In the spirit of the upcoming election, I am going to break this article down in a Bush vs. Kerry format. My comments are in bold, with the original text posted in-between.
Kerry was indisputably brave in Vietnam, and it's kind of cute to see Democrats pretend to admire military service. Physical courage, like chastity, is something liberals usually deride, but are tickled when it accidentally manifests itself in one of their own. One has to stand in awe of Kerry's military service 33 years ago. Of course, that's where it ends, including with Kerry -- inasmuch as, upon his return from war in 1970, he promptly began trashing his fellow Vietnam vets by calling them genocidal murderers.
The fact that even Ann Coulter has to admit that Kerry was indisputably brave says it all. Republicans why wont you listen to this woman that you love you so much? Kerry is brave! When he came back from the war, he proved he was even braver by standing up and protesting the war on behalf of his fellow Vietnam vets. I have yet to ever see an account or transcript of Kerry calling his fellow vets genocidal murderers but if one of you can point me to it I will read it. He did describe some of the atrocities committed during the war in his 1971 Senate Testimony.
George Bush gets a big fat F in this category, which Coulter admits at the start of the next category. He not good at going to war himself, but hes good at sending others to do it!
But if Bush can't talk to Kerry about the horrors of war, then Kerry sure as hell can't talk to anyone about the plight of the middle class. Kerry's life experience consists of living off other men's money by marrying their wives and daughters. For over 30 years, Kerry's primary occupation has been stalking lonely heiresses. Not to get back to his combat experience, but Kerry sees a room full of wealthy widows as "a target-rich environment." This is a guy whose experience dealing with tax problems is based on spending his entire adult life being supported by rich women.
What does a kept man know about taxes? In 1970, Kerry married into the family of Julia Thorne -- a family estimated to be worth about $300 million. She got depressed, so he promptly left her and was soon seen catting around with Hollywood starlets, mostly while the cad was still married.
(Apparently, JFK really was his mentor.)
Thorne is well-bred enough to say nothing ill of her Lothario ex-husband. He is, after all, the father of her children -- a fact that never seemed to constrain him. When Kerry was about to become the latest Heinz family charity, he sought to have his marriage to Thorne annulled, despite the fact that it had produced two children. It seems his second meal ticket, Teresa Heinz, wanted the first marriage annulled -- and Heinz is worth more than $700 million.
Kerry claims he will stand up to powerful interests, but he can't even stand up to his wife. Heinz made Kerry sign a prenuptial agreement, presumably aware of how careless he is with other people's property, such as other people's Vietnam War medals, which Kerry threw on the ground during a 1971 anti-war demonstration.
At pains to make Kerry sound like a normal American, his campaign has described how Kerry risked everything, mortgaging his home in Boston to help pay for his presidential campaign. Technically, Kerry took out a $6 million mortgage for "his share" of "the family's home" -- which was bought with the Heinz family fortune.
(Why should he spend his own money? He didn't throw away his own medals.)
I'm sure the average working stiff in Massachusetts can relate to a guy who borrows $6 million against his house to pay for TV ads. Kerry's campaign has stoutly insisted that he will pay off the mortgage himself, with no help from his rich wife. Let's see: According to tax returns released by his campaign, in 2002, Kerry's income was $144,091.
But as The Washington Post recently reported, even a $5 million mortgage paid back over 30 years at favorable interest rates would cost $30,389 a month or $364,668 a year.
This all boils down to a lot of petty insults and one fact: Kerry is rich.
What, Bush isnt rich? Hes a multi-millionaire! His 1,583-acre ranch near Crawford, Texas has a man-made lake stocked with bass, seven canyons and miles of creek front.
According to Forbes Magazine, should Kerry be elected he would be the third richest president ever when accounting for inflation. Guess who the richest would be? George Washington. No U.S president has ever been an average Joe, and may I suggest its not necessarily a bad thing.
The Democrats' joy at nominating Kerry is perplexing. To be sure, liberals take a peculiar, wrathful pleasure in supporting pacifist military types. And Kerry's life story is not without a certain feral aggression.
But if we're going to determine fitness for office based on life experience, Kerry clearly has no experience dealing with problems of typical Americans since he is a cad and a gigolo living in the lap of other men's money.
Kerry is like some character in a Balzac novel, an adventurer twirling the end of his mustache and preying on rich women. This low-born poseur with his threadbare pseudo-Brahmin family bought a political career with one rich woman's money, dumped her, and made off with another heiress to enable him to run for president.
Wow! Three entire paragraphs of nothing but immature name-calling!
