Quotes on the Changes in Our Nation since 1776 and Kerry’s Double-standard re: his faith:


“We did have a completely different class of people in 1776. When this country was formed you couldn’t find 10 people on the continent who thought that it was the responsibility of the federal government to provide them with a job or health care. Know this…transport today’s average American back to 1776 and the Revolutionary War would never have happened.” –Neal Boortz


“I do wish Kerry would explain sometime why it is OK for his faith to shape his stands on social welfare programs and the environment when he vows never to let his stands on abortion and embryonic stem cells be shaped by that same faith.” –Jeff Jacoby


And Some to Make You Laugh:


“If the voters are looking for consistency, they got it in John Kerry. Not once in three debates did he appear flustered. Always in control, he delivered his message with surgical precision. If he wins in November, the debates were the critical moment.” –Eleanor Clift


“[Y]ou could feel the presidency slipping away from George Bush.” –Craig Crawford on the third debate


“I don’t know if I just never really noticed it before, or if it was simply WAY more pronounced in Debate #3, but John Kerry’s hand movements stirred up enough motion to light a small mid-Western city. Good Lord, it was like watching a Richard Simmons ‘Sweatin’ to the Oldies’ video without the music or the tights.” –Chuck Muth


“Imagine President John Kerry at the Berlin Wall. ‘Mr. Gorbachev…I challenge you to get to an emotional place where you can imagine a different kind of non-wall reality, that fully respects the ‘wallness’ of your current reality, yet takes us on a spiritual journey in which’…” –Ann Coulter

“Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people’s idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage.” –Winston Churchill

I received the following from a friend and felt it very important to share.  I think everyone is familiar with the first World Trade Center attack in ’93, the U.S.S. Cole in 2000, and of course, 9/11.  Some may be too young to remember the American Embassy in ’79 (I was in high school), but there have been many more attacks on our nation over the last 25 years that I had either forgotten or was unaware of because they received little news coverage, that are documented here.  It is CRITICAL that John Kerry not become our next president, or we can count on these types of attacks becoming a regular occurrence once again:


This is not very long, but very informative. You have to read the catalogue of events in this brief piece. Then, ask yourself how anyone can take the position that all we have to do is bring our troops home from Iraq, sit back, reset the snooze alarm, go back to sleep, and no one will ever bother us again. In case you missed it, World War III began in November 1979… that alarm has been ringing for years.


US Navy Captain Ouimette is the Executive Officer at Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida. Here is a copy of the speech he gave last month. It is an accurate account of why we are in so much trouble today and why this action is so necessary.


AMERICA NEEDS TO WAKE UP!


That’s what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 (When more than 3,000 Americans were killed -AD) and maybe it was, but I think it should have been “Get Out of Bed!” In fact, I think the alarm clock has been buzzing since 1979 and we have continued to hit the snooze button and roll over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since then.


It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked and seized the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright attack on American soil; it was an attack that held the world’s most powerful country hostage and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this sovereign U. S. embassy set the stage for events to follow for the next 25 years.


America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Vietnam experience and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then, President Carter, had to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert. The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America’s inability to deal with terrorism.


America’s military had been decimated and down sized/right sized since the end of the Vietnam War. A poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly organized military was called on to execute a complex mission that was doomed from the start.


Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnapped and killed throughout the Middle East. America could do little to protect her citizens living and working abroad. The attacks against US soil continued.


In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven into the US Embassy compound in Beirut When it explodes, it kills 63 people. The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once more.


Then just six short months later a large truck heavily laden down with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut and 241 US servicemen are killed. America mourns her dead and hit the Snooze Button once more.


Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives is driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait, and America continues her slumber.


The following year, in September 1984, another van was driven into the gate of the US Embassy in Beirut and America slept.


Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe. In April 1985 a bomb explodes in a restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid.


Then in August a Volkswagen loaded with explosives is driven into the main gate of the US Air Force Base at Rhein-Main, 22 are killed and the snooze alarm is buzzing louder and louder as US interests are continually attacked.


