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Five years ago, a group of Vietnam veterans came forward at the National Press Club in Washington to dispute the "war hero" stories that formed the basis of candidate John Kerry's presidential campaign, and to challenge the claims of rampant US war crimes Kerry had used to launch his political career 33 years earlier -- false accusations, they said, that helped to poison the reputations of a generation of American troops. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth included Kerry's entire former chain of command from Vietnam and dozens of eyewitnesses to his actions there. Kerry, the veterans said, was not...

Wade Sanders, who pleaded guilty in December to possession of child pornography, was sentenced Monday, and he got off relatively easy. Sanders had argued that he deserved only probation... The Union-Tribune describes Sanders as a "war hero," but he is best known for his service to John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee. Kerry's central campaign claim was that he deserved to be president because his so-called band of brothers, veterans who had served alongside him on Navy Swift boats in Vietnam, vouched for his heroism and his impeccable character. Kerry did not know that one of his fiercest defenders...

Ann Coulter Responds to Media Matters Attacks Wednesday, January 7, 2009 7:50 AM By: Phil Brennan The far left attack dog Media Matters for America is obviously unhappy with Ann Coulter’s new book “Guilty: Liberal 'Victims' and Their Assault on America.” published a 6,000 word compilation of a dozen alleged lies contained in her book which unmasks some of the left’s sleaziest tactics. Media Matters, according to widely respected pollster Frank Luntz is “one of the most destructive organizations associated with American politics today … They are vicious. They only understand one thing: attack...” Newsmax asked Ms. Coulter to respond...

The media’s ability to shape opinion derives from its power to slant the news―the pervasive activism known as “media bias”―and also from its power to choose what is and is not reported. But 2004 marked a watershed in American political history. That was the year the old media lost control of our national conversation.

Just as they sought to destroy John Kerry in 2004, the founders of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group are aiming their guns at this season's presumptive Democratic presidential candidate. But unlike four years ago, when the Swifties spent millions to discredit Kerry, their hit on Barack Obama so far hasn't cost them a dime. The opening assault came over the weekend in the form of a mass email to would-be sympathizers. "As liberal as Kerry was, America faces an even more liberal threat today: Barack Obama," wrote John O'Neill, a founder of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth...

Barack Obama has published an enemies list and conspiracy web on his presidential campaign website, Fight the Smears.The site lists conservative activists David Bossie, Floyd Brown, Bob Perry, Craig Shirley, Bruce Hawkins and James Lacy.The Obama campaign posted an accompanying graphic that lays out a web of connections between the conservatives, groups they represent and their efforts opposing liberals, including "Swift Boat", "Clinton Impeachment" and "Willie Horton Ad".The text never connects any of those listed to 'smears' against Obama, but instead lists their politcal sins such as working with the Minutemen, Ann Coulter, Gary Aldrich, donating to the Swift Boat...

FALLS CHURCH, Va., July 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the Presidential campaign heats up, John Kerry and various members of the liberal media continue to wrongly use the term "Swiftboating" as a shorthand reference for false attacks on a candidate's record. Kate Zernike recently demonstrated the tactic in the New York Times: "Swift boat" has become the synonym for the nastiest of campaign smears, a shadow that hangs over the presidential race as pundits wait to proclaim that the Swiftboating has begun and candidates declare that they will not be Swiftboated. In To Set the Record Straight: How Swift Boat Veterans,...

AN INCIDENT ON THE BAY HAP RIVER Instead of "No Man Left Behind," the true story of that day is "One Man Left." — John O’Neill A war hero candidate On January 17, 2004, two days before the crucial Iowa Democratic primary, the Kerry campaign staged a dramatic “reunion” between the candidate and Jim Rassmann, a former U.S. Army Special Forces officer who said Kerry had saved his life in Vietnam 35 years before. The tearful meeting of the two men was presented as spontaneous, though the campaign had paid Rassmann’s way to Des Moines and informed NBC anchor Tom...

For most people, “Swift boat” has become a political verb, a synonym for the kind of attack that helped destroy the presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry in 2004. But for a group of Vietnam veterans at the center of the attacks, it is still a fresh fight. On Friday, the group, who served with Mr. Kerry in Vietnam, sent a letter to T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire Texas oilman who helped finance the 2004 attack advertisements, taking him up on a challenge he issued last November: that he would give $1 million to anyone who could disprove a single...

