Angry Veterans Demand Kerry Stop Exploiting Them

Attempts by Sen. John Kerry to pander to Latinos and veterans have blown up in his face.

"Kerry's presidential campaign appears to have violated copyright laws by broadcasting several photos from the Caller-Times book 'South Texas Heroes,'" the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported today.

"Two World War II veterans and relatives of four others say they want to know how photos of their relatives came to be included in the ad, and say the campaign could only have retrieved the photos from 'South Texas Heroes,' a book published by the Caller-Times last year."

Mel G. Lemos, one of three brothers whose photos the campaign is exploiting, told the newspaper: "I'm really upset. I never tell anybody who I'm going to vote for. I never gave any picture to anybody."

His brother Frank Lemos, who is now dead, voted for President Bush in 2000, said son Frank Lemos Jr. "My father was a strong Bush supporter. If he was alive today, he wouldn't have done this."

Another of the WWII veterans from Corpus Christi whose picture was misappropriated, Alberto T. Vasquez Sr., said: "How in the world did they get that? Without personal approval, I don't think that's legal."

Yet another, David De La Cruz, said he would not have given permission to use his photo because he supported the president.



Caller-Times president and publisher Larry L. Rose said: "If John Kerry allows this commercial to run, it will show the kind of person John Kerry is. That he allows his campaign team to lift Hispanic faces from a Caller-Times book, to violate copyright, and to violate the individual rights of those Hispanic veterans, is appalling. If Kerry wants to do the honest and ethical thing, let's see if he has his staff get permission from the veterans, from the Caller-Times, or, if he doesn't do that, let's see how fast he cancels his commercial."

The paper's editor, Libby Averyt, said: "It's a shame that the Kerry campaign underestimated South Texas veterans and the Caller-Times and apparently assumed no one would ever notice the use of the copyrighted material published by us with the permission of the veterans' families. It is truly disappointing that a presidential campaign would operate in this manner."


The TV commercial’s producer, Armando Gutierrez, an associate of Clintonista New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, insisted he borrowed the photos from relatives and friends of relatives who gave oral permission to use them.

The ad, targeting Latino voters in six states, might be yanked, said Kerry's "director of Hispanic media,” Fabiola Rodriguez-Ciampoli.

Swift Boat Veterans: 'Cease and Desist'


Meanwhile, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has stepped up its efforts to get Kerry to stop a different photo exploitation.

Eleven of the 20 Vietnam War veterans included in a 1969 photo the Democrat candidate is using demand in a letter sent to the campaign that Kerry "cease and desist from all uses" of the picture. (SEE MY SIG LINE!)

"By letters delivered to the campaign on May 17 and on May 4, 2004, their objections to the use of the photograph in his campaign and their belief that he is unfit to serve as the Commander-in-Chief were made very clear. In fact, as has long been evident to Senator Kerry, all of these gentlemen have felt anything but comradeship with him at any time since his slanderous testimony before Congress in 1971 and other pronouncements that he and they committed war crimes and atrocities," says the latest letter, dated Wednesday.

As in the case from Corpus Christi, "no prior consent was sought or obtained from any of these eleven boat officers before the release by Mr. Kerry or his associates of that photograph to Newsweek, or later to those who crafted his Lifetime ad, a calculated invasion of their privacy rights for personal political gain. None of these officers, at the time of the unauthorized release or any subsequent use of the photograph by the campaign of their images were public figures, as that term is understood within the law. We all know of the aspiring politician who seeks to be photographed with whomever they think is the 'Great One' of the time. In this case Mr. Kerry has reversed the ploy to suggest a favorable relationship different than the truth. In no way do these gentlemen seek any limelight not now required by the Senator's distortion of the past and his wrongful claim to the American public that these men are his band of brothers."
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2...3/114333.shtml


Yep, those patriotic veterans are tired of Kerry's lies, and his attempts to mingle his treason with their heroism. Good news!

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