Kerning Controversy

No political controversy has ever wrangled my interests in politics, graphic design, and trivial minutiae as the CBS Bush memo controversy. Never before has political furor been caused by kerning and baseline shifting.

Before you let the neocons and wingnuts and [insert derogatory right-wing term here] get to you (like Howard Kurtz, who contributed to the article linked above), you should know that there's good evidence that the documents are indeed legitimate. You see, kids, back in the days before computers and Microsoft Word, there was a machine called a "typewriter." And many of these typewriters were very advanced, like the IBM Model D. It could do kerning and the little superscript "th"s and everything. And it even had a Times New Roman font!

George Bush disobeyed a direct order. And as far as I can tell, there's no statute of limitations on going AWOL. The administration hasn't said the memos are fake -- they're letting everyone else do it.

I'm inclined to believe the memos are all too real, but I'm part of the liberal media. However, if they are fake, it doesn't discredit any of the real memos out there that still damn the President.

UPDATE: Holy shit! The Constitution's a fake! (Via Fark)

UPDATE: Kelly makes a good point in the comments. And because I have said before that we need to win by telling the truth and not lying, we should know the truth about the memos. After all, the evidence that they are fake can be compelling. I may have let my desire for the memos to be real get the best of me. CBS should be more forthright about the legitimacy of the memos. (I can't believe Bob Novak said CBS should reveal its source.) However, I hate showing weakness to it. To a Republican, my saying "let's get to the bottom of this" is proof that I doubt their authenticity. God, I'm so conflicted. Go read this Pandagon post.