Fifty-nine days later a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro is hijacked and we watched as an American in a wheelchair is singled out of the passenger list and executed.


The terrorists then shift their tactics to bombing civilian airliners when they bomb TWA Flight 840 in April of 1986 that killed 4 and the most tragic bombing, Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 259.


Clinton treated these terrorist acts as crimes; in fact we are still trying to bring these people to trial. These are acts of war.


The wake up alarm is getting louder and louder.


The terrorists decide to bring the fight to America. In January 1993, two CIA agents are shot and killed as they enter CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.


The following month, February 1993, a group of terrorists are arrested after a rented van packed with explosives is driven into the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people are killed and over 1000 are injured. Still this is a crime and not an act of war? The Snooze alarm is depressed again.


Then in November 1995 a car bomb explodes at a US military complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven service men and women.


A few months later in June of 1996, another truck bomb explodes only 35 yards from the US military compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It destroys the Khobar Towers, a US Air Force barracks, killing 19 and injuring over 500. The terrorists are getting braver and smarter as they see that America does not respond decisively.


They move to coordinate their attacks in a simultaneous attack on two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.. These attacks were planned with precision. They kill 224. America responds with cruise missile attacks and goes back to sleep.


The USS Cole was docked in the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling on 12 October 2000, when a small craft pulled along side the ship and exploded killing 17 US Navy Sailors. Attacking a US War Ship is an act of war, but we sent the FBI to investigate the crime and went back to sleep.


And of course you know the events of 11 September 2001. Most Americans think this was the first attack against US soil or in America. How wrong they are. America has been under a constant attack since 1979 and we chose to hit the snooze alarm and roll over and go back to sleep.


In the news lately we have seen lots of finger pointing from every high officials in government over what they knew and what they didn’t know. But if you’ve read the papers and paid a little attention I think you can see exactly what they knew. You don’t have to be in the FBI or CIA or on the National Security Council to see the pattern that has been developing since 1979.


The President is right on when he says we are engaged in a war. I think we have been in a war for the past 25 years and it will continue until we as a people decide enough is enough. America needs to “Get out of Bed” and act decisively now. America has been changed forever.. We have to be ready to pay the price and make the sacrifice to ensure our way of life continues. We cannot afford to keep hitting the snooze button again and again and roll over and go back to sleep.


After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto said “… it seems all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant.” This is the message we need to disseminate to terrorists around the world.


Support Our Troops and support President Bush for having the courage, political or militarily, to address what so many who preceded him didn’t have the backbone to do both Democrat and Republican. This is not a political thing to be hashed over in an election year this is an AMERICAN thing. This is about our Freedom and the Freedom of our children in years to come.

Some interesting reading coming our way via www.townhall.com:


I found it simply amazing that Edwards claimed a vote for Kerry would result in people leaping out of their wheelchairs.  Charles Krauthammer writes a very good article regarding the true value of stem cell research, the fallacy of the “ban” Kerry keeps trying to pin on the President, and the cruelty of false hope extended to people afflicted with paralysis, Altzheimer’s and other diseases without cure.


http://www.townhall.com/columnists/charleskrauthammer/ck20041015.shtml


And there’s always Paul Greenberg . . . this lovely column contains a sweetly sentimental story about his sister and her facinatingly American melting pot of language.  He details how the various places she lived shaped and formed her vocabulary/accent/dialect and how even though she is sometimes difficult to understand, you always know what she means.  Much the same for our verbally challenged W., who may stumble over a word or two, but you always know what he means.  Read it — you’ll enjoy it:


http://www.townhall.com/columnists/paulgreenberg/pg20041015.shtml


And interesting information from Argent_Paladin regarding John Kerry’s first marriage and how much it meant to him:


