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Subject: John O'Neill is a Liar

Have you seen this from the Aaron Brown show last night? This is from the transcript. Brown is talking to CNN's Joe Johns.

JOHNS: Behind the scenes, Kerry's aides were fighting the swift boat charges with unusual ferocity. They say they have evidence one of the top members of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is an outright liar.

The co-author of the book "Unfit for Command," former swift boat commander John O'Neill said Kerry made up a story about being in Cambodia beyond the legal borders of the Vietnam War in 1968.

O'Neill said no one could cross the border by river and he claimed in an audio tape that his publicist played to CNN that he, himself, had never been to Cambodia either. But in 1971, O'Neill said precisely the opposite to then President Richard Nixon.

O'NEILL: I was in Cambodia, sir. I worked along the border on the water.

NIXON: In a swift boat?

O'NEILL: Yes, sir.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Not that it's earth shattering that O'Neill is a liar but to have the proof on tape--and talking to Nixon, no less!!

Good Luck,

Chris Welch

Subject: Open letter to Governor Rick Perry

Hey --

Thanks for the link to the AP article in the Miami Herald. I'm offended and I've registered that via the Governor's web page contact. Having read the AP article BuzzFlash linked to on Texas Governor Rick Perry's comments regarding Senator John Kerry (Perry says questions linger about Kerry's military record), I have composed this message to Governor Perry. I encourage others (especially Texans) to contact Governor Perry to let him know your reaction to his comments.

His website address is: http://www.governor.state.tx.us/contact, and note that you can only send 200 words at a time via the web form (feel free to break longer messages up into sections)

Re: "I'm all about everybody laying their records out, and I think President Bush has done that. Mr. Kerry needs to do that. You lay your records out and then people can run all the ads they want."

Your statement bothers me for many reasons. The biggest one being that I remember you being the subject of rumors a few months back. You held a press conference wherein you didn't even state what the rumors were but stated they were causing harm to your children.

And now you are in the business of peddling rumors?

Questioning Kerry's military record may seem just a partisan tactic to you, however, it degrades all who served in combat. Senator Kerry's service is not in question: he was in Vietnam. Perhaps you'd be of more use requesting that George W. Bush release his records (as promised on Meet the Press )?

Regardless, having heard your voice crack on live television as you denounced the rumors about yourself (while never laying your cards on the table as to what the rumors were), I'm shocked that a few months later you would traffic in rumors questioning someone's service to their country. It's tacky, it needs to stop.

Jake Whatley
Dallas, TX

Subject: Texas Ethics Rules for Attys/John E. O'Neill

PLEASE POST THIS EVERYWHERE: John E. O'Neill, author of Unfit for Command, is an attorney licensed and practicing in Texas. The Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct state:

Rule 8.02 Judicial and Legal Officials (a) A lawyer shall not make a statement that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of a judge, adjudicatory official or public legal officer, or of a *candidate for election* or appointment to judicial or legal office.

Rule 8.04 Misconduct (a) A lawyer shall not: (1) violate these rules, knowingly assist or induce another to do so, or do so through the acts of another, whether or not such violation occurred in the course of a client-lawyer relationship; (2) commit a serious crime or commit any other criminal act that reflects adversely on the lawyers honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer in other respects; (3) *engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation*;

PLEASE CALL THE TEXAS STATE BAR TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THESE VIOLATIONS:

Telephone Numbers Toll Free: (800)204-2222 Local: (512)463-1463 Fax: (512)463-1475 Texas State Bar Address P.O. Box 12487 Austin, Texas 78711 1414 Colorado St. Austin, TX 78701

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: repub just slipped up in CNN and said Bin laden had been captured....

I am one of your greatest admirers of your website... I thought you might be interested in this little tidbit I just witnessed while watching Wolf Blitzer on CNN today....August 24, 2004.

David Frum on Wolf Blitzer, was responding to a question and his direct quote was, "what would the world be like if Saddam Hussein was still in power or if Osama Bin Laden was still at large?"

Does this mean Bin Laden has been captured??????

Buddy

[BuzzFlash Note: We don't know if they have Osama, but they did delay the announcement of the last capture almost a week, so it occurred on the same day of Kerry's acceptance speech at the DNC. We haven't been able to locate this particular bit of dialogue, but the 8/24 CNN transcripts are here.]

