Bush's first campaign ads invoke 9/11

[CarneVaca]

Jason, I am going to respectfully disagree with you. Before you start siding with a lying poop dispenser like Bill O'Reilly, you should call your therapist or your priest. This winner of phantom Peabody Awards has no credibility, and you know it.

To equate invoking 9/11 with bringing up Kerry's Vietnam record is beyond silly. To be sure, I think Kerry has way overplayed that Vietnam hand, but for different reasons. But what O'Reilly and you seem to be trying to do is to equate both men's actions. More fair would be to equate Bush's actions during Vietnam with Kerry's, if you want to go there. But to say that a president who squandered the good will of the world toward Americans in this time of crisis, got us into unnecessary conflicts and made some rather questionable, if not suspicious, moves in the aftermath of 9/11 is OK because Kerry is bringing up his Vietnam record is positively nonsensical.

Refer back to my earlier post on this. There are so many questions surrounding Bush's response to 9/11 and his failure to heed the warnings of the intelligence community before the disaster that one has to wonder just what kind of reality he and his minions are living in. I mean, how stupid is it to invoke 9/11 when you know within hours the families of the victims are going to be reacting in the press? When you know that the families are extremely disillusioned with the way the administration has handled the investigation and its callous disregard for the truth surrounding the tragedy?

I still want to know why the bin Laden family was allowed to fly out of the US when American citizens caught away from home when 9/11 happened were prevented from flying home to their families at a time when being with your family was about the only comfort for many of us. Don't you?

[dissention]

Originally posted by strandinthewind
Bill O'Reilly had an interesting point on his show last night. What is the difference between Kerry using Vietnam in his ads and W using 9/11 in his ads. BO ( ) pointed out that many more people died in Nam and some of the vets and widows of the vets might find it offensive to promote a political candidate in the same same as the 9/1 people currently find it offensive to use that event to promote a political candidate. BO has a somewhat valid point in that they both are using horrible events for political gain.

Because the images of Vietnam that Kerry uses are only of himself, he doesn't use any other images. Also, one of the biggest draws to Kerry is his stance on Vietnam, his Congressional testimony, and his service. Using 9/11 serves no purpose other than to make Bush look like a hero when he's far from it.

[strandinthewind]

EEK - I agree that the ads W is running are in bad taste because he is showing an actual body being wheeled out of the war torn ETC site with, I believe, an American flag draped over it. that is just too tacky for words in my book.

I am just saying that I agree that 9/11 is a valid campaign issue.


Carne - Although I like to watch BO, I rarely if ever agree with him and do not really agree with him here because of the traitor aspect of the ads I mentioned earlier, which is the clear intent of the ads IMO. I just thought it was an interesting point, etc., for discusion

Of course, I rarely agree with anyone and, you know, I LOVE to argue Again, I became a lawyer because I thought I would get paid by the word!! - if they did, my verbose self would be very, very rich indeed

[strandinthewind]

Originally posted by dissention
Using 9/11 serves no purpose other than to make Bush look like a hero when he's far from it.

I think Rove thinks - "Hey - it worked in the interim elections," etc. I think Rove is wrong here. I think Rove knows something is different than two years age. I think that is why these ads are being tested now. In other words, if they do not work, history shows the majority of people have very short memories for these types of things. Rove is banking on that. I also think Rove will haul out the flight suit pics next.

[gldstwmn]

Originally posted by CarneVaca
Jason, I am going to respectfully disagree with you. Before you start siding with a lying poop dispenser like Bill O'Reilly, you should call your therapist or your priest. This winner of phantom Peabody Awards has no credibility, and you know it.

To equate invoking 9/11 with bringing up Kerry's Vietnam record is beyond silly. To be sure, I think Kerry has way overplayed that Vietnam hand, but for different reasons. But what O'Reilly and you seem to be trying to do is to equate both men's actions. More fair would be to equate Bush's actions during Vietnam with Kerry's, if you want to go there. But to say that a president who squandered the good will of the world toward Americans in this time of crisis, got us into unnecessary conflicts and made some rather questionable, if not suspicious, moves in the aftermath of 9/11 is OK because Kerry is bringing up his Vietnam record is positively nonsensical.

