Flipper Can Dish it, But he Can't Take It

[I miss Reagan]

Recently the group known as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has released a book calling Kerry on discrepancies in his version of military service. Kerry has since called it a front for the Bush campaign doing it's "dirty work" for them and has called upon Bush to condemn ads put out by the vets. Interestingly Bush has praised Kerry's military service in Vietnam. What I find hypocritical, and so typically liberal, is that Kerry has never once condemned the venom spewers like Michael Moore or the Hollywood left who constantly slander Bush.

[idealisttotheend]

Mr. Moore did not slander Mr. Bush. None of his statements in 9/11 have been proven to be untrue therefore it is not slander (if Bush could have proven something untrue he undoubtedly would have sued Mr. Moore). One statement about Mr. Kerry (so far) has already been proven wrong here.

It is only in the modern US it seems where simply saying something negative about someone is seen as being unpatriatoc/morally wrong irregardless of whether or not the statement is true.

[KrustyKidd]

Kerry files FEC complaint against swift boat group

A spokesman for the Bush campaign dismissed the complaint as "frivolous and false," but said it welcomed a broader look at the so-called 527 groups, tax-exempt organizations that engage in political activities.

Now why would the Bush people welcome this?

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona said Friday that President Bush "has been the recipient of 527 ads which are terrible, and in my view very, very inappropriate." McCain charged that all 527 ads are illegal.

Yes, moveon.org saying he is Hitler etc. I remember that one. F 911, MM, George Sorros and all.

The 30-second spot will air as part of an approximately $600,000 ad buy, an official with the group told CNN.

More than $500,000 of that came from Internet donations, and $100,000 came from a major Texas Republican donor, the official said.

He said, she said .......

"This Republican front group for Bush is out of credibility after being caught in lie after lie day after day," Kerry campaign spokesman David Wade said.

The group has no direct connection to the Bush campaign, and group members said they have acted independently of the president's re-election effort.

The Group .....

UNFIT FOR COMMAND

From the Inside Flap

John Kerry, War Hero? Guess again.

John O'Neill was the naval officer who took over John Kerry's swift boat in the muddy waters of Vietnam. What he learned convinced him-and convinced the majority of veterans who served directly with Kerry-that John Kerry was and is unfit for command at the lowliest rank in the Navy, let alone as commander in chief of the United States.

In this stunning new book, John O'Neill and his coauthor Dr. Jerome Corsi (an expert on the anti-Vietnam War movement) have interviewed dozens of veterans who served with Kerry and have meticulously documented a shameful record of betrayal and deception on the part of John Kerry.

In Unfit for Command you'll learn:

* How two of John Kerry's three Purple Heart decorations resulted from self-inflicted wounds, not suffered under enemy fire

* Why John Kerry's third Purple Heart "fanny wound" was the highlight of his much touted "no man left behind" Bronze Star

* How John Kerry turned the tragic death of a father and small child in a Vietnamese fishing boat into an act of "heroism" by filing a false report on the incident.

* How John Kerry entered an abandoned Vietnamese village and slaughtered the domestic animals owned by the civilians and burned down their homes with his Zippo lighter

* How John Kerry's reckless behavior convinced his colleagues that he had to go-becoming the only swift boat veteran to serve only four-months in Vietnam

* How as a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, John Kerry attended a meeting where plans were discussed to assassinate prominent United States Senators who supported the war

* How Kerry met secretly with communist delegates at the Paris Peace Conference during the Vietnam War, and why some believe he violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice and federal law

Based on detailed interviews with Swift Boat veterans who served in Vietnam with John Kerry and on recently released FBI surveillance reports of John Kerry's anti-war activities, Unfit for Command is a shocking indictment of a politician who slandered his fellow veterans, danced on the edge of treason, and has shamelessly exaggerated his own war service for political ends

About the Author

John O'Neill served in Coastal Division 11 in Vietnam and took command of PCF 94, John Kerry's swift boat, after Kerry's departure. Outraged by Kerry's anti-war slanders against his fellow veterans, O'Neill faced Kerry in a famous debate on the Dick Cavett Show in 1971 refuting Kerry's accusations of rampant American war crimes in Vietnam. A graduate of the Naval Academy, and from a Navy family, O'Neill is a lawyer in private practice in Houston.

CENSORSHIP

The first TV ads are out to promote “Unfit for Command” and the DNC has sent letters to every media outlet asking that these ads NOT air. They want the ads censored. They recruited Sen. John McCain who denounced the ads made by men who were the military peers of Sen. Kerry and Sen. McCain.

