Here's what the RNC /527's plan to do after the RNC convention:

[loudsue]

I got this web site linked in an e-mail from my wingnut bro-in-law. He is deeply entrenched in the hate-spewing end of the repuke party.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/markalexander/ma20040827.shtml

First is this little lead-in:

<snip>

Implicit in Kerry's warning, however, is the notion that he, himself, volunteered for service in Vietnam. Remember Bill Clinton's repetitive "Send me" paean at the Demo Convention? Try again. Kerry's anti-military sentiments were well known when he was a student at Yale. After graduating, Kerry petitioned his draft board for a student deferment so he could study in -- where else? -- Paris. His deferment denied, Kerry then calculated that he could avoid Vietnam by joining the Naval Reserves, where he'd likely be able to serve stateside even if his unit was activated. Kerry's service record indicates that on 18 February 1966 he enlisted in the USNR under "inactive" status. This puts the lie to any assertion that Kerry "volunteered" for dangerous swift boat duty while George W. Bush somehow slunk off to fly fighter-jets.

As fate would have it, Kerry's reserve unit was activated, while the President's ANG unit remained stateside -- yet both circumstances were far beyond the control of these two junior officers. As for Kerry's choice of Swift Boats, he told the Boston Globe last year, "I didn't really want to get involved in the war. When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling...."

Then comes the strategy:

<snip>

The consequences of Kerry's anti-American actions in 1971 were far-reaching. An upcoming documentary, "Stolen Honor," includes devastating testimony from former POWs about how Kerry's testimony was "thrown in their faces" as they were tortured by their captors. Or, as POW Paul Galanti says in a devastating new Swiftees' ad, "Kerry gave the enemy for free what we...took torture to try to avoid saying."

<snip>

Please join more than 125,000 of your fellow Patriots who have already signed a letter asking that Kerry by held accountable for his actions. The Patriot will release this letter to the media in September, and though there would obviously be no action on this prosecution prior to Kerry's defeat in November (yes, we are confident he will be defeated), we believe he is not fit to serve in the Senate and should be removed."

So, fellow DUers....THIS is what is about to hit the fan when the neocons are finished with their paranoid, narcissistic, sociopathic convention. Another, nastier Swift Boat ad, and a highly publicized letter-writing campaign to get Kerry "removed" from the Senate. More whipping the idiots into a frenzy via the media, and further trashing the people who actually served, and actually won medals for their bravery in the military, which the chickenhawks only dream about. A new, nastier type of conservatism.

[sallyseven]

1. People are starting to doubt the Swift

Boat people and it is leaving a bad taste in their mouths. They are seeing this as a smear and all other things will be seen the same way. You can fool some of the people some of the time. But you can't fool all of the people all of the time. Time to counteract these swill throwers.

[rocktivity]

2. But who's going to believe this NOW?

Bush refuses to condemn the Smear-Boaters, though they've been clearly exposed as LIARS, and there's evidence that his campaign office was illegally IN COLLUSION with them. All Kerry has to say is "And the scam goes on...by the way, have you taken a good look at BUSH'S military record lately?"

:headbang:
rocknation

[Leilani]

3. Yes, I have been reading about this as well

There are more attacks coming, Kerry numbers are going down, & I do not see the strategy yet.

The POWs are going to be devastating...you can blow off O Neill & his crew, but the POWs are very sympathetic characters. And if they talk about torture, bad news.

[w13rd0]

4. Torture 35 years ago...

...let's talk about the torture that took place last year. Come on, I was a swaddled infant when the Vietnam war took place. ENOUGH ALREADY!

[Leilani]

6. Yes, it was 35 years ago

& we should be talking about the war going on right now, in Iraq.

There are people dying right now.

But nobody is talking about it.

So, I am commenting on what is going on with this campaign, & it is not going the way I would hope.

[DoYouEverWonder]

13. Then start a thread

and talk about. Go to other forums and do the same thing.

It's up to us to create and change the tone.

[loudsue]

8. I just want the Kerry campaign to DO SOMETHING

Something pre-emptive, if possible. The neocons are trying to say that Kerry passed some "secrets" to the N. Vietnamese in his meetings in Paris. I am wondering .... WHAT meeting in Paris, WITH WHOM, and are there films?? Something to counter what is being said that the Kerry campaign (or better yet, MoveOn!!) can straighten it out BEFORE it hits?

