Hello friends,
As you know I'm an avid John Kerry fan. I'll admit
that when I first became interested in Kerry as a
candidate, what attracted me most was his
"electability." Like most Americans (Democrats and
not) I was not happy with the direction of the nation
and looking for a candidate who could beat Bush.
However, since that time I've read a ton about John
Kerry, studied his life and learned about his past -
and his record. I'd like to share some of what I've
learned. I know this is a little long but he's done so
much – the complete opposite of Bush's baseless sound
bites.. There is a lot of info here, but it's all
summarized and it's a quick read. I've decided to
leave out info on his childhood and military service.
Enough has been said about his military service - if
you've got any doubt what so ever about his heroism
I've got plenty of evidence to show the accusations
against him are absolute nonsense. Just let me know
and I'll send it to you. Instead I've decided to
concentrate on information that hasn't gotten as much
attention and shows why he will make an excellent
President. Here's some interesting background info:

* Unlike President Bush, Kerry was a successful
business owner. He was the cofounder and part owner of
a very successful cookie shop that eventually
franchised.

* Kerry was the co-founder of the Vietnam Veterans of
America (VVA), a national non-profit organization that
promotes issues important to Viet Nam vets, advocates
for them and provides assistance to them and their
families.

* After law school Kerry was a top prosecutor in the
Middlesex County district attorney's office. He was
especially effective in fighting organized crime and
white collar crime.

* Kerry was an innovator and reformer everywhere he
has served. At the D.A.'s office he overhauled and
modernized procedures to make the office more
efficient. He reduced a backlog of thousands of cases.


* Long before it was fashionable, he created programs
to help protect the rights of victims and provide them
assistance getting on with their lives. He created a
program that recruited and hired qualified women
attorneys.

* As a private attorney John Kerry was very
successful. He also worked pro bono freeing wrongly
convicted, innocent people from jail.

* Perhaps most impressive in his early career is what
he did as Lt. Governor. This office is usually a
"place holder" job with no real responsibilities or
power. Kerry did not accept that. As Lt. Governor, he
ran MassAction - a watchdog group that exposed and
corrected the mismanagement of funds in the State
Treasury. He created legislation to reduce acid rain
and helped the National Governors Association get it
implemented. These regulations have since been lauded
as some of the most effective environmental
legislation ever.

* Again way before it became fashionable, as Lt.
Governor he created a State-wide victim and witness
assistance program, helped write and get passed
racketeering legislation and was a pioneer in the
field of prosecuting and preventing computer crimes.

In the US Senate:

* Kerry investigated and brought down Pakistan based
BCCI International bank This huge organization was
used for money laundering and other shady dealings for
drug dealers, terrorists, organized crime and
political corruption. (Also see "political suicide
below)

* Kerry fought against US support of Philippines
dictator Ferdinand Marcos long before he fled in
exile, disgraced.

* Kerry was one of the first Democratic Senators to
sign on to the Graham-Rudman Budget Deficit Reduction
Act and lobbied other Democrats to vote for it. Many
sources have said his efforts were the key to its
passage. Ted Kennedy said Kerry talked him into voting
for it.

* As early as 1989 he was trying to get the government
(President, Intelligence agencies, etc) to pay more
attention to terrorism.

* He was one of two key investigators who exposed the
Iran-Contra scam where the US secretly was involved in
illegal gun-running and narcotics trafficking in the
contra insurgency in Nicaragua, and illegal arms sales
to Iran.

* During his Iran-Contra investigations, Kerry exposed
Panama's Manuel Noriega's involvement in drug running.
Kerry was the first to expose this dictator who up
until that time was "our man in Central America" and
receiving millions of dollars annually in US aid.

* Kerry has received the National Health Association's
'Legislator of the Year Award' for his support of
expanded child care and attention to at-risk children,
and been recognized by other health care advocacy
groups.

* Along with John McCain, Kerry worked for years to
account for every last POW/MIA from Vietnam and
normalize relations with that nation.

* The Association for Enterprise awarded Senator
Kerry their 'Leadership Award' for his work on the
Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. He has
introduced legislation and fought for incentives to
stimulate small business growth.
* He fought against the Strategic Defense Initiative
("star wars") and the MX Missile system – both
unnecessary and expensive projects that would have
diverted defense money away from the troops.

* Kerry was one of the original organizers of the
first Earth Day in Massachusetts, and would later
chair the National Earth Day board in 1990.

* Kerry cosponsored the Equal Rights Amendment

* In 1986 then-Congressman Dick Cheney proposed a tax
on oil that would have raised gasoline prices, costing
consumers $1.2 trillion and would have laid off
400,000 workers. Senator Kerry co-sponsored the
resolution that stopped this oil tax.

* Kerry cosponsored the Americans with Disabilities
Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act.
* John Kerry exposed fraudulent intelligence spending
and proposed cuts to end it. The cuts passed in
congress with no opposition. He then supported $200
billion in responsible intelligence funding over the
next seven years.
* In 2003 Kerry voted for the second appropriations
bill ($87 billion) for the war in Iraq when it
includes a way to pay for it. When the Republicans try
to charge the cost to our children, Kerry voted
against it in an effort to hold Bush accountable and
curb the crushing national debt.

