The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, commonly known as the McCain–Feingold Act or BCRA, is a United States federal law that amended the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, which regulates the financing of political campaigns. Its chief sponsors were senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and John McCain (R-AZ). The law became effective on 6 November 2002, and the new legal limits became effective on January 1, 2003.
James Rassmann is a former Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department lieutenant who served with the U.S. Army's 5th Special Forces Group in the Vietnam War in 1968 and 1969. Now a resident of the U.S. state of Oregon, he has credited U.S. Senator John Kerry with having rescued him from the Bay Hap River on March 13, 1969.
The 2004 presidential campaign of George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States, announced his candidacy for re-election as president on May 16, 2003. On September 2, 2004, he again became the nominee of the Republican Party for the 2004 presidential election. Along with his running mate, Vice President Dick Cheney, President George W. Bush was opposed in the general election by U.S. Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, minor candidates from other parties. The election took place on Tuesday, November 2, 2004.
Controversy over George W. Bush's military service in the Air National Guard was an issue that first gained widespread public attention during the 2004 presidential campaign. The controversy centered on Texas Air National Guard, why he lost his flight status, and whether he fulfilled the requirements of his military service contract.
A 527 organization or 527 group is a type of U.S. tax-exempt organization organized under Section 527 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. A 527 group is created primarily to influence the selection, nomination, election, appointment or defeat of candidates to federal, state or local public office.
Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, formerly known as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT), was a political group of United States Swift boat veterans and former prisoners of war of the Vietnam War, formed during the 2004 presidential election campaign for the purpose of opposing John Kerry's candidacy for the presidency. The campaign inspired the widely used political pejorative "swiftboating", to describe an unfair or untrue political attack. The group disbanded and ceased operations on May 31, 2008.
John Ellis O'Neill is a Vietnam War veteran and lawyer who was the spokesman for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
The Killian documents controversy involved six documents containing allegations about President George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard in 1972–73, allegedly typed in 1973. Dan Rather presented four of these documents as authentic in a 60 Minutes II broadcast aired by CBS on September 8, 2004, less than two months before the 2004 presidential election, but it was later found that CBS had failed to authenticate them. Several typewriter and typography experts soon concluded that they were forgeries. Lieutenant Colonel Bill Burkett provided the documents to CBS, but he claims to have burned the originals after faxing them copies.
Mary Alice Mapes is an American journalist, former television news producer, and author. She was a principal producer for CBS News, primarily the CBS Evening News and primetime television program 60 Minutes Wednesday. She is known for the story of the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal, which won a Peabody Award, and the story of Senator Strom Thurmond's unacknowledged biracial daughter, Essie Mae Washington. In 2005, she was fired from CBS for her part in the Killian documents controversy.
During John Kerry's candidacy in the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign, a political issue that gained widespread public attention was Kerry's Vietnam War record. In television advertisements and a book called Unfit for Command, co-authored by John O'Neill and Jerome Corsi, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT), a 527 group later known as the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, questioned details of his military service record and circumstances relating to the awarding of his combat medals. Their campaign against Kerry's presidential bid received widespread publicity, but was later discredited and gave rise to the neologism "swiftboating", to describe an unfair or untrue political attack. Defenders of Kerry's service record, including former crewmates, stated that allegations made by SBVT were false.
The 2004 United States presidential election was the 55th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. The Republican ticket of incumbent President George W. Bush and his running mate incumbent Vice President Dick Cheney were elected to a second term, defeating the Democratic ticket of John Kerry, a United States senator from Massachusetts and his running mate John Edwards, a United States senator from North Carolina.
Sam Fox is an American businessman in St. Louis, and the owner of Harbour Group Industries. He was the United States Ambassador to Belgium from April 11, 2007 until January 2, 2009. President George W. Bush appointed Fox to the post by a recess appointment on April 4, 2007.
The term swiftboating is a pejorative American neologism used to describe an unfair or untrue political attack. The term is derived from the name of the organization "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" because of their widely publicized—and later discredited—political smear campaign against 2004 U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry. Since the 2004 election, the term has come to commonly refer to a political attack that is dishonest, personal, and unfair.
Bobby Jack Perry, known as Bob J. Perry, was a Houston, Texas homebuilder, owner of Perry Homes, and major contributor to a number of politically oriented 527 groups, such as the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth and the Economic Freedom Fund.
Progress for America (PFA) and its affiliate Progress for America Voter Fund (PFA-VF) are national tax-exempt organizations in the United States. PFA was established in 2001 to support George W. Bush's "agenda for America". The PFA Voter Fund, which was set up in 2004, raised US$38 million in support of Bush's 2004 election bid.
George W. Bush was born in the city of New Haven, Connecticut as the eldest of six children. He grew up in the Texan cities of Midland and Houston and studied at Yale University and the Harvard Business School before serving in the Texas Air National Guard. Bush would later be part owner and managing partner of the Texas Rangers baseball franchise, become governor of Texas and eventually become the 43rd President of the United States.
Americans for Honesty on Issues is a Houston, Texas based 527 group that by mid-October 2006 had spent over one million dollars on television advertisements, critical of Democratic Party candidates, in advance of the 2006 United States general election. 527 groups are tax-exempt organizations that participate in political activities, typically via soft money contributions, which have no legal limit. By United States federal law, they are not allowed to coordinate their efforts with political campaigns.
Richard Joel Noriega is a former American politician and retired major general in the Texas Army National Guard who is currently director of Harris County Universal Services (HCUS). From 1998 to 2009, Noriega was a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 145, representing eastern portions of Houston.
The 147th Attack Wing is a unit of the Texas Air National Guard, stationed at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base, Houston, Texas. If activated to federal service, the Wing is gained by the United States Air Force Air Combat Command.
Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy is a 2004 documentary film directed by Steven Grandison and Greg Palast. The film, which examines various aspects of the presidency of George W. Bush, including the 2000 US presidential election and the Iraq War, is adapted from the 2003 BBC production Bush Family Fortunes and based on the 2002 book The Best Democracy Money Can Buy by investigative journalist Palast, who had spent years tracking the Bush family for the BBC and The Guardian newspaper. The research for the original BBC film, which claims to have exposed the George W. Bush military service controversy, was also drawn upon by Michael Moore for Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) and footage was used by Robert Greenwald in Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election (2002).