The reaction of the men supporting www.swiftvets.com was: "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has more than 250 members, many of whom were wounded or highly decorated in Vietnam. We purchased with our blood and service the right to be heard, to set the record straight about our unit, and to tell the truth about John Kerry's military service record.

Did the Republican party go to court to stop F 911? If Kerry has a problem with 250 of his fellows, shouldn't he take it to them instead of Bush?

[August1991]

Did the Republican party go to court to stop F 911?

The only reason the Republicans didn't go to court is because the optics would have been bad. Moreover, F911 was a movie that several million, largely left wing Americans will see. It preaches to the converted.

The Dems are now attacking the Bush ads because it makes sense to do so.

IOW, neither side has the moral high or low ground. They are both trying to convince, using whatever way seems appropriate, disinterested voters that their candidate is best.

Attack ads are now part of the arsenal - but they're no longer the steroid boost they used to be.

[KrustyKidd]

IOW, neither side has the moral high or low ground.

Clear as mud brother!!!!

Your observatrion on F911 is correct I believe. A tripe piece guarranteed to play to an audience of Bush haters for profit. And why they never attacked back was to appear to have the high ground but now they are all the same, much like the policies.

the one fact that I love is that voters are galvanized this election. More people making more informed decisions, that's democracy.

[August1991]

More people making more informed decisions, that's democracy.

Open the gates, see what happens. You gotta love it.

[takeanumber]

There are these 501 and 527 groups.

It's the sort of stuff that the Supreme Court ruled against.

You get these groups, which are more or less coordinated by one camp or the other, which do this sort of stuff.

Personally, with respect to the swiftboat veterans: Disgusting.

They've been found to be lying repeatedly. It's a huge black mark on their honour, and worse, they're smearing all the other veterans with the same brush.

But that's just me. Sure, they have the freedom of speech. But they don't have the right to slander.

And when you lie publicily about somebody else, it is slander.

----------------------------

Equally disturbing is Moveon.org. They are coordinating with the Democrats, just as the swiftboat guys were bankrolled by those really close to the President.

Bush is not Hitler.

If anything, those sick Islamists have more in common with Hitler than Bush. (rabid anti-semitism.)

-----------------------------

Both sides are guilty.

-----------------------------

American politics are sick. Bush says the war has to be fought more sensitively Monday. Kerry says the same thing Tuesday. Cheney attacks Kerry for using the word sensitive on Wednesday. He ignores the fact that Bush said the same thing on Monday.

I mean...no wonder so few people vote down there.

Canadian politicians are often accused of being hipocrites because they say one thing and do another.

But in the United States, they say one thing and say another, and then do something totally opposite, both sides do it.

---------------------------

On balance: I'm mad at Bush for royally screwing up the War on Terror.

He's not the right man for the job.

He's soft on the Saudi's.

He's soft on the Iranians.

He's really soft on NoKo.

He's soft on the Palestinians.

Worse, he has authorized torture.

You don't fight a war against terror by employing terror.

You don't fight to preserve civil rights by whiping your ass on them.

Bush gets an F for leadership, that's why he should be punted.

[I miss Reagan]

Come on, when you defend the credibility of Michael Moore and F911 you lose credibility yourself. Anyhow, perhaps the Swift Boat guys are fighting Kerry the same way he is fighting Bush, by misrepresenting the truth. It is utterly outrageous that Kerry would call for Bush to condemn the ads when Kerry has gone along with the hate campaign against Bush for so long. Most notably obvious are his own fundraisers by the hollywood elite. I personally think there is something to the swift boat guys' claims. Kerry was the one who decided to portray himself as a Vietnam war hero. These 250 guys are just telling their side of the story about a guy who threw out his medals and bad mouthed his fellow soldiers. Interestingly Bush has maintained the higher ground.

Bush condemns ads

[Big Blue Machine]

At least Kerry WAS in Vietnam, fighting the vietnamese. Bush was the national guard. Getting AOLs

[Stoker]

At least Kerry WAS in Vietnam, fighting the vietnamese. Bush was the national guard. Getting AOLs

So? What if Kerry was in Vietnam and Bush wasn't? But if you must press the point, Kerry was there and back (IIRC) in under four months, due to having received three purple hearts (Which will send you home). Now the odd thing about this, Kerry was never forced to recieve major medical treament (as in stay in a hospital overnight) due to his injuries. Also, if you chose to believe the swift boats veterns, Kerry recieved two of his injuries in accidents, possably even self inflicted.

