Kitty Kelley: Why aren't the Bush daughters in Iraq?

[Bluebear]

WHEN I WAS a little girl in a convent school, the nuns impressed on me the power of setting a good example. These beloved teachers are no longer around to instruct the president and his family, so I recommend that the Bushes learn from Mark Twain, who said: "Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."

My suggestion comes after the White House announcement earlier this month that Jenna Bush, one of the president's twin daughters, is writing a book on her all-expenses-paid trip to Panama, where she worked for a few weeks as an intern for UNICEF. Jenna Bush is quoted as saying she will donate her earnings from her book to UNICEF, a commendable gesture, considering her father's net worth of $20 million. But while the 25-year-old makes the rounds of TV talk shows this fall in a White House limousine, dozens of her contemporaries will be arriving home from Iraq in wooden boxes. In Britain, Prince Harry is insisting on going off to Iraq — even as his country is reducing its troop commitment....

The contrast between FDR's good example during wartime and that of George W. Bush is stark and sad. The Bush family rallies to the political campaigns of its scions and spends months on the road raising money and shaking hands to put their men into public office. In fact, the public image of their cohesive family — the pearl-choked matriarch surrounded by progeny and springer spaniels — helped cinch more than one presidency for the Bushes. Yet now, when its legacy is most in peril, the family seems to be squandering its good will on a mess of celebridreck.

The president tells us Iraq is a "noble" war, but his wife, his children and his nieces and nephews are not listening. None has enlisted in the armed services, and none seems to be paying attention to the sacrifices of military families. Until Jenna's trip to Panama, the presidential daughters performed community service only when mandated by a court after they were cited for underage drinking. Since then they have surfaced in public during lavish presidential trips with their parents, bar-hopping outings in Georgetown and champagne-popping art openings in New York....

Perhaps the father's sadness sprang from his own experience fighting in what his parents called "Mr. Roosevelt's war" — the good war — the war that saved the world from tyranny. He enlisted at 18 to fly torpedo bombers. He flew 58 missions in two years and returned home a war hero. Since then, no one in his large family has seen fit to follow his sterling example of service and patriotism.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-kelley19mar19,0,5964993.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

[youngdem]

1. They trotted George P. Bush down to the Navy Reserves office in response to this

The navy officer interviewed promised 'no special treatment'. No word on whether he kept from laughing or not.

[TheLeftyMom]

2. You're kidding? I hadn't heard this.

Is he actually going into the service?

[bahrbearian]

3. He is going to serve in Naval Intelligence close to Home.

[WI_DEM]

16. close to home. Yeah, no special treatment. He could be like Prince Harry and demand to go to Iraq.

[UTUSN]

4. i -------LUERVE---- Kitty KELLEY!!1

I only wish she had not pulled her punches in her B.F.E.E. book, that she had really torn loose the way she did in her books on Nancy, SINATRA, and Jackie OH!



Preemptive disclaimer: No, "gossip" does NOT mean "untrue." And KELLEY and other fine gossipers are far more scrupulous in their documentation and multiple sourcing than are the so-called "journalists" in the media.

--------Definition of "Gossip"----

*******QUOTE*******

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=gossip&x=15&y=14

Main Entry: 1gos·sip
Pronunciation: 'gä-s&p
Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English gossib, from Old English godsibb, from god god + sibb kinsman, from sibb related -- more at SIB

1 a dialect British : GODPARENT b : COMPANION, CRONY c : a person who habitually reveals personal or sensational facts about others

2 a : rumor or report of an intimate nature b : a chatty talk c : the subject matter of gossip

********UNQUOTE*******

[blm]

9. Disgusting how the corpmedia downplayed her RESEARCHED book and pushed the BS from the Swiftliars.

When Kitty Kelley's book came out in September 2004, who knew the corpmedia would rush it through their cycles, downplay most everything in it, and push it out of sight within two weeks?

Yet the lies from the swifts STAYED on the news shows even after official documents proved they were lying.......and stayed....and stayed....and stayed.

[UTUSN]

24. Matt LAUER did a "hit" interview ON her. I called the Today show long distance

and actually talked to a producer. The 2nd day, Matt read e-mails supportive of KELLEY and really cooled it. And KELLEY was a COOL CLASS act THROUGHOUT!!1 She knows what she's got--and ALL the bill of goods on the B.F.E.E. she did NOT put into print.

(How're YOU and my CatWoman???!!1) :hi:

[Blue_In_AK]

12. Her book on the Bush family was great...

I loved it.

[Lugnut]

25. Read it.

Loved it. Nobody sued her. That tells me all I need to know.

[Nikki Stone1]

5. kick

:kick:

[UTUSN]

7. ...

[cali]

6. Yawn. This is such a bogus argument.

They'd be nothing but targets- just the way Prince Harry will, and magnets for danger for those around them.

[Nikki Stone1]

8. "They'd be nothing but targets"--aren't they all, dear, aren't they all.

Every goddamned soldier over there is a target.

[cali]

10. Oh, c'mon. You must of understood

my point. They'd put those arond them in increased danger.

[Nikki Stone1]

14. And you must have understood my point--that they're all targets now

Targets without proper protection and support. The first line of defense behind whom the highly paid mercenaries hide.

[Dr Fate]

17. Besides- they could be nurses aides or clerks in non-combat areas. n/t

n/t

[bahrbearian]

22. There must be a demand for Latrine Attendents in Camp Victory

[alstephenson]

11. And your point is????

Couldn't get much more dangerous IMHO. Target = Every soldier there.

[Dr Fate]

13. Didnt seem to keep the Kennedy boys or even famous movie stars out of WWII combat. n/t

n/t

[Nikki Stone1]

15. And as much as I dislike Laura Schlessinger (Dr. Laura), her son is in Iraq in uniform

If you want to talk about a celebrity target, there's one.

[mentalsolstice]

18. Technology was a lot different back then

No satellites, internet, digital cameras, cell phones, etc. to track their every move back then. The Bush twins would increase the danger for every troop in their unit...may as well stick bulleyes on their backs. However, it would be nice to see them serving at Landstuhl, helping out with the injured.

[Dr Fate]

19. People were a lot different back then.

If there is a will, there is a way- ask pat Tillman's dad.

And yes- the bush twins could be "over there" as medical assistants.

[devilgrrl]

20. Why don't the Bush daughters have jobs?

Wish I could sit on my ass, get drunk and gallivant around Argentina - must be nice not having to work for a living.

[Jackeen]

21. Has anyone asked them if they're interested?

Last I checked, this was still a volunteer military. One makes their own choice to join, and should not be pushed into it by Dad, or anyone else.

Good on Harry and William, nobody would have thought any less of them had they decided to follow Dad and go RAF or Grand-dad and go RN, but their military service as sons of leaders is slightly different in context: They will become Colonels-in-Chief of various units (Even Harry, if he doesn't become King), and thus their military service is expected of them by virtue of their birth. Such is not the case for offspring of political types. It is also to be argued that as British troops swear to the person on the throne, as opposed to an inanimate object such as the US Constitution, there is something of an expectation that that person had served time in uniform.

[Bluebear]

23. "One makes their own choice to join"...unless you're a Bush. nt