics even worse.
If anyone plans on voting in 2010, please read this. After you've done so, remember NOT to vote for Mark Kirk.
Mark Kirk Cited By Department Of Defense For Campaigning While On Active Duty, Punishable By Jail And Discharge
First Posted: 06- 9-10 05:52 PM | Updated: 06- 9-10 06:07 PM
In the latest twist in the ever-growing Mark Kirk military service fiasco, the Illinois Senate candidate appears to have violated military regulations by campaigning while on active duty.
If Kirk did indeed campaign while serving, as a newly released Department of Defense memo suggests, the offense would be punishable by up to two years of confinement and dishonorable discharge from the military.
The memo was released to the Nitpicker blog, which has played an instrumental role in investigating Mark Kirk's embellished military record. Kirk required the document, an "exception to policy" memo, in order to serve in the military while a member of Congress, which is illegal unless such an exception is issued.
Nitpicker reprints one portion of the memo, and highlights a particular phrase:
As a candidate for the vacant Senate seat in Illinois, Commander Kirk must complete the appropriate acknowledgment of limitations required for all candidates on active duty (DoDD 1344.10, paragraph 4.3.5.). Ordinarily this acknowledgment must be completed within 15 days of entering active duty. Because of the short period of active duty and concerns arising from his partisan political activities during his last two tours of active duty, Commander Kirk must complete this form prior to his entry on active duty.
Mark Kirk possibly in Jail?
This man is in some deep doo-doo.
Mark Kirk's Foreign Policy Flaps: Exaggeration Goes Beyond Military Service Record
First Posted: 06- 7-10 09:56 PM | Updated: 06- 7-10 10:01 PM
After more than a week of being grilled about his embellished military record, Illinois Senate candidate Mark Kirk is now being questioned about some of his foreign policy statements.
On Sunday, Chicago Sun-Times reporter Abdon Pallasch wrote that Kirk's "casualness . . . with details" problem carries over into the foreign policy realm:
When he last ran for re-election to his congressional seat, he got into trouble for saying China was drilling for oil off the coast of Cuba, which was not true, he acknowledged Thursday in a meeting with the Sun-Times editorial board.
Speaking to the City Club of Chicago last year just after President Obama authorized the shooting of Somali pirates who kidnapped American Capt. Richard Phillips, Kirk got a whole lot wrong talking about pirates attacking ships off Africa.
"We began to see some backbone, not from the U.S. but from France," Kirk said. "France was always good for a quick $2 million ransom until the election of President Sarkozy. When his first ship was seized, he authorized the standard ransom payment -- with a transmitter in the box. As that went into the pirate compound, he then authorized French Special Forces to roll in. And they killed everybody. . . . It kind of shocked us in the Pentagon. But it sent a clear message and I don't think the French have had many problems since."
Kirk exaggerats his military record
Fox, right-wing advance ridiculous résumé attack on IL Dem candidate Giannoulias
Yesterday, the Weekly Standard ran a ridiculous hit piece on Alexi Giannoulias, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Illinois, accusing him of misrepresenting his record. The attack follows Giannoulias' opponent Mark Kirk's false claim that he was awarded a top Navy award for service during NATO's conflict with Serbia. And his false claim that he served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. And his claim that he came under fire aboard an aircraft in Iraq, which he reportedly said may not be true.
Kirk eventually said, ""I want to be very contrite and say there is a casualness with which I sometimes describe military details. And if it gave the impression that my military record is larger than it was, I want to apologize." (The old non-apology apology.)
So it was only a matter of time before the conservative noise machine fired back at Giannoulias' résumé. In a post titled, "Giannoulias's Embellishment", The Weekly Standard's Daniel Halper pointed to an error on Giannoulias' official website. The website previously stated: "He [Giannoulias] founded and chairs the AG Foundation, a not-for-profit charity that donates money to treat child-related illnesses, curb poverty and assist disaster relief organizations."
Fixed News distorts Giannoulias
Mark Kirk's Damage Control: Apologizes For Embellishing Military Record As More Instances Come To Light (VIDEO)
First Posted: 06- 4-10 09:42 AM | Updated: 06- 4-10 10:29 AM
It has been a rough week for Republican Illinois Senate candidate Mark Kirk. At first, he wrote off the Washington Post story about his touted but never received Navy award as an effort by his opponent to feed the media a "desperate" news story. As more instances of mistakes regarding his military record surface, however, he has stepped up and is trying to quiet the storm.
