There’s More to This

The President’s Guard Service

If President Bush thought that his release of selected payroll and service records would quell the growing controversy over whether he ducked some of his required service in the Air National Guard three decades ago, he is clearly mistaken. The payroll records released yesterday document that he performed no guard duties at all for more than half a year in 1972 and raise questions about how he could be credited with at least 14 days of duty during subsequent periods when his superior officers in two units said they had not seen him.

[Bush] dropped off the Guard’s radar screen when he went to Alabama to work on a senatorial campaign. The payroll records show that he … went more than six months without being paid, virtually the entire time he was working on the Senate campaign in Alabama. That presumably means he never reported for duty during that period. [mjh: what did Bush contribute to that campaign; is it legal for the military to campaign?]

Mr. Bush was credited with 14 days of service at unspecified locations between Oct. 28, 1972, and the end of April 1973 [mjh: 2 days a month — what a hardship!]. The commanding officer of the Alabama unit to which Mr. Bush was supposed to report long ago said that he had never seen him appear for duty, and Mr. Bush’s superiors at the Texas unit to which he returned wrote in May 1973 that they could not write an annual evaluation of him because he had not been seen there during that year. Those statements are so jarringly at odds with the payroll data that they demand further elaboration. A Guard memo prepared for the White House by a former Guard official says Mr. Bush earned enough points to fulfill his duty but leaves it unclear whether he got special treatment.

The issue is not whether Mr. Bush, like many sons of the elite in his generation, sought refuge in the Guard to avoid combat in Vietnam. The public knew about that during the 2000 campaign. Whether Mr. Bush actually performed his Guard service to the full is a different matter. It bears on presidential character because the president has continually rejected claims that there was anything amiss about his Guard performance during the Alabama period. Mr. Bush himself also made the issue of military service fair game by posturing as a swashbuckling pilot when welcoming a carrier home from Iraq. Now, the president needs to make a fuller explanation of how he spent his last two years in the Guard.

Bush and others are responding to these questions in classic Radical Right rhetoric — they claim such questions are actually attacks on anyone who has served in the National Guard. That cowardly twist speaks volumes.

Al Franken has the right idea: ask the President who his best friends were in Alabama, what the commander was like and which bars did he go to with his Guard buddies. mjh

FactCheck.org New Evidence Supports Bush Military Service (Mostly)

During those six months Bush got permission from his National Guard superiors to attend non-flying drills in Montgomery. Also during that time he was officially grounded after he failed to take an annual physical examination required to maintain flying status. …

The newly released records show only sporadic service by Bush during the months immediately following his return to Houston after the 1972 election. They show pay and credits for six days in January 1973 and two in April.

It was the following month that his two superior officers at Ellington Air Force Base wrote that they could not complete Bush’s annual evaluation covering the 12 months ending April 30, 1973 because “Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of this report.” How could Bush be paid and credited for drills and still not be “observed” by his superiors? Both of them are now dead and can’t answer that. White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett says Bush was doing “odd jobs” for the Guard at the time in a non-flying capacity and his superiors might not have been aware of that. …

He was released from service with an honorable discharge eight months before the end of the six-year term of service for which he had originally signed up.

Why did Bush refuse an annual physical? Why didn’t he fly for so much of his time in the AIR National Guard? Veterans of combat should see right through this guy. mjh

FactCheck.org Bush A Military ‘Deserter?’ Calm Down, Michael

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Figures Don’t Lie, but Liars Do

graph of spendingFactCheck.org Defending Spending? Bush’s Blooper

President Bush slipped up in his hour-long interview with NBC’s Tim Russert over the weekend, claiming that the growth of discretionary federal spending has slowed markedly since he took office. But in fact, annual growth has been in double digits for the past three years [11.8% average annual growth rate], far higher than in any year of the Clinton administration [2.4% for 8 years].

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The Credibility Gap

News Analysis: Bush States His Case Early By ELISABETH BUMILLER, NYTimes

Whatever the result of the interview, it clearly showed that the White House has decided it cannot just throw $100 million in advertising at a Democratic nominee and try to turn him into George McGovern, the liberal trounced in the 1972 election by President Richard M. Nixon. If anything, the interview showed that Mr. Bush has concluded that he must make a persuasive argument not only for his presidency, but in effect his own electability.

Mr. Bush’s Version (NYTimes Editorial)

[A]fter a week in which it became obvious to most Americans that the justifications for the war were based on flawed intelligence, Mr. Bush offered his reflections, and they were far from reassuring. The only clarity in the president’s vision appears to be his own perfect sense of self-justification. [mjh: ”Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.”]

