Tiny Crawford Newspaper Endorses Kerry

[Dorian Gray]

Tiny Crawford Newspaper Endorses Kerry

3 minutes ago

CRAWFORD, Texas - A weekly newspaper that bills itself as President Bush (news - web sites)'s hometown paper endorsed John Kerry (news - web sites) for president, saying the Massachusetts senator will restore American dignity.

The Lone Star Iconoclast, which has a circulation of 425, said in an editorial dated Sept. 29 that Texans should rate the candidates not by hometown or political party, but by where they intend to take the country.

"Four items trouble us the most about the Bush administration: his initiatives to disable the Social Security (news - web sites) system, the deteriorating state of the American economy, a dangerous shift away from the basic freedoms established by our founding fathers, and his continuous mistakes regarding Iraq (news - web sites)," the editorial said.

The Iconoclast, established in 2000, said it endorsed Bush that year. It also said it editorialized in support of the invasion of Iraq, and publisher W. Leon Smith promoted Bush and the invasion in a British Broadcasting Corp. interview, believing Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) possessed weapons of mass destruction.

"Instead we were duped into following yet another privileged agenda," the editorial said.

The newspaper praised Kerry for "30 years of experience looking out for the American people" and lauded his background as "a highly decorated Vietnam veteran."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040929/ap_on_el_pr/crawford_paper_kerry&cid=694&ncid=1963&sid=96378798

"The biggest threat we face today," (Cheney) said in Pennsylvania, "is that one of these terror cells is organizing in the middle of one of our cities with a nuclear weapon, and the prospect that the next time they launch an attack against the U.S. it won't be just a few thousand lives. It may be a few hundred thousand."

Among the usual statements during his discussions of Iraq was the assertion that Saddam Hussein's regime "had a relationship with Al Qaeda," as he put it in Lansing. In its report last summer, the 9/11 commission said it found "no credible evidence that Iraq and Al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States.'' The Senate Intelligence Committee has reached similar conclusions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/27/p...n=8e13c99b58496c85&ei=5006&partner=ALTAVISTA1