On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:38:12 +0000, John Dunlop <[log in to unmask]> 
wrote:

>Denys dissembled :
>> Whilst I am flattered that you think so, I must confess that I am not
>> Jewish. I cannot speak for Shawn about this.
>
>Not sure what that has to do with anything.
>
>However, when you said : "Shawn is a Conservative which means he does not 
have a
>racist bone in his body", I couldn't see the relevance as any Conservative 
(or
>Liberal for that matter) can be racist. Wouldn't you call the Klu Klux Klan
>conservatives?
>
>Cheers,
>
>John

John,

to clear things up. The Republican party at least the current main-force
is being paid by big companies like oil, developers and such.
They are very corrupt.
Contrary to Denys statement, the Democrats are actually pretty strong on 
Patriotism. The go and serve while many of the Republicans send somebody 
elses child while they hide.
Thats why they are called chicken-hawks.

Michael
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060207/ap_on_go_co/veterans_for_congress;_ylt=A
l9ePdtsNM6J4bX5b7F_fFEb.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM-

Iraq War Draws Veterans Into Politics By JON SARCHE, Associated Press 
Writer Tue Feb 7, 2:09 PM ET
 
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - After 20 years in the Air Force and Bronze Star 
service during the 1991 
    
Gulf War, Democrat Jay Fawcett decided to come home and run for Congress, 
largely out of disgust with the way American troops were being used in 
Iraq. 

"I think it's just gotten to the point where a significant number of us 
who've served are looking at this administration particularly — and 
Congress doesn't get off the hook — and saying, `What're you doing? What's 
the plan?'" he said.

Fawcett is part of a large and possibly unprecedented number of former 
soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines running for Congress this year.

About 40 of the candidates are Republicans, while at least 55 are 
Democrats. By one count, at least 11 veterans of the Iraq war or 
Afghanistan are hoping to get elected to the House or Senate, all but one 
of them Democrats.

The fighting Democrats, as some call themselves, say their military 
experience could give them the credibility to criticize the war without 
being dismissed out of hand by the GOP as naive and weak on defense, as the 
Bush administration has often done.

"One of the things I think is behind this movement is, we're not stupid in 
the military. We know when we've been used and misused," Navy veteran Bill 
Winter, a Democrat who hopes to challenge GOP Rep. Tom Tancredo in the 
Republican suburbs of Denver.

Former Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., who lost both legs and an arm while serving 
in Vietnam, said the Iraq war veterans running as Democrats will offer "a 
direct rebuttal" to the administration on the Iraq war.

"This administration, come April, will be going into the fourth year of 
this war after the president said three weeks into it `Major combat over, 
mission accomplished, bring them on,'" Cleland said. "You tell me who's out 
of touch. It's not these Iraqi veterans that are coming back and saying, 
`This is not the way it was on the ground there, and I'm going to do 
something to change this.'"

Fawcett, who spent years as a defense contractor after leaving the Air 
Force, wants to take on Republican Rep. Joel Hefley in a Colorado Springs-
area district that has one of the country's biggest concentrations of 
veterans. It includes the Air Force Academy, two Air Force bases, a major 
Army installation and NORAD, the air defense command. The district has been 
represented by a Republican since the seat was created more than three 
decades ago.

The roster of Democratic veterans includes engineers, teachers, lawyers, 
business owners and a pastor. Their stands on the war range from calling 
for immediate withdrawal to demanding a clearer timetable and a way out. 
Fawcett, for example, says that pulling out now would be a mistake, but 
that the Bush administration has failed to clearly state its goals and an 
exit strategy.

Among other veterans running for office:

• Marine reservist Paul Hackett, who served in Iraq and is running for the 
Senate in Ohio. The Democrat narrowly lost a special House election last 
year in a district where 
    
President Bush won 64 percent of the vote in 2004.

• Former Army Maj. L. Tammy Duckworth, a helicopter pilot who lost her legs 
in a grenade attack in Iraq. She is running as a Democrat for the Illinois 
congressional seat of retiring Republican Rep. Henry Hyde. She said she 
privately disagreed with Bush's decision to invade Iraq but still 
volunteered to serve. "We should have been fighting the enemies that 
attacked us at home on 9/11," she said in December. "We should have been 
out there trying to catch Osama bin Laden."

• Democrat Eric Massa, a 24-year Navy officer challenging freshman 
Republican Rep. Randy Kuhl in western New York.

Elections after the end of World War II and the Vietnam War also saw large 
numbers of veterans running for Congress.

Republicans this time around could have a difficult time countering 
opposition to the administration's war plan — or the war itself — from 
veteran-Democrats, said Gary Jacobson, a congressional scholar at the 
University of California at San Diego.

"Popular sentiment is not terribly pro-war now, and there's lots of doubts 
about the administration's honesty and the purposes of the war," he 
said. "So if you have a veteran come back and start trashing the war, 
that's a problem for Republicans."

Still, a veteran cannot count on an easy win, said Ed Patru, spokesman for 
the National Republican Congressional Committee. 

"Being a veteran, it's great to have that on your resume," he said. "People 
appreciate veterans, but if you're wrong on taxes and the economy, the 
bread-and-butter, kitchen-tabletop kind of issues, being a veteran is not 
going to save you." 

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