And now we see what Kerry really thinks about marriage (Warning: Miss O’Hara, if you are reading this, make sure you don’t have any heavy objects that you might want to hurl at the screen). He divorced his wife of 18 years and two children (teenagers), after 6 years of separation. He left her when she was undergoing a bout of clinical depression and suicidal tendencies. During the 6 years that he was separated, he didn’t exactly act like he was married.


and


Article


Excerpts:



During the period the Kerrys were separated, for instance, the senator apparently felt little constrained by his marital vows. Gossip columns at the time linked him to Morgan Fairchild, Cornelia Guest and even President Reagan’s liberal daughter, Patti Davis. An upcoming Boston Globe expose will reportedly feature details of the Massachusetts Democrat’s 1980s affair with a 25-year-old British reporter.

According to a previous account offered by the paper, the fact that Kerry was still technically married till 1988 “reportedly came as a surprise to some of his frequent companions.”


He got the first marriage annulled despite the protests of his first wife. Perhaps it was because her family was worth only $300 million while Teresa Heinz was worth $600 million. Or perhaps it was because his first wife wasn’t a political wife. Draw your own conclusions.

A Fabulous Article from the ever-so-brilliant Paul Greenberg (my comments are in indented italics):


The not-so-boyish charm of Dick Cheney
Paul Greenberg


It may not really matter who won Tuesday night’s vice-presidential debate; voters are seldom influenced by who’s No. 2 on the ticket. (There’s a reason this is called a presidential election. )


Maybe not, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to have such a strong presence in the “co-pilot’s” seat . . .


And yet each high-profile debate helps clarify the choices before the voters. Tuesday night’s certainly did. Perhaps because the contrast between the two debaters was so clear. There’s no doubt which candidate was more stylish, youthful, charismatic, smooth, photogenic, smiley-faced . . . . It was John Edwards, and, on my highly personal scorecard, all those are just more reasons why he lost this encounter.


If I were kidnapped by outlaws, I’d rather have John Wayne in “Big Jake” (Dick Cheney) come to my rescue than a pretty-boy Ken doll. Pretty boys are not strong, not protective, not dependable. Because they are too worried about getting dirty, getting hurt, or missing an appointment with their personal trainer. If you’ve never seen “Big Jake,” John Wayne gets dirty, gets hurt, and keeps riding until the bad guys are done for and he rescues his grandson from the mean banditos. He doesn’t give up, because he knows what the right thing to do is . . . to save the innocent and punish the bad guys.


Because we’re electing a vice president of the United States, not a young charmer. Besides, Senator Edwards’ charm, like his smile, has a certain pasted-on quality. As if he’d wandered into this televised debate out of a toothpaste commercial.


This tickles my funny-bone . . . I can just see Edwards with a brush and a tube of Gleem in each hand, computer-generated starlight sparking from a pearly incisor!


Nobody would ever accuse Dick Cheney of being charming. Competent, cogent, knowledgeable, experienced, dry, tough, direct or even abrupt . . . the vice president is all of those. But charming? stylish? No way. He’s the brains of the outfit, not the star of the production.


But, (and I think Miss O’Hara will agree with me), the brain is probably the sexiest organ of the human body and I think Dick Cheney is pretty damned sexy!


Mr. Cheney seems the perfect fit for the office of vice president: a team player with no further political ambitions of his own, someone fully prepared to step into the president’s role if he had to, and a man not given to suffering fools. Or even mediocre opponents.


It may be hard to recall now, but it was John Edwards who took the offensive from the opening bell. Because it was Dick Cheney’s counterpunches that struck home:


He recounted John Kerry’s 20-year Senate record of voting against defense measures – a record that spans the Cold War, the first Gulf War, and now the war in Iraq – with devastating effect. And he wasn’t any softer on John Edwards’ record as an absentee senator, especially as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.


John Edwards is so light a presence in the U.S. Senate that the vice president couldn’t even remember meeting him.


And when John Edwards pointed out how badly things were going in Iraq, the vice president noted that Senator Edwards had said the situation in Afghanistan was deteriorating, too, before things turned around on that front.


