Reply #18: Can you say - agenda of the writer?

[karynnj]

Lower in the article it says:
"Not all the firms deal in arms or military equipment. Some make soft drinks or medical supplies and military contracts represent a small fraction of their revenues. Many are leaders in their industries and, as such, feature in the investment portfolios of millions of ordinary people who invest at least a portion of their savings in mutual funds, which in turn hold stocks in up to hundreds of companies.

“Giant corporations outside of the defence sector, such as Pepsico, IBM, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson, have received defence contracts and are all popular investments for both members of Congress and the general public,” says CRP.

“So common are these companies, both as personal investments and as defence contractors, it would appear difficult to build a diverse blue-chip stock portfolio without at least some of them,” the group acknowledges.

If some of the stocks appear innocent, aides say legislators also are. Some did not buy the stocks in question but inherited them. Many hold them in blind trusts, so called because the investments are handled by independent entities, at least theoretically without the politicians’ knowledge of how their assets are being managed."

There are two other facts;
1) Most of the assets listed by Senator Kerry are his wife's that he has no access to. Kerry's total personal holding are less than that. The full lists of their holdings were out in 2004 - here is a summary I found: http://www.political-news.org/breaking/11937/senate-financial-disclosure-statements.html

2) Since the death of his mom, Kerry gets money from Forbes funds that he doesn't control.

Kerry has been a leader in moving to get the US out of Iraq - even in 2004, he was speaking of some withdrawals in summer 2005. He has spent a lifetime working against things like funding the Contras and other actions like that. He spoke against invading at a point where your hero was a cheerleader.

Your action in linking to this obvious hit piece is pathetic. Maybe you think that he should have get Teresa's accountants to move money out of companies like Microsoft and IBM to Edwards' hedge fund with its subprime mortgage contracts.