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Plagiarism, Lies And Omissions
GoodNewsAmerica.us ^ | 07-30-2004 | Ernest Fretwell

Posted on 07/30/2004 2:24:10 PM PDT by numberonepal

(GoodNewsAmerica.us - Commentary) ATLANTA July 30, 2004 - With a rushed delivery, stepped upon applause, and a river of sweat running down his chin, John Kerry delivered an acceptance speech that was a bevy of lies, omissions, and plagiarized material from President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Kerry reminded us that, "this is the most important election of our lifetime.'' He was right, but that's only the first of two things he got right in the speech. The second was when he said, "the future doesn't belong to fear, the future belongs to freedom". But other than that, it was the usual class warfare rhetoric with a good dose of false posturing.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a deliberate intent to purloin the words of another and to represent them as one's own. This word first came to mind the evening before when running mate John Edwards got the ball rolling on some "borrowed" material. First he changed the Cheney line from the 2000 Presidential Campaign from "help is on the way" to "hope is on the way". But before he informed America know how much hope the ticket could provide, Edwards decided to borrow a few lines from President Bush:

"And we will have one clear unmistakable message for al Qaida and the rest of these terrorists. You cannot run. You cannot hide. And we will destroy you", said Edwards

There are several instances where President Bush made very similar remarks in a number of speeches:

"But the best way to secure our homeland, the only sure way to make sure our children are free and our children's children are free, is to hunt the killers down, wherever they hide, is to hunt them down, one by one, and bring them to justice."
-- President Bush, September 23, 2002 Army National Guard Aviation Support Facility Trenton, New Jersey

"We are destroying training camps, disrupting communications and dismantling air defenses. We are now bombing Taliban front lines. We are deliberately and systematically hunting down these murderers and we will bring them to justice."
-- President Bush, November 8, 2001 Atlanta

"I have called our military into action, to hunt down the members of the al Qaeda organization ... The Taliban made a choice to continue hiding terrorists. We are destroying training camps ... We are deliberately and systematically hunting down these murderers, and we will bring them to justice."
-- President Bush, November 9, 2001

Senator Edwards plagiarism was, however, only a preview of what was to come the next night in the acceptance speech of Senator John Kerry.

While not exactly plagiarism, Kerry's first questionable quote rang suspiciously of the Bush Doctrine when he said, "so we can get the terrorists before they get us".

Then, pitching a hawkish stance on terrorism, Kerry used a line from remarks by Vice President Cheney during the 2000 campaign. At the Republican Convention on August 8, 2000 Cheney was remarking on how the Clinton administration had depleted our military power.

"I have had the responsibility for their [armed forces] well-being. And I can promise them now, help is on the way."

After attacking President Bush on foreign policy Kerry made the promise:

"To all who serve in our armed forces today, I say, help is on the way."

Kerry went on to repeat this line 6 times in the speech, and even had the crowd chanting the line said by Cheney. Kerry had actually changed the line from the "hope is on the way" line his running mate chanted the prior evening.

It is also worthy of note that Kerry had at one time mocked the same line while accusing President Bush of mistreating troops and their families. On the first anniversary of the invasion of Iraq Kerry said, "Four years ago, George Bush said that our troops lacked the support they needed. Four years ago, he promised them: ‘Help is on the way.’"

In a speech given from the White House on September 17, 2002, President Bush said:

"To defeat this threat we must make use of every tool in our arsenal - military power, better homeland defenses, law enforcement, intelligence, and vigorous efforts to cut off terrorist financing."

In his next sentence, Kerry goes on to lift a line from President Bush.

"As President, I will fight a smarter, more effective war on terror. We will deploy every tool in our arsenal: our economic as well as our military might; our principles as well as our firepower."

LIES

The lies started when Kerry accused Attorney General John Ashcroft of failing to "uphold the Constitution of the United States". When did Ashcroft not uphold the Constitution? Is it because he is upholding the law outlined in The Patriot Act, for which both Kerry and his running mate voted. This is from a man who is illegally accepting Senate paychecks for work he has missed.

The he moved on to say: "And as President, I will bring back this nation's time-honored tradition: the United States of America never goes to war because we want to, we only go to war because we have to."