Refer back to my earlier post on this. There are so many questions surrounding Bush's response to 9/11 and his failure to heed the warnings of the intelligence community before the disaster that one has to wonder just what kind of reality he and his minions are living in. I mean, how stupid is it to invoke 9/11 when you know within hours the families of the victims are going to be reacting in the press? When you know that the families are extremely disillusioned with the way the administration has handled the investigation and its callous disregard for the truth surrounding the tragedy?

I still want to know why the bin Laden family was allowed to fly out of the US when American citizens caught away from home when 9/11 happened were prevented from flying home to their families at a time when being with your family was about the only comfort for many of us. Don't you?

You just saved me a whole lot of typing. Thanks! BTW Bush is pulling the 9/11 ads. The survivors and their families were outraged by them, as they should be.

[strandinthewind]

Originally posted by gldstwmn
. . . The survivors and their families were outraged by them, as they should be.

So, Kerry and anyone else should never mention 9/11 as well Or, is it only okay to bash W for 9/11 and allow W no response Actually, that's not a bad idea

[dissention]

Originally posted by strandinthewind
I also think Rove will haul out the flight suit pics next.

I hope he does because it will give us a victory in November.

[gldstwmn]

http://news.bostonherald.com/nationa...articleid=1268

Ted K: CIA had power to KO war

WASHINGTON - Sen. Edward M. Kennedy [related, bio] yesterday charged the Bush administration with misleading the country into the Iraqi war and, while stopping just short of calling for impeachment, urged voters to oust the president.

In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, Kennedy said the war ``was not merely a failure of intelligence, but the result of manipulation and distortion of the intelligence'' by Bush and his administration.

Asked by an audience member whether Bush's actions qualify for impeachment, Kennedy said, ``I'll leave that for another day,'' before quickly adding, ``We have the opportunity to change this in November, and that's where this ought to be changed.''

The Bay State senator, who is campaigning regularly with presidential candidate Sen. John F. Kerry [related, bio], also tore into CIA chief George Tenet, who will testify before Congress on Tuesday.

``Why wasn't CIA director Tenet correcting the president and the vice president and the secretary of defense a year ago, when it could have made a difference, when it could have prevented a needless war, when it could have saved so many lives?'' he asked.

Kennedy quoted Bush before the war warning that the final proof of Iraq's threat ``could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.''

Kennedy added, ``It was pure, unadulterated fear-mongering, based on a devious strategy to convince the American people that Saddam's ability to provide nuclear weapons to al-Qaeda justified immediate war.''

White House spokesman Scott McClellan fired back, denying Kennedy's claims and implying the speech was intended to help Kerry.

``I don't think this is the first time we've heard Sen. Kennedy make such unsubstantiated and baseless charges,'' McClellan said. ``And I imagine, given that it's an election year, it won't be the last time.''

[strandinthewind]

So, Ted doesn't think SH had WMD in hindsight or he doesn't think the 11 years of consistent U.S. and UN policy supported that notion. I mean he is right that the Bush Admin manipulated the evidence and ought to be impeached for it. But I cannot believe he is unwilling to admit that the evidence clearly supported SH had WMD, SH was in violation of the UN for 11 years, and SH was unwilling to prevent this. That, for me was enough to oust him. But, that does not excuse W.'s inane lying to do so.

[gldstwmn]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/06/na.../06GAS.html?th

Motorists Chafing Under a Steady Rise in Gas Prices
By NICK MADIGAN

By NICK MADIGAN

Published: March 6, 2004


OS ANGELES, March 5 — "This is killing me," Bob Sherwood, an electrician who spends a lot of time on the road, said on Friday at a Santa Monica gas station after paying $30 to pump 13 gallons of gasoline into his '71 GMC truck.

"I'm working two hours a day just to pay for the gas to get me to and from home," said Mr. Sherwood, who lives in Castaic, 38 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

Motorists around the country appear similarly distraught at pump prices, which in many places have soared to record or near-record highs. The national average for regular unleaded gas on Friday was a fraction over $1.71, just below the record of $1.73 set on Aug. 30 last year and up 9.4 cents from a month ago. Some drivers and oil industry analysts see a potential for gas prices this summer to rise to $3 .

"It'll probably drop off in late March or in April, but come summer we may see something else altogether," said Jeffrey Spring, a spokesman for the Automobile Club of Southern California.

