Nice Kerry/Vets story in MetroWest (Boston) paper.

[TayTay]

Holliston resident helps organize PAC for vets
By Tyler B. Reed / Daily News Staff
Saturday, October 15, 2005
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=111724

HOLLISTON -- Bill Dooling said he was inspired by his work lobbying veterans to vote for Sen. John Kerry in the Iowa caucuses in 2004.

Dooling said had Kerry been elected president, he would have increased death benefits for the families of fallen soldiers and funded programs to find work and health insurance for returning vets. Kerry, he said, would not neglect those who risked their lives to fight for America.

snip

Kerry said through a spokesman, "For the veterans and military families who were so deeply involved in the political process in 2004, the fight for the important issues is just beginning."

The focus of the senator's support for veterans has come in the form of his "military family bill of rights," which he touted on the campaign trail, spokesman April Boyd said.

"It's crucial to have strong voices of veterans and military families in the public debate as common sense voices at a time when Washington is closing veterans hospitals, abandoning military families...and otherwise shortchanging vets," Kerry said.

excellent. That needs to go national.

[whometense]

1. It still totally flabbergasts me

how little attention Kerry's staunch and unwavering support for veterans has gotten in the media. It's rivaled only by his work on the environment and womens' issues and small business and...ok, maybe it has a lot of competition, but still...

I wonder if it gets counterbalanced by the other veterans' issue - Kerry's antiwar protests oh, say, 35 years ago. Do you think? Did we ever get to see any stats on the veterans' vote last year? Not that we could trust what we're told...

[TayTay]

2. Good question.

I think it split. We also never got the active duty voting totals. Last I heard, 75-80% of officers voted Rethug and 60% or more voted FOR American's future and FOR their own interests.

[beachmom]

3. I think KG's blog had some posts but you would have to

research that.

I do remember a couple of stats:

All military, active and retired: 55% Bush 45% Kerry
Military families: 50% Bush 50% Kerry

But active duty wasn't broken down. Before the election I thought military active duty voted 70% Repub. but I don't know if some of them went the other way in '04. The problem is is that they were RAISED Repub. so one would have to break a lifetime habit to vote Dem.

It is odd how so many military vets run as Dems (there will be 5 in '06), yet military people in general are so overwhelmingly Repub.

[fedupinBushcountry]

4. Have to disagree on active duty

raised Repub. That is just not true. Most active duty come from Dem households. My husband voted straight Dem for the 20 years he was in. Political backing was never a main topic when he was in.

Now that being said, what happens to them once they are in could change their way of voting. Bush was sneaky he gave raises and bonuses and money does strange things to the best of us. The military people look at what that next raise will be, and who is President at the time speaks volumes.

What they don't think about is what happens to those benefits once they get out. I'll tell you from my stand point, you are promised so much and each year they take more away. It sucks. Retirees are treated like crap, and Bush has done the most damage.

[FreedomAngel82]

7. From what I have heard

the more higher up you are in the military the more likely you are to vote for a republican. My grandfather was in the navy and he was able to vote last year before he died and he voted for Kerry. He didn't like Bush at all. I'm not sure what my grandfather was politically. I never asked. My uncle (dad's brother) was in the navy but I never asked him who he voted for since it was really none of my business.

[FreedomAngel82]

6. I don't think so

I think if the Bush team knew for sure that they won the military vote they would've screamed it from the roof tops. I did a google search last year wondering and I only found three results and two out of three groups had voted for Kerry. Why else does Bush do staged photo op's with the troops and not real troops from the Thanksgiving turkey nonsense to the most recent?

[sandnsea]

5. Here's their web site

My husband plans to join. It is so inspiring to see so many still hard at work. I wonder if WE are making our voices heard at the DNC, the way they keep ignoring all of us. http://www.vmfp.org

[jillan]

8. This is worth bookmarking.

It may come in handy when people say Kerry is not for the Vets.

[blm]

9. Please post this in GD - Vets form a new group to protect themselves

from BushInc's neglect.

[beachmom]

10. I guess it depends on which circles you travel

Because ALL of the military people I know, save one (who was foreign born), are conservative through and through. One guy pretty much admitted to me that going into Iraq was wrong, but that didn't stop him from parroting SBVT lies last August nor did it change his vote. He was born and raised Republican, and even when he knew it was wrong he was not going to change his vote. I also got an earful from him about how Clinton did wag the dog in the '98 bombing of Iraq and that Gore was snotty and a jerk to all the secret service and military. I actually think there are whisper campaigns conducted in the military to trash Dems -- like "I know someone who worked in the WH, and he said Gore was a rude SOB, etc., etc.". Think about how powerful that would be to hear such rumors.

I assume you guys all heard of the "Kerry ate our pizza" urban legend from the military on a trip to Vietnam, and that he bragged about his boat and would NEVER sail in a smaller one, blah, blah, blah. This was a major whisper campaign that happened to make it on the internet but who knows what whisper campaigns never saw daylight to us, but have been passed around through the military all over the world . . .

[TayTay]

11. Kerry ate out pizza?

Nope, never heard that one.

[fedupinBushcountry]

12. Well we traveled the Navy Circle (enlisted)

Illinois, Florida, Hawaii, California, South Carolina, Philly and finally Virginia.

