Bush in the National Guard: A primer
The flap over dubious documents has obscured the real story.
Here it is.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Eric Boehlert (Salon)



Sept. 20, 2004 | Under order from U.S. District Court
Judge Harold Baer Jr. to find and make public any of
President Bush's military records that had not already been
released, the Pentagon late on Friday released yet another
batch of documents. None of the new paperwork addresses the
lingering questions surrounding Bush's service in the Texas
Air National Guard during the height of the Vietnam War, how
Bush's own records indicate he missed mandatory duty for
months at a time, or how he managed to go unsupervised for
nearly two years. The federal court order stems from an
ongoing lawsuit filed by the Associated Press in June to
obtain all of Bush's relevant records. In February, when
White House aides told reporters they had made public
"absolutely everything" about Bush's military service, the
AP noticed several obvious gaps and went to court to obtain
additional documents.

The lawsuit had already resulted in the disclosure of
previously unreleased flight logs that indicated that Bush,
a fully trained pilot since 1970, often flew two-seater
training jets in March 1972, shortly before he piloted a
plane for the last time. This despite his promise, when he
entered the Guard's training program, to serve as a full
pilot until 1974.

What is also already known is that in the spring of 1972,
with 770 days left of required duty, Bush unilaterally
decided that he was done fulfilling his military obligation.
Also in the spring of 1972, Bush refused to take a physical
and quickly cleared out of his Guard base in Houston,
heading off to work on the Senate campaign of Winton "Red"
Blount in Alabama. Referring to that period, one of Bush's
Guard flying buddies remarked to USA Today in 2002, "It was
an irrational time in his life."

It may have been an irrational time for him, but Bush
managed to focus intently on not serving in the Guard in any
significant capacity again. His public records paint a
portrait of a Guardsman who, with the cooperation of his
Texas Air National Guard superiors, simply flouted
regulation after regulation, indifferent to his signed
obligation to serve.

The details can get a bit obscure, but the basic timeline of
Bush's service between 1972 and 1974 is easy to follow: In
spring 1972 Bush attempted to permanently transfer to a
non-flying Alabama Guard unit. During the second half of
1972 he missed many of his required weekend training drills.
At the end of the year he returned to Houston. Bush then had
to make up the absences he had stacked up while in Alabama
through "substitute service" training in 1972 and 1973. In
July 1973, Bush asked to be released by the Texas Air
National Guard so he could attend Harvard Business School.
In September, the Guard let him go, and the Air Force
officially dismissed Bush in November 1974.

Yet looking at the already available public records, they
raise as many questions as they answer about Bush and his
surrogates' accounts of his service -- because from his
Alabama transfer to his missed physical to his substitute
service to his "inactive status" to his honorable discharge,
it was as if Air Force and Guard regulations simply did not
apply to Lt. Bush. He seemed to become a ghostlike figure,
doing -- or not doing -- whatever he pleased, unsupervised
and unrated by his commanders. One serious question is
whether some of Bush's superiors may have played an active
role in hiding Bush's shoddy record -- pressured perhaps by
powerful politicians -- by crediting him with crucial makeup
training days that appear dubious in nature.

None of the discrepancies detailed below between Bush's
accounts and what his records show are based on the disputed
memos reportedly written by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian that were
aired by CBS News last week. CBS executives now concede they
have concerns about the memos' authenticity, but stress that
the contents accurately reflect the turmoil Bush and his
chronic absenteeism created for the Texas Air National
Guard, as reported by others who worked with Killian. In an
interview with New Hampshire's Manchester Union Leader on
Saturday, Bush would not say the documents were forgeries.
He added, "There are a lot of questions about the documents
and they need to be answered." But the authenticity of the
memos, which contain very few facts about Bush's actual
service, is a sideshow in the effort to determine the truth
about Bush's military service. (Independent researchers such
as Paul Lukasiak, retired Army Col. Gerald Lechliter and
Marty Heldt have contributed to this ongoing effort to
uncover the facts.)

Consider the following anomalies:

(Note that statements below that certain documents do not
exist, or that Bush failed to obtain proper authorization,
are based on the White House's repeated insistence that all
relevant Bush military documents have been made public. Some
of these documents, of course, may yet turn up.)

# Bush flew for the last time on April 16, 1972. Upon
entering the Guard, Bush agreed to fly for 60 months. After
his training was complete, he owed 53 months of flying.

But he flew for only 22 of those 53 months.

