need help on Kerry matter

[pop goes the weasel]

A friend of mine needs the straight truth on the Republican "Swift Boat Veterans" and a lie ciriculating that Kerry's wounds were self-inflicted. Is there a good web page dealing with these particular campaign lies?

[Bluebear]

1. Try this for starters

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2004/05/04/swift/index_np.html

The latest conservative outfit to fire an angry broadside against John Kerry's heroic war record is "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" , which today launches a campaign to brand the Democrat "unfit to serve as commander in chief." Billing itself as representing the "other 97 percent of veterans" from Kerry's Navy unit who don't support his presidential candidacy, the group insists that all presidential candidates must be "totally honest and forthcoming" about their military service.

These "swift boat vets" claim still to be furious about Kerry's 1971 Senate testimony against the war in which he spoke about atrocities in Indochina's "free fire zones." More than three decades later, facing the complicated truth about Vietnam remains difficult. But this group's political connections make clear that its agenda is to target the election of 2004.

Behind the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are veteran corporate media consultant and Texas Republican activist Merrie Spaeth, who is listed as the group's media contact; eternal Kerry antagonist and Dallas attorney John E. O'Neill, law partner of Spaeth's late husband, Tex Lezar; and retired Rear Adm. Roy Hoffman, a cigar-chomping former Vietnam commander once described as "the classic body-count guy" who "wanted hooches destroyed and people killed

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6. thanks!

I had forgotten about that one!

[bluestateguy]

2. Seems to me that he/she is the one who needs to do the proving

That's a pretty serious accusation. Make him/her find the proof.

[pop goes the weasel]

she's not making the accusation

she was told these things by some wingers, and suspects they are lies, but doesn't have information. You know, we really need a debunking site.

[sandnsea]

10. Rapid Response Center

Formerly known as the D-Bunker.

http://blog.johnkerry.com/rapidresponse/

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14. how does that work?

Should she ask questions there directly?

[Toots]

4. Proof... Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

When have Republicans ever needed Proof? Trust them they would never lie to you..... How many men fit into that Swift Boat anyway???

[pop goes the weasel]

5. dupe

[NYCGirl]

3. There's also these links:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200405050004

http://mediamatters.org/items/200405040004

http://mediamatters.org/items/200407290002

http://mediamatters.org/items/200407300004

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9. thanks

Anything on the self-inflicted wounds lie?

[sandnsea]

13. I have an idea

Ask her to ask her friends if they're ready to stand in front of those 12 swiftboat vets who were on the stage with John Kerry Thursday night and say that stuff. Ask her why she'd rather believe filthy lies than the person was pulled out of the water in a hail of bullets.

[sandnsea]

7. Self inflicted now?

These guys will stoop to any sort of gutter lie, I guess. A couple months ago it was just that the one wound wasn't serious, now this.

Are they calling Jim Rassmann a liar?

"Kerry turned the boat around and eased it up to Rassmann, who grabbed a rope net on the bow. Rassmann was not able to climb onto the deck, however, so Kerry pulled him over, actions that earned Kerry a Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart.
"I'll be forever grateful to John for pulling me over that thing," Rassmann said. He had recommended Kerry for a Silver Star, awarded for gallantry in action, but higher-ups downgraded the medal to a Bronze Star."

http://www.kezi.com/content/contentID/8458

http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/news/news_2004_0729.html

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12. thanks! n/t

[Immad2]

8. Here is one link

swiftboatjerks

[polmaven]

11. Self inflicted????

Oh, my Lord!!! This is the first time I had heard that one!

How much lower can these bags of fecal matter go?

[blm]

15. His were all SHRAPNEL wounds. How do you self inflict shrapnel wounds?

James Rassmann said after his boat blew up and Kerry turned his boat around to try to save survivors Kerry reached into the water to pull him up and his arm was injured and covered in blood.

I'd believe Rassmann's version of how Kerry's wound was inflicted...in fact, Rassmann believes the shrapnel in Kerry's arm was a piece of his boat that was blown out of the water.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

16. Snopes

http://www.snopes.com/politics/kerry/service.asp

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17. I hadn't realized

Snopes was debunking political lies too! Cool!

[Career Prole]

18. These various and sundry veteran groups against Kerry invariably

say their main bitch is Kerry's testimony in Washington when he was with Vietnam Veterans Against the War. "Accused us of bein' baby-killers!" they yell.
No he didn't. He said it was going on...and it by God was. He couldn't name names because the Army covered it up then and still is today.
Ever hear of Tiger Force? Some of them killed lots of civilians...women, children, old folks...one cut the head off a baby to steal a necklace. Taking ears as trophies was routine.
Everything Kerry testified was true, and the government is still sitting on it.
Three reporters wrote an expansive series on this for the Toledo Blade in October of 2003. They won the Pulitzer for investigative reporting for that report. They have eyewitnesses who were in this unit and saw the atrocities. They have Vietnamese survivors statements. They have evidence of the Army's cover-up. These people are still alive, and Rumsfeld promised an investigation...where the hell is it?
Read the article, because the freepers never fail to bring up Kerry's testimony about atrocities after you shut them up on his medals.
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031022/SRTIGERFORCE/110190169