I just bet liberals hate it when their words come back to bite them on the backside . . .


The vice president also recalled visiting El Salvador years ago to observe elections in the middle of a long, cruel war. Things looked bleak there, too, before elections were held and things turned around.


In the country’s current crisis, which began September 11, 2001, and continues indefinitely, Dick Cheney represents constancy of purpose – whatever the news from Iraq on any given day. Constancy of purpose is not exactly the strong point of either candidate on the Democratic ticket, with their shifting votes and wildly inconsistent stands on the war in Iraq and against terror.


How is a presidential candidate who’s called our allies “a coalition of the bribed and coerced” going to lead that coalition, let alone expand it? How’s he going to work with the courageous new Iraqi premier he’s dismissed and demeaned as some kind of American puppet who lacks all credibility?


That’s the kind of thing you don’t say even if you believe it. Especially if you believe it. Remember how both FDR and Churchill treated de Gaulle at those wartime conferences? With outward respect, even though both thought of him as an arrogant pain.


This is an awesome point . . . How anyone can expect international cooperation in light of their constant insulting commentary is beyond me. Kerry is a fool, yes, I said a fool. To run around spouting off about this coalition he will form as he basically slaps each and every possible ally in the face. It’s simply and absolutely amazing, the man’s stupidity.


The most unconvincing statement John Edwards made all night was his claim that he’d been “completely consistent about Iraq . . . .” Again and again the vice president cited Senator Edwards’ own record against him: “Whatever the political pressures of the moment requires, that’s where you’re at.”


A telling moment came when Dick Cheney noted that, when John Kerry seemed to be losing the anti-war vote to Howard Dean in the Democratic primaries, Senator Kerry chose to vote against funding the war. So did John Edwards. “Now, if they couldn’t stand up to the pressures that Howard Dean represented,” Mr. Cheney asked, “how can we expect them to stand up to al-Qaida?”


To all of which Senator Edwards could only respond by crying (ITALICS) Halliburton! Class warfare has become the last refuge of demagogues in this election season, whether it’s being waged by a scruffy Michael Moore or a glossy-smooth John Edwards.


This would be laughable, if it weren’t so sad . . . and I love the following information regarding the truth behind Cheney’s connections with Halliburton. These people are so desperate to smear the President/Vice President. They throw out a soundbite and pray that the majority of the American public are too dense to suspect truth-twisting and too lazy to verify.


It would take more than 90 seconds to explain that the vice president severed any real connection to Halliburton when he took his oath of office, and to go into the mixed record of that giant, indispensable civilian arm of the military over the years. A government investigation did clear Dick Cheney of any wrongdoing while he was Halliburton’s CEO, and even praised him for his cooperation with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As for Halliburton’s bad record in Libya that John Edwards mentioned, it was compiled before Mr. Cheney joined the company in 1995.


But it would take so long to answer all the false charges that John Edwards fired off in a second or two that the vice president just shrugged and recommended that voters go to FactCheck.org. Some smears are so thick they’re beyond snappy comebacks.


It’s not who won the battle of the sound bites Tuesday evening that will matter, but who can lead – even in a difficult time to lead.


In a now distant but not so different time in American history, a stylish senator named Stephen A. Douglas was poised to become the next president of the United States. A master of the rhetorical flourish, this prince of the Democratic Party never saw a crisis that couldn’t be sidestepped, a hard choice that couldn’t be postponed, or an evil that couldn’t be skipped over lightly.


It was Senator Douglas’ unprepossessing Republican opponent – a tall, gawky figure, homely beyond reason – who spoke of hard decisions that could not be avoided, of sacrifices that would have to be made. Strangely enough, it was Mr. Lincoln’s warnings that would in the end get through to the American people, and save the Union.


