If you remember the 1984 Zemeckis film, Romancing the Stone, the dashing hero Jack Coulton and the beautiful heroine, romance novelist Joan Wilder, live out an experience that seems ripped from the pages of one of her books. Their story begins with Joan forced to travel to Columbia to rescue her kidnapped sister, and ends with her returning alone to New York to write of her thrilling adventure and lost love.

Of course, life isn't a romance novel.

Unlike Michael Douglas, JK doesn't kill a croc, smoke weed or sail away with Kathleen Turner, but at a book signing event at the Fox Chapel Barnes and Noble, he does have a little fun with the crowd in the Romance section.

Now, I don't know if the Senator should stop writing about government corruption or the environment and switch to steamy fiction, but I do know how all good romance novels end ...

OK, so sometimes life is just a little bit like a romance novel.

Once again, it was a busy week for Senator Kerry, with hearings, speeches and events in both Washington DC and Massachusetts, running the gamut from Small Business to Foreign Relations to respect for veterans -- and respect for the truth, as the Senator delivered a hard-hitting speech laying out the facts about what the Democrats have accomplished in the Senate and what the Republicans are trying to obstruct. As always, we are pleased to bring you the highlights of the week (along with one clip from Fall River, MA that was left out last week).

To see more details on some of these stories, check out this past week's posts here on KerryVision.net

It's the weekend, and there are plenty. Because Senator Kerry hasn't yet commented on the latest Harry Potter, we're going with a quote from JK in response to the Boston Globe's hard-hitting question, "Who is your favorite Simpsons character?"

Personally, I'd go with Lisa. Bright, cynical and blonde, she reminds me a lot of myself. But JK's a Bart fan, and this is about him, so we're going with it.

The Globe article isn't without controversy. The top spot is a toss-up between Homer, Marge and Mr. Burns, but our guy went with the bad boy, Bart. Hmmm ...

OK, Senator, let's hear your best argument. Sure, Bart's got the youth vote, but ai, carumba, he's a bit of a slacker, don't you think?

JOHN KERRY, US senator "I could say my favorite character is Mr. Burns, because thanks to him even after Dick Cheney is out of office he will live on as a cartoon. But I'm actually a Bart fan, despite the fact Time named him one of the 100 most influential people, and I didn't make the list. He once mooned a doctor, indicating he has the same view toward our current health-care system most Americans do."

Despite our differences on this matter, in regard to the 'Time 100', the Senator made top spot on our list.

OK, let's hear from the rest of you. Are you with me or are you with the Senator?

After a disaster like Katrina, a community finds itself confronting problems that may threaten its very survival. Even when the storm or tornado or earthquake has passed, the economic devastation can cripple a community, uprooting lives, forcing many people to move away even though their homes survived. Small businesses are especially vulnerable, and their survival is a crucial factor in determining whether people will be able to pick up the pieces of their lives and whether their community will truly recover.

Senator Kerry is a passionate advocate for small businesses, which are -- as he never ceases to point out -- the lifeblood of the nation's economy, providing half of the jobs in this country and more than half of the newly-created jobs. Quite simply, whatever threatens the health of small businesses threatens communities and threatens our national economy. As chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Senator Kerry has worked tirelessly to improve and streamline the processes by which aid reaches small businesses after a disaster, and convened hearings such as this one to evaluate the mechanisms in place, to investigate problems such as the failures after Katrina, and to determine the improvements that still need to be made.

For anyone who has been concerned about what the federal government did or didn't do after Katrina, FEMA isn't the only agency that people count on to help them after a disaster; the Small Business Administration's role is vital to the economic survival of a community, and hearings like this one go to the heart of concerns about whether the government is prepared to do its part for the people who are counting on it to be there. Senator Kerry emphasizes however that this is not intended as a "gotcha" hearing, but as an opportunity to learn from mistakes and to look at what is done right as well as what has gone wrong -- contrasting the slow and inadequate response after Katrina with the rapid response to the recent disastrous fire in Uxbridge, MA, for example.

Here we present Senator Kerry's opening remarks, which you can also read in the transcript below.

We’re here today to take a close look at the SBA’s Disaster Assistance Program. Obviously, this program serves as the Federal government’s primary source of long term financial assistance to small businesses that have been hit by a disaster of one kind or another.

We became all too familiar a couple years ago with the problems of the lack of adequate planning, the lack of adequate staffing, and other kinds of problems that accompanied the massive failure of delivery of services across the board in the wake of Katrina. And that taught us something. I think a lot of people, however, are unaware of how frequently the SBA does respond to various disasters around the country, some small, some large. And in fact, the SBA’s Disaster Assistance program plays an integral role in rebuilding homes and towns, businesses in communities all across the country.