With that said, if you want to bring up military service, Kerry was a LT jg, Bush is the Commander in Chief of the worlds most powerful armed forces........quite a difference.

[takeanumber]

The message is clear though:

Bush had daddy bail him out of real military service, while the middle class was over in Vietnam, fighting and dying. And that doesn't play well in many states.

Kerry, on the other hand, was in fact in Vietnam.

What's funny is that sooo many people talk like their an authority on conditions in Vietnam, and their ignorance is demonstrated by statements of the "nobody can possibly get that many medals while in vietnam, so there must be something dirty about it there."

Well, I can tell you, Vietnam was hell. When you were on the front lines, you got shot at.

You don't HAVE to go for surgery to get a medal.

So what, he should have taxed the medical system over there because maybe, somebody would question his medals?

Give me a break.

And those veterans who lied about the fire for 'truth'...let me tell you something: whatever Moore does...twisting the truth, being unfair, being unbalanced...he's a fat slob. He damages nobody but himself.

Those veterans are dishonouring themselves and all the other veterans who fought in that war.

Just because Moore does something, and then somebody else goes and does something worse (or the same thing), doesn't make either of them right.

And Bush calling for an end of the attacks is a lot like calling the kettle black.

Ditto Kerry.

[KrustyKidd]

Those veterans are dishonouring themselves and all the other veterans who fought in that war.

Kind of like what Kerry did the second he got back from Nam eight months before his tour ended for his 'horendous and dehabilitating'wounds. I don't have to have served in Viet Nam to tell you that none of them were life threatening or rendered him incapable of continuing his tour. We all know that don't we?

What I can say is that whatever his record there was, it has shit to do with what is going on now. If he wants to keep on bringing it up, then it will continue to be challenged. Funny, Bush's record in that era is relevent to the left, it is what it is. He was a lacky. Now Kerry is said to be less than honorable himself. If his actions in Viet Nam don't prove that, his trip to Paris to meet with the North VC do. There, he told them about how US soldiers (your precious Vets BTW) were acting in barbarous ways and allowing them to use that for PR. Prisoners such as John McCain suffered because of Jane Fonda tripe like he passed out in his 'support' of 'the vets.' Then after the war, this guy that now says he will be strong and decisive in matters of intelligence and defence tries to slash every weapon system that may save 'vets' lives and cut the US intelligence service by over sity billion dollars.

He is better off keeping his mouth shut about .... well, everything. Oh, speaking about F911, the liberal left in the US tried to ban that Swift Boat book. Cute. Who is for censorship here? The US Democrats are for sure.

Now if Kerry isn't running on the present with his military and intelligence cuts, he must be running on his past as a swift bopat commander (for all of 4 months.) Here is a little laugh from the Boston Convention :

KERRY DRINKING GAME

According to the rules of the game, participants were to take one pull from their beer every time Mr. Kerry said the word “veteran,” two when he said “Vietnam,” and three when he said “band of brothers.”

Watching Mr. Kerry on the bar’s widescreen TV, Mr. Timlin acknowledged that the drinking game was far more challenging than he originally thought it would be: “Dude’s just ten minutes into his speech and I’m already wasted.”

[Black Dog]

Yes, moveon.org saying he is Hitler etc. I remember that one

Evidence?

There, he told them about how US soldiers (your precious Vets BTW) were acting in barbarous ways and allowing them to use that for PR.

They were. The truth hurts, don't it? As for McCain, would this be the same McCain who, in in a US News and World Report article [May 14, 1973], said that he languished in a cell for several days, his injuries untreated. Confronted with a North Vietnamese officer who was "a psychotic torturer, one of the worst fiends we had to deal with," as McCain put it, he decided to cooperate. According to his own account, McCain said: "OK, I will give you military information if you will take me to the hospital."

the same McCain who told 60 Minutes in a 1997 interview: "I am a war criminal; I bombed innocent women and children"

As for the Swift Boat "veterans" and the authours of Unfit Command:

Larry Thurlow, who commanded a Navy Swift boat alongside Kerry in Vietnam, has insisted Kerry lied about the circumstances surrounding his Bronze Star award, claiming Kerry's boat never came under enemy fire on March 13, 1969, the day an injured Kerry leaned overboard to scoop wounded Green Beret Larry Rassmann out of the river. But contrary to Thurlow's claim, the Washington Post has reported today that according to his own military files, which recorded the events of March 13, 1969, "enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire" were directed at "all units" of the five-boat flotilla, including Kerry's.