"I'm John Kerry, and I'm reporting for duty." Who can forget this now-infamous July 29, 2004, Democratic National Convention acceptance speech when the party's nominee publicly set his course for the next few months? "At the heart of the 2004 presidential campaign was a long-deferred national debate over whether American troops had systematically committed war crimes in Vietnam, as John Kerry and other activists had insisted, and as Hollywood, the media and much of the American public had long assumed," begins Chapter One of To Set the Record Straight: How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John...

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Barack Obama is being endorsed by fellow Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats' 2004 presidential nominee who lost to George W. Bush that year and gave up his own plans for a 2008 run a year ago.[snip]Besides any potential help for Obama, Thursday's endorsement was a slap at Edwards, who was Kerry's running mate in the last election. The two had their differences during the campaign over strategy and spending. In post-mortem interviews, Edwards said he would have been more aggressive in challenging the unsubstantiated allegations of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the Vietnam War veterans...

Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential bid became the catalyst for an unprecedented political movement by Vietnam veterans who had long resented his false 1971 testimony that U.S. troops were routinely committing war crimes. Despite the best efforts of the Democratic Party and its media affiliates, they succeeded in reaching out to the public and turning the presidential campaign upside down. Here, for the first time, is the complete story of how - and why - they did it. During the Vietnam War, the original television networks and the leading liberal newspapers were near the peak of their formidable persuasive powers,...

FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- Last week former President Bill Clinton, John Kerry and various members of the media once again used "Swift boating" as a shorthand reference for misrepresenting a candidate's record. In "To Set the Record Straight: How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John Kerry," authors Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler counter that assertion in a heavily researched 400 page work that provides the first historical assessment of the 2004 presidential campaign. "To Set the Record Straight" is the definitive account of the ad hoc political movement that dominated the 2004 presidential campaign. Based on...

This is the most important book you’ll buy this year: To Set The Record Straight, How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John Kerry, by Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler, with Forward by John O'Neill. Not only will you learn the inside details of the only book – Unfit For Command -- that ever decided a presidential election but, especially for those who have any doubts, you will learn about how the peoples' democracy can still work in the United States. For those inclined toward political science, the book is an important contribution to understanding how political...

11/09/2007 Kerry Spokesman Sets Limbaugh Straight on Swiftboat Smears WASHINGTON D.C. – Kerry spokesman David Wade issued the following statement today in response to Rush Limbaugh, who said on his radio show that Kerry’s Swift Boat attackers in 2004, “were right on the money and nobody has disproven anything they claimed in any of their ads, statements, written commentaries, or anything of the sort.” “At first I thought, that’s not Rush, that’s just the OxyContin talking. Nonetheless, this is a despicable but unsurprising new lie from a man whose closest brush with combat came when customs officials tried to take...

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, perhaps preparing to get back into the presidential ring one day, claims he's now armed with materials that will make war record critics from his 2004 presidential campaign go running tail between legs. The 63-year-old Democratic senator told The Patriot-Ledger on Tuesday that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group of Navy servicemen who served with Kerry and criticized his record in Vietnam, will be revealed as liars. "We have put together a documented portfolio that frankly puts their lies in such a total light of absurdity and indecency, that should they ever rear their...

Does anyone know what happened to them? Their website is gone .. they appear to be Missing In Action.

A Naval veteran who co-founded the group "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" says he will do whatever he can to help Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-California) become the next president of the United States.

Bush bypasses Senate to name ambassador By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer 7 minutes ago President Bush named Republican fundraiser Sam Fox as U.S. ambassador to Belgium on Wednesday, using a maneuver that allowed him to bypass Congress where Democrats had derailed Fox's nomination. Democrats had denounced Fox for his 2004 donation to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The group's TV ads, which claimed that Sen. John Kerry exaggerated his military record in Vietnam, were viewed as a major factor in the Massachusetts Democrat losing the election. Recognizing Fox did not have the votes to obtain Senate confirmation, Bush...

John O'Neill, a U.S. Navy veteran and co-founder of the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, is denouncing Senator John Kerry for "blackballing" a Bush nominee who contributed to the veterans organization. O'Neill says it is ironic that a "serial slanderer" of American troops should be claiming he was somehow defamed by the Swift Boat Veterans.

The Federal Election Commission said yesterday that it will police "527" groups, political organizations that largely operated outside the new campaign finance limits during the 2004 presidential election, by looking at how the groups word their appeals for contributions, how they describe themselves, and how they spend their money. If the groups make clear that they are advocating for or against a specific candidate, the FEC would regulate them. "We're providing clear guidance," said FEC Chairman Robert D. Lenhard. "This makes it clear that the existing rules will be enforced." The FEC filed the 44-page explanation of its approach in...

