Paula Zahn Now - Townhall Meeting

[freeandfun1]

Did anybody catch this? I caught a replay last night. Below are a couple of exchanges. Notice the audacity of the Kerry campaign spokesman.

Town Hall Meeting: The Undecided Vote

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My family -- my husband is self-employed -- and we fit the profile of a family whose health insurance premiums would exceed an average monthly mortgage for a family of five.

We have recently discovered a program that was passed by Congress last year, signed by the president for health savings accounts, bringing that mortgage -- or that insurance premium down to $250 a month.

ESKEW: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are your candidates going to do to strengthen programs that would empower families and reduce the federal entitlement programs? And why did John Kerry vote no?

ZAHN: Why did John Kerry vote no?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm sorry, it was John Edwards who voted no, not...

DEVINE: Yes, well, let me tell you why he opposes the president's healthcare program and why he has, I think, the most ambitious healthcare program that this country has seen that will work and expand health coverage and control costs.

You know, the president's healthcare program has not helped people. If you just look at the numbers, OK? Four million Americans have lost their health insurance since he became president. The cost of healthcare has increased almost 50 percent since George Bush has become president, and the president really hasn't done anything about it.

Now, this lady just said the President's program has helped her family, but look at the reply from Devine.

Sad.

Also, look at this exchange:

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, my name is George Wilson (ph). Make your case to the men and women of the armed forces and intelligence agency why your candidate has the qualifications and experience to be their commander in chief? And does your candidate feel -- how does he feel whether he has their support now or not?

DEVINE: I think the case for John Kerry is as follows. First, I think he understands them very well because he served with them. He pointed that out today when he spoke to the Veterans of Foreign War, an association which he's a member of. Second, he has a career of standing up and fights for veterans'. He led the fight in the Senate to help the victims in agent orange. He led the fight along with John McCain to find the truth about POWs and MIAs in Vietnam. He has constantly led the fight through the course of his Senate career, for funded for veterans health benefits. Today, at the Veterans of Foreign War, he laid down an agenda for veterans, including a military family's bill of rights to make sure that our military families are treated with the respect that they deserve because the servicemen who are protecting our nation today. John Kerry, has fought for the veterans everyday of his career, and he will fight for them everyday as president.

ESKEW: There is a great case for him as a man who supports men and women in uniform. It ranges from pay increases to moral support, to strong leadership and resolve. And I think that's one thing people in the military respect above all else, which is a leader they can trust even when they don't always agree.

Pay increases have been around 21 percent under President Bush for our men and women -- the basic pay packages. Veterans themselves have seen a 40 percent increase -- 40 percent increase in funding at the Veterans Administration, including a huge decline in the backlog of people waiting for healthcare and waiting for the kind of disability assistance.

And this president, sir, even signed a ban on a century-long practice in this country of forbidding severely disabled veterans from also drawing their standard military retirement. So, they're now able to get both of those things.

Now, let me tell you something...

ZAHN: Is that something that John Kerry supports?

DEVINE: Well, you know, in fact, you cannot receive a pension and a disability benefit simultaneously right now. John Kerry supports fixing that system.

ESKEW: The president signed it twice, Tad.

DEVINE: And in fact, as the law today, you cannot get both. And you ask any veteran about that, we'll find out...

ZAHN: Well, wait, I'm confused. Did the president sign it or not?

DEVINE: ... whether you can get a pension and a disability payment at the same time. What happens is the government deducts one from the other, OK? That what goes on. And if there's military people here, you can get up and testify.

ESKEW: Tad's one of those Washington lawyers. I've got to tell you something...

ZAHN: But which is it? The president you said signed it?

ESKEW: There is concurrent receipt, OK? That concurrent receipt means you get both.

DEVINE: There is not. There is none. No, it's false. Well, listen, we'll check the facts after the show, all right?

Well, it seems as if Devine don't know shit. I wonder if he ever corrected the record....

Concurrent Disability Pay Information

Public Law 108-136, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004, contained a provision to restore the retired pay currently deducted from retirees’ accounts due to their receipt of Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) compensation (currently reflected on Retiree Account Statements as the “VA waiver”).

This restoration of retired pay is known as Concurrent Disability Pay (CDP). It is applicable to all retirees who have a VA-rated, service-connected disability of 50% or higher with the exception of disability retirees with less than 20 years of service and retirees who have combined their military time and civil service time to qualify for a civil service retirement. The phased-in restoration will begin January 1, 2004 with the first payments arriving February 2, 2004. CDP will be direct deposited or mailed based on retirees’ current retired pay and VA system information. The rates will automatically increase or decrease based on the percentage of disability reported by the VA.

I also like this:

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Former captain and commander of a special forces detachment significantly longer than four-and-a-half months. I'd like to ask the question -- there is a definite compromise that -- as American citizens were required between our privacy and our security and our need for security, and it's kind of contrary to the American way of life in a lot of ways.

 

[Merlin1047]

Well, it seems as if Devine don't know shit. I wonder if he ever corrected the record....

Concurrent receipt has been in effect for some months now, as you pointed out. I work with one vet who is drawing it, so I know it to be a fact, not just a theory.

 

[tim_duncan2000]

He led the fight along with John McCain to find the truth about POWs and MIAs in Vietnam.

Really?

But he was not so courageous more than two decades later, when he covered up voluminous evidence that a significant number of live American prisoners—perhaps hundreds—were never acknowledged or returned after the war-ending treaty was signed in January 1973.

The Massachusetts senator, now seeking the presidency, carried out this subterfuge a little over a decade ago— shredding documents, suppressing testimony, and sanitizing the committee's final report—when he was chairman of the Senate Select Committee on P.O.W./ M.I.A. Affairs.

Over the years, an abundance of evidence had come to light that the North Vietnamese, while returning 591 U.S. prisoners of war after the treaty signing, had held back many others as future bargaining chips for the $4 billion or more in war reparations that the Nixon administration had pledged. Hanoi didn't trust Washington to fulfill its pro-mise without pressure. Similarly, Washington didn't trust Hanoi to return all the prisoners and carry out all the treaty provisions. The mistrust on both sides was merited. Hanoi held back prisoners and the U.S. provided no reconstruction funds.

The stated purpose of the special Senate committee—which convened in mid 1991 and concluded in January 1993—was to investigate the evidence about prisoners who were never returned and find out what happened to the missing men. Committee chair Kerry's larger and different goal, though never stated publicly, emerged over time: He wanted to clear a path to normalization of relations with Hanoi. In any other context, that would have been an honorable goal. But getting at the truth of the unaccounted for P.O.W.'s and M.I.A.'s (Missing In Action) was the main obstacle to normalization—and therefore in conflict with his real intent and plan of action.

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0433/schanberg.php
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0408/schanberg2.php
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0408/schanberg3.php

And this guy doesn't like Bush either.