Debunking of Yet Another anti-Kerry Email
A repost of my critique of a BS email posted on another forum. Although it was just a summary of all the false accusations leveled against Kerry and that I often rebutted before and had numerous sources, it was so long and took so much effort to list and prove them false or unimportant, I decided it was worth reposting here. The email was a job application that had kerry listing his qualifications and record.
from the BS email:
...voted to cut every law enforcement, CIA and defense bill in
my career as a US Senator.
BS.
http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?DocID=147
Starting in 1997 Kerry voted for every regular
Department of Defense appropriations bill and for every
authorization bill as well.
The article gives a detailed explanation about how one vote
against an appropriation bill or authorization bill can be
used to attack someone by impying the one vote was several for
individual items.
http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docID=177
Two years later Cheney's Pentagon budget also
proposed elimination of further production of the Bradley
Fighting Vehicle as well. It was among 81 Pentagon programs
targeted for termination, including the F-14 and F-16
aircraft. "Cheney decided the military already has enough of
these weapons," the Boston Globe reported at the
time.
from the BS email:
used three minor injuries to get an early discharge from the
military and service in Vietnam (as documented by the
attending doctor).
I already posted this in another Kerry defense article, but here it is again:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,110956,00.html
Another question is why he was allowed to end Guard
duty about six months early to attend Harvard Business
School. Bush said Sunday that he had "worked it out with the
military. And I'm just telling you, I did my duty."
http://www.snopes.com/politics/Kerry/service.asp
Kerry was injured yet again on 13 March 1969, in
an action for which he was awarded both a Bronze Star and
his third Purple Heart. According to Kerry's Bronze Star
citation (signed by Admiral Zumwalt himself): {zumwalt's son
signed that anti-Kerry letter, in his deceased dad's name.
so I guess his political enemies think he deserved this
one}
Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry was serving as
an Officer-in-Charge of Inshore Patrol Craft 94, one of five
boats conducting a Sealords operation in the Bay Hap River.
While exiting the river, a mine detonated under another
Inshore Patrol Craft and almost simultaneously, another mine
detonated wounding Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry in the
right arm. In addition, all units began receiving small arms
and automatic weapons fire from the river banks. When
Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry discovered he had a man
overboard, he returned upriver to assist. The man in the
water was receiving sniper fire from both banks. Lieutenant
(junior grade) Kerry directed his gunners to provide
suppressing fire, while from an exposed position on the bow,
his arm bleeding and in pain and with disregard for his
personal safety, he pulled the man aboard. Lieutenant
(junior grade) Kerry then directed his boat to return to and
assist the other damaged boat to safety. Lieutenant (junior
grade) Kerry's calmness, professionalism and great personal
courage under fire were in keeping with the highest
traditions of the United States Naval Service.
Or as the Republicans would say, "See? He hauled up and saved a guy
while supposedly bleeding and in pain! Obviously that doesn't
warrant a Purple Heart."
from the BS email:
Graduated from Yale University with a low C average. Unlike
my counterpart George Bush, I have no higher education and
did not get admitted to Harvard nor graduate with an
M.B.A
Unlike Bush, Kerry went to Vietnam. Also, in the LA Times story listed below, Kerry was a prosecutor and also opened his own law firm. That means he had to have gone to law school. Most people count that as "higher education."
from the BS email:
Ran for U.S. Congress and have been there ever since. I have
no real world experience except marrying rich women and
running HJ Heinz vicariously through my wife
Teresa.
Guess being a prosecutor or opening his own law firm doesn't count as experience. And I suppose
months in Vietnam fighting doesn't count, either.
LAtimes.com:
Use login/password:
eclips
eclips
Even the upstate Lowell Sun - the conservative
newspaper that had excoriated Kerry as little more than a
carpetbagging hippie during his 1972 run for Congress -
warmed to him. The newspaper editorialized that Kerry had
"turned the District Attorney's office from a traditional,
non-aggressive agency into a first-rate, exciting
prosecutor's staff that is now among the best in the
state."
...
Kerry and Assistant Dist. Atty.
Roanne Sragow left the office to start their own law firm.
They developed a thriving practice. Among their victories
was a successful appeal on behalf of a Boston man, who spent
16 years in prison for a murder they showed he did not
commit.
