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Politics : Proof that John Kerry is Unfit for Command -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (10543)	9/17/2004 10:43:15 PM
From: calgal	Respond to of 27181

Bush tells Putin to uphold 'principles of democracy' By Joseph Curl THE WASHINGTON TIMES President Bush said yesterday that he is "concerned" that a new plan by Russian President Vladimir Putin to fight terror by centralizing political power could undermine democracy in Russia. "As governments fight the enemies of democracy, they must uphold the principles of democracy," Mr. Bush said in his first comment on Mr. Putin's proposal. Mr. Bush said that when he visited the Russian Embassy in Washington shortly after the recent terrorist attack on a school in Russia, he told Mr. Putin that "we stand shoulder to shoulder with him in fighting terror, that we abhor the men who kill innocent children to try to achieve a dark vision." "I'm also concerned about the decisions that are being made in Russia that could undermine democracy in Russia," Mr. Bush said in a speech yesterday in the White House East Room. In Russia, the Kremlin told the Bush administration to mind its own business. "First of all, the processes that are under way in Russia are our internal affair," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters yesterday in Kazakhstan, where former Soviet states are set to meet today to figure out a joint approach to fighting terrorism. Mr. Putin announced last week that he plans an extensive overhaul of government in response to the school attack in Beslan by Chechen rebels earlier this month. The terrorists took more than 1,200 hostages, killing 338 persons, more than half of them children. But several Bush administration officials have expressed concern about Mr. Putin's plan to nominate regional governors himself and enact changes to the electoral system that effectively will stop the rise of a strong parliamentary opposition. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell warned Russia on Tuesday that broad new anti-terrorism moves announced by Mr. Putin could harm the country's fledgling democracy. Mr. Powell said Mr. Putin's plan marked a "pulling back on some of the democratic reforms" in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. "You have to find a balance between fighting terrorism in an aggressive way and also making sure that we don't undercut the institutions of state that are based on the foundation of democracy," Mr. Powell said. Mr. Lavrov yesterday bluntly addressed the secretary's criticism, saying "it is at least strange that, while talking about a certain 'pulling back', as he put it, on some of the democratic reforms in the Russian Federation, he tried to assert yet one more time the thought that democracy can only be copied from someone's model." "We, for our part, do not comment on the U.S. system of presidential elections, for instance," Mr. Lavrov added. Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage said yesterday during a stop in Prague that he was concerned about Russia's secrecy in its effort to fight terrorism. "We are a little disappointed that recently it seems that the Russian Federation has got a little more secretive about its strategy. It has restricted the media somewhat, so we don't really have such good access to this information," he said. "As we go forward, I hope the Russian Federation will be clear on how it intends to prosecute this war. If it does, we can agree that we can be of assistance." The European Union echoed the U.S. stance, with EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten saying that resolution to the Chechen conflict lay in "far-sighted, humane and resolute" policies, not in limiting democracy. "I hope [solutions] are forthcoming and that the government of the Russian Federation will not conclude that the only answer to terrorism is to increase the power of the Kremlin," Mr. Patten told the European Parliament. In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks against the United States, Mr. Bush declared that his administration would adhere to a new doctrine of pre-emption, which calls for the United States to strike enemies before they can hit the country. Democrats also have charged that parts of the anti-terror Patriot Act infringe on the civil liberties of Americans. Still, the Bush administration has pushed Russia to strive for a political solution to the problems in Chechnya, where a conflict has raged between Moscow and separatists for 10 years. URL:http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20040916-123012-1864r.htm

To: calgal who wrote (10543)	9/17/2004 10:43:29 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27181

