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 tomyou
 
posted on July 2, 2003 08:03:16 PM new
Well some of you posters favorite candidate wants to send our troops to liberia. Lets hear the outrage, the cry to keep them home, oh the humanity !!!!!

Lets hear the rational for the lack of outrage on this one ! I'm a little bored and need a laugh so I figured the hardliners would have a great time on this one.

 
 kraftdinner
 
posted on July 2, 2003 10:15:15 PM new
More countries should be involved in helping Africa but because Bush has offered the U.S.'s service as being a great liberator, Liberia is one of a thousand in line for liberation.


 
 profe51
 
posted on July 2, 2003 10:20:30 PM new
I can't speak for anyone but myself on Bush and Iraq. My outrage is not over war. It is over being lied to in order to justify war. It is over Americans dieing for what amounts to ego and greed. I don't necessarily have a firm opinion on Africa at this time, but even a cursory examination should show you that the two situations are very different.

Dean called for a short-term deployment of roughly 2,000 U.S. troops as part of an international effort to stabilize the African nation."We could stabilize the situation and remain in Liberia for no more than several months, at which time a U.N. peacekeeping mission could be deployed to oversee a period of transition," he said.

Dean argued there's no inconsistency in opposing the war in Iraq while backing intervention in Africa. He said Bush never made the case that Iraq posed a threat to the world."The situation in Liberia is exactly the opposite," Dean said. "There is an imminent threat of serious human catastrophe and the world community is asking the United States to exercise its leadership."

I doubt we'll go. What does a little rat's ass country like Liberia have that we could profit from?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/07/02/national1844EDT0740.DTL

___________________________________

What luck for the leaders that men do not think. - Adolph Hitler
 
 kraftdinner
 
posted on July 2, 2003 10:57:23 PM new
Bush would only commit troops to make it look like he had other interests besides the Middle East. That's what I think.


 
 mlecher
 
posted on July 3, 2003 05:57:02 AM new
Nahhhh... Bush doesn't care about looks anymore. His people own the press, the government, the courts. He is not worried about the election, they'll just steal again. Americans didn't raise too big a stink then, it will be even less now. Well at least it won't be reported and protestors will be jailed as anti-american terrorist supporters.

If Liberia want ANY help for the Bush Regime, they need to strike oil...

 
 Helenjw
 
posted on July 3, 2003 06:41:14 AM new

Kraftdinner,

You are absolutely right. It's an effort to salvage his faltering image. Ordinarily, he would have no interest because Liberia is not of strategic interest to the U.S.

Helen



 
 tomyou
 
posted on July 3, 2003 06:57:19 AM new
Here I am trying to be an evil little monkey and you guys won't play along. What about Dean ? Is he trying to save an image ? Does Liberia threaten the homeland ? Well , since it's the day before a holiday I think I'll play "evil tom" today here is a little more fuel on the fire.

IS DEAN A CLOSET REPUBLICAN ?

For Vermonters who have seen Howard Dean up close and personal for the last eleven years as our governor, there's something darkly comical about watching the national media refer to him as the "liberal" in the race for the Democratic nomination for president. With few exceptions in the 11-plus years he held the state's top job, Dean was a conservative Democrat at best. And many in Vermont, particularly environmentalists, see Dean as just another Republican in Democrat's clothing.

As the son of a wealthy Long Island family (his father was a prominent Wall Street insider), Dean's used to having his golden path well greased. After dutifully attending Yale and then medical school, Dean looked for a state to launch both a private medical practice and a political career. He chose Vermont as much for its beauty as its lenient mood toward carpet bagging politicians, thus joining Brooklynite Bernie Sanders as a born again Vermonter.

Dean became Vermont's accidental governor in 1991 after Governor Richard Snelling died of a heart attack while swimming in his pool. Dean, the lieutenant governor at the time, took the state's political reins and immediately followed through with his promise not to offend the Snelling Republicans who occupied the executive branch. And Dean carried on with his right-leaning centrism for the next eleven, long years.

