Posted on 09/28/2004 7:15:28 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
SPRING GREEN - Invoking images he hoped would resonate with local voters, presidential candidate John Kerry talked Monday of America's love for the Green Bay Packers, his memories of working on his uncle's dairy farm and fishing trips as a child during a 90- minute town-hall style meeting at River Valley Middle School.
Kerry even held up a copy of the Wisconsin State Journal and answered three questions posed by readers. And he tried out his humor on the local crowd with a jab at President Bush's leadership - and the fact that he's 5 inches taller than Bush.
Kerry said a supporter in Madison asked him whether America should "change horses in midstream" while in Iraq. "I said to him, 'You know, when your horse is heading down toward the waterfall and when your horse is drowning, it's a good time to change horses.
"May I also suggest that we need a taller horse?" Kerry asked to hearty laughter. "You can get through deeper water that way."
The Massachusetts senator told the 250 invited guests, including 50 River Valley middle and high school students, that he welcomed the chance to talk directly to voters rather than hearing his message distorted through "phony" and "trumped up" 30- and 60- second "special interest" ads that turn off voters
Kerry, who's in Wisconsin to prepare for Thursday's debate with Bush, used the forum to criticize the current administration's handling of everything from the war in Iraq to subsidies for dairy farmers. Citing comments by U.S. agriculture officials earlier this year, Kerry charged that the Bush administration was trying to "maximize votes" in dairy states like Wisconsin by hiding a plan to kill payments to dairy farmers when milk prices drop.
On Monday, the Bush campaign labeled that charge "false."
Kerry also blamed Bush's policies, including tax breaks for U.S. companies that operate overseas, for the loss of 67,000 manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin that he said have been replaced by jobs with lower pay and benefits.
"(Bush) said he would create 135,000 jobs right here in Wisconsin," Kerry said. "Well, he's created 200 and he lost 67,000 jobs."
Kerry asserted that under Bush, "You pay less tax for going to Shanghai than you do for staying in America. Not when I'm president."
That message hit home with Liz Jones of Hollandale, who said the manufacturer her husband works for has cut jobs at home while adding them abroad. And after she lost her state-funded job, Jones said, the only work she could find even with a college degree paid just $8 to $10 an hour.
Kerry repeatedly criticized the Bush tax cuts and touted his plan to reinstate higher taxes for those earning $200,000, saying the money should be used to fund improvements in health care and education.
"He insisted on a great big tax cut for the wealthiest Americans," Kerry said. "We went racing into deficit. We've got deficits as far as we can see, and they're piling up on our children. The good, common sense, fiscally conservative citizens of Wisconsin know that it's our responsibility to pay our bills and not dump them on our kids and our future generations."
He said health-care reform would be the first thing he would do if elected, including universal insurance coverage for children and financial incentives to help businesses and individuals lower the cost of health insurance.
"All children in America will be covered automatically, day one, no questions asked," Kerry said, adding. "I want universal health-care coverage for all Americans."
Responding to criticism that the proposal constitutes government-run health care, the Democratic senator said, "My health-care plan is not a government plan. It's an incentive, market-based plan."
Kerry worked hard to appeal to Wisconsin voters, whose support is seen as crucial by both major parties.
But it was not his references to hunting, clean water for fishing or "common sense" Midwestern values that seemed to strike the strongest chord. The biggest ovations were prompted by Kerry's promises to win back the world's respect.
He criticized Bush for "slapping 160 countries in the face" by abandoning the international global-warming treaty and for alienating potential allies in the war in Iraq.
"I'm going to restore our reputation and credibility in the world by bringing truth and vision and American values back to the foreign policy of our country. And I will recognize that even the United States of America needs friends. The fact is, working with other nations is not a sign of weakness. It's a sign of strength."
Contact Dee J. Hall at dhall@madison.com or 252-6132.
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/articles/2004/05/24/heinz_kerry_has_an_ecology_agenda/
May 24, 2004
PITTSBURGH -- Teresa Heinz was in a potentially awkward position when she became an outspoken environmental activist nearly two decades ago. She served as a board member of Environmental Defense at the same time that her husband, Senator John Heinz, was supported by the United Mine Workers. A clash seemed likely when the environmental group began pushing for clean air legislation opposed by many coal workers in Pennsylvania.