What is that saying about those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it? It’s my fear that, we as a nation, have forgotten the hard lessons of history. If more would learn their lessons, look back to the past, perhaps they would see the need for the same kind of leadership we were blessed with some 150 years ago. A leader who may not say the popular thing, but a leader who would do the RIGHT thing. Because so many are turning their backs on the right thing, turning their backs on our commitment to freedom, both for ourselves and our fellow mankind, this war will have been fought (and lost) in vain. We need to WAKE UP and listen to George Bush in the same way so many listened to President Lincoln, heeded his warnings. Or this UNION that teetered on the edge of peril and dissolution in that century will not survive this century, perhaps even this decade . . .


Tuesday night, it was Dick Cheney who warned Americans that we are now facing a shadowy enemy unlike any we have known before, an enemy that has already attacked us with disastrous results. And regimes that harbor terror have made themselves our enemy, too. The best way to protect ourselves, the vice president asserted, is to confront them and if necessary change them. Or we can choose to temporize and drift, and wait for the next assault.


“We were attacked,” John Edwards conceded at one point, “but we weren’t attacked by Saddam Hussein!” He still hasn’t connected the dots. He is still making fine distinctions between different terrorists as though they aren’t all united in their hatred of all that America and the West itself represent in the world. Whatever their next target – a schoolhouse in Russia, a bus in Jerusalem, a skyscraper in New York – they’re all in it together. And one way or another, all of them will have to be overcome. The war in Iraq, like the one in Afghanistan, is just another front in the same war. And we cannot prevail in what is a world war if we refuse to recognize that we’re in one.


©2004 Tribune Media Services

Ross Mackenzie had the following to say, and damn!  It’s good!  If only he helps a few see the TRUTH . . .


According to The Washington Post, Sen. Edwards has cast these votes, among others: against removing Bill Clinton from office for obstruction of justice (1999); against tax cuts for married couples (2000); against the Bush 10-year, $1.35-trillion tax cuts (2001); and against allowing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (2002). In 2003 he voted for limiting the size of the economic stimulus tax cut, against adding a prescription drug benefit to the Medicare program, and against the $87 billion supplemental appropriation for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.


oh!  And also this:


On domestic policy, Cheney summarized the Bush administration record: “We’ve got 111 million American taxpayers who have benefited from our income tax cuts. We’ve got 33 million students who’ve benefited from No Child Left Behind. We’ve got 40 million seniors who benefited from the reform of the Medicare system. The Democrats promised prescription drug benefits. For years they’ve run on that platform. They never got it done. The president got it done.”


Thank heavens for folks who try to tell it like it is, in hopes that someone is listening.

They’d like you to think that they’re normal, middle class guys and gals just like you . . .


But wouldn’t you just love to get a load of what Mrs. Heinz-Kerry and Mrs. Edwards fill their shopping carts with?  Seriously, I would love to see the grocery receipts for these gals.  Do they buy the name-brand stuff or the store-brand to save a few pennies?  If you looked in their showers, would you see Suave or some high-priced salon goop?  One of the things I just loved hearing about Laura Bush when she lived in the Governor’s Mansion here in Texas was that she uses Cover Girl makeup.  The First Lady of the United States of America and I wear the same makeup!  Isn’t that so cool?  And so real.  So normal. 


I have no idea why this thought ran through my mind, but the more I think about it, the more I wonder . . .

I was thrilled to read the following, in light of the tons of criticism and grief Mr. Gibson received before, during, and after the release of The Passion of the Christ:


Mel Gibson to be Awarded Producer of the Year at Hollywood Film Festival

HOLLYWOOD, October 6, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Hollywood Film Festival’s Board of Advisors, co-chaired by Paula Wagner, has announced that this year’s festival will honor Oscar-winning producer/director Mel Gibson with its “Hollywood Producer of the Year Award.” The award will be bestowed upon Mr. Gibson as part of the Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony on Monday evening, October 18, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Gibson has earned numerous honors for his work as a producer, director and actor, including winning Best Picture and Best Director Academy Awards and a Best Director Golden Globe Award for “Braveheart” (1995), among many other awards and nominations.