Subject: Check out TrueMajority Action Center

TrueMajority Action Center: Absentee Ballot Request Center. I found it very useful. It took me 2 minutes to order my ballot.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Bush reversal on 527s

[copy of letter submitted to Chicago Tribune]

In 2000 President Bush deemed the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation an infringement on free expression (Washington Post, 3/28/2000). Two years later, when he signed the bill into law, he voiced strong support for issue advertising (527s), saying: "I also have reservations about the constitutionality of the broad ban on issue advertising, which restrains the speech of a wide variety of groups on issues of public import in the months closest to an election."

(http://www.campaignfinancesite.org/structure/federal3.html)

Apparently, until this week, Bush was strongly in favor of 527s.

Harriet, a BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Bush's fake Swift Boat Veterans statement

Hello, Please write an article on Bush's recent farce. He calls for a end to all 527 advertising in the wake of the bogus Swift Boat veterans claims. The problem is the lies and distortions, not the involvement of political groups expressing their views and ideas. Keep up the good work.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Off the Record (NY Observer)

Hey Buzz:

This will really tickle your funnybone.

Rupert Murdoch's rag put out a crazy story about The Weather Underground training new protesters for the RNC convention. I guess you could say that the GOP will use ANY tactic to make Repugs hate Dems, make them fear them, make them think all Dems are pathetic losers (a classic case of projection, that), etc. This latest tactic doesn't even try for the subliminal approach, more like a beer bottle to the side of the head. So along comes this item today in the New York Observer which exposes how terribly crass this whole attempt to instill fear in New Yorkers, and the rest of the country, really is. I think you'll enjoy its comedic value.

Sharon Andrews

Subject: Robert Greenwald

Hey Buzzers,

Today Robert Greenwald was interviewed about "Uncovered" and "Outfoxed" on KPCC the local NPR station in Pasadena, CA. I called in and got on the air. I thanked him for his terrific films and told him I had purchased all of his DVD's from "the great website BuzzFlash.com." I told him "Uncovered" had completely convinced my Republican parents that we had been misled into the Iraq war. He said that was exactly what inspired him. I also asked him to talk about the technique the media uses when a false accusation is made (as in the Swift Boat Veterans) and FOX or CNN regards it as just another side of the story and equally worthy of coverage. He said FOX had elevated this sort of thing to an art form. Anyway, it was a great honor to speak with him and get to plug BuzzFlash at the same time!

Leslie Crabtree
Altadena

[BuzzFlash Note: Nice to have your endorsement on air!]

Subject: Jeb and voting corruption in FL

...Following the contentious 2000 recount, e-mails on former Sec. of State Katherine Harris' computer revealed that she had been in contact with Jeb Bush during the recount, contrary to both their claims. Miami Herald reporter Meg Laughlin discovered that e-mail messages sent to Jeb Bush from Harris had been deleted after the recount. Harris then had the operating system of her computer changed, a procedure that erased all its data. "What was odd about what she did," said Mark Seibel, an editor at the Herald, "was that they installed an old operating system --not a new one -- which makes you wonder why they did it."

Hoodwinked: Why is Florida's voting system so corrupt? (slate.msn.com)

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: mailbag....8/24

There is not much to say...except I agree with everyone all about the Swiftvet scum. I also, am sick to death of Bob Dole and John McCain. The kiss on the head, they keep playing, between Bush and McCain, no matter when that was filmed, is sickening.

I am in agreement with everyone on here, if Kerry does not get nasty...real NASTY real soon...they are going to pull off another Nov. 2000, and Nov. 2002...there is not much one can do, when the country is so easily led, that they believe anything said on TV, and anything said by Rush, Roger Hedgecock...Fox News...etc.

There are days I feel good about it. I have written nasty letters to the Swiftvets, regarding my own brother's service in Cambodia, during the time they swear that Kerry could not have been there...but it is a drop in the bucket as to what we need.

I will fight. I just ponder...what would Howard Dean do right now? I would bet he would not lie down and let that bunch of hoodlums in the White House, people like McCain...Dole...and so on and so on...and he would dig until he found something hideous...and use it...for God's sake!

I am losing hope...I wonder, and hope that the people who are keeping silent out here, are just determined to vote for Kerry...but, hey...this bunch is slimy enough to do whatever is necessary to grab an election! They did it once, and they will try to do it again!

Say prayers to the gods of elections...or whatever...we are not dealing with human beings here, we are dealing with the scariest of all living things!