But behind the scenes, Teresa Heinz helped persuade her husband to support a clean air provision proposed by Environmental Defense, enabling polluters to trade so-called ''emission credits" with companies that reduced pollutants more than the law required, and her husband became one of the most important Republican votes for passage of the 1990 Clean Air Act. Then, just before John Heinz died in a plane crash in 1991, one of his last conversations with his wife concerned their plan to use part of the family fortune on environmental efforts. Her foundations have since poured nearly $200 million into an array of environmental causes, including large sums to help Pittsburgh become an environmental model for the nation.
Now, with her second husband, Senator John F. Kerry, running for president, Teresa Heinz Kerry again is asserting herself on environmental issues, partly because of her belief that the Bush administration is undoing the clean air law that her first husband -- and the first President Bush -- helped pass. In a series of speeches, including one earlier this month, Heinz Kerry has said it is ''a sin against humankind" that the current Bush administration has rolled back environmental policy on clean air and water.
In a statement to the Globe, Heinz Kerry sought to explain that view by providing a contrast between her work in cooperation with President George H. W. Bush on the Clean Air Act and the Kyoto accord on global warming, and her belief that President George W. Bush is undercutting both efforts. ''A sin against humankind is allowing something that no person or community or even a country can protect itself against by acting alone," said Heinz Kerry, who plans to continue overseeing her charitable foundations if her husband is elected president………………………………………
Global Warming: Cutting Through the Fog of the Bonn Agreement
July 25, 2001
THIRTY SECOND RESPONSE: President Bush was absolutely right to refuse to sign an agreement for which the terms have yet to be decided. Such an agreement has great potential for making the already-disastrous Kyoto Protocol, provisions of which were rejected by the Senate in a 95-0 vote in 1997, even worse. This "agreement without substance" seems to be designed solely to pressure the U.S. to agree to a treaty that would wreck our economy and put Americans out of work.
http://www.nationalcenter.org/TSR72501c.html
_______________________________________________
Quixotic Climate Vote In Senate
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30, 2003
(CBS/AP) The Senate prepared to make a largely symbolic vote on global warming, capping a polarized two-day debate on a bill designed to reduce industrial carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
The two chief sponsors of the legislation, Sens. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, acknowledged that their bill likely would be defeated. They characterized it as the opening shot in what will be a lengthy effort to get Congress to address human-caused climate change.
"This president really is fiddling while the globe is warming," Lieberman, a Democratic presidential candidate, said of President Bush's emphasis on global climate change research rather than steps to reduce emissions. "Environmental protection and economic growth are not mutually exclusive, they are mutually enforcing."
The White House said it strongly opposed the bill because it would require "deep and immediate cuts in fossil fuel use" to meet an "arbitrary" goal, and drive up household energy bills and gas pump prices.
"These increases in energy prices would effectively operate as a tax on American consumers and would have a severe negative impact on job creation," the White House said in a statement.
Republican Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri told senators the bill would cripple the U.S. economy. "Now is not the time to place more burden on our families and our communities," he said.
McCain, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, forced the debate and vote to the Senate floor by promising he wouldn't block a major energy bill that has been stalled in Congress.
Many of the global warming bill's supporters, who aim to win, at minimum, between 20 and 40 votes in the 100-member Senate, pin their hopes on McCain.
"This is a big battle, but we'll win over time," McCain told The Associated Press Tuesday. "Because climate change is real. And we will overcome the influence of the special interests over time."
It will be the first such vote since the Senate voted 95-0 in 1997 to reject many of the principles behind an international climate treaty negotiated in Kyoto, Japan. The treaty was signed later that year by then-Vice President Al Gore but the Senate never ratified it………..
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/30/tech/main580915.shtml
Global Warming Bill Defeated in Senate
Written By: James M. Taylor
Published In: Environment News
Publication Date: November 21, 2003
Publisher: The Heartland Institute
Senate legislation to cap greenhouse gas emissions-the first of its kind since the Senate unanimously rejected the Kyoto Protocol in 1997-was defeated on October 30 by a vote of 55-43. The defeat of the bill, sponsored by John McCain (R-Arizona) and Joe Lieberman (D-Connecticut), came despite significant last-minute weakening of the bill in an attempt to attract more supporters.
McCain attempted to rally support for the bill by suggesting recent weather events provided evidence global warming was already occurring. He displayed pictures of Glacier National Park as it existed in the 1930s and as it exists today, claiming those photos documented the effects of global warming. He also argued that melting polar ice caps and wildfires burning in Southern California were further evidence of warming.
Science Trumps Anecdotes
McCain's assertions were discredited by Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma). The anecdotes offered by McCain, Inhofe said, were no match for the 17,800 scientists who have signed a letter concluding there is "no convincing scientific evidence" that human activity is causing significant climate change……………..