Most recently, Mr. Gibson independently produced and directed “The Passion of the Christ,” with exquisite cinematography by Caleb Deschanel and distribution by Newmarket Films, which quickly became a worldwide phenomenon and giant box office success, grossing more than $370 million in the U.S. and an estimated total of $604 million worldwide.

Two telling quotes from last night’s debate — thank you, Dick Cheney:


“So they, in effect, decided they would cast an anti-war vote, and they voted against the troops. Now, if they couldn’t stand up to the pressures that Howard Dean represented, how can we expect them to stand up to Al Qaeda?”


“I’m up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they’re in session. The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight.”


So few words to convey the fact that the Kerry/Edwards ticket licks its finger, holds it up to the wind, and says “Today our position is . . . ”  And I LOVE that he nailed John Edwards regarding never having met him in the Senate.  For a public servant to convince me that he’s truly concerned about the public welfare, he needs to show up at the office a little more often.  The libs give W such a hard time about “vacations” in Crawford, but Kerry and Edwards’ attendance records in the Senate don’t seem to merit much notice.  Hmmm . . .


Here is some information regarding what Edwards said on several issues, and what the documented facts are regarding those issues:


Tuesday, October 05, 2004
Vice Presidential Debate Highlights



Debate Highlights


He Said It:


VICE PRESIDENT RICHARD CHENEY: “If They Couldn’t Stand Up To The Pressures That Howard Dean Represented, How Can We Expect Them To Standup To Al Qaeda?”  VICE PRESIDENT RICHARD CHENEY: “So they, in effect, decided they would cast an anti-war vote, and they voted against the troops. Now, if they couldn’t stand up to the pressures that Howard Dean represented, how can we expect them to standup to Al Qaeda?” (Vice President Richard Cheney, Vice Presidential Debate, Cleveland, OH, 10/5/04) 


He Said It:


VICE PRESIDENT RICHARD CHENEY: “Your Hometown Newspaper Has Taken To Calling You Senator Gone.” VICE PRESIDENT RICHARD CHENEY: “Senator, frankly, you have a record in the Senate that’s not very distinguished.  You missed 33 out of 36 meetings in the Judiciary Committee.  Almost 70% of the meetings of the Intelligence Committee.  You’ve missed a lot of key votes on tax policy, on energy, on Medicare reform.  Your hometown newspaper has taken to calling you Senator Gone. You’ve got one of the worst attendance records in the United States Senate. Now, in my capacity as Vice President I am the President of the Senate, the presiding officer. I’m up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they’re in session. The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight.” (Vice President Richard Cheney, Vice Presidential Debate, Cleveland, OH, 10/5/04) 


Breaking Debate Fact # 1


Setting the Record Straight


Edwards’ False Statement:


John Edwards Tonight Contradicted The Conclusions Of The Senate Intelligence Committee, Of Which He Was A Member, And The 9/11 Commission In Denying That Contacts Existed Between Saddam Hussein And Al Qaeda. “You’ve gone around the country suggesting that there is some connection. There’s not, and in fact, the CIA is now about to report that the connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein is tenuous at best, and in fact, Secretary of Defense said yesterday that he knows of no hard evidence of the connection. We need to be straight with the American people.”  (Sen. John Edwards, Vice Presidential Debate, Cleveland, OH, 10/5/04)


The Real Record:


The Senate Intelligence Committee Report:


CIA “Reasonably Assessed” Contacts Between Iraq And Al Qaeda.  (Report On The U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments On Iraq,” Senate Select Committee On Intelligence, 7/7/04, p. 346)


CIA’s Conclusion That Iraq Gave “Safehaven” To Al Qaeda “Was Reasonable.”  (“Report On The U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments On Iraq,” Senate Select Committee On Intelligence, 7/7/04, p. 347)


The 9/11 Commission:


Vice Chair Of The 9/11 Commission Lee Hamilton (D-IN): “[T]here Were Contacts Between Al Qaeda And Iraq Going Back Clear To The Early 1990s When Osama Bin Laden Was In Sudan, Then When He Was In Afghanistan. I Don’t Think There’s Any Dispute About That.” (ABC’s “This Week,” 6/20/04)


