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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (20724)	5/6/2004 3:24:21 AM
From: American Spirit	Respond to of 81568

Bush Campaign Ads Mislead Voters By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites)'s commercial claims, "John Kerry will raise taxes by at least $900 billion in his first 100 days in office." The candidate has never proposed such an increase, and the figure is based on GOP calculations. Welcome to the world of political advertising, where half-truths, exaggerations and distortions can make it difficult for voters to tell fact from fiction. "There's more misleading stuff popping up than you can swing at," said Brooks Jackson, a former reporter and the director of the Annenberg Political Fact Check, a Web site that evaluates the accuracy of campaign rhetoric. "Voters, be aware: These guys have a constitutional right to lie to you as much as they want." Advisers for Bush defend their candidate's ads as accurate interpretations of the other's record or views, and each campaign typically releases pages of documents backing up its claims. Yet, independent fact-checkers have found flaws and accuse the Bush campaign of fiction. While federal regulations require truth-telling when advertisers sell soap on television, they don't regulate what candidates for federal office say about each other. As a result, they can bend or twist the truth by selectively choosing facts that suit their agendas, giving voters only a slice of the picture. Much of the murkiness is caused by the realities of political advertising. Strategists often have only 30 seconds to project their candidate's message. That means the context, details and explanation surrounding an accusation or an appeal end up on the cutting room floor, leaving only vague sound bites. Most of the time, that's by design. "Ads in politics are by definition about advocating the best possible representation of your position and the worst possible representation of your opponent's position," said Carter Eskew, a Democrat who helped create ads for Al Gore (news - web sites) in 2000. But voters are smart enough to know that they are only getting one side of the story in an ad, argued Eskew, who says they "bring a pretty sophisticated and cynical filter to it." Still, it's more difficult for voters to figure out the truth when ads contain "lies of omission," said Christian Grose, a campaign media expert at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis. Bush's campaign has based its ads, which portray Kerry as weak on national security and favoring tax increases, on isolated votes and quotes plucked from the Democrat's 19-year Senate career. However, some of Bush's ads are based on Senate votes that Kerry made in the context of larger bills. Other ads cite votes Kerry cast decades ago or past comments that may not reflect his current positions. Bush's latest ad claims "Kerry has repeatedly opposed weapons vital to winning the war on terror: the Bradley Fighting Vehicles, Patriot missiles, B-2 Stealth bombers, F-18 Fighter Jets and more." Those accusations are drawn, in part, from Kerry votes in the 1980s and 1990s against a few monstrous Pentagon (news - web sites) spending bills, which included money for various weapons systems. Another ad accused Kerry of wanting to raise gas taxes by 50 cents a gallon — a claim based on a fleeting 1994 quote by Kerry published in two Boston newspapers. Grose's advice to voters: "If you want to learn about a candidate, a 30-second ad is not the best place to go!"

To: Mephisto who wrote (20724)	5/6/2004 3:29:23 AM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 81568

Kerry's family are in the ads for several reasons. First, the rightwing assassination squads are slandering his wife and his marriage with multi-million dollar disinformation campaigns. The same type Ed Gillespie used for Enron to deceive consumers and they used to slime McCain. Theresa Heinz Kerry wants to show she's a real person with real smarts and concerns. It's not about her money. Even without her money she'd be very real and impressive. She loves her husband and vice versa. Same with his daughter who's a very impressive young woman. His whole family is very impressive, smart and sincere. I've met them all. When the attacks from the right get grossly personal and dishonest the family sticks together. Bush never had to endure attacks on his family. The rightwing is ruthless and there should be a law against their tactics. Also sinful is the ridiculously untrue attack on John Kerry's military record. Absolutely full of lies. Jk is one of the great heros of our country and deserves every ounce of respect. PS: I hope Theresa puts down 100 million to battle these liars. I hope she finds a way which is legal and acceptable. The liars on the right deserve it. Reagan threatened to punch out the jerk who insulted Nancy.