With the presidential campaign in its final lap, the egregiousness of John Kerry continues to dismay.

One searches in vain for the word "apology" in the Kerry lexicon. He and his running mate refuse to apologize for shabbily seeking to set Cheney fille against Cheney fils. He refuses to apologize (a) to American veterans who fought in Vietnam for terming them all war criminals in his 1971 remarks before a congressional committee, and (b) to American POWs, as even Jane Fonda has done, for extending their time in Hanoi by two years. And he refuses to demand that Dan Rather apologize to the president for rushing onto the air - and to judgment - with forged memos about the president's service in the Air National Guard.

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What's more, Kerry refuses to authorize the release - as only he can - of all his military records by signing the Pentagon's Standard Form 180. Such release might explain, for instance:

(1) Why Kerry's honorable discharge from the military is dated March 2001, though his service obligation should have ended July 1, 1972, and he was discharged from the Naval Reserve in February 1978.

(2a) Who really wrote up the incident reports leading to Kerry's various medals.

(2b) How it is Kerry would have a Silver Star with combat V when such a medal does not exist in the Pentagon's inventory of military decorations.

(3) Why he has refused to authorize a reprinting of his peacenik book "The New Soldier," whose cover recreates the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi with the American flag purposefully upside-down.

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It also would be helpful to know why - as a member of the Naval Reserve - Kerry apparently could violate the law without prosecution by (a) meeting with the North Vietnamese Communists in Paris, (b) attending (even organizing), while simultaneously a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, peacenik rallies where the American flag was desecrated and the Viet Cong flag displayed, (c) condemning the United States and lying about its military, and (d) apparently being present at a meeting whose attendees voted on assassinating members of the Senate.

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