Posted on 08/17/2004 1:09:19 PM PDT by ArcLight
Dear MoveOn member, President Bush still won't condemn his allies' outrageous "Swift Boat" ad, despite calls from Republican leaders, Vietnam vets, and over 175,000 of us who signed yesterday's petition -- including 6,000 current military service members and their families. Together, we can make sure he pays a political price for green-lighting this attack ad that spreads outright lies about John Kerry's leadership and service in Vietnam.
We've put together our own ad that sets the facts straight on John Kerry's time in the military. It also points out Bush's hypocrisy in condoning an attack on a combat veteran, after he himself failed to show up for service in the National Guard. We need to raise $200,000 to start airing this ad TODAY. Together, we can put it on TV in precisely the markets where the "Swift Boat" ad ran, making sure that no swing voters are misled by this smear campaign.
View the ad and donate to get it on the air at:
https://www.moveonpac.org/donate/swiftresponse.html
George Bush can't have it both ways. If he wants, as he claims, to let the past be the past, he should call off his associates' smear campaign, which is re-opening this national wound. If he won't, he should at the very least be willing to make a full accounting of his own military service. If George Bush wants to make Vietnam a campaign issue, that raises a simple question: Where was he?
According to the Boston Globe, which researched the available facts extensively, there's no evidence Bush reported for duty during the summer and fall of 1972, a time when he was supposed to be serving in the National Guard. But despite a promise on "Meet the Press" to open up his "entire record," Bush has yet to offer any documents that show he was there.[1] In fact, the Associated Press has been forced to go to court to force the release of clearly germane documents that Bush wishes to keep secret.[2]
It's as simple as this: If you evade military service, you have no right to allow attacks on the service of others. Yet that is precisely what George Bush appears to be doing. And together, we can call attention to that grave hypocrisy with our new ad, which we'll run to "shadow" the "Swift Boat" ad.
Can you help us get it on the air? Take a look at the ad and give what you can at:
https://www.moveonpac.org/donate/swiftresponse.html
Yesterday's petition signers included many military veterans and their families. Mavis from Fremont, CA told Bush, "To make such claims against Senator Kerry's record also smears the record of the other soldiers who served honorably in Vietnam and are serving today." And Stuart wrote from Manassas, VA that he is "among the veterans who deplore the type of misleading ads [that] ran against John Kerry. Anyone who shed blood, or [who] knows anyone who shed blood in defense of what our country stands for, knows that these ads are not only inaccurate, but immoral as well."
Incredibly, the "Swift Boat Veterans for Bush" operatives have responded to our campaign by issuing a statement that claims, "We were there. We served with John Kerry." But even that is a lie. While the ad presents its subjects as former crewmates of Kerry's, the reality is that the only thing most of the men share with him is that they were in Vietnam at the same time. And the men who did serve with Kerry are unanimous in their support of him.[3]
It's time to call Bush to account for these dirty tricks. Together, we can do that on TVs across the country.
Sincerely,
--Eli Pariser MoveOn PAC August 17th, 2004
P.S. Our friends at AlterNet have put together a great article that lays out the history of the "Swift Boat Veterans for Bush." It's really worth reading. Check it out:
"Swift Boat Folks are Kerry's Nemeses of Old"
http://www.alternet.org/election04/19532/
It just keeps getting juicier...
This issue is like kicking over an anthill. Step aside, and watch the little buggers run around in circles like madmen. These liberals, they can dish it out, but they can't take it.
To the contrary....it's the truth of these ads that SCARES THE HELL OUTTA YOU.
Got their attention, didn't we. Less money and time focusing on Bush. We drew their fire away from Bush, to another target which not running for President. How long will they notice their mistake.
This is one of the most amazing pieces of dishonest rubbish I've read this week. It's ripe for a fisking, but I'm busy...
MoveOn needs some new lies. These old ones are getting tiresome.
It does. This graphic is one I created and posted on a thread yesterday. It is "copy right ready" and can be emailed out to the media or email lists, or posted on blogs:
Hay MoveHung.QUEER, KISS THIS VIETNAM VETERAN'S ROYAL @SS!
(and while your at it, go to a Veterans Hospital and walk up to the first Vet you see in a wheelchair and tell him you support John Kerry. I'll have the ambulance standing by.
"Help ... police ... murder."
I find it ironic that moveon.org just cant seem to um, well, move on.
Congressman Billybob
Latest column, "Says the Wuss: Ma, He's Touching Me"
If you haven't already joined the anti-CFR effort, please click here.
Asking for donations? I know Soro's isn't broke yet!
Why does a 527 who has raised tens of millions need money to run an ad. Where did Soro's money go????
...after he himself failed to show up for service in the National Guard...
I smell OZONE! Bubba!
In 1971 he called us all war criminals and numerous other rhetorical crimes that were pure BS and part of his plan to attain high office on the backs of men and women who served honorably.
The book that the Swift Boaters have published is a compilation of some 60 personal accounts from people who served with Kerry, commanded Kerry and even wrote some of the glowing commendations that Kerry received based on Kerry's accounts of the numerous incidents that occurred during his short abbreviated tour of duty.
Had Kerry stayed in the background as the Jr. Senator from Mass who rarely attended congressional meetings or sponsored legislation during the last three decades, he would have been left alone. The vets did not want to dredge this mess up at all.
But Kerry changed all that when he used his opportunistic service record to attain the highest office in the land. The Commander in Chief of the Armed forces of the U.S.A.
The book is well documented and footnoted. The Swift Vets received over $400,000 dollars in donations recently from over 8,000 donors.
This is not a republican attack machine, it is an attempt to set a 30 year old false record to rest by publishing the truth as told by those who were there.
It is Kerry's 10-12 crew-mates against thousands of vets he damaged with his lies to congress and the American people.
He is still telling those lies and the truth backed up by personal observations and factual data flies in the face of those lies and misrepresentations. The truth told by over 60 men who served, ate and slept in Vietnam with Kerry.
The shortest tour of duty by a swift boater is now going to be the straw that breaks this lying camels back.
It is over for you Mr. Kerry. It is Kerry the lie that we seek to expose.
If the only response that Kerry supporters can come up with is to trash the legitimacy of the truth, the American public will be able to see through it.
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