Kerry preps to re-launch run for White House

[molly]

WASHINGTON — Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry's official announcement next week that he is running for president will be more than a formality. It looms as a pivotal moment in which the candidate needs to re-energize his campaign and convince skeptical Democrats that he is their best hope to win the White House.

Kerry plans to re-launch his candidacy on Tuesday and Wednesday with speeches in South Carolina, Iowa, New Hampshire and Boston.

snip...

Dean's rise has posed numerous problems for Kerry: Dean is a magnet for the liberals Kerry had hoped to attract; he has routinely attacked Kerry for supporting the Iraq war; he is from the same region as Kerry; and he is turning the Jan. 27 New Hampshire primary into a dogfight some analysts say could doom the loser.

snip...

At this point in 1999, challenger Bill Bradley was leading Vice President Gore in New Hampshire. Gore was forced to rethink and improve his campaign. Some analysts say Dean could have a similar impact on Kerry. "He's been on a bit of cruise control," Smith says. "It may be that dropping behind in the polls will jump-start his campaign."


http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/2003-08-28-kerry-relaunch_x.htm

[Dover]

1. Same song, second verse.....or broken record?

How will he attract Dean's liberals?

[blm]

5. Kerry's records prove him to be WAY more liberal than Dean

and if "Dean's liberals" are REAL liberals they'll appreciate it.

[poskonig]

21. Kerry never makes an issue of this.

Instead he talks about his record in Vietnam. Over and over and over again. He's known as the Vietnam guy that was misled. While we know where Kerry stances on the issues, he isn't giving Democrats the red meat.

I suspect Team Kerry took NH for granted and didn't liberal his image up enough because they didn't want to be Dukakised in the general after the "coronation" in Boston.

Changing his image to the liberal that was easily misled is somewhat of an improvement. However, trying to "fight" his way out of this only makes it very easy for the Deanies to kick Kerry when he is down without looking like the bad guys.

While I'm not sure what options Kerry has left, he should try to make inroads into Iowa and South Carolina (this may be going on as we speak) since NH looks extremely precarious for him right now.

[Nicholas_J]

34. AS the media begins actively reporting Deans record as Governor

and it is compared to Kerry's record as Senator, any liberal support for Dean will simply fold up and vanish. Dean has been essentially running alone for the last year, and the fact that he has been creating an image of himself that will not bear up to close scrutity is going to kill him, as people find out his attempts to cleverly misrepresent himself, or not give enough info for people to actually know WHAT kind of democrat he is. People geerally hate being deceived, or waffling candidates, and the latest articles about Deans continually changing stances, From Social Security to Cuba, are going to be his undoing. Over the next five months, Kerry and every other candidates are going to be continually reminding the public, thrrough the media, of Deans inconsistancy, which will be treated as weakness.

[Octafish]

6. Kerry is a Liberal Democrat, that's how.

Gee. John Kerry has fought for Liberal causes his entire adult life. Once the general public discovers that, Kerry will find quite a few Liberal Democrats jumping on his bandwagon.

For those who don't know: Please check out his record as a US Senator. His Liberal credentials are documented by the Americans for Democratic Action, the Children's Defense Fund, the Sierra Club, the ACLU, the NAACP, and every other progressive organization that keeps tabs. You'll find Kerry really is a Liberal Democrat.

BTW: John Kerry volunteered to defend the country when the war in Vietnam raged. He came home a hero and publicly demanded an end to that war. So, not only is Kerry a politican who talks about being a Liberal, he thinks being a Liberal and a free American worth fighting for. That is a true Liberal.

[dfong63]

11. yesterday's liberal creds aren't enough

John Kerry has fought for Liberal causes his entire adult life.

not quite his entire adult life. Kerry wimped out on the Iraq war vote. yesterday's liberal creds aren't enough.

[George_Bonanza]

22. That's the typical argument with no substance

Usually perpetuated by Deaners, trying to discredit every past deed except the IWR because they know that Dean can't go toe to toe with Kerry in the past.

[virtualobserver]

2. there is a win\win aspect to Dean's rise for me.....

Even though I support Dean, I will be happy to know that if someone is strong enough to beat Dean, they will be powerful enough to beat bush.

[XanaDUer]

3. That's a really good way of looking at it!

n/t.

[virtualobserver]

9. we want a battle-tested nominee.

I'm not interested in a close win.....Any Democrat who really takes it to Bush will win in a landslide.

[dfong63]

12. but Kerry should prove his mettle by battling Bush, not Dean

[calimary]

7. I second that. It will be interesting to see how ANY of them shape up

in that regard. I'm a Dean supporter, too, but I'm watching Kucinich and Kerry both.

Obviously I would, AND WILL, vote for WHOMEVER the Dems choose to run against bush. I hope it's Dean, but I will get behind ANYBODY who's running against bush. Unless of course the dick (cheney) branches off and runs on his own - tee hee!

I'm still uneasy about Kerry's support of the war, and his recent directive to those of us still upset about Selection 2000 - to "get over it." That's still difficult for me. With Kucinich, I'm still uneasy about his voting record on a woman's right to choose.

