Letter to John Kerry

August 25, 2004

Senator John Kerry
304 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Kerry,

We are pleased to welcome your campaign representatives to Texas today. We honor all our veterans, all whom have worn the uniform and served our country. We also honor the military and National Guard troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan today. We are very proud of all of them and believe they deserve our full support.

That’s why so many veterans are troubled by your vote AGAINST funding for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, after you voted FOR sending them into battle. And that’s why we are so concerned about the comments you made AFTER you came home from Vietnam. You accused your fellow veterans of terrible atrocities – and, to this day, you have never apologized. Even last night, you claimed to be proud of your post-war condemnation of our actions.

We’re proud of our service in Vietnam. We served honorably in Vietnam and we were deeply hurt and offended by your comments when you came home.

You can’t have it both ways. You can’t build your convention and much of your campaign around your service in Vietnam, and then try to say that only those veterans who agree with you have a right to speak up. There is no double standard for our right to free speech. We all earned it.

You said in 1992 “we do not need to divide America over who served and how.” Yet you and your surrogates continue to criticize President Bush for his service as a fighter pilot in the National Guard.

We are veterans too – and proud to support President Bush. He’s been a strong leader, with a record of outstanding support for our veterans and for our troops in combat. He’s made sure that our troops in combat have the equipment and support they need to accomplish their mission.

He has increased the VA health care budget more than 40% since 2001 – in fact, during his four years in office, President Bush has increased veterans funding twice as much as the previous administration did in eight years ($22 billion over 4 years compared to $10 billion over 8.) And he’s praised the service of all who served our country, including your service in Vietnam.

We urge you to condemn the double standard that you and your campaign have enforced regarding a veteran’s right to openly express their feelings about your activities on return from Vietnam.

Sincerely,

Texas State Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson
Rep. Duke Cunningham
Rep. Duncan Hunter
Rep. Sam Johnson
Lt. General David Palmer
Robert O'Malley, Medal of Honor Recipient
James Fleming, Medal of Honor Recipient
Lieutenant Colonel Richard Castle (Ret.)

For those who don't know, this letter was in reply to a letter several Dems tried to deliver to Bush asking him to condemn the Swiftvet ads, which by the way he already had done.

The White House slammed Sen. John Kerry Wednesday for staging a "political stunt" at the president's ranch and for a double standard on attack ads.
Spokesman Scott McClellan said Kerry's dispatch of former Sen. Max Cleland and Vietnam veteran Jim Rassman to Crawford to press President Bush to condemn and stop ads by a veterans group that questions Kerry's war record was an attempt to divert attention from Kerry's "out-of-the-mainstream record and out-of-the-mainstream views."
"Senator Kerry says he wants to talk about the issues. Today's political stunt is an interesting way of showing it," McClellan said. "If Senator Kerry was interested in focusing on the issues, he would join the president in calling for a stop to all these ads by these shadowy groups."
Bush has called for a ban on all ads by the so-called 527 advocacy groups. Kerry has not heeded Bush's call to stand with him on the issue.
Bush has been savaged for a year by 527s favoring Kerry.

Since President Bush has taken office:

4,000,000 people have lost health insurance.

1,800,000 jobs have been lost.

Hoods I'm very curious to see you list some reasons why you would support Kerry.
Please tell me his stand on a few issues and I'm willing to bet I can go look at his senate record and him voting the exact opposite.

And along the same lines.
Since President Bush has taken office:
I've stubbed my toe 3 times.... It hurt a lot.... We should vote him out.

Stubbing your toe and the fate of our nation are no where near the same lines.


And yes D. Silver, I would of rather seen Gore.

oh ok. i voted for nader. why cuz he wont get in. could have cared less if gore or bush got in pre- 9-11, thank god it was bush! be honest i havent heard what nader is saying so far all i hear is bush n kerry. really dont like either. we need the duke!

GO SHARPTON!!!! WOOOHOOO!. I'd much rather see W in there, seeing that hes moving this counrty through a war. I dont think it would be a good idea to switch presidents during our countrys current military activities.

Your right Hoods the fate of the free world and me stubbing my two is nowhere near the same lines.
So lets look again at your comment of 1,800,000 jobs have been lost.
You can see this claimed on almost every anti-bush site.
One small problem with it, it's not really true or at least it's very misleading.

Everyone keeps spewing the same comments about jobs because it's a good shocker and most people don't understand where the numbers come from and what they mean. Most people who read "1,800,000 jobs have been lost." automatically think because of Bush 1,800,000 are now out of work.
Well here are a few facts.
Since the Bush came into office there have been 2.4 million jobs created.
So the reality is, net jobs have increased. This is job growth during a recession which we now know Bush inherited. BTW I'm not blaming Clinton for the recession either, as I've already said the economy is cyclic in nature. If the economy didn't have it's ups and downs we would have terrible inflation.

Lets look at some other economic indicators.
Unemployment is now at 5.6 percent which is below the 5.8 percent through the 90's
We just had the largest single quater of growth in 20 years.
Jobless claims are 10 percent below the average of the last 25 years and still falling.

kidding about sharpton....D ba sh me....not gonna happen...never has, never will.

anyone want to talk about the deficit which Bush has created? He made history alright. The largest the worlds ever seen. And it cost the lives of some of the Americans So in my eyes, hes no better than Sadam. He killed his people and Bush is killing his.



No, Bush did not inherit a bad economy, he created one. The economy was at its best when clinton was there. We had a surplus in the budget. Bush destroyed all that. For What? Nothing. Hes got the oil now. WOW, I see a big difference in my pocket now.