From here:
FORT MYERS, Fla./CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - Democrat John Kerry asked the Federal Election Commission on Friday to force Republican critics to withdraw ads challenging his military service and accused the Bush campaign of illegally helping coordinate the attacks as the presidential race took a decidedly bitter turn.
Bush's campaign advisers denied any involvement in advertisements by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and the White House, in a new line of attack, criticized Kerry for "losing his cool" over the accusations.
Apparently it's okay for a foreign billionaire to give millions of dollars to a shrill anti-Bush group that runs ads accusing the President of cowardice and comparing him to Hitler. But if over 250 Vietnam veterans, many of them highly-decorated, dare to criticize Kerry and offer a differing point-of-view regarding events that occurred in Vietnam, they are to be muzzled.
I always knew Democrats despised the Second Amendment. But I didn't know they hated the First Amendment as well.
From here:
The unusual late-August maneuvering highlighted the closeness of the race for the White House and came as polls offered the first hint that the questioning of Kerry's medal-winning service in the Vietnam War - allegations that he strongly condemned this week as lies - were taking a political toll.
One poll found that more than half the voters questioned had seen or heard of an ad by Swift Boat Veterans For Truth that accuses Kerry of lying about events that earned him five medals in Vietnam a generation ago. The University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey also found that 44 percent of self-described independent voters found the ad very or somewhat believable.
Separately, a CBS poll found a sharp drop in Kerry's support among both veterans since the end of the Democratic Convention.
Good. The mainstream media had been derelict in their duty to look into Kerry's claims to be a "war hero." It took the Swift Boat Vets to finally get the media off their collective asses and bring this to the attention of the voting public.
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Article comments
1 - bhw
My goodness, can it be that the Democrats are the only ones who don't like the first amendment?
Nah. The Republicans beat them to the punch back in May.
The Republican National Committee launched a wide-ranging legal assault Wednesday on more than two dozen political groups working to defeat President Bush.
The committee says the groups are part of an "unprecedented criminal enterprise" to circumvent federal campaign laws and pour illegal soft money contributions into the 2004 race.
In a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission, the RNC also charged that the groups are illegally coordinating their advertising attacking Bush with the campaign of presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry.
The Kerry campaign is named as a respondent in the complaint, along with the anti-Bush groups, their leaders and some of their large donors, including billionaire financier George Soros and Hollywood producer Steven Bing.
The groups in question, including MoveOn.org, The Media Fund, America Coming Together and America Votes, are known as 527 groups after a provision in the tax code.
"These 527 groups, in conjunction with their representatives and their leadership, are conspiring together to violate the law, and conspiring together to raise this illegal soft money, and conspiring with a message and a coordination effort," said Jill Holtzman-Vogel, the RNC's chief counsel.
"I think there's no question that there is a larger coordination and a larger conspiracy here on both counts."
In a statement, the Kerry campaign said it has nothing to do with the ads or the groups that are running them.
Sound familiar? Both sides are playing politics. Don't you want to be fair and balanced in your coverage of the news?
2 - bhw
Oh crap, look at that. Can someone fix the broken code in previous comment?
3 - Lono
Kerry filed a complaint because your swift boat posse is full of fucking liars. Check the record on the silver medal the guy got who served with Kerry... for serving UNDER FIRE. Yet he says Kerry faked the whole thing.
Sorry your candidate is a draft dodger, but he IS. So was Clinton. Even if Kerry was not a 'war hero', at least he showed up!
vote Democrat. Be a human, think through history. Think through the future.
Vote Democrat if you love America
Lono
4 - Al Barger
Jeez Lono, that's just so cheap and mindless. Cursing the swift boat vets does not constitute proof that they are lying.
Also, why don't you just say that if you care about The Children you must vote Democrat.
5 - Mike Kole
Lefties say "shut the other side up". Righties say "shut the other side up".
Vote Libertarian if you love free speech.
6 - Shop Right
I'm still waiting for some update on this. Of course, it's the kind of thing the MSM never bothers to follow up on. I presume Kerry's complaint was grandstanding and will be found to be without merit, but when? The FEC website is of little use in answering these queries, so far as I can tell... Anyone?