URGENT: Get the lying Republican smear ad OFF THE AIR!

Loyal readers, please view the "Swift Boat" ad at swiftvets.com, the Moveon response ad at the website below, and then GIVE MONEY. If you are broke, CHARGE IT to a credit card like I just did. We CANNOT let them get away with this, and we must show John Kerry that he MUST strike back.

There's no point nominating a Vietnam vet if we don't make sure we win on the military service "issue."

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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 that 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
[that] ran against John Kerry. Anyone who shed
blood, or [who] 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