What we found ourselves wondering last night listening to the vitriolic comments by former POWs in Vietnam on Sinclair's lame-O production is: Why are these guys - veterans of a vicious war - focused only on themselves and a war that ended 30 years ago when there are thousands of young soldiers dying and suffering needlessly in Iraq TODAY? That's when we realized the biggest difference between Kerry and these guys: they care only about THEMSELVES. Kerry, when he came back from Vietnam, could have disappeared into private life, but didn't. He spoke out against the war to help those soldiers still trapped in hell. Just as he is speaking out loud and clear now against yet another disastrous war.

AP: "A Vietnam veteran shown in a documentary criticizing Sen. John Kerry's anti-war activities filed a libel lawsuit against the movie's producer Monday, saying the film falsely calls the veteran a fraud and a liar. Kenneth J. Campbell, now a professor at the University of Delaware, said in the suit that 'Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal' combines footage of him appearing at a 1971 war protest with narration that claims that many of the supposed veterans who took part in the event were later 'discovered as frauds' who 'never set foot on the battlefield, or left the comfort of the States, or even served in uniform.' The suit said viewers would be left with the perception that Campbell had lied about his military service. Campbell attached copies of his military records to the lawsuit, showing that he received a Purple Heart and eight other medals, ribbons and decorations for his service in Vietnam."

SignonSanDiego: "The U.S. Navy has rejected a request to open an investigation into military awards given John Kerry during the Vietnam War, saying his medals were properly approved. 'Our examination found that existing documentation regarding the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart medals indicates the awards approval process was properly followed,' the Navy's inspector general, Vice Admiral Ronald Route, said in a memo written to Navy Secretary Gordon England. 'In particular, the senior officers who awarded the medals were properly delegated authority to do so. In addition we found that they correctly followed the procedures in place at the time for approving these awards.' " The request was made by Judicial Watch, the biggest bunch of phonies in Washington, who are dedicated to 'watchdogging' corporate/ Republican interests. "Route said that 'conducting any additional review regarding events that took place over thirty years ago would not be productive."

AP: "A conservative group isn't entitled to a media exemption that would have let it run election-time ads promoting a book that criticizes Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, election officials ruled Thursday. The 4-0 decision affecting Citizens United [ad Bushie corporate front group] was one of three by the FEC further defining the boundaries of political ad restrictions in the nation's campaign finance law. The law bans the use of corporate money for ads that clearly identify a federal candidate, air in places where the candidate is on the ballot, and appear within one month of the primary and two months of the general election. It exempts news stories, commentaries or editorials aired on television or radio unless the outlets are owned by political groups, parties or candidates. " But, just like Bush during Vietnam, Bush's buddies thought they should get special treatment.

Media Matters: "[T]he website (http://www.swiftvets.com/) of anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth contradicted the account of the group's star witness -- retired Rear Admiral William L. Schachte Jr. (http://mediamatters.org/items/200408270007), who claims he was the commander on the December 2, 1968, mission for which the U.S. Navy awarded Senator John Kerry his first Purple Heart [now] Swift Boat Veterans for Truth altered its website's account (http://www.swiftvets.com/staticpages/index.php?page=Purple1) of the incident. [T]his description matches Kerry's own account, as well as the account of Patrick Runyon (http://mediamatters.org/search.html?string=Runyon) and William Zaladonis (http://mediamatters.org/search.html?string=Zaladonis), two enlisted men who insist that: (1) Schachte was not on the skimmer; (2) that Kerry was in command; and (3) that Runyon and Zaladonis were the only other people besides Kerry on the small craft."

Bill "Means, a 55-year-old investigator for several Bakersfield law firms, was particularly annoyed by the words of one retired admiral. Roy F. 'Latch' Hoffman, one of the co-founders of the pro-Bush group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, had publicly criticized Kerry, a former Swift boat commander, for having brought back stories about alleged war crimes by U.S. forces -- often carried out, Kerry said in 1971, 'with the full awareness of officers at all levels.' Seemed to him, Means said, his own Swift boat crew had come close to committing a war crime themselves one day. A senior officer, hitching a ride up the coast aboard their Swift boat, had ordered the crew to fire on a small group of unarmed Vietnamese fishermen working their nets in unrestricted waters, Means said. The boat's commanding officer had refused to comply." The senior officer was Roy Hoffman, then a Navy captain in charge of the entire Swift boat task force in Vietnam. Will the networks interview Bill Means???

