Why I will not vote for John Edwards

When I got home today (Wenesday), I took my usual after work dump. I know you didn't open this posting to read about the bowel habits of your favorite 39 year old man. But anyway, as I sat there on the john I began to think about, who I would explain why I was not going to vote for today. Well, after I got done and flushed the john, I had to wait for about a minute while my low flow toilet's tank filled up so I could flush the john again. I hate flushing the john twice.

That's when it struck me. In 2004 I encouraged people to flush the Johns (Kerry and Edwards) during the election. Man I hate flushing the john twice. What I really hate is when a turd keeps coming back up and you have to flush over and over again.

So, tonight's topic?

Why I am flushing the John again … I meant why I am not voting for John Edwards.

This John has been flushed almost as many times as a rest stop toilet. The registered Democrats flushed him as a Candidate for President 2004 during the primaries. The American people flushed him as the Democratic nominee for Vice President, in 2004. Before the 2004 Senate election, Edwards announced his retirement from the Senate and supported Erskine Bowels (Er… I meant Bowles), former Clinton White House Chief of Staff, as the successor to his seat; Bowels (Er… I meant Bowles), however, was defeated by Republican Richard Burr in the election showing that the John Edwards' home state of North Carolina, were tired of John's choices as well. You would think after being flushed twice that would be the last time you would see this turd but I guess the Them-a-crap ( Er … I meant Democrat) party is one big low flow toilet.

In November 2000, People magazine named Edwards as its choice for the "sexiest politician alive." But I am here to tell you a couple of true stories that will let you know this John dirty and smells like crap.

Bribed by Saudi Lobbyist while on the Senate Intelligence Committee:

John Edwards got into a sweetheart real estate deal with a Saudi lobbyist / registered foreign agent while John Edwards on the Senate Intelligence Committee, whose members had high security clearances, were privy to highly classified data and were actively investigating links between Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 terrorist attacks (15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis.) Michael Petruzello was a lobbyist, registered foreign agent and the manager of Qorvis Communications. That firm was hired by Saudi Arabia on November 14, 2001 (just 2 months after 9-11) to counter criticism of the Arab kingdom.

On May 17, 2002, Petruzello offered to buy Edwards' Washington home -- which had been on the market for over a year -- for 3.52 million dollars. (Edwards paid 2.2 million for it in 1999.) The deal later fell through but Edwards still has the $100,000 deposit. He says he hasn't decided whether to keep it, and would only have to report the conflict of interest if he does so. The house eventually sold for $3 million, a full $500,000 less than the Saudi agent offered.

The Edwards claims he had "no idea" Petruzzello worked for the Saudis, but in the weeks before the offer Petruzzello visited Edwards home state of North Carolina with the Saudis as part of their publicity campaign, and he was widely quoted in Washington and national publications describing his work for the Saudis. His firm even ran pro-Saudi TV ads in 20 large markets including North Carolina (and other states from which Senate Intelligence Committee members came.)

Kent Cooper, the former head of the government's public disclosure office for federal candidates, said " The potential conflict of interest is readily apparent when a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence receives $100,000 in a real or sham business deal with a foreign agent or a person with extensive foreign contracts at the same time the Senate is investigating possible lapses in national security."

So, does John want you to think he was too dumb to put two and two together? Or is this an example of a dirty Democrat being caught with his hand in the cookie jar?

Highly Suspicious Campaign Contributions:

John Edwards, who is himself a lawyer, has received tons of campaign money from law firms. Nothing illegal or particularly wrong about that, however you may feel about lawyers.

But many of them show strong signs of being illegal contributions designed to evade limits on the amount of contributions, by having employees and spouses "contribute" money that a wealthy lawyer wanted to give. Other campaigns have used these practices; Bob Dole's national campaign co-chairman was convicted of the practice in 1996.

There are several cases described in "The Hill" (a magazine about Congress) where low-paid paralegals who had never contributed to campaigns before, and weren't registered to vote (or were even Republicans) gave the maximum $2,000 donation to Edwards. So did their spouse and several other people at the law firm where they work. Two had even filed bankruptcy recently.