My hometown – not hometown personally, but in my home state - Uxbridge – recently, just over this weekend experienced a serious mill fire, and some 135 homes and businesses were destroyed, a lot of damage done, some 300 jobs plus lost, and this mill had become a major magnet, if you will, for business in this community that’s been hurt over the last years by businesses going abroad and the transition of our economy anyway. So SBA stepped in, and I want to thank Administrator Preston for a fast response of the Agency. Agency personnel were on the spot Sunday afternoon for a fire that occurred on Saturday, they did their evaluation, and by Monday we had a designation and were able to move. And that’s terrific. That’s an important message to send to people, that’s the way it ought to work.

Not every disaster can receive or does receive the same kind of response, and certainly there are some where we haven’t seen that. Next month marks the two-year anniversary of the most devastating natural disaster that we know of in the history of this country. The impact of Hurricane Katrina was nothing less than catastrophic on the state of Louisiana and on surrounding communities and Mississippi also. Thousands were killed, hundreds of thousands were displaced, and many of them are still struggling to recover from the impact of that.

At every step during the response and recovery process, the federal government was shown to be behind the process, unprepared and unable to respond. And I want to emphasize this is not Administrator Preston’s watch. He came in to try to clean up some of this, and I think he’s done an admirable job of trying to tackle a lot of that.

But at no agency was the lack of preparedness more evident, or incompetent, frankly, than what happened within the SBA. Insufficient staffing, slow response, lack of coordination, lack of leadership, lack of vision and inadequate processing system led to the agency’s absolute failure to respond to the needs of Gulf Coast applicants.

Nearly eight months after the storms hit—Mr. Preston’s predecessor resigned, leaving an enormous mess to clean up, frankly. On that day, more than 31,000 loan applications remained unprocessed and just 10 percent of the money that was approved for disaster victims had actually been disbursed.

[Editor's note: Today's post is by guest blogger KarynNJ.]

Today, Senator Kerry took to the floor of the Senate and told the truth about which party has been trying to prevent the Congress from accomplishing any of its goals. The Republican echo chamber has been claiming that the current Congress, where Democrats lead both houses, has accomplished little. They seem to have the 110th Congress confused with the Republican Congress, which shut down the government in a fight with President Clinton.

Senator Kerry spoke of the historic nature of the Democratic victories in 2006 and how they demonstrated what the country wanted done. He listed some of the legislation that has been passed in the last six months on these issues -- things like increasing the minimum wage, raising the fuel efficiency standards for the first time in 20 years, correcting the failed policy in Iraq, improving ethics and lobbying reform, improving care and pay for the troops, and funding stem cell research. This sure sounds like a productive Congress to me.

Iraq. Iran. While those two countries have dominated the news and our government's attention, tensions and hazards have been festering in Pakistan, while our backs were turned. John Kerry has been one of the strongest voices calling for the Bush Administration to wake up to the looming threats there.

One of our most important allies in the fight against terrorism, Pakistan is beset with problems that bode ill for both Pakistan and U.S. security: political instability, growing Muslim extremism, and lawlessness in what are known as the tribal regions, which both Al Qaeda and the Taliban have been using as staging areas to gather their forces and launch attacks. John Kerry has been warning for months of the threats in Pakistan.

Yesterday, Senator Kerry convened and chaired a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the Pakistan crisis and the Bush Administration's plans to avert disaster in that volatile environment, calling this "a pivotal moment in Pakistan." The key testimony on the Administration's outlook came from Nicholas Burns, Undersecretary for Political Affairs at the State Department, introduced by JK as "the third ranking official at the State Department,with oversight responsibility for U.S. policy throughout the world."

We at KerryVision feel that this is a very important issue and one on which we should all know more about what is happening and what is at stake, and so we plan to bring you the entire hearing in a series of posts over the next few days. Here we present Senator Kerry's opening statement, in which he succinctly lays out the key issues.

President Bush's speech yesterday made heavy use of the words "Al Qaeda" and "terror" in an effort to play on people's fears and increase confusion about what is going on in Iraq. According to the President's version of reality, we are in Iraq to fight "Al Qaeda in Iraq", an organization that didn't exist before the US invasion of Iraq and whose relationship -- if any -- to the original Al Qaeda is quite murky. Meanwhile, as NPR explains in a recent special report , the National Intelligence Estimate confirms that the real Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden's organization, has been building up its strength along the Afghan-Pakistan border for the last year while the US continues to pour money and troops into the growing chaos of Iraq.

In a rebuttal following the President's speech, Senators Kerry and Reed pointed out that while Al Qaeda is a serious concern, it is only a small part of the problem we face in Iraq: other groups are responsible for the overwhelming majority of the violence there. Moreover, the fact that there was never any Al Qaeda-affiliated group of any kind in Iraq before the US invaded gives the lie to the notion that we went into Iraq to fight Al Qaeda.

Meanwhile, the ongoing US presence in Iraq gives a tremendous boost to Al Qaeda's recruitment efforts. Senator Kerry noted that the legislation he and others have proposed to begin the withdrawal of US troops specifically allows the President discretion to maintain whatever personnel is needed to pursue Al Qaeda; he argued, however, that this would be handled more effectively through special operations units. He pointed out that "Al-Qaeda gets stronger because we're there, Mr. President, not weaker. And if we begin to shift this responsibility to the Iraqis, most of the experts will tell you, the Iraqis do not want al-Qaeda in Iraq. And if we begin to reduce our footprint, I'm confident the Iraqis will begin to reduce the al-Qaeda footprint."