Brian Zapp Jamieson writes: "In the normal course of events, [a rightwing group like the Swift boat con artists] would get a blaze of publicity from the Scaife, Ailes and Murdoch empires, along with the Drudge Report, and they would hope the real media would notice and report on it. Eventually, a right wing hack or two would write a book about the group for Regnery Press [which will publish ANYTING rightwing], Scaife or someone would make bulk purchases in order to push the book into the top twenty sales, and a new right wing propaganda piece would be born. These carefully orchestrated hit pieces have been run, over and over, attacking the Clintons, and any and all liberals and moderates that the right thinks needs to be destroyed."

John Dean writes: "'Unfit for Command' doesn't mince words. It accuses Kerry of a number of crimes: fraud, lying before the Senate, filing false reports, dereliction of duty, desertion, and treason -- to mention only a few. As an example, I will analyze just one such charge. Chapter Four of the book opens with a quotation from William Franke, a swift boat veteran: 'I will tell you in all candor that the only baby killer I knew in Vietnam was John F. Kerry.' Where's the support in the book for this? There is none. According to O'Neill, Kerry's swift boat gunner, Steve Gardner -- who is among the most hostile of the Swiftees toward Kerry - says there was a baby-killing incident, but he also says that Kerry had no idea it occurred, and tried to stop further fire at a civilian target. It seems from this that Kerry is better characterized as baby-saver than baby-killer!... Actual malice is often very hard to prove. But that's not so here." Read how Barry Goldwater sued in 1965 - and won.

"Rear Admiral William L. Schachte Jr., the man who claims Kerry was not under fire when he received his first Purple Heart, is a top lobbyist for a defense contractor that recently won a $40 million grant from the Bush administration. According to a March 18 legal filing by Schachte's firm, Blank Rome, Schachte was one of the lobbyists working for FastShip's effort to secure federal contracts. On Feb. 2, FastShip announced the Bush administration had awarded it $40 million. Schachte has other connections to the Bush administration. The Washington Post notes David Norcross, Schachte's colleague in the Washington office of Blank Rome, is chairman of this week's Republican convention in New York. Schachte gave $1,000 to Bush's 2000 and 2004 campaigns. Additionally, Schachte helped organize veterans' efforts against Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and for Bush in the 2000 South Carolina primary."

AP: "The chief critic of John Kerry's military record told President Nixon in 1971 that he had been in Cambodia in a swift boat during the Vietnam War - a claim at odds with his recent statements that he was not. 'I was in Cambodia, sir. I worked along the border,' said John E. O'Neill in a conversation that was taped by the former president's secret recording system. The tape is stored at the National Archives in College Park, Md. In an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, O'Neill did not dispute what he said to Nixon, but insisted he was never actually in Cambodia [although he told Nixon he 'was in Cambodia']. Chad Clanton, a spokesman for the Democratic presidential candidate, said the tape 'is just the latest in a long line of lies and false statements from a group trying to smear John Kerry's military service. Again, they're being proven liars with their own words. It's time for President Bush to stand up and specifically condemn this smear.'"

William O'Rourke writes: "Kerry's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention could have done without his salute and the ''reporting for duty'' line. Instead, Kerry could have tried to reconcile the two impulses he displayed in Vietnam and immediately after: the war and his opposition to it. For it is that sort of understanding that needs to be brought to bear in the matter of Iraq and any campaign against international terrorism. However, he chose a simpler theme. In this one way his critics are right: Kerry has made his military service a centerpiece of his campaign. He should have made both kinds of service -- for the war and against the war -- its center. Kerry's military focus encouraged his detractors -- it is the Republican way: Karl Rove knows it's an individual's virtues that must be smeared and damaged." And, alas, thugs like Balloon-face Rove can never understand the complexities of conscience.

