The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are back in the news today, after one of their funders, Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens, told a conservative audience at an American Spectator gala that he would pay $1 million to anyone who could disprove even a single charge levied by the group regarding John Kerry's war record.
Senator John Kerry (D-MA) immediately took him up on it.
"I would be more than happy to travel to Dallas to meet with you in a mutually agreed upon public forum, or would invite you to join me in Massachusetts for a public dialogue and then together we could visit the Paralyzed Veterans of America in Norwood and see firsthand how we can put your money to good work for our veterans," the senator wrote in a letter addressed to Pickens’ Dallas home.
Pickens has responded. It seems he forgot to mention the fine print.
In his response, Pickens wrote: “I am certainly open to your challenge,” but he said he would not pay Kerry unless the senator first provided him with copies of his wartime journals, as well as movies he shot while on patrol and his complete military records for 1971 to 1978.
Kerry's war records were made available on his campaign website during the election, and the undeleted version was released after the election.
Many of the records contain praise for Kerry's service. For example, the documents quote Kerry's former commanding officers as saying he is ''one of the finest young officers with whom I have served;" is ''the acknowledged leader of his peer group;" and is ''highly recommended for promotion."In the Forbes poll of the America's richest men, T. Boone Pickens ranked a mere #117th. He donated $2 million in funds to the SBVT, along with fellow Texan Bob Perry, who donated over $4 million. Of course, Pickens and Perry have plenty of money to throw around, thanks to the Republican's laissez faire economic policies and his yearly tax cuts to the rich.
By the way, Warren Buffet had a bet of his own for Pickens and his well-heeled friends. Buffet thinks we should up the taxes on the rich.
But if we don't reward folks like Chicken Pickens for raiding corporations and greenmailing the companies, or buying up our water rights to sell back to us for a profit, how will we encourage all those predatory capitalists, er... entrepreneurs who keep greasing the palms of our congressmen, um.... wheels of our economic engine?