As for HJ Heinz you do realize that...
http://www.snopes.com/politics/Kerry/heinz.asp
According to Heinz {the company} itself, the
Heinz family trust which Mrs. Kerry inherited sold most of
its shares of Heinz stock back in 1995 and currently holds
less than a 4% interest in the company:
Neither Mrs. Heinz Kerry nor Senator Kerry nor any of the Heinz
trusts or endowments - either individually or collectively -
holds a significant percentage of shares of the H.J. Heinz
Company. In 1995 the Heinz Endowments and family trusts sold
a large percentage of Heinz shares in a secondary share
offering to diversify their holdings. As a result, their
current holdings are under 4 percent.
There is no
connection between any philanthropic programs of the H.J.
Heinz Company and its Foundation and the Heinz family
interests (including the Howard Heinz Endowment, the Vira
Heinz Endowment, and the Heinz Family Philanthropies).
(A 4% stake in a company as large as Heinz still
represents a considerable amount of money, but it isn't
nearly large enough a share to give the holder any
significant control or influence over the company's business
decisions.)
So, wrong.
from the BS email:
My wealth so far exceeds that of my counterpart,
George Bush, that he will never catch up.
And John Kerry and John Edwards BOTH voted against the Bush tax cuts
that would have personally benefitted them, which gives them a
lot of credibility.
http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docID=138
Kerry and Edwards were both among the "Nay" votes
against Bush's 2001 tax-cut bill -- the "Economic Growth and
Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001" -- when it first came
up in the Senate on May 23, 2001. It passed 62-38.
And on May 26, 2001 when the House-Senate compromise bill came up
for the final Senate vote required to send the measure on
for the President's signature, Edwards voted "Nay." Kerry
was absent but his vote would not have made a difference:
the bill passed 58-33
The second Bush tax-cut bill came
up two years later, the "Jobs and Growth Tax Relief
Reconciliation Act of 2003." And both Kerry and Edwards
voted "Nay" when it was first considered on May 15, 2003. It
passed 51-49.
And when the JGTRRA tax-cut bill came up
for final passage May 23, 2003, Edwards and Kerry both voted
"Nay." The vote was 50-50, and the measure became law only
because Vice President Cheney cast the tie-breaking vote in
his Constitutional role as President of the Senate.
from the BS email:
make no or little charitable contributions and have never
agreed to pay any voluntary excess taxes in MA, despite
family wealth in excess of $ 700 million.
http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200404150851.asp
But a spokesman for the Kerry campaign, Michael
Meehan, says Kerry's arrangement did not work that way. "He
didn't receive an advance for the book," Meehan says.
"That's his portion of the royalties from the book. He is
paying the taxes on that and giving the rest to charity."
Kerry's 2003 return lists charitable contributions of
$43,735.
More charity details:
http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200403220840.asp
As for the details that are known about Kerry's
finances, in 2002, he reportedly had an income of $144,091.
He paid $29,946 in federal taxes, $7,286 in Massachusetts
state taxes, and gave $18,600 to charity. The Associated
Press also reported that Kerry filed separately from his
wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, who has a fortune estimated at
more than half a billion dollars.
http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200404150851.asp
For the record, Kerry's charitable contributions in
recent years - he has just released his returns from 1999 to
2003 - have been far higher. In his 2003 federal return,
Kerry reported charitable donations of $43,735 on a total
income of $395,338. In 2002, Kerry made charitable
contributions of $18,600 on a total income of $144,091. In
2001, Kerry gave $22,370 to charity on a total income of
$137,499. In 2000, he gave $19,221 on a total income of
$137,012. And in 1999, he contributed $21,955 to charity on
a total income of $140,928.
from the BS email:
(we) own 28 manufacturing plants (Heinz) outside of the U.S.
in places like Asia, Mexico and Europe. We can make more
profit from the
cheaper cost of labor in those
Countries, although I Blame George Bush for sending all of
the jobs out of Country.
Wrong again.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/Kerry/heinz.asp
Moreover, the Heinz Company's operations are not an
example of the type of outsourcing that is currently a hot
political issue (i.e., sending out work to offshore
companies to provide services which a company might
otherwise have employed its own staff to perform). Heinz is
a U.S.-based global business which sells its products in
dozens of other countries, and like other food companies it
has to localize some of its production at factories located
in its foreign market areas. (It makes little sense from
either an economic or a freshness standpoint to be shipping
fruits and vegetables and/or finished food products halfway
around the world rather than producing them locally.) One
wouldn't expect, for example, every can and bottle of
Coca-Cola sold anywhere in the world - whether it be
Australia, China, or Portugal - to be produced by U.S.
bottlers.)
from the BS email:
RECORDS AND REFERENCES:
None.