Inspired by DUer ProSense ...

Tune in later today for the Democratic response from Senators Kerry and Reed.

Ever since the bloody raid by government troops on the Red Mosque in Islamabad earlier this month, Pakistan has been much in the news. The situation there has been serious for some time, but it has been growing more dire by the day, as strands of the crisis begin to weave together. The thriving Taliban resurgence (confirmed by the NIE report released July 17) in North Waziristan, along the Afghan-Pakistan border, has sparked fresh violence and deaths as Taliban forces react to the Red Mosque incident by rejecting nascent peace accords with the government and renewing their attacks on President Musharraf's troops. The pro-democracy riots in Lahore and other cities that followed the President’s suspension of the nation’s Chief Justice (reinstated by the Supreme Court last Friday, in a direct challenge to Musharraf's authority) and the uncertainty surrounding upcoming elections add to the popular dissatisfaction with Musharraf's government and the unrest and violence threatening the stability of one of our most essential allies in the region.

Senator Kerry touches on these issues comprehensively in this clip from his June 20 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the nomination of Anne Woods Patterson who is currently serving as our ambassador to Pakistan.

JK outlines the situation gravely and clearly, and stresses the necessity of U.S. demand for accountability from Pakistan in exchange for our political, military and financial support. He then asks Ms. Patterson the key question -- is it possible for Musharraf, whose government is our ally, to maintain control of a situation spiralling out of control? That question remains and becomes more relevant with every life that is lost, in border fighting, in civil unrest, and in clashes involving religious extremists. JK notes ruefully that Islam is at heart a "moderate and tolerant religion" that has been distorted by extremists.

JK has been warning of the dangers of the border regions of Pakistan as a safe haven for al-Qaeda forces (probably including Osama bin Laden) since 2004 and has not faltered in his attention to dangerous developments there. He has been consistent ever since Tora Bora in his insistence that by concentrating our forces in Iraq, we are deploying them ineffectively if we are to achieve our goal of thwarting al-Qaeda. Yesterday, he posted at The Hill's Congress Blog that tomorrow he will be chairing a SFRC hearing tomorrow "to question Undersecretary for Political Affairs Nick Burns about the administration’s plan for Pakistan — and help push the debate about how we can successfully reengage in the fight there." (You can watch a livestream of the Wednesday hearing at 2:15.)

Jon Stewart thinks so, anyway.

OK, maybe not. Mr. Vick, like anyone else indicted in a federal crime, has the right to a fair trial.

But ...

Should this man be permitted to continue to play in the NFL, to be cheered on by all of Atlanta, and to be held up as a role model for young children? The evidence against Mr. Vick is overwhelming. An 18 page indictment details the killing of animals and the money that was involved, and reports from the investigation describe dead, tortured animals, a dog fighting pit, bloody carpets, 66 dogs at his residence, and four eye witnesses. With the massive amount of evidence against him, isn't suspension from the NFL the least that should happen until his trial is held? It's commonplace to suspend people from their jobs pending trial. It happens to cops all the time. In this case, the investigation has been completed, and the U.S. District Court in Richmond has returned an indictment detailing Mr. Vick's alleged involvement in this travesty. Here are a couple excerpts.

I say put the jerseys in a drawer, stop the Nike ads, and keep him away from training camp. Let his lawyers push for the soonest trial date they can. Hell, he's got a ton of money, maybe he can use some of his dog fighting winnings to get a really great lawyer. But to allow him to play in the NFL, given what's known, is outrageous. For now, the only reason to see Mr. Vick on TV on Sunday afternoons is for coverage of court proceedings.

John and Teresa Kerry recently sat down to talk about their book This Moment On Earth with Kate Brosnan of the MorningNoon&Night Show in Nantucket. Ms. Brosnan conducted a warm, relaxed interview in which JK and THK spoke about the ways that all of us can stand up for the environment and for our own well-being. JK talked about the heroism of ordinary Americans who have fought -- and won -- inspiring battles to defend the environment. THK discussed the danger posed by the chemicals that pervade our everyday lives and the steps we as individuals and as a society need to take to protect human health.

The locally-broadcast program has now been posted to the Plum TV website. You can watch the video and see a slideshow of stills from the interview here

It was another busy week for Senator Kerry, and once again we have some great highlights for you. The big event was the Iraq-around-the-clock marathon in the Senate to support the Levin-Reed-Kerry-et al. Amendment, which would begin the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The nearly-identical measure authored by John Kerry in June 2006 received only 13 Yeas to 86 Nays, so despite the lack of ultimate success, this week's effort by the Democrats (and a precious few Republicans) nevertheless represented progress. Senator Kerry seemed to be everywhere this week -- on the Senate floor, on TV and on the radio -- speaking out in support of the Amendment. He also held a joint press conference with Hillary Clinton to announce legislation they'll be proposing together. Finally, he demonstrated a hitherto unknown talent for, shall we say, unusual political commentary. Check it out!

