Everyone (including the mouthbreathing talk radio types) knows that Bush is a lying weasel, coked up and awol while in Alabama for however many months. Whether ultimately this fact is relevant to Bush's current capacity to serve effectively I do not know. I sort of doubt it, in fact. But what I find interesting is Kerry's total avoidance of the issue. I wonder whether he knows Bush is going to get beaten up on it and so he doesn't really have to do anything to fan the flames or if he doesn't consider it terribly important.
If the evidence presented to the WH press corp stands scrutiny (and I have no reason to believe otherwise), GWB should be off the hook wrt his NG service for May 1972 to May 1973. His pay stubs indicate that he served during the time he was in Alabama and not in Texas. The fact that this service could be as little as 9 days and that he was a temp from out of state may explain why no one in Alabama remembers him. The released records also indicate that he received more than the required minimum number of points. Questions remain on why he lost his flight certification and failed to have a required physical. Boths questions are of minor import as compared to the AWOL allegation.
Face it liberals, John Forbes Kerry is loathe to put this issue in the spotlight, because he knows that his record of protesting the war with Jane Fonda is a much MUCH bigger political liability than the baseless allegations that the liberals are throwing out about Bush's attendance record. If you start seeing campaign ads with Kerry and Jane Fonda and a bunch of hippies in Washington, Kerry is TOAST in the South.
John Stewart did a piece on this last night, comparing and contrasting their attitude towards this and the whole pre-war WMD charade, he showed yesterday's PC and concluded with "Where the F-CK have you guys been?"
this is the reason why Bush won in the first place this is the only way Bush CAN win again SCARE TATICS He isn't confident enough in his own abilities and accomplishments, so Rove and team will paint Kerry out to be whatever White Southern, Christian, Right-Wingers fear the most. new flash Georgetta, Millions of Americans protested the Vietnam War including thousands of Veterans. As much as the oppressive-right wants this fact to be an Achille's Heal for Kerry, It isn't and won't be. Kerry stepped up and served his time for his country. He put his life on the line. After his duty, he choose to do one of the most American things one can do, protest and express his anger at the senseless killing going on in SE Asia. What did Bush do? The BARE MINIMUM. His only response is that he fulfilled his duty. Well I guess technically he might be right. He showed up for his 9 days and got whatever credit he needed. He swept some floors, washed some pots since his flight status was revolked for him missing physicals. The bare miminum. George W. Bush.
The pay stubs indicate he was in Texas. His Texas superiors have said they could not evaluate him because he was in Alabama. He promised on TV to release ALL of his records.
http://www.boston.com/news/politics.../11/white_house_releases_bushs_guard_records/ . . . And after releasing the records, the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, could not explain why, if Bush appeared for duty on the days listed in the documents, Bush's superiors wrote on May 2, 1973, that he had not been seen at his Houston air base for the previous 12 months . . .
Just to give context to those dates in question, May 1972 through May 1973, the election that GWB worked on was most likely November 1972. I suspect that GWB worked on the senator's campaign in Alabama, May 1972 through November 1973. I would not be surprised if all of the worked signified by the pay stub dates from October 1972 through May 1973 occurred in Texas, especially if the October 1972 work dates (2 days) were at the end of that month. This conjecture implies that GWB did not report to the AL State Guard, but still meet his minimum Guard duty requirements. Meeting the minimum Guard requirement is the main point. GWB's Guard records should detail where the work was done (which should be of minimal import).
Also, Bush lied by not releasing *all* of his records. He said he would on Meet The Press. He only released *selected documents. He made a bald faced lie on national TV. It works because almost no one calls him on it, so people have the impression he did what he said he was going to do. I don't have Lexis but I found this same excerpt on multiple locations: Russert: When allegations were made about John McCain or Wesley Clark on their military records, they opened up their entire files. Would you agree to do that? President Bush: Yeah. Listen, these files I mean, people have been looking for these files for a long period of time, trust me, and starting in the 1994 campaign for governor. And I can assure you in the year 2000 people were looking for those files as well. Probably you were. And absolutely. I mean, I Russert: But would you allow pay stubs, tax records, anything to show that you were serving during that period? President Bush: Yeah. If we still have them, but I you know, the records are kept in Colorado, as I understand, and they scoured the records. And I'm just telling you, I did my duty, and it's politics, you know, to kind of ascribe all kinds of motives to me. But I have been through it before. I'm used to it. What I don't like is when people say serving in the Guard is is may not be a true service. Russert: Would you authorize the release of everything to settle this? President Bush: Yes, absolutely.