It can't be proved these people were helping their bosses give more than the $2,000 maximum. But, as Bill Allison of the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity said, "It seems on the surface very suspicious. I think it is somewhat questionable that people who have never donated before would suddenly donate $2,000,"

In one case there IS direct evidence that such an employee was illegally contributing for her boss. Michelle Abu-Halmeh, a legal assistant at Turner & Associates in Arkansas, told The Washington Post in April of 2003 that she expected to be reimbursed by her boss for her $2,000 contribution. The Department of Justice started a criminal investigation of this case but it petered out.

It's par for the course for Democrats to take kick backs and for them to suspicious campaign funds.

So, who is John Edwards?

He is the type of man that chooses his politicail ambitions over his family. On November 3, 2004, Elizabeth Edwards revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She was treated via chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and continued to work within the Democratic Party and her husband's One America Committee. On March 22, 2007, Edwards and his wife announced that her cancer had returned; she was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer, with newly discovered metastases to the bone and possibly to her lung They said that the cancer was "no longer curable, but is completely treatable"and that they planned to continue campaigning together with an occasional break when she requires treatment. Sorry, but if my wife got cancer, (God forbid) her treatment would be my number one priority not something I would take an occasional break for.

John Edwards was football star in high school. (Not real sure why his supporters think this a big deal but 8 of the 12 sites I looked out tonight mentioned it.) Edwards attended Clemson University and transferred to North Carolina State University earning a bachelor's degree in textile technology in 1974.Later he earned his law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).

After law school, he worked as a law clerk for a while then worked for a series of law firms primarily defending banks and other corporate clients in Tennessee. The Edwards family returned to North Carolina in 1981, settling in the capital of Raleigh where he joined the firm of Tharrington, Smith & Hargrove and began making a living as a medical malpractice lawyer. Edwards sued the American Red Cross three times, resulting in a confidential settlement each time. In 1985, Edwards represented a five-year-old child born with cerebral palsy whose doctor did not choose to perform an immediate Caesarian delivery when a fetal monitor showed she was in distress. Edwards won a $6.5 million verdict for his client, but five weeks later, the presiding judge sustained the verdict but overturned the award on grounds that it was "excessive" and that it appeared "to have been given under the influence of passion and prejudice," adding that in his opinion "the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict."

After this trial, Edwards gained national attention as a plaintiff's lawyer. He filed at least twenty similar lawsuits in the years following and achieved verdicts and settlements of more than $60 million for his clients. His fee was one-third of the settlement plus expenses. These lawsuits were followed by similar ones across the country. When asked about an increase in Caesarean deliveries nationwide, for no other reason then to avoid similar medical malpractice lawsuits, Edwards said, "The question is, would you rather have cases where that happens instead of having cases where you don't intervene and a child either becomes disabled for life or dies in utero?"

When this cash cow dried up he started his own law firm and specialized as personnel injury lawyer. (Yah! A ambulance chaser.) In one case he won $25 million, the largest personal injury award in North Carolina history. After Edwards won a large verdict against a trucking company whose worker had been involved in a fatal accident while off the clock, the North Carolina legislature passed a law prohibiting such awards unless the employee's actions had been specifically sanctioned by the company.

Edwards won election to the U.S. Senate in 1998 as a Democrat against incumbent Republican Senator Lauch Faircloth. Despite originally being the underdog, Edwards beat Faircloth with 51.2% of the vote by margin of about 83,000 votes.

During President Bill Clinton's 1999 impeachment trial in the Senate, Edwards was responsible for the deposition of witnesses Monica Lewinsky and fellow Democrat Vernon Jordan.

He voted to authorize the use of military force against Iraq, saying on October 10, 2002 that "Almost no one disagrees with these basic facts: that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a menace; that he has weapons of mass destruction and that he is doing everything in his power to get nuclear weapons; that he has supported terrorists; that he is a grave threat to the region, to vital allies like Israel, and to the United States; and that he is thwarting the will of the international community and undermining the United Nations' credibility." (Please, note that one of his concerns was the United Nations' credibility.) In a classic democrat move, he subsequently apologized for that military authorization vote.

In 2000, after only two years in the Senate, Edwards started to campaign for the 2004 presidential election. (And you thought the campaigns for the 2008 election started early?)