# Upon being accepted for pilot training, Bush promised to
serve with his parent (Texas) Guard unit for five years once
he completed his pilot training.

But Bush served as a pilot with his parent unit for just two
years.

# In May 1972 Bush left the Houston Guard base for Alabama.
According to Air Force regulations, Bush was supposed to
obtain prior authorization before leaving Texas to join a
new Guard unit in Alabama.

But Bush failed to get the authorization.

# In requesting a permanent transfer to a nonflying unit in
Alabama in 1972, Bush was supposed to sign an acknowledgment
that he received relocation counseling.

But no such document exists.

# He was supposed to receive a certification of satisfactory
participation from his unit.

But Bush did not.

# He was supposed to sign and give a letter of resignation
to his Texas unit commander.

But Bush did not.

# He was supposed to receive discharge orders from the Texas
Air National Guard adjutant general.

But Bush did not.

# He was supposed to receive new assignment orders for the
Air Force Reserves.

But Bush did not.

# On his transfer request Bush was asked to list his
"permanent address."

But he wrote down a post office box number for the campaign
he was working for on a temporary basis.

# On his transfer request Bush was asked to list his Air
Force specialty code.

But Bush, an F-102 pilot, erroneously wrote the code for an
F-89 or F-94 pilot. Both planes had been retired from
service at the time. Bush, an officer, made this mistake
more than once on the same form.

# On May 26, 1972, Lt. Col. Reese Bracken, commander of the
9921st Air Reserve Squadron at Maxwell Air Force Base in
Alabama, informed Bush that a transfer to his nonflying unit
would be unsuitable for a fully trained pilot such as he
was, and that Bush would not be able to fulfill any of his
remaining two years of flight obligation.

But Bush pressed on with his transfer request nonetheless.

# Bush's transfer request to the 9921st was eventually
denied by the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver, which
meant he was still obligated to attend training sessions one
weekend a month with his Texas unit in Houston.

But Bush failed to attend weekend drills in May, June, July,
August and September. He also failed to request permission
to make up those days at the time.

# According to Air Force regulations, "[a] member whose
attendance record is poor must be closely monitored. When
the unexcused absences reach one less than the maximum
permitted [sic] he must be counseled and a record made of
the counseling. If the member is unavailable he must be
advised by personal letter."

But there is no record that Bush ever received such
counseling, despite the fact that he missed drills for
months on end.

# Bush's unit was obligated to report in writing to the
Personnel Center at Randolph Air Force Base whenever a
monthly review of records showed unsatisfactory
participation for an officer.

But his unit never reported Bush's absenteeism to Randolph
Air Force Base.

# In July 1972 Bush failed to take a mandatory Guard
physical exam, which is a serious offense for a Guard pilot.
The move should have prompted the formation of a Flying
Evaluation Board to investigation the circumstances
surrounding Bush's failure.

But no such FEB was convened.

# Once Bush was grounded for failing to take a physical, his
commanders could have filed a report on why the suspension
should be lifted.

But Bush's commanders made no such request.

# On Sept. 15, 1972, Bush was ordered to report to Lt. Col.
William Turnipseed, the deputy commander of the 187th
Tactical Reconnaissance Group in Montgomery, Ala., to
participate in training on the weekends of Oct. 7-8 and Nov.
4-5, 1972.

But there's no evidence Bush ever showed up on those dates.
In 2000, Turnipseed told the Boston Globe that Bush did not
report for duty. (A self-professed Bush supporter,
Turnipseed has since backed off from his categorical claim.)

# However, according to the White House-released pay
records, which are unsigned, Bush was credited for serving
in Montgomery on Oct. 28-29 and Nov. 11-14, 1972. Those
makeup dates should have produced a paper trail, including
Bush's formal request as well as authorization and
supervision documents.

But no such documents exist, and the dates he was credited
for do not match the dates when the Montgomery unit
assembled for drills.

# When Guardsmen miss monthly drills, or "unit training
assemblies" (UTAs), they are allowed to make them up through
substitute service and earn crucial points toward their
service record. Drills are worth one point on a weekday and
two points on each weekend day. For Bush's substitute
service on Nov. 13-14, 1972, he was awarded four points, two
for each day.

But Nov. 13 and 14 were both weekdays. He should have been
awarded two points.

# Bush earned six points for service on Jan. 4-6, 1973 -- a
Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

But he should have earned four points, one each for Thursday
and Friday, two for Saturday.