here's a letter to the editor of the washington times from a former guard comrade of bush. it makes for enlightening reading and should answer some questions: http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20040210-082910-8424r.htm -- 'Bush and I were lieutenants' ____ George Bush and I were lieutenants and pilots in the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS), Texas Air National Guard (ANG) from 1970 to 1971. We had the same flight and squadron commanders (Maj. William Harris and Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, both now deceased). While we were not part of the same social circle outside the base, we were in the same fraternity of fighter pilots, and proudly wore the same squadron patch. ____ It is quite frustrating to hear the daily cacophony from the left and Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, et al., about Lt. Bush escaping his military responsibilities by hiding in the Texas ANG. In the Air Guard during the Vietnam War, you were always subject to call-up, as many Air National Guardsmen are finding out today. If the 111th FIS and Lt. Bush did not go to Vietnam, blame President Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, not lowly Lt. Bush. They deliberately avoided use of the Guard and Reserves for domestic political calculations, knowing that a draftee only stirred up the concerns of one family, while a call-up got a whole community's attention. ____ The mission of the 147th Fighter Group and its subordinate 111th FIS, Texas ANG, and the airplane it possessed, the F-102, was air defense. It was focused on defending the continental United States from Soviet nuclear bombers. The F-102 could not drop bombs and would have been useless in Vietnam. A pilot program using ANG volunteer pilots in F-102s (called Palace Alert) was scrapped quickly after the airplane proved to be unsuitable to the war effort. Ironically, Lt. Bush did inquire about this program but was advised by an ANG supervisor (Maj. Maurice Udell, retired) that he did not have the desired experience (500 hours) at the time and that the program was winding down and not accepting more volunteers. ____ If you check the 111th FIS records of 1970-72 and any other ANG squadron, you will find other pilots excused for career obligations and conflicts. The Bush excusal in 1972 was further facilitated by a change in the unit's mission, from an operational fighter squadron to a training squadron with a new airplane, the F-101, which required that more pilots be available for full-time instructor duty rather than part-time traditional reservists with outside employment. ____ The winding down of the Vietnam War in 1971 provided a flood of exiting active-duty pilots for these instructor jobs, making part-timers like Lt. Bush and me somewhat superfluous. There was a huge glut of pilots in the Air Force in 1972, and with no cockpits available to put them in, many were shoved into nonflying desk jobs. Any pilot could have left the Air Force or the Air Guard with ease after 1972 before his commitment was up because there just wasn't room for all of them anymore. ____ Sadly, few of today's partisan pundits know anything about the environment of service in the Reserves in the 1970s. The image of a reservist at that time is of one who joined, went off for six months' basic training, then came back and drilled weekly or monthly at home, with two weeks of "summer camp." With the knowledge that Mr. Johnson and Mr. McNamara were not going to call out the Reserves, it did become a place of refuge for many wanting to avoid Vietnam. ____ There was one big exception to this abusive use of the Guard to avoid the draft, and that was for those who wanted to fly, as pilots or crew members. Because of the training required, signing up for this duty meant up to 2½ years of active duty for training alone, plus a high probability of mobilization. A fighter-pilot candidate selected by the Guard (such as Lt. Bush and me) would be spending the next two years on active duty going through basic training (six weeks), flight training (one year), survival training (two weeks) and combat crew training for his aircraft (six to nine months), followed by local checkout (up to three more months) before he was even deemed combat-ready. Because the draft was just two years, you sure weren't getting out of duty being an Air Guard pilot. If the unit to which you were going back was an F-100, you were mobilized for Vietnam. Avoiding service? Yeah, tell that to those guys. ____ The Bush critics do not comprehend the dangers of fighter aviation at any time or place, in Vietnam or at home, when they say other such pilots were risking their lives or even dying while Lt. Bush was in Texas. Our Texas ANG unit lost several planes right there in Houston during Lt. Bush's tenure, with fatalities. Just strapping on one of those obsolescing F-102s was risking one's life. ____ Critics such as Mr. Kerry (who served in Vietnam, you know), Terry McAuliffe and Michael Moore (neither of whom served anywhere) say Lt. Bush abandoned his assignment as a jet fighter pilot without explanation or authorization and was AWOL from the Alabama Air Guard. ____ Well, as for abandoning his assignment, this is untrue. Lt. Bush was excused for a period to take employment in Florida for a congressman and later in Alabama for a Senate campaign. ____ Excusals for employment were common then and are now in the Air Guard, as pilots frequently are in career transitions, and most commanders (as I later was) are flexible in letting their charges take care of career affairs until they return or transfer to another unit near their new employment. Sometimes they will transfer temporarily to another unit to keep them on the active list until they can return home. The receiving unit often has little use for a transitory member, especially in a high-skills category like a pilot, because those slots usually are filled and, if not filled, would require extensive conversion training of up to six months, an unlikely option for a temporary hire. ____ As a commander, I would put such "visitors" in some minor administrative post until they went back home. There even were a few instances when I was unaware that they were on my roster because the paperwork often lagged. Today, I can't even recall their names. If a Lt. Bush came into my unit to "pull drills" for a couple of months, I wouldn't be too involved with him because I would have a lot more important things on my table keeping the unit combat ready. ____ Another frequent charge is that, as a member of the Texas ANG, Lt. Bush twice ignored or disobeyed lawful orders, first by refusing to report for a required physical in the year when drug testing first became part of the exam, and second by failing to report for duty at the disciplinary unit in Colorado to which he had been ordered. Well, here are the facts: ____ First, there is no instance of Lt. Bush disobeying lawful orders in reporting for a physical, as none would be given. Pilots are scheduled for their annual flight physicals in their birth month during that month's weekend drill assembly -- the only time the clinic is open. In the Reserves, it is not uncommon to miss this deadline by a month or so for a variety of reasons: The clinic is closed that month for special training; the individual is out of town on civilian business; etc. ____ If so, the pilot is grounded temporarily until he completes the physical. Also, the formal drug testing program was not instituted by the Air Force until the 1980s and is done randomly by lot, not as a special part of a flight physical, when one easily could abstain from drug use because of its date certain. Blood work is done, but to ensure a healthy pilot, not confront a drug user. ___ Second, there was no such thing as a "disciplinary unit in Colorado" to which Lt. Bush had been ordered. The Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver is a repository of the paperwork for those no longer assigned to a specific unit, such as retirees and transferees. Mine is there now, so I guess I'm "being disciplined." These "disciplinary units" just don't exist. Any discipline, if required, is handled within the local squadron, group or wing, administratively or judicially. Had there been such an infraction or court-martial action, there would be a record and a reflection in Lt. Bush's performance review and personnel folder. None exists, as was confirmed in The Washington Post in 2000. ____ Finally, the Kerrys, Moores and McAuliffes are casting a terrible slander on those who served in the Guard, then and now. My Guard career parallels Lt. Bush's, except that I stayed on for 33 years. As a guardsman, I even got to serve in two campaigns. In the Cold War, the air defense of the United States was borne primarily by the Air National Guard, by such people as Lt. Bush and me and a lot of others. Six of those with whom I served in those years never made their 30th birthdays because they died in crashes flying air-defense missions. ____ While most of America was sleeping and Mr. Kerry was playing antiwar games with Hanoi Jane Fonda, we were answering 3 a.m. scrambles for who knows what inbound threat over the Canadian subarctic, the cold North Atlantic and the shark-filled Gulf of Mexico. We were the pathfinders in showing that the Guard and Reserves could become reliable members of the first team in the total force, so proudly evidenced today in Afghanistan and Iraq. ____ It didn't happen by accident. It happened because back at the nadir of Guard fortunes in the early '70s, a lot of volunteer guardsman showed they were ready and able to accept the responsibilities of soldier and citizen -- then and now. Lt. Bush was a kid whose congressman father encouraged him to serve in the Air National Guard. We served proudly in the Guard. Would that Mr. Kerry encourage his children and the children of his colleague senators and congressmen to serve now in the Guard. ____ In the fighter-pilot world, we have a phrase we use when things are starting to get out of hand and it's time to stop and reset before disaster strikes. We say, "Knock it off." So, Mr. Kerry and your friends who want to slander the Guard: Knock it off. ____ ____COL. WILLIAM CAMPENNI (retired) ____U.S. Air Force/Air National Guard ____Herndon, Va.5 ____
Nice letter, good read This line stood out to me because I have heard it from the right quite a bit over the last couple of weeks. Did I miss something, cause I don't think I've seen, read or heard where Kerry himself attacked Bush on this topic. I've seen the chairman of the Democratic Party, Terry McAuliffe be vocal about it, but I haven't seen Kerry do so. I may be wrong. If I am, please refer me to Kerry's comments.
