Billionaires for Kerry: Birds of a Feather Flock Together

Something to Yak About – Billionaires for Kerry: Birds of a Feather Flock Together
John Kerry, the richest man to ever seek the presidency, is receiving plenty of help from his fellow billionaires in his quest for power. His latest ally is billionaire entrepreneur and erstwhile dog-cloner John Sperling, who’s spending millions to divide the nation into two camps. According to Kerry’s billionaire buddy, the ‘Metro’ camp is cool and hip and chic and backs John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, et al. Sperling’s ‘Retro’ camp is un-cool and square and supports George Bush. After all of John Kerry’s talk about how divided the nation is, why does he just sit back and let his fellow billionaire drive a fresh wedge into America?

John Kerry’s Biggest Billionaire Buddy
Who can forget billionaire financier George Soros, who’s forked over an eight-digit chunk of his fortune to liberal outfits including ACT, the Kerry-supporting left-wing group that hired convicted sex offenders to knock on doors and collect personal information about individual citizens across the country. But are the millions of Soros dollars pumped into the effort to defeat President Bush really designed to help John Kerry? Of course not. George Soros is trying to help Ralph Nader. C’mon, get real…

Soros Cash Helping To Move Move On Dot Org
It seems like yesterday when we were reading about how George Soros was priming the financial pump at the fringe group Move On Dot Org and other Democrat groups. His interest in such endeavors appears keen. When asked how he feels about defeating President Bush, Soros said, “It is the central focus of my life.” Not a lot of nuance here, folks.

Talkers Profile – Chris Duel, KTSA/San Antonio
“A hometown boy, Chris has forged a connection with the people of San Antonio that joyously shines through in every broadcast. Chris and his ‘Usual Suspects’ tackle all sides of the day's BIG stories as they ride shotgun with you on your drive home.” (SOURCE: 550 KTSA News Talk)

The Final Yak
“The President has condemned all of the ads by the shadowy groups. We have called on Senator Kerry to join us in calling for an end to all the unregulated soft money activity that is going on in this campaign. And the President has stayed focused on the issues and the choices that the voters face. That's what this ought to be about.” (SOURCE: White House spokesman Scott McClellan, Aug. 19, 2004)

GRIDLEY Crew members (67-68) say Kerry exaggerated in TOUR OF DUTY

"...John Kerry and I were shipmates in the guided missile cruiser USS
Gridley (CG-21) in 1967 and 1968. He served as First Lieutenant, the
officer in charge of the deck division, and I was Executive Officer,
or second in command..."

"...But there is also no doubt in my mind that his anti-war
activities while our troops were still fighting, dying and being
tortured in filthy Vietnam prisons were despicable.

For that reason, even aside from his anti-defense voting record in
the Senate, he is one ex-shipmate that I could never support as
commander-in-chief of the armed forces."

J. F. Kelly, Jr.

USS Gridley (CG-21) Executive Officer in 1967 and 1968.

GRIDLEY Website page on John Kerry

http://home.nycap.rr.com/pwcarter/the%20kerry%20page.html

Other crew members speak about John Kerry

(Looks like Kerry's shipmates, who did serve with him,
say he lied and told whoopers about his time on the GRIDLEY.

Remember these are not Swift Boat Vets,

BUT Kerry's crewmates who served with him on the GRIDLEY)

Examples follow:

"As everyone must surely know by now, John F. Kerry came on board
GRIDLEY as a boot Ensign when we returned from our 1967 Westpac
Cruise. He remained on GRIDLEY through the 1968 cruise. Politics
aside, shipmates of the time who have read TOUR OF DUTY, the
authorized campaign biography, will have something to say about the
chapter on GRIDLEY. "

1. Kerry never talked about his time on GRIDLEY. He says on page
74 that it is because “nothing much of note” happened while
he was
onboard. He uses words like monotony and tedious, when, despite
being a boot ensign he was given every opportunity for responsibility
by Captain Slifer and Commander Kelly (XO). He came aboard
designated for Electrical Officer (80100), a grunt position in the
Engineering Department and spent four months in that position. He
was assigned duty as First Lieutenant, as Commander Kelly recalls,
because of his knowledge of seamanship and his experiences with small
boats and sailing. Besides being responsible for the decks of the
ship, the First Lieutenant is also responsible for the ship’s
small
boats. He also was assigned collateral duties as Public Affairs
Officer. Despite all the responsibilities he was given, he gives the
impression that serving on GRIDLEY was somehow beneath him. He
certainly had less of an opportunity to collect “gongs” there.