"Almost half in a poll taken this week say they think the president's campaign is behind the ads that try to undercut Kerry's medals for heroism while just over a third think the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is an independent group, the National Annenberg Election Survey found... The public's belief that Kerry did not earn his medals grew to 30% when the attack ads got widespread publicity on cable news networks. But that number has dropped to 24% now... In polling from Monday through Thursday, 46% said they believed the Bush campaign was behind the ads and 37% said they thought the ads were done independently. The president and his campaign staff have said repeatedly they have no connection to the ads, which have come under increasing criticism as Navy records and additional witnesses backed Kerry's version of events."

When the Swift Boat Liars for Bush first ran their ads attacking John Kerry's military record, some of the American people were actually fooled by them. But now that the truth is coming out, the percentage of people who believe the lies has dropped drastically. And the percentage of people who recognize the Swifties as a typical Bush Campaign Tactic is rising. Don't you just love the smell of "blowback" in the morning?

"Clackamas County prosecutor Alfred French, who called John Kerry a liar in a political commercial, acknowledged that he lied to his boss when confronted about an extramarital affair with a colleague. Hours later, the Clackamas County district attorney's office said French had been placed on a 30-day paid leave while it conducts an investigation into his conduct. French's former boss, James O'Leary, said he asked French about the rumored affair with a secretary about 10 years ago, but French denied it. O'Leary said he would have fired French if he'd admitted the relationship because it violated office policy. French, who said he served in the same military unit with Kerry for two months in 1969, has come under intense scrutiny in the past week as the anti-Kerry ad has become a central issue in the presidential campaign. Suddenly, the well-respected Oregon prosecutor found himself the target of questions about his own credibility and the truthfulness of his statements against Kerry."

Ronald "Lambert, now 64, was a crew member on swift boat PCF-51 that day. The boat was commanded by Navy Lt. Larry Thurlow, a now-retired officer who questions why Kerry was awarded a Bronze star for bravery and a third Purple Heart for the March 13 incident. 'He and another officer now say we weren't under fire at that time,' Lambert said Wednesday afternoon. 'Well, I sure was under the impression we were.' Lambert's Bronze Star medal citation for the incident praises his courage under fire in the aftermath of a mine explosion that rocked another swift boat on that day 35 years ago. 'Anytime you are blown out of the water like that, they always follow that up with small arms fire,' he said." Watch the Nation's Ian Williams debate Larry Thurlow on MSNBC's Deborah Norville Show at 9pm EST.

CampaignDesk.org writes, "The anti-Bush ad most often cited by the White House as comparable to the Swift Boat spot was a MoveOn spot questioning [Bush's] service in the National Guard. But each one of the claims made in the MoveOn ad â?? that Bush used family connections to get into the Guard, that he was grounded after failing to show up for a physical, that he wasn't seen at a guard meeting for months, and that he was released eight months early to attend Harvard Business School â?? is not in dispute... Compare that to the Swift Boat ads. Given that military records support Kerry's version of events, and that the credibility of many of Kerry's accusers is now in doubt, it would seem that if anyone should be on the defensive for lacking corroboration and documentation, it's those defending Bush's service record, not that of Kerry. No anti-Bush ad from MoveOn flies in the face of the preponderance of evidence in the way that the Swift Boat ad does."

As a practicing lawyer in Texas, John O'Neill must uphold legal ethics standards, which prohibit lying. "Rule 8.02 Judicial and Legal Officials (a) A lawyer shall not make a statement that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of a judge, adjudicatory official or public legal officer, or of a candidate for election or appointment to judicial or legal office. Rule 8.04 Misconduct (a) A lawyer shall not: (3) engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation." O'Neill has repeatedly LIED about John Kerry, a candidate for the nation's highest legal office - the person who appoints the Attorney General and federal judges. Contact the Texas Bar by phone (800)204-2222 or Fax (512)463-1475 and demand O'Neill's disbarment!

"The Navy task force overseeing John Kerry's swift boat squadron in Vietnam reported that his group of boats came under enemy fire during a March 13, 1969, incident that three decades later is being challenged by the Democratic presidential nominee's critics. The March 18, 1969, weekly report from Task Force 115, which was located by The Associated Press during a search of Navy archives, is the latest document to surface that supports Kerry's description of an event for which he won a Bronze Star and a third Purple Heart. The Task Force report twice mentions the incident five days earlier and both times calls it 'an enemy initiated firefight' that included automatic weapons fire and underwater mines used against a group of five boats that included Kerry's. Task Force 115 was commanded at the time by retired Rear Adm. Roy Hoffmann, the founder of the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which has been running ads challenging Kerry's account of the episode."