Earlier, Retired Adm. Roy Hoffmann, chairman and co-founder of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, flip-flopped on a key element of his Kerry story. In May, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, "Hoffmann acknowledged he had no first-hand knowledge to discredit Kerry's claims to valor and said that although Kerry was under his command, he really didn't know Kerry much personally." But with the pending publication of "Unfit for Command," Hoffmann changed his story, insisting he "knew [Kerry] well."

Hoffmann wasn't alone in reversing his story on the Kerry attack. In 1968, Grant Hibbard, a lieutenant commander in Vietnam during Kerry's tour, described Kerry favorably: "One of the top few in his willingness to seek and accept responsibility." But now he claims Kerry lied about his service. Another vocal Kerry critic, Capt. George Elliot, who served in Vietnam at the same time Kerry did, praised Kerry both in a 1968 evaluation ("In a combat environment often requiring independent, decisive action, Lieutenant Junior Grade Kerry was unsurpassed") and as recently as 1996 when Elliot publicly praised Kerry for charging after the enemy.

Really, who are the flippers here?

[The Terrible Sweal]

Come on, when you defend the credibility of Michael Moore and F911 you lose credibility yourself.

How odd. Personally, I find vague, empty attacks on Moore to be more telling of a lack of credibility.

[I miss Reagan]

Bush had daddy bail him out of real military service, while the middle class was over in Vietnam, fighting and dying. And that doesn't play well in many states.

Oh really how's that? Kerry tried to get a deferment but was unsuccessful and ended up going to Vietnam. Then he throws away his medals... no he throws away his "ribbons"... no he throws away someone elses medals for them. lol. Medals he earned by superficial wounds from the fireing of his own weapons. He gets a free ride out of there, "while the middle class [are] fighting and dying." Then he publically accuses those same middle class soldiers of atrocities "remenicent of Ghengis Khan" while they are still there fighting. Not only this but he admits himself to being part of war crimes and atrocities. No, this doesn't play well in many states. But still it is Bush who has taken the higher road and condemned the smear campaigns on both sides. Kerry, like so many on the left, started the mud slinging but he can't take it when it comes back to haunt him.

[Black Dog]

More on SBVFT:

Swift Boat Controversy

On the face of it, SBVFT is a collection of Vietnam veterans with a grudge against Kerry, especially over his anti-war activities when he threw away his battle ribbons.

They complain that Kerry let down Vietnam veterans after the war by criticising the conflict and detailing atrocities that took place in Vietnam.

They have launched a sustained personal attack on Kerry through adverts, a book and countless interviews on cable news and radio.

Kerry has been accused of lying about being wounded, fabricating stories of crossing into Cambodia and making up details of firefights. The accusations have been fiercely denied.

None of the members of SWVFT served on Kerry's boats and many of Kerry's own boat comrades have angrily refuted the claims.

The group received much of its initial funding from Bob Perry, a longtime Texan Republican donor who is a close friend of Karl Rove, Bush's political guru and master of dirty tricks in election campaigning.

Perry was well enough known to Bush to earn an invitation to visit the then Texas governor in 1997. 'I hope all goes well with you,' Bush wrote in a 15 April 1997 letter. 'Should you ever come to Austin, please come by and say hello.'

Another initial funder for SBVFT was Harlan Crow, a Texan Republican donor who is also a trustee of Bush's father's presidential library.

The group has further help from Merrie Spaeth, a public relations executive who has helped to co-ordinate its media strategy.

In 2000 Spaeth worked for a group that ran television adverts in support of Bush as he fought a bitter campaign against Senator John McCain for the Republican presidential nomination. The ads were vital in attacking McCain and lauding Bush's record.

The group has also employed the advertising firm, Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm, which ran devastating ads against Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis in 1988 that helped destroy his presidential bid.

The veterans behind the group are Rear Admiral Roy Hoffmann, Kerry's old commander, who was outraged by a critical treatment of his tactics in Kerry's official biography, and John O'Neill, a Swift Boat commander who has been a critic of Kerry ever since the early 1970s.

O'Neill was recruited in 1971 by the Richard Nixon administration to debate Kerry in the media as Kerry's anti-war fame grew.

A close examination of the group's claims has revealed serious holes. Its book, Unfit For Command, which contains many allegations that Kerry lied about his record, was written by O'Neill and Jerome Corsi.

Corsi was recently revealed as having posted anti-Islamic and anti-Catholic rants on a right-wing website. He has since apologised.