With his sights now set on the White House, the Dean team has been doing its best over the last year to polish up a mediocre gubernatorial record. They're also trying to position Dean as "the liberal" in the Democratic field so as to grab the much-coveted early primary voters.

And nowhere are the tall tales of Dean's liberalism more off the mark than when the Dean team begins to gush about his environmental record.

"EP under Governor Dean meant Expedite Permits, not Environmental Protection," proclaims Annette Smith, the director of Vermonters for a Clean Environment.

Smith is no stranger to Dean's environmental record, having tangled with the Dean administration on everything from the OMYA Corporation's mining to pesticide usage on Vermont's mega-farms. When Smith learned that Dean was holding a press conference at the Burlington Community Boathouse last week to celebrate his eco-legacy, she fired off emails to Vermont environmentalist calling for a protest of the event and wondering if they were "going to let Governor Dean ride out on his white horse of environmental leadership?"

It was Smith who stumbled onto Dean's official gubernatorial web site a couple of years ago and found a bucolic photo of her home town of Danby being featured with this caption: "Time stands still hereyou might even forget when it's time to go home." Ironically, the location depicted in the photo was the same spot Dean was pushing to host a massive gas pipeline, a plan that would have required timber clear-cuts and other dramatic topographical changes. The Dean team removed the photo within a couple of weeks, but not before Smith made hay with his apparent hypocrisy.

"Dean's attempts to run for president as an environmentalist is nothing but a fraud," Smith told Wild Matters. "He's destroyed the Agency of Natural Resources, he's refused to meet with environmentalists while constantly meeting with the development community, and he's made the permitting process one, big dysfunctional joke."

Those are not the words you'd expect to hear from an environmentalist if all you relied on for your news was the mainstream press. The Burlington Free Press, for example, has spent considerable space putting one coat of varnish after another on Dean's tenure, including a rather smarmy salute to his eco-record. The word from those quarters is that Dean is the environment's friend and he's done nothing but anger the business community by slowing development and stymieing growth.

Dean's record, however, shows just the opposite. Remember, when Dean took office there were no Wal-Marts in Vermont; there was no Home Depots; Burlington's downtown was dominated by local stores not the national chains that now rule the roost; there were 36% more small farmers in existence; there were no 100,000-hen mega-farms; and sprawl wasn't a word on the tip of everyone's tongue.

Interestingly, Dean told the Free Press last week that he wished the rest of "the country were more like Vermont." But it certainly seems Dean has been doing his best to make Vermont more like the rest of the country.

Stephanie Kaplan, a leading environmental lawyer and the former executive officer of Vermont's Environmental Board, has seen the regulatory process under Dean become so slanted against environmentalists and concerned citizens that she hardly thinks its worth putting up a fight anymore.

"Under Dean the Act 250 process (Vermont's primary development review law) and the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) have lost their way," contends Kaplan. "Dean created the myth that environmental laws hurt the economy and set the tone to allow Act 250 and the ANR to simply be permit mills for developers."

Kaplan points to the "Environmental Board purge" in the mid-90s that allowed Dean to set the pro-development tone. In 1993, the Board issued an Act 250 permit to C&S Grocers in Brattleboro with conditions that restricted the diesel emissions from its heavy truck traffic. After C&S execs cried foul and threatened to move to New Hampshire, Dean broke gubernatorial precedent by publicly criticizing the Environmental Board for issuing what he called a "non-permit."

A year after receiving their public rebuke from Dean, four of the Environmental Board members ­ including the chair ­ were up for reappointment. With the not-so-subtle clues from Dean that he didn't approve of the Board's political direction, the Republican majority in the state senate shot down each and every one of their appointments, thus dramatically changing both the structure and climate of the Board.

"After the post-C&S purge," says Kaplan, "the burden of proof for Act 250 permits switched from being on the applicants -- where it's supposed to be -- to being on the environmentalists. That's why 98% of the permit requests are approved and only 20% ever have hearings."