Kirk met with the editorial boards of local newspapers on Thursday, where he apologized to the staff and readers for misstating his military service record. "I simply misremembered it wrong," he said. The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
"I want to be very contrite and say there is a casualness with which I sometimes describe military details," Kirk conceded. "And if it gave the impression that my military record is larger than it was, I want to apologize."
Kirk's military record -- his ability to speak authoritatively on conflicts such as Afghanistan because he is the first congressman since World War II to deploy in an active war zone -- could now become a liability: "This has hurt me when it was absolutely unnecessary," he said.
While an apology was certainly a better call than blaming his Democratic opponent Alexi Giannoulias (like he did earlier this week,) the number of untrue claims in his record seems to keep rising.
First, there was the award. Kirk touted both on the House floor and in campaign ads that he was named "Navy Intelligence Officer Of The Year" in 1999. He did not, though his unit won the Vice Admiral Rufus L. Taylor Award while in Italy.
Then, he claimed to have served in "Operation Iraqi Freedom," when he actually served stateside. That error was corrected on Kirk's website in 2005, but he also claimed that while flying aboard an aircraft in Iraq, his plane was shot at (WATCH video of this claim here.) That never happened either.
Kirk's previously disputed claim of "In my role in the military, I command the war room at the Pentagon," was also a bit of a stretch.
Mark Kirk's Damage Control: Apologizes For Embellishing Military Record As More Instances Come To Light
Fox News Bias Over Blumenthal & Kirk Stories
By: Steve - June 2, 2010 - 9:00am
In its News programs following media reports indicating Democrat Richard Blumenthal and Republican Mark Kirk had made false statements about their military service, Fox News Special Report devoted nine times as much coverage to Blumenthal's misstatements as it did to Kirk's. Special Report also reported that Blumenthal's statements were "offensive" and his candidacy is "finished."
On May 17, The New York Times reported that Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, the state's Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, had made comments about his service in the Marine Corps Reserve that were a lie.
Special Report devoted 3 minutes and 13 seconds to the Blumenthal story in its next edition on May 18.
Then on May 29, The Washington Post reported that Rep. Mark Kirk, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Illinois, "has admitted to inaccurately claiming he received the U.S. Navy's Intelligence Officer of the Year award for his service during NATO's conflict with Serbia in the late 1990s."
The Post wrote that Kirk "acknowledged the error in his official biography after The Washington Post began looking into whether he had received the prestigious award, which is given by top Navy officials to a single individual annually."
Special Report devoted 21 seconds to the story on May 31, in the program's first edition after the story broke.
In their reporting on Blumenthal, Special Report provided time for his opponent to call the Blumenthal lies offensive.
Laura Ingle reported that then-Republican Senate candidate Rob Simmons "said Blumenthal's past remarks are a big mistake" and quoted him stating, "I find it offensive that he is still wrapping himself in the veteran flag of those of us who served in Vietnam."
Ingle also reported that "critics say that they don't understand how he could have made such a mistake being -- having such a sharp legal mind and being a wordsmith by trade and never correcting the record."
Additionally, during the "All-Stars" segment, A.B. Stoddard stated of Blumenthal: "I really think he's finished. When he stands there and says he will not allow a few occasions when he misrepresented his service as Vietnam veteran to impugn his actual record, it's impugned his credibility and his legitimacy as a candidate. I think his candidacy is finished. I can't imagine he recovers from this."
By contrast, in its first edition after the Kirk story broke, Special Report did not provide comments from Kirk's Democratic opponent, or any other critic, even though such criticism was included in the Post's article. Special Report spent a whole 21 seconds on the story, and do not have any critics on to discuss it.
And there you have it, a perfect example of right-wing bias in the reporting at Fox. From the show that O'Reilly and everyone at Fox claims has no bias, they claim it's a straight news show with no opinion and no bias. It's the Special Report show with Bret Baier, who Fox claims is objective and has no opinion or bias.
But I just showed you 100% proof that they are biased, and that they are not objective. What say you Billy?
