I just got home

from a Veteran's rally for Kerry at Victory Park in Manchester NH.

Mayor Baines of Manchester was the host of the rally. Featured speakers included a representative (I'm sorry, I have forgotten his name) from "The Military Order of the Purple Heart", and Wade Sanders,former Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Navy, distinguished combat veteran, and retired Navy Captain, who commanded a Swift Boat during the same time period as Lieutenant JG Kerry.

The first gentleman reports that his organization is OUTRAGED by the "incident" in the convention hall on Monday. He feels it has demeaned all of the recipients who have spilled blood in combat for this country.

Mr. Sanders did not speak directly against his fellow Swift Boat vets, but did note that John Kerry never forgot the first duty of a Naval Commander....Keep Them Alive. John Kerry, in his opinion, served admirably and bravely.

He ended by saying "You have no idea how important this election is" at which point I (I was standing at the front of the circle around him) assured him, and others joined in, that yes, we do. He thanked us for that assurance.

Mayor Baines is also a solid Kerry supporter. He is apparently working hard to help deliver NH for Kerry/Edwards.

After the official event broke up, I was remarking to some of the folks standing around that we all should demand that the president personally disavow the band-aid incident, and condemn it. I stated it was the most despicable display I have ever seen at a National Convention. A TV reporter from a station out of Derry NH asked if I would repeat what I had just said on camera, and I did. (Channel 50 on Comcast in Derry) It may be shown on 7:00 PM news. I don't think I can get the station here in MA, though.

Lots of Kerry signs in Manchester.

I was at a business meeting until pretty late Monday night and yesterday I worked at the polls where we are totally sequestered from the news, so what is the deal with the "band aids". Thanks

and the trailer trash generally mocked the idea of anyone spilling blood for their country on TV all night long.

The guy who was part of it is this guy:
"NEW YORK (CNN) -- Delegates to the Republican National Convention found a new way to take a jab at Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's Vietnam service record: by sporting adhesive bandages with small purple hearts on them.
Morton Blackwell, a prominent Virginia delegate, has been handing out the heart-covered bandages to delegates, who've worn them on their chins, cheeks, the backs of their hands and other places."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/30/gop.purple.hearts/index.html

What a shame they didn't have actual wounded veterans to rough up and taunt on camera...So what did Mort himself do in the war, you ask? That's right, like pretty much everybody else in the GOP, he DIDN'T GO....

"He served on the Young Republican National Committee for more than a dozen years, rising to the position of Young Republican National Federation national vice chairman at large.
Off and on for five years, 1965-1970, he worked as executive director of the College Republican National Committee under four consecutive College Republican national chairmen."

Not to say he doesn't have SOME war experience....

"Blackwell is also President, International Policy Forum, from the 1984 CNP Directory, "a foundation which promotes educational exchanges between conservatives in the US and pro-freedom leaders in other countries." From other articles however, the IPF is painted far different. IPF trains rightwing conservatives around the world in New Right political techniques. Paul Weyrich chairs IPF.
"Blackwell and Weyrich also lead International Policy Forum (IPF), which appears to be the international parallel to CNP. ...Blackwell has also trained rightist political forces in Latin America and Africa through IPF, notably supporters of the Pinochet military dictatorship, Argentinean rightists, and supporters of Inkatha chief Buthelezi in South Africa. It was Buthelezi's group that later attempted to create civil war in South Africa to keep apartheid policies in place. Inkatha worked with pro-apartheid and neo-nazi groups to stop the elections eventually won by Nelson Mandela. A number of IPF projects, including the Inkatha training, were aided by U.S. government funding through the National Endowment for Democracy."

http://www.seekgod.ca/cnp.be.htm#blackwell

Not surprisingly, the disrespect for veterans has blown up and hit them in the face....and now the official word is that the Party had nothing to do with it...although they still can be prominently seen.

The folks who make bandaids aren't crazy about it either, and there's a thread elsewhere about that.

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E-X-C-E-L-L-E-N-T

Dumbasses.