In Sudan, Bin Laden Began Developing A “Global Terrorist Network” Including “Leaders Or Representatives Of Terrorist Organizations” In Iraq. (“The 9/11 Commission Report,” National Commission On Terrorist Attacks Upon The United States, 7/04, p. 58)


Breaking Debate Fact # 2


He Said It:


Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) Said Kerry’s Decision To Vote Against The Iraq Supplemental Was An Attempt “To Prove To Dean’s Guys” That He Was “Not A Warmonger.”  “But Biden’s bill had no chance of passing in a Republican-dominated Senate, and Kerry’s absurdly abbreviated account of the matter—’I did vote for the eighty-seven billion before I voted against it’—has left him open to relentless Republican ridicule. Biden himself ultimately voted for the money, and he confirmed that Kerry’s decision not to was ‘tactical,’ an attempt ‘to prove to Dean’s guys I’m not a warmonger.’”  (Philip Gourevitch, “Damage Control,” The New Yorker, 7/26/04)


Breaking Debate Fact # 3


Setting the Record Straight:


Edwards’ False Statement:


In Response To Question #2 John Edwards Said, “We Were Attacked By Al Qaeda And Osama Bin Laden. We Went Into Afghanistan And Very Quickly The Administration Made A Decision To Divert Attention From That And Instead To Begin To Plan For The Invasion Of Iraq.” (Sen. John Edwards, Vice Presidential Debate, Cleveland, OH, 10/5/04)


The Real Record:


In September 2002, Edwards Supported Action Against Iraq Regardless Of Any Ties To 9/11. SEN. JOHN EDWARDS: “But I think, separate and apart from 9/11, we have Saddam Hussein, a man who invaded another country, who started a war in 1991, who lost the war, and has, since that time, flaunted numerous, what, 16, 17 U.N. Security resolutions. He’s got weapons of mass destruction. He’s trying to get nuclear capability. This is a very serious situation, and I think it’s incumbent on us to take the action necessary to rid the world of this threat.”  (Fox News’ “The Big Story With John Gibson,” 9/19/02)


In September 2002, Edwards Wrote:  “Iraq’s Destructive Capacity Has The Potential To Throw The Entire Middle East Into Chaos, And It Poses A Mortal Threat To Our Vital Ally, Israel.”  “Thousands of terrorist operatives around the world would pay anything to get their hands on Saddam Hussein’s arsenal and would stop at nothing to use it against us. America must act, and Congress must make clear to Hussein that he faces a united nation.” (Sen. John Edwards, Op-Ed, “Congress Must Be Clear,” The Washington Post, 9/19/02)


Breaking Debate Fact # 4


Edwards Said It:


Tonight Edwards Claimed Kerry Has Been Consistent From The Beginning On The War On Terror.  EDWARDS: “John Kerry has been absolute – absolutely clear and consistent from the beginning that we must stay focused on the people that attacked us.”  (Sen. John Edwards, Vice Presidential Debate, Cleveland, OH, 10/5/04)


During The Democrat Presidential Primary, Edwards Slammed Kerry As Inconsistent.  “Edwards, on ABC’s ‘This Week,’ was asked about Kerry’s explanations of his vote for the resolution authorizing President Bush to go to war in Iraq.  ‘He’s not been clear to me,’ Edwards said.  ‘I think he’s said some different things at different points in time.  So I think there’s been some inconsistency.'”  (Dan Balz and Paul Schwartzman, “Reinforcements Rally For Frantic Final Push,” The Washington Post, 1/26/04)


Breaking Debate Fact #5


Setting the Record Straight


Edwards’ False Statement:


In Response To Question #14 John Edwards Said, “We Do Have Too Many Lawsuits.”  (Sen. John Edwards, Vice Presidential Debate, Cleveland, OH, 10/5/04)


The Real Record:


According To One Of Edwards’ Trial Lawyer Supporters, Edwards “Said Medical Malpractice Reform Will Pass Over His Dead Body.”  (William Tucker, Op-Ed, “Edwards Confident Of Verdict,” The New York Sun, 8/20/03)


Edwards Voted To Kill Medical Malpractice Reform In 2002 And In 2003.


