CNN.com article: Bush asks McCain to help block 527s

[liberal N proud]

President Bush wants to work with Sen. John McCain to take legal action against "shadowy" outside groups that have been spending millions of dollars on ads criticizing the president...

I am sure he dosn't mean the NRA or the 700 Club!

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/26/campaigns.527s/index.html

[phish420]

1. OUTRAGED!!

My website's ( http://bushlies2.us) response to this subject:

President Bush's response to the Swiftboat ads is absolutely preposterous, and I am outraged!! The problem is not with the so-called 527 ads, it is their truthfulness. 527 Organizations have the absolute right to put out an ad opposing or favoring anyone they want, however these ads MUST BE TRUTHFUL. That is the problem with the swiftboat ads. They have several veterans accusing John Kerry of things that are contrary to their very testimony on the Official Navy Record. In fact nothing they have said so far has matched the official record of the United States Navy. These ads also say that Kerry accused veterans of war crime atrocities, when in fact he was quoting what was told to him by other veterans who had confessed these crimes to him. He at no time EVER held a serviceman accountable for any of these actions, and never at any time said that ALL veterans in Vietnam committed these crimes. What he said is that these crimes were being committed and it was due to a failure in leadership, and that leadership needed to be held accountable. It is amazing how his testimony rings true today in light of the Abu Ghraib situation, now that report after report are holding senior officials accountable for the breakdown in leadership which caused these tortures to take place. What he said in 1971 and what he is saying now in NO WAY undermines the troops. It only questions the leadership and causes us to look for answers so that it does not happen again. Several service men and women have been prematurely sentenced in the Abu Ghraib scandal, and now after their Courts Martial have already concluded and their sentences have begun, it is now coming out that senior leadership, right up to Donald Rumsfeld himself, are responsible for the crimes committed against Iraqis, many of whom were innocent of any crime.

If these 527 groups stick to stating facts, there should be no problem with them airing. They should not be stopped just because the President doesn't like what they are saying about him. You can not ban citizen groups from airing their opinion of their President or the contenders for President. However, under the already instituted laws against Slander and Libel, false accusations should already be stopped. I am utterly confused why the Swiftboat group has not been sued for slander, since nothing they have said has been held up by the Navy record. This along with the blatant lie about Kerry accusing vets of war crimes, when in the very same sentence he explains that soldiers he had met with told him these things. If you are going to air a sentence from a 30 year old speech, at least play the whole damn sentence!!!

This move by Bush and his Neocon cohorts is nothing more than another attempt to silence his critics, only this time he promises to take it to court, and if that fails, take it to Congress to try to outlaw 527's all together. This is censorship at its most blatant. MoveOn.Org, the largest of the Kerry-Supporting 527's is a grassroots organization, started by people, just like you and I, who wanted the country to MOVE ON past the Monica Lewinski scandal, knowing that a BJ in the White House was not of national importance (Notice how Clinton was giving a speech at the U.N. about 'the most important issue of our day: Terrorism' at the very same time that the republican media was shoving the Clinton Testimony about Lewinski down our throats on every single channel). MoveOn.Org has millions of members, like myself, who donate to get the ads Democrats want to see on the air. These ads state facts and try not to mislead and take remarks out of context. When an ad airs and you can not come up with anything to refute that ad to prove it wrong, there is nothing wrong with that ad. But when an ad accuses an extremely decorated Vietnam Vet of lying to get his medals, and shooting himself on purpose to get medals, and endangered his men when his men do not back that claim up, it is the duty of the FEC, the FCC and all channels carrying that ad to pull it immediately. We can not fall into this 'one bad apple spoils the whole bunch' mentality when it comes to our freedom of speech and press. Simply remove the bad apple, and carry on.

[FighttheFuture]

2. Why are 527's "bad" but Corporate PACs "good"?

Moveon.org has millions of doners. Talk about democracy in action. SBV has what, a dozen? And Corporate PACS, Bush Rangers, Pioneers, CEO Deepthroat Kings+Queens, all OK!!!

Where is that "librual" media when you need it?

[imax2268]

3. Hey wait...

I thought it was us on the left who were trying to "restrict free speech"...?

[girl gone mad]

4. Please help me remind the media..

that Bush was against McCain-Feingold until the bitter end and that he had promised to veto any campaign finance reform that restricted money from groups or individuals because he believed it was a "violation of First Amendment rights."

In fact, when Bush signed McCain-Feingold into law, he stated that he was counting on the Supreme Court to overturn the parts of it that placed restrictions on contributions.

Bush has flip-flopped in a big way on this issue. The media needs to ask the President why he would rather infringe on our First Amendment rights than distance himself from a sleazy smear campaign.

[phish420]

5. Links?

Any links with bush wuoting this? Id love to see that so I can annoy the hell out of the news corps about this. I thought he was against limiting 527's...we just need some quotes