Republicans rally for immigration initiative By Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON TIMES An immigration initiative in Arizona that would require secure identification to vote in elections and to receive public benefits was endorsed yesterday by more than two dozen Republican state legislators and candidates at a rally outside the statehouse in Phoenix. Arguing that illegal immigration in Arizona is out of control, the lawmakers and candidates said passage of Proposition 200 was a crucial first step in reducing the problem and would send a message to Mexico that illegal immigration is not condoned. "If Proposition 200 passes, it could be a springboard for new federal legislation on illegal immigration," said Brantley Davis, an initiative spokesman in Washington. The proposition, on the Nov. 2 ballot, would require Arizonans to show proof of citizenship when registering to vote and to show identification when voting in person. Listed as acceptable identification are Arizona driver's licenses issued after 1996, birth certificates, U.S. passports and Bureau of Indian Affairs cards or tribal treaty card numbers. Arizona voters currently are required only to sign a voter-registration card saying they are a U.S. citizen and eligible to vote. A Social Security card is required for state benefits, although a waiver is available if a person does not have one. The initiative also calls for state and local government employees to check the immigration status of those applying for non-federally mandated public benefits. Under the proposal, state workers would face up to four months in jail and fines up to $750 for failing to report suspected illegal aliens seeking public benefits. They would be required to alert federal immigration officials in writing. The Arizona proposition has drawn strong opposition from several organizations, including the 1.6 million-member Service Employees International Union, National Council of La Raza and the Mexican-American Legal and Educational Fund. The labor union has said the proposition was placed on the ballot illegally because the description on initiative petitions was inadequate and because Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer did not attempt to verify the qualifications of petition circulators. But Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Mark Armstrong in Phoenix rejected that accusation, ordering that the measure be placed on the ballot. Arizona Assistant Attorney General Jessica Funkhouser also said Mrs. Brewer had no authority or duty to check circulators' qualifications before certifying ballot measures. Last month, an Arizona Republic poll in Phoenix showed that 66 percent of registered Arizona voters support the measure. The poll said Republicans favor the initiative by an 8-1 margin, while Democrats approve by a 3-1 margin. Most of the opposition to the initiative has come from Democrats, Hispanic leaders and business and labor officials, including the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, who have described the measure as a threat to the state's economy. They have raised nearly $2 million to finance a series of television and radio ads against the initiative. Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, is against the initiative, and a report she requested last month said taxpayers would spend $20 million annually to verify the immigration status of people seeking public benefits. But proponents have said the state will save the millions of dollars it now spends on crime enforcement and health and welfare benefits for illegal aliens. In a related matter, the U.S. House voted 222-177 on Tuesday to allow the use of Mexican identification cards, known as "matricula consular," to open U.S. bank accounts. The vote removed language in a pending $89.9 billion Transportation and Treasury funding bill aimed at preventing use of the cards. The cards, issued by the Mexican government, allow Mexican foreign nationals in this country to open accounts and send money home without having to pay wire-transfer fees. It is estimated that Mexicans in the United States send $11 billion annually to their home country. The FBI has said the cards pose a criminal and terrorist threat and are easy to obtain through fraud and inadequate security measures by the Mexican government. washingtontimes.com

To: calgal who wrote (10543)	9/17/2004 10:50:41 PM
From: calgal	Respond to of 27181

Kerry's economic turnabout John Kerry and his running mate, John Edwards, know that one of the sharpest economic arrows in their quiver is the straightforward, indisputable charge that huge projected budget surpluses have been replaced by huge budget deficits during the Bush administration. Thus, on Tuesday, Mr. Edwards blamed the president for "the most fiscally irresponsible turnaround in our country's history." In a major economic-policy speech delivered Wednesday at the Detroit Economic Club, Mr. Kerry accused the president of "turn[ing] a [10-year] $5.6 trillion surplus into trillions of debt for our children." For more than a year-and-a-half, Messrs. Kerry and Edwards have relentlessly argued that a principal cause of this fiscal turnaround has been what they consider to be a massively disproportionate tax cut given to families making more than $200,000. Promising to offer additional tax relief to the middle class, the Kerry-Edwards campaign pledges to raise only the taxes of the 2 percent of American families that earn more than $200,000 a year. If so much of the "fiscally irresponsible turnaround" is attributable to what Mr. Kerry called "tax giveaways to the wealthy," then it would be reasonable to assume that re-instating these "giveaways" would go a long way toward reversing the "fiscally irresponsible turnaround." But they don't. In fact, they don't even come close. Indeed, Mr. Kerry only offers the dubious promise that he would cut the deficit in half within four years. There are four major reasons why Mr. Kerry won't reverse the turnaround. First, the widely quoted 2002-2011 surplus projection not only did not anticipate the recession that began less than two months after Mr. Bush's inauguration, it also assumed that revenues directly related to the stock-market bubble, which had begun to deflate a year before Mr. Bush entered office, would continue to pour into government's coffers. Under the assumption that nearly all of the expiring tax cuts would be extended through 2011, the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) recently calculated an $8.7 trillion fiscal turnaround over the 2002-2011 period. It attributed $3.2 trillion of this turnaround to "over-optimism about the economy and 'technical' factors." Second, September 11 intervened. Another $1.9 trillion of CPBB's $8.7 trillion turnaround relates to "increases for defense, homeland security and international programs." (Wasn't it Mr. Kerry who declared 13 months ago that America should increase funding for the Iraq war "by whatever number of billions of dollars it takes to win"?) Third, eliminating "tax giveaways to the wealthy" will generate paltry revenues relative. The Tax Policy Center, which is a joint venture of the left-of-center Urban Institute and Brookings Institution, estimates that Mr. Kerry's tax policy would raise only $233 billion during the fiscal 2005-2009 period; and this assumes expiring tax cuts were extended. The final reason relates to the massive spending program he proposes. Mr. Kerry is not interested in eliminating "tax giveaways to the wealthy" in order to pursue a more prudent fiscal course. He wants to spend the proceeds, and much more beyond those increased revenues. washingtontimes.com