There is, however, one issue that Dean deserves credit for: his peripatetic efforts in land conservation. During his tenure, Dean has overseen the public preservation of over one million acres of Vermont land, most notably the former Champion Corporation lands in the Northeast Kingdom.

"But these special parcels seem to be the only land Dean cares about," says Kaplan. "The rest has been fair game for over development."

As Dean goes national he may be able to fool an Iowan or two with his eco-record, but Vermonters have seen enough to know that being green isn't easy for Dean. And he's far from being a liberal.


 
 tomyou
 
posted on July 3, 2003 07:07:46 AM new
Dean on iraq :

I believe that Iraq does have chemical and biological weapons, and they are a threat to many nations in the region, but not to the United States. Therefore in my view, the United States ought not to attack


And Liberia is a direct threat ?

ah yea another fenc walker says "evil tom"

 
 tomyou
 
posted on July 3, 2003 07:20:40 AM new
Heck I feel like bigcity answering all my on posts, Ok how about keeping all that money at home. Nope Dean wats billions to go to Israel , and how about a pre emptive strike on Iran while we are at it:



Although often portrayed as progressive, former Vermont governor and Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean falls short on several issues important to progressives, with the Middle East being one of the more glaring.

True, Dean is one of the Democratic presidential hopefuls who opposed the invasion of Iraq (along with Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, conservative Senator Bob Graham, former Illinois Senator Carol Moseley Braun, and Rev. Al Sharpton), but he is closer to a hawk when it comes to Israel/Palestine and US policy toward Iran.

In a major foreign policy speech earlier this year, Dean, while calling for an end to Palestinian violence, did not call for an end to Israeli violence, let alone an end to the illegal Israeli occupation.

And when asked whether his views are closer to the dovish Americans for Peace Now (APN) or the right wing, Sharon-supporting American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), he stated unequivocally in an interview with the Jewish weekly The Forward, "My view is closer to AIPAC's view."

"At one time the Peace Now view was important, but now Israel is under enormous pressure. We have to stop terrorism before peace negotiations," he said.

Similarly, Dean's official campaign position on solving the Palestinian Israeli problem is that "terrorism against Israel must end," but there is no mention of the Israeli violence that has resulted in over 2,391 deaths since September 2000

Last December, Dean told the Jerusalem Post that he unequivocally supported $8 Billion in US loan guarantees for Israel. "I believe that by providing Israel with the loan guarantees...the US will be advancing its own interest," he said. His unconditional support for the loan package, in addition to $4 Billion in outright grants, went further than even some of the most pro-Israel elements in the Bush administration, like Paul Wolfowitz, who wanted to at least include some vague restrictions like pushing Israel to curtail new settlements and accept a timetable to
establish a Palestinian state.

On the illegal Israeli settlements, Dean seems to be waffling of late. A pro-Dean blog quotes his campaign as calling for the ultimate removal of only "a number of existing settlements." (The link back to the official site was no longer operational as of this writing.) However, in what may signal a softening of his position to woo progressive voters in the upcoming MoveOn.org Democratic "Primary" vote, Dean called last month for "ultimately dismantling the settlements." So which one is it?

But Dean's alignment with AIPAC and their right-wing politics goes much deeper. Last year, he named Steven Grossman, a former AIPAC head, as his campaign's chief fundraiser. Soon after, he flew to Israel on an AIPAC-sponsored junket.

And in a telling statement about whether a President Dean would act any differently toward Iran than the Bush neocons, Dean also told The Forward, "The United States has to... take a much harder line on Iran and Saudi Arabia because they're funding terrorism."

In fact, Dean thinks President Bush is way too soft on Iran. In a March appearance on CBS' Face The Nation, Dean even claimed that "[President Bush] is beholden to the Saudis and the Iranians," something that would certainly come as a surprise to the current regime leaders in Iran who've been labeled as part of the "axis of evil" by the current US president.

