Talk:John Kerry

Yacht and other personal tax issues

I added this but someone else took it out. I see someone else had also previously added the yacht thing but that was taken out too. So let's see what other editors think:

In 1983, Kerry put some of his income in an offshore tax shelter in the Cayman Islands.

In 2001, when Massachusetts cut its top income tax rate rate from 5.85% to 5.3%, and people who opposed the tax cut had the option to pay the older, higher rate, Kerry chose to pay the newer, lower rate.

In 2003, while the average middle class person paid approximately 20% of their income in federal income taxes, Kerry, who had $6.8 million in income, paid an effective tax rate of only 12.8%.

In July 2010, it was reported that Kerry stored his luxury yacht in Rhode Island instead of in Massachusetts because doing so saved him approximately $437,500 in sales tax and an annual excise tax of about $70,000.

Five dollar milkshake (talk) 06:14, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

I agree about the yacht issue but the other ones, I'd have to think about. $6 milkshake (talk) 23:30, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

(a) So what? There's no obligation for a person to maximize the taxes they pay, and there's nothing requiring a person to keep their toys in the place where they live.

(b) Is there another sort of yacht besides a "luxury yacht"?

(c) Actually, it would be really stupid for a person to spend a half million dollars in sales tax when they could easily and legally avoid it.

(d) Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes. -- Judge Learned Hand

This is just political noise; including it in the article is undue weight and an NPOV violation in the absence of context. --jpgordon^{::==( o )} 13:14, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

A good biography doesn't need to hit every issue that the press decides will sell papers. Only time will tell what has lasting meaning in a person's life and what is a side issue, but it's a good bet this yacht kerfluffle will fade rapidly. Tracking the daily news in a BLP like this is likely to lead to problems with WP:Undue weight. Jojalozzo 20:51, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Dead link

The 2004 debates link is dead dead dead dead dead dead. Would like to relive "bad man" moment. Thank you. - 04:16, 9 September 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.97.137.237 (talk)

"Controversial Comments"

The part about something stupid he said in 2006 should not be longer than the part about his being the 2004 Democratic nominee for President of the United States. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.69.149.237 (talk) 21:59, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Medals

Please post the full quote from the 1988 issue of Current Biography Yearbook: " . . . the [medals] he had discarded were not his own but had belonged to another veteran who asked him to make the gesture for him. When a Washington Post reporter asked Kerry about the incident, he said: 'They're my medals. I'll do what I want with them. And there shouldn't be any expectations about them.'" That sentence could start with "The Swift Boaters claim ..." or "Kerry admits ..." or "The New York Times wrote..." The ellipsis invite the question but I don't have the $200 to access the text being quoted.

Also, I think we need more info on the medals displayed in Kerry's office. Are they the originals or re-issued medals or some that he held back? What is our source for the claim that they are there? Thanks, Jojalozzo 20:11, 22 May 2011 (UTC)

Proposed Lead Re-write

The current lead is, IMHO, in need of a thorough copy-edit to provide a more basic structure and to mitigate redundancy. The following is offered for comments/suggested edits...

John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to incumbent President George W. Bush. Before entering the Senate, he served as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts.

The son of an Army Air Corps serviceman, Kerry was born in Aurora, Colorado. He attended boarding school in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and went on to attend Yale University where he majored in political science. He enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1966 and, during 1968-1969, served a four month tour of duty in South Vietnam as officer-in-charge (OIC) of a Swift Boat. For that service he was awarded several combat medals to include the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. After returning to the United States, Kerry joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War in which he served as a nationally recognized spokesperson and as an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam war. During that period, he appeared before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs where he deemed his superiors to be "war criminals".

After graduating from Boston College Law School, Kerry worked as an Assistant District Attorney and co-founded a private firm. He served as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts under Michael Dukakis from 1983 to 1985, where he worked on an early forerunner to the national Clean Air Act. He won a tight Democratic primary in 1984 for the U.S. Senate and was sworn in the following January. On the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he led a series of hearings from 1987 to 1989 which were a precursor to the Iran–Contra affair. He was an early backer of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but became a strong opponent of the subsequent war.

Kerry based his 2004 presidential campaign on opposition to the Iraq War. He and his running mate Senator John Edwards lost by 34 electoral votes. Since then, he has established the Keeping America's Promise PAC. As of 2011, he is currently the 10th most senior U.S. Senator.

JakeInJoisey (talk) 13:49, 6 August 2011 (UTC)

It's not much of a change, so there's not much to comment on. I say just be bold and add it. Some of the grammatical changes are weird, though: why "to include" instead of "including"? —Designate (talk) 18:38, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

John Kerry VVAW controversy AfD petition

For the consideration of interested editors, the article John Kerry VVAW controversy, a subject currently residing within this article and to which this article now links, is the subject of an AfD petition. Comments are solicited. Xenophrenic (talk) 18:26, 10 February 2012 (UTC)