Thirty-six years and three months ago today, a young Navy Lieutenant testified before congress about the war he had just been in and that was still ongoing (transcript). It took another four years for the Vietnam War to come to a conclusion, at least where US involvement was concerned. Many soldiers paid with their lives after the war was already lost and should have been ended.

Today we find ourselves at the same crossroads yet again. We are entangled in a conflict that our government lied us into, and that has evolved beyond our ability to work out militarily.

Four years after Mr. Bush has declared Mission Accomplished, the mission has failed.

Four years after he declared the war as won, it is lost.

Four years after he declared victory over Saddam Hussein and Iraq liberated, the country is being liberated of its citizens, and invaded by a parasitic enemy much less visible than the former dictator, but no less dangerous.

Four years after, and our troops have not come home, and their deaths have multiplied.

When is it time to admit the cause is lost? How many more men and women must die before we realize that we can, and do, lose wars; that sometimes, what is broken can't be fixed, even if we broke it?

Admitting defeat is not a failure. Not admitting it, and slogging on blindly in the face of obvious futility - that is failure. Allowing more deaths by claiming those that have come before would have been senseless otherwise - that is failure.

It takes strength and humility to say; 'I was wrong, and I cannot undo what I did.' That realization alone is the first step to making it right again. We, the people, have been able to say this for a while now.

We have lost. Let us bring our troops home. It is over.

When will our leaders follow?

Do you know what our soldiers are going through on a daily basis in Iraq?

Watch this powerful mini-documentary of twenty four hours in the lives of two battalions' soldiers.

These men and women witness and experience more horror and heartache than any of us experience in a lifetime. They are broken, pushed beyond their limits, dealing with criminals, clan infighting and jihadists in the midst of a terrified civilian population that does not speak the same language. This movie brings home so powerfully everything John Kerry has been talking about - that our troops are nothing but sitting targets now, caught in the middle of a war that has grown beyond them. A war that has left them behind in every way but dying for it.

President Bush's handlers have worked hard to craft an image of rock-steady consistency for him (and we have to give them credit -- it can't be easy when your raw material is someone who's publicly reversed himself on almost every single position he's ever taken), but the truth remains that he's wildly inconsistent in all but a few aspects, of which the most notable is a stubborn refusal to take responsibility for anything. When the going gets tough, we know we can count on President Bush to blame someone else. So now, in Bush's Mad Tea Party version of reality, Democrats who ask questions are undermining the escalation in Iraq, which would otherwise be working just fine. In an interview with Keith Olbermann last night, John Kerry talked about the latest version of the Republican blame game, what they're trying to accomplish by it, and the truths that need to be faced in a realistic, level-headed way if we're going to salvage anything from the mess in Iraq.

Keith Olbermann led off with a barn burner of a Special Comment, which set up the context for the conversation he had with Senator Kerry. Check out the Special Comment here. You can find the interview with JK a bit further down on the same page, here, and it's good to go there -- let MSNBC know that people want to see more JK! -- but just in case some people have trouble with that link, we're posting a backup of the JK interview here.

In the Senator's appearance on C-SPAN'S Washington Journal yesterday, he spoke very clearly of the failure of the President's nonexistent Iraq strategy, of the need for diplomacy to end the violence, and of the resolve of the Senate Democrats to see Bush's ill-advised occupation come to an end.

He also took a few calls.

Two, one from a Democrat and another from a former Republican, now an Independent, were thoughtful and intelligent, as one would expect.

This post is about the other.

JK was rational, polite and truthful. It's his way, and even when he's really pissed, he has an extraordinary ability to keep his cool. So when a caller viciously attacked his service, I wasn't surprised by his response.

Yesterday, after the all-night debate in the Senate and his own tell-it-like-it-is speech in the very early hours of the morning, John Kerry delivered some more truth in a brief, potent interview with Anderson Cooper.

Listening to JK talk hard reality about the current state of violence and "ethnic cleansing" in Iraq makes it clear that redeployment and a change of course are the only way to begin to clean up the mess the Bush administration has made there. With every Democratic push in the Senate, more Republicans realize that they have to face the reality of death and disorder, and little by little, the votes are reflecting that.

This time, it wasn't quite enough, but we will all keep pushing, and someday soon it will be. It's time for the parties to come together and, as JK says, "make policy for our country and for the soldiers". It's time to start to heal the wounds in both America and Iraq.

Jay Severin is one of Boston's 96.9 FM Talk daily occurrences along with other notables, such as O'Reilly, Ingraham, Graham, and, to provide some 'liberal balance', Barnicle and Braude.

Severin is one smooth individual, reeling you in with apparent logic (he was a political consultant at one point in his mediocre career), slowly tapping into your emotional responses by circling hot buttons such as illegal immigrants, and culminating into a hate fest with such 'witty' gems as 'crimaliens'.