Kerry Opposed Or Voted To Block Medical Liability Reform At Least Ten Times. 



  • Kerry Missed Both 2004 Votes On Medical Liability Reform.  The February 2004 vote was a motion to invoke cloture (thus limiting debate) on the motion to proceed to consideration of the bill that would place caps on damage awards in medical malpractice lawsuits against obstetricians and gynecologists. The April 2004 vote was a motion to invoke cloture on a similar bill that would curb awards against emergency and trauma center personnel, as well as ob-gyns. 

Medical Liability Reform Could Save Between $60 Billion And $108 Billion In Health Care Costs Annually, Making Health Insurance More Affordable For Millions.  (“Confronting The New Health Care Crisis: Improving Health Care Quality And Lowering Costs By Fixing Our Medical Liability System,” U.S. Department Of Health And Human Services, 7/25/02, http://www.aspe.hhs.gov/daltcp/reports/litrefm.htm)


Since 1989, Kerry Has Received $15,217,154 From Lawyers, Most Of Any Senator In That Time Period.  (Center For Responsive Politics Website, http://www.opensecrets.org, Accessed 8/16/04)


The Department Of Health And Human Services Found That Capping Non-Economic Damages Has A Significant Impact In Reducing Malpractice Premiums.  Over the two-year span of 2001 and 2002, the rate of increase of medical liability insurance premiums in states with caps of $350,000 or less on non-economic damages (18%) was less than half the rate of increase of premiums in states without caps (45%).  (Addressing The New Health Care Crisis: Reforming The Medical Litigation System To Improve The Quality Of Health Care http://www.hhs.gov, 3/3/03)


I know I should probably be discussing this evening’s debate, but . . .


there’s not a whole lot I can say.  I’m a big fan of Dick Cheney’s intellect, and I despise lawyers that use other people’s misery to make themselves rich.  So it was difficult to watch with a unbiased attitude.  Cheney is great, and gracious, and exhibited the ultimate in class when Edwards was so crass as to bring Cheney’s daughter into the debate.  When Cheney only responded with thanks for Edward’s words, my husband said, “I bet you he promised his daughter that he wouldn’t bring her life preference into the political arena.”  He has a heck of a lot more self-control than I would have.  Maybe I’m wrong, but I thought it was completely inappropriate for Edwards to “make it personal”.


On a more frivolous front . . .


I had to run over to Wolf Camera to have some 8 x 10 enlargements of my entries for the county fair done.  I’ve been so busy, I’ve not had a chance to do them, and they have to be turned in Saturday!  Wolf could do them same day (whereas the local chains said 2 weeks!) — so I dropped them off and did a little “killing time” shopping.  Stopped by “Famous Footwear” to discover they were having a “going out of business” sale.  Got a pair of Clark’s — adorable leather mules that originally sold for $70.00.  Got them for $22!  Yeah, baby!  They are so comfortable.  My sister swears by Clark’s.


Then I stepped inside DSW.  Have no clue what that stands for, but it was the biggest shoe store I’ve ever been in.  And oh, my goodness.  Talk about candy for the eyes.  Row upon row upon row upon row of the most delightful shoes.  Expensive, dressy shoes.  Comfortable, casual shoes.  Etienne Aigner, Ralph Lauren, Cole-Hahn, Born, Nina, you name it — they have it.  I think I saw the thigh-high boots Julia Roberts wore in “Pretty Woman,” too.  Shoes that looked like jewelry for the foot.  Sigh.  It made me want to lose weight just so I could buy clothes to match all the beautiful shoes . . .


(I was a shoe-aholic in my earlier life . . .)