Where’s Kerry?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4926162/

If ever there was a moment for the Democrat to come out swinging, this is it.

May 7 - Somewhere in the mountains of Pakistan or Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden is having the second-best week of his life. American soldiers using Saddam’s torture chambers to abuse and sexually humiliate Iraqis pushes the U.S. presence in Iraq beyond the point where it can be saved.

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Capitol Hill is in an uproar, and the White House is panicking. Even Karl Rove makes a rare appearance in print, opining in remarks to an unnamed Bush adviser that it will take a generation for the Arab world to get over the revelations of the last week, and fretting about the perils of premising President Bush’s re-election campaign on national security.

A year after the celebratory landing on the USS Lincoln, the headlines are about torture in Iraq, and this time it’s not Saddam’s fault. The news is jarring for the American people. Bush was supposed to be a competent, can-do guy, and his administration looks like it’s spinning out of control. After hearing that videotapes will soon surface depicting sexually explicit scenes, some Hill aides turned to black humor. Now that the porn industry has shut down in California because of an AIDS scare, it’s picked up and moved to Baghdad, said one aide glumly.

...more...

My thoughts exactly. Where is Kerry in on all this? :shrug: Why
isn't he blasting away at the entire Iraqi invasion. occupation,
and now torture? Oh, that's right, he voted in favor of this
(invasion at least)... :eyes:

I wish the dems would grow a backbone...we already have the brains,
which the repukes lack.

He has to be careful here.

because the actual facts prove you wrong.

Are you sure you understand the Gadsden flag? It just doesn't seem to fit you.

Do you?
Unfortunately, you're just buying into HALF of the same beast.
You actually think that Kerry is going to represent you (us)...you
know, We, The People of the United States.

Get real.

www.americalivefree.org

ON THE IRAQI PRISONER SCANDAL: "I was appalled, amazed and saddened for our country. Most of our military, I think everyone knows, lives by higher standards and we're grateful for their service to our country, but this is a black mark of unbelievable proportions on the United States of America. It's a very sad moment. This Sunday, the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff went on television and he hadn't even read the executive summary of this report. The day that Donald Rumfeld went up to Congress he knew that there was a report coming out on "60 Minutes" about it and he never told the Senate. I think this administration has once again been slow, they've had a tin ear about what it means and it has cost us. And it may have cost additional terrorism. It certainly will cost us in terms of hatred and recruitment and our reputation . And it may put our troops at greater risk. But even before this, because we are occupying Iraq almost alone, because this President has really refused to do the hard work of diplomacy to bring other people to the table, Americans are paying billions of dollars more than they ought to be. And it comes at the expense of healthcare, education, jobs, all the things we need."

http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/releases/pr_2004_0506b.html

that's it? He should be beating bush like a drum....driving this into
the American psyche. Nope...doesn't do it for me.

along the lines of when he is president he will be aware and accountable, unlike GWB

Kerry Says He Would Demand Accountability

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&ncid=703&e=2&u=/ap/20040506/ap_on_el_pr/kerry_prisoner_abuse



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Kerry Hits Bush's Commander-In-Chief Performance

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&ncid=696&e=1&u=/nm/20040506/pl_nm/campaign_kerry_dc

JFK is not there to entertain you.

and you want to whine that he isn't doing anything because it suits YOUR agenda. Too bad that some of us CAN read for ourselves and don't rely on YOUR spins against Kerry.

JFK is doing retail politics. Meeting people and winng votes. He is getting lots of local media coverage. Oh and raising money too.

Let bush sink in the mess he made. This writer is a D.C. whore. Who cares what she thinks.

The primaries are not over. JFK has to consider the DK threat and of course Dean got a delegate in the PA primary.

we get these dissertations to wade thru putting all to sleep.

Bush should be doin' an LBJ.

Kerry looks like Gore 2000. Tied w/ the Moron
in the polls. Outrageous.

Insurgent tactics would indicate that Kerry is the Velvet Glove
simply a mask for the 1% Elite.