In California as a whole, the average price of regular gas on Friday was almost $2.18, up marginally from the previous day, Mr. Spring said. California now has the highest gasoline prices in the nation.

Reasons for the increases include prices for crude oil, which sold for a high of $37.45 a barrel on Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Worldwide supply of crude appears to be tight, partly because O.P.E.C., the world's largest oil cartel, plans to cut production next month and because of political and industrial turbulence in Venezuela, a major provider of oil for the United States.

In addition, many refineries in the United States are changing over to production of so-called summer fuels, an expensive process in itself, and refinery operators say they are also having to pass on some of the increased costs of producing gasoline with newly mandated levels of oxygenates, primarily ethanol.

On Thursday, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham told reporters that the Bush administration was "extremely concerned" about the rising gasoline prices, but did not specify what could be done about them.

Even in Georgia, where gas prices are normally among the lowest in the country, the increases are hitting home. Orval Donoho, 73, who sometimes works part time transporting cars, said the gas prices were cutting into his and his wife's leisure plans.

"We don't go out as much," he said as he pumped gas at a British Petroleum station in Kennesaw, Ga.

Mr. Donoho said he and his wife will drop plans to attend one of two family reunions in Illinois in June and August. And he will have to think twice, he said, about visiting his sister in Florida. Prices are "too high and too much," he said.

In downtown Detroit, Keith Bibbins, 46, complained that prices were "way too high, too damn high." He was filling up his Chrysler minivan at a B.P. station where a gallon of regular cost $1.69. A week ago, the price was $1.61.

"Every day I have to drop the kids off at day care and commute to work," said Mr. Bibbins, whose daily drive from Clinton Township to Detroit and back is about 60 miles, requiring fill-ups, about $30 a tank, twice a week.

Keith Adolph, a 55-year-old Detroit resident, pulled his tractor-trailer into the Speedway gas station at Jefferson Avenue and Chrysler Drive, said he was frustrated by the prices.

"I think it's a big racket," he said. "It seemed to me that every summer they found a reason to raise prices. Now it seems every weekend."

The increases are especially hard on independent truckers, for whom fuel costs are a large part of doing business.

"It's been devastating," Larry Daniel, president of America's Independent Truckers Association, said from his office in Clinton, Miss. "If they're lucky, and if they're going downhill with a tail wind, some of these trucks get nine miles to the gallon."

Gas stations in Southern New Jersey were charging from $1.53 to $1.67 per gallon for regular gas on Friday. And while those numbers have jumped an average of six cents in the last week, according to several gas station attendants, they were still among the lowest in the region, motivating some Pennsylvania drivers to cross the Delaware River to save 10 or 15 cents a gallon.

In Southern Connecticut, where regular unleaded was selling for about $1.69, Mary Shuda, a truck driver from Rice Lake, Wis., stopped at the Pilot Travel Center in Milford. She said she expects gas prices to get worse over the summer.

"It's a sad thing, because people still want their toilet paper and their toothpaste and their Twinkies at the same price that they've always paid, but it costs more to ship out now," she said as she pumped diesel at $1.79 a gallon. "Eventually it's going to come back to the customer."

[jwd]

Some background on the Peaceful Tomorrows.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2...6/121052.shtml



Joe

[gldstwmn]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=4511553

Kerry on Bush: 'Houston, We've Got a Problem'

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By Patricia Wilson
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Democratic White House candidate John Kerry blasted President Bush's economic stewardship on Saturday and declared in the Texan's own backyard, "Houston, we've got a problem."

During a Southern swing through four states -- Texas, Mississippi, Florida and Louisiana -- that hold primary contests next week, Kerry said Bush had produced a "barrel of broken promises" on jobs, health care and the federal budget.

He called the president "a walking contradiction" who had also failed to make good on vows to change the tone in Washington.

"It's the worst it's ever been. This is the biggest 'my way or the highway' group of people I've ever met in my life," Kerry said.

The Massachusetts senator was on his first campaign trip since clinching the nomination this week with nine out of a possible 10 victories on Super Tuesday.

Bush, who will square off against Kerry on Nov. 2 for a second term in the White House, was at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, about 200 miles from Houston, where he held talks with Mexican President Vicente Fox.