Shirley........St.Louis

Subject: Just heard on AA, the connecting lawyer

Just heard the lawyer who worked for both both Bush and the Swifties. He said there was no coordination between the 2 groups, he knew that was true as he was the person (coordinator) who was to make sure there was no coordination. Whoa Nelly, where I come from if it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck....we don't call it a Great Dane.

Michael H.

Subject: nasty politics

You know, we watch what is going on nationally every day...and we know all about Kerry and Bush and the Smearboatliars.com...but, what most people do not realize, is that this kind of politics is going on all over the nation. In a tiny little town...but, maybe a real large district.

My cousin decided he would go back in after being out for two terms...he barely squeaked by in the primary, with the other dem. running, the campaign was nasty, the very devil is after him, to just keep up...and he is no longer a young man. In Missouri, the largest district is #147, it takes in the largest county in Missouri and Ft. Leonard Wood, one of the only military installations in Missouri.

It may be getting to him.

My computer got messed up so much, with e-mailing his wife Karen back and forth, (she is the Sec'y of his campaign)...someone hacked into her computer and got my address book...and it just happened that one of the Virus' was a distant relative. By the time we got the disk to clear all the virus off, there were 97....so we have told Jim that it is never going to be like it was in the nineties. He ran unopposed every time but one. And he won every time, but the last time.

So things got so bad, he decided he would try again...but, you know, scary as it is, the republicans are running this country now.

She, like me, has lost two kids to the brainwashing of John Ashcroft...in Springfield. They (her kids) she says, thinks he walks on water. People like Ashcroft have no business being in a situation of that much power.

Remember after 911, and we read that he was being chartered down to his favorite fishing hole in Missouri, with us picking up the tab? At the time, no one yelled and screamed...and now, all his bitterness about losing to a dead man .is being taken out on this country.

When the hearings were held, he told them that there were two documents that he did not have with him...and they asked if he would produce them for the commission and he said, flatly, "No.!" This is a commission, trying to find out what happened on 911, and one of the people involved will not give them the documents. How long has it been since politicians could get away with that kind of hogwash?

I have known Ashcroft so long...known of him. His kids were smartasses. My niece worked at the public library in Jefferson City when she was going to school, and when the Library closed one night, these two kids came knocking at the door...wanting in. They politely told them that the Library closed 45 minutes ago, and they said, "Do you know who we are?" And unfortunately, they did not, so they sent them home...and someone from the Gov's. mansion called and read them the riot act...and they had to let them in...and stay there until they were finished.

He was a jerk Governor, too! And unfortunately, he is still a jerk!

Shirley.......St. Louis

Subject: Rickie Lee Jones and Furniture for The People

Rickie Lee Jones has been denouncing Bush in interviews for a couple of years now, and she's created a web community called Furniture for the People. It's a richly layered site: political articles, activism, music, poetry, social issues. And available on it is a free download of "Tell Somebody," a protest song about the Patriot Act from her latest CD, which also features a great song about Bush, "Ugly Man."

I wonder if y'all could post a blurb and link to her site. I think many of your readers would enjoy it. In return, Rickie can promote BuzzFlash on her site--as I already do, there and wherever I go.

http://www.furnitureforthepeople.com/index.htm

Thank you for all the work you do.

Patsy Williamson
Munhall, PA

the media either fell into the white house trap or they are complicit. they have turned this into a question about 527 ads when in fact this is about horrid, blatant attack lies on john kerry and the white house obvious connection.

i see in tv republicans on one hand saying kerry should denounce all the 527 ads, then in the next breath defending the swift boat ads by saying they have a right to free speech. i agree, the 527 ads should stay. however there should be some kind of protection for people built into the campaign laws to protect them from blatant lies that the media seems to thrive on for ratings and even encourage. george bush should act like a man and come before the american people like mccain and denounce this ad!

leo swift
tn

Subject: SWIFT BOAT ADS

We are Comcast high-speed subscribers. The Comcast page features links to news stories, then - when you go to the story - at the top of the page are links to the same story as reported by every news service.

The Comcast link said, "Bush Denounces Swift Boat Ads" and then every single news service, including AP, Reuters, all of them - started out the very same way. After reading the stories, the conclusion to be drawn was that Bush had strongly denounced the Swift Boat Ads.

BUT WAIT: I saw him with my very own eyes NOT DENOUNCE the Swift Boat Ads at all, so this blatant misreporting of the facts in favor of the administration (allowing Bush to have it both ways) is further revolting evidence of wacky goings-on in the media.

