John Kerry for President!!!!!

“Of course we could go the other way with the report of the doctor who treated Kerrey for his first Purple Heart wound.

"I have a very clear memory of an incident which occurred while I was the Medical Officer at Naval Support Facility, Cam Ranh Bay.
John Kerry was a (jg), the OinC or skipper of a Swift boat, newly arrived in Vietnam. On the night of December 2, he was on patrol north of Cam Ranh, up near Nha Trang area. The next day he came to sick bay, the medical facility, for treatment of a wound that had occurred that night.

The story he told was different from what his crewmen had to say about that night. According to Kerry, they had been engaged in a fire fight, receiving small arms fire from on shore. He said that his injury resulted from this enemy action.

Some of his crew confided that they did not receive any fire from shore, but that Kerry had fired a mortar round at close range to some rocks on shore. The crewman thought that the injury was caused by a fragment ricocheting from that mortar round when it struck the rocks.

That seemed to fit the injury which I treated.

What I saw was a small piece of metal sticking very superficially in the skin of Kerry's arm. The metal fragment measured about 1 cm. in length and was about 2 or 3 mm in diameter. It certainly did not look like a round from a rifle.

I simply removed the piece of metal by lifting it out of the skin with forceps. I doubt that it penetrated more than 3 or 4 mm. It did not require probing to find it, did not require any anesthesia to remove it, and did not require any sutures to close the wound.

The wound was covered with a bandaid.

Not [sic] other injuries were reported and I do not recall that there was any reported damage to the boat."

that seems to fit well with the whole "unfit" theme.”

“How DARE you question his heroism bison! [sarcasm]”

“"He'll take it.....Kobe style!"
laqtis
09:09:36 AM

Huh, Japanese earthquake?”

“MarkO - Nope, it's in referance to the Kobe Bryant trial and the style in which he "enjoyed" the women in question.

"The crewman thought that the injury was caused by a fragment ricocheting from that mortar round when it struck the rocks.

That seemed to fit the injury which I treated....."


So, is it fair for me to suggest that this person has a political agenda against Kerry....:)

Whew! Correct me if I'm wrong, but in order to get a piece of metal lodged in yer arm from a mortor, even from a ricochet, you'd havbe to be almost on top of the thing?”

“Two things Bison:

The doctor you qouted is not the one who signed Kerry's medical report: http://www.johnkerry.com/about/military_records.html


The regulations for a Purple Heart do not require a severe injury or even that the injury come directly from enemy fire:
http://blog.johnkerry.com/dbunker/archives/001341.html


Let's keep this up. How many people in Georgie boy's inner circle served with distinction? Served at all? (Bar duty at frat parties does not count.)”

“to further my point -- wouldn't a dumbass thing like that be a little more common knowledge? I mean, if we are to believe this to be true, I'm sure that he would've been razed about it and we'd hear about it. Or am I just getting too logical about it?”

“Not at all Laqtis, and I wouldn't put it past him, Do you not find it bothersome that so many who served with Kerrey would declare him "unfit." It seems to me that the percentage is sufficiently high that at least some of those people are not motivated by politics. And of course those who served with him and say that they think he's great could also be politically motivated. They could also be being "good soldiers."”

“Whether or not the wound qualified for a Purple Heart isn't what is at issue. Reread the doctor's statement, I'm sure you can figure out what it says about Kerrey that is quite disturbing.”

“It's Kerry.

How many people in Georgie boy's inner circle served with distinction? Served at all?”

“Here's what I know Violin, the guys at my dads VFW post, to a man as far as I can tell, support Bush. They abhor Kerrey, I mean they really hate him with a vengeance. These are guy's from all different backgrounds who fought in several different wars. None of them seems to feel that service is an issue in this election. Am I supposed to just disregard these veterans thoughts on the matter? Why should I question there position (they having served) and not Kerrey's (he having also served).”

“Violink, Kerry has not published his treatment records. You are citing a document that has no relevance.”