Edwards struggled to gain substantial support but his poll numbers began to rise steadily weeks before the 2004 Iowa caucuses. Edwards largely avoided attacking John Kerry. In the Super Tuesday primaries on March 2, 2004 Kerry finished well ahead in nine of the ten states voting and Edwards' campaign ended. On July 6, 2004 John Kerry announced that John Edwards would be his running mate. (And the "Flush the John's" drive began.)In the vice presidential debate, Dick Cheney jokingly told Edwards they never met due to Edwards' frequent absences from the Senate. Many Democrats criticized the selection for Edwards' perceived lack of experience. Kerry's campaign advisor Bob Shrum later reported in Time magazine that Kerry said he wished he'd never picked Edwards, and the two have since stopped speaking to each other.

Although on an October 10, 2004 appearance on Meet the Press, Edwards defended voting for the Iraq War resolution to Tim Russert "I would have voted for the resolution knowing what I know today, because it was the right thing to do to give the president the authority to confront Saddam Hussein...I think Saddam Hussein was a very serious threat. I stand by that, and that's why [John Kerry and I] stand behind our vote on the resolution", on November 14, 2005, he wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post in which he said he regretted voting for the Iraq War, and discussed three solutions for success in the conflict. In a February 4, 2007 appearance on Meet the Press, Edwards told Russert "over time, when I reflected on what I thought was going to be necessary going forward, to have some moral foundation to work on issues like poverty and genocide, things that I care deeply about, I could no longer defend this vote. It was pretty simple. And I got to the place I felt like I had to say it and had to say it publicly. And so—what? — a year — a year or so ago I did that." (So are we to believe he is a man that can't make up his mind? Or a man with no convictions? Or a politician that waits to see which way the polls fall to pick a side to stand on? Or just a babbling idiot? I choice babbling idiot.)

Speaking of babbling Idiots: During Kanye West's post hurricane Katrina Torrent of Criticism he claimed "George Bush doesn't care about black people!." Well Kanye, my question to you is how many black people lost their homes when George W Bush's investment group forclosed on their subprime home mortgages? None, that's right ... that was John Edwards that did that.

In October 2005, Edwards joined the Wall Street investment firm Fortress Investment Group as a senior adviser, later working with them as a consultant and being paid $479,512 for his consulting services, a part-time job. Fortress owned a major stake in Green Tree Servicing LLC, which rose to prominence in the 1990s selling subprime loans to mobile-home owners and now services subprime loans originated by others. (Subprime loans allow buyers with poor credit histories to be funded, but they charge higher rates because of the risk, and sometimes carry hidden fees and increased charges over time.)

August of 2007, the Wall Street Journal reported that Edwards had invested $16 Million in Fortress and Fortress had bought poor performing New Orleans mortgages with the intention of foreclosing on properties in the Hurricane Katrina affected area through affiliates Only after this news came to light , did Edwards divest his funds from Fortress and start claiming he didn't know what Fortress was doing. (Can you believe that in his role as senior adviser / consultant for Fortress he didn't know what they were investing in? Or that he would put $16,000,000.00 of his own money into a company and not know what they were doing with the money? If you can I have a Subprime loan I would like to grant you so you can get your mom some discount plastic surgery. Im sorry, is it too early to make jokes about the dead mother of a idiot rapper?)

By the way, John Edwards had the audacity to officially announced his candidacy for President in the 2008 election from the yard of a home in New Orleans, Louisiana that was being rebuilt after it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. National polls have shown Edwards turd (I meant third) among the current Democratic field, behind Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama. As of July 2007, the Edwards campaign raised a total of $23 million from nearly 100,000 donors, placing turd (I meant third) behind Obama and Clinton in fundraising as well.

What does this turd promise to bring to the table?

Well, here are some of the things he believes in and is promising:

Economic Policy:

END POVERT IN 30 YEARS: Sounds good doesn't it? But he has yet to explain how he is going to do that. One guess would be to Give more just the $100,000 (about one mortgage) of the $16,000,000 he invested into a group intent on foreclosing the homes of Hurricane Katrina victims.

College for everyone: If a student agrees to work part-time during their first year at a public-college, the Edwards administration will pay for their tuition, books and fees. This program is based on a proposal by Edwards in 2004, which was implemented as a pilot program in North Carolina which was dropped because of the economic burden. ("I'm working at Burger King now but I plan on going to DEE-DEE-DEE University and getting my "Ding = Fries Ready" Degree and John Edwards is going to pay for it!" And if you believe that you must really like the job the government is doing with out K thru 12 schools now.)

