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Hughs: Rumor mill fueled by Internet stories By Ina Hughs (Contact) Friday, July 11, 2008 Think about the Swift Boat campaign and what it did to John Kerry in 2004 and what rumors of a secret love child did to John McCain's bid for the White House in 2000. As a kid, we used to play a game called "gossip." We'd sit in a circle, and someone would whisper a sentence into the ear of the person next to her; that person would then whisper what she heard to the person next to her - and so on. By the...

WASHINGTON -It is already easy to imagine the Republican attack ads against Barack Obama. They open with video of his wife, Michelle, saying she was proud of America "for the first time in my adult lifetime" because of her husband's presidential candidacy. Cut to the Illinois Senator explaining that he doesn't wear an American flag lapel pin because it is a "substitute for true patriotism." Then flash a clip of Obama explaining that his Caucasian grandmother was a "typical white person" because she uttered racial epithets and was afraid of black people. Finally, the coup de grace, pictures of Obama's...

WASHINGTON - Even if Hillary Rodham Clinton and her aides do not mention Barack Obama's fiery-tongued spiritual mentor, don't expect the Illinois senator's well-publicized speech Tuesday to make the controversy disappear, political strategists said this week. Reporters, talk-show hosts and others will keep asking about Obama's close and long-standing relationship to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose most bombastic comments came to dominate the Democratic presidential contest recently, the strategists predicted in interviews. In video clips playing on Internet sites, Wright can be heard arguing that HIV-AIDS was a U.S. government plot to wipe out "people of color," and that God...

Last week, I had the chance to sit down with Jeff Beatty, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate for the state of Massachusetts. Beatty is currently rallying support in order to offer a strong challenge to the current seat holder, Senator John Kerry. Jeff, who was in town to receive the prestigious "Guardian Award" from the International Association of Counter-terrorism and Security Professionals (IACSP), left me confident that we are putting our best foot forward in November's race and that Kerry will be facing a worthy opponent. Jeff's unique background as a counterterror professional and businessman positions him well to unseat...

Senator Hillary Clinton, among others, has begun using “swiftboating” as a verb. Her use is courtesy of the New York Times. Now, with extreme and unintended irony, the Times has sought to “swiftboat” Senator John McCain, and has been swiftboated in return by its own ombudsman, To sort all that out, we go back to the beginning, so the original swiftboaters don’t get “swiftboated” in the bargain. Does that make sense? I thought not. Hang on and it will all become clear. The original swiftboaters were crews of Swift Boats in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. These were small, fast...

I posted a squib on the National Review Web site about a robo call I received from John McCain. (Virginia's primary is Tuesday.) The call stressed that he would, if elected, be a down-the-line limited government conservative who would never raise taxes, would defend life, would enforce immigration laws and would win the war on terror. The candidate is trying, I said, to meet conservatives "more than halfway." The response of readers was, shall we say, emphatic. One lady wrote that she would never vote for him as "He is the most disloyal, ill-tempered man and he brings out the...

My favorite professor, philosopher, student of American history, and columnist, is Dr. Thomas Sowell. One or twice a year he writes a column of individual thoughts – that are worth writing but not worth a column. I now borrow that idea for this column. John Kerry and the Swift Boats: John Kerry has just attacked the Clintons for trying to “swiftboat” Barack Obama. His invented verb, “swiftboat” is intended to mean that the charges are false, but potentially dangerous. He’s right about the charges, but wrong about the verb. I knew John Kerry in college. He was a self-important prig...

More than three years after John Kerry's bitter defeat, at the dawn of what looks like a far more promising campaign cycle for the Democrats, the party is still haunted by the specter of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Once upon a time, "Swift boat" denoted an obscure military vessel, but thanks to the activities of this group it has come to represent movement conservatism's penchant for ruthlessly (and effectively) smearing any and all political opponents, from a sitting senator and war hero to an 11-year-old boy with a cranial fracture. Research by The Nation into Federal Election Commission...

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 29 (OneWorld) - U.S. war veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have announced they're planning to descend on Washington, DC this March to testify about war crimes they committed or personally witnessed in Iraq. "The war in Iraq is not covered to its potential because of how dangerous it is for reporters to cover it," said Liam Madden, a former Marine and member of the group Iraq Veterans Against the War. "That's left a lot of misconceptions in the minds of the American public about what the true nature of military occupation looks like." Iraq Veterans Against the...