“Well I'll answer your question even if you won't answer mine.

What I find disturbing about the doctor's statement is that he apparently also examines boats as well. Isn’t that odd?”

“I'll answer the question. When contact is made with the enemy, it becomes THE topic of conversation among the unit to the point that nothing else is discussed.”

“Kerry campaign officials angrily dismissed Letson's account and questioned why another medical official's signature appeared on the records of Kerry's treatment for the wound. The Kerry campaign also said it has already posted online a copy of all official documents Kerry received from the Navy.

"If these people have different recollections 35 years later of what they saw or signed, they ought to take it up with the U.S. Navy," campaign spokesman Michael Meehan said.

[...]
Meehan questioned Letson's role, saying a J.C. Carreon signed Kerry's medical report of the wound. "This gentleman is not the man who is on the report," he said.

New claim about Kerry's war wound”

“Honestly, being unfit for being President is all in a matter on what you claim it to be. I'm sure that past Presidents have had additions, or vices that would have been a more cause for being unfit, rather than a dood trying to get a Purple for a splinter.


And even if it was a splinter, the damnation of Kerry's record is really appaulling.

Here we have a dood that put it on the line by just being there, something I know for a fact that I'd be shaking in my boots. If even a bullet just wizzed by him, I'd say he's been through much more combat experiance. Remember, Bush I made it a point in his election, an election in which hge was going up against a "pot-smoking, draft dogger", and military service, any at all, was honorable to the Republican Party. They shouted that chit from the tallest roof tops in the land! Now, they question it?

No wonder I left that hyprocritical organization......”

“Even Fox News turned on the 'Swiftboat Liars for Bush'.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200405050004”

“ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - Democratic challenger John Kerry said on Wednesday his first choice as defense secretary would be Republican Sen. John McCain as he criticized the Bush administration for failed policies in Iraq.

Link”

“That's a hell of lot more likely than VP, and no doubt McCain would take it. Of course if Rummy goes this ideas gonna be scooped by Bush.”

“But Bush said Rummy is doing a superb job. Now, why would he go and fire him??????”

“come on treebeard, the president telling somebody that is like the kiss of death.”

“Wholly chit!

Could you just imagine McCain as Defence and Clark as VP!?!?!



All those vets sure would be a strong ticket!”

“Sorry for the sarcasm, Baume...”

“"But Bush said Rummy is doing a superb job. Now, why would he go and fire him??????"

Because he's a liar??”

“ Of course if Rummy goes this ideas gonna be scooped by Bush."
Bison
12:29:33 PM
05/12/04

As critical as McCain has been of Bush foreign policy, adding him to the staff would sure be a huge sign of change in the Bush admin.

Something that's been called waffling from that side.”

“GW is on a fast slide downward. Can you feel it from the non-responses on this site?”

“Hey now, I've been non-responding for a couple of weeks now, irrespective of downward spirals!!”

“""GW is on a fast slide downward. Can you feel it from the non-responses on this site?"

Dunadan
12:40:51 AM
05/13/04

Nope, us Bush supporters are just too busy backpacking, or planning to go backpacking, to post on every thread.”

“Anyone see McCain on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart the other night looking under the sofa cushions for the organizational chart Rummy and Meyers were supposed to take to the Senate hearings?

I'd be very pleased if he took a position in the Kerry White House.”

“Me too.

I'm wondering about the veepstakes right now, though.”

“McCain is outstanding.”

“Kerry Sucks!”

“You guys are right. McCain would make an excellent VP or SecDef for Kerry. Fit right in.”

“font size=5>The Election Is Kerry’s To Lose

By John Zogby

I have made a career of taking bungee jumps in my election calls. Sometimes I haven’t had a helmet and I have gotten a little scratched. But here is my jump for 2004: John Kerry will win the election.

