This kills me, it really kills me. Why, with accurate information available at ANYONE’S fingertips, would the Republicans get so, so, so excited over Zell Miller’s speech at the RNC last night? The body of his message is true, of course. No one says it isn’t. I’m having difficulty, though, more with what he didn’t say than what he did say.
He didn’t say that Vice President Cheney (who was then Secretary of Defense under George HW Bush) testified before the House Armed Services Committee on August 13, 1989, that he recommended cancelling the AH-64 Apache helicopter program.
He didn’t say that in another testimony by Cheney on February 1, 1992, that Cheney stated that he was “forced” to spend money on unneeded weapons such as the M-1, the F-14 and the F-16.
The esteemed Mr. Miller also did not make the point that it was George HW Bush himself, in his 1992 State of the Union address, said that he was phasing out several weapons systems, including the B-2, to “reflect the changes of the new era.”
And, Zell Miller failed to mention that the list of weapon systems that John Kerry “tried his best to shut down” were part and parcel of only three Department of Defense appropriation bills, all of which Senator Kerry (among others) voted against. Not individual systems, but appropriation bills that contained many other budgetary considerations besides weapons systems.
Full references about the above statements can be found at this link from snopes. In fact, if you cross check this link with the part of Zell Miller’s speech which is quoted below, you wonder if he didn’t look at this page and think to himself, “Aw…screw it. Ain’t nobody gonna check anyhow.”
Excerpt from Zell Miller’s speech at the RNC on 9/1/04
“…And, no pair has been more wrong, more loudly, more often than the two Senators from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry.
Together, Kennedy/Kerry have opposed the very weapons system that won the Cold War and that is now winning the War on Terror.
Listing all the weapon systems that Senator Kerry tried his best to shut down sounds like an auctioneer selling off our national security but Americans need to know the facts.
The B-1 bomber, that Senator Kerry opposed, dropped 40 percent of the bombs in the first six months of Operation Enduring Freedom.
The B-2 bomber, that Senator Kerry opposed, delivered air strikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hussein’s command post in Iraq.
The F-14A Tomcats, that Senator Kerry opposed, shot down Khadifi’s Libyan MIGs over the Gulf of Sidra. The modernized F-14D, that Senator Kerry opposed, delivered missile strikes against Tora Bora.
The Apache helicopter, that Senator Kerry opposed, took out those Republican Guard tanks in Kuwait in the Gulf War. The F-15 Eagles, that Senator Kerry opposed, flew cover over our Nation’s Capital and this very city after 9/11.
I could go on and on and on: against the Patriot Missile that shot down Saddam Hussein’s scud missiles over Israel; against the Aegis air-defense cruiser; against the Strategic Defense Initiative; against the Trident missile; against, against, against.
This is the man who wants to be the Commander in Chief of our U.S. Armed Forces?
U.S. forces armed with what? Spitballs?”
The full text of Zell Miller’s speech can be found here.
Listen, I’m not a huge fan of John Kerry’s. In fact, I think the Democrats fielded a pretty weak bunch this year. The more I get involved, the more I wish Joe Lieberman had won the nomination. I think Lieberman possibly could have been the one to bring more cohesion to the House, Senate and country than any of the others, even though his policies are more conservative than my own.
Regardless of my personal feeling about John Kerry, I honestly do believe that of the two he is the better candidate for President. But, I’m not voting for him to get George Bush out of office. I’m voting for him to get Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rove, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft out of power in this country. You wanna talk bad guys? They are the bad guys. I might vote for Bush if McCain were his vice-presidential candidate and Rumsfeld would resign. Seriously.
What really chaps my hide, though, is the extraordinary amount of fact checking we citizens MUST DO in this political campaign season. You can’t believe any of them, and that, I believe, is the saddest thing to ever happen to our democracy. No, that’s not true, what really, really chaps my hide is that I have to spend my time writing about this. Because I’m very, very afraid that people actually do take the Zell Miller’s of our country at their word. And that’s a cryin’ shame.
Today’s CKS/bl TRIDIOT(s) RATING is that old axiom a picture (of real tridiots) is worth a thousand percentage points.
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