Bob D.

Subject: Refuse service to nudists and naked lies

Dear Buzzy Comrades,

The TV stations don't have to take SBV (Sick Bush Vile) money buying air time for lies. The TV stations can reserve the right to refuse service to anyone. A nudist walks in a restaurant flashing a wad of cash to get a fancy meal -- hey, no shoes no shirt: no service. It's the restaurant's right to refuse to sell. They're a private profit-making business. So's a TV station.

You, yourself, one person, can not do squat to make Bush make them stop, or make them stop the lying vicious political ads intended to polarize and divide us apart yelling at each other.

But me, you, and you and you and you, one person CAN Boycott Cable TV. DO NOT SEND CABLE TV ANY MONEY. I need my money, I don't need cable -- "I get all the news I need on the weather report" (Paul Simon). And the internet.

Two letters in the mailbag (8/25) touched this idea glancingly.

...reporters have done a pretty good job of debunking the swift boat lies. however, the cable news channels have...it going by acting as if...it is not true. but then scandals are good for ratings.

It ain't about ratings. The "cable news channels" get a piece of your money because they are in the 'cable package' you buy, and it doesn't matter whether you watch them or not. You pay them, they lie, ratings could be zero but they get paid just the same.

Subject: Conservative Oregonian Editorial board finally changing! Dear BuzzFlash: The Oregonian newspaper editorial board had two excellent editorials Sunday. One of them condemned the swift boat liars .... This is great news! Finally the big O, who supported bush in 2000, is calling them on their shit.

It's true The O. prints and preaches rightist nonsense (with two scoops of don't-even-think-about-thinking Catholic dogma on top), and true that The O. has shown flailing signs -- since Bush's prison torture-n-murder photos -- of trying to crawl back from the edge of the fascist abyss at the bottom of the slippery slope The O. went down for hire. But the modest change does not remove their evil black inkstain seeped fifty years into the community, and they haven't even done so little as the NYTimes and Wash.Post at trying to confess their berserk foaming for profit and power. Until words say explicitly they have seen the light and converted, the implied sense is they are losing paying subscribers, circulation is weaker, and they appease their critics out of desperation.

Always, always, one person's only two-by-four to get their attention with is that quiet moment looking at a few quarters and dimes in the palm of the hand, deciding no, not to give it to the ones who disdain my quality-of-life interests (peace, justice, etc.), and call such ideas their 'enemy.'

Boycott Cable TV, and the newspapers that imitate it. Bush terrorists can make all the lying Republican ads and pile up all the Republican dirty money they want to poison people's minds with, but the TV stations don't have to take their money and let them.

Wendi Meremark
Oregon City

Subject: bush and the twins

Hey Buzz

Been away for a while and missed my fellow buzzers. I just read David Corn's W. Overstated his Military Record (The Nation). Then there were the bogus medals.

Does anyone remember that Bush said that he had been to war and had raised twins. Going to war was easier:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2003/01/ma_217_01.html

http://www.hereinreality.com/commander.html

The scary truth is that I think Bush really believes he did serve in the Air Force. Reminds me of Reagan thinking he really had liberated the death camps in WWII. He was getting his reality confused with his movies. What is Bush's excuse?

P. Coombs
Surrey B.C

Subject: Merciful Heavens - the Panel used the word "sensitive"

A Trail of 'Major Failures' Leads to Defense Secretary's Office (NY Times)

Last paragraph:

Using an acronym that refers to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the report said, "It is the judgment of this panel that in the future, considering the sensitivity of this kind of mission, the OSD should assure itself that serious limitations in detention/interrogation missions do not occur."

Cheney is not going to like this one bit!!!

Nate Roth
San Mateo, CA

Subject: NYC protest judge is Rupert Murdoch's friend

Yesterday, Justice Jacqueline Silbermann denied the permit for the 8/29 Central Park rally. According to news reports, United for Peace and Justice "is guilty of inexcusable and inequitable delay," Silbermann wrote.

But who is Silbermann? Here's what she was doing for a friend in 1999:

June 28, 1999, Monday

NEWS Corporation chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch has married Wendi Deng on a yacht in New York harbour some two weeks after his divorce was finalised. The Friday evening private ceremony was conducted by New York State Supreme Court Judge Jacqueline Silberman and attended by 80 guests, including Mr Murdoch's four children.

Pass this on.

Jeff