A perfect example of this was his approach to Senator Kerry in '04:
During the Democratic primaries, Severin was very generous in his praise for JK, calling him a war hero, an upstanding citizen, a great candidate for president. When Kerry won the primaries, Severin became a bit more critical, but still limited his criticism to the issues.

Then the Swiftboat Liars crawled out of the woodwork. A subtle change came over JS as he at first hesitantly condemned the charges made by the group, stating that, he was inclined to side with Senator Kerry due to lack of proof.

Gradually, as the days and weeks wore on, Severin's opinion of JK 'changed'. By election day, he was fully in the camp of the liars, promoting them, stating that he was convinced beyond doubt that there had to be truth to the allegations.

Such is the nature of the more subtle, but highly effective conservative talk radio beast.

Evidently Severin is back to his logical and fair persona and has decided that Senator Kerry is right on the Iraq war - a war he, Severin, vehemently opposes. (now)
So last night, he invited Kerry to phone in for an interview, in which they discussed Iraq, Pakistan and sleeping on the couch.

Visit Jay Severin at 96.9 FM Talk

On the war, just about everyone. Except, of course the Republican half the Senate and Joe Lieberman, who for some reason are completely oblivious to the will of the American people.
The Right, at least in respect to George Bush's war, is gone. And I can say this with some degree of certainty because of something I read today in the Rightest of Right Wing newspapers, the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.

Scaife-Owned Newspaper Calls for Iraq Troop Withdrawal -- Questions Bush's 'Mental Stability'

The Pittsburgh newspaper owned by conservative billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife yesterday called the Bush administration's plans to stay the course in Iraq a "prescription for American suicide."

The editorial in the Tribune-Review added, "And quite frankly, during last Thursday's news conference, when George Bush started blathering about 'sometimes the decisions you make and the consequences don't enable you to be loved,' we had to question his mental stability."

It continued: "President Bush warns that U.S. withdrawal would risk 'mass killings on a horrific scale.' What do we have today, sir?

"If the president won't do the right thing and end this war, the people must. The House has voted to withdraw combat troops from Iraq by April. The Senate must follow suit.

"Our brave troops should take great pride that they rid Iraq of Saddam Hussein. And they should have no shame in leaving Iraq. For it will not be, in any way, an exercise in tail-tucking and running.

"America has done its job.

"It's time for the Iraqis to do theirs."

If you're not familiar with Mr. Scaife's flagship rag, The Trib is the paper that made a name for itself by attacking our THK. So typically, I would just tell Mr. Scaife to "shove it".

But not today. Either someone from the competition snuck in an editorial, or even the fishwrapper otherwise known as the Trib wants to end this war.

OK, I have no video of Richard Mellon Scaife, and I can't find any. Something about cameras and mirrors not capturing his image. I offer no apology.

BUT, as this is a video blog, and I feel obligated to give you something to watch, I do have a video of a great cross section of America marching against Bush's war, set to some incredible music performed by my friend Cisco of mcworm. And because it's a video blog about John Kerry, well, watch the video. What anti-war march would be complete without the Senator's famous 1971 quote?

Visit the artist at:

http://www.myspace.com/mcworm

Senate Democrats forced an all-night debate on the Iraq War last night, hoping that forcing Republicans to go on the record would push them to support an Iraq policy that makes sense. At about 5:40 this morning, John Kerry delivered a powerful speech debunking the fallacies on which arguments for the war rely -- such as the belief that Al Qaeda would be empowered by our leaving Iraq, when the truth is that it is our presence there that is helping Al Qaeda to gain a firmer foothold --, illuminating the issues that underlie the ethnic strife and setting out a sensible way forward in Iraq. We at KerryVision are pleased to be able to present this speech in its entirety.

Quite clear.

The vote failed 52-47, short of 60 votes needed for passage. Senator Kerry has advocated a deadline for troop redeployment since last June, when he introduced legislation with Senator Feingold to set a firm date to bring American troops home. JK made the following statement today after the debate concluded on the Levin-Reed-Kerry amendment to set a deadline for troop redeployment from Iraq.

"Today a few Republican Senators chose to stand with their President over voting for a policy for our troops that honors their service and sacrifice," Senator Kerry said. "How much longer will some in this Congress fail to vote their conscience and do what’s right to bring about change in Iraq? No number of Republican filibusters and politically motivated votes change this fact: without real deadlines to force Iraqis to compromise, they will not compromise. No American soldier should die for Iraqi unwillingness to solve their differences. Again a majority in Congress has spoken, and we will not rest until we have a policy that sets a deadline to bring our troops home."

Senate Republicans yesterday treated CSPAN viewers to a double mystery. First the whodunnit: A senator from Oklahoma took the lead in blocking Senate Bill 163, but since Senator DeMint spoke for him, offering only the cryptic utterance "On behalf of the Senator from Oklahoma, I object," we're left to wonder who the man in the shadows was: Inhofe or Coburn?