When he sets his jeweler’s eye upon the so-called Swift-boating of the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, for instance, future candidates for office get point-by-point instruction on how to turn a campaign liability into an asset: in this case how someone with no combat experience can successfully run on national security issues against someone who was actually shot on the battlefield. Mr. Rich asserts that the Bush camp, “so brilliant at creating fictional stories for their own man,” managed to “create a fictional biography for Kerry” that offset the stories of his heroism as captain of a Swift boat...

John Kerry recently volunteered that he was prepared to “kick [the Swift Boat Veterans’] ass from one end of America to the other” and that he would “demolish” us. He ought to take a Christmas cruise to Cambodia to calm down. Maybe he could take a side trip to tour “Genghis Khan” ruins. It is a little difficult to imagine Kerry (“I voted for it before I voted against it”) kicking the most decorated living serviceman, Bud Day, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, or our salty commander, Adm. Roy Hoffman, anywhere. Perhaps Kerry had in mind using a “Rice...

Labor Day has always been considered the traditional start of the campaign season in an election year......contribute to the polarization that has been gripping this country for too long. People don't debate, they toss partisan-party and special-interest talking points back and forth. ...[b]ut we will print letters that arise from a writer's impassioned thoughts about the issues that surface during the elections... More insidious in the campaign process are the 527 groups... The groups are exempt from taxes under the [IRS] code if they collect funds to influence or attempt to influence "the selection, nomination, election or appointment of an...

Was it his campaign's slow response to the swift boat advertisements or the remark that he voted for Iraq war money before he voted against it that John Kerry regrets most from his failed bid for the White House? Neither, according to Kerry's reflection Sunday on what he considered his biggest mistake when trying to wrest the presidency from George W. Bush in 2004. "I think the biggest mistake was probably not going outside the federal financing so we could have controlled our own message," the Massachusetts senator said on NBC's "Meet the Press." The Kerry campaign opted to accept...

www.gunowners.orgApr 2006 House To Vote This Week On Further Limiting Free Speech Gun Owners of America 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102 Springfield, VA 22151 (703)321-8585 Tuesday, April 4, 2006 Remember the Swift Boat Veterans? After a presidential election which was determined by fewer than 120,000 Ohio voters, it is clear that George Bush is president of the United States -- rather than John Kerry -- because of the swift boat veterans and because of pro-gun support. For their part, the swift boat veterans formed a political organization under section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code -- and their organization was...

John O'Neil Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation, www.vvlf.org Dear Friend, ... I believed our mission was over. Regrettably, that has not been the case for a distinguished group of Vietnam combat veterans who stood shoulder to shoulder with us during last year's effort to tell the American people the truth about John Kerry and his anti-war activities. Their situation has become so critical that I felt compelled to inform you of this urgent matter. Several Vietnam POWs and the wife of a POW who joined with us to form Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth has become the target of...

 While I am not a member of the Swift Boat Veterans and POW's for Truth, I was a financial and moral supporter of theirs during the last presidential election.  I will be forever indebted to them for standing up to that lying weasel "Hanoi" John Kerry.  I'm constantly reminded by stories here at FR about the bullet that we dodged, and I'm still completely astounded that he got as close as he did to being Commander In Chief of the US Armed Forces.  Thank you Dear God for summoning your angels to head off that disaster of a man.My...

Senator Kerry, supposedly defending Rep. John Murtha, said, "I won't stand for the Swift-Boating of Jack Murtha!" As one of the 254 members of Mr. Kerry's unit in Vietnam who belonged to Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth, I found Mr. Kerry's comments most ironic. To us, Mr. Kerry's comments meant that no one should do to Mr. Murtha that which Mr. Kerry did to all of us and our fellow Vietnam veterans, living and dead. Mr. Kerry's disgraceful comments on many occasions in 1971 (while we were locked in combat), claiming falsely that we were "murdering" hundreds of...

The Miers nomination pits a Swift Boat author against a Bush National Guard detractor--in reverse. Friday, October 21, 2005 12:01 a.m. The politics of the Harriet Miers nomination are getting stranger as attention turns toward Ms. Miers's tenure as head of the Texas Lottery Commission. Two key players in last year's presidential campaign--Jerome Corsi, co-author of the Swift Boat Veterans book "Unfit for Command," and Ben Barnes, a former Texas lieutenant governor who claimed President Bush got special treatment when he joined the Texas Air National Guard--are involved in the debate.