* In 1988 he saved Republican Senator Jacob "Chic"
Hecht's life be performing first aid when he was
choking . Hecht: "He sized it up in a split second and
saved my life," "Every year at Christmas my wife and I
call John Kerry and thank him for saving my life," --
Jacob Hecht

* Senator Kerry has repeatedly fought for better pay
and benefits for soldiers, veterans, police, and
teachers.
* Senator Kerry Co-sponsored McCain-Feingold Campaign
Finance Bill to ban "soft money." Kerry also worked
with Senator Paul Wellstone to introduce a Clean Money
bill.
* John Kerry was among the earliest supporters of the
Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency
(CARE) Act, which today is the largest discretionary
federal investment in treatment and support services
for individuals and families living with HIV or AIDS.
Today, 533,000 Americans with HIV/AIDS receive better
treatment through this program.
* John Kerry has been a tireless champion of mandatory
funding for veterans' health care. He fought
vigorously for full funding of Veterans Administration
(VA) health care and opposed the Bush administration's
exclusion of Priority 8 veterans and its elimination
of VA outreach efforts. He sought improved
prescription drug benefits and authored legislation in
2003 to let veterans fill prescriptions written by
non-VA doctors through the VA pharmacy.
* John Kerry co-sponsored an amendment that
successfully required health care plans to provide
coverage for a minimum hospital stay for a mother and
child following the birth of the child.
* John Kerry wrote the Nurse Reinvestment Act to help
relieve a nationwide, crisis-level shortage of
registered nurses by encouraging more young people to
choose a career in nursing. Today, enrollment rates at
undergraduate nursing programs are up by 17 percent.
* John Kerry's 1996 bill, the Healthy Children, Family
Assistance Health Insurance Program, was the precursor
to the successful State Children's Health Insurance
Program (S-CHIP) that became law in 1997. S-CHIP
provides funding to cover 5 million children.
* As a member of the Senate Housing Subcommittee, John
Kerry has a long record of fighting for affordable
housing. He shaped the first significant rewrite of
the public housing program in over 20 years and worked
to craft and pass a bill that helped save the
government billions of dollars in rental assistance
payments, preserved thousands of affordable rental
apartments, and helped finance the rehabilitation of
those apartments. With Senator Jim Jeffords (I-VT),
John Kerry sponsored the Affordable Housing
Preservation Act to foster local partnerships between
non-profits, state and local governments, and private
landlords in order to keep existing housing projects
available and affordable for low-income tenants. He
worked to create and implement the "mark-up to market"
program and he co-authored the Affordable Housing for
Seniors and Families Act of 2000.
*And, of course, the most important thing about John
Kerry is he's an ICE HOCKEY PLAYER!
One of the most impressive things about John Kerry is
the number of times throughout his career that he's
been willing to stand up for what's right, even when
it was difficult. Time after time he's been warned he
was committing "career suicide." This is why charges
of him changing his position to fit the politics of
the day are not only unfair, but exactly the opposite
of the truth.
For example, many people told John Kerry he could
EITHER lead the Veterans Against the War or have a
career in politics – not both. He was told to choose
one or the other. While investigating the corrupt Bank
of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI)., Kerry
was warned to back off by prominent Republicans and
Democrats including former President Jimmy Carter,
former Defense Secretary Clark Clifford, Bert lance
and even Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. His own party
refused to back him. He continued on and brought down
the bank that had laundered money and hidden
operations of international criminals, drug dealers,
intelligence agencies and terrorists.
Senator Kerry chaired a select committee to
investigate US soldiers still missing in Vietnam. This
was considered a huge risk because at the time it was
thought the families of the missing would never be
satisfied and were looking for a scape goat,
cooperation with the Vietnamese government was
problematic and politically difficult, and political
forces at home were ready to pounce on any action the
committee took. Kerry was able to account for every
last soldier, received great praise from the families,
and help normalize relationships with Vietnam.
Kerry's strong stance in support of
Graham-Rudman deficit reduction legislation was fought
against by many in the party who thought it would lead
to automatic cuts and Kerry was warned it would anger
his liberal base at home. He was warned it would hurt
him in his next re-election run.
In 2003 Kerry tried to hold President Bush
accountable for misrepresentations regarding Iraq and
the budget for the war. He voted for the second
appropriations bill ($87 billion) for the war in Iraq
when it includes a way to pay for it. When the
Republicans try to charge the cost to our children,
Kerry voted against it in an effort to hold Bush
accountable and curb the crushing national debt.
This is a man of principle, conviction and
substance. He truly is the real deal!





=====
Jim Salisbury, Another proud veteran for Kerry!
jimsalz@...

http://www.johnkerry.com/communities/veterans/
http://www.vote-smart.org/

http://www.independent-media.tv/itemprint.cfm?
fmedia_id=7073&fcategory_desc=The%