Then there's the far more puzzling whydunnit. Everyone who's watched CSPAN as much as we have knows that the Senate moves in mysterious ways, but why anyone would want to block improvements in aid to small businesses after Katrina-like disasters -- improvements that will reduce bureaucratic red tape, make it easier for private loans to help small businesses stay on their feet, and help save local economies after a disaster -- is beyond us. Whichever Republicans are behind this, they should put their reasons (assuming they have some) out on the table where we all could get a good look at them.

Senator Kerry spoke on the Senate floor yesterday to counter the mystery objection to the Small Business Disaster Response and Loan Improvements Act, S. 163. You can view the entire speech (only about 10 minutes long) on John Kerry's Senate site, but we have a couple of clips for you here.

Senator Kerry explained how Hurricane Katrina showed us the special vulnerabilities of small businesses after a disaster, and the urgent need to reform the programs for assisting them.

Uperdown.

Is that a word? You would have thought so in the 109th Congress, when the Senate Republicans cried up or down, along with the White House, until it nearly made your ears bleed.

Uperdown. Uperdown. Uperdown. Made for a great drinking game. I was just so sloshed after the first dozen uperdowns that I never made it to the end of a speech. Which was just as well, Republican speeches are pretty tough to watch straight through and sober.

The Republicans uperdowned us constantly, it seemed, and and the media couldn't help but sing along.

Well, we've got a war to end, and it's our turn to force the Republicans' hand. Fair's fair, Mitch. You should have known it would come back to bite you in the ass some day. Either vote or tell the American people why not.

In Harry Reid's words, "This week we'll make Republicans answer for their refusal to allow an up or down vote on the most important issue facing our country today."

A reminder, just in case anyone out there forgot.

Up or down, guys.  Up or Down.

"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."
Albert Einstein

The last six years have cost America much more than many of us could ever have thought possible. We've lost over 3,600 Americans and over a half a trillion dollars as a result of Bush's occupation of Iraq. Sadly, we will lose more before it's over.

We almost lost an entire city to Katrina, and the struggle to recover is still not over for many of our friends in the Gulf. For some, recovery will never happen.

We lost nearly 3,000 people in the World Trade Center on 9/11, and the mastermind of the plot is still roaming the mountains of the Afghanistan/Pakistan border. Or maybe he's dead, who knows? President Bush, apparently, "is not that concerned".

We've lost the trust of most of our allies in the world. Lost good jobs to oursourcing. Lost any expectation of privacy when we pick up the phone to make a call. And we're teetering on the edge when it comes to global climate change.

But something we have not lost, despite the best efforts of the Bush administration to distort and distract and deceive, is the truth.

Truth, as JK so often reminds us, is the American bottom line. And as long as we don't let them, as long as we recognize and remember that it's We the People who make up this great country, and not Bush and Cheney, they can't take it from us.

Teach your children well, friends.

This was another jam-packed week for John Kerry, and once again we're here to bring you the highlights. For those of you who weren't glued to CSPAN, the big event of the week was a powerful Senate floor speech. For those of you who were glued to CSPAN, you may have missed some of the many things the Senator was doing elsewhere. Never fear, we're watching out for you. So without further ado, we bring you this week's KerryVision Newsreel.

As the seventh stage of the Tour ends and Linus Gerdemann of Germany takes the yellow jersey, the uphill climb of this year's Tour de France has just begun. In stage seven, the riders enter the Alps, and the grueling ascent challenges the strongest of atheletes. The Tour is full of uphill climbs, some more difficult than others. But there are people in this world who just don't give up, despite being told they should, and despite the many obstacles that they face on the way.

Most Americans, when we think of the Tour, think of Lance Armstrong, seven time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor. But the life and the legacy of this cycling superstar will always be more than his own personal victories. The Lance Armstrong Foundation is an advocacy and support group that urges people to UNITE to fight cancer. That, too, will be part of Lance's heritage.

John Kerry is a cyclist, and a pretty good one at that. He's ridden in charity rides, including the annual Best Buddies and Pan-Mass Challenges, and his times are nothing to sneeze at. Although the closest he got to riding in the Tour was in the car following Lance during his last win in 2005, at age 60 the Senator finished the Pan-Mass 37th of 3,000 riders. I'm not sure where he placed last year, but I do recall winning $20, so he must have done pretty well.

He's a cancer survivor, too, and this poignant speech at the Livestrong Summit last year, he speaks of his own battle which thankfully, he won, and of his dad's, who was tragically not so lucky.

In this first clip, JK talks about his dad's battle with cancer.

Our very first encounter with IT came back in June, when a group of us attending TBA visited Senator Kerry's office in the Russell Building and he rushed past us, waving as he hurried for a vote. We were suddenly blinded by a bright orange flash emanating from the Senator's chest, and fanning out behind him as he raced down the corridor.

Momentarily panicking that John Kerry was spontaneously combusting and bursting into flame, we were about to run after him to warn him when one of his interns informed us that, while Senator Kerry was indeed on fire, it was only in a figurative sense. What we had seen was his latest neck wear, proudly strutting on a background of white shirt and beige suit.

