The Conservation President
The
Washington Times reports:
That's what representatives from the nation's leading conservation
groups say after Mr. Bush last week revealed plans for new initiatives
developed to help protect wildlife, water and land resources.
"The Conservation Reserve Program has increased enrollment by 2.6
million acres since the president signed the 2002 Farm Bill," said
Wisconsin resident Craig Johnson, treasurer of the U.S. Sportsmen's
Alliance, following last week's meeting between Mr. Bush,
conservationists and farmers in Le Sueur, Minn.
A total of 34.8 million acres of "environmentally sensitive" lands
have been protected since Mr. Bush signed the bill, he said.
The president last week also announced an additional 800,000 acres
under federal protection and directed Agriculture Secretary Ann M.
Veneman to offer early re-enrollment and contract extensions to
secure land-conservation benefits.
Drudge got it right
The mega political forum
FreeRepublic.com has a thread posted with information
regarding the Kerry/Boston Globe/Kranish books controversy. Kranish is
the Boston Globe reporter who was said by Matt Drudge to have written
the foreword of Kerry’s campaign book. Kranish/Boston Globe vehemently
denied any such connection. However, a look at the specific
identification numbers of these two books show that they are
identical:
Here's something more on the Boston Globe story claiming that its
reporter Kranish was not connected to the Kerry/Edwards official
campaign bio:
BOTH THE OLD KRANISH COVER AND THE NEW KERRY/EDWARDS COVER HAVE THE
EXACT SAME ISBN NUMBER ACCORDING TO THE PUBLISHER, AMAZON, AND BARNES
AND NOBLE. If these sites are accurate, the books are connected as
revisions!
ISBN's are unique identification numbers given to every book that
comes out for identification purposes. No two different books have the
same ISBN. Only books that are identical do. If the numbers are
accurate this should mean that, just as the New York Daily News
published, the new Kerry/Edwards book is a revised substitute for the
Kranish one. In other words, Drudge and all the others who originally
reported on Kranish's tie to the project were right.
Compare them and you will see they are one and the same:
-
ISBN
FOR KRANISH COVER ACCORDING TO
BARNES AND NOBLE: 1586483145
-
ISBN FOR KRANISH COVER ACCORDING TO PUBLISHER SITE
CACHE: 1-58648-314-5
-
ISBN FOR REVISED KERRY EDWARDS COVER ACCORDING TO
PUBLISHER SITE
RIGHT NOW: 1-58648-314-5
-
ISBN
FOR REVISED KERRY EDWARDS COVER ACCORDING TO
AMAZON: 1586483145
Another Kerry Whopper:
Christmas ‘68 not spent in Cambodia
As reported by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group, through their
lawyers’ letter sent to the television station managers regarding the
Swifties’ anti-Kerry ad... and now reported on
DRUDGE... John Kerry has been caught in yet another Vietnam
whopping lie.
Here is John Kerry’s statement, on record, from the Senate Floor in
1986:
“I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I
remember what it was like to be shot at by the Vietnamese and Khmer
Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States
telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not
in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared--seared--in me.”
But Kerry’s Navy chain of command say it never happened. And at least
3 of the 5 crew members from Kerry’s swift boat -- Bill Zaldonis,
Steven Hatch, and Steve Gardner -- deny that they or their boat were
ever in Cambodia.
Kerry’s own biography, “Tour of Duty,” doesn’t even mention it. It’s
replaced with a story about a mortar attack that occurred on Christmas
Eve 1968 “near the Cambodian border” in a town called Sa Dec and says
Kerry spent Christmas day 1968 at the base writing journal entries.
So, just what is “seared—seared” in John Kerry? It looks like some
really big whoppers are searing John’s conscience.
Vietnam - It isn’t just the past
Sen. John Kerry is not only bedeviled by his medals in Vietnam. He is
also troubled by his votes recently in the U.S. Senate. Specifically,
Kerry’s vote to not impose sanctions against Vietnam for their
atrocities committed against individuals seeking democratic reforms
and freedom of religion.
Jeff Jacoby of Kerry’s home newspaper,
The Boston Globe, reports on Kerry’s continued support of
trade despite the fact of the Vietnam government’s horrific treatment
of its dissidents:
Pro-democracy activists are not the only victims of Vietnam's
dictators. For years it has persecuted the indigenous highland tribes
known as Montagnards, singling them out for religious repression --
most of them are devout Christians -- and confiscating their ancestral
lands. In April, when some Montagnards staged a peaceful protest to
demand religious freedom, the government reacted with a violent
crackdown. Hundreds of Montagnards were beaten by police and by ethnic
Vietnamese armed with clubs and metal rods.
"They beat the demonstrators, including children," one eyewitness told
Human Rights Watch. "People's arms and legs were broken, their skulls
cracked. Children were separated from their parents. Near Ea Knir
bridge, two people were killed." Other witnesses told of protesters
being blinded with tear gas, then handcuffed, taken away, and never
seen again. Some Montagnards were tortured. Human Rights Watch
mentions two who were tied up and hung over a fire until their limbs
were scorched.
Few Americans have made an issue of Vietnam's harsh denial of
political and religious liberty. One who has is Representative Chris
Smith of New Jersey, author of a bill linking growth in US aid to
Vietnam to "substantial progress" in Vietnam's human rights record.