BUT, EVEN SO, I shall willingly put any and all of that behind. I shall absolutely support either of them if either passes the test in the primaries. And I suspect that either Kerry or Kucinich has the strongest shot at it. I just don't see much happening with the other contenders. The rest of them are not making much headway and by this point, you DO need to be gathering momentum. Besides, if bumper stickers are any indication (and yes, admittedly, it's just here in Southern California), I'd say Dean and Kucinich are the two leaders, based on how many bumper stickers I've seen for each guy. I don't see much for Kerry. But that's just locally.

It WOULD be good to know if somebody else is strong enough to beat Dean. Since, right now, Dean looks like the one to beat. If someone else can, as you so astutely point out, then - I think you're correct - that it really will be a strong indication that they'll do quite nicely in November 2004. If not, I think Dean's the guy.

At least for the moment.

[blm]

4. What they fail to factor in is Kerry's history of

campaigning. He starts out slow, lets the other candidate build his momentum while he keeps just close enough behind, then, when they're feeling comfortable, turn on the real juice.

[clar]

8. No matter how you try and paint it

the Kerry team has run a lousy campaign. Maybe they'll get it together. I hope so. Let's see if he has what it takes to come from behind. I'm with whoever upthread said it's a win/win situation.

[blm]

10. Paint it?

Why take a shot at me? Look at his past campaigns yourself.

[clar]

17. blm,

you aren't seriously trying to tell anyone that Kerry planned his campaign so that he would drop from being the front runner behind a little known, ill funded, small state governor?

[George_Bonanza]

25. I think what BLM is trying to say is

That Kerry planned his campaign so that he'd take off in the prime season before the primaries. Kerry being a very strong but not media-saturated candidate will serve well as his launchpad.

[dfong63]

13. it's a win-win all right - for Bush

[Nicholas_J]

33. Most of Kerrys Team

Is Gores 2000 Team. Most of Deans team is Bradleys 2000 Team.

Hmmm, who said "History Repeats itself?"

[dfong63]

14. Kerry needs to turn his juice against Bush, not Dean

that's why Dean has surged ahead. not because he's been better at fighting Kerry, but because he's been better at fighting Bush.

[George_Bonanza]

23. No he hasn't

Kerry has been more vocal against Bush. He attacked him for Gore, he attacked him on the environment, and he attacked him on Afghanistan. He kept attacking him on Iraq, jobs, and veteran issues. Dean just captured the public's attention with a few timely quips.

[KaraokeKarlton]

29. Kerry attacked Bush "for Gore"?

Tell me, was that before, after or in between his attacks ON Gore?

Just curious...

[Nicholas_J]

44. Kerry has not been fighting at all.

So far he has restricted himself from many attacks on other democrats and that is the ONLY area in which Dean excels. Attacking hjis own kind. But as soon as Kerry begins formal campaigning, there is not one aspect of Deans record as governor, his massive conciliation and coalitions with Vermont Republicans in order to pass much of the Republican party's desired legislation while he was governor becomews a target to remind the public of on a daily basis. One can find virtually nothing progressive or liberal instituted or supported by Dean while governor, but a great deal that gave big business and Republicans everything they wanted. Even some Vermont Republicans have stated that Dean gave even more than they would have to business at the expensse of the public.

Or how about:

Interestingly, Dean told the Free Press last week that he wished the rest of the country was "more like Vermont." But it seems he's allowed Vermont to become more like the rest of the country.

Stephanie Kaplan, a leading environmental lawyer and the former executive officer of the Environmental Board, has seen the regulatory process become so slanted against environmentalists and concerned citizens that she thinks it's hardly worth putting up a fight anymore.

"Under Dean the Act 250 process and the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) have lost their way," Kaplan charges. "Dean created the myth that environmental laws hurt the economy and set the tone to allow Act 250 and the ANR to simply be permit mills for developers."

Kaplan points to the "Environmental Board purge" in the mid-'90s that enabled the governor to set a pro-development tone. In 1993, the Board issued an Act 250 permit to C Grocers in Brattleboro with conditions that restricted the diesel emissions from its heavy truck traffic. After C execs cried foul and threatened to move to New Hampshire, Dean broke gubernatorial precedent by publicly criticizing the Environmental Board for issuing what he called a "non-permit."


http://www.vce.org/deanenvironmentomya.html

Deans record is sitting there waiting to be revealed to the public by candidates like Kerry. I would like to really see Kucinich use stuff like this to rip Dean another orifice. Just one statement about Dean and Social Security from that little big guy had Deanies screaming that it was a lie, and Dean apologizing for having said it a day later, showing up both supporters and Dean himself for what they are.

It is going to be FUN.

[KaraokeKarlton]

26. That's a bad tactic to use with Dean

Because Dean won't be slowing down to rest and instead of "pacing" himself, he goes full steam ahead, in supercharged overdrive from start to finish. "Slow and steady" will never beat Dean. The man has enough energy to keep the same pace he has been all the way. The only way anyone stands a chance of beating him is if they bump their pace beyond his...which none of them can do because they don't have the time like he does.

[Nicholas_J]

30. Deans overly conservative record in Vermont

Will beat Dean.

Essentially, Dean has been attakcing the other candidates on decisions they have made in the past 2 years. but Deans ten years as governor has been one long record of making concession after concession to conservatives and big business. All Dean is running on is his own interpretation of what happened in Vemront with him as a governor, which is pretty much Dean fiction.

if you ask the following small list of questions about Dean and try to get cogent answers about them from the Dean campaign, you will recieve either attack, or no answers:



1. Why did you support sending Vermont's nuclear waste to the poor,
mostly Hispanic town of Sierra Blanca, Texas, 16 miles from the Mexican
border -- a plan described as "blatant environmental racism" by Paul
Wellstone?

