Fait_Maker

I liked this...

"The Kerry campaign called Corsi's Web chat postings disgusting.
"President Bush (news - web sites) should immediately condemn this sleazy book written by a virulent anti-Catholic bigot. It says something about the smear campaign against John Kerry that it has stooped to enlist a hatemonger," said campaign spokesman Chad Clanton."

I'm still waiting for Kerry or any Democratic leader to denouce the leaders of the NAACP for the comments they made about Bush. When Jesse Jackson was asked at the Democratic Convention, as a leader, to denounce the NAACP for those comments, he went and started lambasting Bush because rich kids can go to college and poor kids have to joint he military. He literally said Bush was sending poor kids to die because they had no other options to get a college education other than their military.

I'd just like to know why if Democrats hate rich people so much they aren't giving their money away. I'll take Kerry's check now.. he doesn't have to wait until he's President.

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phyllis

Heh...wasn't that when Hannity asked him about the NAACP ? I was listening to that on the way home from work....couldn't believe how quickly he sidestepped the question and went after Bush ! Talk about dodging the issue !

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leejo

In March 1986, Kerry said, during a speech on the Senate floor, that, "I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by the Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared — seared — in me...."

The Khmer Rouge weren't around until 1970.

Must have been self-aggrandizing fantasy that was seared - seared in him.

Never mind that he's suddenly remembered that he was doing something else that Christmas.

leejo

Attention internet watchdogs: The NY Times finally admits the Swiftboat Vets exist, albeit they make no effort to discuss the matter at hand, only smear those speaking. Like Carville on Crossfire, if you yell "liar" enough times people will think it's true.

Politics as Usual
Published: August 19, 2004

It may seem outlandish to launch a campaign broadside by television ad and book flackery devoted to discrediting the respectable Vietnam War record of Senator John Kerry, who has five combat medals. But that is exactly what a Republican-financed group of partisans is doing in presenting itself as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and tattooing the Democratic presidential nominee with accusations of lying about his service and war wounds. Never in Mr. Kerry's command, but claiming to have served near enough, its members are trying to contradict the firsthand accounts of his crewmates who are vouching for his war record.

In a way, this political assault may merely be a knife-edged compliment to the effectiveness of Mr. Kerry's stratagem of tirelessly - some might say tiresomely - highlighting his wartime service. The attack ads and the book, "Unfit for Command,'' are a visceral part of the anti-Kerry campaign in the battleground states. The assault is gaining attention, with Internet and cable television zealots debating combat minutiae and even whether Mr. Kerry enacted wartime events with his political future in mind or held secret meetings with Communists.

The leader of the attack, John O'Neill, a Swift boat veteran and Texas lawyer, has been a detractor of Mr. Kerry for decades, ever since the Nixon White House recruited him to rebut Mr. Kerry's criticism of Vietnam policy. And the chief donor to the Swift boat broadside is a Texas businessman, Bob Perry, who is known for giving millions to the campaigns of President Bush and other Republicans.

Voters should also know that the group is one of the new "shadow party" efforts of supposedly independent ( but, in truth, transparently partisan) activist groups that have been set up to evade campaign laws and take advantage of nonprofits' tax breaks. One of the more prominent of these groups, the leftist MoveOn.org, is running ads attacking President Bush's Air National Guard service. We have denounced the Democrats for pioneering and financing these efforts - which the Federal Election Commission, ever the snoozing watchdog of American politics, has done nothing to rein in. The F.E.C. is to consider some get-tough proposals this week, but a majority of the commission members are likely to duck responsibility once more.

Senator John McCain, the Vietnam hero who was smeared by one such "independent" stealth group in the 2000 campaign, has denounced the Swift Boat Veterans' attack as dishonest and dishonorable, declaring, "The Bush administration should specifically condemn the ad." So far that hasn't happened. We can only hope the senator brought the point up as he campaigned last week with Mr. Bush.

leejo

Ladies and gentlemen, we have liftoff:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...r_12&printer=1

leejo

And the swiftvets respond:

For Immediate Release August 19, 2004

Statement By Swift Boat Veterans for Truth Member Larry Thurlow

I am convinced that the language used in my citation for a Bronze Star was language taken directly from John Kerry's report which falsely described the action on the Bay Hap River as action that saw small arms fire and automatic weapons fire from both banks of the river.

To this day, I can say without a doubt in my mind, along with other accounts from my shipmates-there was no hostile enemy fire directed at my boat or at any of the five boats operating on the river that day.

I submitted no paperwork for a medal nor did I file an after action report describing the incident. To my knowledge, John Kerry was the only officer who filed a report describing his version of the incidents that occurred on the river that day.

It was not until I had left the Navy-approximately three months after I left the service-that I was notified that I was to receive a citation for my actions on that day.

I believed then as I believe now that I received my Bronze Star for my efforts to rescue the injured crewmen from swift boat number three and to conduct damage control to prevent that boat from sinking. My boat and several other swift boats went to the aid of our fellow swift boat sailors whose craft was adrift and taking on water. We provided immediate rescue and damage control to prevent boat three from sinking and to offer immediate protection and comfort to the injured crew.

After the mine exploded, leaving swift boat three dead in the water, John Kerry's boat, which was on the opposite side of the river, fled the scene. US Army Special Forces officer Jim Rassmann, who was on Kerry's boat at the time, fell off the boat and into the water. Kerry's boat returned several minutes later-under no hail of enemy gunfire-to retrieve Rassmann from the river only seconds before another boat was going to pick him up.

