The issue isn't whether Bush and his people have questioned the documents. The
most telling point is that they haven't disputed most of what the documents
SAID.

RB

Barnes in a 1999 article said he called Guard on Bush's behalf - no
debunking by daughter then?



Barnes says he called Guard on Bush's behalf

By Michael Holmes
Associated Press Writer
Story last updated at 12:10 p.m. on Tuesday, September 28, 1999

AUSTIN, Texas -- The former speaker of the Texas House of
Representatives acknowledged Monday that he called the head of the
Texas Air National Guard in 1968 to recommend George W. Bush for a
pilot slot during the Vietnam War.

But Ben Barnes, who later was lieutenant governor, said the request
for his help came from a Bush family friend -- not Bush or his father,
who then was a congressman.

The Texas governor and Republican presidential front-runner,
meanwhile, insisted again that neither he nor his father sought such
assistance when he joined the Guard.

''I can tell you what happened. Nothing happened. My Guard unit was
looking for pilots and I flew for the Guard,'' Bush said at a campaign
appearance south of Houston.

''I'm proud of my service and any allegation that my dad asked for
special favors is simply not true. ... I didn't ask anybody to help
get me to the Guard either,'' Bush said.

Barnes, a Democrat, has been at the center of questions about Bush's
Vietnam-era service for several weeks.

His name surfaced in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Dallas by the
former executive director of the Texas Lottery. Lawrence Littwin has
sued GTECH Corp., the lottery operator, alleging that the company is
to blame for his firing in 1997, after four months on the job.

According to court records, Littwin's lawyers wanted to question
Barnes, who used to lobby for GTECH, about whether GTECH was allowed
to keep its lucrative state contract in exchange for Barnes' silence
about the Guard matter.

That theory has been dismissed as unfounded by GTECH, Barnes and Bush.
Barnes testified for several hours Monday in a deposition in the case.

Afterwards, his lawyer issued a written statement saying Barnes had
been contacted by the now-deceased Sidney Adger, a Houston oilman and
friend of the elder Bush.

''Mr. Barnes was contacted by Sid Adger and asked to recommend George
W. Bush for a pilot position with the Air National Guard. Barnes
called Gen. (James) Rose (Texas Air Guard commander) and did so,'' the
statement said.

''Neither Congressman Bush nor any other member of the Bush family
asked Barnes' help. Barnes has no knowledge that Governor Bush or
President Bush knew of Barnes' recommendation,'' the statement said.

Barnes also said he met in September 1998 with Donald L. Evans, a
longtime friend and chief fund-raiser for Governor Bush. Barnes told
Evans about Adger's request, and ''Governor Bush wrote Barnes a note
thanking him for his candor in acknowledging that Barnes received no
call from any member of the Bush family.''

In an interview with The Associated Press, Evans said he met with
Barnes on his own initiative, without informing the governor in
advance. At the time, he was Bush's gubernatorial campaign chairman
and was concerned only about that contest, Evans said.

Bush joined the National Guard in 1968, at the height of the Vietnam
War, serving until late 1973.

The Republican governor has said for several years that he received no
special treatment. Both he and his father, the former president, have
said they didn't ask for help in finding the Guard opening.

''I don't know if Ben Barnes did or not -- but he was not asked by me
or my dad,'' Bush said Monday.

''People are relying on whether a man who is deceased (Adger) tried to
help. I can just tell you, from my perspective, I never asked for, I
don't believe I received any special treatment,'' Bush said.

Bush indicated that he wasn't concerned about Barnes' deposition.
''I think everybody ought to tell the truth when they're being
deposed. I'm confident he will,'' Bush said. ''I'm not sure what Ben
Barnes is going to say. But I know what the facts are.''

Asked if he considered questions about his National Guard service a
personal attack, Bush replied, ''I think it's just politics.''

http://www.ardmoreite.com/stories/09...w_barnes.shtml

OBVIOUSLY, SINCE THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN IN 1999, IT HAD NOTHING TO
DO WITH JOHN KERRY'S CAMPAIGN.





