Posted on 04/20/2004 8:52:35 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
TAMPA, Fla. -
Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites), shifting from the Iraq (news - web sites) war to the environment as Earth Day approaches, says President Bush (news - web sites) has presided over a "devastating deterioration" of the quality of the nation's air and water.
Kerry on Tuesday was opening a three-day campaign swing centered on Bush's environmental record, starting with a Tampa event focused on clean water. He was being joined by Carol Browner, a former Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) administrator.
On Monday, Kerry's campaign released a lengthy critique of Bush's treatment of the environment, accusing him of fighting to weaken protections on several fronts. Kerry's campaign also launched a new television ad in five states that accuses the president of allowing corporate polluters to rewrite the nation's environmental laws.
"Under President Bush we have seen a devastating deterioration not only in our economy but in our public health and safety," Kerry said of the effort to mark Earth Day on Thursday. "It does not have to be this way."
Bush's re-election campaign immediately rejected Kerry's criticisms.
"President Bush has focused on making our air, water and land cleaner," said campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt. "The president's environmental policies have significantly improved public health and environmental protection, including protecting our natural resources."
In its critique, Kerry's campaign said the president's air quality proposals will send 21 tons more pollution into the atmosphere, contribute to up to 100,000 premature deaths from respiratory troubles and induce millions of asthma attacks.
The report claims that one in 12 women of childbearing age has enough mercury in her system to pose a potential threat to fetal health.
Bush also has opposed efforts to ban the gasoline additive MTBE, a petroleum-based product that critics argued has fouled water supplies in 28 states. The campaign critique argues that Bush has supported protections that would prohibit the petroleum industry from being forced to clean up such pollution. As a result, the report says, taxpayers will foot the bill for the cleanup that could approach $30 billion.
Kerry argues on the campaign trail that pitting economic interests against environmental protections is a "false choice," and that millions of jobs can be created through development of alternative energy sources.
Browner said one of the Bush administration's worst environmental decisions was to allow older, dirtier power plants to largely avoid converting to cleaner technology. She said up to 30,000 premature deaths a year are blamed on pollution from power plants.
"George Bush is reversing 30 years of environmental policies that have protected public health and safety," the critique concluded. "The Bush administration has crippled provisions of the landmark Clean Air Act, rolled back important regulations and proposed drilling in the pristine Alaska National Wildlife Refuge."
Schmidt, Bush's campaign spokesman, said Kerry was continuing his own "campaign of pessimism with this latest round of false attacks."
On Monday, the two camps argued over a "60 Minutes" report CBS aired Sunday night that Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward said Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, has promised Bush that Saudi Arabia will lower oil prices in the months before the election to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on Election Day.
"If it is true that gas supplies and prices in America are tied to the American election, tied to a secret White House deal, that is outrageous and unacceptable to the American people," Kerry said.
Bandar denied there was such a plan. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said only that Bandar had visited the White House in April and that Bush keeps in touch with oil-producing nations.
"We've made our views very clear, that oil prices should be determined by market forces," McClellan said.
Saudi foreign policy adviser Adel al-Jubeir said in a statement from Riyadh, "The allegation that the kingdom is manipulating the price of oil for political purposes or to affect elections is erroneous and has no basis in fact."
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On the Net:
Kerry campaign: http://johnkerry.com
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites), D-Mass, left, sits next to U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., center, and former U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek (news, bio, voting record), D-Fla., right, as a donation basket is passed during services at the Ebenezer United Methodist Church, in Miami, Fla., Sunday, April 18, 2004. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
If I were Kerry, I'd be po'd if they kept using the word "swing"...
...then I wouldn't be po'd.
Opening a new campaign front, President Bush (news - web sites)'s Republican Party on April 20, 2004 called on Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) to release his Vietnam-era military records. Kerry (L, D-Mass.) attends a town hall rally at Palm Beach Community College in Lake Worth, Florida, April 19. (Joe Skipper/Reuters)
Are people still falling for this drivel?
Once again, what we have here is a failure to communicate! It was either that or shortages of energy or much higher costs. Either way "F'n" is a winner, eh! ;)
For Kerry, UN Envoy Brahimi Is a Tongue Twister
MIAMI (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) has a problem with Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. envoy to Iraq (news - web sites) -- his name.
The Massachusetts senator has the vowels down but can't seem to corral the right consonants.
Explaining how the Bush administration was trying to persuade other countries to help stabilize and reconstruct Iraq without turning over any real decision-making power, he told a rally at the University of Miami: "They also are trying to go through the back door with Ambassador Brandini."
Kerry, who has nothing but respect for Brahimi's efforts to come up with plans for an interim Iraqi government and cites his mission as an example of how the United Nations (news - web sites) should be involved in post-war Iraq, got it right earlier Sunday in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"Now, finally, (President) George Bush is doing what I and others have recommended for some period of time," he said. "Ambassador Brahimi is there."
For two days last week, Kerry referred to the envoy as Brandini, not even taking a stab at Lakhdar.
"They've got Brandini over there and he's negotiating," the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee told supporters in New York. "They've basically turned over the decision ...to Brandini, whatever he creates."
During the 2000 presidential election campaign, Bush was widely ridiculed for mangling words and not knowing the names of foreign leaders.
If Kerry was ahead 51% to 46% over Bush the headline would read: "Kerry opens wide lead over Bush"
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) decided to post on the Internet military records on his service in the Vietnam war after questions were raised about one of the medals he was awarded.(AFP/Getty Images/Stephen Chernin)
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