Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : John Kerry for President Free speach thread NON-CENSORED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (317)	11/1/2004 11:12:44 AM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1449

CNN Fact Check: Attacks on Bush Friday, October 29, 2004 Posted: 11:54 AM EDT (1554 GMT) Editor's Note: This fact check, and the accompanying piece evaluating assertions made in speeches by the Bush-Cheney campaign, were researched by the CNN Political Unit. (CNN) -- Kerry-Edwards claim: "If we used smart diplomacy, we could have saved $200 billion and an invasion of Iraq." CNN Fact Check: Sen. John Kerry overstates the cost of the Iraq war when he says that the United States already has spent $200 billion on the war effort. The Office of Management and Budget estimates the Iraq war cost about $120 billion through September 30, the end of fiscal year 2004. Kerry's $200 billion figure includes money for the new fiscal year, which started October 1, but these funds have not yet been spent. Kerry's figure also includes funds earmarked for both Iraq and Afghanistan. The Kerry campaign clarifies its claim in press releases saying the Iraq war will cost $200 billion through September 2005, but Kerry frequently neglects to make this distinction when addressing audiences. Kerry-Edwards claim: "By one count, the president offered 23 different rationales for this war." CNN Fact Check: The source for this count was a Devon M. Largio, a University of Illinois college senior, who addressed the topic in her senior thesis. A Kerry campaign spokesman initially described this paper as a "doctoral dissertation." The implication in Kerry's speech was that President Bush gave 23 different rationales for war, but some of the rationales listed in this student paper are somewhat repetitive -- for example "prevent[ing] the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction" and "the lack of inspections" both deal with the threat of weapons of mass destruction. Largio also lists "the desire to remove the Hussein regime" and "the fact that Saddam Hussein was an evil dictator" as separate, discrete rationales. Largio graduated in spring 2004, and now is a law student at Vanderbilt University. The Bush campaign responds to the charge by saying there were indeed many reasons to go to war, including the threat of WMDs. Kerry-Edwards claim: "You don't send troops to war without the body armor that they need." CNN Fact Check: After frequent criticism that he voted against body armor, Kerry accused Bush of not providing enough body armor for troops. Army Gen. John Abizaid, chief of the U.S. Central Command, told a congressional committee on September 24, 2003, that there was not enough of the best-grade body armor to equip all the troops in Iraq at the start of the war. However, as Republicans often point out, Kerry voted against Bush's $87 billion Iraq/Afghanistan reconstruction bill in 2003, which included a $300 million request for state-of-the-art body armor for troops in Iraq. There were no up-or-down votes on funding specific pieces of equipment, so Kerry did not specifically cast a vote against body armor. Kerry did support a Democratic alternative reconstruction bill (which also included body armor funding) that would have temporarily rolled back Bush's tax cuts for those making $400,000 or more annually. Kerry-Edwards claim: "They avoided even the advice of their own general. General Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, said you're going to need several hundred thousand troops. Instead of listening to him, they retired him." CNN Fact Check: Kerry implies that former Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki was forced to retire as a result of his comments about troop levels in Iraq, which is inaccurate. Shinseki served a full four-year term as army chief of staff and did not retire early. Since World War II, no army chief of staff has served longer than four years. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld decided in April 2002 who he would tap to succeed Shinseki, according to a Pentagon official, long before Shinseki's troop level comments in 2003. So by the time Shinseki made his comments on troop levels, it was already known that he would not remain in his post beyond his full four-year term. Kerry-Edwards claim: " As vice president, Dick Cheney received $2 million from Halliburton." CNN Fact Check: Cheney's annual financial disclosure statements do show that the vice president received about $2 million in various benefits resulting from his former position as CEO of Halliburton Co., but he received the bulk of the compensation before he became vice president. Of the $2 million, $1.6 million came in January 2001 -- after Cheney was elected but before he was sworn into office. The rest comes from a multiyear deferred salary package. Kerry-Edwards claim: "Halliburton got billions in no bid contracts in Iraq." CNN Fact Check: The Pentagon's Army Corps of Engineers did award a no-bid, or sole-source, contract to a Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown and Root in March 2003. However, the General Accounting Office said in a June 2004 report to Congress that the contract was "properly" awarded and that KBR was the "only contractor that was determined to be in a position to provide the services within the required time frame." The Kerry campaign estimates that the KBR oil reconstruction contract was worth approximately $7 billion, but the Defense Department's comptroller gave Congress a slightly higher estimate in March 2004, up to $8.2 