Maybe this is Congress's way of helping the slumping airline business by allowing people to express their political opinion -- but only on a plane. I think the Lobbyists from Delta and US Air sponsored this bill.

Actually, these 527's are non-profit political organizations authorized to do political advertisements as long as they are not connected with a political party. (Wink, Wink, Nod, Nod)

Even before I get into the advertisements, the part that drives me crazy is they had to call themselves Swift Boat Veterans "For the Truth." This implies that the other Swift Boat Veteran groups (Who Favor Kerry) are lying.

I remember some years ago I saw a political advertisement where the person running for Sheriff said you should vote for him because "he's against Crime." Who's the moron at home watching this commercial who says, "I have to vote for him because I don't want to vote for the Sheriff who was for crime because he won't arrest anybody"?

If these Swift Boat Veterans are going to put all the noble attributes on their side, why stop at the truth? How about Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth, for good, For Democracy and for everyone being rich? Who could reject a group like that? ?By the way if Swift Boat veterans are for the Truth, what are people on the Banana Boat for? Fruit? Songs by Harry Belafonte? Just asking.

This group has started to question everything Kerry did in the Vietnam War. I have information for these Swift Boat Veterans. THIS WAS OVER THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AGO. Talk about a latent memory. It's obvious "Swift" applies to the type of boat they were on and not their response time to telling the "supposed" truth. Where have you all been?

I know some of these members decided to speak out because Kerry is now running for President. But it's not like he's been hiding under a rock since Vietnam. He's only been the Senator from Massachusetts. If this information was so important, why didn't they tell this to the People of Massachusetts? I guess they figured it's a liberal state so let them go screw themselves.

Now they want to take away his three Purple Hearts. I wouldn't like this precedent of going back in time and taking away awards given. After all, if it was fo und out eighteen years ago that I cut science class most of the time but had a friend sign me in, does this mean I have to give back my High School Diploma? (If anyone from my high school is reading this, that was just a hypothetical)

These veterans have also overanalyzed everything about Kerry. How was he wounded? How deep was the shrapnel? These critics want to know why there is so much confusion. I think all these critics and political pundits have missed one important point. This is a war! What was Kerry supposed to do once he was hit? Ask the enemy to please stop shooting because he would like to stand up and show his fellow soldiers his wounds? This way ,when he runs for office no one will have doubts. Talk about political foresight.

The question I have is why no one overanalyzes the same Swift Boat members who are making these allegations. For instance, are they really Swift? I saw a few of them on TV and they are a bit on the chunky side. I wouldn't put them in a hundred yard dash. So I am starting to doubt them already. If I can't believe they are swift how can I trust them to be Veterans? Maybe they were just tourists?

That's a stupid statement. After all, how many people were taking the annual vacation to Vietnam in the sixties? I could imagine a father walking in and saying, "Hey! if you kids really like playing with Paintball guns, you're going to love Vietnam and your mother said the flights are so cheap there."?

The funny part is these Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth did not even serve on the same boat as Kerry. Here's a little tidbit that I learned from being a lawyer: If you're an eye witness, but you were not there, you're usually not a good eye witness.

Maybe that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

They then claim that their boat was close to Kerry's. Well if they were so close to Kerry why didn't they save Jim Rassman's life as Kerry did?

It seems what a lot of these Swift Boat Veterans are more upset with is Kerry's action after Vietnam, where he opposed our presence there. They didn't like that fact that he stated war crimes in Vietnam were commonplace. While I don't think they were commonplace, you don't have to watch Oliver Stone movies to know some of our soldiers were not on there best behavior in Vietnam. ???????

The part that seems more baffling is that it is the conservatives that are questioning Kerry's Military service. Now obviously I know there is a presidential election at stake but aren't the conservatives always praising military men for the service?

During the 1996 election, I can't tell you how many times I heard how could people vote for Bill Clinton who was a draft dodger over Bob Dole who was a war hero. But now that a Democrat is a war hero they are smugly deriding his military service The problem with the right is sometimes they think that their views are everyone's opinion instead of [merely] their side of the political spectrum.

The part which everyone seems to miss is that at least Kerry was in Vietnam. While I don't question Bush's service in the reserves (Thought all the Bush haters question everything about him) he did not go to fight. So you now have the person who did fight for the U.S. defending himself.

In a true piece of great political theatre Bush now has asked the Swift Boat Veterans to withdraw their commercial and he doesn't question Kerry's service. So Bush is now coming to Kerry's rescue. And people still believe he's a dumb Texan.?