-- from OReillySucks.com's Steve Senti, 06.02.2010
Military disparity: CNN ran 11 segments on Blumenthal's service claims, none about Kirk's
June 01, 2010 4:30 pm ET
The day after a report that Democratic Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal had made false claims about his military service, CNN devoted 11 segments to the story. By contrast, CNN ran no segments on Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk's admission that he had made a false claim about his military service in the two days after that story broke.
CNN: 11 segments on Blumenthal
Blumenthal segments ran throughout the day on CNN. On the evening of May 17, The New York Times published an article claiming that Blumenthal had, on a number of occasions, claimed or suggested that he had served in Vietnam during his military service when, in fact, he remained stateside. The next day, CNN ran numerous segments on the Blumenthal story. According to a Media Matters search of the Nexis database, segments on Blumenthal appeared during the following hours of CNN programming on May 18 (all times ET):
* 6 a.m., American Morning
* 7 a.m., American Morning
* 8 a.m., American Morning
* 9 a.m., CNN Newsroom
* 1 p.m., CNN Newsroom
* 2 p.m., CNN Newsroom
* 3 p.m., Rick's List
* 4 p.m., Rick's List
* 5 p.m., The Situation Room
* 6 p.m., The Situation Room
* 10 p.m., election coverage
No CNN segments on Kirk
CNN: 11-0, Blumenthal; NO Kirk mentions
"Instantly disqualifying" -- unless you’re a Republican (con’t)
When news broke that Connecticut Democratic Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal had misstated his military record at least once, The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder wrote that "Lying about it [military service], even exaggerating about it, is therefore instantly disqualifying." As I noted at the time, that isn’t always true -- it wasn’t true of Lindsay Graham or George W. Bush, for example. (Nor was it true of Ronald Reagan.)
Now the Mark Kirk story brings a more contemporary example of the media’s apparent belief that It’s OK -- If You’re A Republican. As Media Matters has demonstrated, CNN was far less interested in the news that Kirk, a Republican Senate candidate in Illinois, has made a false claim about his military record than it was in the Blumenthal revelations less than two weeks earlier.
Here’s another data point: On Sunday, the Washington Post reported Kirk’s admission that he had "inaccurately claimed to have received the U.S. Navy's Intelligence Officer of the Year award for service during NATO's conflict with Serbia in the late 1990s." Then on Monday, the Washington Post devoted one-third of its Memorial Day editorial to Blumenthal’s misstatement -- and didn’t even mention Kirk.
It’s OK -- If You’re A Republican.
"Instantly disqualifying" -- unless you’re a Republican (con’t)
GOP communications arm: Fox News now campaigning for Kirk
February 03, 2010 5:46 pm ET — 26 Comments
On the day after the Senate primary in Illinois, Fox News continued its pattern of engaging in political advocacy, this time in support of Mark Kirk, the Republican nominee for the 2010 election for the Illinois U.S. Senate seat. During their February 3 coverage of the primary, Fox News repeatedly aired a National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) "attack ad" targeting Kirk's Democratic opponent, Illinois State Treasurer Alexis Giannoulias, provided Kirk a platform to attack Giannoulias, and repeatedly offered favorable comparisons between Kirk and Scott Brown, the Republican victor in the special election for the Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat who received similarly favorable treatment from Fox News prior to his election.
GOP communications arm: Fox News now campaigning for Kirk
Rachel Maddow: Mark Kirk 'Has Made Up An Amazing Array Of Stuff' (VIDEO)
First Posted: 06- 8-10 10:46 AM | Updated: 06- 8-10 10:52 AM
Rachel Maddow once again brought up Illinois Senate candidate Mark Kirk on her show Monday night, saying that his history of "misstatements" about his own military record and foreign policy could make for the biggest Senate race story of the year--topping Rand Paul of Kentucky and Sue Lowden of Nevada.
"But Mark Kirk beats them both," Maddow said. "...The man has an incredible imagination, he has made up an amazing array of stuff over the course of his public career. And the more you look at his public statements, the more whoppers you find."
Maddow was referring to the latest round of falsities discovered by the Chicago Sun-Times this weekend.
The Rachel Maddow Show calls out Mark Kirk
llinois Republican Senate candidate admits to error on Navy award
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 30, 2010; A03
The Republican candidate for President Obama's old Senate seat inaccurately claimed to have received the U.S. Navy's Intelligence Officer of the Year award for service during NATO's conflict with Serbia in the late 1990s.