Dean even left open the possibility of preemptive strikes against that country in that interview, adding that "we have to be very, very careful of Iran."

Once again, sounding very much like President Bush, Dean charged during a New Hampshire campaign stop this month that Iran (along with Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Libya) was "funding Palestinian terrorists and fueling terrorism throughout the world."

Apparently, there is another side to this "anti-war" candidate. When combined with his dubious record as governor on issues like welfare "reform" and gun control, it may be prudent for progressives to think twice before casting their vote for Howard Dean.


 
 profe51
 
posted on July 3, 2003 07:31:21 AM new
hmmmmm....
___________________________________

What luck for the leaders that men do not think. - Adolph Hitler
 
 bigcitycollectables
 
posted on July 3, 2003 08:21:31 AM new
What most conservetives dont understand is that its not that we dont think Saddam needed to be removed. We just didnt like the way Bush did it. We should only go to war if we half too,not becouse we want to.
(John Kerry)

Iraq was not a threat to us. They lied to rush us into a war.Greed is the only thing that could of motivated that decison.

If troops are sent to Liberia they will not be in combat. They are going as piece keepers.The Liberians dont have a problem with the US. They are looking forward to us intervining. Iraq is different becouse that is a war.


[ edited by bigcitycollectables on Jul 3, 2003 08:23 AM ]
 
 bigcitycollectables
 
posted on July 3, 2003 08:28:09 AM new
As for Dean,I like him but he wont be president. The only canidates that can beat Bush is John Kerry and Wesley Clark.

John Kerry feels the same way about Iraq as I do. He agrees that Saddam needed to be removed. He just didnt like the way it was done.

Look at the situation we are in now. Everything he wanted and could of avoided.

 
 bigcitycollectables
 
posted on July 3, 2003 08:38:16 AM new
March 14, 2003 - Kerry Blasts Bush on Iraq Effort
Friday March 14, 2003
By: Herbert A. Sample

San Francisco, CA: Sacramento Bee

SAN FRANCISCO -- Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, stumping California on Thursday in search of support and dollars for his 2004 presidential campaign, castigated the Bush administration for what he called a stumbling diplomatic effort to win support for a war against Iraq.

Speaking to the Commonwealth Club of California, Kerry asserted that President Bush has offered too many rationales for invading Iraq and thus threatened the credibility of the administration's arguments.

Kerry and several other Democratic presidential hopefuls have taken fire from party activists for endorsing a congressional resolution last year authorizing Bush to mount a military operation against Iraq. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is a legitimate threat and his vote for the legislation was proper, the senator said.

"What I regret is that the United States of America, the strongest military power on the face of this planet, has not had diplomacy that matches it," Kerry told a crowd of about 500. "In fact, it has had some of the weakest diplomacy we've ever seen."

The 57-year-old four-term senator only discussed Iraq during a question-and-answer session with the audience that followed an address that centered on criticism of Bush's 2001 tax cut. He did lace his speech, however, with a couple of caustic references to Bush's military policies.

Kerry, who is to speak to the state Democratic Party convention today in Sacramento, laid blame for California's fiscal woes squarely on the tax cut. He accused Bush of allocating too little money to states for homeland security and criticized the administration's refusal to consider fiscal relief for strapped state governments.

"If the federal government can find billions of dollars for the 'coalition of the coerced and the bribed,' why can't it provide vital aid for schools, health care and law enforcement?" asked Kerry, in a jibe at the phrase Bush has used for the nations supporting his Iraq policy -- a "coalition of the willing."

But Karen Hanretty with the state Republican Party responded, "California's fiscal woes are the sole responsibility of a Democrat-controlled Legislature that has overspent its budget, and a Democratic governor who has done nothing but show indecisive leadership for four years."

Kerry, who was to attend a fund-raiser in San Francisco Thursday night, also called for more vigorous policies to wean the country from foreign oil and to stimulate production of renewable energy. He noted that the United States holds only 3 percent of the world's oil reserves.