Walt wrote in message ...
John Deere wrote:
ridiculous paranoid freetard crap snipped

You'll believe *anything*, won't you?

Wanna buy a sailboat from Granada? Only a teesy-weensy bit of storm
danmage.

On 10 Sep 2004 05:41:31 -0700, (Riddick) wrote:

Barnes in a 1999 article said he called Guard on Bush's behalf - no
debunking by daughter then?



Barnes says he called Guard on Bush's behalf

By Michael Holmes
Associated Press Writer
Story last updated at 12:10 p.m. on Tuesday, September 28, 1999

AUSTIN, Texas -- The former speaker of the Texas House of
Representatives acknowledged Monday that he called the head of the
Texas Air National Guard in 1968 to recommend George W. Bush for a
pilot slot during the Vietnam War.

But Ben Barnes, who later was lieutenant governor, said the request
for his help came from a Bush family friend -- not Bush or his father,
who then was a congressman.

Yeah, that story is not new. Bush appears to take great comfort in
the fact that it was a family friend and not his father who pulled the
strings with Ben Barnes. No surprise there, really. Bush Sr
obviously called the family friend who acted on his behalf. It is not
surprising that Bush Sr didn't want to directly call a Democratic
politician when he obviously had markers out with others. It all
depends on who owes who favors. I am sure that the family friend
didn't undertake this on his own initiative out of the goodness of his
heart. GWB obviously had "friends in high places" to get moved to the
front of the line, given his commission without any training and sent
directly to flight school. That is one thing, but to be excused from
meeting his minimal obligations to the Guard is another, particularly
when the alternative would have been to actually serve in Vietnam.


"NBC News uncovered footage of President Bush insulting thousands of
Vietnam veterans who were killed or injured in combat. Bush said in
1988 that the government "probably should have called the National
Guard up in those days -- maybe we'd have done better in Vietnam."

Yeah, maybe they should have called up the Champaign Squadron of GWB.

On 10 Sep 2004 10:07:05 -0500, Dave wrote:

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 14:02:48 GMT, felton said:

That is one thing, but to be excused from
meeting his minimal obligations to the Guard is another, particularly
when the alternative would have been to actually serve in Vietnam.

That makes a nice sophomoric argument, but has very little to do with
reality. I got out about the same time as Bush, and remember the times well.
Fact is that with the war winding down the military had more junior officers
than they needed by quite a margin, and really had very little interest in
making sure those who had finished their active duty obligations kept up
their reserve training. Certainly not in calling up anybody who didn't go to
reserve meetings.

Except that GWB got his "get out of Vietnam free" card in 1968. I
don't necessarily disagree that the chances of him having to go in
1972 were all that great, which is probably why he stopped bothering
to "serve his country" at that time.

I got a 4 months early out without even requesting it, and most of the
non-career officers serving at the time had the same experience. I recall
calling up the local reserve unit after I got out and being told that yea,
if I wanted to earn retirement credit I could come to meetings, but they
weren't really very interested one way or the other.

In short, that whole line of argument is a desperate effort to make hay out
of a straw man.

Well, we already know how objective and impartial your views on the
subjects of Vietnam service are. I will agree that this probably
won't have all that much traction as most folks who support GWB don't
seem to hold him to very high standards, then or now, and the rest of
us are already voting against him for what he has done the past 4
years, not for what he did in the 60s.

I'd like to take this oppurtunity to say that in 1944 during WW2 , in
Pearl Harbor while serving in the US Navy our office used IBM
proportional-spaced font electric typewriters. Not thirty years ago,
60 YEARS AGO.

Nice try RNC but I'm not impressed by your experts.

Ole Thom

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 08:45:50 -0700, (Thom Stewart)
wrote:

I'd like to take this oppurtunity to say that in 1944 during WW2 , in
Pearl Harbor while serving in the US Navy our office used IBM
proportional-spaced font electric typewriters. Not thirty years ago,
60 YEARS AGO.