The group also produced a medical doctor, Louis Letson, who features in an advert saying Kerry lied about one wound he got a Purple Heart for and claims it was self-inflicted. But Letson's name does not appear on the army medical records that detail Kerry's injury.

So ity seems the Bush crowd, no strangers to using dirty tricks themselves, are the ones who can't take a taste of their own medicine and, rather than keeping the high moral ground, have launched this latest smear campaign.

But then, one can't honestly expect Bush to campaign on his record, lamentable as it is.

[KrustyKidd]

So ity seems the Bush crowd, no strangers to using dirty tricks themselves, are the ones who can't take a taste of their own medicine and, rather than keeping the high moral ground, have launched this latest smear campaign.

The Bush crowd? You mean over two hunderd and fifty vets all on record? The former VP who says Bush betrayed his country?

I remember the Kerry crowd using Hollywood as a platform to smear Bush, books by a phyciatrist painting Bush as crazy, a movie using out of sync editing with contrived reasoning portraying him as anything but good, a billionaire supporting a group putting out ads portraying him as Hitler, a high level Democrat on a bi partisan committee holding back relevent intelligence which endangered troops lives so that he could have dirt on Bush.

The Bush crowd, right. Seems they have started to fight back against the campaign of misinformation from the left.

[Black Dog]

The Bush crowd? You mean over two hunderd and fifty vets all on record? The former VP who says Bush betrayed his country?

I remember the Kerry crowd using Hollywood as a platform to smear Bush, books by a phyciatrist painting Bush as crazy, a movie using out of sync editing with contrived reasoning portraying him as anything but good, a billionaire supporting a group putting out ads portraying him as Hitler, a high level Democrat on a bi partisan committee holding back relevent intelligence which endangered troops lives so that he could have dirt on Bush.

The Bush crowd, right. Seems they have started to fight back against the campaign of misinformation from the left.

Uh huh. A GO.P with a record for negative campaigning a mile long (Rove's frigging licence plate reads "GONEG" fer chrissakes) and the best you can manage is "Wahhh! They started it."

Playground logic.

All ABout Karl

Rove is known for his singularly aggressive political tactics. In 1970, he sneaked into the campaign office of Illinois Democrat Alan Dixon and stole some letterhead. He printed fliers on the letterhead promising "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing" and distributed the fliers at rock concerts and homeless shelters.

In early 2000, during the Republican primary, Senator John McCain led George W. Bush in the race for the Republican presidential nomination and won several state primaries. A whisper campaign was allegedly launched against McCain: telemarketers were allegedly hired to call voters in South Carolina, claiming that McCain was mentally unstable due to torture he had endured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, and that he had fathered an illegitimate child with a black woman. These allegations had no basis in fact. A reporter, Wayne Slater, suggested in print that Rove might be behind the whisper campaign. Rove denied any involvement.

After the presidential elections in November 2000, Karl Rove organized an emergency migration of Republican politicians and supporters to Florida to assist the Bush campaign during the recount.

(BTW when it coems to Hitler comparisons, teh G.O.P set teh standard)

For example, retiring Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage (R-Idaho), commenting on one of Clinton's national monument designations, said, "This president is engaging in the largest land grab since the invasion of Poland."

Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) went a bit further a couple of weeks ago when Clinton designated Arizona's Ironwood Forest a national monument. "I would draw a parallel to Hitler," Shadegg said. "He eroded the will of the German people to resist evil."

Arkansas Republican Rep. Jay Dickey's recent fundraising letter reminding supporters they can give him $1,000 for the primary and another $1,000 in the general election campaign. He doesn't want anyone to "later . . . say to me that I should have reminded you of the threats," he said.

"Just as people who read Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' and then later were surprised at the evils of the 3rd Reich [sic]," Dickey said, "we have the blueprint for what the White House plans to do: defeat me! This is because I not only dared to vote my conscience on the impeachment issue, but dared to do it after a publicly expressed threat that I would lose the election if I did. Are we going to let an astounding abuse of power go unanswered?"

[August1991]

I prefer Dole's "Stop lying about me" to Bush Snr. The Bushies are one seriously competitive gang. They play hardball to win.

[I miss Reagan]

None of the members of SWVFT served on Kerry's boats and many of Kerry's own boat comrades have angrily refuted the claims

LOL, they don't need to.

That's great, a friend of a friend's cousin knows Bush. At least it isn't the blatent hypocrisy that Kerry shows by his support for slanderous organisations like moveon.org or his fundraisers that a Bush slamfests. Kerry himself bashes Bush's military services record but when the tables are turned he whines and threatens litigation. It is his campaign which had it's lawyers try to bully radio stations for airing Swift Boat ads. A liberal's version of free speech once again.

the best you can manage is "Wahhh! They started it."

