Free Republic

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- His depiction in the recruiting flyer mailed to members of the American Legion leaves little room for interpretation: congressman John Murtha, scowling and wrinkled, juxtaposed against the now-famous image of a young John Kerry testifying before Congress in 1971 about alleged US atrocities committed in Vietnam. ...Murtha is no longer fit to serve in Washington. The flyer, seeking veterans to help work against Murtha's reelection, is part of a ``Boot Murtha" campaign launched this week by Vets for the Truth, a pro-Republican activist group that supports the Iraq war. The group wants Murtha, a former Marine colonel...

The “Swift Boat” veterans who grabbed national headlines in 2004 when they attacked John Kerry in his failed presidential bid now are turning their sights to Johnstown. Their target is U.S. Rep. John Murtha... Armed as a new group – Veterans for the Truth – they’re bringing their campaign to “Redeploy John Murtha From Congress” to his backyard. They plan to hold a national rally in Johnstown in October “to show their outrage at John Murtha over what he is saying about our troops,” ... Details of the rally will be outlined at a news conference at 11 a.m. Thursday...

DES MOINES, Iowa - Seeking the presidency is harder the second time around. As the race for 2008 builds, Democratic Sen. John Kerry has left little doubt about his intentions to try again after his narrow loss to President Bush in 2004. He isn't the only also-ran considering another marathon. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has the look of a White House hopeful. Three Democrats - 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark and Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware - sound a lot like presidential candidates; Al Gore, the Democrats' nominee in 2000, says he has all...

The “Real” Reason Kerry lost—Remembering and Honoring Vietnam’s Heroes. With newspaper reports (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1639667/posts) of John (The Snake) Kerry out to prove his claims about his exploits in Vietnam and thereby, intending to discredit the Swift Boat Vets (and by association, all of the rest of us Vietnam Vets who opposed him, more so, for his actions after he returned from Nam) I thought it appropriate to post this, on this Solemn Day of Commemoration. I composed this poem and posted it on the eve before the last election (November 1st) and I believe it speaks for itself. God Bless (and...

Editorial: Kerry takes up the Swift Boat charges He deserves this opportunity to set the public record straight. Most of the controversies from the wild 2004 presidential campaign have long been forgotten. But one is coming back, the New York Times reported this week, and we're glad it is: Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee for president, is joining an effort to debunk the many attacks on his service in Vietnam more than two decades earlier. [snip] Although they had little bearing on Kerry's qualifications to be president, his young-man's sentiments on Vietnam were a legitimate issue. But that's...

As we watch the left of the Democratic Party press its case to return to the top of the heap in American politics, or at least evade the fate of the Dodo, we have ever more evidence validating an insight on which I stake my reputation as a political seer. To wit: partisan politics more often falls under the professional expertise of the psychiatrist than that of the political scientist. A learned shrink can often tell us more about a political issue than any other professional, not excluding a swami or a voodoo priest. Consider the ongoing controversy over Sen....

Sunday, June 4, 2006 10:49 p.m. EDT John Kerry: Bush A Criminal, Looting Country Failed presidential candidate John Kerry blasted President Bush on Thursday as a "criminal" who has been "looting the country." The Massachusetts Democrat offered the incendiary comments during an off the record meeting with liberal bloggers after a speech in Los Angeles to the Pacific Council on International Policy. According to the Web site L.A. Observed, Kerry asked the bloggers to keep his comments confidential; a request they apparently dismissed out of hand without telling him. Blogger "Hollywood Liberal" reports that Kerry "agreed completely with someone's assessment...

That's "Swiftboating" -- as John Hinderaker defines it: "when a veteran says somehthing that liberals disagree with." Kate Zernike is John Kerry's latest mainstream media stenographer regarding his service in Vietnam. I wrote briefly about her New York Times article in "Return of the magic hat" and called on Tom Lipscomb to rise to the bait: Preparing for another grab at the brass ring, John Kerry seeks to engage the claims of the Swift Boat veterans. In today's New York Times, the "magic hat" -- the hat that Kerry claims was tossed to him by the "special forces" (apparently Navy...

Failed presidential candidate John Kerry blasted President Bush on Thursday as a "criminal" who has been "looting the country." The Massachusetts Democrat offered the incendiary comments during an off the record meeting with liberal bloggers after a speech in Los Angeles to the Pacific Council on International Policy. According to the Web site L.A. Observed, Kerry asked the bloggers to keep his comments confidential; a request they apparently dismissed out of hand without telling him. Blogger "Hollywood Liberal" reports that Kerry "agreed completely with someone's assessment that everything that Bush does is solely for the purpose of looting the country....

June 05, 2006 The Truth, John Kerry, and The New York Times By Thomas Lipscomb Kate Zernike's story on the front page of the Memorial Day Sunday New York Times, "Kerry Pressing Swift Boat Case Long After Loss," is an unfortunate reminder of the Times's embarrassingly poor coverage of Kerry in the face of the Swift Boat Veterans' for Truth charges in the 2004 election. Now as then, the Times acts as if the issues involved were between Kerry's latest representations of his record and the "unsubstantiated" charges of the Swift Boat group. The Times used the term "unsubstantiated" more...