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=13691
Europe and Japan misread Kerry on Kyoto
April 5, 2004
Global warming
WASHINGTON Is Senator John Kerry the answer to European and Japanese prayers on global warming? Perhaps, but contrary to international expectations, President Kerry would not get the United States into the Kyoto Protocol.
. When it comes to the environment, President George W. Bush and John Kerry are like oil and water. The environment is a bottom-rung priority for Bush, while Kerry has the greenest voting record in the U.S. Senate and speaks passionately about global warming. On the campaign trail, Kerry characterizes Bush's unilateral rejection of Kyoto as evidence of the Texan's high-handed, shortsighted and arrogant foreign policy. Kerry's new environmental plan states flatly that "John Kerry will reinsert the United States into international climate negotiations." Little wonder European and Japanese politicians are counting on Kerry to revive U.S. support for Kyoto. But those hopes are misplaced.
. First, the United States could not comply with the Kyoto requirements even if it tried. Kyoto would require the United States to reduce its climate emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. U.S. emissions are already more than 12 percent above 1990 levels and are rising with no end in site. Even U.S. environmentalists who believed Kyoto's U.S. target was achievable in 1997 concede that it is beyond reach today.
. Second, even a watered-down version of Kyoto would have a difficult time in Congress during a Kerry presidency. The U.S. Constitution requires two-thirds of the Senate to approve treaties. Just last fall, a majority of senators rejected a bipartisan climate-change proposal sponsored by two former presidential candidates, Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman, despite the fact that the bill was far less ambitious than Kyoto. Although some version of the McCain-Lieberman bill might pass the Senate in a few years, securing the two-thirds majority needed for ratification of a new climate treaty would take longer. Navigating the more hostile House of Representatives - whose approval is essential for implementing legislation needed to give treaties teeth - would be an even larger challenge. In the House, opposition to action on climate change has been a badge of honor for conservatives, who are expected to solidify their control over that body in November regardless of who wins the White House.
. Third, Kerry himself says that he will advance "alternatives to Kyoto" after the United States enacts comprehensive domestic climate-change regulation, including rules for a new domestic financial market for emission credits. Kerry understands that the Senate rarely approves international agreements, particularly environmental treaties, unless they are based on prior domestic action. The international agreement to repair the "ozone hole," which the United States joined easily, for example, was modeled on a pre-existing U.S. law. Kyoto, however, was an international solution imported before the development of a consensus national policy. Little wonder it became a political piñata. Chalk it up to American hegemony, leadership or arrogance, as you please, but the United States tends to treat international pressure to ratify treaties that diverge from U.S. laws the way most people handle spam e-mail - by ignoring it. .
Europe and Japan should continue prodding the United States toward a more responsible climate policy, but counting on the United States returning to the Kyoto bargaining table is not the best approach. What should they do instead? Foremost, they must meet their global warming commitments, regardless of whether Russia ratifies Kyoto and thereby brings the treaty to life. Despite grumblings from some quarters, Europe and, to a lesser extent, Japan are on the verge of adopting meaningful and farsighted market-oriented climate strategies. Following through on promises to reduce emissions would symbolize European and Japanese political commitment to the global environment and demonstrate to U.S. industry that fighting climate change can be affordable.
. Second, Europe and Japan should press the United States to regulate carbon and other greenhouse gases under U.S. domestic law. America's domestic action matters more than its international promises.
. Third, Europe and Japan should challenge the United States to increase funding for international clean-energy research and development programs and for engaging major developing countries by pledging to match any new U.S. climate change expenditures (beyond what Bush has already announced) up to an additional $10 billion a year. These programs help fight global warming by creating a new generation of cleaner, more efficient automobiles and electricity power plants at home and abroad. Any of these steps would influence U.S. policy more than pleas to rejoin what many Americans view as a slow and politically tainted United Nations negotiating process.
. On global warming, Bush is on the wrong side of history. Europe is not, but its focus on the Kyoto process as the vehicle for engaging the United States is unhelpful. While the climate policies of the United States would improve with a Kerry presidency, Kyoto is not in the cards for the United States, regardless of who sits in the White House. Europe should move ahead with its Kyoto-based plans, but it should also develop some parallel approaches that America could find appealing.
. Nigel Purvis served as deputy assistant secretary of state for oceans, environment and science under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
http://www.iht.com/articles/513306.html
The President only said he wasn't signing on to Kyoto - he didn't call the signatories a "coalition of the coerced and the bribed."
