Posted on 10/03/2004 11:44:28 AM PDT by Perdogg
edinan@seacoastonline.com
"Keeping Our Families Safe" was the name of Elizabeth Edwards’ town hall discussion Saturday in Manchester. Her message was be afraid. Addressing an audience of about 100 in the Green Acres School gymnasium, Edwards, wife of vice presidential hopeful John Edwards, told the group that America is not safe and that President Bush is to blame.
Elaborating, Edwards said there is a one in 10 chance of a terrorist successfully smuggling a nuclear bomb into this country, as President Bush spends 90 percent of the homeland security budget on airports, where cargo is not checked. She said two-thirds of American borders do not have the necessary resources to be adequately protected, that the president is "not doing anything to protect our rail system" and that he "has refused" to protect chemical and nuclear plants.
Edwards also stated the country’s ports are at risk because cargo containers are largely unchecked and mentioned Portsmouth by name. According to Geno Marconi, director of the Pease Development Authority, cargo containers have not come to Portsmouth Harbor since 1990.
Edwards’ said the president has underfunded firefighters and the military and is looking to cut soldiers’ and veterans’ benefits. She said Bush has cut local and state first responder training and that Americans are "at greater risk today than we were before September 11."
"John Kerry and John Edwards are as fearful as we are," she said, referring to her co-hosts, Rochester firefighter Beth Blake, Karen Cox, the Concord wife of a soldier stationed in Iraq, Monica Gabrielle, a New York widow of a victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and Manchester mother of six Wendy Thomas.
Elizabeth Edwards
Thomas, who received a standing ovation for saying she is not a soccer mom-turned-security mom, but rather an "intelligent mom" for Kerry and Edwards, said she does not go to shopping malls out of fear for the safety of her family. During Edwards’ Manchester appearance, earpiece-wearing security personnel were posted at each of the four corners of the school gymnasium.
"I think about this, not as a politician’s wife, but as a mom," Edwards said. "The president says how important homeland security is to him. They’re the right words, but he’s not doing it. The consequences are not whether you win or lose an election, it’s whether our families are safe."
Responding to Edwards’ message, Maria Comella, N.H. communications director for the Bush-Cheney campaign said, "Instead of playing on Americans’ worst fears, President Bush has put forward an aggressive strategy that is defeating terrorists, denying them support and sanctuary and working to eliminate the underlying economic and social conditions that terrorists seek to exploit.
"At home, the Bush administration is developing and deploying cutting-edge technologies to secure our borders, ports, critical infrastructure and other potential vulnerabilities of our homeland."
In an e-mail, Comella said President Bush’s fiscal year 2005 budget includes $401.7 billion for the Department of Defense, a 35 percent increase over fiscal year 2001 levels and a 7 percent increase over the fiscal year 2004 enacted level.
"Since (fiscal year) 2001, President Bush has provided pay raises of more than 21 percent to the armed services and increased the quality of housing and covering housing costs for personnel who choose to live off-base," the e-mail stated. "His budget also includes $10.3 billion to develop missile defenses for our homeland, U.S. forces deployed abroad, and our allies."
The e-mail said the president’s budget for fiscal year 2005 proposes a 9.7 percent increase in government-wide homeland security funding, nearly tripling the fiscal year 2001 levels - even when homeland security funding for the Department of Defense and Project BioShield are excluded.
"Senator Kerry’s scare tactics, however, are a desperate attempt to mask a 20-year history of slashing intelligence funding by $7.5 billion, a poor attendance record in which he missed 76 percent of public Senate Intelligence Committee hearings, and a view of how to fight the war on terror that misses the mark," Comella said in the e-mail. "His rhetoric seeking to instill panic sends the wrong message to Americans, the Iraqi people and, most importantly, the terrorists."
Isn't it time for our side to spell out the protections that are put in place.
The crap that Edwards and his wife are spewing is a direct result of Bush's negligence in answering the charges that Kerry levelled during the debate.
Kerry mentioned the cargo situation and Bush should have responded forcefully and clearly. He didn't take the golden opportunity to do so and may not have the chance to do so again in front of such a large audience.
And, I should have mentioned:
I think PART of the reason that Bush didn't respond to the cargo charges by Kerry Thursday night is because he knows that the terrorists are paying attention to our news.
Why let them know (as though they already don't) that it's impossible for us to check each and every piece of cargo that comes into this country.
And her hot air is a threat to global warming!
Hey, ladies, I don't want a president that is 'fearful'. I want one who will calmly and confidently take the necessary steps to keep the nation safe -- not out of fear but out of concern for the safety of his constituents.
Hey, ladies, I don't want a president that is 'fearful'. I want one who will calmly and confidently take the necessary steps to keep the nation safe -- not out of fear but out of concern for the safety of his constituents.
If I was as big a target as her, I'd be worried too.
He'll get a chance in Tuscon. I believe that debate will be open ended.
Don't worry Bush will win 331-207, 53-46-1.
I wish her hubby on the Intelligence committee had actually done his job, maybe 9/11 would have never happened.
Isn't there a law against eyesores?
Put her in a burqua!
I think he'll win too. But there's no doubt he passed up many golden opportunities with Kerry Thursday night.
For instance, when Kerry lied and said there were no ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq I wish Bush had said:
It's obvious Senator Kerry has not read the Senate Intelligence Report which stated that Iraq was providing Al Qaeda with nuclear, chemical, biological and radiological training. (And that's just a start of what he could have, and should have, said).
I think it would have been grand to hear him say, "Mr. Kerry, that is a bold-faced lie and you are assuming the rest of us are stupid enough not to realize it."
Dizzy Lizzie speaks!
Whose safety is threatened by George W Bush? Most likely Al Qaeda's.
Lies. What he refuses to do is create another tax-funded agency to do what the National Guard already does.
very intelligent, let's go after all the candidates' wives. elizabeth edwards-fat. laura bush-running stop sign as teenager resulting in death of her friend. lynn cheney-writing "dirty" novels. teresa heinz kerry-phenomenally ditzy.
all the wives are intelligent adult women who are attempting to help their husbands get elected, i don't think it's relevant to make fun of them.
I am now filled with remorse. I'm usually filled with something else.
She opened her self up for insults when she said she is not a soccer Mom turned security Mom, that she is an intelligent Mom. Insinuating that the others are not intelligent. What she should have said is that she is a lawyer. And they are the best liers that exist.
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