Some stuff to chew on...

[RBHam]

__If Bush Picks a Fight with Kerry over Patriotism, Bush Will Lose

Eleanor Clift says Bush "has not been candid about his absences from the Guard... Records unearthed by the Globe showed that Bush was removed from flight status in August 1972 for failing to take his annual flight physical. Bush aides said he didn't take the physical because his personal physician was in Houston, and he was in Alabama working on a political campaign. But that explanation didn't hold up because flight physicals must be administered by certified Air Force flight surgeons, and Bush easily could have found one at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., where he was living. Kerry's candidacy was elevated when a former Green Beret whose life he saved showed up on the campaign trail in Iowa to attest to Kerry's courage. In addition, former Georgia senator Max Cleland, who lost three limbs in Vietnam and was defeated in 2002 after GOP attacks on his patriotism, appears regularly with Kerry. Bush can't match that. If he's smart, he won't try."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4114162


__Kerry Tells Bush to Settle AWOL Questions

"John Kerry, who has turned his decorated Vietnam War service into a theme of his campaign, said yesterday that Bush and the US military should settle questions about whether Bush completed his military service requirement in the Texas Air National Guard in the 1970s... said that the matter of Bush's military service record was 'a question that I think remains open.' Kerry added that he lacked 'the facts' to make a judgment about accusations that Bush ended his military commitment prematurely. 'It's not up to me to talk about them or to question them at this point,' Kerry said of the accusations. 'I don't even know what the facts are. But I think it's up to the president and the military to answer those questions.' Kerry also said he was not sure if he would exploit Bush's military record as an issue in the fall general election if he were to become the Democratic nominee. 'I don't know yet, I haven't made up my mind,' Kerry told reporters." You GO, John!
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/034/nation/Kerry_calls_on_Bush_to_settle_questions_on_military_recordP.shtml


__Democratic Chief Says 'AWOL' Bush Will Be an Issue After a Nominee Emerges

On Sunday, "the chairman of the Democratic National Committee accused Bush of being AWOL during his Air National Guard service, a signal of the ferocious campaign ahead once the Democrats finish with one another. Revisiting an issue that arose briefly at the end of the last presidential election, the chairman, Terry McAuliffe, said he expected Mr. Bush's record of military service in the 1970's to become an issue this fall, particularly if the Democrats nominate the front-runner, Senator Kerry. Mr. McAuliffe said he was staying neutral in the fight for his party's nomination. But, he said, if Mr. Kerry is the nominee, McAuliffe will relish comparing him with Mr. Bush. 'I look forward to that debate, when John Kerry, a war hero with a chest full of medals, is standing next to George Bush, a man who was AWOL' in the National Guard, McAuliffe said. 'George Bush never served in our military in our country,' he said. 'He didn't show up when he should have showed up.'"
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/02/politics/campaign/02CAMP.html


__Washington Post Reporter Lois Romano Brings Mainstream Media Ever-so-Close to the Truth About Bush's AWOL

In a letter to Washington Post reporter Lois Romano, Robert Reynolds writes, "Bush has sent us into a war that has killed hundreds of our best young citizens and wounded thousands more. He needs to be held to account. His official records indicate that he stopped his service sometime before May of 1972 , two years before the end of his obligation to the Ready Reserve. There is no disputing that. That he received an honorable discharge is not a testament to his honorable service, but rather one that indicates that he received preferential treatment not available to those being charged with AWOL and desertion today. As an AF veteran and one that also served in the reserves I can assure you that I could not have just stopped showing up, and I could not have skipped meeting and made them up later. I would have been charged under the UCMJ either as AWOL (failure to report for duty) or for Desertion (failure to report for duty over 30 days). Ask any veteran and they will tell you the same."
http://www.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=19252


__Bush's 'The President Was Never AWOL' = Nixon's 'I Am Not a Crook'

Soon, the truth about Bush's AWOL will come out - despite repeated stabbings from the NY Pravda (a.k.a. Times). PentaPost's Lois Romano got Bushmouth Terry Holt to flatly declare: "The president was never AWOL." LoL! How should we parse this Bushspeak? "The president." Of course, we all know he's just the Resident. "Was never AWOL." Bush was AWOL both as Resident (on 9/11, when he sat in a classroom for 20-30 minutes after the 2nd plane hit the WTC) and as a 1st Lt. in the Texas Air National Guard, when he "cleared this base" on May 15 1972 and did not report for duty for at least 6 months - as even Bush admits - and more likely for the rest of his tour. Romano also quotes Scrubber-in-Chief Dan Bartlett saying Bush "specifically remembers" performing some of his duties in Alabama. But on Monday, Gen. William Turnipseed "stood by his contention that Bush never reported to him." Nixon famous last words were "I am not a crook." Bush's will be "I was never AWOL."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A7372-2004Feb2?language=printer

__A Scandal Greater Than Watergate

Eric Margolis writes: "'We were all wrong,' White House chief weapons hunter and longtime war booster David Kay admitted last week. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, as the U.S. and Britain had long alleged. Iraq's nuclear weapons, death rays, vans of death, drones of death, mobile germ labs, poison gas factories, hidden weapons depots, long-range missiles, links to al-Qaida - all were bogus. The only thing real is Iraq's oil. If Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction (WMD), as it long insisted, we must draw one of two conclusions. Either President George Bush, and secretaries Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld, lied about the global threat they claimed Iraq posed, and deceived Congress and the American people. Or, they were grossly misinformed by their intelligence experts and must be judged fools of the first order."
http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/margolis_feb1.html

__Government to Borrow $177 Billion; National Debt Close to $7 Trillion

AP: "The government expects to tap $177 billion from the credit markets this quarter, which would mark the largest amount ever borrowed in any quarter, the Treasury Department said Monday. The new borrowing estimate for the January-to-March quarter is bigger than the previous projection of $160 billion made in November. 'This increase in borrowing is due to lower receipts, primarily from an increase in tax refunds, and higher outlays,' the department said. Officials would not provide more detailed information. The new projection comes as the government's finances worsen. This year's budget deficit is expected to total $521 billion, a record in dollar terms, even as the economic recovery is in full stride. That would surpass the previous record deficit of $374.2 billion produced in the 2003 budget year. Treasury needs to borrow more to finance the daily operations of government, including meeting interest payments on the national debt, which is now closing in on $7 trillion."
http://www.newsday.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-treasury-financing,0,5852853.story?coll=sns-ap-business-headlines


http://legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news

Intelligence chief's bombshell: 'We were overruled on dossier' --The intelligence official whose revelations stunned the Hutton inquiry has suggested that not a single defence intelligence expert backed Poodle Tony Blair's most contentious claims on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

Washington conceals US casualties in Iraq --by David Walsh "The Bush administration is deliberately concealing from the American people the number and condition of US military personnel who have been wounded in Iraq... Estimates on the number of US soldiers, sailors and Marines medically evacuated from Iraq by the end of 2003 because of battlefield wounds, illness or other reasons range from 11,000 to 22,000, a staggering figure by any standard."

http://legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news

[Bandit]

1. We have been chewing on most of this stuff for months

We need America to start doing a little chewing.

[Moderator]

2. Locking

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