Factcheck.org writes, "Some atrocities by US forces have been documented beyond question. Kerry's 1971 testimony came less than one month after Army Lt. William Calley had been convicted in a highly publicized military trial of the murder of the murder of 22 Vietnamese civilians at My Lai hamlet on March 16 1968, when upwards of 300 unarmed men, women and children were killed by inexperienced soldiers... Keith Nolan, author of 10 published books on Vietnam, says he's heard many veterans describe atrocities just like those Kerry recounted from the Winter Soldier event. Nolan told FactCheck.org that since 1978 he's interviewed roughly 1,000 veterans in depth for his books, and spoken to thousands of others. 'I have heard the exact same stories dozens if not hundreds of times over,' he said. 'Wars produce atrocities. Frustrating guerrilla wars produce a particularly horrific number of atrocities.'"

"The evidence points to a darker motivation: revenge on Kerry for revealing in 1971 their indiscriminate killing of Vietnamese civilians. 33 years ago, Kerry told the world about the American policy of establishing 'free-fire zones,' where a solider was ordered to shoot anything that moved, combatant and non-combatant alike. Kerry discovered upon his return to the US that such zones and other inhumane tactics routinely practiced in Vietnam violated the Geneva Conventions regulating the laws of war. While free-fire zones are not 'war crimes' in the classic sense of Nazi death camps, they do raise an important question as to America's understanding of its moral character. Are there limits to conduct in war? If so, should violations of these limits be reported or covered up? The fury directed at Kerry, both in 1971 and today, is largely fueled by the knowledge of many of these vets that they-like the Abu Gharib prison guards-were ordered to act outside international norms of humanity."

"Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA) with the White House asking it to detail its contacts with individuals connected to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT). CREW asked the White House to release information regarding contacts between the Executive Office of the President and: any member of SBVT; SBVT donors Harlan Crow, Bob J. Perry and Paraclete Armor & Equipment; Merrie Spaeth, who has coordinated the public relations efforts of SBVT; any employee of Stevens Reed Curcio & Poltholm, the advertising agency that has made SBVT's commercials; Rupprath and Associates, the detective agency that gathered the SBVT affidavits; SBVT fundraiser The McIntosh Company; and Kenneth Cordier, a former member of the Bush campaign's veterans steering committee. The White House has claimed no involvement with SBVT or the group's anti-Kerry campaign ads, a claim undermined by recent revelations."

Before John O'Neill accused John Kerry of lying, he should have sworn on the Bible to tell the truth. But as Media Matters for America reports, "For the past several weeks, John E. O'Neill has lied repeatedly about himself, his organization, and his book. He's lied about being a Republican from Texas, lied about his political involvement, lied about his ties to the Nixon White House, lied about his campaign contributions, lied about his co-author, and lied about the makeup of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT), the anti-Kerry group he founded."

"JOE JOHNS: O'Neill said Kerry made up a story about being in Cambodia beyond the legal borders of the Vietnam War in 1968. O'Neill said no one could cross the border by river and he claimed in an audio tape his publicist played to CNN that he himself had never been to Cambodia either. But in 1971 O'Neill said precisely the opposite to then-President Richard Nixon. AUDIO TAPE: O'Neill: I was in Cambodia Sir, I worked along the border on the water. Nixon: In a Swift Boat? O'Neill: Yes, Sir. END OF AUDIO TAPE JOE JOHNS: O'Neill may have an explanation for this, but he has not returned CNN's calls. What is clear is that a top member of the Swift Boat group is now being held to the same standard of literal accuracy that they've tried to impose on John Kerry." O'Neill lied directly to his Commander-in-Chief - he should have been Court Martialed!