billion. KBR also provides various logistical support in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries under a competitively awarded contract granted in late 2001. In September 2004, the Pentagon announced it was considering breaking up part of the Halliburton/KBR logistical contract and accepting new bids in an effort to save money. Halliburton/KBR would be allowed to re-bid on the contract, but a company official said that it might not do so, depending on how the contract was divided. Kerry-Edwards claim: "In the Senate we passed the right of Americans to import drugs from Canada. But the president and his friends took it out in the House, and now you don't have that right. The president blocked you from the right to have less expensive drugs from Canada." CNN Fact Check: Kerry is correct that Bush opposed a measure to import inexpensive prescription drugs from Canada, but he doesn't mention that the Clinton administration killed a similar measure in December 2000. Clinton signed a Canadian drug reimportation bill in October 2000, but criticized the law as "little more than a false promise," citing various problems including safety concerns. Two months later, the Clinton administration invoked a provision in the law to kill the program entirely. In the second presidential debate this year, Bush explained his position: "Just want to make sure they're safe. When a drug comes in from Canada, I want to make sure it cures you and doesn't kill you." However, in the 2000 presidential debates, Bush did indicate support for drug reimportation: "Expediting drugs through the FDA makes sense, of course. Allowing the new bill that was passed in the Congress made sense to allow for, you know, drugs that were sold overseas to come back and other countries to come back into the United States. That makes sense." Kerry-Edwards claim: 5.2 million Americans have lost their health insurance CNN Fact Check: According to an August 2004 report by the U.S. Census, the number of uninsured Americans increased by 5.2 million from 2000 through 2003. The Kerry campaign incorrectly interprets this to mean that 5.2 million Americans who previously had health insurance lost their coverage while Bush was president. This is not correct. The Census does not track how many people "lost" health insurance; they track the number of uninsured. According to a Census spokesman, Kerry's claim does not take into account that the U.S. population grew by about 9 million since 2000, and that a sizable portion of the 5.2 million may be new workers or immigrants who moved to the United States since Bush took office and never previously had health insurance. Kerry-Edwards claim: "George Bush's record speaks for itself. 1.6 million lost jobs. The first president in 72 years to actually lose jobs on his watch." CNN Fact Check: Kerry is correct in saying that Bush is on track to have a net loss of jobs by the end of his first term, and possibly to become the first president since Herbert Hoover to leave office with a net loss in jobs. However the 1.6 million figure that Kerry refers to in his speech overstates the scope of the nation's total job loss. This number refers to the total number of private sector jobs lost since January 2001, when Bush took office, through August 2004, the date of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' most recent jobs report. However, the 1.6 million figure does not factor in a net increase in public sector jobs, which reduces the loss in overall jobs to 821,000, according to BLS figures. The Kerry campaign explains this distinction in a fact sheet to reporters, but on the stump, Kerry himself only says that 1.6 million jobs were lost since January 2001, without clarifying that he is referring to only private sector jobs, and not all jobs overall.

To: American Spirit who wrote (317)	11/1/2004 11:53:43 AM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1449

Bush, Kerry Tied in National Polls a Day Before Vote (Update2) Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry were deadlocked in four national polls of likely voters released late yesterday and today as the final hours of campaigning in the presidential election began. Bush led Kerry 49 percent to 47 percent in a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, by 48 percent to 47 percent in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, and by 49 percent to 46 percent in a CBS News/New York Times survey. The polls were conducted Oct. 28-31. A Marist College poll Oct. 31 found Kerry at 49 percent and Bush at 48 percent. All results were within the polls' error margins. The closeness of the race also is reflected in polls of the ``battleground'' states. Surveys by the Gallup Organization show Kerry leading in Minnesota and Ohio, Bush with an edge in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and the two statistically tied in Florida and Iowa. Zogby International's polls showed Kerry ahead in Iowa, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and Bush leading in Nevada. Polls by Hamden, Connecticut-based Quinnipiac showed Bush leading in Florida and a tie in Pennsylvania. The state results are key because the winner is determined by a vote of at least 270 state delegates to the Electoral College. Gallup estimates Kerry and Bush each will end up with about 49 percent of the national vote on Election Day. `Too Close to Call' ``We are basically saying that it is too close to call,'' said Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of Washington-based Gallup. ``Bush has a very slight, non-statistically significant, lead'' which