Smith's bill, the Vietnam Human Rights Act, passed the House by an
overwhelming 410-1 vote in 2001. But it never got a hearing or a vote
in Senate, where it was blocked by the then-chairman of the East Asian
and Pacific Affairs subcommittee -- John Kerry.
Last month the House again passed Smith's bill, this time by 323 to
45. As in 2001, says Smith, the message of the bill is that "human
rights are central -- they are at the core of our relationship with
governments and the people they purport to represent."
Predictably, the vote sent Hanoi into high dudgeon, and it denounced
Smith's legislation as "a gross interference into Vietnam's internal
affairs." In truth, the bill would amount to little more than a slap
on the wrist. It would have no effect on the roughly $40 million in
foreign aid currently going to Vietnam every year. Only increases
in that aid would be blocked, and only if they were earmarked for
non-humanitarian purposes.
Opponents of the bill, like Kerry and Senator John McCain of Arizona,
insist that the carrot of "engagement" will do more to nurture human
rights in Vietnam than the stick of sanctions.
But that claim has been proven false by the experience of the last
three years, Smith argues. Vietnam's treatment of dissidents and
religious minorities has gotten worse, not better, since relations
with the United States were normalized in 2001. The Vietnam Human
Rights Act "would be law right now if it hadn't been for Kerry," Smith
says, "and some of those dissidents would be out of prison." By
blocking the sanctions bill three years ago, Kerry ensured only that
Hanoi's repression would continue unabated.
Will he block it again this year? The Kerry campaign didn't reply to
an inquiry as of late Friday, and Smith claims no inside knowledge.
"But I know this much," he said the other day. "The best and brightest
and bravest people in Vietnam are in prison, persecuted by the
government for their opinions or their faith. And you don't do people
who are suffering immeasurable cruelty any kindness by aiding a
dictatorship."
Source of money
Many of Sunday’s news shows carried Kerry spin doctors who accredited
the independent actions of the Swift Boat Veterans ad against Kerry as
Bush backed.
The LA Times, however, attacked the source of the
money, Robert J. Perry:
The Times, in a more charitable beginning, stated that Perry is:
A homebuilder who lives lakeside in this Houston suburb, Perry has
helped bankroll the widespread success of Republican candidates here,
has long-standing ties to many close associates of President Bush and
has contributed to Bush's last four campaigns. According to interviews
and campaign documents, he has given a total of more than $5 million
to scores of political candidates.
Feingold: Kerry’s war stance wrong
The
Washington Post reports on fellow Democrat Senator
Russell Feingold criticism of Senators John Kerry and John Edwards’
votes on the war:
Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) told the Capital Times in Madison on
Thursday that Kerry and his running mate Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.)
were "wrong" to vote for the congressional resolution authorizing the
war and later against the $87 billion to fund it. His comments mark
one of the few times a Democratic senator has spoken critically of the
party's ticket in the general-election campaign.
The Post also reports on Rubin’s response:
Knowing then what he knows today about the lack of weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq, Kerry still would have voted to authorize the war
and "in all probability" would have launched a military attack to oust
Hussein by now if he were president, Kerry national security adviser
Jamie Rubin said in an interview Saturday. As recently as Friday, the
Massachusetts senator had said he only "might" have still gone to war.
Allies against Kerry’s plan
The
LA Times reports that Kerry’s allies may not want him
to win as much as he is telling us. If they did, then they would back
up his plan to internationalize the force in Iraq:
Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry has staked much of his
campaign on a proposal he hopes will convince voters that he can
extricate the United States from Iraq more quickly and at less cost
than President Bush.
But Kerry's plan, which promises to effectively shift much of the Iraq
war burden from America to its allies, so far is failing to receive
the international support the proposal must have to succeed.
The Times quotes several foreign officials to back up their story:
"I understand why John Kerry is making proposals of this kind, but
there is a lack of realism in them," Menzies Campbell, a British
lawmaker who is a spokesman on defense issues for the Liberal
Democratic Party, said in a typical comment.
The fact not fully explored by the Times article is the incredibly low
expenditures for national defense that European countries have become
accustom to because of America’s past protection. The one exception to
this is Britain. Hence, European allies are unable to fulfill Kerry’s
pledge for them.
Kerry’s gun friends
The
Washington Post covers how Kerry wants to win votes
from gun lovers. However, the NRA doesn’t think he loves guns enough
-- despite his frequent gun wielding photo ops:
It won't be easy. When it comes to elections, the NRA tends to get its
way. It's widely credited with winning enough swing votes in key
states to defeat Al Gore four years ago. And this year it plans to
mount a relentless campaign against Kerry. "We're going to be very
active," promises Wayne LaPierre, the gun lobby's longtime executive
vice president. LaPierre says the NRA will spend $20 million this
year, roughly the same amount it laid out in 2000 on behalf of George
W. Bush and his allies. But this time, the money will be more targeted
and will also be supplemented by a vastly expanded network of
volunteer activists. Over the past two years, the NRA has recruited
its most energetic members and directed them to organize voters in
more than 400 congressional districts nationwide.
to read past Daily Reports