Right now, the questions average Americans are asking about Iraq seem much clearer than the ones Mr. Bush is willing to confront. …

The president was doing far more yesterday than rolling out the administration’s spin for the next campaign. He was demonstrating how he is likely to think if confronted with a similar crisis in the future. The fuzziness and inconsistency of his comments suggest he is still relying on his own moral absolutism, that in a dangerous world the critical thing is to act decisively, and worry about connecting the dots later. …

Another question average Americans will be asking themselves this election year is whether the Bush administration, which wanted to invade Iraq even before Sept. 11, manipulated the intelligence reports to frighten Congress and the public into supporting the idea. The president’s claim yesterday that Congress had access to exactly the same intelligence he had was inaccurate, and his comments about the new commission he has appointed to look into intelligence gathering made it clear that he has no intention of having his administration’s actions included in the probe.

Op-Ed Columnist: Lost in Credibility Gulch By BOB HERBERT, NYTimes

The president is genial enough, but it might be time for a bipartisan truth squad to follow him around, sorting out the facts from his musings, speculations, fantasies and mis-rememberings.

Iraq has shown us the trouble that can lurk in the gaps between reality and whatever it is that George W. Bush believes or says. …

Mr. Bush presented himself in 2000 as an honest, straight-shooting Texan, an aw-shucks kind of guy whose word, unlike that of the sitting president …, could always be trusted.

The credibility that he enjoyed during that campaign, and which reached a peak in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, has steadily eroded since then. …

It’s time to put an end to the fantasies and the deceit, which have landed us in a quagmire overseas and the equivalent of fiscal quicksand at home.

It’s not too much to ask that the president of the United States speak the clear truth about his policies and their implications. Mr. Bush would do himself and his country a favor by establishing a closer relationship with reality and a more intense commitment to the truth.

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Bush: Let His Own Words Hang Him

USATODAY.com – Analysis: With NBC interview, Bush steps into the ring

A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll Jan. 29-Feb. 1 found that Bush would lose to Kerry 53%-46%. In the same poll, 49% said they approved of the overall job Bush is doing — a record low for him. [mjh: but higher than another recent poll]

The White House is feeling the pressure. …

”The American people need to know they got a president who sees the world the way it is.” …

”What people must understand is that, instead of wondering what to do, I acted,” he said. …

”In my judgment, when the United States says there will be serious consequences, and if there isn’t serious consequences, it creates adverse consequences,” he said. …

”I know exactly where I want to lead the country. I have shown the American people I can lead.” …

FULL TEXT-Bush NBC interview on Iraq, economy

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Tell It Like It Is!

Alpert’s Truth by Arthur Alpert

My country needs the Democrats to engage in a gutsy, tell-it-like-it-is, down and dirty truth-telling assault on the White House.

Nothing less will do.

And journalists ought to stop playing the Marquess of Queensbury and start uncovering this Administration’s Watergates.

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Who’s Getting Rich?

NOW with Bill Moyers. Transcript. February 6, 2004 | PBS

MOYERS: The result is a doubling of household debt since 1990.

Political candidates take note — we’re not making this up — there’s an invisible crisis building out there. …

This is the book I mentioned, THE TWO INCOME-TRAP: WHY MIDDLE-CLASS MOTHERS AND FATHERS ARE GOING BROKE. Elizabeth Warren is one of the co-authors. She’s a leading expert on bankruptcy, debt, and the middle class. Cited five years ago as one of the fifty most influential women lawyers in America, she teaches at Harvard Law School. Elizabeth Warren wrote this book with her daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi. …

You say in here that every 15 seconds some American is filing for bankruptcy?

WARREN: That’s exactly right. That’s 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. In fact, this year, more children will live through their parent’s bankruptcy than will live through their parents’ divorce.

MOYERS: Well, what are we to make of that?

WARREN: I think what we’re to make of it is the middle class has been pushed right to the edge. They are on a cliff. And increasing numbers are falling off every single day. Families live in a much more dangerous economic world than they did a generation ago. …

Also, I need to make clear here bankruptcy’s just a little piece of that iceberg. Not only will 1.6 million families file for bankruptcy this year, but in addition to that, we’ve got 9 million families who are in credit counseling already.

Interesting that the National Debt is skyrocketing while middle class debt does the same. All under the watch of the self-proclaimed ”party of fiscal responsibility” and ”family values”. BUllSHit. mjh

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BUllSHit’s Mushroom Cloud

Bush’s Mushroom Cloud as a Smoking Gun Speech

Knowing these realities, America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.

Rhetoric clearly designed to frighten and stampede Americans. While we were oblivious (or hiding?) that Pakistan was selling nuclear secrets repeatedly. mjh

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"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." — Sam Adams