Id also like to take this space to reply to the attacks on Kerrys personal life. I am of the opinion that if he gets the job done well, then I dont care what he does in his free time (I love Bill Clinton!) but in case you still want to make it an issue, heres a sampling of the track record for the moral party, your fellow republicans:
Rep. Henry Hyde - Broke up a family during his seven-year adulterous affair!
Mike Bowers - Cheated on his wife for FIFTEEN YEARS!
George Bush - Linda Tripp says had he an affair with a woman named "Jennifer"
Newt Gingrich Dumped his ex-wife while she was in a hospital bed suffering from cancer....
Bob Dole - Cheated on his first wife with his current wife, Elizabeth Dole.
Ronald Reagan - Dumped Jane Wyman by cheating on her with several Hollywood starlets (why does that sound familiar
)
Guy Millner - Has been married three times, partly because he has sex with women he isn't married to....
Rush Limbaugh - Fat as he may be, he cheated on two of his three wives...
Bill Randall - A Florida Congressional candidate and minister, he fathered an illegitimate child during his affair!
Bill McCartney - Promise Keepers founder who didn't keep his Promise to his wife and then lied about it for 20 years!
Rep. Dan Burton - Had at least six adulterous affairs, and fathered a bastard son who, today, he ignores!!
Rep. Bob Barr - Cheated on all three of his wives - and coerced one into having an abortion - then lied about it! (I thought republicans were pro-life?)
Sen. Strom Thurmond - Cheated on his fourth wife at age 88!!
You can find these and more at http://www.americaheldhostile.com/cheating.html
If Democrats want to talk about middle-class tax cuts, couldn't they nominate someone who hasn't been a poodle to rich women for past 33 years? Don't forget -- John Kerry is strong on defense:
He voted to kill the Bradley Fighting Vehicle
He voted to kill the M-1 Abrams Tank
He voted to kill every Aircraft carrier laid down from 1988
He voted to kill the Aegis anti aircraft system
He voted to Kill the F-15 strike eagle
He voted to Kill the Block 60 F-16
He voted to Kill the P-3 Orion upgrade
He voted to Kill the B-1
He voted to Kill the B-2
He voted to Kill the Patriot anti Missile system
He voted to Kill the FA-18
He voted to Kill the B-2
He voted to Kill the F117
In short, he voted to kill every military appropriation for the development and deployment of every weapons systems since 1988 to include the battle armor for our troops.
With Kerry as president our Army will be made up of naked men running around with sticks and clubs. He also voted to kill all anti terrorism activities of every agency of the US Government and to cut the funding of the FBI by 60%, to cut the funding for the CIA by 80%, and cut the funding for the NSA by 80%.
But then he voted to increase OUR funding for U.N operations by 800%!!!
As stated before in this forum, a lot of these votes were actually concerning much broader financial spending bills, and not concerned with specific weapons systems. Still, Kerry did vote against spending money on these weapons systems. What was he thinking? Maybe he was swayed by the opinions of George H.W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
President Bush's own father announced in his 1992 State of the Union address that he would be ceasing further production of B-2 bombers and MX missiles, and would cut military spending by 30 percent over several years.
Three days later, in a speech before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Dick Cheney said:
Overall, since I've been Secretary, we will have taken the five-year defense program down by well over $300 billion. That's the peace dividend.
And now we're adding to that another $50 billion
of so-called peace dividend.
Then he attacked the then democratically controlled congress, including Kerry:
Congress has let me cancel a few programs. But you've squabbled and sometimes bickered and horse-traded and ended up forcing me to spend money on weapons that don't fill a vital need in these times of tight budgets and new requirements.
You've directed me to buy more M-1s, F-14s, and F-16sall great systems
but we have enough of them.
These votes came at a time when America at large was more concerned about budgeting than defense. Wow, hindsight is a $@%&!.
But you dont need hindsight to see that Bushs budget cuts are undermining our military. He cuts spending and denies help to our soldiers while the country is actively at war! This article on the Army Times website recounts just a few
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292259-1989240.php
Heres an excerpt for those of you who will just scream in outrage and not actually go and read the link:
the administration announced that on Oct. 1 it wants to roll back recent modest increases in monthly imminent-danger pay (from $225 to $150) and family-separation allowance (from $250 to $100) for troops getting shot at in combat zones.
So, Bush tends to fair about the same or worse in areas that you guys consider to be John Kerrys weak points. Should I even bother to go onto Bushs weak points? I think my point is proven. Thanks for the help Ann Coulter, but I still think youre a nutcase.