After this heart attack-inducing shock, we unanimously decided that IT could not be allowed to live any longer and other voices of protest soon joined ours.

Senator Kerry must be feeling a sense of deja vu this week, as the Senate once again debates whether to say "Enough!" to the Bush Administration's open-ended escalation of US military involvement in Iraq. In a powerful speech on the Senate floor yesterday, Senator Kerry reminded us of the consequences of current US policy and once again made his case for a profound change of course.

In this first of five clips, Senator Kerry points out that the Administration's fixation on Iraq has given Al Qaeda the opportunity to regroup, find safe harbor in Pakistan, and establish itself as stronger than ever -- and that our presence in Iraq is Al Qaeda's best fundraising and recruitment tool. He asks do we want to continue playing into Al Qaeda's hands with our broken Iraq policy, or do we want a strategy that will improve security for Iraq and for the US?

Many Republicans have complained this week that there's no need to debate Iraq policy now; they prefer to wait for the Bush Administration's report in September. Senator Kerry points out the irresponsibility of continuing to let people die when the writing is already on the wall.

In 1971, John Kerry asked his famous question "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" He never thought he would have to ask the same question again, or that the US government would seem to have learned so little in the meantime. The time has come to change our policy on a war "that is being prosecuted not for a winning strategy, but for a refusal to accept reality."

But can the Dems convince them to translate that support into votes?

It's pretty obvious if you're following the action on C-Span, that most of the Republicans in the Senate support the war before the troops.

They won't vote to allow our men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan to spend a decent amount of time at home with their families between deployments. They can't do that and still keep Bush's war going, so they choose to support George Bush over the troops.

They won't vote to make Bush change his failed strategy, and they won't vote for, or even speak publicly about a policy change that requires what everyone knows we need, which is a diplomatic effort that will allow us to change course.

Supporting the troops means getting the policy right. The Senate Republicans, most of them, anyway, either don't have the nerve or the inclination to do that.

As JK explains to Chris Matthews on Hardball, what the Republicans say in private and how they vote on the Senate floor are two different things.

Call them and tell the Senate Republicans to end this immoral war and bring our troops home.

Well, yesterday he was. It's a dirty little secret of mine, but I watch Joe Scarborough's show in the mornings. I used to watch Imus and had a love/hate thing going on with him, but now that he's off the air, it's Joe.

I tried CNN. And HNN, which I haven't watched since they hired the vile Glenn Beck and stopped being a Headline News Network. So I watch MSNBC mostly. They have Keith, too, so of the three, I like to support them when I can. Of course, when Tucker's on, I can't.

So, I was watching Joe this morning, and lo and behold, he's promoting an upcoming guest. My favorite Democrat.

I'm only sorry I don't have clip of Joe talking after the interview about how he'll take some heat from his Republican friends about his agreement with JK on Iraq. He explained that he has to, though, because Kerry is right on Iraq.

Of course he is, Joe.

He may not be much of a reader but President Bush is pretty good with a pen. He's attached signing statements to 1100 laws, as the Boston Globe notes, "more than all previous presidents combined".

Senator Kerry has joined Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) in support of the "Presidential Signing Statements Act of 2007", which will seek to curb and to roll back the Presidents abuse of power.

Senator Kerry spoke of Bush's fondness for the pen in his Senate floor speech during the Alito fillibuster in January, 2006.

On Saturday, July 7, 2007, Senator Kerry introduced his Afghanistan Sense of the Senate Resolution: "Calling for the strengthening of the efforts of the United States to defeat the Taliban and terrorist networks in Afghanistan."

This is further proof that JK doesn't EVER give up on what he knows is right and what has to be done to protect our nation's safety and honor. As you will see in this clip from his Faneuil Hall "Real Security" speech on September 9, 2006, he laid out the facts almost a year ago on the real terror threat and where we ought to be focusing our intelligence, our expert forces and our reconstruction efforts. JK is blisteringly clear in this speech about just how wrong our policy has been in ignoring the Taliban threat, but he finishes by insisting that the real solution MUST include real aid to the elected government in Kabul so that they, without the Taliban, can rebuild their country.

If the launch of KV was a bit like Christmas for us, then having the Senate out of session immediately following was kind of like the day you take the tree down.

So, how do you do KV news when the K is not at work?

That's not to say he wasn't working. We hear he was in China on some Senate business, apparently on the environment, although the details haven't been made available to us. We also know he wrote a letter in the Washington Post.

Honest, we looked for him. But since China is beyond our budget and we've got only one letter to work with, we're going to delay the real KV News for now to give the Senator a chance to get down to business.

So, this week's newsreel is a "Best of Kerry", and includes some news clips of the many, many times he's spoken out against Bush's failed policy in Iraq. Note the consistency of the message in each of the interviews.

A friend of the KV sent us this rockin' clip of Senator John Kerry speaking at the Massacusetts Democratic Convention on the campus of UMass Amherst on May 19. The Senator named names, calling out the litany of Bush administration cronies on their incompetence.

