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Well, the Swift Boat story is finally the focus of the main stream media -- from the Sunday shows, to Newsweek, to the Washington Post, etc. And who should we give the credit to (besides the hard work of the swift boat veterans)? None other than Senator Kerry. He made a crucial, strategic error by directly responding to the charges. Not only did he create another news cycle, but also, he legitimized the controversy and forced the broadcast and news print media to report it. Moreover, as illustrated by the upcoming story in Newsweek, by acknowleding the controversy, Kerry essentially...

Here is a closed captioned transcript of Van O'Dell (SVFT) and Chris Wallaced hosted O'Dell and ..... but seemed to take on O'Dell a little too much if you ask me.. Image #1Image #2Transcript coming...pending first break... G

Presidential candidate John Kerry can count on the support of at least one group of Vietnam Veterans – and they're still in Vietnam. Following Kerry's denunciation of the ad by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, criticizing him for exaggerating his war record, a group of former U.S. soldiers gathered in Hanoi to express their support for Kerry and to call President Bush a "draft dodger" for his service in the Texas Air National Guard during the war. And they were selling T-shirts to tourists to raise money for Kerry's campaign.

WASHINGTON -- The co-author of the best-selling book "Unfit for Command" says today's statement by a Chicago Tribune editor and former swift boat commander does not substantively contradict his findings about John Kerry's Silver Star. William Rood, 61, said he decided to break his silence today about the Feb. 28, 1969, mission because recent reports of Kerry's actions in that battle are incorrect and darken the reputations of veterans who served with Kerry, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune. However, the account of the incident is different from the one presented in "Unfit for Command" by John O'Neill...

Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2004 12:35 p.m. EST McCain: Hanoi Hilton Guards Taunted POWs With Kerry's Testimony These days, former Vietnam War POW Sen. John McCain has nothing but praise for his fellow Vietnam veteran Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats' current presidential front-runner. But after he was released from the Hanoi Hilton in 1973, McCain publicly complained that testimony by Kerry and others before J. William Fulbright's Senate Foreign Relations Committee was "the most effective propaganda [my North Vietnamese captors] had to use against us." "They used Senator Fulbright a great deal," McCain wrote in the May 14, 1973, issue of...

The national media is just sick! I was watching CNN’s inside politics carry John Kerry’s water, and I realized that they are becoming shameless in their support for him. They blamed Bush’s family for supporting the swift boat ads, and made Kerry look like he was calling the Presidents game. Not once did they challenge Kerry on the charges. Bush was the one who was being challenged. Think about this: How many metals does Bob Dole have? How many metals does George Bush Sr have? How many metals does John McCain have? How many times have you heard Neil Armstrong...

May 06, 2004, 8:27 a.m. Overspun Defense Why two of John Kerry’s critics were defending him in 1996. By Jim Geraghty The Kerry campaign clearly didn't want Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to go unanswered this week. A candidate who had rocketed to the Democratic nomination on a war-hero biography and by referring to his service in Vietnam in almost every answer to every question, including ones on animal rights, didn't need a boatload of his former commanders declaring him "unfit to be commander in chief." So after Swift Boat Veterans for Truth made their presentation at the National Press...

WASHINGTON -- The co-author of the best-selling book "Unfit for Command" says today's statement by a Chicago Tribune editor and former swift boat commander does not substantively contradict his findings about John Kerry's Silver Star. William Rood, 61, said he decided to break his silence today about the Feb. 28, 1969, mission because recent reports of Kerry's actions in that battle are incorrect and darken the reputations of veterans who served with Kerry, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune.

Swift Boat Vets throw cold water on Kerry campaign; "I'm Melting! I'm Melting!"

I was channel-surfing during the past half hour, and as I passed MSNBC, I saw they were in the middle of a report that detailed the controversy over Michelle Malkin's appearance. As many may know, she appeared to discuss her new book on internment and the Swift Boat Vets issue. When she mentioned the account where Kerry shot a grenade launcher, and ended up with a self-inflicted wound, Matthews went wild, and thought Michelle Malkin was accusing Kerry of shooting himself. When she answered Matthews question in the affirmative, they went to an excerpt from "Unfit for Command," which detailed...

Skipper: Kerry critics wrong Officer backs Kerrry war record.