What time honored tradition is this? This surely wasn't the case with the crisis in the Balkans where Kerry endorsed sending troops under former President Clinton. There was no need to protect "fundamental American values from a threat that was real and imminent".

It moved on to the running Democratic lie that we have acted unilaterally in the war on terror.

"Here is the reality: that won't happen until we have a president who restores America's respect and leadership -- so we don't have to go it alone in the world."

The truth is that there are over 40 countries assisting the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan. We did not go it alone, nor are we going it alone now.

Kerry's next and most glaring lie of the evening was an insult to every Reservist and Guardsman that ever served. He charged he would "end the backdoor draft of National Guard and reservists". The National Guard and Reserves aren't drafted or in any way deceived. They are there for the explicit purpose of supplementing our troop strength when needed.

After vehemently rejecting privatizing Social Security to let Americans decide what they do with their retirement money, he goes on to say, "You don't value families if you force them to take up a collection to buy body armor for a son or daughter in the service..."

First, you don't value families if you don't vote for appropriations bills for our troops after voting to send them into harm's way. Second, the mythical "body armor bake sales" has been thoroughly debunked. There has never been one verifiable bake sale to buy body armor. Further, the armor that Kerry is talking about was a new ceramic design that had not yet reached all soldiers in the field. All soldiers had at least the previous versions of body armor.

OMISSIONS

Of the most glaring omissions from the Kerry speech was the fact that he failed to mention Israel at all. He mentioned neither his post Vietnam anti-war activities, nor the atrocities he admitted to committing in that war.

He described the Iraq war as a one about oil, when he said, "No young American in uniform will . . . be held hostage to our dependence on oil from the Middle East." What he neglected to say was that he opposed drilling ANWAR.

He also failed to own up to his role in sending troops to war in Iraq. He and his running mate voted for the war resolution. While saying he knew "what we have to do in Iraq", he failed to leave a sure understanding of what specifically he would do.

He also offered up 40,000 more troops. How and where does he expect to get those extra 40,000 troops. We have an all volunteer force. The only way to get more soldiers that do not sign up voluntarily is a draft. Is this what he proposing?



TOPICS: Politics
KEYWORDS: acceptance; convention; democratic; dnc; kerry; lies; ommissions; plagiarism; scoundrel; speech
These were only the glaring lies, plagiarism, and omissions from the speech. There were other more nuanced things like stealing from Reagan, but due to article length it would have been difficult to prove in a couple of sentences.
1 posted on 07/30/2004 2:24:15 PM PDT by numberonepal
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To: DoctorZIn; dvan

ping


2 posted on 07/30/2004 3:21:24 PM PDT by numberonepal (Whatever happened to freedom, liberty, and capitalism?)
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To: numberonepal
He also offered up 40,000 more troops. How and where does he expect to get those extra 40,000 troops. We have an all volunteer force. The only way to get more soldiers that do not sign up voluntarily is a draft. Is this what he proposing?

It will have to be a draft, I can't see our conservative kids rushing to sign up to serve under hanoi john, can you? In fact many in will bail like they did under the draft dodger.

3 posted on 07/30/2004 3:34:26 PM PDT by GailA ( hanoi john, I'm for the death penalty for terrorist, before I impose a moratorium on it.)
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To: GailA
Whoaaaaaa! I took a line from memory that turns out to be plagairized:

Plagiarism is a deliberate intent to purloin the words of another and to represent them as one's own.

It has been changed in the original article posted at GoodNewsAmerica.us to:

Plagiarism is the conscious intent to use another's words as one's own.

How ironical.

4 posted on 07/30/2004 4:00:52 PM PDT by numberonepal (Whatever happened to freedom, liberty, and capitalism?)
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To: GailA
In fact many in will bail like they did under the draft dodger.

And this is not to mention the respect that would be lost again to the CIC, making morale low and putting us all in danger.

5 posted on 07/30/2004 4:02:35 PM PDT by numberonepal (Whatever happened to freedom, liberty, and capitalism?)
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To: numberonepal

Great idea!


6 posted on 07/31/2004 1:13:48 AM PDT by DoctorZIn (Until they are Free, "We shall all be Iranians!")
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