2. Why did the Dean administration increase funding for Vermont's
state colleges by only 7% while you increased funding for prisons by
150%?

3. Why did IBM, the leading polluter in Vermont, receive your
Environmental Achievement Award nine times?

4. What did you mean when you said, "I've had 40 or 45 private
meetings with IBM since I've been governor. And IBM has gotten pretty
much everything they've asked for"?

6. Why did you wait for the courts and legislature to bring about the
civil union bill before you supported it? Why did you sign the bill
in private when you finally did sign it?

7. Why do you oppose the Israeli Labor Party candidate for prime
minister Amram Mitzna's call for unconditional peace talks with the
Palestinians?

8. While you acknowledge that you Bernie Sanders from your own state of
Vermont is leading efforts in Congress to overturn the Act. Why are
you not supporting Bernie Sanders' efforts and condemning Congress for
its attack on civil liberties?

9. How do you respond to Annette Smith of Vermonters of a Clean
Environment who says:
10. Since you pride yourself on your "fiscal responsibility", why do
you refuse to even consider any decreases in the bloated Pentagon
budget?



It is an odd thing, I think, that many Dean supporters criticize others for signing the Partiot Act, but Dean has not taken any kind of firm stance on it at all. Vagueness is Deans forte. ANd this is simply a sign of his weakness as a leader.

Dean really has NO platform whatsoever, and for the most part, he simply spouts whatever he thinks will get whatever group he is speaking to to support him. In essensce, Deans record has been a non-issue so far because Dean has been shadow boxing with himself, no one has been actively campaigning against him.

Dean and the environment... Remember the IBM stuff above:


Winooski River
Are IBM and Vermont's Agency of Natural Resources putting a river and its people at risk?


http://www.clf.org/advocacy/winooski_river.htm

Or his environmental record overall:


And nowhere will the tales of glory be more off the mark than when the Dean team gushes about his environmental record. "EP under Governor Dean means Expedite Permits, not Environmental Protection," proclaims Annette Smith, the director of the Danby-based Vermonters for a Clean Environment.

Smith is no stranger to Dean's record, having tangled with the Dean administration on everything from mining in Danby to pesticide usage on Vermont's mega-farms. When Smith learned that Dean was holding a press conference at the Burlington Community Boathouse recently to celebrate his eco-legacy, she fired off e-mails to Vermont environmentalists calling for a protest of the event and asking if they were "going to let Governor Dean ride out on his white horse of environmental leadership?"

Dean's attempt to run for president as an environmentalist is nothing but a fraud," Smith told Seven Days. "He's destroyed the Agency of Natural Resources, he's refused to meet with environmentalists while constantly meeting with the development community, and he's made the permitting process one big, dysfunctional joke."

Those are not the words you'd expect to hear from an environmentalist if you relied on the mainstream press for your news. The Burlington Free Press, for example, has spent the last week putting one coat of varnish after another on Dean's tenure, including a rather smarmy salute to his eco-record. The word from those quarters is that Dean is a friend of the environment and has done nothing but anger the business community by slowing development and stymieing growth.



http://www.vtce.org/deanenvironmentomya.html

Again, Dean has been running primarily on his own campaign press releases, and the Dean Defense Forces attempts to quash all news of Deans actual performance. But in the last few days, Deans record as a candidate and his ever changing NON positions have been noted. Next comes his recortd as governor, and all he claims to have done. will be seen in a more balanced light, not by the spotlight Dean is attempting to create for himself, and the shadows in which he is attempting to hide his real record.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

31. Spam Spam Hates-Dean Spam and Spam

Spam Hates-Dean Spam Spam Spam and Spam....
..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Spam Hates-Dean Spam and Spam..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

[Nicholas_J]

35. Hows about a little truth:

During one of his weekly news conferences in 1993, Dean was being questioned about some of his welfare reform proposals, when he uttered comments that drew sharp criticism from advocates and welfare recipients. In talking about the segment of the welfare population that receives benefits as a permanent means of support, Dean said: "Those recipients don't have any self-esteem. If they did, they'd be working. They'd be trying to get out of a system that is essentially saying to them: 'You don't have anything to contribute. Take our money and then go away and beat the system.'"

http://www.rutlandherald.com/election2000/deancrit.html

Dean created a workfare system thatwas draconian in its time limitws and pushed far more people into poverty than the one Clinton signed into law two years later.

This little quote is dean speaking from what little heart he has, This is STILL the Howard Dean running for President, but who has handlers trying to keep him from stataing what his real agenda is.

Dean Dictionary: SPAM - Anything that reveals the truth about Howard Dean.

[KaraokeKarlton]

39. You wouldn't know the truth if it bit you square in the ass

The Vermont welfare reform led to what is now commonly known as "Reach Up" and it's anything but draconian. It also works to help people get off welfare and able to make it without help. I encourage people to google Vermont's Reach Up Program to find out just how much it offers.

You still remind me of this tormented soul with your irrational hatred of Dean.

[Nicholas_J]

42. How strange

Kalevala.. Lemminkainen...

A a matter of fact, the very portrait I use on my own personal web site...