2. Page 78 – “motivate 400 swabbies” – The First
Lieutenant is
responsible only for the personnel of 1st Division, not the entire
crew. 1st Division had a roster of about 30 in 1968. To the extent
that other divisions had responsibility for deck space, their
officers would have been responsible for motivating them.

3. Page 87 has Kerry “shuttling sailors and provisions”
between
GRIDLEY and KITTY HAWK in a small motor whaleboat out in the Gulf of
Tonkin. The regular method of travel between the two ships was via
helo. That is how I went over to the KITTY HAWK. If such an event
did occur, it would have been unusual and hardly a shuttle.

4. Later on page 87 Kerry talks about Olongapo in the Philippines.
He talks about bloated corpses floating in the river and starving
women with babies dying of malnutrition. Now Olongapo was a wild and
wooly town that existed solely for the entertainment of the US Navy,
but in over three years of calling there, I never saw a single
instance of either thing happening. Kerry uncovered this in his
first visit. If this was from his letters home then he was certainly
writing for dramatic effect. Balderdash.

5. The trip to Danang – GRIDLEY went into Danang for briefings
before going to Northern SAR. This section is so full of hyperbole
that the urge to giggle is almost uncontrollable. “The panic and
pressure onboard GRIDLEY, strapping on a .45, wondering if I would
have to use it, B-52’s howling overhead”. A B-52 over Danang
would
have been so high that only contrails would have been visible, cloud
cover permitting. David Simons confirmed my recollection that during
our brief stay in Danang Harbor, the sky was overcast to the point of
being ominous.

More seriously, no one can remember John Kerry going ashore. I was
part of the shore party that went to Monkey Mountain. We were taken
in a screened in truck (to protect against grenades being tossed in)
and made to unload our .45’s. The driver said that he did not
want
us newbies to shoot anyone by accident.

Neither Commander Kelly nor LCDR Rueckert (Kerry’s immediate
boss)
can recall approving a trip ashore for Ensign Kerry. The author uses
remarks of David Simons IC2 as a lead in to the Danang section. I
spoke to David and he has no personal knowledge of Kerry going ashore
at all. He did talk to a researcher and made some generic remarks
about Danang but had never discussed Danang with Kerry. He recalls
arguing with the researcher because he tried to put the
words “cowboy” in his mouth, which ended up in the book.

There is no mystery about the “gruesome site of a pile of dead
VC.”
We saw no sign of anything like this. However, our escort to Monkey
Mountain did tell us how the VC bodies were stacked up on the
LZ’s
after the TET Offensive, which had been several months before.
Ensign Kerry would have been told this story by members of the shore
party.

If, indeed, he got to the pier, because he was in charge of the
motor whaleboat, it certainly would not have been within his purview
to wander Danang, eating dog meat and drinking beer in a bar (under
arms). It also seems amazing that he had all these observations on
Vietnam in such a brief visit.

6. In command – Again with the hyperbole. Kerry makes much
about
being “in charge” of the ship after the Captain and XO. The
OOD is
in charge of the operation of the ship during his four hour watch but
hardly in charge of the ship. Kerry qualified almost immediately as
OOD(P), in port OOD but that is a given. For much of his time
onboard he would have been Junior Officer of the Deck when underway.
Although his fitness report as of 22 March says "he is qualified as
OOD(I) now" (Independent steaming – with no ships or land
anywhere
near) , only OOD(P) is listed under duties. His Fitness Report from
July 1968 lists two months as OOD(I) which would mean he qualified
after leaving the war zone.

Dear Ann Landers:
Subliminally, the word "punk" keeps coming to me as I read each of "68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub's" pages regarding John Kerry's "war experiences". Is that *unusual*? Am I going crazy? Should I be worried?
- SeadogBytes

Dear Seadog:
No, Seadog. Don't you worry. I do *not* think you are going crazy. The TRUTH is a powerful influence, even upon our unconscious, non-volitional, minds. *GO* with your instincts. Go ahead and Vote for Bush. (...and even if all the demo-lies these days *are* making you a little crazy, we still all *KNOW* that Kerry would make a crappy President, so what's the harm in 'going with your gut' and voting for W.???)
...Vote for Kerry??? ...Oh NO! ...Now that WOULD be CRAZY!
- Ann Landers
______________________________________________________

(With all due respect, and appropriate apologies to the estate, and to the memory of, Ms. Landers. "The copyright law contemplates that fair use of a copyrighted work without permission shall be for purposes such as (1) criticism and comment, (2) parody and satire, (3) scholarship and research, (4) news reporting and (5) teaching, and that such fair use will not result in the infringement of a copyrighted work.)

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.