The headline makes me think of a 3 Stooges-like scenario, where those 160 country leaders are lined up and Bush just goes down the line, slappin' away. One can dream, can't they-haha!
Question -- when the Senate voted against Kyoto 95-0 during Clinton's term, did Kerry vote against the treaty, or did he simply not bother to show up for the vote?
Does anyone recall?
Who else signed Kyoto? I thought it was only one country.
And every single Democrat voted AGAINST Kyoto when it came up for a vote during Clinton's term.
Kerry voted against it.
I can think of 160 countries that need slapping.
Another CLintonista hold-out who should be voted off the island.
Someone do some research and find the roll call from when the Senate voted AGAINST Kyoto 95-0 and see if Kerry voted against or failed to vote.
This is from another article appearing today:
"Kerry, like Bush, opposed American participation in the current Kyoto treaty. In 1999, he joined in a 95-0 Senate vote that stated that the United States should not ratify the treaty unless China and other rapidly developing countries were also required to reduce greenhouse gases.
"But Kerry, who has called pollution a "mortal threat" to the climate, wants to reopen the Kyoto negotiations to refashion an agreement acceptable to the United States."
Clearly, Kerry wants to now vote for the Kyoto treaty AFTER he voted against it.
For most countries Kyoto is meaningless and does not change anything - it only truly affects a handful of developed countries.
Countries like India and Nigeria and China and Brazil are exempt from its requirements.
The entire treaty is basically designed to punish America for being economically successful and that's why America refuses to sign it.
Well, since the vote was unanimous against Kyoto, he either voted against it or was (shocker, shocker) not present (again).
I would ask "how low can he/they go?", but then I remember that these are desperate Democrats in an election year. Truth is the first casualty in the war for civilization.
Wasn't that vote 98 - 0.........
Can anyone find Kerry's vote on that issue?
I would like to know the answer to it, most
likely that littly commy kerry voted for it, before
he voted against it.
I found out a lot (Post #1) but not his vote in 1997. I've been looking.
It was 95 - 0.
So 5 didn't vote.
One of them could have been Kerry.
Uhhh==When Kerry went to Wisconsin and spoke of "Lambert Field" He annointed it Steeler land. I would say that should not sit well.
Rush plays a clip frequently (and maybe it's old) that only one country signed Kyoto. Do you have a link that confirms which countries signed Kyoto; I'd love to read who signed on.
She must be a very talented woman - liberal, I'd guess- probably, addicted to government dependency.
Oops, should have read the entire thread....and yes it was 95-0....can anyone confirm that gigolo voted with the majority.
The entire treaty is basically designed to punish America for being economically successful and that's why America refuses to sign it.
If Kerry were to become President, Kyoto would be at the top of his list to destroy America.
Check out the John F. Kerry Timeline. Email it to your friends.
.
Not logially possible. If it's an incentive-based system, it will never be universal. If it's universal, then it has to be government mandated. Never the twain shall meet.
Kerry's lying again.
"All children in America will be covered automatically, day one, no questions asked," Kerry said, adding. "I want universal health-care coverage for all Americans." ***
Kerry's lying again.
BUMP!
The first Earth Day was held on Lenin's 100th birthday. Was that a coincidence?
Many countries have signed Kyoto. The US signed Kyoto. That is far different than ratifying the treaty and making it law. That only a handful of countries have done.
If Rush's point is that there is only one country affected by Kyoto that actually ratified it, then he's dead on.
The US actually signed Kyoto - President Clinton did it to kiss environmentalist ass, knowing full well that the Senate would never ratify it.
As of February 2002 104 countries had signed it and 85 had ratified it.
Versus Kerry's Naomi Wolf-man.
Thanks for the info.
When Kerry was in Wisconsin and he referred to Bush's "Secret Plan against milk producers" was he talking about lactating mothers, too?
Robert Novak: Kyoto: Still Signed
........President Bush's conviction that the one-sided Kyoto pact threatens prosperity here is not in doubt. While Kyoto will not be ratified while he is in the White House, there is no statute of limitations for diplomatic treaties. Accordingly, a future Democratic president—elected in 2004 or later—could push it through the Senate.
To prevent that, the U.S. would disavow Kyoto—unsign the treaty—prior to the United Nations global warming conference in Johannesburg beginning August 26. The plan, under Cheney's patronage, was to unsign Kyoto before the Johannesburg meeting and then submit it to the U.N. (as was done with the ICC). Bush disconnected from the Rome treaty establishing the ICC just before it went into effect.
