Posted on 10/11/2004 7:12:55 AM PDT by Chickenhawk Warmonger
Kerry Strikes Out on National Security By Robin Mullins Boyd October 11, 2004
National Security is one of the hot button issues in the 2004 presidential election. President Bush has demonstrated his commitment to keeping us safe since September 11. Despite the fact that there have been no further terrorists attacks on US soil; the Democrats portray the President as "weak" on National Security.
Kerry claims that the Bush Administration failed to secure chemical plants, failed to adequately fund the Dept of Homeland Security and failed to have all air cargo screened for explosives. The predominant theme of the Kerry campaign is that President Bush made "wrong choices in the war on terror".
The Kerry/Edwards camp consistently trumpets their commitment to national security and the war against terrorism. In a speech at Temple University on 9/24/04, John Kerry vowed to "fight a tougher, smarter, more effective war on terror." Actions speak louder than words and the two empty seats in the Senate are screaming for attention.
The Center for Security Policy has issued its "National Security Scorecard" for the 2003-2004 Congress. The Center selected congressional votes on the basis of their significance to the vital security policy interests of the United States. Using the actual voting records of the members of Congress, the Center came up with a scoring system to validate the congressional member's dedication to national security. The scores reflect votes of the 108th Congress through September 15, 2004. A score of 100 indicates that the elected official consistently cast a vote that was supportive of national security. The Senate scorecard analyzed the votes on 18 pieces of legislation that went to the Senate.
John Edwards received a score of 23. He missed 5 out of 18 votes on items related to national security. He voted to cut resources to Indonesia in the fight against terrorism. He voted to cut $15.2 billion from the Iraqi Relief and Reconstruction funds. Edwards voted to restrict the use of Iraqi Relief and Reconstruction Funds. He voted against emergency supplemental appropriations for the security and reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2004, Edwards voted against the Missile Defense Test Program and to eliminate or delay the deployment of ground-based midcourse interceptors. He voted for the Kennedy amendment that pushed UN involvement in Iraq.
John Kerry's scorecard reveals the true picture of his commitment to the national security of the United States. John Kerry missed 14 out of 18 total Senate votes related to national security measures. In 2003, he voted on 3 out of 12 measures. He voted to restrict the funding to Indonesia for anti-terrorist activities. He voted to transfer Iraqi Reconstruction responsibility from the Defense Dept to the State Dept. Kerry voted against providing emergency supplemental appropriations for the security and reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan.
From January 1, 2004 through September 15, 2004, Kerry missed 5 out of 6 votes for national security issues. He voted once in 2004 and that was to eliminate ground-based midcourse interceptors.
Kerry did not vote on issues such as the continuation of "Bunker Buster" Research and Development. Kerry missed the vote on Closing Terror Sanctions Loopholes, an amendment presented by Sen. Lautenberg. He also missed the vote on the bill that would hold Syria accountable for its support of terrorism. Kerry's overall national security score for 2003 -2004 is a big fat ZERO. He has the distinction of being the ONLY senator to score Zero for 2003-2004. Senator Ted was even able to muster a score of 11 while Senator Hillary scored 28.
Kerry has pledged to protect our country from another terrorist attack. He even went so far as to say "As President, I will make it my sacred duty to be able to say to every mother and father in this country, I am doing everything in my power to keep your children safe." As Senator, he avoided that "sacred duty" as evidenced by absenteeism in the Senate and his votes against national security interests. It makes one wonder whom Kerry is trying to reassure when he says, "help is on the way". Judging by his record, it certainly is not Americans.
John Edwards said yesterday on Fox that he saw that his Senate attendance, and votes when he showed up, wasn't really the way to change the way America was progressing, and that was why he decided to run for President and never show up at the Senate.
fabulous.
Kerry's Gay stand: Lets fight a more sensitive war on this nusiance that people are calling terrorism, I mean its not so terrible is it? Isn't this why we have a police force lets get a 1000 cops on the street that ought to protect us right I mean unless were black right... You know secretly I sort of like those turbins they wear you know so fashionable...
I HATE JOHN KERRY..... I HATE HIS POLICIES ... and I HATE HIS POLITICS....
Bootyist Monk did a great job with that graphic arts.
It will be going out on my email list this morning.
I wonder what the "create date" was on the computer discs were, that contained the school building information?
If it was prior to our invasion of Iraq, Bush should be waving a disc around at every stump speech saying that if we handn't gone into Iraq, that the terrorists would have still had this data, and may have already attacked one of our schools, just like in Russia.
He then could make the further point, that if Kerry were in charge, he would be advocating the US waiting until the terrorists killed a bunch of our kids, before arresting them and taking them to trial.
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.