LEMMINKAINEN: Finnish Trickster God. Full of conjuring and conjugality. He came to a funny finish - he was cut to pieces but his mum glued the bits back together with UKKO's honey from heaven. So he is now sticky and tricky. He was a brave warrior but suffered from an overdose of testosterone which caused much grief in his marriage to KYLLIKKI

http://www.godchecker.com/database/gc_deity.php?name=LEMMINKAINEN

Hmmm...a good enough description of me.


Sorry, no social service organization, progressive organization, or most of the people who were subjected to "Reach Up" will agree with your personal take on Deans program,which kicked a lot of people off of medicaid, and ssi. THis was another case of Dean siding with legislation demonded by his conservative masters.

AS a matter of fact, your description of Vemronts program REMARKABLY sounds like the praises the Republicans give to the phasing out of Welfare under Clinton (under duress from Republicans to do it, Clinton was, Dean did it joyfully)

Thee time constraints for people to "Reach UP" before they LOSE all welfare funding is shorter than the federal governments program. It IS concisered draconian by most progressives and those involved with social services.

Again hows 'bout

August 29, 2002

By Stephen Mills

TIMES ARGUS STAFF

MONTPELIER – A young couple with a baby have been sleeping outside because
they are unable to find affordable housing.

Kevin Zimmerman, 20, his fiancée, Melanie Guimont, 25, and their son,
Austin, have been homeless on-and-off for much of this year after a friend
they were staying with moved.

Despite numerous requests to a number of state and local agencies for
Section 8 subsidized housing, they say they have been either denied or
placed on lengthy waiting lists.

Zimmerman said their problem had become even more acute since the birth of
their son and the lack of housing could put his health and well-being at
risk.

“Welfare won’t help us with agency housing because we’re not eligible
enough,” said Zimmerman. “How much more eligible do I need to be? I’m
homeless with a 3½ month old baby. We were living with a friend and they had
to move, and we had nowhere else to go. We applied for emergency housing and
kept getting denied.

“We went to the Vermont State Housing Authority here in Montpelier. At first
they accepted us, and then they denied us because they did a criminal
background check and found I had a disorderly conduct conviction,” he said


http://projects.is.asu.edu/pipermail/hpn/2002-August/006649.html

Lot and lots of people screwed and made homeless by the constraints of Deans program, a Republican program ideal, I remind you.

[KaraokeKarlton]

43. Why don't you ask me? I benefitted from Reach Up.

It's a good service that actually helps you become self-sufficient. I'm living, breathing proof of it. Thanks to Dean's welfare reform a lot of people like me are free of the trap that the programs you support become. Dean's idea of welfare reform is about planning, addressing your barriers, resolving problems you face and overcoming hardship and difficulties. It's about having pride in yourself and succeeding in life instead of feeling trapped in a viscious circle that leads nowhere.

Dean's program doesn't kick anyone off anything. If someone has a real reason why they can't either work or further their education, the program works around it. The only people who get cut off are people who flat out don't want to do anything to help themselves. There's no excuse for people who are perfectly healthy and of sound mind and who don't have young or disabled children at home to not participate in the requirements. Reach Up will pay for you to get a degree as long as you take part in the program. And even when people go off the program they get medical care for 6 months afterwards and then they can buy into medicaid if their employer doesn't offer insurance.

You don't know what you're talking about. Oh, and before you start that crap about you applying for Vermont services online...they don't even process applications until you go in and meet with a worker...so that's another yarn you're telling.

And about the picture...where do you think I got it from?

[Nicholas_J]

51. I know where you did.

I am not as frightened of having my real first name and middle initial up on DU as most people who use the Internet are, so if you are so frightened of me as to stalk around the Internet for me, you may need more than the Dean campaign.

Anyway, If the qualifications for president are who has done more through social programs than Jeb Bush has helped more people in Florida than Dean did in Vermont, Riased the level of insured by far more people than Dean did. And if you cannot do as well as Jeb BUsh, your programs must be seriously crappy. DUring Deans tenure as governor, or the first fiew years, while the Snelling Tax increases were in place, the number of people with health insurance rose to 92.8 percent of the population, but after Dean rolled back the income taxes, the number of people covered bgan to fall, finally reaching 91.4 when Dena left office. Considering that the percent insured when Dean came to office was 90.7, Dena didnt do anything. Every state program for health care was created years before Dean came to office, increases to medicaid were given by the federal government, and the fall off in coverage was a result of Dean cutting budgets to these programs every year.


Again, Deans Workfare program kicks people off of welfare fasdter than the federal program. You would actually have benefitted more from the federal program than Reach Up, becasue you would have had more years to do so.


Like REpublicans, Dean supporters continually rely on the odd anecdotal story of that a few people can tell about how Deans programs helped them, but the statistics reveal that Dean harmed more people than he helped, and that mostly he helped the rich:

Vermont at a Glance

Many families in Vermont saw moderate improvements in their standard of living over the 1990s as the wages of median-wage workers grew. However, low-wage workers saw their wages decline over the 1990s, and median income stagnated. The poverty rate and income inequality in Vermont grew over the 1990s (see link below for table).

Median family income for four-person families
Middle-income families in Vermont have not fared particularly well during the current economic expansion. The incomes of families in the middle of the income distribution stagnated over the 1990s. Median family income for four-person families was $53,691 in 1998, compared to its 1989 level of $53,103 (in 1998 dollars).