That's great! Kerry just yesterday told Bob Dole on the phone "we'll he [bush] started it".

[Black Dog]

LOL, they don't need to.

That's great, a friend of a friend's cousin knows Bush. At least it isn't the blatent hypocrisy that Kerry shows by his support for slanderous organisations like moveon.org or his fundraisers that a Bush slamfests. Kerry himself bashes Bush's military services record but when the tables are turned he whines and threatens litigation. It is his campaign which had it's lawyers try to bully radio stations for airing Swift Boat ads. A liberal's version of free speech once again.

if I were to run ads in your local newspaper saying you were a pedophile, would you stand idly by while it happens? Or would you demand that obvious lies be removed from the public sphere? It's not about censorship, it's about honesty. As I pointe dout SBVT is a G.O.P-funded mouthpiece spreading delberate lies. Please point out any lies of this magnitude spread by the Kerry campaign.

As for bitching about moveon et al, Bush is an incumbant and as such should be taken to task on his record, which is exactly what these folks are doing. For instance, questions about Bush's ANG service (which date back to the last election) stand in direct contrast to his macho "war president" posturing.

That's great! Kerry just yesterday told Bob Dole on the phone "we'll he [bush] started it".

Citation, please?

[I miss Reagan]

"We don't need to divide the country argueing about who served and how" -Flipper 1992

"We don't even know if [bush] did serve in the National Guard" -Flipper 2004

[I miss Reagan]

As for bitching about moveon et al, Bush is an incumbant and as such should be taken to task on his record, which is exactly what these folks are doing. For instance, questions about Bush's ANG service (which date back to the last election) stand in direct contrast to his macho "war president" posturing

Ah there it is, the leftist double standard. I knew it'd get here sooner or later. But Kerry's record of 20% attendence on the Senate intelligence comittee is irrelevant right? Or his support of going to war... but not funding the troops right. And his service record in the military. Ya you're right he should just get a free pass to be president.

[I miss Reagan]

That's great! Kerry just yesterday told Bob Dole on the phone "we'll he [bush] started it".

Citation, please?

ABC radio news interview with Robert Dole. August 24, 2004.

[Black Dog]

"We don't need to divide the country argueing about who served and how" -Flipper 1992

"We don't even know if [bush] did serve in the National Guard" -Flipper 2004

Is that really a game you want to play?

CLAIM:

"I haven't had any extensive conversations with [Chalabi]. I don't remember anybody walking into my office saying, Chalabi says this is the way it's going to be in Iraq."

- President Bush, 6/1/04

FACT:

"They're not going to develop [an Islamic extremist government]. And the reason I can say that is because I'm very aware of this basic law they're writing. They're not going to develop that because right here in the Oval Office I sat down with Mr. Pachachi and Chalabi and al-Hakim, people from different parts of the country that have made the firm commitment."

- President Bush, 2/13/04

THEN:

Even though experts say "diverting any water from the Great Lakes region sets a bad precedent" Bush "said he wants to talk to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien about piping water to parched states in the west and southwest." He said, "A lot of people don't need [the water], but when you head South and West, we do need it."

- AP, 7/19/01; Bush statement, 7/18/01

NOW:

"We've got to use our resources wisely, like water. It starts with keeping the Great Lakes water in the Great Lakes Basin. You might remember what my opponent said earlier this year about Great Lakes water diversion. He said it would be a delicate balancing act. It sounds just like him. My position is clear: We're never going to allow diversion of Great Lakes water."

- President Bush, 8/16/04

CLAIM:

"This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al Qaeda.”

– President Bush, 6/17/04

FACT:

"Bush and Cheney also have sought to tie Iraq specifically to the 9/11 attacks. In a letter to Congress on March 19, 2003 — the day the war in Iraq began — Bush said that the war was permitted under legislation authorizing force against those who 'planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.'"

- USA Today, 6/16/04

Give me a quote from Dole/Kerry conversation as there's nothing coming up on google.

Ah there it is, the leftist double standard. I knew it'd get here sooner or later. But Kerry's record of 20% attendence on the Senate intelligence comittee is irrelevant right? Or his support of going to war... but not funding the troops right. And his service record in the military. Ya you're right he should just get a free pass to be president.

Attack the record, fine. But the Swift Boat ads are lies, plain and simple. Lies designed to draw attention away from the incumbent's conspicuous lack of service, not to mention his own shoddy record.