Posted on 07/03/2004 3:15:39 PM PDT by tgslTakoma
INDEPENDENCE, Wis. (Reuters) - John Kerry, veteran senator from Massachusetts, New England blue blood and Democratic White House hopeful, learned to swear from a farmer, loved to drive a tractor and once had a passion for plowing.· 'Kid from the East' Kerry Feels Farmers' Pain.
"When I was a kid, this kid from the East, I had an aunt and uncle who owned a dairy farm," Kerry told a town hall meeting on Saturday in Independence, midway through a 546-mile July 4 weekend road trip across America's heartland to win over rural voters.
The son of a diplomat who was educated at exclusive schools, attended Yale, volunteered to serve in the Vietnam War and was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984, Kerry has been trying to connect with middle America and shake off the Northeastern liberal label pinned on him by President Bush and his Republican allies.
"I've been out here a lot over 20 years plus," he told about 150 invited guests at the Dejno family farm, where he toured the aromatic calving shed and milking center. "And we actually have farms in Massachusetts."
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, who this month will be formally anointed the party's challenger to Bush in the Nov. 2 election, vowed to fight for family farmers by banning unfair trade practices and fully implementing country-of-origin labeling so Americans "know where the products they buy are coming from."
Kerry charged Bush's economic, trade and energy policies had hurt rural America.
"They say this is the best we can do," he said. "Don't tell us losing 3,200 dairy farms in Wisconsin is the best we can do. We have the best family farmers in America but we're denying them the fair chance to compete."
HEARTLAND BATTLEGROUND
On a three-day bus trip through Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, Kerry hoped to cut into support for Bush in rural areas that could help tip the balance in battleground states.
"I was driving down here ... and I was saying, 'Look at the power of that land.' You can just feel it, you see it. I know what you love, I know why you're here, I know what you feel about this and we've got to help," he said.
Kerry's schedule has been packed with all-American activities to celebrate the Independence Day holiday, from the name of the town chosen for Saturday's forum, to throwing a football, eating barbecue and watching fireworks from a boat on the Mississippi, a far cry from the posh New England sailing meccas of Cape Cod and Nantucket where he said he normally spent the Fourth of July.
At the Gunslick Trap Club in Holmen, Kerry shouldered a borrowed 12-gauge shotgun and picked off 17 out of 25 clay "birds." Afterward, he said he preferred to hunt because of the open-air experience of tracking and finding game.
"I just do what I normally do," Kerry told reporters who asked whether an outdoorsman image was important to his campaign. "This is stuff I've done all my life."
During the discussion of agricultural issues, the senator said he lived on a farm when he was very young and had "learned my first cuss word sitting on a tractor with the guy who was driving it."
"When I was 12 years old, my passion was being allowed to go out and sit on the John Deere and drive it around the fields and plow. And I learned as a kid what it was like looking back and see those furrows, and see that pattern and feel a sense of accomplishment, and end up dusty and dirty and tired, but feeling great, looking back at that field that you'd plowed," Kerry said.
Would that be the headlands?
Bad shot!
and put some safety glasses on you F'n a-hole PHONY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hate to say it but given Kerry's lifetime history attempting to annull (sp?) our 2nd amendment rights, that there gun club should be disbarred from whatever national affiliation they may belong to by allowing that SOB to make a photo-op on their property!!!!!!!
It was before his parents yanked him off the mower! "Your not the help, John! We have James the gardner!"
Nothing on the death tax. That is the one that is literally killing off the family farm.
In the world we live in, there is a phenomenon known as "hypocrisy". Apparently you have not yet encountered it. When you do, you will be able to answer the question you raise above.
#34 It is very important to note that John Forbes Kerry WAS from the poor side of the family. He had the name but no piece of the fortune. He had visiting priviliges to the Mysterious Island but no yacht of his own. His diplomat dad made a respectable living but the boarding schools, vacation trips and college tuition were paid for by a wealthy maiden aunt (imagine the thank-you letters HE had to write). He grew up as the poor relation, impoverished nobility, burning with humiliation and ambition; and like all impecunious blue-bloods, he made his wealth the traditional way...
Yep, that's why I think it should be repeated. Kerry has the same qualifications of OJ Simpson.
LOL, look at that picture!
I actually managed to get the span turned, but the boss took over from there. (I gave each mule a carrot, so they decided I was a good person - or at least a soft touch and a sucker!)
A pair of mules, BTW, are a "span". Horses are a "pair" if carriage driving, or just generally a "team". I dunno why the difference.
"Is my team plowing,- A.E. Housman
That I was used to drive
And hear the harness jingle
When I was man alive?"Ay, the horses trample,
The harness jingles now;
No change though you lie under
The land you used to plow."Is football playing
Along the river shore,
With lads to chase the leather,
Now I stand up no more?"Ay, the ball is flying,
The lads play heart and soul;
The goal stands up, the keeper
Stands up to keep the goal."Is my girl happy,
That I thought hard to leave,
And has she tired of weeping
As she lies down at eve?"Ay, she lies down lightly,
She lies not down to weep:
Your girl is well contented.
Be still, my lad, and sleep."Is my friend hearty,
Now I am thin and pine,
And has he found to sleep in
A better bed than mine?"Yes, lad, I lie easy,
I lie as lads would choose;
I cheer a dead man's sweetheart,
Never ask me whose.
Gosh, I don't recall he ever made such a statement but I am willing to retract if you can point out one to me.
Given Kerry's record of crapping on our 2nd Amendment rights at every senatorial opportunity he has had, I am surprised the F'n liar was even allowed onto the premises of that trap club.........
#66 My hat's off to the author of this piece, this Patricia Williams. Some stories just don't need any satirical spin. For this one you don't need to read between the lines. The dry recitation of facts and faithful reproduction of quotes is more than enough. Some situations are just simply impossible to parody.
Pardon me while I go throw up.
FMCDH(BITS)
We always called it a 'turn row'.
"Headlands" may be the English term.
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.