Income inequality
Income inequality in Vermont grew over the 1990s. In the late 1990s, the income of the wealthiest 20% of families was 8.4 times that of the poorest 20% of families. By comparison, in the late 1980s, the wealthiest 20% of families had 7.4 times the income of the poorest 20%.

Poverty rate
The poverty rate in Vermont grew during the 1990s, from 8.1% in 1987-88 to 9.6% in 1997-98. However, the poverty rate in Vermont in the late 1990s remained below the national rate (13.0% in 1997-98).

Wages
In Vermont in the 1990s, the wages of low-wage workers declined, while the wages of similar workers grew at the national level. In 1999, the inflation-adjusted hourly wages of low-wage workers (workers at the 20th percentile) were 0.4% lower than they were in 1989, but due to wage gains in the 1980s they remained 10.5% higher than they were in 1979. The wages of workers in the middle of the wage distribution grew over both the 1980s and 1990s. The inflation-adjusted median wage (the wage of workers in the middle) in 1999 was 12.2% higher than it was in 1979.

http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/datazone_states_usmap_vt

DOnt give a rats ass what Dean did for one person, it is the overall picture that has to be examines, and Dean's desire was to CUT people benefits. For the most partm he had to be STOPPED from doing so by liberal democrats and progressives:

Senate adds money to budget, angers Dean
May 9, 2002

By ROSS SNEYD The Associated Press

MONTPELIER — Senators passed a 2003 state budget Wednesday that the governor made clear he would veto if it ever reached his desk...

They restored money to a pharmaceutical assistance program that he had slated for elimination, redirected some money to cities and towns to help pay for education, and passed the budget by a 21-8 roll-call vote.

Even the governor’s closest allies in the Senate ignored him. Sen. Nancy Chard, D-Windham, recommended restoring $440,000 to one of the pharmaceutical assistance programs and the Senate voted 22-7 to go along with her.

“I’ve become convinced that we have a philosophical difference between the governor, the Republican House and this Senate,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin, D-Windham.

“The governor and the Republican House want to balance this budget on the backs of our most vulnerable Vermonters. The Senate wants to balance this budget on the backs of the pharmaceutical companies who are charging too much for drugs.”



http://timesargus.nybor.com/Legislature/Story/46513.html


Now tell me again...WHO is respomnsible for Vemront still having the programs noted above...Dean, or those who fought him...

More:


If passed as presented, Dean’s budget would:

Eliminate the VScript Expanded Program.

Reduce the Vermont Health Access Plan pharmacy benefit.

Increase the co-pay up to $750/year for medicines under both the VScript and VHAP pharmacy programs. (Those eligible now pay only a few dollars for each filled prescription).

Eliminate the Medicaid dentures, chiropractic and podiatry programs.

Reduce the adult dental programs (cover pain and suffering only, not preventative care).

Add a 50% co-pay to adult vision programs.

Add a $250 co-pay per admission to VHAP inpatient hospital benefit.

Reduce the hospital outpatient payment by 10%.

Establish a hospital outpatient co-pay of $25.

These cuts would save about $27 million, $11 million in state money. Few advocates for the elderly are happy with the budget and have vowed to restore the money lost to these programs. A coalition of over a dozen advocacy groups held a rally and press conference at the Capitol building to denounce the budget cuts.

http://vnavt.com/vahhavoicewinter2002.htm

Come on...Find some PROOF about Dean and not personal opinion...Or do you simply fail to do so because there is nothing in Deans record to justify his actions from a Democratic Party platform position.

These are all ACCURATE reflecrtions of Deans decisions as governor. Only Republicans supported his platform and ideas.

[KaraokeKarlton]

53. More garbage

Of course, some obsessed guy in Florida would clearly know so much more about Vermont's Reach Up Program than someone who was actually on it. Oh, and I was on the old standard program before Reach Up...and it didn't do even half as much to help people get off welfare through becoming self sufficient as Reach Up did. The standard program is a trap that holds people down because the second you try to get ahead, you get penalized for it. Reach Up doesn't work that way. You don't get abandoned and lose help when you get a job. Instead, they offer needed support services like subsidized child care, help with transportation, clothing, mileage for travel, supplies you need to work just to name a few. The standard program never helped with those things at all. If your car broke down and you didn't have anyone to help you with a ride, you lost your job. If you couldn't pay for the babysitter, you had to quit because you lost childcare. Reach Up helps resolve these barriers and it makes a HUGE difference.

Stalk? That's a stretch. I stumbled on your website quite on accident while looking for other sites like this you might be spreading garbage on. I have no interest in you, Nicholas, but I suspect the Dean campaign's lawyer might with all the falsehoods you're spreading. I suspect it would qualify as defamation of character, slander or libel, or some such thing. I don't know, I'm not a lawyer. I'm sure the local campaign office I volunteer through will know, though.

[virtualobserver]

45. "His real agenda"....give me a break......

No alternative to welfare is going to be perfect, but a survey that I read that polled participants in that program indicated that 88 percent of them much preferred working in that program to welfare. Job satisfaction was higher in that study than it was at a major computer manufacturer that I used to work for.

Saying that people on welfare have low self esteem may not be particularly sensitive, but it is certainly generally true, although not an absolute. Just being temporarily unemployed can be a huge hit to self esteem.