Have you recovered from the shock? Is this guy nuts? Kerry’s performance of late has hardly been inspiring and polls show that most Americans have no sense of where he really stands on the key issues that matter most to them. Regardless, I still think that he will win. And if he doesn’t, it will be because he blew it. There are four major reasons for my assertion:

First, my most recent poll (April 12-15) shows bad re-election numbers for an incumbent President. Senator Kerry is leading 47% to 44% in a two-way race, and the candidates are tied at 45% in the three-way race with Ralph Nader. Significantly, only 44% feel that the country is headed in the right direction and only 43% believe that President Bush deserves to be re-elected – compared with 51% who say it is time for someone new.

In that same poll, Kerry leads by 17 points in the Blue States that voted for Al Gore in 2000, while Bush leads by only 10 points in the Red States that he won four years ago.

Second, there are very few undecided voters for this early in a campaign. Historically, the majority of undecideds break to the challenger against an incumbent. The reasons are not hard to understand: voters have probably made a judgment about the better-known incumbent and are looking for an alternative.

Third, the economy is still the top issue for voters – 30% cite it. While the war in Iraq had been only noted by 11% as the top issue in March, it jumped to 20% in our April poll as a result of bad war news dominating the news agenda. The third issue is the war on terrorism. Among those who cited the economy, Kerry leads the President 54% to 35%. Among those citing the war in Iraq, Kerry’s lead is 57% to 36%. This, of course, is balanced by the 64% to 30% margin that the President holds over Kerry on fighting the war on terrorism. These top issues are not likely to go away. And arguably, there is greater and growing intensity on the part of those who oppose and want to defeat Bush.

The President’s problem is further compounded by the fact that he is now at the mercy of situations that are out of his control. While the economy is improving, voters historically do not look at indicators that measure trillions and billions of dollars. Instead, their focus is on hundreds and thousands of dollars. In this regard, there is less concern for increases in productivity and gross domestic product and more regard for growth in jobs and maintaining of health benefits. Just 12 years ago, the economy had begun its turnaround in the fourth quarter of 1991 and was in full recovery by spring 1992 – yet voters gave the President’s father only 38% of the vote because it was all about “the economy, stupid.”

The same holds true for Iraq. Will the United States actually be able to leave by June 30? Will Iraq be better off by then? Will the US be able to transfer power to a legitimate and unifying authority? Will the lives lost by the US and its allies be judged as the worth the final product? It is difficult to see how the President grabs control of this situation.

Finally, if history is any guide, Senator Kerry is a good closer. Something happens to him in the closing weeks of campaigns (that obviously is not happening now!). We have clearly seen that pattern in his 1996 victory over Governor Bill Weld for the Senate in Massachusetts and more recently in the 2004 Democratic primaries. All through 2003, Kerry’s campaign lacked a focused message. He tends to be a nuanced candidate: thoughtful, briefed, and too willing to discuss a range of possible positions on every issue. It is often hard to determine where he actually stands. In a presidential campaign, if a candidate can’t spell it out in a bumper sticker, he will have trouble grabbing the attention of voters. By early 2004, as Democratic voters in Iowa and elsewhere concluded that President Bush could be defeated, they found Governor Howard Dean’s message to be too hot and began to give Kerry another look. Kerry came on strong with the simplest messages: “I’m a veteran”, “I have the experience”, and “I can win”. His timing caused him to come on strong at the perfect time. As one of his former Vietnam War colleagues told a television correspondent in Iowa: “John always knows when his homework is due.”

Though he is hardly cramming for his finals yet and is confounding his supporters, possible leaners, and even opponents with a dismal start on the hustings, the numbers today are on his side (or at least, not on the President’s side).

We are unlikely to see any big bumps for either candidate because opinion is so polarized and, I believe, frozen in place. There are still six months to go and anything can still happen. But as of today, this race is John Kerry’s to lose.”

“THE POODLE'S EMPTY DISH

Well, The Poodle has been collecting signatures on his web site demanding Donald Rumsfeld's resignation....and it just isn't getting nowhere. Matter of fact, sKerry is sort of being pushed off the front page these days. What to do now? He's just going to have to try something else. Gunning for Rumsfeld is a lame issue.

