20 Questions For John F. Kerry
Published August 27, 2004
f. When did you resign from the organization?
g. Do you dispute reports that you continued as a spokesman for the organization for more than a year after the Kansas City meeting?
h. If this was a mere footnote in history why have you repeatedly and vehemently denied you were there?
i. Did your campaign, as alleged in several newspaper accounts, attempt to get a witness to change his story about your attendance?
13. You have criticized the Patriot Act. What portions would you repeal or amend and why? What evidence do you have of any abuses of the Patriot Act?
14. As president, what would you do about Iran's emerging nuclear capability?
15. During your eight-year tenure on the Senate Intelligence Committee you missed more than thee fourths of all public meetings. It's also been reported that you have skipped or delayed receiving intelligence briefings during the campaign. Why should the public believe that you're serious about this issue?
16. What do you think is appropriate punishment for guards (and their superiors) found guilty of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib? Do you believe they should be stripped of command and receive dishonorable discharges and prison time?
17. On May 6, 2001, on Meet the Press, you stated that you had committed "the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers" in violation of the Geneva Convention. Specifically, you said you burned villages and "used 50-calibre machine guns, which [you] were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people."
a. Who ordered you to use 50-caliber machine guns on people?
b. How many people did you shoot with the 50s and how many of them were killed or wounded?
c. When and where did these shootings occur?
d. What other atrocities did you commit and when?
e. Which village(s) did you burn down and when?
f. Were any of your crewmembers present during the commission of any of these atrocities?
g. Did you order them to participate in the atrocities? Did they follow your orders?
h. Why were there no reports of these atrocities? Did you order your crew not to report them?
i. Are any of these incidents described in your Vietnam journal? If not, why not?
j. Did you observe thousands of (or any) other troops committing atrocities? When, where and what kind? Did you report them? If not, why not?
RJ Elliott is a graduate student at the University Of Central Florida. His passions in life are sports, politics, nature, and women who have piercings they never told their daddy about. He dislikes daytime television, left-wing dictators, and people who talk like Garrison Keillor. He is ambivalent about the names "Trig" and "Piper."
- 20 Questions For John F. Kerry
- Published: August 27, 2004
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- Section: Politics
- Filed Under: Culture: Media
- Writer: RJ Elliott
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Comments on this articleComments
bhw
With moderator Jim Lehrer on hand (30 Sept) you can't expect too much. Lehrer is a fair reporter but hardly "hard hitting."
For the Oct 8 debate they have named Charlie Gibson who is an absolute joke.
The Oct 13th debate has CBS's "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer as moderator. It has been so long since I have seen Schieffer I couldn't make a fair judgement.
Here is my bet: Zero questions on the Swift boats. Zero questions on Vietnam medals. Zero questions on "Winter Soldier."
Zero questions on any thing that requires more than a 5 word answer.
Are you now -- or have you ever been -- a member of the Communist Party?
Do you have any children or pets? --because know where you live...
When you became a liberal, did you know that they were associated with Satan?
When we cancel the upcoming election, declare martial law, bring out our October Surprise, and stage a 'terrorist attack' on our own nation, will you be surprised?
Will you agree to attend a debate with Bush by arriving via a slow-moving convertible driving through Dealy Plaza in Dallas?
If you owned as much stock in Halliburton as Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, would you have supported the war in Iraq?
If your daughter were gay, would you have enough personal integrity to admit that she probably deserves some form of civil protection for a deep personal relationship with her chosen mate?
-- And if so, would you openly oppose your reactionary boss -- or would you be an opportunistic pig playing to the Christian Far Right Nut Bars?
Will you do anything to further America's Empire Expansion and "Humble" Nation Building -- including lying about Weapons of Mass Destruction -- or are you just another liberal wimp who values honesty over efficiency?
If you win the election -- and Iraq continues to be a gigantic resource/treasury-draining quagmire/death trap for years to come, will you please not mention how we got into it?
Please?
Marc, maybe the moderators will skip the swiftie questions and ask Kerry about subjects the voters actually care about, like how he will help improve the economy and how he will fight terrorism.
Then again, maybe they'll ask these swiftie questions of Bush:
--Why won't you renounce the swiftie ads questioning Kerry's military service, when you yourself avoided going to Vietnam and have faced accusations that you went AWOL, which you haven't been able to successfully dispel
--Why was an attorney affiliated with you campaign giving pro bono advice to a 527 group, a clear violation of the law?
--Why did you wait for the attorney to quit, rather than fire him yourself?
I mean, if anyone should answer swiftie quests ions, it should be Bush.
I have said before that I don't care about Bush's Guard service because he did at least serve in the military [and I don't think military service or the lack thereof is an automatic qualifier or disqualifier for a presidential candidate]. But if he won't speak out against the b.s. tactics against Kerry, then his military record is fair game for comparison.
Ya know, I'm so tired of hearing/reading that Bush won't renounce the swiftboat ads.
He DID. I heard it with my own ears. He did so at a recent press conference... denounced it specifically along with ALL the 527 ads.
Vic
Disassociating himself from the ads and denouncing the ads are different things. Did he denounce the Band-Aid-sporting buffoons at his party's convention?
He *did* denounce the ads. And is the President of the United States supposed to monitor every damned thing going on at the convention?
Yeesh.
Vic
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I expect that Kerry will be asked difficult questions in the debates.