I'll take a guy who makes an occasional mistatement any day over Kerry, who did not stand up to Bush over IRAQ when it really counted.

Our soldiers in IRAQ are being horribly abused by this war and not only physically but psychologically. The suicide rate in IRAQ is appalling. If Kerry was really the leader that his supporters claim he is, He would not have enabled Bush in this foolish endeavor.
It was an extreme error in judgement.


Let Dick Cheney from 1991 explain why.....


"I think that the proposition of going to Baghdad is also fallacious. I think if we were going to remove Saddam Hussein we would have had to go all the way to Baghdad, we would have to commit a lot of force because I do not believe he would wait in the Presidential Palace for us to arrive. I think we'd have had to hunt him down. And once we'd done that and we'd gotten rid of Saddam Hussein and his government, then we'd have had to put another government in its place.

What kind of government? Should it be a Sunni government or Shi'i government or a Kurdish government or Ba'athist regime? Or maybe we want to bring in some of the Islamic fundamentalists? How long would we have had to stay in Baghdad to keep that government in place? What would happen to the government once U.S. forces withdrew? How many casualties should the United States accept in that effort to try to create clarity and stability in a situation that is inherently unstable?

I think it is vitally important for a President to know when to use military force. I think it is also very important for him to know when not to commit U.S. military force. And it's my view that the President got it right both times, that it would have been a mistake for us to get bogged down in the quagmire inside Iraq."


Dick Cheney knew this in 1991, Howard Dean knew it before we attacked, and John Kerry discovered it last month.

Not an item for the resume.

[KaraokeKarlton]

46. Here's the truth for you, the PATH website

It tells you all about the cruel and evil welfare reform Dean put in place. (note the sarcasm). It's a damn good program, by the way! And right now they are begging people in the program to go to college to become teachers or nurses because our state needs them.

http://www.path.state.vt.us/Programs_Pages/Reach%20Up/Reach%20Up.htm

[virtualobserver]

47. looks pretty horrible......

How could you stand it?

I love Vermont.

[KaraokeKarlton]

48. I don't know how I ever did it

All that wonderful support was just SOOO smothering! lol

[Egnever]

36. Will beat dean with who?

Ive read all your biased bs and it hasnt changed my mind one iota about Dean.

and when you thorw all that crap on a freeper site they will cheer it. Might even vote for him.

Who is he going to loose to with your grbage? die hard ideologs?

Your probably right he will loose them. But the majority of america isnt so rigid. Hell half of america still thinks boosh is doing a good job. If they can live with bushes BS, All the out of context snips like yours in the world wont even touch dean.

[KaraokeKarlton]

38. You really need to seek help

Time for some debunking.

1. Why did you support sending Vermont's nuclear waste to the poor,
mostly Hispanic town of Sierra Blanca, Texas, 16 miles from the Mexican
border -- a plan described as "blatant environmental racism" by Paul
Wellstone?

You mean the LOW LEVEL waste such that you might find from a hospital, university and the like? That's what Vermont was going to pay for Texas to host. It has to go somewhere and Texas was willing to take it. Dean had no power over which site was chosen.

2. Why did the Dean administration increase funding for Vermont's
state colleges by only 7% while you increased funding for prisons by
150%?

Um, probably because we only have a few colleges but have had to pay a lot to house our prisoners in other states and we are in the process of building a new prison for them so they can come home. One of the old prisons had to be closed because it was in bad repair. Apparently we should send our prisoners to Virginia rather than let their families see them and house them in substandard buildings. Real humane, there, Nicholas.

3. Why did IBM, the leading polluter in Vermont, receive your
Environmental Achievement Award nine times?

How about some proof that they are the leading polluter? And how about you compare their supposed pollution to their efforts to be enviornmentally friendly. Oh no, we can't do that because it would show just how hard IBM worked to pacify our rabid environmentalist fruitcakes up here.

4. What did you mean when you said, "I've had 40 or 45 private
meetings with IBM since I've been governor. And IBM has gotten pretty
much everything they've asked for"?

Okay...40 to 45 meetings in 12 years. That is less than 4 meetings a year with the states largest employer. IBM didn't ask for much...just fairness, basically. And their company fed and housed an awful lot of Vermont's families. Yep, IBM is evil, alright.

6. Why did you wait for the courts and legislature to bring about the
civil union bill before you supported it? Why did you sign the bill
in private when you finally did sign it?

This one is mighty, mighty lame. The homosexual community wants to lead their fight on their own and then have politicians support their efforts. Why don't you want to let them address their own rights in the way they see fit?

7. Why do you oppose the Israeli Labor Party candidate for prime
minister Amram Mitzna's call for unconditional peace talks with the
Palestinians?

Why did most of the other candidates sign AIPAC's letter to Bush telling him to refuse to hold any meetings with Arafat until all terror attacks stopped? John Kerrys signature was on the letter, too.

8. While you acknowledge that you Bernie Sanders from your own state of
Vermont is leading efforts in Congress to overturn the Act. Why are
you not supporting Bernie Sanders' efforts and condemning Congress for
its attack on civil liberties?

Apparently you aren't listening because Dean talks about this in nearly every speech he makes.

9. How do you respond to Annette Smith of Vermonters of a Clean
Environment who says:

Annette Smith attacks good environmentally friendly businesses and tries to chase business out of Vermont. She's radical and bad for Vermont families.

