Kerry Speech

I did not watch the Kerry speech– I figured it would just piss me off. I like reading the speeches instead, as there is something about the last few prominent national Democrats that just infuriates me when they speak- the self-righteousness, the lies. Not sure what it is. Where have you gone, Pat Moynihan?

At any rate, some comments:

This line just blew me away:

I was born, as some of you saw in the film, in Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Colorado, when my dad was a pilot in World War II. Now, I’m not one to read into things, but guess which wing of the hospital the maternity ward was in? I’m not kidding. I was born in the West Wing.

Holy loads of cheese, Batman. That is reason enough to keep the man out of the Oval Office.

This line was amusing, too:

I have unforgettable memories of being a kid mesmerized by the British, French and American troops, each of them guarding their own part of the city – and Russians standing guard on that stark line separating East from West. On one occasion, I rode my bike into Soviet East Berlin. And when I proudly told my dad, he promptly grounded me.

My first thought was- I wonder if that is when they flipped him. Gary Farber- that was an attempted joke.

I actually felt a moment of comaraderie when he said this:

I felt goose bumps as I got off a military train and I heard the Army band strike up “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

I cry every time I hear it. Same with the National Anthem, TAPS, and America the Beautiful.

This is a gem- an attack on Bush’s line from 2000:

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

A quick trip down memory lane:

When first running for his Senate seat in 1984, Kerry explained carefully that he was firmly against such mainstays of the defense establishment as the B-1 bomber, B-2 stealth bomber, AH-64 Apache helicopter, Patriot missile, the F-15, F-14A and F-14D jets, the AV-8B Harrier jet, the Aegis air-defense cruiser, and the Trident missile system.

He also ran on a platform of cutting back on the M1 Abrams tank, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the Tomahawk cruise missile, and the F-16. The average newspaper-reading American, of course, recognizes these systems as the veritable tip of the spear that not only crushed Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War but also smashed the Taliban in Afghanistan and punched through to Baghdad in the second Gulf War…

In 1991 Kerry voted to cut defense spending by 2 percent. Only 21 other senators voted with Kerry, and the defense cut was defeated.

In 1991, Kerry voted to cut over $3 billion from defense and shift the funds to social programs. Only 27 senators joined Kerry in voting for the defense cut.

In 1992, Kerry voted to cut $6 billion from defense. Republicans and Democrats alike successfully blocked this attempt to cut defense spending.

In 1993, Kerry voted against increased defense spending for a military pay raise.

In 1993, Kerry introduced a plan to cut the number Of Navy submarines and their crews; reduce tactical fighter wings in the Air Force; terminate the Navy