"A lawyer for Bush's re-election campaign disclosed Tuesday that he has been providing legal advice for a veterans group that is challenging John Kerry's account of his Vietnam War service. Benjamin Ginsberg's acknowledgment marks the second time in days that an individual associated with the Bush-Cheney campaign has been connected to the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which Kerry accuses of being a front for the Republican incumbent's re-election effort. The Bush campaign and the veterans' group say there is no coordination... 'It's another piece of the mounting evidence of the ties between the Bush campaign and this group,' Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton said of Ginsberg's admission. 'The longer Bush waits to specifically condemn this smear, the more it looks like his campaign is behind it.' ... Ginsberg also represented the Bush campaign in 2000 and became a prominent figure during the Florida recount."

"A Swift Boat Veterans for Truth member featured prominently in ads attacking Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam service said he was misled by Republicans when asked to speak at an anti-Kerry rally in Gainesville FL on Saturday. Joe Ponder, wounded during the war in 1968, said he turned down the speaking engagement after learning that fliers promoting the event had been distributed at a local Bush-Cheney campaign office Friday. Pete Webster, another member of the organization scheduled to speak, did not attend Saturday's rally. When the speakers failed to materialize, scores of Bush and Kerry supporters who had gathered for the event sparred verbally for more than three hours... Dineen Wolfersheim, secretary of the Alachua County Republican Executive Committee, said she helped organize the event as a private citizen and blamed an unidentified "overzealous Republican" for placing the flier in the party's headquarters." ROTFL!

E.J. Dionne writes, "The media have to do more than 'he said/he said' reporting. If the charges don't hold up, they don't hold up. And, yes, now that John Kerry's life during his 20s has been put at the heart of this campaign just over two months from Election Day, the media owe the country a comparable review of what Bush was doing at the same time and the same age. If all the stories are about what Kerry did in Vietnam and not balanced by serious scrutiny of Bush in the Vietnam years, the media will be capitulating to a right-wing smear campaign. Surely our nation's editors and producers don't want to send a signal that all you have to do to set the media's agenda is to spend a half a million bucks on television ads. This is also a test of John McCain... when he returns to the United States from a trip to Europe this week, he should stand up for that principle by suspending his campaigning for Bush's re-election until the smears against Kerry's Vietnam record stop. "

The Daily Howler quotes the Washington Post: "'There was a lot of firing going on ... from both sides of the river,' said Wayne D. Langhofer, who manned a machine gun aboard PCF-43, the boat that was directly behind Kerry's. Langhofer said he distinctly remembered the 'clack, clack, clack' of enemy AK-47s, as well as muzzle flashes from the riverbanks. Langhofer ... said he was approached several months ago by leaders of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth but declined their requests to speak out against Kerry.... In 'Unfit for Command,' O'Neill describes the after-action report as 'Kerry's report.' He contends that language in Thurlow's Bronze Star citation referring to 'enemy bullets flying about him' must also have come from 'Kerry's after-action report' [but the] official witness to those events, according to Thurlow's medal recommendation form, was his own leading petty officer, Robert Lambert, who himself won a Bronze Star for 'courage under fire' in going to Thurlow's rescue...."

Vietnam vets "[Don] Stewart of Oregon City and Don Kirsch of Canby drew about 45 people to a rally to criticize Alfred French, a senior deputy district attorney who said in an affidavit that Kerry lied about his service record. French later admitted his sworn statements were based on the accounts of others. French's comments have been used in anti-Kerry ads by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth... The ad campaign has become a national issue, and French's admission to The Oregonian last week that his signed affidavit was not based on personal observations raised the emotional level of the veterans-versus-veterans debate in Oregon... 'We question your fitness to serve as an enforcer of the law after swearing to facts in a legal affidavit that you do not know to be true,' they wrote."

Swiftvets.eriposte.com, a website "dedicated to revealing the real truth behind the so-called 'Swift Boat Veterans for Truth' (SBV for short)" gathers reports from several sources to show, "Many media outlets have been providing a relatively easy opening for SBV ... parading these folks before viewers (or readers), often without critically examining the full breadth and depth of their egregiously false charges against Senator John Kerry.... What will become clear when you review the material here is that SBV has major ultra-right-wing, partisan, Bush supporters and Kerry haters and GOP slime operators who are merely kicking off Part II of 'The Hunting of the President' - while creating the appearance of being an 'independent' group. What is even more remarkable is that SBV's hate-filled mendacity is nothing other than a direct attack on the integrity of the American Armed Forces - something that Republicans like them claim to hold dear."