10. Since you pride yourself on your "fiscal responsibility", why do
you refuse to even consider any decreases in the bloated Pentagon
budget?

Um, probably because after all Bush has pulled we are more at risk of attacks than EVER before. Duh.


If this is the best the anti-Dean people can come up with, they're in big trouble.

[Egnever]

40. Yehhhaaaa!

Well done :)

[Nicholas_J]

32. Ther are also many in Vermont who report

That Dean is at heis worse when worked up like that, or suporcharged, and most particularly when under attack. This is when he most often goes off half cocked and makes statements or decisions he has had to reverses later.The more Dean sticks his foot in his mouth closer to the primaries, the better for other candidates, most particularly Kerry.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

15. Re-Launch?

How many launchings does one get?

[virtualobserver]

16. unlimited launchings.....

until you run out of rocket fuel.

[killbotfactory]

18. Kerry hasn't even started yet!

He hasn't even announced!

He's pacing himself!

Marathon, not a sprint!

No TV ads, yet!

Dean's peaking too soon!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

27. Wait 'til he tears Whoressert a new one tomorrow.

They may need riot control outside NBC studios...

[polpilot]

19. Kerry 're-launch' campaign??? I think they mean 'pretend' we never

REALLY started or start-over or re-start or something. Maybe it means it didn't 'launch' so they're still trying to 'launch' or start or something.

It's definitely not good. Kerry should fire everyone associated with his campaign.

Dean '04

[ProfessorPlum]

20. Having an excellent Senator with an excellent record

really blasting at Bush can only help all of us at this point in the campaign. If Kerry really can fire it up and get people excited about his candidacy, so much the better. I think he would be an excellent president, but I feel a same kind of internal stillness about him that I felt with people like Dukakis - that he is a fantastic person, but not really on top of or ready for the dirty, rough, brawling tricks that the Bushies are going to be doling out.

But I agree with the poster above - Dean is pushing Kerry, and that is good, and at the end of the day, whoever is the toughest campaigner will rise to kick Bush's tush. That will be a sweet sweet day.

[DrFunkenstein]

24. You're Forgetting His Campaigning History

Against the very popular Willian Weld:

The last four debates were fabulous political theatre-two very smart men having at each other. "John's at his best under pressure, when he's being seriously challenged," Paul Nace, an old Navy friend, says. "He gets really cool, very calm. He really is a warrior-he just loves it. I took one look at him as he was walking into Faneuil Hall for one of the last debates and I thought, Bill Weld has no idea what's about to hit him."

Weld-who calls the debates a "bloody draw"-says that Kerry successfully attached him to the national Republican Party. (Weld had said some embarrassingly positive things about Newt Gingrich two years earlier.) "The turning point came when he asked me if I'd vote to keep Jesse Helms as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. That was a killer."

I asked Weld how he responded. "I ducked it, of course," he said, with a smile. "I mean, I hated Jesse Helms. But what could I do?"

Kerry won the election by eight percentage points. "John has always been underestimated politically," Marttila says. "But that race had the quality and intensity of a Presidential campaign, and he won. I don't see how they can underestimate him anymore, but they probably will."

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

28. There was that one House run.....

Never mind.

[DrFunkenstein]

37. You're Coming Unhinged!

I'm having a harder and harder time understanding what you are saying these days.

[KaraokeKarlton]

41. That's what happens when a certain Kerry supporter comes around

His dementia rubs off on everyone else and makes the whole place sound bug-shit crazy.

Rove should hire that crackpot Kerry supporter because he's doing more to divide the Democratic Party than Rove and Bush could ever hope to do. It looks like his attacks is what fuels most of the attacks on Kerry here too. I have to admit that the more he posts the more I want to dig up dirt on Kerry and post it everywhere. I'm not kidding, either. I can't figure out why the admins let him stay. It's not just Dean supporters who are sick of him, either.

[Nicholas_J]

49. Yes I know who you are speaking of

And you must be TERRIBLY afraid of the articles I post about Dean in order to consider me this way...

Then again almost all Dean supporters are afraid of ANYTHING written about Deans actual record as governor. And his actual complete flip flops during his campaign.

I much enjoy being attacked by Dean supporters as it is a clear sign thwat I have hit on the one thing that terrifies them.

The truth abour Dean...again. Answer these questions Deanies:


1. Why did you support sending Vermont's nuclear waste to the poor,
mostly Hispanic town of Sierra Blanca, Texas, 16 miles from the Mexican
border -- a plan described as "blatant environmental racism" by Paul
Wellstone?

2. Why did the Dean administration increase funding for Vermont's
state colleges by only 7% while you increased funding for prisons by
150%?

3. Why did IBM, the leading polluter in Vermont, receive your
Environmental Achievement Award nine times?

4. What did you mean when you said, "I've had 40 or 45 private
meetings with IBM since I've been governor. And IBM has gotten pretty
much everything they've asked for"?

6. Why did you wait for the courts and legislature to bring about the
civil union bill before you supported it? Why did you sign the bill
in private when you finally did sign it?

7. Why do you oppose the Israeli Labor Party candidate for prime
minister Amram Mitzna's call for unconditional peace talks with the
Palestinians?

8. While you acknowledge that you "haven't condemned Congress for
passing the Patriot Act," Bernie Sanders from your own state of
Vermont is leading efforts in Congress to overturn the Act. Why are
you not supporting Bernie Sanders' efforts and condemning Congress for
its attack on civil liberties?

