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President Bush Visits Southern Oregon Working Class

by KBC October 15, 2004

Thank you President Bush for coming to Southern Oregon and encouraging us farmers, timber workers, and Americans. Your speech was awesome!!! HERE FOR QUOTE'S, and why farmers and timber workers support you.  


BUSH:
"I'm real fond of (Congressman) Greg Walden and his wife.  You're well represented in the House of Congress. Greg is a solid man; all he does is talk about water, and forests, and the people of this district." 10/15/04

 

photo by KBC

Yesterday, after a two-mile walk amongst thousands of others hoping to hear their President, KBC team was privileged to join in the mass excitement hearing the President's  message. Over 12,000 people came. We will lead you through the evening with a few words of our Congressman, Senators, and President Bush.

Introducing the President were OR Senator Gordon Smith, AZ Senator John McCain, and OR Congressman Greg Walden:

Smith: "I  love a verse from the Good Book that says, 'If the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare himself for battle?' With Bush, he makes a sound that you know is certain, that you know is strong, and you should know will defend you and your family."

"Bush only raised spending from K through 9 (grades in school) by 40 per cent."

Walden: "We have stood up for the Klamath farmers and ranchers who have helped us with the Healthy Forests, who have been there when we needed them."

McCain: "This President on September 14 stood in the rubble of the World Trade Center and he called this nation together, and he has led us with strength and clarity, and he brought our nation together and we were and are united on his leadership to win this war on terror.  Our President of the United States, please welcome President George Bush."

The President: "I want to thank not only you all coming from Jackson County; I want to thank the people of the Klamath Basin who are here as well. It's good to be in the part of the world where the boots outnumber the suits."

"I am proud to be up here with a fine man and American John McCain."

Bush said, "People of America see a compassionate, decent, strong woman" in Laura Bush.

"I'm proud of my running mate Dick Cheney." " I'm also proud to be up here with a fine U. S. Senator Gordon Smith."

"I'm real fond of Greg Walden and his wife.  You're well represented in the House of Congress. Greg is a solid man; all he does is talk about water, and forests, and the people of this district."

"Tell your friends and neighbors we have a duty in our country to vote. Lead them up to the polls."

"I enjoyed the debate last night.  At least it identified our differences in our records, our approaches, and our plans for the future.  I'm proud of our record.  My opponent seemed to want to avoid talking about his."

"My record is one of lowering taxes, performance in education, providing prescription drug coverage to seniors, improving our homeland protection, and waging an aggressive war against the idealism of hate."

Bush said that some of the differences are: he believes in less government. Kerry's plan has 225 new mandates on small businesses. "I tell you exactly what I'm going to do and I keep my word." He said when he took office our country was in a great recession. "I pledged to reduce taxes; I kept my word." Kerry "voted to raise taxes 98 times." "For all his spending promises he'll have to raise your taxes."

Our economy grew more since I was President than over the last 20 years.  Home ownership is at an all time high.  Farm and ranch income are up.  In the last thirteen months there are 1.9 million new jobs in America.  The unemployment rate is 5.4% lower than the 70's, 80's and 90's.  We need less regulation on small businesses because we need to create jobs.

I kept my word on modernizing Medicare, "Seniors are already getting discounts on medicine and beginning 2006 all seniors will be able to get prescription drugs under Medicare."

"I believe our country can be an ownership society. You know there's an old saying that no one washes a rental car.  When you own something you care about it.  When  you own something, you have a vital stake in the future of our country.  We're encouraging entrepreneurship because every time a small business is started, someone is achieving the American Dream."

I want to allow our children to save some of their tax money in a savings account they can call their own, that the government will not take away.

Regarding my energy plan, I've supported new fuels and technologies, domestic production, and less dependence on foreign energy.

I signed the Healthy Forest Act.  "When the Healthy Forest bill came up in the senate, it had the support of both senators from Oregon, one republican and one democrat, it had the strong support of your congressman, and Senator Kerry was against it.  When I signed the Healthy Forest Act last December he said 'we're taking a chainsaw to public forests.' "

Frivilous law suits are harming America, "You can not be pro patient, pro doctor and pro plaintiff attorney at the same time; you have to choose.  My opponent made a choice and put a plaintiff attorney on the ticket.  I made my choice; I'm standing with the doctors and patients.  I'm for medical liability reform now."