"Didn't he (Bush) promise 4 million jobs would be created with those tax cuts?" a raspy-voiced Kerry asked during a town hall meeting at Houston Community College.

"We lost 3 million ... 2.8 million Americans have lost their health care, he promised he was going to reduce the debt of our country by $1 trillion and he's added $1 trillion to the debt of our country," Kerry said.

"As the phrase goes, Houston, we've got a problem." He was referring to the now-legendary report of trouble aboard the U.S. Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970.

ROLL BACK

Kerry has promised to roll back Bush's tax cuts for Americans earning more than $200,000 a year, but supports targeted middle-class tax cuts for college, child care and health care.
He said he would cut the federal budget deficit in half in four years. He has also proposed $50 billion for states to create jobs, tax credits for manufacturing, closing tax loopholes and cracking down on trade violations.
Kerry used the Democrats' weekly radio address to criticize Bush for misplacing priorities in Iraq by spending billions of dollars on contracts to Halliburton Co., which Vice President Dick Cheney once headed, but not providing U.S. troops enough armor and other protective equipment.

"Families should be sending pictures and care packages to Iraq and the Department of Defense should be sending the body armor," Kerry said. He said he would introduce legislation later this month, called the Military Family Bill of Rights, "to prevent anything like this from ever happening again."

Bush and his allies have portrayed Kerry as an elitist Massachusetts liberal and a chronic waffler. Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel cited the radio address as another example of "his astonishing ability to say one thing and do another."

Republican Rep. Henry Bonilla of Texas said Kerry's fiscal policies would damage the state's economic momentum and pointed to "inconsistent stances" as evidence that the four-term senator lacked "the decisiveness to lead in difficult times."

[gldstwmn]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4467791

2004 Campaign: A 'Shocking' Stumble

March 15 issue - The controversy over President George W. Bush's new TV ads featuring fake firefighters and fleeting images of the 9/11 attacks threw campaign officials on the defensive—and raised questions about the Bush team's ability to effectively spend its massive $150 million war chest, some GOP insiders say. The president's ad team, led by Austin, Texas-based media maven Mark McKinnon, had carefully road-tested the spots in focus groups, and Bush himself signed off. But the rollout of the ads, which argue that Bush has made the country "safer, stronger," was quickly marred by charges from some 9/11 families that the Bush team was seeking to exploit the attacks for political gain. One scene shows footage of a flag-draped coffin of a terror victim; another has an American flag waving in front of World Trade Center wreckage. Publicly, Bush aides were dismissive and insisted the flap had only strengthened their plan to make 9/11 "a central topic of the campaign." "There's no way you can talk about George W. Bush without talking about September 11," said one campaign adviser. "It's like talking about Franklin Roosevelt without mentioning World War II." But privately, some GOP strategists were disturbed by the backlash and suggested the ad team had misjudged how the imagery would play. "It's quite shocking to a number of Republicans to watch them stumble out of the block like this," said one veteran GOP consultant, who added that the big question in GOP circles is "Do they [the Bush-Cheney campaign] know how to spend" their huge budget?

Another less-publicized aspect of the ad flap: the use of paid actors—including two playing firefighters with fire hats and uniforms in what looks like a fire station. "Where the hell did they get those guys?" cracked Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, which has endorsed John Kerry, when he first saw the ads. (A union spokesman said the shots prompted jokes that the fire hats looked like the plastic hats "from a birthday party.") "There's many reasons not to use real firemen," retorted one Bush media adviser. "Mainly, its cheaper and quicker."

The flap is likely to put renewed attention on the White House's continuing wrangle with the 9/11 Commission. Kristin Breitweiser, a leader of a 9/11 family group, charged it was "hypocritical" of the Bush team to use September 11 when the president has refused to turn over sensitive intelligence documents to the full commission and, more recently, insisted that Bush himself will meet with the panel's chair and co-chair for only one hour. Even some GOP panel members are miffed at the White House stand—and blame it on administration lawyers. In what appears to be an attempt to defuse some of the controversy, NEWSWEEK has learned, White House officials have privately signaled to the commission that Bush will not rigidly stick to the one-hour time limit. When time is up, Bush won't walk out if there are still more questions, an aide said.