Senator John F. Kerry already has a Democratic opponent for his U.S. Senate seat. He is not from the party's right since there is barely anyone sitting in those seats in blue Massachusetts. Kerry's antagonist is Ed O'Reilly, a Gloucester lawyer who, according to the Wednesday Boston Globe, is targeting Kerry from the anti-Iraq war left. And, lo and behold, he wants to know the truth about Kerry's military record and has questions himself about the Swift Boat record and the Swift Boat ads. Besides, like a lot of the senator's tormentors, he is suspicious about whether Kerry is really...

BOSTON --Sen. John Kerry, whose 2004 presidential campaign was torpedoed by critics of his Vietnam War record, said Friday he has personally accepted Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens' offer of $1 million to anyone who can disprove even a single charge of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. In a letter to Pickens, who provided $3 million to bankroll the group during Kerry's race against President Bush, the Massachusetts Democrat wrote: "While I am prepared to show they lied on allegation after allegation, you have generously offered to pay one million dollars for just one thing that can be proven...

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) whose bid for the presidency in 2004 was damaged by attacks on his vaunted Vietnam War record by a group called “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,” says he is now ready to refute their allegations. “We have put together a powerful and irrefutable rebuttal to the scurrilous charges made against me by these right wing fanatics,” Kerry asserted. Kerry declined to disclose any of his reputedly irrefutable proof at this time saying that “the American people have not yet shown a sufficient measure of regret and contrition for voting against me. They disrespected me—a decorated veteran—and...

The man who flustered White House hopeful John McCain last week by questioning his standing among fellow Vietnam prisoners of war was a contributor to rival Fred Thompson's campaign. Ed Nowokunski, a retired Air Force major and fighter pilot, gave $500 to Thompson's testing-the-waters committee in July, Federal Election Commission records show. He also gave $1,000 to President Bush a month after his bitter 2000 primary defeat of McCain in South Carolina, and again in 2004 when he wasn't opposed. McCain supporter Orson Swindle, a former Marine POW, suggested afterward that an opposing campaign planted Nowokunski in the retirement community...

Here’s a burning question no one is asking: Whither John F. Kerry? He is his party’s most recent presidential nominee. He came tantalizingly close to winning. And yet no one is looking for him to put his stamp on the 2008 Democratic primary or wondering aloud who he’ll endorse — even though Al Gore campaign manager Donna Brazile says that in the early-state contests, “most of the voters would be thrilled to know who Kerry would back and why.” But the lack of an audible clamor for an endorsement by Kerry is more than a bit deceiving, as is the...

IF YOU HATED IT the first time, you might like the sequel better. Remember Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the right-wing goon squad whose defamatory insinuations helped sink John Kerry's presidential campaign? They're back! This afternoon, key Swift boaters George "Bud" Day, Mary Jane McManus and Carlton Sherwood are holding a little reunion, in the guise of a panel discussion at the American Conservative Union's annual Conservative Political Action Conference. The panel topic? "The Left's Repeated Campaign Against the American Soldier." --snip-- The reemergence of the Swifties is depressing, but not because they're likely to do much damage to progressive...

Although it doesn't air until 6 P.M. Eastern Time, Foxnews has a partial transcript up already.Foxnews Sunday

Yesterday, John Kerry "jokingly" insulted the troops. Today he refused to apologize: preferring to use his moment in the sun to further "Swiftboat" himself.

NEWTOWN, Pa. -- The military record of a Democratic House candidate was under attack. So, Senator John F. Kerry ventured to the Philadelphia suburbs last week to defend Patrick Murphy -- and deliver the kind of speech the senator never quite gave when his own wartime service was called into question in 2004. "Attacking Patrick Murphy for his service is a little bit like Jessica Simpson attacking Albert Einstein's IQ," the Massachusetts Democrat proclaimed Thursday at a chilly outdoor rally at Bucks County Community College. "A lot of these people in the GOP, the Republican Party -- they think somehow...

Latest email from Kerry, via the DCCC; From: "Senator John Kerry, DCCC" {dccc@dccc.org} Subject: Remember the Swift Boat Attacks? Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 14:40:44 -0400 Thanks to a special matching fund, your response to Republican "Swiftboat-style" attacks can have triple the impact. MAKE A MATCHING GIFT NOW! Dear Lewis, Like clockwork, here they come again. According to news reports, Bob Perry, the Texas millionaire who bankrolled the so-called "Swiftboat Veterans for Truth" is up to his old tricks. He's spending $5 million dollars under the radar screen to launch a new GOP attack group called the "Economic Freedom Fund."...