A typical and memorable quote by the Senator garnered laughter and applause from a receptive audience of delegates and visitors:

I've never seen anything like it. These guys - they're quick to take care of their friends. They have never met a hen house they can't find a fox to guard. It's incredible beyond belief to me that they're willing to reward that and reward it publicly in an Orwellian notion about Right and Wrong

Obviously, the Senator's vision has more clarity than the video.

In May, Sen. Kerry voted against a supplemental spending bill to give Mr. Bush another blank check for his war in Iraq. Watch as Sen. Kerry explains why the supplemental was wrong, and what provisions we need to put in a defense authorization bill.

From prepared remarks:

Mr. President, I would like to speak about the supplemental funding bill for Iraq. I will oppose this legislation for the simple reason that it does nothing to force the President to change his failed policy in Iraq. This bill does not provide a strategy worthy of our soldiers' sacrifice. Instead, it permits more of the same - a strategy that relies on sending American troops into the alleys and back roads of Iraq to referee a deadly civil war. Instead of the same misguided strategy, we could truly show support for our troops by getting the policy right. We could show support for our troops by setting a deadline to force Iraqis to stand up for their own country. We could show support by bringing our troops home - not with meaningless benchmarks and blank check waivers for this President.

This clip of Senator Kerry at a town hall meeting in Natick, MA on June 16, comes from the Youtube video archive of John Bowes of BelowBoston.com. We love this clip at KerryVision because he says what we know to be true, John Kerry will put his Senate record up against anyone's.

We do realize here at KV that a lot of folks don't read the Congressional Record for fun. We don't really understand that, but we know it's true. </snark>

So, what of the Senator's record? We hear about some of the big issues, like Iraq and the environment, but what about all the other stuff JK does?

Senator Kerry's Senate website has a new look and a great summary of some of the work JK has done for us in the Senate recently, categorized by issue.

So thanks, Mr. Bowes, for the video. We agree with the Senator. He can put his record up against anyone in the Senate and be proud of what he's done.

Check out more videos by John Bowes at his youtube site.

If you watch the Senate on C-SPAN2 the way we do, you might come away with the impression that a Senator's life moves at a pretty leisurely pace. If you follow Senator Kerry for a week, though, that image will be shattered pretty quickly. Follow highlights of the Senator's week here at KerryVision News -- speaking and voting on the Senate floor, chairing a committee hearing, making a foreign policy speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, holding a town hall meeting in Massachusetts, talking to the troops in Iraq...

Somehow he manages to do all that and stay on the cutting edge on global politics, environmental policy and the financial realities faced by American small business owners. He's frequently in Washington for Senate business in the morning and in Boston for an afternoon meeting with constituents.

How can a political junkie hope to keep up?

Here at KerryVision, we've got the answer! Tune into our weekly newsreel (see sidebar at right) for a quick wrapup of the highlights of the Senator's week.

Is anybody there?
Does anybody care?
Does anybody see what I see?

They want to me to quit; they say
John, give up the fight
Still to England I say
Good night, forever, good night!
For I have crossed the Rubicon
Let the bridge be burned behind me
Come what may, come what may

Commitment!

If you've ever heard a performance of John Adams' song from Sherman Edwards' musical 1776, you'll know just how stirring it is. Listening, you can hear the fireworks and clanging bells of freedom in the music. He's singing to an empty chamber, but soon and forever, his vision of independence from tyranny was heard by millions.

Those of us who have scanned the airwaves for any and every appearance by John Kerry over the last few years (even during the election, you had to keep a weather eye on the C-SPAN schedule to catch a glimpse of all his tireless campaigning, all but invisible in the mainstream broadcast media) have heard him give countless speeches and interviews that equal the passion and prescience of that song, the determination that spurred Boston's Sons of Liberty and did so much to create this extraordinary democratic experiment we call America. But for much of the country, there has been no way to hear or see John Kerry's vision.

As we celebrate Independence Day here at KerryVision, the discussion turns naturally to what that means. From an historical perspective, of course, it's the day we declared independence from British rule; the day when this nation, in our greatest moment, announced our freedom from a unitary ruler and established our independence.

The Fourth of July is also a day to spend with friends and family, to fly our flags, fire up the grill, tell the kids for the umpteenth time that it's still not dark enough for fireworks, and to think about what a great country we live in; a nation that was founded on dissent, on freedom, and on the notion that "an informed citizenry is the only true repository of the public will" (Thomas Jefferson).

That's not to say there aren't good sources of news out there already. You can find them if you search hard enough. There are some great newspapers and blogs, there's C-SPAN and couple of radio and TV news programs that do a pretty good job of informing the public. But the message is often lost in the great deluge of infotainment that floods the airwaves. So,in an attempt to correct the imbalance, WE THE PEOPLE must be the media. KV is our contribution to the education of the American public.

Today, July 4, is the day we say "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH" and begin to report news that has an impact on our daily lives. So, on our nation's 231st birthday, we celebrate our own. We celebrate the American patriot whose vision and values most closely match our own: John Kerry.

 
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