If you still vote for Kerry after watching this... Options

[realdeal]

Then I don't know what else to say.

Watch it through to the end.

CLICK HERE

[Druid]

I love these debates but I hope everyone keeps it in perspective.
You know the old saying about religion and politics.

With that said here are my 2 cents.
I firmly believe most people are clueless when it comes to politics and our government in general. The reason I say this is because everyone always focuses to much on the presidential elections and not near enough on congress.
Yes, the president is a powerful individual but the office comes with very limited legislative power.
Here are a few examples of what I'm talking about.
1) He's the commander and chief of the military but he can't declare war that is the lone ability of congress. He has the right under the "War Powers Act" to make limited use of the military without congressional approval but even then, he must gain congressional approval within 90 days after introducing troops into hostilities. Also along the same lines, it requires congress to fund any military action.
2) He can make foreign treaties, but again only with two-thirds consent of the Senate.
3) He can appoint ambassadors, Supreme Court justices, and federal judges but they most be affirmed by the senate.
4) He can recommend legislation to Congress but it's up to them to act on it.
5) Deliver a State of the Union address to Congress.
6) His only legislative tool is the ability to veto but that can be overridden with a two-thirds majority vote.

The economy has been a huge issue so far this election. If you heard Kerry's acceptance speech you would think we where on the road to soup lines like during the great depression.
There has been much talk about Bush ruining the great economy left to him by Clinton. Don't forget economic indicators lag several months behind, we now know the economy was going down BEFORE Bush took office. Now add to that the impact the 9-11 attacks had on the economy.
BTW, my personal opinion is the economy is cyclic in nature and one guy got to take credit for something he didn't do while the next guy gets blamed for something he didn't do. For those of you who disagree with me, please name one piece of legislation the president wrote that resulted in the great economy during the 90's. You may want to go back and reread the 1st paragraph, the president can't write legislation.


Some one mentioned schools, federal funding only make up around 3% of a schools budget. Please tell me why the federal government should have any say about local schools. I would much rather see school issues dealt with on a local and state level as these people are much available and influence by us versus people in D.C. For those why want to blame the federal government about your local schools I would have to ask when is the last time you went to a school board meeting. Or for that matter, do you even know who makes up your school board?

Hoods no disrespect but I think your post was somewhat pointless.
You can't show cause and effect.
For example, half of all people in car accidents ate french fries in the prior week. Does that mean it's the french fries fault?
Also when it comes to the budget, that’s completely in the hands of the congress.

I find it hilarious the democrats make little or no mention of Kerry's 20 year voting recode while in the senate.
They make no mention of it because they don't want to be put in the position of having to defend it.
A few examples.
Will Real John Kerry Please Stand Up?
Kerry's New 'Flip' Flap Over Anti-Abort Court
Backpedaling Kerry
Kerry Concedes 'We may yet find' WMDs Just Weeks After Saying Bush 'Misled' About Them
Kerry Flip-Flops on Missing WMDsHaving It Both Ways With John Kerry
The Lies, Hypocrisy, and Indifference of John Kerry
John Fake Kerry
Comprehensive List of Flip Flops
John Kerry's Waffles - If you don't like the Democratic nominee's views, just wait a week
John Kerry: The Chameleon Senator
A complete list of his flip flops. I normally don’t care for these types of websites where someone can say anything but this site backs everything up.


