[email hidden] (Steve Dufour) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...
Quoted message said:"larry" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...
Quoted message said:Well she lied, cheated, stole and got caught.. so I
guess she deserves to go to JAIL. I think they should
fine the #%&$ out of her and put her back to work to pay
some big taxes. But on the other hand those with plenty
of money are not very afraid of paying a fine.. big
deal.. but some time in stripes scares nearly everybody.
Laurence
From today's Washington Times
Saving the streets from Martha Stewart
she's had her comeuppance.
realcities.com8137164.htmOpen ↗
Posted on Mon, Mar. 08, 2004
Kerry alternately pleases, befuddles Arab Americans and Jews
By James Kuhnhenn
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Sen. John Kerry is a former altar boy with a
Jewish heritage that includes at least two victims of the
Holocaust in his family tree. His brother converted to
Judaism. He supports Israel. So he should be a cinch with
Jewish voters and donors, yes?
Not quite.
Over the past few months, wary leaders of the Jewish
community have questioned Kerry's stance on the Middle East.
Many were incensed when he told Arab-Americans in October
that Israel's security fence presented a "barrier to peace."
They've urged him to clarify his position and warned that
Jews, a reliable Democratic bloc in the past, are
politically in play after President Bush's forceful post-
Sept. 11, 2001, policies in the Middle East.
"The Jewish community has not been a battleground until
now," said Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., who attended a question-
filled session between Kerry and Jewish leaders last week
in New York.
For Kerry, holding on to Jewish voters is especially
important in states such as Florida. So far, Kerry has fared
well with Jews as he has moved to secure the Democratic
Party nomination, but the Sunshine State could be crucial in
November's general election, and Jewish defections to Bush
could cost Kerry the state.
The closely divided U.S. electorate, however, has led Kerry
to perform a political high-wire act.
Arab-Americans are also becoming a political force and
constitute a sizable voting bloc in states such as
Michigan and Pennsylvania. Kerry has gone out of his way
to appeal for their votes. He has scored with his
criticism of Attorney General John Ashcroft, whom many Arab-
Americans accuse of civil rights violations in the
aftermath of Sept. 11.
"We feel closer to Senator Kerry than we did to many of the
other (Democratic) candidates who were running," said James
Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute,
an advocacy group for Arab-Americans.
Zogby pointed out that Ralph Nader, who is of Lebanese
ancestry, received more than 13 percent of the Arab-American
vote in 2000. More than 80 percent of those voters, Zogby
said, chose Nader because of his pro-Arab stance on Middle
East policy.
"There's something there (for Kerry) to be concerned about,"
Zogby said.
The Middle East thicket also could affect Kerry's ability to
raise money. Jewish contributors have always been a staple
of the Democratic donor base. With President Bush armed with
a record-setting campaign treasury, any slippage in fund
raising could be disastrous.
"Among the Democratic voter base for whom Israel is a
seminal issue, there are many more who are writing checks to
Republicans than I have ever seen," said Weiner, a Kerry
supporter.
The Middle East also poses another problem for Kerry: It
illustrates the criticism that he equivocates on issues.
In his speech to Arab-Americans in Dearborn, Mich., in
October, Kerry said Israel's security fence was "provocative
and counterproductive" and presented a "barrier to peace."
He also said that, if elected president, he would name
former President Jimmy Carter or former Secretary of State
James Baker as peace envoys to the region.
But many Jewish leaders have long perceived Carter and Baker
as being tougher on Israel than on Arab countries and object
to giving them negotiating roles.
At his meeting with about 50 Jewish leaders in New York on
Feb. 28, Kerry backed off and offered to send President
Clinton's former national security adviser Samuel "Sandy"
Berger and his special Middle East envoy, Dennis Ross, as
his intermediaries.
Kerry also has been a persistent critic of President Bush's
foreign policy, calling it arrogant and inept and has
demanded a greater role for the United Nations. That sparked
a question from Jack Rosen, the president of the American
Jewish Congress.
"Given his position on the question of multilateralism and
knowing that the United Nations has not been a kind home for
the Israelis ... would he continue to maintain the current
Bush policy of vetoing any one-sided resolution at the U.N.
Security Council," Rosen said he asked. "He quickly reacted
and said he would maintain that same policy."
[ just listen to this guy. is there any question that he's
putting israeli security interests ahead of american
security interests? does he even consider american security
interests after 9/11? ]
Kerry also repeated his assertion, made in a debate earlier
in the day, that the fence is "necessary to the security of
Israel until they have a partner to be able to negotiate."
Campaign spokesman David Wade later said the objections
Kerry expressed in Michigan about the fence were based on
its proposed location inside the West Bank, not on Israel's
right to build it.
Rosen, a longtime Democrat, is a fan of Bush's Middle East
policy and gave $100,000 to the Republican National
Committee in 2002. He said that while Kerry has a long pro-
Israel record, he was withholding final judgment.
[ $100,000 to the RNC in 2002? and now he's
"withholding final
of american security. until rosen gives $100,000 to the dem
party, i say dems should "withhold final judgment" that he's
still a democrat.
republicans can have all the israel-first jews that they
want. dems don't need them for this election, and after
defeating bush, maybe this whole jewish lobby mystique can
finally be put to rest and they can go run into the arms of
their newfound nascar/kkk buddies in the republican party.
look at lieberman's candidacy. look at the success of mel
gibson's movie even though the hysterically pro-semitic
media overwhelmingly criticized it. they ain't all that. the
vast majority of americans are NOT fixated on full-tilt
support of israel. if dem jews can't understand that the
best way to reduce anti-semitism in the long term is NOT
having the most incompetent president in modern history be
their champion for israel, then they're a lot more
emotional, and a lot less smarter than they appear.]
"You can't go to Michigan and give nuances to one crowd
and then come to New York and give nuances to another
crowd," he said.
Former New York Mayor Ed Koch, a lifelong Democrat turned
Bush supporter, exemplifies the problem Kerry faces.
"I am for Bush because I think his position on international
terrorism and the Bush doctrine, which is we will go after
terrorists and countries who harbor them, trumps everything
else," Koch said. "I don't agree with any domestic position
he has taken."
In meetings with Jewish backers, Kerry reminds them that his
brother Cameron converted to Judaism and that his sister-in-
law is Jewish. Kerry also mentions his Jewish ancestry - his
grandparents on his father's side were Jewish.
Last week, an Austrian genealogist hired by the Boston Globe
discovered that Kerry's grandmother's sister and brother,
Jenny and Otto Lowe, died in the Holocaust. On his Web site,
genealogist Felix Gundacker said Otto Lowe was murdered in
the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia in 1943. Jenny
Lowe disappeared in the Treblinka death camp.
Two weeks ago, aboard his campaign plane, Kerry voiced
concern about the resurgence of anti-Jewish sentiment in
America and abroad. Asked whether he intended to watch Mel
Gibson's controversial "The Passion of the Christ," Kerry
said he was unsure.
"I'm concerned about the anti-Semitism message," he said. "I
don't know if it's there or not there. But it's a concern.
There's a lot of that around right now. There's a lot in
Europe. There's a lot in other parts of the country. I think
we have to be careful of it."