Associates of John Kerry have filed multiple lawsuits targeting the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation and Carlton Sherwood, producer of the 2004 documentary Stolen Honor. which showed how John Kerry's claims of routine U.S. atrocities in Vietnam affected our POWs.

Update: POWs and Carlton Sherwood File Suit Against John Kerry and Anthony Podesta for Defamation, Conspiracy Carlton Sherwood, Red, White and Blue Productions, Inc. and Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation v. John F. Kerry and Anthony T. Podesta On October 3, 2005, Carlton Sherwood, Red, White and Blue, and the VVLF filed suit in Federal court against Sen. John Kerry and Anthony Podesta for events relating to the suppression of the documentary film Stolen Honor. Legal Documents: 10/03/2005: Defamation, Defamation/Business Disparagement, Intentional and/or Negligent Interference with Prospective and Existing Contractual Relations, and Civil Conspiracy Complaint, filed in Eastern District Court of...

John O’Neill Houston, Texas Dear Friend, Last year, when my fellow Swift Boat veterans and I spoke out about John Kerry, you rallied to our side. We will never forget your faith in our cause and your belief in our honesty. It made all the difference. Together we made history. Like most of you, I believed our mission was over. We could all move on with our lives, return to our families and homes secure in the knowledge we had done the right thing for America, and for our children’s future. Regrettably, that has not been the case for a...

Carlton Sherwood, Red, White and Blue Productions, Inc. and Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation v. John F. Kerry and Anthony T. PodestaOn October 3, 2005, Carlton Sherwood, Red, White and Blue, and the VVLF filed suit in Federal court against Sen. John Kerry and Anthony Podesta for events relating to the suppression of the documentary film Stolen Honor. Legal Documents:10/03/2005: Defamation, Defamation/Business Disparagement, Intentional and/or Negligent Interference with Prospective and Existing Contractual Relations, and Civil Conspiracy Complaint, filed in Eastern District Court of Pennsylvania [PDF: 818K]

August 21, 2005 The Swift Boating of Cindy Sheehan By FRANK RICH CINDY SHEEHAN couldn't have picked a more apt date to begin the vigil that ambushed a president: Aug. 6 was the fourth anniversary of that fateful 2001 Crawford vacation day when George W. Bush responded to an intelligence briefing titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" by going fishing. On this Aug. 6 the president was no less determined to shrug off bad news. Though 14 marine reservists had been killed days earlier by a roadside bomb in Haditha, his national radio address that morning...

 (click here to see it reeeeeeeally large)  here is a link to the news article thread, posted by FReeper Interesting Times: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1459552/posts  

In response to Sen. John F. Kerry's call for release of all documents related to Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, President George Bush today said the Massachusetts Senator would "swiftly get a boatload" of data on the little-known federal appeals court judge. "As a decorated Vietnam veteran, Sen. Kerry deserves swift access to the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," said Mr. Bush. "His own openness to requests for personal records during the presidential campaign is seared, seared in my memory." The president promised to rapidly hand over all relevant records "in a fashion reminiscent of Sen....

If Bush is dumb...? Larry Elder June 23, 2005 "Does anyone in America doubt," said former New York Times executive editor Howell Raines before the 2004 presidential election, "that [presidential candidate Sen. John] Kerry has a higher IQ than [President George W.] Bush? I'm sure the candidates' SATs and college transcripts would put Kerry far ahead." And, on March 6, 2004, a New York Times article called the way Kerry thinks through problems "the mark of an intellectual who grasps the subtleties of issues, inhabits their nuances and revels in the deliberative process." The Los Angeles Times dismissed Bush's achievements,...

DESPITE THE continuing gripes of his critics, records released this week show that Senator John Kerry served honorably in Vietnam. The documents should put to rest claims that Kerry misrepresented his military record in the presidential race. But Kerry's failure to respond to the smear campaign launched against him last summer lent credibility to its real objective: to impugn his equally honorable opposition to the war. John O'Neill, a Houston lawyer and Kerry's adversary on the war since 1971, acknowledged as much in a telephone interview Wednesday. ''We produced seven commercials," he said of his anti-Kerry group, now called Swift...

UPDATE III: I asked Swift Boat Veteran For Truth John O'Neill for a comment, he tells me: 'We called for Kerry to execute a form which would permit anyone to examine his full and unexpulgated military records at the Navy Department and the National Personnel Records Center. Instead he executed a form permitting his hometown paper to obtain the records currently at the Navy Department. The Navy Department previously indicated its records did not include various materials. This is hardly what we called for. If he did execute a complete release of all records we could then answer questions such...