Kerry campaign spokespersons have conflicting accounts of this incident-the latest one being that Kerry's boat did leave but only briefly and returned under withering enemy fire to rescue Mr. Rassmann. However, none of the other boats on the river that day reported enemy fire nor was anyone wounded by small arms action. The only damage on that day was done to boat three-a result of the underwater mine. None of the other swift boats received damage from enemy gunfire.

And in a new development, Kerry campaign officials are now finally acknowledging that while Kerry's boat left the scene, none of the other boats on the river ever left the damaged swift boat. This is a direct contradiction to previous accounts made by Jim Rassmann in the Oregonian newspaper and a direct contradiction to the "No Man Left Behind" theme during the Democratic National Convention.

These ever changing accounts of the Bay Hap River incident by Kerry campaign officials leave me asking one question. If no one ever left the scene of the Bay Hap River incident, how could anyone be left behind?


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Statement by Navy Veteran Van Odell, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth

in Rebuttal to Michael Dobbs, Washington Post, August 19, 2004


A courageous, soft spoken man of the Midwest, Larry Thurlow has a heart bigger than the great plains and a commitment to truth and honesty that is boundless. He is under attack, because John Kerry is feeling the heat of truth at the hands of this honest man and others like him.

The Kerry Campaign is attacking the truthfulness of this man and the Bronze Star he so richly deserves for his actions on March 13, 1969. I was there. I saw what happened.

The mine's detonation lifted PCF-3 completely out of the water just yards ahead of me. All boats commenced suppression fire in case enemy small arms fire ensued. None did.

All boats came to the aid of PCF-3, except one: John Kerry's boat. Kerry fled.

Larry Thurlow piloted his boat straight toward the mine-damaged PCF-3 from which thick, black smoke billowed. He jumped aboard and personally led damage control operations that saved the boat and rescue operations that saved the lives of badly wounded men. Larry's leadership was in the highest traditions of the naval service. His leadership allowed the other men and boats of the mission to exit the river safely. This single act of meritorious service -- the chief requirement of the Bronze Star -- should be honored, not ridiculed, by the Kerry campaign and its allies in the mainstream media.

To reiterate, only one enemy weapon was deployed that day -- the command-detonated submerged mine that disabled PCF-3. Larry Thurlow's citation contained references to "enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire," because that was the language chosen by John Kerry who penned the spot report on the action that day. There was no "enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire" received that day. John Kerry's report was fiction -- a hoax on the entire chain of command. Larry Thurlow's heroism and meritorious service, however, is real.

To me Larry is one of the heroes of our country. He is a man who served his country when called and who returned home to be a productive citizen. Larry and men like him are the strong backbone of our society. I am proud to have served with him.


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Below is a statement from John O'Neill responding to Senator John Kerry's August 19, 2004, attack on The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Mr. O'Neill is the author of Unfit for Command.

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The Navy did not send Republicans or Democrats to the island of An Thoi. We are responding and dealing with something that is deeply personal - our own record and the record of our unit in Vietnam. These are issues Senator Kerry raised and we regret that he uses ad hominem attacks instead of dealing with the actual facts. He is doing that because he can't deal with the truth.

For example, for 35 years he said he claimed that one of the turning points of his life was spending Christmas Eve and Christmas illegally in Cambodia, libeling our commanders and our nation with accusations of war crimes. That is a totally false statement because he was no where near Cambodia on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. The Kerry campaign continues to flip flop on the Cambodia issue.

In addition, Senator Kerry closed the Democratic National Convention with a story in which he claimed that five of the boats fled on March 13 after a mine went off and he came back. His campaign is now admitting that he fled and the rest stayed.

Attacking our organization does not respond to the facts that occurred in Vietnam. Senator Kerry says that he has learned to charge into an ambush in connection with this, instead he is fleeing down the river from the facts.

Fait_Maker

Yes.. as a matter of fact it was.. I was listening on my way home too!

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Wolfie

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/07/kerry.exley/

Kerry hires online chief from MoveOn

I thought Kerry was condemning attack ads, not hiring people from organizations that do them....

phyllis

Heh...just the beginning...it's gonna get wayyyyy worse before November !

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leejo

A little trip down memory lane for those tired of the "fear and smear" campaign being waged against Kerry.

http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/r...004_0427b.html

Be careful what you wish for! Senator Kerry seems to be happy to dish it out, and not so happy to take it. Understandable.

Wolfie

Well, it looks like I won't be voting this year.

I don't qualify to do absentee voting in Kentucky since I am moving out in October and I won't quality to vote in Michigan as I won't be a resident for 30 days before the election.

CingularDuality

I would write a letter to the Registrar of Voters (or County Clerk or whoever is in charge of it...) and explain your situation. If you don't get a favorable response, I would start writing letters to newspapers and Congressmen. I don't think you can be denied your right to vote in a federal election because you don't meet a state's residency requirement.

On a related topic, anyone hear about all the Democrats that were found to be registered to vote in both New York and Florida?

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phyllis

Is there a punch-line coming...or is that for real ??

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CingularDuality

No punch line. I heard about it on the radio this morning. There were Republicans doing it as well, but the majority of the double registered rich folks were Democrats...

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leejo

More "bold leadership" from Senator Kerry:

http://nydailynews.com/front/story/227911p-195575c.html

Furious Kerry orders shakeup

from the article:

"The candidate is furious," a longtime senior Kerry adviser told the Daily News. "He knows the campaign was wrong. He wanted to go after the Swift boat attacks, but his top aides said no."

So....he won't take responsibility for the SUV in his garage ("my wife's"), the words that leave his lips ("benedict arnold" CEO's was written by an overzealous speech-writer), or the position his campaign takes on issues!

What DOES this guy do?