From the Associated Press dated May 6, 2006:

The Massachusetts Democrat said the Bush administration is targeting opponents of the Iraq war in much the same way he was attacked for protesting failed policies in Vietnam in the 1970s.

“Failed policies”? He met with Madame Binh in Paris and came back talking the communist talking points for withdrawal.

I just love how they frame these arguments. The press conveniently tip-toes around the fact that Kerry came back, left the Navy (I presume he went AWOL), and became one of the leaders of “Vietnam Vets Against the War”, and wore the Communist Vietcong armband, even going so far as participating in a VVAW meeting conspiring to kill Senators. Witenesses place him there; he denies it, of course.

“Dismissing dissent is not only wrong but dangerous when America’s leadership is unwilling to admit mistakes, unwilling to engage in honest discussion and unwilling to hold itself accountable for the consequences of decisions made without genuine disclosure or genuine debate,” Kerry said.

That’s right call it “dissent”. Go look at the Socialist Workers or any of the extremist websites…even Code Pink’s and you can plainly see his ‘dissent’ belongs to the party line of organizations that the media dare not name.

He added, “The spirit of intolerance for dissent has risen steadily, and the habit of labeling dissenters as unpatriotic has become the common currency of the politicians currently running our country.”

There is a line between ‘dissent is patriotic’ and ‘treason’, in my opinion. Dissent is when you talk against the government–and do something to change it. Treason is when you talk against the troops and their mission and by extension the government that sent them into the conflict- in a time of war. The sentiments the American public are expressing are old, tried and true; and go back all the way AT LEAST to the days of Lincoln if not before:

Sarah Sauber, a spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Iowa, rejected Kerry’s claims.

“John Kerry continues to bring his record of hypocrisy and flip-flopping back to the state that rejected him in 2004,” Sauber said. “Iowans know that John Kerry doesn’t share their values.”

I would dare to say that Kerry doesn’t share the values of the entire nation, and it’s unfortunate that the media doesn’t spell out exactly what those are.

Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president in 2004, spoke at Grinnell College. During his visit to Iowa he repeated his call for a deadline for American troops to be pulled out of Iraq by the end of the year.

“The Iraqis have shown they only respond to deadlines,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I think you’ve got to be tough here.”

Kerry first drew public attention 35 years ago when, as a decorated Navy veteran, he testified to Congress in opposition to the Vietnam war. Some fellow veterans criticized him then, and his opposition to the war has been a point of controversy throughout his political career.

In the last campaign, Kerry was criticized for being slow to respond to the attacks on his patriotism, and his speech Saturday blasted those who sought to suppress dissent from the war.

“Once again, we are imprisoned in a failed policy,” he said. “And once again we are being told that admitting mistakes, not the mistakes themselves, will provide our enemies with an intolerable propaganda victory.”

Kerry has shown interest in seeking the Democratic nomination again. He’s made several trips to Iowa, where precinct caucuses launch the presidential nominating season. His surprising win in those caucuses in 2004 gave him momentum which led to the nomination

His pursuit of another run is yet another reason we would like to see the 100 or so missing pages of Kerry’s military record which he’s built so much of his political career on. We’d like to know why he doesn’t answer questions about the circumstances of his purple heart, and of the 6 year gap between when he left the Navy and when he received his discharge, among others.

Even after he declared on the Tim Russert show that he would release his records, what he did was-release his records to his biographer at the Boston Globe. Telling the truth and principled leadership might be concepts foreign to Kerry, but they aren’t to the American people.

We are still waiting.

Image: LindaSog.com

Join the blogbursts to help FREE Kerry’s 180 every Tuesday!

We’ve formed a blogburst group and here are the bloggers who are contributing so far. If you want to join the blogroll for Free Kerry’s 180, click here to email me, include the url for your blog. The blogburst is every Tuesday, so don’t forget to blog about it. All you have to do is encourage Kerry to set his 180 FREE, I’ll send you the code for the blogroll.

The more people we have, the merrier!

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