"We can't drill our way to energy independence. We need to invent our way to energy independence," he said. "Young Americans in decades to come should not have to be sent into battle (to protect) America's gluttony for fossil fuel."

A former naval officer who was thrice injured in the Vietnam War before becoming a vocal critic of that conflict, Kerry said he has long considered Saddam a threat to the Middle East and to the United States.

But he contended that Bush did little to counter that threat until deciding to seek Congress' approval for the Iraq resolution last September, two months before congressional elections. The timing politicized the issue, Kerry said.

Further, the senator suggested that Bush's actions and statements have failed to demonstrate there is no other way to force Iraq's disarmament.

"The United States of America should never go to war because it wants to go to war," he said. "We should go to war because we have to go to war."


[ edited by bigcitycollectables on Jul 3, 2003 08:42 AM ]
 
 austbounty
 
posted on July 3, 2003 09:02:47 AM new
I saw this Kerry guy on tv, here in Australia, he sounds like a genuine patriot.

I was impressed to hear him offer a 'complex' policy on how to fix health care funding.
I didn't follow it all, but I was mindful that, outlined detailed policies is not something we (don't know about you) are use to hearing from 'candidates'.

It sounded to me this man had some answers and not just rhetoric.

But hey!, I only heard him talk for 5 minutes.

It’s a shame that he (I’m assuming) won’t be able to match the campaigning funds that Bush will have.

I heard on another program that Bush apparently received $50Million in campaign funds from Texas Energy Companies for the last elections.

54% of Bush’s tax cuts go to the top 1%.
Pay back time?


 
 reamond
 
posted on July 3, 2003 09:05:27 AM new
"Young Americans in decades to come should not have to be sent into battle (to protect) America's gluttony for fossil fuel."

But those same young Americans and all their relatives, friends, and neighbors will elect politicians who will go to war for oil.

The war protesters fly in airplanes, drive cars and buses to go protest war for oil.

Rock stars sing about greed and environmental problems at their well lighted, air conditioned, amplified concerts - with $120 tickets, while their music is pressed onto petro-chemical disks.

No one wants oil used, but everyone uses it.

I have yet to see one protester who has shunned the modern conviences that oil provides.

The Amish do it every hour of every day. But they're not the ones complaining.

These same panty wastes that complain about war for oil will be the first ones to scream bloody murder when gas goes to $5 a gallon.

Bush lied about Iraq ? No more than the protesters live a lie every day as they drive in their cars, fly in their planes, live in an air condition home, learn at air conditioned schools, or even ride bikes that were shipped by ships, boats, and planes to them, and ride them on streets paved with petro-chemicals.

If you do not want war for oil, it is easy, stop using oil and all of its benefits.







 
 bigcitycollectables
 
posted on July 3, 2003 09:14:19 AM new
lol I was hoping somone would touch on this issue..

Here is our solution..


John Kerry:

An Energy Policy for America's Future:


There are few issues as far-reaching as energy. Every day, American families and businesses need reliable and affordable energy to power our homes, cars, schools, stores, factories and offices. Energy is important to our economy, our prosperity and our way of life.

Unfortunately, energy production and consumption can degrade our air, land and water and deplete finite resources. And every day, American service men and women put their lives on the line overseas to ensure that oil can flow from the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere to the corner filling stations here in America. For these reasons, decisions we make today will greatly touch our economy, environment and security for generations.

This is why I feel so strongly that America must promote a balanced energy policy that transitions the nation from our heavy dependence on polluting, and sometimes insecure, fossil fuels to more efficient, clean and reliable energy. The key to this transition is technology. With leadership from the federal government, America can significantly increase the use of renewable energy, such as wind, solar, geothermal and biomass to generate electricity. We can build more efficient cars, saving more than 2 million barrels of oil each day in the coming decades. We can develop alternatives to oil to power transportation from increased use of natural gas to bio-fuels. We can construct a modern transportation infrastructure to reduce oil consumption, especially our passenger rail service for urban and suburban commuters.