"The American's For Democratic Actions (organization) has given Senator Keyyr a higher lifetime liberal rating than that given to Ted Kennedy, and that's an accomplishment."

"My opponent's words on these issues are a little muddy but his record is pretty clear....He voted against the ban on partial birth abortion!" {If you do not know what partial birth abortion means, go HERE and HERE--KBC}

"...He (Kerry)  has described the Reagan years as the 'Period of Moral Darkness.' "

Kerry believes in passing a global test on defending a war on terrorism. Bush says "we should never turn America's national security decisions over to international bodies or leaders of other countries."

President Bush compared Iraq, Saudia Arabia, Libya, Afghanistan today with how it was before the war on terrorism. "As of now, more than three quarters of the Al Quida members have been brought to justice."  "We have freed more than 50 million people.  Women before were taken to the public square and stoned or killed.  Most girls were not allowed an education. Today men and women in Afghanistan can vote...a young woman was the first in line.  And now women are allowed an education.

"I went to the United States Congress in September 2003 and requested 87 billion dollars for important funding to support our troops in combat.  We received wide support for that funding request. As a matter of fact only twelve senators voted against the backing for our troops in harms way, two of whom are my opponent and his running mate."

"Only four U. S. senators voted to authorize the use of force and then voted against funding the troops, two of whom are my opponent and his running mate.  My opponent said, 'I actually did vote for the 87 billion before I voted against it.'  I suppose a lot of people in Jackson Oregon don't speak that way."

President Bush explained how  President Truman believed in transformation of the power of liberty, making friends of our bitter enemies the Japanese who bombed us and now we are friends and our countries are better off.  Someday we will be sitting down as friends with a duly elected leader of Iraq talking about peace and our children and grandchildren will be better off.

"Freedom is not America's gift to the world; Freedom in the almighty God's gift to each man and woman."

"...the twin towers September 14, 2001.  It is a day I will never forget.  Workers in hard hats yelling at the top of their lungs, 'whatever it takes.'  A guy grabbed me by the arm and he looked me in the eye and said, "do not let me down'. Ever since that day I wake up, working hard to figure out how best to protect America.  I will never relent in defending the security of this country, whatever it takes."

 


KBC photo

We in the Klamath Basin have seen our Senator Smith, Congressman Walden, and President Bush make promises over and over. And we have seen them keep those promises. The day after the Bureau of Reclamation turned off irrigation water to 1400 family farms, Senator Smith came to Klamath to hear what we had to say. Congressman Walden came dozens of times that summer asking what he could do to help put common sense into this community disaster. They brought the Bush Administration into the middle, carrying our community's voices as well as our plea for reason in the federal destruction of our refuges to supposedly aid 3 fish supposedly endangered. They brought two Congressional Hearings to Klamath Falls, in 2004 allowing Tribes, fishermen, scientists and agencies to all share the same unanimous pleas---science needs peer review and Klamath Basin needs water storage.

President Bush has listened.  In 2001 President Bush, at the urging of  Congressman Walden, formed a Klamath Task Force to look at our problems.  He authorized 'peer-review' by the National Academy of Science which found that the 2001 water shutoff was not justified. They found that lake-level/river-flow management is not scientifically justified, however the Bureau of Reclamation is still taking 75,000 acre feet of our water continuing lake-level/river-flow management, depleting our aquifer. The Bush administration just collected the Oregon and California governors to work together in addressing this disaster caused by environmental groups' insistence on no peer-review and no storage,  removing farmers from their land.

Smith, Walden, as well President Bush, have signed the Healthy Forest Act to manage our forests to protect wildlife, human lives, and communities from fire.  This would provide jobs for the ones who have been kept from timber harvest because of the 'environmentalist' agenda of getting humans out of the forests.

We have seen thousands of jobs and Oregon's economy destroyed by the 'environmentalist' agenda supported by those opposing President Bush. And now they are blaming President Bush for Oregon's highest unemployment in the country while at the same time they are voting to destroy timber (we are talking about timber already burnt and rotting) harvest and farming.

So there you have it --- the words of our President and why the people providing safe American-grown food, and American-managed forests, support our President.

_____________________________________________

If there are enough people requesting a copy of the full event with President Bush, contact us at kbc@klamathbasincrisis.org  and we will try to make this available.

 

 

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