I still don't believe that the bulk of the military were born Repubs. But I do think what they learn and the hate that is instilled into them (yes hate especially Arab hate, as Vietamese were called gooks, Arabs are called ragheads) John Kerry mentioned this in "Tour of Duty". My husband taught at Sonar school and you would not believe some of the phrases they used to give the sailors to remember certain codes etc. One example for a color code BBROYGBVGW= Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly. Totally disgusting.

[beachmom]

14. The Pizza Story

http://www.snopes.com/politics/kerry/pizza.asp

When we first flew him into Phnom Penh, he went to the back of the airplane and grabbed the pizza that was put aside for the crew and passed it around to his staff. He was never offered any pizza because they were supposed to have lunch with the Cambodian government once we landed. The pizza would have been our only meal that day. When we picked him up in Cambodia, he was an hour late getting to the airport. We could not start the engines and therefore the air conditioning until he arrived. Phnom Penh at that time was over 100 degrees with 95% humidity and we were basically sitting in a greenhouse behind the cockpit windows.

When he finally did arrive, we were wringing out our clothes from the perspiration. He walked out of the air conditioned car, into the airplane and asks us "Could you guys get the air conditioning running, I'm a little warm?" The other pilot had to physically restrain me from going back there and picking a fight.

The link I provided for this tries to either confirm or deny if something is true. This one they could do neither, since the guy who wrote it failed to give other witness names or facts that would back up his story. But after I talked to this ex-Navy guy here who seemed to be giving the same type of story purportedly by secret service or military working at the WH about Gore, I became deeply suspicious about this. It shows a pattern. Either our presidential candidates are big asses who treat our military shabily (hmmm . . . even though both of them served in Vietnam) or the Republican party is using the military like they use College Republicans -- a breeding ground for smear whisper campaigns.

Having said all of this, all I got from this thing was that this guy won't vote for Kerry, because he "ate his pizza". Kind of pathetic, but the stuff gossip is made of. Plus this runs smack at odds with Kerry thanking the lighting crew in that movie last night, since even as early as 1992, Kerry knew he wanted to run for president some day, and being rude like that won't get him votes for sure. I say the thing is made up. What say you?

[TayTay]

15. I saw they should have put a sign on the pizza

like I do when I put my lunch in the 'fridge at work. "This pizza is for the crew. Get your own." Problem solved.

If I got in the plane and didn't know better, I might take a slice too!

[beachmom]

17. That's why the whole thing is so funny, and suspicious

Why didn't they say it was their pizza? Kerry doesn't strike me as someone who is unapproachable. Biden may be another story, but every time I've seen Kerry he says stuff like "please" and "thank you". Take it from me as a Mom of small children. I decided to start saying please and thank you as much as possible to model for the kids. Now I can't stop, even if I'm by myself and don't have to model that behavior. It's a habit. You're telling me that he pretends to be polite in front of the cameras and then is able to sneak in some rudeness whenever he can? With *, his rudeness has been documented even in the '00 campaign. That's how he is, and it's common knowledge. But this secret rude Kerry, who NEVER seems to come out in front of cameras and tape recorders? I just don't think that man exists. He's a figment in the right winger's imagination.

All the off the cuff stuff has not been rude:

Son of a bitch (Secret Service guy knocks him over)
Crooks and liars
I didn't realize * was going to f*** (the war) up so bad
(What the SBL is saying) is a pack of f**king lies

None of this is rude like the pizza story. That story is trying to say that the Senator treats the "little guys" like dirt. I don't buy that for a millisecond. He just doesn't do that. No way.

[TayTay]

18. I almost don't hear them any more.

This stuff went on for so long in MA, that I just don't hear it anymore. I just have to remember the stories on the other side that I heard from prinipals in the incidents and remember the truth. (See Kerry: Not part of Mass establishment, history of.)

I always discount stories from anyone who says something bad about an 'only' meeting. I only met him once, but he was brusque and walked right past me. Well, maybe he was in a hurry. That's not conclusive proof of anything, too little data.

[karynnj]

13. I never heard either

what does Kerry ate our pizza even mean. His swiftboat didn't look too big.

[beachmom]

16. The pizza eating was in 1992, when he traveled to Vietnam as a

Senator. Or shall I say, the alleged pizza eating. By the way, I hope you find this as funny as I do. It's like -- is this the best you can do? Eating pizza? Obviously, the pizza story was only a warm up to the SBL, but you see my point that the smear campaigns against Dems do come out of the military (and from officers, by the way)?

Oh yeah, and I forgot to say, Fedup, that you're right about us knowing different people. I mostly have met officers (or officers' spouses) and SEALs. So perhaps they're more of the Republican variety than Navy (enlisted). I guess that's what polling a large sample is for!!

On Gore, it was in the book "Republican Noise Machine" by David Brock (Media Matters) that he mentioned that a whisper campaign against Gore in Tennessee happened probably originating from the College Republicans. Then this friend of mine starts talking about what a jerk Gore is because a friend of a friend worked at the WH, and I put two and two together.

[LittleClarkie]

19. I liked Snopes' explanation

They pointed out that sometimes people do thoughtless things without meaning to. Did anyone even say, "Hey, Senator, that ain't your pizza."

If true, Kerry probably just assumed it was there for him and his staff and hadn't been told otherwise.

Petty, really petty.

But I agree, it might be true or it might not. Even if it is, it's stupid.