Global warming: One of Edwards' campaign's main focuses is fighting that nasty invention of Al Gore's … no not the internet …global warming. He plans to make his presidential campaign carbon neutral by limiting energy consumption and buying carbon offsets for the energy they do end up using. (If they really wanted to end global warming the gag the Democrats so they would quit spewing so much hate air.Energy: Edwards has endorsed the widespread goal of 80% reductions of greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels by the year 2050. Which would put US companies out of business.) He has advocated capping emissions, reducing the cap every year, and auctioning off the right to emit a certain quantity of greenhouse gases. (Which would limit production of goods, increase operating costs and cause huge inflation all while raising taxes.)He would then use this money, an "guesstimated" $10 billion, to fund research for alternative energy sources in an effort to end the United States reliance on foreign crude oil. (Why not use the oil we have in Alaska to do the same thing and save $10 billion in tax money?)

Social Policy: National Service: John Edwards opposes a military draft under any conditions. (Wow, hope the Russian don't start rebuilding there military, or China, Turkey, Iran and North Korea don't start trying to build nukes. Because if he is President he has totally ruled out the draft.)

Abortion: Edwards is very pro-abortion. Kate Michelman, a nationally prominent abortion rights activist and former leader of NARAL, has joined the campaign as a senior adviser, charged with outreach to women. (Well, maybe he is planning on working as a abortion mal-practice lawyer after he gets flushed this time.)

Gay Agenda: During his 2004 Vice Presidential run, Edwards stated he was opposed to same-sex marriage. In late December 2006, in an interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, Edwards said, "Do I believe they (gays) should have the right to marry? I'm just not there yet..." However, Edwards opposes a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. He does support civil unions and partnership benefits. (It's like trying to nail a turd to the wall to figure out where he stands on this one.)

Immigration: Edwards supported the expansion of the H-1B visa program to increase the number of work visas for immigrant workers. Edwards supports expanding legal immigration to the United States while working with Mexico to provide better border security and stop illegal trafficking. (It amazes me how Democrats always want to ask the fox to help them guard the hen house.) On February 7, 2007 Edwards said in a Cox News Service Q&A that "We want to change the immigration system, so people can get on the path to citizenship." (Hell, why would you pay for the cow when milk is free.)

Health care: On February 5, 2007, Edwards unveiled his plan for universal health care. The plan has two components: revenue sources (raising your taxes) and cost containment (eliminating your choices). The total public cost of the plan would be $90–$120 billion per year, paid for by eliminating the 2001 tax cuts, Employers would be required to either cover their employees or to pay a payroll tax , Medical Insurance Businesses would basicially be taken over by the federal government Individuals who are not covered by their employers or by an expanded Medicaid program will be required to purchase insurance from these Health Markets. His cost reductions are mostly about removing your choices in treatment. About the only thing you would be able to choose will be your malpractice lawyer. (John has to protect his buddies you know.)

Foreign Policy:

War on Terror: Edwards has called the War on Terror a "bumper sticker," saying "The War on Terror is a slogan designed only for politics, not a strategy to make America safe. It's a bumper sticker, not a plan."

Iraq: Edwards is the only 2008 Democratic presidential candidate to have not only voted for the war, but also cosponsored it. Three years after the war began, Edwards has said that the decision to go to war in Iraq was a mistake and has apologized for his 2002 vote. Edwards was a vocal critic of the Iraq War troop surge of 2007. Much to his embarrassment the troop surge is working.

Well, as you can tell, John Edwards is an ambulance chasing personnel injury lawyer that made it big. He has no convictions and flip-flops on the issues. He has made a living off of other peoples misery most of his life. And pretends to not know what he was doing every time he gets caught. And the Democrats keep forgetting he is a shyster lawyer.

I'm hoping the Democrats flush this John AGAIN. And get ride of the low flow toilet that keeps letting this turd rise back up to the surface.

My Take?

I ain't voting for him. I can't see voting for anyone that is so financially irresponsible that not only would he pay $400.00 for a haircut but go on TV bragging about it.