goes away when the undecided voters are factored in. The same is true of the state-by-state polls, he said. ``You can still concoct a scenario'' where either candidate wins, Newport said. Bush, 58, and Kerry, 60, also were tied among likely voters nationwide in polls by the Washington Post, Fox News, Reuters/Zogby and Manchester, New Hampshire-based American Research Group that concluded on Oct. 30. Three other polls showed Bush with a lead of as much as 5 percentage points. The poll results suggest the election may be heading for a repeat of the 2000 balloting. In that contest, Democrat Al Gore won 48.38 percent of the nationwide total vote to Bush's 47.87 percent. Bush won the Electoral College after the U.S. Supreme Court halted a recount in Florida, leaving Bush with a victory in the state by 537 ballots out of about 6 million cast. Florida was enough to give him 271 electoral votes. Bin Laden Tape The polls were conducted during a period when a videotape of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden was released in which the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks said Bush's policies are a threat to Muslims and that another strike is possible. Only the final day of the CBS News/New York Times poll followed the tape's first broadcast Oct. 29. Results following the tape's airing were about the same as before it was shown, CBS News said on its Web site, suggesting it will have little effect on the presidential race. In the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, about two-thirds of 600 likely voters questioned about a video of bin Laden said it didn't make a difference to how they intend to vote. About a quarter said the video made them more likely to vote for Bush and 12 percent said it made them more likely to choose Kerry. On NBC's ``Meet the Press,'' Peter Hart, head of the Washington polling firm Peter D. Hart Research, which conducts surveys for the Wall Street Journal, called the impact of the bin Laden tape a ``net zero'' in terms of effect on the election. ``On one hand, it moves the issue to the forefront, which is national security, which is the president's issue,'' Hart said. ``On the other hand, I think it reminds people that, no, we haven't captured Osama bin Laden.'' Undecided Voters The national Gallup poll interviewed 1,573 adults 18 or older identified as likely to vote Oct. 29-31. When an estimate of undecided voters' intentions is included in the poll, the results are tied at 49 percent each for Bush and Kerry. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. Zogby's state polls surveyed 600 likely voters in each state Oct. 28-31 and have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points. The Journal/NBC poll of 1,014 likely voters, conducted over the same period, has an error margin of 3.1 percent. The Times/CBS poll was conducted Oct. 28-30 among 643 likely voters and has an error margin of 4 points. The poll by Poughkeepsie, New York-based Marist College included 987 likely voters and has an error margin of 3.5 percentage points. Turning Out Voters Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican supporting Bush, and Senator Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat backing Kerry, said the election will turn on each campaign's ability to motivate voters and the results from a few key states. ``Every election, we say it depends on voter turnout'' McCain said on CBS's ``Face the Nation'' program. ``It really does this time.'' On the same program, Biden said the race will come down to Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida. ``I think he wins Pennsylvania,'' Biden said. ``I think it comes down to whether John wins one of the other two states. If he does, I think he's president, because he'll win Pennsylvania.'' In Gallup's state polls, 52 percent of likely voters in Minnesota said they'd vote for Kerry, 44 percent for Bush, and 1 percent for independent candidate Ralph Nader, who is on the ballot in 34 states and Washington, D.C. In Ohio, Kerry led Bush by 50 percent to 46 percent. In Florida, Kerry had 49 percent to Bush's 46 percent. In Pennsylvania, Bush led Kerry 50 percent to 46 percent, and 52 percent to 44 percent in Wisconsin. In Iowa, Bush leads by 48 percent to 46 percent. Electoral College The polls were conducted Oct. 27-31 among about 1,100 adults identified as likely to vote in each state. Each has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The six states combined have 95 of the 270 Electoral College votes a candidate needs to win the presidency. The electoral votes are apportioned among the states based on congressional representation and they are awarded to the candidate who wins the most votes statewide. In the 2000 election, Bush won Florida and Ohio while losing Iowa, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Polling organizations generally identify likely voters by asking questions to measure registration status, interest in the election, past voting behavior and voting intentions this year. Not all adults 18 or older may be eligible or registered to vote and not all registered voters take part in elections. In 2000, about one-third of U.S. registered voters didn't cast ballots. To contact the reporters on this story: Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at epettersson@bloomberg.net Heather Langan in London at hlangan@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Glenn Holdcraft at gholdcraft@bloomberg.net Peter Torday at ptorday@bloomberg.net Last Updated: November 1, 2004 10:15 EST Advertisement: You've worked, you've saved, now PROTECT your nest egg