Summary of anti-Kerry Rebuttals

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:

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...voted to cut every law enforcement, CIA and defense bill in my career as a US Senator.

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BS.

http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?DocID=147

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Starting in 1997 Kerry voted for every regular Department of Defense appropriations bill and for every authorization bill as well.

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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

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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.

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from the BS email:

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used three minor injuries to get an early discharge from the military and service in Vietnam (as documented by the attending doctor).

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I already posted this in another Kerry defense article, but here it is again:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,110956,00.html

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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."

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http://www.snopes.com/politics/Kerry/service.asp

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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.

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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:

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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

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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:

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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.

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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

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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."

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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.

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As for HJ Heinz you do realize that...

http://www.snopes.com/politics/Kerry/heinz.asp

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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.)

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So, wrong.

from the BS email:

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My wealth so far exceeds that of my counterpart, George Bush, that he will never catch up.

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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

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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.

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from the BS email:

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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.

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http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200404150851.asp

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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.

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More charity details:
http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200403220840.asp

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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.

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http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200404150851.asp

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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.

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from the BS email:

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(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.

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Wrong again.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/Kerry/heinz.asp

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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.)

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from the BS email:

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RECORDS AND REFERENCES:

None.

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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

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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.

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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.)