Rep. Mark Kirk, a Navy reservist elected to Congress in 2001, acknowledged the error in his official biography after The Washington Post began looking into whether he had received the prestigious award, which is given by top Navy officials to a single individual annually. The Post's inquiries were sparked by complaints from a representative of state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, Kirk's Democratic opponent in the Illinois Senate race.
Kirk, an Appropriations Committee member, changed his Web site last week to incorporate a different account of the award. Kirk wrote on his blog that "upon a recent review of my records, I found that an award listed in my official biography was misidentified" and that the award he had intended to list was given to his entire unit.
A professional group, the National Military Intelligence Association, gave Kirk's unit -- based in Aviano, Italy -- Kathleen Strand, a spokeswoman for Giannoulias, said Friday that Kirk "is lying or embellishing his military record."
Kirk and Giannoulias are in a tight race. Giannoulias has been hobbled by federal regulators' seizure last month of his family's bank.
WaPo article on Illinois Republican Senate candidate admits to error on Navy award
Illinois Senate Race: All Insults, All The Time
DEANNA BELLANDI | 06/ 5/10 10:34 PM | AP
CHICAGO — The candidates in one of the nation's most closely watched Senate races aren't saying much about health care, the Gulf oil spill or even the economy. Instead, they're discussing who's the least trustworthy.
Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk says Democrat Alexi Giannoulias is a "mob banker." His allies compare Giannoulias to Tony Soprano and criticize him for wrongly claiming to still head a charity that's actually defunct.
Meanwhile, Giannoulias argues Kirk has a problem with the truth. His campaign highlights every new development related to Kirk exaggerating his military service.
Illinois finds itself in an odd parallel universe in this midterm election as the rest of the country watches an ideological clash between the parties over the size of government and the best answers for the recession, with the insurgent tea party movement fanning the debate.
Illinois' candidates, while competing for President Barack Obama's old seat, are talking mostly about each other. The disparity is causing confusion among some voters.
"I want to hear what they propose will help Illinois and get the state out of the mess it's in," said Wayne "Ren" Sirles, 68, a peach and apple grower in rural southern Illinois, where both candidates have campaigned. "Come and tell me what you're proposing."
Bob Biehl, a corn and soybean grower near Belleville in southwestern Illinois, said he also is wondering about the precarious economy.
"I would want to hear about their positives and what they can do," Biehl said. "This country's in a world of hurt as far as I'm concerned."
The exchange of insults rather than ideas speaks to certain political conditions prevailing in the race, and it's not clear if and when the subject will change.
Illinois Senate Race full of bickering
Mark Kirk and Richard Blumenthal: Will Sunday shows cover them equally?
May 29, 2010 9:51 pm ET by Jeremy Schulman
Following The New York Times' wildly misleading hit piece on Connecticut attorney general and Democratic senatorial candidate Richard Blumenthal, last weekend's Sunday shows devoted significant attention to the allegations that Blumenthal had misrepresented part of his military service.
According to a Nexis search:
Fox News Sunday devoted 480 words to the Blumenthal story.
NBC's Meet the Press, meanwhile, devoted 598 words to the Blumenthal story.
And ABC's This Week devoted 1,363 words to the story (including gross falsehoods advanced by George Will about related matters).
This Sunday, those same shows should devote comparable attention to a prominent Republican Senate candidate who reportedly made false claims about his own military record.
In an article published this evening, The Washington Post is reporting that Rep. Mark Kirk -- the Republican candidate for Senate in Illinois -- has been forced to admit that he falsely claimed that "he received the U.S. Navy's Intelligence Officer of the Year award for his service during NATO's conflict with Serbia in the late 1990s."
Sunday's shows ignore Kirk scandal
Special Report's disparate coverage of Kirk's, Blumenthal's military service statements
June 01, 2010 4:28 pm ET
In its first respective programs following media reports indicating Democrat Richard Blumenthal and Republican Mark Kirk had made false statements about their military service, Fox News' Special Report devoted nine times as much coverage to Blumenthal's misstatements as it did to Kirk's. Special Report also reported that Blumenthal's statements were "offensive" and his candidacy is "finished."
Special Report's disparate coverage of Kirk's, Blumenthal's military service statements
IL-Sen: Mark Kirk's very bad week worsens Hotlist
by Joan McCarter
There's yet another case of misremembering wrong. HuffPo's Sam Stein caught this one:
In a questionnaire he filled out for the Chicago Sun-Times this past January, the Illinois Republican was asked to describe the "wildest thing" that he had ever done in his career.