Nice try RNC but I'm not impressed by your experts.

Ole Thom

Damn, Thom...what sort of vitamins do you take to have such a great
memory?:) I have gotta get me some of those:)

http://www-1.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1941.html

On 10 Sep 2004 11:00:45 -0500, Dave wrote:

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 15:26:20 GMT, felton said:

Except that GWB got his "get out of Vietnam free" card in 1968. I
don't necessarily disagree that the chances of him having to go in
1972 were all that great, which is probably why he stopped bothering
to "serve his country" at that time.

I agree that his getting into the guard in 1968 is highly suspect, and
probably deserving of criticism. Those slots were hard to come by. My OCS
class had a helluva lot of lawyers in it, many from schools like Duke and
the Ivys, who would rather have been in JAG if they had to serve, but
couldn't get in, and so ended up as line officers on tin cans.


It all depends on who you know:)

"The 147th, Col. Staudt’s Texas unit, was infamous as a way out of
Vietnam combat for the politically well connected and celebrity draft
avoiders: Both of Sid Adger’s sons, Democratic Senator Lloyd Bentsen’s
son, Republican Senator John Tower’s son, and at least seven players
for the Dallas Cowboys had been signed into the unit."

The waiting list in Texas was a year and a half. It took GWB one day,
and he jumped to the head of the line ahead of 500 others in Texas,
alone.

It is no great secret that there were double standards in those days.
It is just insulting to claim that GWB got no special treatment, when
clearly he got nothing but special treatment.

But Kerry certainly deserves criticism for being a decorated war hero.
Of course, McCain and Cleland do also. Talk about hypocracy!

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Dave" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 15:26:20 GMT, felton said:

Except that GWB got his "get out of Vietnam free" card in 1968. I
don't necessarily disagree that the chances of him having to go in
1972 were all that great, which is probably why he stopped bothering
to "serve his country" at that time.

I agree that his getting into the guard in 1968 is highly suspect, and
probably deserving of criticism. Those slots were hard to come by. My OCS
class had a helluva lot of lawyers in it, many from schools like Duke and
the Ivys, who would rather have been in JAG if they had to serve, but
couldn't get in, and so ended up as line officers on tin cans.

On 10 Sep 2004 11:47:13 -0500, Dave wrote:

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 08:45:50 -0700, (Thom Stewart) said:

I'd like to take this oppurtunity to say that in 1944 during WW2 , in
Pearl Harbor while serving in the US Navy our office used IBM
proportional-spaced font electric typewriters.

Nice try, but the IBM Model A Executive typewriter, first produced in the
early 1940s, was not proportional spaced, but did have had four different
spacings for letters. I don't believe it produced superscripts.

Fact is that proportional spacing was uncommon until after the 1970s.

I am not the typewriter expert that you claim to be, but my link to
the IBM site seems to contradict you

http://www-1.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1941.html

"IBM announces the Electromatic Model 04 electric typewriter,
featuring the revolutionary concept of proportional spacing. By
assigning varied rather than uniform spacing to different sized
characters, the Type 4 recreated the appearance of a printed page, an
effect that was further enhanced by a typewriter ribbon innovation
that produced clearer, sharper words on the page. The proportional
spacing feature became a staple of the IBM Executive series
typewriters."

That was in 1941.

In article ,
Dave wrote:
On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:57:40 -0700, "Jonathan Ganz"
said:

But Kerry certainly deserves criticism for being a decorated war hero.

Of course he's not being criticized for getting medals. He's being
criticized for perhaps being a bit economical with the truth in getting some
of them and then using them to get out of the combat zone.

As opposed to Bush who gets a free pass for telling a few
whoppers... a flip flopping whopper. Hahahahhaa

--
Jonathan Ganz (j gan z @ $ail no w.c=o=m)
http://www.sailnow.com
"If there's no wind, row."