[at-l] OT War & Hazardous Duty Pay - WAAY off topic

[jbullar1 at twcny.rr.com (Jim Bullard)]

At 08:52 PM 8/9/2004 -0400, Coosa Donaldson wrote:
>Duh?  I don't have cable and I can't get anything on TV without it.
>
>What I did hear on the radio was the Neal Boortz show where the actual 
>Military Doctor reported that Kerry's first "wound" was not received in a 
>fire fight and was just a small piece of metal in his arm that he insisted 
>be removed by a Medical Doctor.  It was KERRY himself who applied for the 
>Purple Heart for the "wound" -- AND he had his own camera crew to follow 
>him around and make videos AND he was telling everyone who'd listen that 
>HE was going to be "the next John Kennedy" -- his whole life is maybe a 
>"play"???
>
>I could have leaned Kerry on the environment.
>
>NOW???  I prefer the enemy I know to the unknown.  I don't like surprises.
>
>Sorry, but your candidate shot himself in the foot.
>
>Coosa Donaldson

FWIW The Dr. who made that statement and claims to have been the one to 
provide the treatment is *not* the Dr. who signed the medical report of 
treatment for the wound. As Arsenio Hall used to say "things that make you 
go Hmmmm?" If he was "the actual Dr." how come he didn't sign the record of 
treatment and someone else did?

I heard someone observe today, "It's funny that this attack on Kerry's war 
record didn't come until he was the official nominee and thus limited in 
how much he could spend on his campaign" while Bush is still free to spend 
whatever he wishes. It smells like a ploy to force Kerry to blow all his 
funds defending himself. As Sly noted, this is the same tactic that was 
used to trash McCain and he could have added the attack on Max McCelland 
(triple amputee) as unpatriotic. It is interesting that the TV ad attacking 
Kerry's war record was paid for primarily by a friend of Carl Rove. The 
same allegations about Kerry's war record were raised in 1996 when he ran 
for the Senate and the same commander did the same flip-flop over whether 
the medal was deserved then, first saying he didn't deserve it then saying 
he did. This time he's flip-flop-flipped but conceded that he has no 
personal knowledge of the situation. He's choosing to believe others, none 
of whom were on Kerry's boat but observed from a distance which is vaguely 
defined as "yards away". Some reports have them 200-300 yards away. I agree 
with Sly. The guys on the boat with him and the guy he rescued agree with 
Kerry's version of the events. They are the ones who were there and would 
know best. Take a look at http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docID=231 
for the facts as well as they can be established.

The Bush camp is following a tradition as old as the country. Thomas 
Jefferson paid others to attack John Adams (while he was Adam's VP) not 
only on policy matters but in personal attacks many of which were outright 
lies, all the while distancing himself from them. It worked for Jefferson 
who defeated Adams when Adams ran for a second term, apparently the Bush 
camp feels it can work again. IMHO it may be a tradition (for Republicans 
at least) but it still stinks.