Kirk, who coasted with relative ease to the Republican senatorial nomination, replied: "Last year, I was with a Dutch armor unit in Kandahar, getting shot at."
Such a recollection of his trip to Afghan outpost seems a bit more dramatic than the one Kirk gave to the Lake County News Sun one year prior, in which he explicitly said that "getting shot at" didn't happen.
"It was very much of a combat environment," Kirk told the paper. "Our base got shelled once. We heard small-arms fire. I never got shot at, but it was a very tense situation."
The tally is really racking up. We've had the "Intelligence Officer of the Year," the "only member of Congress to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom," the "I'm a veteran of Desert Storm," the "commanding the War Room in the Pentagon," the being "shot at in Iraq," and now "shot at in Afghanistan" stories. It gets more bizarre and more damaging every day. And at some point, curious reporters are probably going to start investigating just what else Mark Kirk might have been "embellishing" during his career in Congress.
DKos's Joan McCarter: IL-Sen: Mark Kirk's very bad week worsens
Mark Kirk May Have Misstated Another Instance In Which He Was 'Shot At'
First Posted: 06- 4-10 04:22 PM | Updated: 06- 4-10 06:52 PM
PDATE BELOW: The Kirk campaign says that the congressman made no misstatement when talking about his service in Afghanistan.
Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill) has been savaged in recent days over an ever-expanding list of incidents in which he misled, embellished, or simply lied about his service in various military outposts and units.
Another one may soon be added to the list. In a questionnaire he filled out for the Chicago Sun-Times this past January, the Illinois Republican was asked to describe the "wildest thing" that he had ever done in his career.
Kirk, who coasted with relative ease to the Republican senatorial nomination, replied: "Last year, I was with a Dutch armor unit in Kandahar, getting shot at."
Such a recollection of his trip to Afghan outpost seems a bit more dramatic than the one Kirk gave to the Lake County News Sun one year prior, in which he explicitly said that "getting shot at" didn't happen.
"It was very much of a combat environment," Kirk told the paper. "Our base got shelled once. We heard small-arms fire. I never got shot at, but it was a very tense situation."
It's not entirely clear which statement is correct. There is little else Kirk has said about the gunfire he personally faced while in Kandahar -- where he had been deployed on a tour of duty (the first time a sitting congressman reservist had been sent to a war zone of "imminent danger" since World War II). His campaign, meanwhile, did not return a request for comment.
Kirk caught lying again about his "shot at" claim
Mark Kirk Apology STILL Wrong: Says Navy Calls His Award 'Prestigious', But It's Not Even In The Manual
First Posted: 06- 4-10 12:45 PM | Updated: 06- 4-10 12:56 PM
Mark Kirk, Republican candidate for US Senate in Illinois, spent the better part of Thursday evening apologizing and clarifying to the editorial boards of the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times over embellishments of his military record.
Turns out, even the apology was an embellishment.
At one point in the meeting, an editor at the Sun-Times asked Kirk to compare the Rufus Taylor Award, which his unit actually received, to the Intelligence Officer of the Year award, which he claimed until recently to have won.
"How big is Intelligence Officer of the Year? It sounds pretty big. Is it like, for us, winning the Pulitzer versus winning a local award?"
Kirk's response: "According to the Navy Awards Manual, both awards are prestigious."
Well, not really. A blogger in Mark Kirk's congressional district did a little digging (headline NSFW). The Navy and Marine Corps Awards Manual doesn't mention the Rufus Taylor Award at all. And the Intelligence Officer of the Year award isn't in the manual either. (via CapFax)
Kirk can't get an apolgy right
Footage Of Illinois Senate Candidate Mark Kirk Making False Military Claim Surfaces (VIDEO)
First Posted: 05-31-10 11:18 AM | Updated: 05-31-10 11:22 AM
Rep. Mark Kirk's (R-Il.) false claim that he was named the Navy Intelligence Officer of the Year in the late 1990's was made at a committee hearing before the YouTube era began, but the long arm of C-SPAN can reach back and bring it up as if it happened yesterday.