I believe that such a national strategy would strengthen America. It would reduce the pollution connected with asthma, lung cancer and heart disease. It would reduce the pollution associated with global warming. It would strengthen our national security by lessening our dependence on oil and our vulnerability to imported oil. Instead of sending American dollars overseas, we’d be investing in American farmers producing bio-diesel, American workers building more efficient cars. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of jobs to be created in the design, manufacture, refining and distribution of domestic, renewable energy.

It is time for America to become proactive and innovative in finding solutions to our energy concerns. I am committed to this effort, and I hope that you will join me in supporting a balanced energy policy toward energy security.




 
 tomyou
 
posted on July 3, 2003 09:16:31 AM new
Ok Kerry it is then :

As Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, considers a bid for the White House, Americans should know a few things about him that he might prefer go unmentioned -- and I don't mean his $75 haircuts.

When Mr. Kerry pontificated at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Veterans Day, a group of veterans turned their backs on him and walked away. They remembered Mr. Kerry as the antiwar activist who testified before Congress during the war, accusing veterans of being war criminals. The dust jacket of Mr. Kerry's pro-Hanoi book, "The New Soldier," features a photograph of his ragged band of radicals mocking the US Marine Corps Memorial, which depicts the flag-raising on Iwo Jima, with an upside-down American flag. Retired Gen. George S. Patton III charged that Mr. Kerry's actions as an antiwar activist had "given aid and comfort to the enemy," as had the actions of Ramsey Clark and Jane Fonda. Also, Mr. Kerry lied when he threw what he claimed were his war medals over the White House fence; he later admitted they weren't his. Now they are displayed on his office wall.

Long after he changed sides in congressional hearings, Mr. Kerry lobbied for renewed trade relations with Hanoi. At the same time, his cousin C. Stewart Forbes, chief executive for Colliers International, assisted in brokering a $905 million deal to develop a deep-sea port at Vung Tau, Vietnam - an odd coincidence.

As noted in the Inside Politics column of Nov. 14 (Nation), historian Douglas Brinkley is writing Mr. Kerry's biography. Hopefully, he'll include the senator's latest ignominious feat: preventing the Vietnam Human Rights Act (HR2833) from coming to a vote in the Senate, claiming human rights would deteriorate as a result. His actions sent a clear signal to Hanoi that Congress cares little about the human rights for which so many Americans fought and died.

The State Department ranked Vietnam among the 10 regimes worldwide least tolerant of religious freedom. Recently, 354 churches of the Montagnards, a Christian ethnic minority, were forcibly disbanded, and by mid-October, more than 50 Christian pastors and elders had been arrested in Dak Lak province alone. On Oct. 29, the secret police executed three Montagnards by lethal injection simply for protesting religious repression. The communists are conducting a pogrom against the Montagnards, forcing Christians to drink a mixture of goat's blood and alcohol and renounce Christianity. Thousands have been killed or imprisoned or have just "disappeared." The Montagnards lost one-half of their adult male population fighting for the United States, and without them, there might be thousands more American names on that somber black granite wall at the Vietnam memorial.

As Mr. Kerry contemplates a run for the presidency, people must remember that he has fought harder for Hanoi as an antiwar activist and a senator than he did against the Vietnamese communists while serving in the Navy in Vietnam.


 
 tomyou
 
posted on July 3, 2003 09:17:36 AM new
Screw the heart of the country as well:

John Kerry to South: Drop Dead

Democratic Party presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry is apparently ready to write off a huge chunk of flyover country in his quest for the White House, boasting to a California fund raiser this week that he can lose the entire South and still beat President Bush in 2004.

"Al Gore proved that you can win the election without a single Southern state, if he'd only won New Hampshire," Kerry told a group of San Francisco supporters. The comment left at least one longtime Democratic Party observer aghast.

"That may be true," the Hotline's Craig Crawford told nationally syndicated radio hosts John Batchelor and Paul Alexander late Friday. "But he should not be saying that."