While The Poodle is calling for his head, Pentagon Don makes a surprise trip to Iraq, and is greeted by thunderous applause. Everybody loves him there. He tours Abu Ghraib prison himself, and holds a town hall meeting. He vows that those responsible for the abuse will be brought to justice. Not a whole lot there for sKerry's myrmidons to hang their hats on, is there? Let The Poodle keeps calling for Rumsfeld's resignation, at least it gives him something to do other than touting his Vietnam experiences.

Hey, Poodle! How about telling us how bad the economy is! Naw ... that won't work either. We just had a great jobs report. the economy is recovering quite nicely. We may very well be on the cusp of another big boom. Nothing here for The Poodle to sniff out either. So what then is going to be his big issue?

Gas prices? That'll probably be it. But any person not educated in government schools knows President Bush has no control over gas prices. Despite what the media may say, these are lean times at The Poodle's campaign headquarters.”

“Press accused of ignoring beheading


By S.A. Miller
THE WASHINGTON TIMES


WEST CHESTER, Pa. — Friends and neighbors of hometown businessman Nicholas Berg said yesterday his beheading by Islamists in Iraq has been underplayed by journalists, who are devoting more attention to the Iraqi prisoner-abuse scandal.
"This is typical of journalism," said Bruce Hauser, a next-door neighbor and longtime friend of the Berg family. "Bad news is hot when it's hot. Now it seems like 72 hours after we learn about [Mr. Berg's] death, we've gone from the front page to page 3 or page 7."

Other residents of this well-maintained Philadelphia suburb shared Mr. Hauser's opinion, just two days after an Islamist Web site posted a video of the beheading.
"I'm very disappointed and dismayed by the current level of coverage [of Mr. Berg's slaying]," said Scott Eckerd, 39, as he picked up his two children from the St. Peter and St. Paul Catholic Church School on the outskirts of West Chester, about 34 miles west of Philadelphia.
Mr. Eckerd acknowledged that the prison-abuse scandal was an ugly episode in U.S. history but said the atrocities committed against Americans deserve at least equal attention.
"I'm troubled by how the media and our politicians are focused on the [Abu Ghraib] prison," he said. "I don't think Mr. Berg and the four contractors executed in Fallujah [last month] are receiving a proper focus."
Mr. Berg, 26, went to Iraq in March seeking work for his company, Prometheus Methods Tower Service, which specialized in building communication towers, according to the Daily Local News. Friends described him as somebody interested in bringing technology to Third World countries.
He attended B. Reed Henderson High School and several colleges, including Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University, where he studied physics and construction design.
His killers said the beheading was in retaliation for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
Mr. Berg was in custody in Iraq for 13 days. He disappeared April 9, and his body was found Saturday in Baghdad.
"I think the press should be much more aggressive in its investigation into" what happened to Mr. Berg, said Ed Dunlap, who lives a couple of houses away from the Berg family.
The 6-minute video of Mr. Berg's death shows five hooded terrorists chanting "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great." Among them is a man claiming to be Abu Musab Zarqawi, who uses a knife to cut off Mr. Berg's head, then shows it to a camera.
Zarqawi, 37, is thought to be associated with Osama bin Laden and is wanted in connection with the assassination of a U.S. diplomat in Jordan in 2002 and other terrorist-related activities, including bombings in Iraq and plotting deadly attacks in Europe.
"Everything is back to the way the Iraq prisoners were treated," Mr Hauser said. "I think the real story is Nick Berg. He wasn't just killed; he was beheaded."
Justin Fowler, the general manager of Kildare's Irish Pub, called the dearth of reporting about Mr. Berg's killing a "travesty."
"They've been covering the prison story for how long now?" asked Mr. Fowler, 35.”