After Bush promised to release all his National Guard records on national TV, his cronies backtrack. There's something fishy about the whole thing. One can try to make up excuses for his actions, but his actions speak louder than words. No excuse makes up for his lying unless he actually releases the records he promised he would. McCain and Clark had no problem revealing everything they did in the military. If he's got nothing to hide, there's nothing there the light of day will harm. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34505-2004Feb11.html . . . The White House released the records this week in an effort to end a controversy that has put White House aides on the defensive amid Democratic accusations that Bush shirked his duty. Administration officials declined yesterday to commit to releasing further records, despite a statement by Bush on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he would open his entire military file. . .
The smoke is getting thicker. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-02-11-bush-guard-usat_x.htm Ex-officer: Bush file's details caused concern By Dave Moniz and Jim Drinkard, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — As Texas Gov. George W. Bush prepared to run for president in the late 1990s, top-ranking Texas National Guard officers and Bush advisers discussed ways to limit the release of potentially embarrassing details from Bush's military records, a former senior officer of the Texas Guard said Wednesday. Bush sits at the controls of a F-102 'Delta Dagger' interceptor at Ellington Field, near Houston, in 1968. George Bush Presidential Library via AP A second former Texas Guard official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, was told by a participant that commanders and Bush advisers were particularly worried about mentions in the records of arrests of Bush before he joined the National Guard in 1968, the second official said. Bill Burkett, then a top adviser to the state Guard commander, said he overheard conversations in which superiors discussed "cleansing" the file of damaging information. . . .
Had Bush not made war the backdrop for every decision his administration made, war credentials wouldn't even be an election-year issue. It wasn't in 2000.
A little more background... Doing Time With Texas Air National Guard 1968 Graduates from Yale and joins Texas Air National Guard at the height of the Vietnam War, when there were long waiting lists to get into a Guard or Reserve unit. Bush's unit, dubbed the Champagne Unit, included the sons of Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and Gov. John Connally, as well as several members of the Dallas Cowboys. Aug. 25, 1968 Completes basic training in San Antonio and is promoted to second lieutenant. 1969 Graduates from flight school at Moody Air Force Base, Ga., as pilot trainee. 1970 Graduates from Combat Crew Training School at Ellington Air Force Base in Texas; promoted to first lieutenant. Is trained to fly F-102 jets. 1971 Participates in drills and alerts at Ellington. Begins work for Houston-based agricultural company. Bush's father becomes UN ambassador. April 1972 Takes last flight as a Guard member. May 15 Leaves his Texas unit and heads for Alabama. May 24 Bush seeks permission to be transferred to an Alabama Reserve postal unit so he can work on Senate campaign of family friend Winton (Red) Blount. May 31 Bush's request is denied because he has been trained as a pilot and this is not an appropriate posting for him. Bush does not return to his Texas unit. July Misses annual flight physical. Sept. 5 Gets authorization to work on the Senate campaign and also is authorized to perform some of his service in Alabama. Records indicate he was paid for six days of service in October and November. No one has vouched for seeing him there, but Bush insists he reported for duty. Sept. 29 Is suspended as a pilot for failure to take annual physical. December 1972 Returns to Texas but is not paid by the Guard for any service that month. Early 1973 Is paid for six days of service in January and two days in April. Bush's father becomes chairman of the Republican National Committee. April 1973 Commanding officers in Texas say they cannot evaluate his performance for the previous year because he has not been observed. Summer 1973 To achieve the 50 points he needs to complete his annual service, Bush does 14 days in May, five in June and 19 in July. These are all nonflying drills and include work at an inner-city poverty program. Sept. 18, 1973 Arranges to leave the Guard six months early to attend Harvard Business School. A deal for early release was not unusual at the time. Oct. 1, 1973 Receives honorable discharge. http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/163815p-143464c.html
Actually this is luaghable. The only people who think it's wrong for someone who followed orders, fought bravely, was wounded carrying out that duty, but didn't approve the war and protested that war which he had first hand experiece of, are the same fools that think any kind of protest is unAmerican. There is nothing wrong with protesting, in the first place, and especially nothing wrong with protesting something that you have first hand knowledge of.