Evelyn Pringle, founder of Citizens for Honest Fighter Pilots: "On his many visits to internet chat rooms, Jerry Corsi had this to say in reference to Muslims, Corsi claims, 'Ragheads are Boy-Bumpers as clearly as they are Women-Haters.' In one of his chat room posts he says: 'Islam is a peaceful religion just as long as the women are beaten, the boys buggered and the infidels are killed.' But before we go any further, lets put his internet comments in the right perspective. According to the Associated Press, Corsi has apologized and said his comments were not meant to be taken seriously. He was joking and never meant to offend anyone. I don't know about anybody else, but I was sure relieved to find out that this particular comment was not meant to be taken seriously. For a minute there I got the impression that Corsi thought women getting beaten and boys being sodomized was funny."

Boston Globe opines, "Imagine if supporters of Bill Clinton had tried in 1996 to besmirch the military record of his opponent, Bob Dole. After all, Dole was given a Purple Heart for a leg scratch probably caused, according to one biographer, when a hand grenade thrown by one of his own men [DOLE admits HE threw it!] bounced off a tree. And while the serious injuries Dole sustained later surely came from German fire, did the episode demonstrate heroism on Dole's part or a reckless move that ended up killing his radioman and endangering the sergeant who dragged Dole off the field? The truth, according to many accounts, is that Dole fought with exceptional bravery and deserves the nation's gratitude. No one in 1996 questioned that record. Any such attack on behalf of Clinton, an admitted Vietnam draft dodger, would have been preposterous. Yet amazingly, something quite similar is happening today as supporters of Bush attack the Vietnam record of John Kerry."

Rockingchairgranny writes, "If you would like to call a swift boat veteran for truth, below are some names, addresses and phone numbers. I'm not sure what to say to these folks - perhaps something like: Are you aware that your name is listed publicly on the s.b.v.f.t. website? Do you believe that you are helping to degrade american political dialogue by resorting to unfounfded personal attacks? Isn't what you are doing now- attacking JK for political reasons in order to help a draft dodger worse than what you are accusing Kerry of? Is it public knowledge in your local community that you are a member of this group? Would it be okay if I called your local news outlets and gave them your name? They asked for the media spotlight, lets give it to them."

The Washington Post has given credence to the Swift Boat lies against Kerry. Take this opportunity to talk back to the Post and demand real, unbiased coverage. Ask when they'll give equal coverage to evidence Bush went AWOL / deserted in time of war. If you can't make it, join our Media Watch Project - http://democrats.com/media

Ken Cordier was just fired by the Bush campaign for appearing in a Swift Boat Liars ad. The campaign says Cordier never told him he was involved with the Swifties. But Cordier was on Bush's "steering committee to help reach out to veterans during this election." (http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=6036302). Did Cordier - or other members of this official "steering committee" - help organize the Swift Boat Liars? If they did, it would prove Kerry's FEC complaint that the Bush campaign illegally coordinated with the Swift Boat Liars.

"The Bush campaign said Kenneth Cordier, who appears in a new advertisement to be aired by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, will no longer serve in his voluntary position on Bush's veterans steering committee... the Kerry campaign said the Cordier matter added more weight to its complaint filed last week with the FEC. 'This is another brick in the wall of evidence that the Bush campaign is behind this smear,' he said. 'No wonder the president won't condemn the ads.' Under law, political campaigns cannot coordinate with the 527 organizations... Bush aides have said there has been no coordination with the Swift boat group... But the Kerry campaign said that claim is put in doubt both by the Cordier issue and by various news accounts demonstrating close relationships between the Swift boat veterans and key Bush advisers. The Kerry campaign also asserts that a Kerry campaign volunteer picked up a Swift Boat Veterans for Truth flier at the Bush-Cheney office in Gainesville, Fla."

"John Kerry accused Bush of relying on front groups to challenge his record of valor in Vietnam, asserting, 'He wants them to do his dirty work.' Defending his record, the Democratic presidential candidate said, 'Thirty years ago, official Navy reports documented my service in Vietnam and awarded me the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts. Thirty years ago, this was the plain truth. It still is. And I still carry the shrapnel in my leg from a wound in Vietnam'... In addition to Kerry's speech before an audience of firefighters, his campaign released a new 30-second campaign commercial that features a former Green Beret saying the young Navy lieutenant saved his life under fire... Kerry said, 'Of course, the president keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country. Instead, he watches as a Republican-funded attack group does just that. Well, if he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: Bring it on." You GO, John!