Gott Mitt Uns

The sadly predictable, American self-denial--that our war
crimes do not really represent our core values--smacks of
the same self-denial many German citizens expressed when
US general General George S. Patton, Jr.  forced 
reluctant civilians to tour Buchenwald concentration camp
in 1945.  Before that time, the God-fearing Germans 
could almost convince themselves (as we've
convinced ourselves), that their Christian ideals were
intact--
if only they could ignore the stench of death from the 
prison camp next door.  Perhaps those God-fearing
Germans really believed the slogan imprinted on the
belt buckles worn by their rosy-cheeked, well-fed soldiers--
"Gott Mit Uns" (God With Us)--justified any atrocity in a
patriotic struggle against the barbarian hordes from the east,
as their state-supported media proclaimed.  After all, if
you
really believe God is with you, any atrocity--even
imprisonment, torture and death--is justifiable. 

http://www.strike-the-root.com/4/herman/herman21.html

Does anyone really think we can win in Iraq now. No
matter what? Our moral authority has evaporated as the price
of expediency. The Iraqis can no longer have us in their
country. We are not worthy of their trust.
Our words no longer matter, it is our deeds which speak for
us.
And our deeds can no longer be defended by
humans.

http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/

(And as long as there is no space between Kerry/Bush
on Iraq we're just another fucked crazed Empire
spiraling down into the dustbin of
history.)

I sometimes get emails asking me to propose solutions
or make suggestions. Fine. Today's lesson: don't rape,
don't torture, don't kill and get out while you can- while it
still looks like you have a choice... Chaos? Civil
war? Bloodshed? We’ll take our chances- just take
your Puppets, your tanks, your smart weapons, your
dumb politicians, your lies, your empty promises, your
rapists, your sadistic torturers and go.

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2004_05_01_riverbendblog_archive.html#108392335918002921

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new president." John Kerry, May 7

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Your enemies are battling each other - and you want someone to break it up? Forget it. The repukes are doing an excellent job beating the crap out of each other. Why jump in and break up the fun?

And that's exactly what would happen if Kerry opened his yap. The repukes would take whatever he said, twist it, create another phony issue, and the press (sigh...) would take their eyes off Chimpy and friends and move onto that. You don't want that. You want them focused on BushCo.

You've got Bush squirming like a worm on a hot griddle, Rummy in the hot seat, military pissed at him. Hell, McCain is pissed at him. "Rumsfeld was dressed down by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz. "No, Secretary Rumsfeld, in all due respect, you've got to answer this question," McCain said. "This is a pretty simple, straightforward question. Who was in charge of the interrogations?"
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9495-2004May7.html>

McCain is asking for further evidence of abusive behavior, and urged "immediate and full disclosure of all relevant information." You got
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) upset with Pentagon officials, and Lindsey Graham squirming, trying to do damage control, and failing horribly, Sen. Grassley is publicly not happy and he's up for re-election - as is the entire House of Reps!

Senators Kennedy, Byrd, and Reed are doing Kerry's work for him. Urge them and others on!
And Rep. Gene Taylor of Miss. was brilliantly devastating!!!!!
"It was moms and dads from homes who had to write me and tell me that their kids weren't getting the proper body armor....Then it was David Kay, a Bush appointee, who had to tell me in Baghdad that because of a lack of manpower, huge ammunition caches were left unguarded in Iraq...It was a National Guard unit from home, shortly before Christmas, that showed me proudly their efforts to make their own up-armored Humvee, because apparently no one above was bothering to tell Congress, which writes the checks for these things, that they needed to be protected...I mean, you're probably one of the smartest people I know...And what's troubling is how someone who is so smart, and so detail-oriented, why does it take from January to May for this committee now to find out about" the Abu Ghraib photographs?

Rumsfeld said he heard "rumors of photographs . . . in that period of January, February, March."

Taylor: "But I would have believed, that . . . somehow, someone would have seen that it got to you. Because I know you're a smart, detail-oriented guy."