Kate Zernike's story on the front page of the Memorial Day Sunday New York Times, "Kerry Pressing Swift Boat Case Long After Loss," is an unfortunate reminder of the Times's embarrassingly poor coverage of Kerry in the face of the Swift Boat Veterans' for Truth charges in the 2004 election. Now as then, the Times acts as if the issues involved were between Kerry's latest representations of his record and the "unsubstantiated" charges of the Swift Boat group. The Times used the term "unsubstantiated" more than twenty times during its election coverage and continues to make no discernable effort to...

Most of the controversies from the wild 2004 presidential campaign have long been forgotten. But one is coming back, the New York Times reported this week, and we're glad it is: Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee for president, is joining an effort to debunk the many attacks on his service in Vietnam more than two decades earlier. Kerry is a holder of three purple hearts, a bronze star and a silver star, all awarded in a four-month stint aboard Navy swift boats in Vietnam's Mekong delta.

A YEAR AND A HALF AFTER HE LOST the 2004 presidential election, John Kerry can't get enough of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. No matter the occasion, he doesn't miss an opportunity to parade his campaign wounds, however incoherently and obsessively. Supporting an Iraqi war vet running as a Democrat for Henry Hyde's congressional seat? "I know something firsthand about the Swift Boat-style Republican attack ads of the last election -- but you don't have to take my word for it," Senator Kerry wrote in a March fundraising e-mail, on behalf of Tammy Duckworth, an amputee whom no one...

The puff piece starts out: “John Kerry starts by showing the entry in a log he kept from 1969: “Feb 12: 0800 run to Cambodia.” Right off the bat, this is the first piece where the Swift Boat Vets were 100% correct. At the time, John Kerry stated that his trip took place on Christmas Eve in 1968. The SBV were right at the time, he was NOT iN Cambodia on Christmas Eve of 1968. Kerry had said that this moment was “seared” into him. After the Vets came out, Kerry had his personal biographer come out and it changed...

John Kerry starts by showing the entry in a log he kept from 1969: "Feb 12: 0800 run to Cambodia." Graphic: Kerry's New Evidence He moves on to the photographs: his boat leaving the base at Ha Tien, Vietnam; the harbor; the mountains fading frame by frame as the boat heads north; the special operations team the boat was ferrying across the border; the men reading maps and setting off flares. "They gave me a hat," Mr. Kerry says. "I have the hat to this day," he declares, rising to pull it from his briefcase. "I have the hat." Three...

WASHINGTON -- As Senator John F. Kerry prepared to make a return to presidential-style politics with a classic day of New Hampshire campaigning, he said that the 2004 run left him tougher and more eager to fight. ''When you get knocked on your ass and lose a race, you've got to stop and reflect on what you're doing, why you're doing it, what matters, and what's important. And I did," Kerry said in an interview in his Senate office on Thursday. ''There's a very different John Kerry now who is absolutely crystal clear about how I communicate what I need...

I've just learned that Anne O'Neill, John O'Neill's wife has died in Houston from an infection contracted during chemotherapy. Anne was a woman of courage and grace, and I consider it a privilege to have known her. I ask your prayers for John and for the O'Neill family.

Last week, John Walker Lindh  petitioned the president to commute his 20-year sentence for fighting with the Taliban, imposed in 2002.  It’s a shame that this pampered child of Marin County is sitting in a cell for something as trivial as treason. Under a plea bargain, Walker Lindh (AKA: Abdul Hamid, AKA: Sulayman Al-Lindh) pleaded guilty to supplying services to the Taliban regime and carrying explosives for  Afghanistan’s former rulers.Which is like to saying that Benedict Arnold supplied services to George III. Johnny Jihad trained in an al-Qaeda camp – where he learned to fire an AK-47 and rubbed elbows...

I am a combat veteran. I joined the VFW my first day back in the States, and am a life member. I flew forty missions in the Gulf War, and have received many citations for my combat service, and my non-combat service. There is a flare up underway about John Murtha's combat/decoration history here, here, and on this page is a Brit Hume video on the subject. Based on what I have read in the opening paragraphs of Forgotten Soldier and the entirety of Stolen Valor some people have a habit of exaggerating their combat records...if they have one at...

John O'neill, who you may recall, with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, was instrumental in helping defeat John Kerry in 2004. Now he is supporting Lt Col Greg Parke, USAF in his "mission to prevent socialist candidate Bernie Sanders from entering the U.S. Senate". excerpt: Sanders is as radical as they come. In fact, he's so far to the Left that he calls himself an "independent" because he thinks Democrats are "too conservative." His record in the House of Representative - particularly on defense matters - is disgraceful. He introduced four separate amendments to slash crucial defense and intelligence...