When faced with the Swift Boat Vets commercials during his 2004 campaign, John Kerry basically assumed the fetal position and just hoped they would go away. Instead, that series of commercials turned out to be perhaps the most effective ads in political history. Kerry's strong lead early in August of that year quickly dissipated as a result of those commercials. However, Kerry how has had a change of heart. Now he is ANGRY and as indicated by this DUmmie THREAD, "Kerry: I'm prepared to kick Swift Boat's ass." Unfortunately for Kerry, even most of the DUmmies aren't buying into...

Do you want to know the name of the person most responsible for Bush's victory in the last election? Surprise! It wasn't Karl Rove. The person who enabled the Bush victory is virtually unknown outside of South Florida---Brian Craig, co-host of the Steve Kane Show on WNN radio in Broward County. And I was present at the creation of the Bush victory. It happened early one summer morning in 2004 when I flicked on the radio at 6:00 AM to listen to the Steve Kane Show. The show's opening featured the voice of John Edwards saying, "If you have...

The Republican candidate for the United States Senate in New Jersey, Thomas H. Kean Jr., intends to make a campaign film that accuses his Democratic opponent, Robert Menendez, of "being wrapped up in the rackets for 30 years" despite public records and statements by former federal prosecutors that contradict Mr. Kean's most serious charges. Mr. Kean's chief campaign consultant, Matt Leonardo, a strategist for Republican candidates, disclosed the plans in an interview and said the film would be "very similar" in purpose to the commercials used to attack the military record of John Kerry during the 2004 presidential race. Kean...

(AXcess News) New York - The title of this piece may seem a bit over-the-top, but it's true. Massachusetts' Junior Senator John F. Kerry admitted he is dumb in front of thousands of left-wing Democrats during the recent "Take Back America" jamboree. His pal, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), received a less than cordial reception by the crowd of antiwar, Bush-hating Dems, so perhaps Kerry felt it safer to admit his stupidity than face the heckling and boos accorded Clinton. And after all, it's not as if Kerry hasn't changed positions on issues in the past. He usually makes his rhetorical...

John Kerry's Skimmer Scam By Thomas Lipscomb As the Kate Zernike front page Memorial Day weekend New York Times story indicates, a number of Kerry supporters were disappointed that Kerry had not vigorously defended himself against the charges of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the 2004 Presidential campaign. According to Zernike some "are compiling a dossier that they say will expose every one of the Swift boat group's charges as a lie and put to rest any question about Mr. Kerry's valor in combat." That might not only be a difficult task but it could backfire badly. As...

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....

Kerry Pressing Swiftboat Case, Long After Loss By KATE ZERNIKE John Kerry starts by showing the entry in a log he kept from 1969: "Feb 12: 0800 run to Cambodia." 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...

Single-issue people. They're out there... on every thread. No matter what the topic, they try to link it to their pet issue in some way, shape, or form. They are... The Thread Hijackersâ„¢. While little can be done to stop them, and it is probably best to ignore them, I find it much, much more fun to mock them. Sure, being passionate about an issue you care about is a good thing, but thread hijacking is annoying and, to be honest, turns off people who might otherwise agree with you. So, on to the mocking. I'd like to coin the...

There is no Republican up on Capitol Hill more disliked by his own GOP brethren than John McCain. That's why, despite the size of his fan club in the mainstream media, McCain seems rather unlikely to capture the party's nomination for President in 2008. Here's a short, but sweet primer that may help explain why so many conservatives believe John McCain would be a very poor choice as the Republican nominee in 2008. The Age Issue John McCain will be 72 years old in 2008, which will make him 3 years older than Ronald Reagan was when he became the...

There aren't many issues the entire Statesman staff agrees on. As we were putting this issue together, CNN gave us news of something that would unite all of us. John Kerry is trying to block the nomination of Samuel Alito. In our staff meeting, Democrats, Republicans and independents unite to speak with one voice. John Kerry should sit down and shut up. We at the Statesman feel he served his role, making a great run at the White House in 2004. He fell short, despite what all exit polling said, and we expected him to fade into the background. Instead,...