Kerry finally signs on Published May 27, 2005 Better late than never was our reaction to Joan Vennochi's Boston Globe column on Tuesday. More than 100 days after he promised to do so, Sen. John Kerry has signed the form authorizing the Defense Department to release his military records. Somewhere, John O'Neill and his fellow Swift Boat veterans are doubtless smiling.     Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Jan. 30, Mr. Kerry told host Tim Russert that he would sign form SF 180. Conveniently, he didn't say when. After a few weeks went by, conservative Web pundits jokingly began tracking...

A group of highly decorated former POWs who played an active role in the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth have formed a new organization, the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation. The new organization is led by Medal of Honor recipient Bud Day, and includes former POWs Ken Cordier, Paul Galanti, and James Warner. The VVLF intends to develop a national repository of Vietnam-related materials, information and records, and to counter and expose false information about the Vietnam War that appears in the media. Here's what Col. Day had to say in the press release: "The false history of Vietnam has...

ASHINGTON, March 31 - With 19 months to go before the elections and no opponent in sight, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign is nonetheless warning her political supporters that she is the prime target of "the right-wing attack machine."In a fund-raising e-mail message sent out on Thursday, Mrs. Clinton's campaign also said her critics were preparing an advertising campaign against her similar to the one orchestrated by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that attacked Senator John Kerry's Vietnam service during the presidential election."The right wing is already getting ready, naming Hillary as their 'No. 1 target' and boasting...

The Oregon State Bar has cleared Clackamas County prosecutor Alfred French of ethics violations when he lied years ago to his former boss about an interoffice affair and when he participated in a presidential campaign ad last year that said Democratic Sen. John Kerry lied about his Vietnam War record. The bar's nine-member Professional Responsibility Board on Saturday put to rest its investigation, dismissing more than 60 complaints that French's actions involved dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation. The state bar is the regulating organization that licenses and disciplines attorneys in Oregon. The ruling means that the 59-year-old father of three...

One of the most dramatic stories of Election 2004 was the coalescence of a large group of Vietnam veterans dedicated to the idea that John Kerry was not fit to become America's Commander in Chief. Many of those who joined Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had served with Kerry in Vietnam. And his behavior there--and, even more, upon his return--convinced them that Kerry could not be trusted to lead our nation in wartime. To their great surprise, the testimony of the Swift Boat veterans was simply ignored by a hostile media establishment. The veterans were tenacious, however, and eventually captured...

Tonight was a great night. The Reagan Banquet was a great event. I was sitting at a table with Robin Burke, Adam Doverspike, and La Shawn Barber... This was truly a night to remember. Zell Miller was to present The Swift Boat Veterans For Truth with the Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award. Of course, the Swifties in attendance each received standing ovations when they were introduced. When Zell Miller spoke before the presentation of the award, he commended the Swifties efforts, and for having the courage to "call a lie a lie." There was a point when he speaking...

Zell Miller to speak..

Sunday, Nov. 7, 2004 Rove Credits Swiftvets With 'Energizing' Bush Vote Bush-Cheney re-election architect Karl Rove gave credit on Sunday to the Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth for exposing John Kerry's anti-war past and energizing Republican voters to turn out at the polls. Asked what role anti-Kerry ads sponsored by the Swiftvets played in Bush's re-election victory, Rove told "Fox News Sunday": "They were made important by the fact that Senator Kerry, at his convention, really talked ... only about Vietnam." The top White House adviser explained: "I was amazed by the people that I met around the...

CPAC to Honor Swift Boat Vets The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth will be honored at this Friday's Conservative Political Action Conference for the key role they played in defeating Sen. John Kerry in last year's presidential race. "These guys could have just gone on with their lives, but they felt strongly that John Kerry's record was being misrepresented," Richard Lessner, executive director of the American Conservative Union, which sponsors the event, told Fox News. "We thought this sort of example of citizens stepping forward under adverse conditions should be recognized," Lessner added. "They are impressive." Former Georgia Sen. Zell...

Euphoric after a big election victory, the organizers of this year's Conservative Political Action Conference say it's only fitting to pay tribute to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth for helping to stop Sen. John Kerry's presidential bid. Former Georgia Sen. Zell Miller, the Democrat credited with giving one of the most memorable speeches in favor of President Bush at the Republican National Convention this summer, will present the award to Adm. Roy Hoffman (Ret.), founder and chairman of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. "For a second time, the Swift Boat Veterans stepped up to serve their country honorably...