Kerry's funds are limited to government campaign funds, and I don't want his campaign to have to spend all their money chasing these lies, as opposed to exposing bush's horrible record as pResident.

These people are phucking CRAZY, and they're doing the Rove Smear Shuffle everywhere they go to avoid shining light on who and what dubya has done to this country and the world.

:kick::kick::kick:

[MGKrebs]

14. Kerry went to Paris during official negotiations

to end the war, but he was not part of the delegation. He was trying to find ways to get POW's released.

[EST]

15. Just exactly what sort of secrets, at that stage of his life,

was Kerry supposed to be privy to? And just who would believe him, since he had no real standing?

[Cronus Protagonist]

5. And then we whip ths out....

[Leilani]

7. Coincidentally,

The Passion is coming out on DVD, just saw an ad on TV.

[Cronus Protagonist]

16. I like my 'toons to coincide with current events :)

[Nancy Waterman]

9. The best response to this, preferably preemptively and repeatedly:

1) This is just more of Bush's slime machine (worth checking if in fact some of these guys' torture was long before Kerry's speech. I read this somewhere)

Bush's people never tell the truth. They will say anything to manipulate Americans and remain in power.

2) Kerry fought and bled on the front lines. Bush was AWOL from his country club unit and has lied about it ever since. He also lied about not getting special treatment, now documented.

This Palast story really needs to get around:

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=365&row=0

That’s far from the end of the story. In 1994, George W. Bush was elected governor of Texas by a whisker. By that time, Barnes had left office to become a big time corporate lobbyist. To an influence peddler like Barnes, having damning information on a sitting governor is worth its weight in gold – or, more precisely, there’s a value in keeping the info secret.

Barnes appears to have made lucrative use of his knowledge of our President’s slithering out of the draft as a lever to protect a multi-billion dollar contract for a client. That's the information in a confidential letter buried deep in the files of the US Justice Department that fell into my hands at BBC television.

Here's what happened. Just after Bush's election, Barnes' client GTech Corp., due to allegations of corruption, was about to lose its license to print money: its contract to run the Texas state lottery. Barnes, says the Justice Department document, made a call to the newly elected governor's office and saved GTech's state contract.


The letter said, "Governor Bush ... made a deal with Ben Barnes not to rebid because Barnes could confirm that Bush had lied during the '94 campaign."

In that close race, Bush denied the fix was in to keep him out of 'Nam, and the US media stopped asking questions. What did the victorious Governor Bush's office do for Barnes? According to the tipster, "Barnes agreed never to confirm the story and the governor talked to the chair of the lottery two days later and she then agreed to support letting GTech keep the contract without a bid."

And so it came to pass that the governor's commission reversed itself and gave GTech the billion dollar deal without a bid. The happy client paid Barnes, the keeper of Governor Bush’s secret, a fee of over $23 million. Barnes, not surprisingly, denies that Bush took care of his client in return for Barnes’ silence. However, confronted with the evidence, the former Lt. Governor now admits to helping the young George stay out of Vietnam.

[loudsue]

11. That's all the bush family seems capable of... DIRTY deals!

Throwing more and more money at people so they'll keep quiet about things. But the bush mafia always seems to keep "a little extra dirt" about their chumps handy, in case they need to hang 'em out to dry at a later time.

:kick::kick:

[mazzarro]

10. I think the Kerry-Edwards campaign is mistaken to assume that

the media will fairly evaluate and hopefully reject whatever hare-brain accusations and allegations come from all these reThuglican/W*'s front groups.
I will advise against relying on outside help to counter these people and instead the K-E campaign should launch pre-emptive strike(s) (to borrow from the neo-cons) against any of these allegations. THERE SHOULD BE NO ALLOWANCE FOR THEM TO GET ANY TRACTION WHATSOEVER. The media is co-opted in these attacks IMO and should be treated accordingly.

[City Lights]

12. We have copies of checked boxes.

Kerry checked "I volunteer to go." bush checked "I do not." Visuals from the actual records are powerful.

[Democat]

17. Kerry is not going to win this election by staying "positive"

That's the way that I see it so far.

Negative is what people respond to.