To: calgal who wrote (10543)	9/17/2004 10:51:50 PM
From: calgal	Respond to of 27181

This One's Personal Jay Bryant (archive) URL:http://www.townhall.com/columnists/jaybryant/jb20040917.shtml September 17, 2004

To: calgal who wrote (10543)	9/17/2004 10:52:05 PM
From: calgal	Respond to of 27181

New Navy Document Challenges Kerry's Combat Valor In the midst of a formal Navy investigation into whether Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam War decorations were falsified, a new document has surfaced that casts doubt on his claim that he acted with valor in the action that earned him a Silver Star with Combat V. Kerry won the Silver Star after claiming he single-handedly shot a Viet Cong guerrilla with a loaded rocket launcher while patrolling the Mekong Delta. But the Navy after-action report, obtained Tuesday by syndicated TV commentator Mark Hyman of The Point, states that Kerry merely chased down a lone, wounded enemy who was running away and shot him. Story Continues Below In 1996, Kerry Swift Boatmate Thomas Bellodeau challenged the top Democrat's account, revealing that he, Bellodeau, had fired the first shot that hit the VC. Only then did Kerry hunt the wounded enemy down and finish him off behind a hut. You know, I shot that guy," Bellodeau told the Boston Globe. "He jumped up, he looked right at me, I looked at him. You could tell he was trying to decide whether to shoot or not. I expected the guy on Kerry's boat with the twin 50s to blast him, but he couldn't depress the guns far enough. We were up on the bank." Bellodeau died in 1997 and Kerry spoke at his funeral - but the presidential candidate has never corrected the record that gives him credit for Bellodeau's act of bravery. John O'Neill, a leader of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which is running anti-Kerry TV ads, told the New York Post that the document uncovered by Hyman shows Kerry "was pursuing a wounded man and not charging alone into superior numbers and intense fire," as his Silver Star citation claims. The Silver Star with Combat V citation that appears on Kerry's campaign Web site bears the signature of former Navy Secretary John Lehman. But Lehman said two weeks ago that he never signed the Kerry award, raising questions about whether his signature had been forged. Reacting to Lehman's comments, a Navy spokesman told the Chicago Sun-Times that the service has never issued a Silver Star with Combat V to anyone. URL:http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/9/15/100709.shtml

To: calgal who wrote (10543)	9/17/2004 10:55:21 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27181

Soros Asks House to Probe Hastert Remarks WASHINGTON -- Billionaire philanthropist George Soros has asked the House ethics committee to investigate House Speaker Dennis Hastert over comments suggesting that Soros could be receiving money from illegal drug groups. "This kind of insinuation - that a private United States citizen was in league with drug cartels and may be receiving funds derived from criminal activity - has no place in public discourse," Soros wrote Tuesday to the chair and top Democrat on the panel, Reps. Joel Hefley, R-Col., and Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va. Story Continues Below During an Aug. 29 interview on "Fox News Sunday," Hastert, R-Ill., questioned the source of the 73-year-old financier's wealth: "I don't know where George Soros gets his money. I don't know where - if it comes from overseas or from drug groups or where it comes from." He made similar comments in an Aug. 23 radio interview. Soros said Hastert has since said he was misunderstood, that he was talking about groups to which Soros - a supporter of legalizing marijuana - gives money. But "the indisputable fact is that he alleged that I might be receiving 'drug money' from 'drug groups,'" Soros said. Hastert's office had no immediate comment on the ethics complaint. The Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, under its rules, normally accepts complaints only from House members or from outsiders when members certify that the complaints merit review. Soros has earned the enmity of Republicans because of his generous contributions to liberal activist groups campaigning to defeat President Bush. After Hastert made his comments, 11 House Democrats led by Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, wrote Soros inviting him to speak on Capitol Hill. "We have been particularly troubled by the McCarthyite attacks that have been made on you by some American politicians, including colleagues of ours, who have gone far beyond the reasonable bounds of civil discourse in their efforts to discredit you," they wrote. Soros, a native of communist Hungary, arrived in the United States in 1956 and made his fortune through the Soros Fund Management, a private, international investment firm. He has given away billions to various causes, including groups promoting democracy in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. URL:http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/9/15/215421.shtml