A Swiftboat veteran who was a member of Sen. John Kerry's crew when their boat was targeted in Feb. 1969 by an enemy rocket launcher has refuted Kerry's claim that he single-handedly saved his crew from the attack - an account that earned the top Democrat the Silver Star. Interviewed during Kerry's 1996 Senate reelection battle, Kerry crew member Tom Bellodeau told the Boston Globe that he - not Kerry - fired the shot the brought down the enemy fighter, who had aimed a loaded rocket launcher at their boat just after Kerry beached it on the Ca Mau peninsula....

Stephanie Cutter, the controversial John Kerry for President mouth who was eviscerated by Newsweek and who was blamed for some of the campaign's worst blunders, reportedly is negotiating a return to Ted Kennedy's Senate staff. Sources say Cutter's second stint in Kennedy's communications office is a done deal, a development that has seasoned politicos shaking their heads. ``It's a mystery,'' said one Senate snitch. ``It's very puzzling. People don't know how to digest it.'' But the senior senator is apparently a big fan of the thirtysomething blonde. ``Stephanie is one of the best in the business and would be a...

Those without sin…should run for political office, because everyone else is just crap! Steve Gardner was one of 12 boat crewmembers on Senator John Kerry's swift boat in Vietnam. He was the only one to speak out against Kerry as one of the members of the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth PAC. Gardner made it his business to see that Kerry was not elected Commander in Chief. For this act of "free speech", his financial privacy was threatened and he was summarily fired from his job. Gardner claims he is broke now and can't afford to sue his former company....

Alexandria, VA, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- The Conservative Political Action Conference said Monday its 2004 Courage Under Fire award would go to the 527 group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. . . . The Swift Boat veterans, most of whom served in Vietnam with Kerry, "could have remained silent, comfortably out of the public eye and the line of fire," Keene said. "But they put the good of their country ahead of their own personal interests." During the 2004 presidential campaign, the Swift Boat organization argued Kerry had fabricated accounts of his combat exploits to get undeserved medals and a...

Pundits have cast around for the reasons behind President Bush’s remarkable victory. Some have seized on moral values, or a poorly run Democratic campaign, even Kerry’s personality. One cause most overlooked in the mainstream media is a small group of Vietnam veterans, a bunch of political amateurs, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who redefined the central issue of the election. The Swifties, as they call themselves, made the election a referendum on character. Their ads, and best-selling book Unfit for Command, said that Senator Kerry is a man who lacks the character to be Commander-in-Chief. He gamed the system...

DEAR FREEPERS: Jeff Epstein is a new friend of mine I met through the Swift Boat Vets and Vietnam Vets For Truth organizations. This is a timely article calling for our continued support of thoose groups who supported Freedom and truth about John Kerry. Jeff's timely article reminds us all to not get complacent in what happened in the last election, and to remember who our friends are in the media. Here is Jeff's article: Folks: The following article, of mine, was published on "The Rant" earlier this morning. As most of you know, I am not in the business...

NoW MSNBC -

Without the information revolution spawned by talk radio and the role it played in this year's election, John Kerry would likely be taking the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2005.

The Last Battle of Vietnam It never occurred to me, ever before, That our Navy would win the Vietnam War. When they took to their boats in this year of elections, With the mission of making some major corrections I shared their belief, John should not be elected, And their view overdue, truth should be resurrected. Yet I questioned the course they’d set themselves for, Knowing how John was loved by the media whore. Ignored and dismissed by the media queens Being shrewd, savvy sailors they still found the means To reach out to the people, to open their eyes...

Last night a Victory Dinner was held to honor the men of Vietnam Vets for The Truth, the men who held the KERRY LIED rally that many Freepers attended. I was the videographer for the event, and was honored to be aqsked to do so by Jeff Epstein from Vietnam Vets for The Truth.

When all is said and done … when all the punditry are talking about the events of the day in another month or two, this one fact will become glaringly obvious: John Kerry was defeated by the Viet Nam vets he smeared in 1971. As this campaign came to a close, John Kerry tried his best to avoid mentioning Viet Nam. How did this dramatic turn of events occur? Who took Kerry’s strongest sales point away? The ghost of Viet Nam, invoked by Kerry, came back to haunt this deeply flawed man. It was poetic justice rarely found outside of...