Crawford, who attended the Commonwealth Club fund raiser, chastised Kerry for the reckless remark, saying, "It really allows the interpretation, which I think would be very dangerous for him, that he's going to write off the South."

"I don't believe candidates should ever blow their cover," advised Crawford, a one-time Carter campaign aide. "You don't want to start off looking like a regional candidate," added the Hoover Institute's Bill Whelan, who also heard the Kerry gaffe. "That's just not smart."


 
 tomyou
 
posted on July 3, 2003 09:21:25 AM new
Ah heck one more just for the "evil tom" of it:

"[John] Kerry acknowledged that some voters in Massachusetts, the nation's most Irish-American state, may have had the impression that he had Irish roots. He said that he knew of no Irish ancestry and that he had always tried to correct misstatements whenever he learned about them.


"Numerous publications, including the Globe, have stated that Kerry is Irish-American.

"'I'm sure some people see the name and say, "Hey, I think it's this or that," but I've been clear as a bell,' Kerry said. 'I've always been absolutely straight up front about it.'

[…]

"Kerry 'has never indicated to anyone that he was Irish and corrected people over the years who assumed he was,' [spokeswoman Kelly] Benander said."

—Michael Kranish, "Search for Kerry's Roots Finds Surprising History," in the Feb. 2 Boston Globe.

''For those of us who are fortunate to share an Irish ancestry, we take great pride in the contributions that Irish-Americans …"

—Senate floor statement by John Kerry, March 18, 1986, as quoted in Frank Phillips' and Brian C. Mooney's "1986 Statement Counters Kerry's Stand on Heritage," in the March 6 Boston Globe.

"As some of you may know, I am part-English and part-Irish. And when my Kerry ancestors first came over to Massachusetts from the old country to find work in the New World, it was my English ancestors who refused to hire them."

—Draft remarks prepared for Kerry in 1984, quoted by Phillips and Mooney in the March 6 Globe. Kerry was lieutenant governor of Massachusetts at the time.

"[I]n 1982, at the state Democratic convention in Springfield, his campaign gave his convention floor workers emerald-green T-shirts and hats featuring the logo, 'Up Kerry'—a takeoff on the rallying cry for the first president of the Republic of Ireland, Eamon de Valera, whose supporters cried, 'Up de Valera!' "

—Phillips and Mooney in the March 6 Globe.

Discussion. The question before the jury is whether Kerry has systematically sought to con Massachusetts voters (a great many of whom are Irish) into thinking that he's Irish. Kerry's spokesperson, Kelley Benander, told the Globe the erroneous Senate floor statement was staff-written and that Kerry neither recited nor saw it. (It's common for members of Congress to submit written floor statements in lieu of going to the Senate floor and saying the words out loud, and these statements are indeed often written by staff members.) Neither Kerry nor Benander nor Jonathan Winer, the Kerry aide who wrote the draft remarks prepared for Kerry when he was lieutenant governor, recall the speech being used. (But they don't seem specifically to recall it not being used, either.) As for the Irish-themed Kerry campaign paraphernalia, Benander said it was meant to attract Irish-American voters, not to con people into thinking Kerry was Irish.

Still, it's striking that the Globe was able to find two separate instances where Kerry's own staff thought he was Irish and a third where Kerry's campaign invited the public to believe he was Irish. (Benander's explanation about the hats and T-shirts fails to persuade because Kerry wasn't visiting an Irish neighborhood. He was at a state convention attended by people with all sorts of backgrounds.) And it is striking that Kerry has never attempted to correct various references to his Irish ancestry that have appeared in the Globe, which is the most important newspaper in his state.


 
 bigcitycollectables
 
posted on July 3, 2003 09:23:35 AM new
lmao!

If thats the best you could do then Bush is in trouble.There is nothing wrong with being an anti war activist for the Vietnam War.

Everyone agress that war was pointless. Most vets still dont know why they were there.

