Kerry's Special Friends

I don't know about this writer and if he has any ulterior motives and if someone can refute these claims with proof I will apologize for posting this But if this article is correct then Kerry is the same old politics as usual. Greed, Lies and Dirt. Say what you want but this is exactly the kind of thing I thought all of us were sick and tired of. I would not settle for the lesser of two evils in 2000 and I will not do it in 2004.


Kerry's Special Friends
The New York Times, by David Brooks
Published: February 7, 2004


John Kerry has been railing against the special interests, and I don't think that's very nice because it implies that some people's interests are not so special. I like to think that everybody's interests are special in their own way.

What's more, I think Kerry knows this, because if you look over his long career, you see that he loves all our interests, big and small, near or far. For example, a Chinese businesswoman named Liu Chaoying dreamed of having her company listed on a U.S. stock exchange. That's certainly a special dream.

Maybe as a little girl she would come home from school, gather up her little dollies and tell them about her dream of ringing the bell to start the trading day, or of having little Lucite tombstones on her desk to mark her mergers and acquisitions. Maybe some of the other little girls in school told her she'd never have a company on a U.S. exchange, because you know how cruel little kids can be.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/07/opinion/07BROO.html

but he sure sounds like a smarmy asshole. Or Barney the Dinosaur.

Edit: Here's his bio - he's a self-identified conservative, FWIW
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/opinion/BROOKS-BIO.html

You're really on your toes tonight!

Guess you did not have any late-night, work-related meetings?

;)

I am unemployed and literally posting from my parents' basement. (But I'm housesitting - really, it's to save on the rent! :crazy: )

Don't sweat it-all the best people are unemployed nowadays.

That is so lame - give it up...this tearing down of Kerry is getting real old...

plain and simple.

Darn that Devilish Dean!

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with Dean as your man.

"Governor Howard Dean, feeling the lobbying heat from Monsanto and its rBGH-addicted farmers in Vermont, came to Monsanto's defense and pulled the plug on the measure by threatening a veto. The legislature then went on to further soften an already spineless bill by removing the section that required the drug manufacturer's client list. Eventually, after yet another legal threat and a "closed-door" meeting with Governor Dean, Monsanto backed off and let the near-meaningless legislation go into effect."


http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/24/monsanto.html

***************************************************************

"Howard Dean has advocated on many occasions, Wal-Mart can be a great asset to Vermont and our communities by locating in our existing downtowns. This strategy is:

* Good for consumers,

* Good for our environment, and

* A real stimulus for downtown revitalization."


http://www.ptvermont.org/commentary/archive2.htm


****************************************************************


And of course, Dean and Vermont Yankee.

:eyes:

time and time again supported the neoliberal agenda and gave workers a "Raw Deal" via his vote for NAFTA/GATT/WTO/IMF and he put his stamp of approval on bushes fast track to FTAA Just because another cannidate is conservative too doesnt rationalise or justify your guy
if you really cared about corporate corruption vote kucinich!

(I don't doubt that he does... just wanted to get on the replace-C-with-K bandwagon.)

but sometimes he comes out with something. (the News Hour commentator, sometimes) But I can't tell on this article because I can't get in , they keep re-registering me and then can't find my registration....

reposted from another thread

Feb. 3, 2004

Kerry Ranks Near Bottom in Senate on Money From PACs and Lobbyists


Statement from Nick Nyhart, Executive Director of Public Campaign Action Fund; Chellie Pingree, President of Common Cause; and Joan Claybrook, President of Public Citizen

According to a Jan. 31 Washington Post story, presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is beholden to the very special interests he says he will dismiss from the White House if elected. The Post based its erroneous conclusion on an analysis of the money Kerry has raised from lobbyists while he was a senator.

