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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas A Watson who wrote (614756)	8/31/2004 11:24:44 AM
From: JakeStraw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

John Kerry's Silver Star By David Allen Jared Aug 31, 2004 Far be it for me to pass judgement on Senator John Kerry's military service. As I've said, I was not on those Swift Boats OR in close proximity to them during those 4 months 12 days of his Vietnam partial tour. However, I HAVE notices something odd on Sen. Kerry's own DD 214 Form which he's posted on his website. It is the form that every veteran must have to prove completion of his service, his schools attended and decorations earned. On Senator Kerry's DD 214, it notes his Silver Star and then contains the entry, "With combat 'V' device." That entry is added to certain decorations to denote that it was awarded for "Valor" as opposed to "Meritorious Service." It's often added to such decorations as the Army/Airforce/Marine/Naval Commendation Medals, The Air Medal and even to the Bronze Star which CAN be awarded for meritorious service as opposed to valor. The only problem is, it's NEVER affixed to the Silver Star which is a decoration that can ONLY be awarded for Valor so the identifier would be superfluous. No doubt, the Kerry Campaign will claim that, since Sen. John Kerry didn't make out his own DD 214, it must be a "mistake" in the official record-- possibly a clerical error. That's not beyond the realm of possibility, I suppose, but they then can't turn around and say that the rest of the "official record" is infallible and "proves" Kerry's version of events. It's quite a conundrum for the Kerry campaign. Either the record is correct and "infallible" or it contains errors. If it's correct and "infallible" then someone has to explain that oddity that's NEVER included in any citation accompanying the Silver Star. If it's NOT correct and "infallible," then perhaps the questions raised by the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth group needs a further look--at least insofar as his decorations are concerned. The SBVFT group has claimed in their ads and in their book, "Unfit for Command" (currently #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list), that at least some of Kerry's medals weren't legitimately earned. As I said, I wasn't there and couldn't possibly be in a position to judge from first-hand knowledge. It should be noted that I AM, however, aware that there were quite a number of basically unearned medals handed out in the Vietnam conflict. I've written about a couple of which I have personal knowledge, so it's not IMpossible that Lt. Kerry was given medals that weren't legitimately earned in the heat of battle--as most decorations are, with a few exceptions. Maybe the worst thing that the Kerry Campaign has done is to do what it could to shut the SBVFT group out of the political discourse. The 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives EVERY American the right of freedom of speech. Admittedly, that freedom is NOT totally unfettered. If ANYONE has earned the right to speak, it's veterans who fought in a war to preserve that right. There is some speech that has limitations, but political speech isn't one of those. It's one of the things that was deadly wrong about the Campaign Finance bill, even though the US Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, decided that political speech COULD be restricted. I can't imagine that decision will stand for too long. Even the left has decided that the restriction is unreasonable and has been diligently pursuing means around it for at least the past 24 months. The GOP only started catching on to that loophole in the last 4 months or so, but my point is, there shouldn't be ANY restrictions on political speech that would cause people to look for "loopholes" in the law. Whether or not Senator Kerry legitimately earned his Silver Star, someone has made a glaring error in denoting it on his DD 214. I don't know whether or not anyone else has even noticed it, but it seems that this is just another indication that there are a lot of very peculiar things about Sen. Kerry's 4 months and 12 days that he spent "in-country." He received a purple heart for a December 2nd incident but he didn't get it from a recommendation of his commanding officer of the time OR the doctor who tended his scratch and he didn't even receive it until AFTER his previous CO had rotated home some 3 months after the supposed wound--not unprecedented, but a bit odd, nonetheless. Secondly, he wrote in his own journal 9 days after he was supposedly "wounded" that he and his men hadn't "been shot at yet," and therefore were feeling a bit "cocky," in his words. If he hadn't been shot at on December 11th, how did he receive a Purple Heart for a "wound" sustained on December 2nd of that same year? We'll talk about his Bronze Star award at a later time. In the meantime, maybe we should examine what the SBVFT group is saying in detail. There MAY be a few gaps in peoples' memories, but, being a combat veteran myself, it's MUCH more likely that something is VERY odd about Kerry's claims of "heroism." It's been my experience that true heroes almost NEVER talk about their service or the incidents that precipitated their decorations and almost NEVER consider themselves to even BE heroes. Kerry, it seems, can point to little else as a qualification for being President.

To: Thomas A Watson who wrote (614756)	8/31/2004 11:25:40 AM
From: JDN	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Some time ago someone, forgot who, argued with me about stem cell research. I want to post what Micheal Regan justg said about it today. jdn Asked if he takes exception to what his liberal brother, Ron, is saying these days, he said, "I disagree with his position on stem cell research and I disagree with how the media has covered it. “The media has been running a disingenuous operation here. Ron makes a statement and the media covers it as if everything in it is factual and doesn’t give you the other side. “They don’t explain that embryonic stem cells are not being injected into human beings because when they inject them into the lab mice and rats in their studies they’re killing them. "They’re growing downstream cancers and tumors, and that’s why nobody wants to inject them into humans. When people would sit there and say, well, the president is stopping this great research from going forward, they are wrong. “There’s no law in the private sector that stops embryonic stem cell or adult stem cell research. It’s only banned when the government is involved.” He went on to say that President Bush has been made out to be the bad guy when he’s actually approved “$521 million this year on all stem cell research,” and pointed out that Bill Clinton didn’t spend a dime on embryonic stem cell research. "Those are the things that bother me. It stays out there as if George Bush has stopped something he is actually funding. When I go talk to people about this, they say ‘wow, $500 million dollars? You mean there’s no law against stem cell research?’ “They’re surprised because the media doesn’t do their job and tell the truth. They allow people to say misleading things and just let it lie there as if it were the gospel truth. "The Democrat party brags that they are the party of black America while ignoring the truth that adult or core blood stem cells are effective in about 90 percent of sickle cell anemia cases which affect black Americans. They don’t say a word about money being spent in those areas; they only want money spent on embryonic stem cell research that’s killing lab mice and lab rats." "Nor do they talk about other stem cell research that is helping people now. “There is, for example, work being done with umbilical cord stem cells – stem cells from fully developed babies, not from human embryos. "Cord blood stem cells are helping people with leukemia and lymphoma – all being treated with cord blood stem cells. “There’s a bill in Congress dealing with cord blood stem cell research that’s just sitting there – it hasn’t even been brought to the floor of the House for a vote because everybody’s so paralyzed by the embryonic stem cell issue that they won’t even vote on something that is helping people. "Out here in California, there’s a proposition to spend $3 billion of taxpayers’ money on embryonic stem cell research that will probably pass. Not one dime of that money will be spent on the adult stem cell side, which is helping. They want me to spend my tax money on killing lab rats."