9. How do you respond to Annette Smith of Vermonters of a Clean
Environment who says: "Dean's attempt to run for president as an
environmentalist is nothing but a fraud. He's destroyed the Agency of
Natural Resources, he's refused to meet with environmentalists while
constantly meeting with developers, and he's made the permitting process
one, big dysfunctional joke. EP under Governor Dean meant Expedite
Permits, not Environmental Protection"?

10. Since you pride yourself on your "fiscal responsibility", why do
you refuse to even consider any decreases in the bloated Pentagon
budget?

Not my questions, but culled from the many progressive democrat anti Dean web sites have been popping up all over the place in the last few weeks.

Dean has easily offended enough democrats to give George Bush the 2004 election if he is nominated. The dislike of Dean now is far greater than the the situation McCarthy faced in 1972. Far worse for the democrats if Dean is the nominee.


These are only a timy percentage of the questions about Dean and his record as governor that are awaiting him in the next few months and there are growing numbers of Anti-Dean sites started by liberal and progressive democrats all over the Internet now, asking the same questions, many of them in indy-media websites, but coming soon to a major newpaper near you. Once the Washington Post states asking the questions, then then New York Times will have to play catch up.

Thats the way it is with the media, today you are a darling, tomorrow, just chum for the sharks.

Rant all you want about the Washington Post Article...It will not stop the mass of articles looking at Deans campaign flip flops and his abysmal record as a slave of the Vermont Republican party as governor. They are ALL over the internet, in Vermont Newpspaers that have won the highest journalistic awards in the world, and they will soon be regualr reading for the national public.

THat is why you must present me as demented. I said this would start late Augist, Early September, moths ago. Dean had his shot at ever other democratic candidates for months now, and now begins the shots at Dean, from every direction, 8 democratic competitors, and every newspaper in the country as son as then smell blood.

Dean the environmentalist, whose record is dispised by almost every environmental group in the nation.

His fiscal record, beloved and to date praised ONLY by the Republicans who took his place after he decided not to un for governor.
Find a Vermont Democrat who praises Deans fiscal accomplishments. You cannot as they do not exist. Even Dean allies in the democratic party could no longer support him by the end of his last term as governor, and could find absolutely nothing praiseworthy of the fiscal decisions he was making. Only Republicans came rallying to Deans cry of "CUT THE BUDGET".

I must really frighten you. If I am demented, no one will pay attention to my posts, which I know is not true as numbers of people have posted that they find the info valuable and correct.

Deanies all threaten to put me on ignore, but are afraid to, as they are afraid of the truth in the articles posted about Deans record.

That is why Dean NEEDS the DEAN DEFENSE FORCES. Not to defend against the Republicans, but from his own conservative record. Their rule is to deny the truth of these articles, attack the person who posts them, but provide absolutely NO information that proofs that Dean had no part in his own decisions. Divert attention from Deans own record is all they can do.

Everytime I am attacked, I smell Deanie fear. It is

Only Dean supporters are afraid of them.

Because if it comes to running a campaign based on telling the truth, Dean comes out dead last in truthfulness.

[KaraokeKarlton]

50. Ahem...

I don't fear you, Nicholas...I feel sorry for you. Why? Simple. You are making your candidate look desperate...yes, desperate. And in reality, his campaign is. It's fizzling out and dying and some (not all, but some) of his supporters are forced to resort to grasping at straws to pull themselves out of the mire they've found themselves in.

Rather than accept the fact that Kerry made some very careless and bad calls that have cost him support he might otherwise have...you blame Dean for asking why Democrats voted to allow Bush to go to war. Do you think no one would notice he did that? Get real.

Who told Democrats to "Get over it"?
Who demonized Al Gore in order to take another desperate cheap shot at Dean?

That was YOUR candidate, buddy. Dean doesn't have to do anything to cost Kerry supporters...he does a damn good job of it all by himself.

Now for your posts....what aren't outright falsehoods are twisted and mangled so badly that they don't even remotely resemble the actual truth.

You claim that Vermont's Reach Up Program hurts people...well, mister, you are full of shit up to your eyebrows because I was actually a participant of the program in question and you don't know a damn thing about what you're talking about.

[Nicholas_J]

52. You were a participant

But more than half of the people who were previously on welfare in Vermont were not so lucky, and were cut off before they got anything.

While Dean was governor, poverty in Vermont grew by 12 percent, and the income of low income workers DROPPED. The qualficaitions to receive benefits were greatly raised under Dean, and the time table to finish REACH UP or WORKFARE, was reduced greatly.

Increasing the minimum wage just enough for people to NOT qualify for assistance.

So perhaps you should be more afraid of Dean than you are. Or be as happy as most Vermonters seemed to be when he resigned as governor. When he did polls in Vermont indicated that Dean would lose by a landslide if he ran again.

[KaraokeKarlton]

54. You're so full of shit I don't know how you can stand your own stench

The only people who are denied assistance are people who either don't NEED it or who refuse to follow the rules of the program. People who are disabled, care for a disabled child or have a young child at home don't have to seek employment, either. The rules are EASY to follow and you can opt to get a 4 year college education instead of going right to work. Yep, that's just cruel as can be.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

55. 1970 bid for Congress in Massachusetts' Third District failed.

Hinged enough for you?