If your telling me that war was justified then your credibilty is worthless as far as Im concerned.

The only skeletons in John Kerrys closet are the V.A. (North Vietnameze)

You should check your hero,Resident Bushes closet. Hes got the whole World Trade Center crammed in there.
[ edited by bigcitycollectables on Jul 3, 2003 09:24 AM ]
 
 reamond
 
posted on July 3, 2003 09:24:53 AM new
The only problem with Kerry's proposal is that the alternative energy sources he proposes are too inefficient to be of any significant use.

As alternative energy source must not only be as effective as oil, it must be cheaper than oil.

Unless we can develop an energy source that competes with $3 a barrel oil, we are fooling ourselves.

If you think that jobs are moving overseas fast now, they will all leave if we change from oil energy to a more expensive energy source.

Incorporating these inefficient energy alternatives in any significant manner will make us even less competitive.

The break through will come via a mixture of newer technologies, such as a genetically altered bacteria that cheaply converts sea water to hydrogen gas and oxygen.

But it will not likely happen because all these nutty protesters are shutting down genetic research.

 
 bigcitycollectables
 
posted on July 3, 2003 09:29:20 AM new
lol..The attack has begun.

 
 tomyou
 
posted on July 3, 2003 09:34:09 AM new
Bigcity you dipstick, I have said on here many times I am reasonably certain I won't be voting for bush. You really should stick to cut and paste and your cartoon adventures I can find about a million more articles on any candidate that talks about how bad they are and yep loads more on kerry on tons of different subjects as well. everybodies political closet is full and you are full of something as well !!! gosh it's going to be hard to give up evil tom after today, this is fun, I can almost feel the enjoyment 12 gets out of it. Come on 12 jump in and play today !!

 
 bigcitycollectables
 
posted on July 3, 2003 09:53:18 AM new
lol..I was hoping 12 would start the attack...

 
 tomyou
 
posted on July 3, 2003 10:00:37 AM new
obviously 12 isn't at the computer today, I don't see him staying out of this one, it's to entertaining.

John Kerry, strong practicing catholic or leader for the Pro choice ? Both you say, now how can that be !

“I will be voting to give the president of the United States the authority to use force if necessary to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security.”

JOHN KERRY


 
 bigcitycollectables
 
posted on July 3, 2003 10:03:39 AM new
We all know he had weapons in 1998. Clinton had the known targets destroyed

 
 tomyou
 
posted on July 3, 2003 10:09:58 AM new
There was plenty left and unaccounted for. I have a feeling kerry took a uhaul moved the weapons to syria just before we took bagdad all in an ellaborate attempt to help his presidintial bid. GWB also was behind the grassy noll but that is being covered up by halliburton. AL SHARPTON FOR PRESIDENT the truth will set us free !!!!


 
 bigcitycollectables
 
posted on July 3, 2003 10:14:07 AM new
The break through will come via a mixture of newer technologies, such as a genetically altered bacteria that cheaply converts sea water to hydrogen gas and oxygen.

Is this what you mean Reamond?


We can develop alternatives to oil to power transportation from increased use of natural gas to bio-fuels.



 
 bigcitycollectables
 
posted on July 3, 2003 10:27:28 AM new
There was plenty left and unaccounted for. I have a feeling kerry took a uhaul moved the weapons to syria just before we took bagdad all in an ellaborate attempt to help his presidintial bid. GWB also was behind the grassy noll but that is being covered up by halliburton. AL SHARPTON FOR PRESIDENT the truth will set us free !!!!



lol..Yea,thats what I think happened to. I also think Donald Rumsfeld is hiding Osama Bin Laden in his closet...

Theres been leaks.
[ edited by bigcitycollectables on Jul 3, 2003 10:29 AM ]
 
 kraftdinner
 
posted on July 3, 2003 10:28:29 AM new
The U.S. has LOTS of oil and is guaranteed lots of oil from Canada, so the necessity for Middle Eastern oil goes a bit further than the oil itself imo.


 
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