“Here's a couple of interesting tidbits ---

There was a pollster giving a presentation on C-SPAN two or three days ago who said much the same thing -- and he backed it up with historical numbers. It seems that in every pres. election in the last 25 years, there is One Number that matters: job approval six months out.

According to him, this is when people actually make up their minds. The general 'horserace' can run as flat as a pancake or jump all over with the candidates swapping the lead 37 times, but an incumbant with a job approval rate above 50 in the Spring wins -- below 50 and he'll be sending out resumes in the Fall.


Something else I heard in passing... Some other numbers were released by the IRS or Treasury (forget which) about a week ago... the much ballyhooed tax cut did not average $300 per customer as advertised. The real world amount was $98.”

“In the last 25 years, there have been four elections that pitted an incumbent against a challenger – 1980, 1984, 1992 and 1996. In all four, the victor won by a substantial margin in the electoral college. The circumstances of one election hold particular relevance for today: 1980. That year, the country was weathering both tough economic times (the era of "stagflation" – high inflation concurrent with a recession) and frightening foreign policy crises (the Iranian hostage crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan). Indeed, this year Bush is looking unexpectedly like Carter. Though the two presidents differ substantially in personal style (one indecisive and immersed in details, the other resolute but disengaged), they are also curiously similar. Both are religious former Southern governors. Both initially won the presidency by tarring their opponents (Gerald Ford, Al Gore) with the shortcomings of their predecessors (Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton). Like Carter, Bush is vulnerable to being attacked as someone not up to the job of managing impending global crises.


Everyone expected the 1980 election to be very close. In fact, Reagan won with 50.8 percent of the popular vote to Carter's 41 percent (independent John Anderson won 6.6 percent) – which translated into an electoral avalanche of 489 to 49. The race was decided not so much on the public's nascent impressions of the challenger, but on their dissatisfaction with the incumbent.


Nor was Carter's sound defeat an aberration. Quite the opposite. Of the last five incumbent presidents booted from office – Bush I, Carter, Ford, Herbert Hoover, and William Howard Taft – only one was able to garner over 200 electoral votes, and three of these defeated incumbents didn't even cross the 100 electoral-vote threshold: – 1992: 370 (Bill Clinton) to 168 (George H. W. Bush) – 1980: 489 (Ronald Reagan) to 49 (Jimmy Carter) – 1976: 297 (Jimmy Carter) to 240 (Gerald Ford) – 1932: 472 (FDR) to 59 (Herbert Hoover) – 1912: 435 (Woodrow Wilson) to 88 (TR) to 8 (Taft)

Reprinted at Alternet”

“maybe the terrorist will bomb something here and people will weenie out and vote for the liberal.....like they did in spain....”

“I've been listening to economists and watching gas prices rise over these last months. I haven't heard them say it yet, but that word from the late 70s has been popping into my head lately.... 'stagflation'.

Economists at the time hadn't thought it possible.”

“I'm going out on a limb here and predict a Kerry landslide.

If GW gets more than 45% of the popular vote, I'll poop in my own pack.”

“and monkeys to fly outta my butt....”

“You put some weird stuff up there dood.”

“Keep those monkeys safe and warm, dewd.”

“I've heard of monkey love, but I always thought it was a metaphor!”

“If Bush wins, I'll teach stratdewd the fundamentals of algebra.”

“Two impossibilities that taste great together!”

“I'm surprised nobody wants to talk about Alexandra Kerry's pretty new dress. Guess I misjudged you folks.”

“OOOHHH la la.”

“I think that Kerry is walking a bit of a tightrope.

He needs to be moderate enough during the election to be in position to adequately run the war and bring the troops home in a reasonable way.

Nader could force him into a more strident anti-war position. This would hurt the war effort after the election.

But, I think that Kerry will win even with Nader in the race.”

“If John Kerry does not support arms for the US Military (voting record) he will certainly not be in favor of individuals owning firearms.

This could mean a tough 4 years for US gun owners.

No food as the country is overrun with groundhogs.”