It’s time for the chickens to come home to roost. Here are my predictions, word for word, from 30 August, 2004: “It isn’t necessary to wait until the end of the Republican Convention to make this year’s predictions. Bush will have a 5% lead after the convention. That will increase to 10% by November 2, and the Electoral College results will be a landslide for Bush. At the same time, the Republicans will gain two seats in the Senate, and 11 seats in the House. “Outside Washington, Republicans will gain one governorship, 121 seats in the various state legislatures, and...

God bless all of you. You are the true American Heros, Swiftboat and POW veterans.

Copyright 2004 The Weekly Standard The Weekly Standard November 1, 2004 - November 8, 2004 SECTION: ARTICLES Vol. 10 No. 8 LENGTH: 1851 words HEADLINE: Never Apologize, Never Explain; From the November 1 / November 8, 2004 issue: John Kerry's real record as an antiwar activist. BYLINE: Joshua Muravchik, The Weekly Standard BODY: JOHN KERRY SAYS HE IS "PROUD" of his activities in opposition to the Vietnam War. Why, then, have he and his spokesmen consistently misrepresented them? Indeed the Kerry camp has been so effective in obscuring this history that both the New York Times and the Washington Post...

Swiftvet TV special to air election eve Show hosted by John O'Neill slated for Florida markets Posted: October 26, 2004 5:00 p.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Building on its nine-ad campaign, Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth is featured in a half-hour television special that will air in key Florida markets on the eve of the election. Titled "Unfit to Lead," the program is hosted by swiftboat vet spokesman John O'Neill and includes some of the men whose testimonies about John Kerry were heard in the advertisements played in battleground states. The TV program is based largely on the...

Wednesday, October 27, 7pm at the Normandy Conference Center, Route US 202 and Morris Road, Blue Bell, PA Admission free Please contact elfegobaca@comcast.net if planning to attend

Many readers have emailed us to say that on tonight's Scarborough Country, MSNBC "Senior Political Analyst" Lawrence O'Donnell went more or less insane. John O'Neill was on the program, and Pat Buchanan was subbing for Scarborough. Apparently O'Donnell went completely nuts, screaming "Liar! Liar!" at O'Neill, who kept his temper despite O'Donnell's raving. Our readers say it was the most bizarre incident in a frequently surreal campaign season. The transcript is not yet available on the Scarborough site, but we'll link to it when it comes up, which should be tomorrow. UPDATE: The Daikly Recycler has the video. It's unbelievable....

For a guy who started his presidential campaign focused on his military service, John Kerry sure doesn't mind leaving that service record shrouded in mystery. There is controversy about every single aspect of Kerry's service – from the time he signed up for duty, to his brief command of a Navy swiftboat in Vietnam, to his commendations, to his medical records, to his departure from Vietnam and, now, even the question of whether he was honorably discharged.

'Swifties' make $4.7 million ad buy Washington, DC, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Swift Vets and POWs for Truth said Thursday they had purchased nearly $5 million in television time for anti-Kerry ads in critical swing states. The group, a 527 organization representing more than 250 Swift Boat veterans who served in Vietnam with Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry along with a number of the American POW's held captive by the North Vietnamese, said it had purchased $3.2 million in TV time in Florida and $1.5 million in Ohio for ads that will run beginning Friday. The first of the ads...

The decision of Sinclair Broadcasting to air an anti-Kerry documentary in late October is a nightmarish recipe of "creeping fascism, state propaganda, Big Brother and brainwashing." So says the unhinged Molly Ivins, giving voice to the outrage felt by her colleagues in the news media. Liberals are positively panicked at the idea that somewhere, on some station, at some late date, someone will say something negative about John Kerry without a moment for balance on the other side. Let's be blunt: Welcome to our world, liberals. You're all for propaganda and brainwashing when it's Dan, Peter, Tom & Co. spinning...

According to the after-action report, after beaching the Swift boat, Kerry "chased VC inland, behind hooch, and shot him while he fled, capturing one B-40 rocket launcher, with round in chamber." Does the following square with Kerry’s after action report? "Firing from over here. Firing from over there. Firing from the boat," Vo Thi Vi told Nightline. She was only a couple hundred yards away when a Swift boat turned and approached the shore, she said, adding that the boat was unleashing a barrage of gunfire as it approached. "I ran," she recalled, "Running fast. … And the Americans came...