But the Post paints an inaccurate picture using an arbitrary statistic. A more accurate indicator of whether a candidate has ties to special interests is whether that candidate receives political action committee (PAC) as well as lobbyist money, and if so, how much. An analysis of PAC and lobbying contributions combined shows Kerry is near the bottom in receiving such funds when PAC money is averaged from 1993 through the present and lobbyist money is averaged from 1990 through present. Further, the lobbyist money that Kerry has taken in the presidential campaign is less than 1 percent of his total money raised.

Not only has Kerry historically refused to take PAC money, but his record shows that he been a leader for more than a decade in full reform of campaign financing, advocating for clean public money not only for presidential but also congressional campaigns.

Kerry was the lead sponsor with the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) on a measure that would have authorized clean money in all federal congressional elections and was a leader in pressing for congressional public financing in the 1992 and 1993 campaign finance reform bills. Although those bills passed, they were not enacted.

Other Democratic presidential candidates such as former Gov. Howard Dean and Sen. John Edwards also have endorsed campaign finance reform. Dean has endorsed public financing and reform of the presidential public funding system. Edwards played a leadership role in the effort to pass the McCain-Feingold bill and has endorsed reform of the presidential public funding system. President Bush has not endorsed either.

http://www.publiccitizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1639

A Chinese woman who escaped the Communist regime to make a new life in America.

Advocating for an insurance company the same as every single member of the Mass. delegation did.

A guy who was charged with 40 counts of conspiracy, witness tampering, fraud, tax evasion and illegal campaign contributions.

Nothing. Not a blessed thing. This is GREAT!!!

was a member of the Chinese Communist army, & was their agent.

I'm not saying Kerry knew this at the time, but this is the scandal they used against Clinton.

And Johnny Chung is old, tired news.

Newsweek article on Kerry to see if it's nothing.

NEWSWEEK: Congressional Documents Show Kerry Met With Key 1996 Foreign-Money Scandals Figure Johnny Chung

Dear Johnny...It Means A Lot to Have Someone Like You on My Team as I Face The Toughest Race of My Career," Says Kerry in Handwritten Note to Chung, Who Later Threw Beverly Hills Fund-Raiser.

Kerry Had Said He Never Met Chung Prior to Fund-Raiser; Kerry Aide Now Acknowledges A Meeting May Have Taken Place

NEWSWEEK: Congressional Documents Show Kerry Met With Key 1996 Foreign-Money Scandals Figure Johnny Chung

There's nothing here that hasn't already been gone through, although I'm sure you'd like there to be.

& they will hit Kerry hard. This is the Johnny Chung illegal money scandal, & the woman in the article was a Chinese army person. There was a fundraiser done for Kerry, & he did some favors in return. The Conservatives have been frothing over this item, since Kerry looked like the nominee.

The other thing they will use is his testimony against vets, accusing them of war atrocities, which he did not document. But the accusations were quite horrifying. They will also use "Hanoi Jane."

Don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger. I will not comment on what I believe in relation to these issues, & whether they are valid or not.
I'm just warning, they will use these issues.

Let the Republican frothing begin!

This is sooo nothing. The Johnny Chung money was returned immediately and they cooperated fully in the investigation. Bechtel, the Big Dig company, gave Republicans $800,000. Every Mass. representative advocated for that insurance company and hearings have been held regarding the practices. The one guy who Kerry was supposedly helping was charged with 40 counts. What kind of help is that? If donating to Kerry illegally means ending up on charges, who'd keep doing it?

This is Democratic fodder that Democrats will use. But if he were nominated, there'd be no point to them bringing up any of this because their crap is sooo much worse.

And Hanoi Jane? Forget it. The vets won't let that one out of the gate. It is long past time that the men who actually served are treated better than the ones who avoided the war, or worse, weasled their way out.

I think more skeletons will come of the Kerry closet, as time rolls on. But that is only my opinion.

have been around very long. Sorry to say that. Almost every little
anectdote is the same that has been used against about a dozen democratic senators in varied campaigns.

Thank you for circulating it for other nubies.