Guess you didn't see his shipmates endorsing Kerry at the convention
Thursday. And I don't recommend bringing up the swiftboat vets
against Kerry group. Snopes recently posted an article why
they're full of crap (and provided accolades from actual people who served with Kerry).
http://www.snopes.com/politics/Kerry/swift.asp
Although the men quoted above are often identified as
"John Kerry's shipmates," only one of them, Steven Gardner,
actually served under Lt. Kerry's command on a Swift boat.
The other men who served under Kerry's command continue to
speak positively of him:
"In 1969, I was Sen. Kerry's gun mate atop of the Swift boat in Vietnam. And I
just wanted to let everyone know that, contrary to all the
rumors that you might hear from the other side, Sen. Kerry's
blood is red, not blue. I know, I've seen it.
"If it weren't for Sen. John Kerry, on the 28th of February 1969,
the day he won the Silver Star . . . you and I would not be
having this conversation. My name would be on a long, black
wall in Washington, D.C. I saw this man save my life."
— Fred Short
"I can still see him now, standing in the doorway of the pilothouse, firing his M-16,
shouting orders through the smoke and chaos . . . Even
wounded, or confronting sights no man should ever have to
see, he never lost his cool.
I had to sit on my hands [after a firefight], I was shaking so hard . . . He
went to every man on that boat and put his arm around them
and asked them how they're doing. I've never had an officer
do that before or since. That's the mettle of the man, John
Kerry."
— David Alston
"What I saw back then [in Vietnam] was a guy with genuine caring and
leadership ability who was aggressive when he had to be.
What I see now is a guy who's not afraid to tackle tough
issues. And he knows what the consequences are of putting
people's kids in harm's way."
— James Wasser
Many of Kerry's Vietnam commanders and
fellow officers also continue to speak positively of him:
Navy records, fitness reports by Kerry's
commanders and scores of interviews with Swift boat officers
and crewmen depict a model officer who fought aggressively
in river amBushes and won the respect of many of his
crewmates and commanders, even as his doubts about the war
grew.
"I don't like what he said after the war,"
said Adrian Lonsdale, who commanded Kerry for three months
in 1969. "But he was a good naval officer."
"I don't know what conclusions you can draw about someone's ability
to lead from their combat experience, but John's service was
commendable," said James J. Galvin, a former Swift boat
officer . . . "He played by the same rules we all
did."
How well all of these men knew John
Kerry is questionable, and discrepancies between how some of
them described Kerry thirty-five years ago and how they
describe him today suggest that their opinions are largely
based upon political differences rather than objective
assessments of Kerry's military record. For example, Rear
Admiral Roy Hoffman is quoted above, yet the Los Angeles
Times reported:
. . . Hoffman and Kerry had few
direct dealings in Vietnam. A Los Angeles Times examination
of Navy archives found that Hoffman praised Kerry's
performance in cabled messages after several river
skirmishes.
Finally, I just wanted to say the thing that makes me sick about these asinine
urban legend emails against Kerry is the fact that there are
tons of Bush stories that make him look like a great guy. Why
not spread those around?
Like his Iraq Thanksgiving visit, the way he held his salute to that wounded vet in the
hospital, when he kept his promise to jog with the soldier who
lost his leg and had gotten a prosthetic. Never heard of those? Most of these can be
found verified in a few minutes on Snopes.com's site with just a little effort.
Or in Bush's campaign ads using 9/11 he could have
concentrated on the popular speeches that everyone liked at
Ground Zero or before Congress.
But no, Bush supporters have to trot out the,
'Kerry only got three minor hits in Vietnam,' or 'He married a
rich woman!'
Or for the Bush ads, 'Look, a flag-draped coffin!'*
It seems weird to me that for a lot of people
it isn't enough for them to say 'our guy is better,' but
they have to try to say, 'their
guy is the worst.'
I think Bush has his heart in the
right place and is trying to do what he thinks is best for
America, and I think the same about Kerry. But on the issues, I have to go with Kerry, and that's why he's geting my vote.
My name is russellmz, and I approved this Internet blog article post. 
*"In Bush-Cheney's first television ad for the 2004 campaign, the
airwaves in battleground states have been flooded with--what
else--the image of firefighters carrying a flag-draped body
from the wreckage of Ground Zero." -watchblog.com
(But to be fair, Kerry did the same at the convention, where he showed a coffin of one of six firemen who died fighting a fire. I have no idea what kind of consent either candidate got, but one of the victim's wife appeared on the video thanking Kerry for attending the funeral, so I assume she was OK with it.)
"