What is striking about Rep. Kirk's assertion in the video is that it appears scripted and thought out, which belies Kirk's recent defense that the false claim on his website -- that was only removed last week after a Washington Post investigation -- regarding the award was little more than an administrative oversight.
At the very beginning of Kirk's testimony, he makes the claim, which he has since confessed is false: "I've been in office just one year. Before that I was a Navy Reserve Intelligence Officer--was the Navy's Intelligence Officer of the Year in 1998," Kirk said in a March 2002 House committee hearing.
Kirk busted back in 2003 for fibbing about his military record
Mark Kirk Admits To ANOTHER False Military Record Claim
First Posted: 06- 2-10 03:38 PM | Updated: 06- 2-10 03:44 PM
The hits keep on coming for Republican Illinois Senate hopeful Mark Kirk, who has now corrected a second misrepresentation of his military service record.
Last week, the Washington Post published an article revealing that Kirk did not personally receive an award for "Intelligence Officer of the Year," which he touted in both speeches and on his online biography (the bio was removed following the Post's investigation). Kirk's unit had actually received the Vice Admiral Rufus L. Taylor Award.
Since the story broke, more people have come forward skeptical of some other military claims Kirk has made, and on Wednesday, his campaign once again corrected the record--this time surrounding a claim that sounds awfully familiar. AP reports:
His campaign said Wednesday that in 2005, a reference on his official House website was changed. Kirk had said he was the only member of Congress to serve "in" Operation Iraqi Freedom. That was changed to "during."
The campaign said he served stateside and that his 2005 campaign website was worded correctly.
Kirk actually served stateside in the Navy reserves during the Iraq War, the Washington Post's Greg Sargent reports. Similarly, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate, has come under fire for saying he served in Vietnam when he actually served stateside. The Blumenthal flap prompted Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) to draft a bill making it illegal to use false military service for personal gain.
Kirk keeps on lying
Mark Kirk's Comments On Military Service Questioned AGAIN: No Proof Plane Was Fired At In Iraq (VIDEO)
Archived video of Rep. Mark Kirk surfaced Wednesday showing the Illinois Senate hopeful claiming that he was shot at while flying aboard an aircraft in Iraq.
But according to The Chicago Tribune, Kirk's claims might not be true because there's no record of whether the aircraft was ever fired at. Furthermore, the video contradicts Kirk's remarks to The Chicago Sun-Times that he "never said" that he was fired on in Iraq or Kosovo.
The video, posted on the YouTube account of Kirk's Democratic challenger, Illinois state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulis, is the latest instance of "misleading" and erroneous claims by Kirk about his military service.
Kirk, the Republican candidate for President Obama's former Senate seat, apologized this week for saying that an award he once touted as his own, was instead given to his unit. He also apologized for listing service in "Operation Iraqi Freedom" on his resume. He did not serve in Iraq during that operation. and that contrary to his resume, he did not serve in Iraq during "Operation Iraqi Freedom."
The video shows Kirk speaking on the floor of the U.S. House in October 2003.
Kirk gets grilled hard
Mark Kirk Admits He Never Received Navy Award, Contrary To His Official Biography
First Posted: 05-29-10 07:30 PM | Updated: 05-29-10 07:30 PM
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 29, 2010; 5:41 PM
The Republican candidate for President Obama's old Senate seat has admitted to inaccurately claiming he received the U.S. Navy's Intelligence Officer of the Year award for his service during NATO's conflict with Serbia in the late 1990s.
Rep. Mark Kirk, a Navy reservist who was elected to Congress in 2001, acknowledged the error in his official biography after The Washington Post began looking into whether he had received the prestigious award, which is given by top Navy officials to a single individual annually.
The Post's inquiries were sparked by complaints from a representative of state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, Kirk's Democratic opponent in the Illinois Senate race.
Cmdr. Danny Hernandez, the Navy's assistant chief of information, said for several days last week that he was having trouble finding records to clarify the matter. Then on Friday, he said Kirk, an Appropriations Committee member who co-chairs an electronic warfare working group, had changed his Web site to incorporate a different account of the award.
Illinois Senate candidate admits claim about military award was inaccurate
Mark Kirk's 2007 Epic Lie About Kosovo
by ebgill
Fri Jun 04, 2010 at 12:56:55 PM CDT
It's hard for me to believe that I almost forgot this one. Mark Kirk claimed he could have single-handedly prevented the war in Kosovo with $2 million dollars. The above video shows Kirk's claim and explains the longstanding and complex issues that led to the war in Kosovo proving that Kirk's claim was beyond ridiculous.