Interesting email exchange from a good friend. He is having trouble getting Unfit for Command from Barnes and Noble. My email: “It is very disturbing that the Kerry people (and Kerry himself) are suing to silence dissenting political speech. . .the very speech the First Amendment was designed to protect. ("This is how Kerry reacts under the pressure of attack -- by trying to take away his opponents' freedom.") Clearly, Kerry thinks only speech that supports him is to be free and speech that is critical of him is not. Imagine the hoopla if Bush jokingly suggested shutting down Moore's...

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - An American journalist who commanded a boat alongside John Kerry in Vietnam broke a 35-year silence on Saturday and defended the Democratic presidential candidate against Republican critics of his military service. Weighing in on what has become the most bitterly divisive issue of the 2004 campaign for the White House, William Rood of the Chicago Tribune said the tales told by Kerry's detractors are untrue. "There were three swift boats on the river that day in Vietnam more than 35 years ago -- three officers and 15 crew members. Only two of those officers remain to talk...

Trotwood, Ohio - An Ohio factory worker who was with John Kerry on a dangerous night mission 36 years ago in Vietnam said he has no doubt Kerry was grazed in a firefight and deserves his first Purple Heart for a combat injury. "We were on about a 14-foot boat with an outboard motor. We started out, taking a guess, around 10 p.m. We were sup posed to sneak up and check sampans," said Pat Runyon, a 58-year-old grandfather from Eaton, a small southwestern Ohio town near the Indiana border. Runyon, an enlisted man who served on Swift boats in...

CHICAGO, Aug. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- "There were three Swift Boats on the river that day in Vietnam more than 35 years ago -- three officers and 15 crew members. Only two of those officers remain to talk about what happened on February 28, 1969. "One is John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate who won a Silver Star for what happened on that date. I am the other." (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040821/CGSA002-a http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040821/CGSA002-b http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040821/CGSA002-chttp://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040821/CGSA002-d ) So begins William Rood's compelling account of events that happened more than 35 years ago. The article appears in the Sunday, August 22 edition of the Chicago...

The commander of a Navy swift boat who served alongside Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry during the Vietnam War stepped forward Saturday to dispute attacks challenging Kerry's integrity and war record. William Rood, an editor on the Chicago Tribune's metropolitan desk, said he broke 35 years of silence about the Feb. 28, 1969, mission that resulted in Kerry's receiving a Silver Star because recent portrayals of Kerry's actions published in the best-selling book "Unfit for Command" are wrong and smear the reputations of veterans who served with Kerry. ...

Kerry Campaign Endorses Swift Boat Veterans for Truth Kerry campaign spokesperson Stephanie Cutter unwittingly but unmistakably endorsed the motivation, if not the message, of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, although she was explaining Kerry's decision to attack the Swiftees: "When somebody's attacking your military record, you reach a boiling point, and he reached a boiling point last night," Ms. Cutter explained. "When you go and fight in a war, when you spill blood for your country, your instinct is to fight back and defend your record." As the new ad from the SBVT makes clear, these veterans did not...

In case the ads get pulled by the FCC I want MY OWN COPY for posterity. My kids need a record of what the dems tried to do to our country...and how we almost let them get away with it. Is there a way to DOWNLOAD a copy? Also someone mentioned that after a certain date they cant put it on TV anymore, but can send out CD's with it on them....from what I understand burning a CD costs just about nothing and we can keep them going out until Nov 2!

As the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth previewed another ad to air next week, a survey released yesterday said their first controversial attack on John F. Kerry's war record reached more than half the nation with the help of a media buzz created by talk radio and cable news. The first spot, which began airing Aug. 5 and ran only in West Virginia, Ohio, and Wisconsin, triggered a counterattack on several fronts this week. On Thursday, Kerry accused the veterans of doing President Bush's campaign's "dirty work." A front-page story in yesterday's New York Times raised questions about the credibility...

Kerry on His Relating the Stories Told By Other Vietnam Veterans. MR. RUSSERT: But, Senator, when you testified before the Senate, you talked about some of the hearings you had observed at the winter soldiers meeting and you said that people had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and on and on. A lot of those stories have been discredited, and in hindsight was your testimony... SEN. KERRY: Actually, a lot of them have been documented. MR. RUSSERT: So you stand by that? SEN. KERRY: A lot of those stories...