"It wasn't," Rumsfeld said. "It just wasn't."

So, sit back. Relax. Enjoy the show. Or skip it, you're going to see it over and over again in campaign ads in the coming months. This is more fun than kickin' puppies!

Kerry should stay positive and above the fray while this is going on. Let Bush and his cronies self destruct. They are doing a terrific job.

Once this scandal dies down, Kerry should then turn up the heat. Why should he interfere with this spectacle.

when he's committing suicide.

-- Old Chinese proverb (or so I'm told)

It always sounds good.

But why not extrapolate:
All things come to he who waits.

Don't complain. Sit back and enjoy. In all ways.

Don't worry about voter participation.
Don't worry about the constant drift to
the Right. Where Clinton signs a Welfare Bill
that Nixon would not have touched.

Give 'em enough rope and...

Yes. These folks are going down a one
way deadend road, their only recourse
being more and greater violence.

Wu Tsu, quoted by Sun Tzu, said, “What is called the right way
is a return to fundamental principles; if conduct is not in
accord with the right way, although one’s position is
important and honorable, misfortune will overtake
him.”

It would be the perfect distraction. Kerry would be damned if he said anything ('politicizing the issue') and he's being damned for not saying anything about the prison scandal ('not taking a stand'). I think he'd be more damned to make political noise about the prison scandal, since that transcends politics. However, Kerry has made helpful suggestions where possible (get rid of rumsfeld, get un/nato more as involved, be a bit more humble, etc.), so I agree with the above post that he's doing exactly what he needs to do.

The Republican smear machine is highly effective, but it relies heavily upon huge masses of people to voluntarily spread (sometimes) carefully crafted distortions and half-truths. It's not a system which is "controlled" so much as it is "stewarded." Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly aren't the mouthpieces of the smear machine; they're more like cowboys, riding herd over the didiots.

At times like these, the smear machine doesn't stop. It can't stop--it's made up of hundreds of thousands of independent voices. But the machine can lose its direction, and all those people who keep the machine in motion can start to use their considerable abusive talents against each other.

Better to foster that potential damage and disorganization by not offering a target. Besides, it is a solemn issue which really deserves to be examined and addressed in as dignified a manner as possible. Let the Republicans try to make political hay out of it--it'll be like watching a toddler play with a dirty diaper.

And I really believe that it won't be long before some bright boy tries to spin this emerging scandal as Bill Clinton and John Kerry's fault. And when they do turn their attention back to smearing Kerry, we'll all be waiting, ready to unload on them.

nasty.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/07/politics/campaign/07KERR.html?ex=1084334400&en=d5672fd3fe34ddc9&ei=5070

I asume you won't compromise your principles to defeat Bush; can we assume you'll be voting/supporting Nader? Why not get a little backbone yourself and put up the person you will be supporting, just so we know what your agenda is.

Same way the US works the world.

The reason for VietNam. There
will be no economic alternative to US.

The same reason Bush must constantly turn
the screws on Cuba.

The reason we can't pull out of Iraq.
6% of World using 25% of oil and
borrowing 75% of cost.

We pull out, the Euro grows, the $ falls.

We're an Empire that must steal oil at
gunpoint.

See chechnya news today. Imagine Iraq 4
years from now. Only worse.

keep a low profile through all of this. I mean, let them self destruct on their own and he is above it all.

letting Shrub stew in his own juice for a bit. They are so incompetent, they are their own worst enemy and will self destruct.
If he were to slam bush too hard the right wing media would focus on "attacks for partisan purposes" and it would give an excuse for the media to slant Kerry footage in a negative light, instead of the bush policy results.
In the meantime, no doubt Kerry is using his time wisely for planning, so that he has a concrete, comprehensive policy to hammer the minute the dem convention is over. He's possibly building diplomacy behind the scenes with foreign leaders too. And he does have people like Wes Clark and others speaking up on his behalf.
In other words, he's preparing his script well so that when the curtain goes up when he announces a running mate at the convention, the spotlight will shine on someone who knows his stuff.