Cypher.
“I'll tell you the same thing my Dad told me. He has voted Republican in every election since he turned 18. He is voting Democrat this year. I will vote for a hero over a coward every day of the week." Incidentally, my father lied about his age to enlist in the Marine Corps and volunteer for 3 tours in Vietnam."
There is no comparison between what your father did and what Kerry did. If you think so, here are a few points you may not be aware of. Kerry only enlisted after his application for draft deferment was turned down. ( Draft Deferment was a common way of avoiding service.) Only then did he volunteer for service. He wanted combat experience on his record so he requested swift boat duty, which at the time was relatively safe combat duty as they only preformed coastal patrols, it wasn’t until later that they change to dangerous river patrol missions.
Much attention has been given to the fact he received 3 Purple Hearts.
Of course the details are sketchy because he refuses to release information about how and why he received them. Then again, why would he care seeing as how he through them away. Oh wait, he only through his ribbons away. Oh wait he did through his medals away. No those where not his medals but some elses.
Here is what we do know.
Lt. Cmdr. Grant Hibbard, Kerry's immediate superior, said he doubted Kerry deserved the first of the three Purple Hearts he was awarded during his four months in Vietnam.
"The briefing of some members of the crew the morning after revealed that they had not received enemy fire as originally stated by Kerry," Hibbard said. "And yet Lt.. Kerry informed me of a wound, he showed me a scratch on his arm and a piece of shrapnel in his hand that appeared to be from one of our own M-79s (grenade launcher). It was later reported to me that Lt. Kerry had fired an M-79 at some rocks along the shore."
When Kerry meet with his commanding officer to request a purple heart, Lt.Cmdr. Grant Hibbard refused because the wound wasn't received from enemy fire, which is the essential requirement for the award.
Hibbard's doubts are shared by Louis Letson, the physician who treated Kerry for his wound at the Cam Ranh Bay medical facility:
"I have a very clear memory of an incident which occurred while I was the Medical Officer at Naval Support Facility, Cam Ranh Bay.
John Kerry was the skipper of a Swift boat, newly arrived in Vietnam. On the night of December 2, he was on patrol north of Cam Ranh, up near Nha Trang area. The next day he came to sick bay, the medical facility, for treatment of a wound that had occurred that night.
The story he told was different from what his crewmen had to say about that night. According to Kerry, they had been engaged in a fire fight, receiving small arms fire from on shore. He said that his injury resulted from this enemy action.
Some of his crew confided that they did not receive any fire from shore, but that Kerry had fired a mortar round at close range to some rocks on shore. The crewman thought that the injury was caused by a fragment ricocheting from that mortar round when it struck the rocks.
That seemed to fit the injury which I treated.
What I saw was a small piece of metal sticking very superficially in the skin of Kerry's arm. The metal fragment measured about 1 cm. in length and was about 2 or 3 mm in diameter. It certainly did not look like a round from a rifle.
I simply removed the piece of metal by lifting it out of the skin with forceps. I doubt that it penetrated more than 3 or 4 mm. It did not require probing to find it, did not require any anesthesia to remove it, and did not require any sutures to close the wound.
The wound was covered with a Band-Aid."
Details of the next two purple hearts are sketchier, all we do know is out of 3 purple hearts, Kerry only lost 2 days of duty.
1st he tried to get out of duty by requesting Draft Deferment. He then invokes a little know rule to leave his tour of duty after less than 4 months after receiving 3 purple hearts, one of which was received under the most dubious of circumstances.
While on the subject of requesting reassignment away from combat after receiving 3 purple hearts. There where 2 other men in his crew who also received 3 purple hearts. Both of them stayed to finish their tour. Neither of the two men who also received 3 purple hearts every request them. Compare that to Kerry who not only request one and was turned down, then later re-filed his request to his commanding officer after being transferred.
Then while state side and still a member of the Navy Reserves he make his speech to the Senate Foreign Relations committee in 1971, which most military considered to be an act of sedition. This is where he told congress
"He had witnessed U.S. soldiers personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam."
Years later when asked about these war atrocities he witnessed, he then says he was only reporting about rumors he heard when he spoke before congress.

The democrats made Kerry's military career a large part of the recent DNC when one of the speakers was a member of Kerry's swift boat. The story that didn't come out during the DNC speech is the fact out of the 23 people who servered with Kerry, 19 are active in "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth", which consider Kerry unfit to be commander and chief.
In Kerry’s presidential campaign literature, there is a picture of him with his swift boat crew. Out of the 19 people in the picture , 2 are deceased, 4 don’t want to get involved and 11 requested the picture be removed and that he stop misrepresenting them as supporters. They issued this press release.
"We did not give permission for you to use a photo including our image, nor do we support you. ... We join our fellow Swiftees who believe that someone who heaped scorn and lies on his own unit for his personal political gain is not fit to be Commander in Chief."
Not what I would call high praise coming from the ones who served with him.

So there will be no mistake I’m not a registered Democrat or Republician.
I was hoping Wesley Clark would win the Democratic nomination.
For those who don’t know about Clark.
He graduated 1st in his class at West Point. He holds a master's degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar An Officer who has commanded at every level from Company to Division.
I’m still shaking my head in disbelief the Dems supported someone like Kerry over an individual like Clark.
Now that’s it’s between Kerry and Bush, there is no way I would even support Kerry. If for no other reason than Kerry is on record severl times saying "“I’d like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations.”
I'm absolutely against this ridiculous idea for many reasons, 1st of which is it's unconstitutional.