Lying Liars

I was out of town for a week or so, and couldn't post at all. Needless to say, the GOP convention was a predictable festival of Kerry & Democrat-hatred. Nothing more. The Democratic Party is the party of Barack Obama. The Republican Party is the party of Zell Miller. What a no-brainer that is. Anyway, Miller did his best imitation of a madman last week, and joined the chorus of lies against John Kerry. The Republicans think Kerry can't win on national security issues? What makes them think Bush can? How, precisely, has Bush made us any more or less safe since 9/11? What, exactly, did 1000 U.S. servicemen and women die for in Iraq? What tangible benefit have we, as Americans, gained as a result of invading, occupying and administering Iraq? Anyway...

Kerry did not cast a series of votes against individual weapons systems, as Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) suggested in a slashing convention speech in New York late Wednesday, but instead Kerry voted against a Pentagon spending package in 1990 as part of deliberations over restructuring and downsizing the military in the post-Cold War era. Both Vice President Cheney and Miller have said that Kerry would like to see U.S. troops deployed only at the direction of the United Nations, with Cheney noting that the remark had been made at the start of Kerry's political career. This refers to a statement made nearly 35 years ago, when Kerry gave an interview to the Harvard Crimson, 10 months after he had returned from the Vietnam War angry and disillusioned by his experiences there. (President Bush at the time was in the Air National Guard, about to earn his wings.) President Bush, Cheney and Miller faulted Kerry for voting against body armor for troops in Iraq. But much of the funding for body armor was added to the bill by House Democrats, not the administration, and Kerry's vote against the entire bill was rooted in a dispute with the administration over how to pay for $20 billion earmarked for reconstruction of Iraq. "