Kerry counters Swift Boat ads: For some of the best analysis on the anti-Kerry Swift Boat ads, check out Josh Marshall, who links to this head-on rebuttal of the ads by Kerry:

Over the last week or so, a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has been attacking me. Of course, this group isn’t interested in the truth – and they’re not telling the truth. They didn’t even exist until I won the nomination for president.

But here’s what you really need to know about them. They’re funded by hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Republican contributor out of Texas. They’re a front for the Bush campaign. And the fact that the President won’t denounce what they’re up to tells you everything you need to know—he wants them to do his dirty work.

Thirty years ago, official Navy reports documented my service in Vietnam and awarded me the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts. Thirty years ago, this was the plain truth. It still is. And I still carry the shrapnel in my leg from a wound in Vietnam.

As firefighters you risk your lives everyday. You know what it’s like to see the truth in the moment. You’re proud of what you’ve done—and so am I.

Of course, the President keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country. Instead, he watches as a Republican-funded attack group does just that. Well, if he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: “Bring it on.”

Unraveling: Today's New York Times tracks how the Swift Boat vets turned from calling Kerry "among the finest of those Swift boat drivers," "unsurpassed," and "beyond reproach" to calling him a liar. And their investigation, which finds the ads' claims are "riddled with inconsistencies," follows the money to Bush's Texas funders, a cadre of Bush family friends, and Karl Rove himself.