PentaPost reports, "In newspaper interviews and a best-selling book, Larry Thurlow, who commanded a Navy Swift boat alongside Kerry in Vietnam, has strongly disputed Kerry's claim that the Massachusetts Democrat's boat came under fire during a mission in Viet Cong-controlled territory on March 13, 1969. Kerry won a Bronze Star for his actions that day. But Thurlow's military records, portions of which were released yesterday to The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act, contain several references to 'enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire' directed at 'ALL UNITS' of the five-boat flotilla. Thurlow won his own Bronze Star that day, and the citation praises him for providing assistance to a damaged Swift boat 'despite enemy bullets flying about him' ... Last month, Thurlow swore in an affidavit that Kerry was 'not under fire' when he fished Lt. James Rassmann out of the water." That makes Thurlow a LIAR.

MediaMatters.org reports, "Appearing on CNN's Crossfire on August 12, John O'Neill, co-founder of the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and co-author of the Regnery book Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, denied he had links to the Republican Party: 'I've had no serious involvement in politics of any kind in over 32 years.' But, as Media Matters for America noted on May 4, O'Neill has long-standing ties to the Republicans, having worked under the direction of the Nixon White House and clerked for Chief Justice of the United States William Rehnquist in 1990. Moreover, since 1990, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, O'Neill has contributed $14,650 to federal candidates or national political organizations -- all Republicans: "

LCpl. Barry DeLong USMC RVN 1969-70 writes, "This web site was formed as a result of my being banned from the so called 'SwiftVets for Truth' website. I was banned not for using foul, vulgar, or profane language, but for disputing the veracity of the site itself. On this website we will seek the truth and not rely on hearsay, innuendo, and false claims made on the internet or the 'talking heads' on the radio. Rather we will rely on intelligent evidence such as records from the U.S. Senate, newspaper articles, and other verifiable media... We will attempt to debunk their false claims and affirm their just claims on this web site. In short I loathe the idea that certain veterans would falsely denigrate another combat veteran for political reasons thereby denigrating all of us who served honorably. This website is not established to dishonor Vietnam Veterans especially our brothers who served on the Swift Boats but to attempt to do justice to those that have served honorably."

"To George W. Bush: As Jim Rassman writes, '35 years after the fact, some Republican-financed Swift Boat Veterans for Bush are suddenly lying about John Kerry's service in Vietnam... This time their attacks are more vicious, their lies cut deep and are directed not just at John Kerry, but at me and each of his crewmates as well. This hate-filled ad asserts that I was not under fire; it questions my words and Navy records. This smear campaign has been launched by people without decency, people who don't understand the bond of those who serve in combat... Sen. McCain called on President Bush to condemn the ad. Regrettably, the president has ignored Sen. McCain.' As a candidate, you promised to 'be a uniter, not a divider' ... 'restore honor and integrity to the White House' ... and 'change the tone in Washington.' We therefore call on you to condemn the lies by your supporters about John Kerry's Vietnam medals." Sign the petition!

Jerome Corsi "is a religious bigot, hatemonger and gay basher who says Islam should be eliminated, calls Senator Hillary Clinton a 'lesbo' and says 'Ragheads are Boy-Bumpers as clearly as they are Women-Haters'... He is a regular contributor to [FreeRepublic.com], posting under the screen handle of 'jrlc' since 2001. A frequent gay basher, Corsi on November 18, 2001 posted: 'Isn't the Democratic Party the official SODOMIZER PROTECTION ASSOCIATION of AMERICA?' He reserves the same hatred towards Catholics: 'So this is what the last days of the Catholic Church are going to look like. Buggering boys undermines the moral base and the lawyers rip the gold off the Vatican alters. We may get one more Pope, when this senile old one dies, but that's probably about it.'... His religious bigotry extends to Judiasm with this March 4, 2004, post: 'After he married TeRAHsa, didn't John Kerry being practicing Judiasm? He also has paternal grandparents that were Jewish. What religion is John Kerry?'"