Help Counter GOP "Swift Vets" Smear Campaign on TV

[Triana]

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 his 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 ran against John Kerry. Anyone who shed blood, or 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/

Footnotes:

1. Meet the Press Transcript for Feb. 8th, 2/8/04
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4179618/
2. AP Sues for Access to Bush Guard Records, 6/22/04
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/breaking_news/8985661.htm
3. FACT CHECK: Swift Boat Veterans for Bush, 8/5/04
http://www.johnkerry.com/rapidresponse/080504_truth.html

PAID FOR BY MOVEON PAC www.moveonpac.org
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

[lastknowngood]

1. Why bother Kerry has already condemned the moveon ad.

n/t

[rocktivity]

2. Hmmm, maybe that was the idea.

Kerry objects to the reference to Bush, but Bush won't object to the smear-voters ad. I detect a litte cross-handed blackmail, LOL!

:headbang:
rocknation

[olddem43]

3. All the controversy is probably helping Kerry -

almost every thinking person comes to the conclusion, Kerry went to 'Nam and Bush avoided it.