Now that Rice has scuttled Kyoto unsigning plans, the global warming treaty at long last may go into effect at Johannesburg without U.S. approval. If Secretary of State Colin Powell insists on attending the conference, however, that could be interpreted as tacit American support. ..... http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/07/25/column.novak/
Kerry has made multiple items "the first thing I will do as President." Bush should have the list at the debate and say "When you spoke to X you told them Y would be your first act as President. And when you spoke to A you told them B would be your first act. You have told no less than a dozen groups what your first act would be, but all of them are different. What exactly will be your first act as President?"
Kerry voted for it before voting against it.
sheesh
He is running for president not king. No first day mandates on health care or any other topic.
If the man does not even understand the constitution he needs to go back to MA and stay under his rock.
Day One? Twenty years in the Senate and he's already forgotten how laws are passed.
_____________________________________
Adviser rejects Kyoto Protocol for Russia
Moscow, Russia, Sep. 28, 2004 (UPI) -- Signing the Kyoto Protocol on global warming would prevent Russia doubling its gross domestic product, a top Kremlin adviser said Monday. Russia plans to double its GDP in the next decade, but the goal could not be achieved if the nation signed and implemented the Kyoto Protocol, Andrei Illarionov, an economic adviser to President Vladimir Putin, told a Moscow investment conference, the Interfax news agency said.
"The scenario for doubling GDP implies an annual increase of 7.2 percent over 10 years. At that rate of growth the increase in carbon dioxode emissions could be significant," Illarionov told the conference, entitled "Russia; Investment in an Economy of Growth."
Economy Minister German Gref, however, signed a letter to the government voicing his approval of the treaty, the Moscow News reported Monday.
The Kyoto Protocol, calling for a cap on greenhouse gas emissions to reduce the effects of global warming, can only be ratified if signed by the developed nations that produce half of the world's emissions.....
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040927-050027-3463r.htm
January 30, 2004
***.....In 1997, he voted against the Kyoto Protocol on global warming but now criticizes the Bush administration for not pursuing the treaty, which is designed to cut down on global toxic emissions. Kerry said he would return to the negotiating table to fix the treaty because "it didn't have the participation of rapidly emerging countries."....***
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/election2004/7837934.htm
A few months ago I found a liberal site that has the voting records for the House and Senate. I was trying to compile a list of major votes that Senator Kerry cast during the last few years. I got some good information but never completed that analysis. Now when I go to that site, the historical records are not there anymore ...
the site was www.adaction.org
They probably removed all the records so no one could see kerrys voting record ... I will try to find another site
Kerry voted for SR98 in 105th congress, which was a bill outlining the reasons for rejecting Kyoto.
So Kerry voted AGAINST ratification of Kyoto!
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=105&session=1&vote=00205
Actually, Clinton didn't sign it. Albore did. Not that it matters without ratification.
True. Vice President Gore did the actual signing, but as President Clinton's representative, of course.
I'm going to send 160 homeless people to one of John Kerry's mansions and have them demand that he give them each $10,000 because he can afford it. When he refuses he will be 'slapping 160 needy people in the face' by abandoning them and alienating other homeless people around the country.
I found it.
Check post #40.
Yes! See post # 40.
When it comes to environmental advisers, Democrat John Kerry draws a tight inner circle. He's at the center of course, and closest to him are family: his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, and her son Andre Heinz.
Kerry has also called on advice from some who served during the Clinton administration as well as Democratic lawmakers and congressional staffers.
A bit removed, at least so far, are the activists who run environmental groups. Part of that could be a reluctance to be portrayed by Republicans as too green. And then there's the fact that environmental issues are simply less visible given other concerns.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5772056/
…..Dressed in a rust colored T-shirt, cargo pants and sneakers, Heinz said these days can seem like bleak times for a young voter.
He pointed to the slow growth of new jobs and the rise in college costs, saying the Bush administration's performance is a good reason for young people to mobilize this fall. Heinz accused Bush of neglecting the environment and the country's diminishing natural resources. "(Kerry) understands that we've been offered a false choice between the environment and jobs," he said. "We have to make the environment a portion of our next wave of jobs."…….
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/040928heinz.shtml
DU discussing Chris Heinz running for Rick Santorum's seat
***Chris and Kerry went to the same schools (St. Paul's, Yale); they're both jocks (downhill skiing and lacrosse for Chris) with a somewhat goofy sense of humor; and they share a fascination with politics and the Vietnam War, which was the subject of Chris' undergraduate thesis. What's more, they look alike—both big guys with helmets of unruly hair and a chiseled Mount Rushmore visage. ....*** Skiing the New Hampshire Primary
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