As I recall Kirk's republican party did not like Clinton going into Kosovo and always joked that it was the "wag the dog" war to bury the Monica Lewinsky story. Far from it, the problems in Kosovo were longstanding and the issues were many, not to mention the atrocities against Kosovar Albanians. If it were only true that someone could have stopped the war with $2 million the world would have been better off, but it was only the delusion of what now appears to be a liar of epic proportions.
Kirk lies about Kosovo back in 2007
O'Reilly Ignored Mark Kirk Military Award Lie Story
By: Steve - June 2, 2010 - 11:00am
As I expected and predicted, O'Reilly totally ignored the Mark Kirk military award lie story, simply because he is a Republican, and that is a fact. Kirk is a Republican who is running against Democrat Alexi Giannoulias for an Illinois Senate seat.
Think about this, last week the story about the Democratic Senate candidate Richaed Blumenthal broke, he was caught lying about serving in Vietnam. He did serve in the Marine reserves at the time, but he was not in Vietnam. And boy did O'Reilly love that story, he loved it so much he reported on it three nights in a row.
For three straight nights O'Reilly devoted a segment to the Blumenthal story, with Republicans on each time to hammer him. And then a similar story breaks about the Republican Kirk, and not only does O'Reilly not report it for three straight nights, he did not report it at all.
The only difference is that Kirk is a Republican. Kirk's false claim that he was named the Navy Intelligence Officer of the Year in the late 1990's was even made at a Congressional committee hearing. There is even a video of him saying the lie, which O'Reilly usually loves to show, especially when it's a Democrat, but O'Reilly is still ignoring the story.
And the only reason anyone can think of why, is that Kirk is a Republican. At the very beginning of Kirk's testimony, he makes this claim: "I've been in office just one year. Before that I was a Navy Reserve Intelligence Officer--was the Navy's Intelligence Officer of the Year in 1998," Kirk said in a March 2002 House committee hearing.
In one segment O'Reilly did on the Blumenthal story, O'Reilly said the military lie may have ruined his Senate run, and he claimed Blumenthal was trying to salvage his political viability. In the same segment O'Reilly had Republican Fred Thompson on to slam Blumenthal. Thompson said the Blumenthal military lie is a serious problem, and I quote:
THOMPSON: The most serious problem in this country, is people's distrust for government and the people who represent them. Then somebody like this comes along and undermines that even more.
Then Thompson called Blumenthal a weasel.
The very next night O'Reilly had another Republican on to discuss it, with no Democratic guest of course. O'Reilly devoted another full segment to the story with the far right Laura Ingraham.
Ingraham said Blumenthal willfully broke a cardinal rule of military service. Ingraham said this:
INGRAHAM: I don't think anyone who happened to be a Republican would get away by saying I 'misspoke.' I've had scores of vets calling my show, and they all say they never, ever say we were in theater when we were not in theater. It's considered a terrible instance of what they call stolen valor."
Ingraham also said that Blumenthal's political career is toast. And then in the same show O'Reilly talked more about the Blumenthal story in the News Quiz with Steve Doocy and Martha MacCallum.
Anyone notice a pattern here. When a Democrat does something wrong O'Reilly reports it two or three nights in a row. And he only has a Republican on to discuss it, so there is never a Democratic guest to give the other side, and provide the balance a journalist is supposed to have.
But when a Republican does something wrong, even when it's almost the very same thing, as in lying about what you did in the military. Not only does O'Reilly not report it two or three nights in a row, with only Democratic guests to slam him, O'Reilly does not report the story at all. And btw, Blumenthal had times when he only said he served DURING Vietnam, so he did actually mis-speak, Kirk lied about his military award all the time, every time, even at a Congressional hearing. Making what he did much worse, and yet O'Reilly still ignored it all.
That my friends is 100% proof that Bill O'Reilly is a biased, one sided, right-wing hack of a pretend journalist. Because only a biased partisan Republican would cover those two stories like that. And now if you run into someone who claims O'Reilly is a fair and balanced independent journalist, and not a Republican, just show them this blog posting.
Oreillysucks.com's Steve Senti busts Bill O'Liar on Mark Kirk