Bush's Vietnam-Era Military Records Show Gaps

[thebaghwan]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&e=2&u=/nm/20040211/pl_nm/campaign_bush_dc

[AZCat]

1. Link to Records released today

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28838-2004Feb10.html

On the right-hand side

[4dsc]

24. Document two shows

a line that states from 27 May 72 to 26 May 73 AWOLbush only earned 15 points!!

Does anybody know what that means???

[Beetwasher]

2. Best. Story. Ever.

Their little cover episode today merely created more questions.

Funniest flopping around ever. HaHa!

[wellstone_democrat]

3. I do like this portion

"The Bush team has responded aggressively to the criticisms that could tarnish the president's portrayal of himself as a "war president" leading the country in a fight against global terrorism.

McClellan said the payroll records were proof of Bush's service.

But Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, writing of his own Guard service, said: "For two years or so, I played a perfectly legal form of hooky. To show you what a mess the Guard was at the time, I even got paid for all the meetings I missed."


Cohen did the nation a great service with that column today---it made some of those whores think (or provided them with cover behind Cohen!) pay does not always = service. Let's see 'em ask where our boy was all that time...anyone see him anywhere? How 'bout that urinalysis for drugs and grounding. Any connection Chimpy?

[Beetwasher]

5. You're Right. Cohen Singlehandedly Gave This Story Additional Momentum

He pre-empted the pay records bullshit and I've seen him cited in several other stories about this. He deserves A LOT of credit.

I think his recent mea culpa about the war was for real and we now have new ally.

[LiberalFighter]

25. A coworker told me about a "deserter"

The "deserter" continued receiving pay even though he didn't show up.

[Terran]

4. Kick, and rate this a "5" please

This story keeps the issue at the forefront. It's only rated 3.43 right now, so please go and rate it!

[Judi Lynn]

12. Really interesting. Hope this goes the way it surely should.

It's only right the truth prevails.

I voted at 8:10 a.m. numbers were 3.43 with 1041 vote(s).

[Beetwasher]

6. Kick! Hello?

This story friggin' rules! It's post-documentation of non-AWOL status related activities...

[NNN0LHI]

7. This tells it like it is. Thanks for posting it. Good snip here

The National Guard and reserves, rarely called up during the Vietnam War, came to be regarded as "draft havens for relatively affluent young white men," the Air National Guard says in a history on its Internet site.


In an NBC interview broadcast on Sunday, Bush acknowledged he had not volunteered for the "political war" in Vietnam, but said he supported the government and would have gone had his Guard unit been called. "I put in my time, proudly so," he said.

[fishnfla]

9. That line from MTP bothers me too

if he was so proud of his service, where's the fucking proof? does he have photos of himself performing his duties with his brothers-in-arms? How come none of his fellow TANGers have come forward to state what a standout guardsman he was. EVEN ONE to say , yeah, I remember the guy being there.

I think these records dont exonerate shrub from the fact that he took the rich-man's route to avoid the war in VN, AND while doing so he performed the bare mininmum. I think most Vets, even right wingers, can see that now, after today.

And oh yeah, what about that flight physical he never took? If he was proud of his flight duty, how come he stopped?

[TacticalPeek]

8. Colin Powell, in his autobiography, "My American Journey":

"I particularly condemn the way our political leaders supplied the manpower for that war. The policies -- determining who would be drafted and who would be deferred, who would serve and who would escape, who would die and who would live -- were an antidemocratic disgrace. I can never forgive a leadership that said, in effect: These young men -- poorer, less educated, less privileged -- are expendable, but the rest are too good to risk. I am angry that so many sons of the powerful and well placed and many professional athletes managed to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units. Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to our country."

[daleo]

10. It bothered Powell so much

He took a job with them. I guess he was trying to take the system down from within.

[FormerOstrich]

14. I think the more accurate is

if you can't beat 'em join 'em

Powell is as dirty as they come...

[llmart]

13. Wow!

Thanks for that excerpt. Hypocrisy rules throughout this administration. I used to admire Powell, but no more after his lies in front of the UN. He sold his soul to the devil (aka Bush).

[NNN0LHI]

15. A reporter needs to ask Powell about that quote from his book n/t

[AZCat]

21. It came up today...

Link:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1110320

Powell was testifying about Iraq before congress and it came up.
Apparently his answer was "Don't go there" (paraphrased?)

[NNN0LHI]

11. kick

[Terran]

16. kick n/t

[Barrett808]

17. Vote this one up - it's at 3.43/5 right now n/t

n/t

[evworldeditor]

18. Even my National Guard colleague is skeptical

After looking at the PDF the White House released through Fox yesterday, I was willing to give this issue a pass as not the strongest weapon of mass destruction in the growing arsenal of lies BushCo is getting caught in.

However, a colleague of mine who is an active Guard commander stopped by my desk and I asked him about his view of Bush's 9 points for active duty service in 1972-73. He replied that he was highly skeptical and said that would have been a "bad" year. It's obvious to him that Bush never showed up for duty, certainly not enough to justify the cost of his military and flight training.

At the worst, the guy was clearly AWOL -- absent without leave -- and at best he was a dismal disgrace of a American guardsman on whom taxpayers spent something like $1 million.

[evworldeditor]

23. White House Press Corp Smells Blood in the Water...

I just listened to last night's Mike Malloy show via the Internet. Mike played clips from yesterday's (Feb 10th) White House press briefing and I gotta say, I wouldn't have wanted to be in Scott McClelland's shoes. You could sense, just by listening to his responses, that he was clearly uncomfortable with the relatively agressive questioning by certain reporters of Lt. Bush's missing months.

If you've not heard the clips, you can listen to them through the www.whiterosesociety.org web site.

[snooper2]

19. Did the title change?

Now says..
W.House Sees 'Gutter politics' in Bush Guard Flap

[thebaghwan]

20. Yes, interestingly it did change.

I voted and it was still at 3.43

[yellowcanine]

22. By itself, the poor TANG service does not bother me - BUT

the problem is that the Republicans have never hesitated in the past to demagogue the patriotism/military service/national security issues when it suited them against Democrats - witness the way they harped on Clinton's lack of service - though he certainly did nothing illegal or even dishonorable. So guess what Pubbies - it's that old Karma coming around again to bite you in the butt, isn't it? AWOL Kid versus War Hero. Heh.