# Weekday training was the exception in the Guard. For
example, from May 1968 to May 1972, when Bush was in good
standing, he was not credited with attending a single
weekday UTA.

But after 1972, when Bush's absenteeism accelerated, nearly
half of his credited UTAs were for weekdays.

# To maintain unit cohesiveness, the parameters for
substitute service are tightly controlled; drills must be
made up within 15 days immediately before, or 30 days
immediately after, the originally scheduled drill, according
to Guard regulations at the time.

But more than half of the substitute service credits Bush
received fell outside that clear time frame. In one case, he
made up a drill nine weeks later.

# On Sept. 29, 1972, Bush was formally grounded for failing
to take a flight physical. The letter, written by Maj. Gen.
Francis Greenlief, chief of the National Guard Bureau,
ordered Bush to acknowledge in writing that he had received
word of his grounding.

But no such written acknowledgment exists. In 2000, Bush
spokesman Dan Bartlett told the Boston Globe that Bush
couldn't remember if he'd ever been grounded.

# Bartlett also told the Boston Globe that Bush didn't
undergo a physical while in Alabama because his family
doctor was in Houston.

But only Air Force flight surgeons can give flight physicals
to pilots.

# Guard members are required to take a physical exam every
12 months.

But Bush's last Guard physical was in May 1971. Bush was
formally discharged from the service in November 1974, which
means he went without a required physical for 42 months.

# Bush's unsatisfactory participation in the fall of 1972
should have prompted the Texas Air National Guard to write
to his local draft board and inform the board that Bush had
become eligible for the draft. Guard units across the
country contacted draft boards every Sept. 15 to update them
on the status of local Guard members. Bush's absenteeism
should have prompted what's known as a DD Form 44, "Record
of Military Status of Registrant."

But there is no record of any such document having been sent
to Bush's draft board in Houston.

# Records released by the White House note that Bush
received a military dental exam in Alabama on Jan. 6, 1973.

But Bush's request to serve in Alabama covered only
September, October and November 1972. Why he would still be
serving in Alabama months after that remains unclear.

# Each of Bush's numerous substitute service requests should
have formed a lengthy paper trail consisting of AF Form
40a's, with the name of the officer who authorized the
training in advance, the signature of the officer who
supervised the training and Bush's own signature.

But no such documents exist.

# During his last year with the Texas Air National Guard,
Bush missed nearly two-thirds of his mandatory UTAs and made
up some of them with substitute service. Guard regulations
allowed substitute service only in circumstances that are
"beyond the control" of the Guard member.

But neither Bush nor the Texas Air National Guard has ever
explained what the uncontrollable circumstances were that
forced him to miss the majority of his assigned drills in
his last year.

# Bush supposedly returned to his Houston unit in April 1973
and served two days.

But at the end of April, when Bush's Texas commanders had to
rate him for their annual report, they wrote that they could
not do so: "Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit
during the period of this report."

# On June 29, 1973, the Air Reserve Personnel Center in
Denver instructed Bush's commanders to get additional
information from his Alabama unit, where he had supposedly
been training, in order to better evaluate Bush's duty. The
ARPC gave Texas a deadline of Aug. 6 to get the information.

But Bush's commanders ignored the request.

# Bush was credited for attending four days of UTAs with his
Texas unit July 16-19, 1973. That was good for eight crucial
points.

But that's not possible. Guard units hold only two UTAs each
month -- one on a Saturday and one on a Sunday. Although
Bush may well have made up four days, they should not all
have been counted as UTAs, since they occur just twice a
month. The other days are known as "Appropriate Duty," or APDY.

# On July 30, 1973, Bush, preparing to attend Harvard
Business School, signed a statement acknowledging it was his
responsibility to find another unit in which to serve out
the remaining nine months of his commitment.

But Bush never contacted another unit in Massachusetts in
which to fulfill his obligation.

Despite the laundry list of Guard discrepancies, Bush, when
asked about his service this weekend, insisted, "I did
everything [my superiors] asked me to do."

On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 05:18:55 GMT, Jim wrote:




Bush in the National Guard: A primer
The flap over dubious documents has obscured the real story.
Here it is.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Eric Boehlert (Salon)



Sept. 20, 2004 | Under order from U.S. District Court
Judge Harold Baer Jr. to find and make public any of
President Bush's military records that had not already been
released, the Pentagon late on Friday released yet another
batch of documents. None of the new paperwork addresses the
lingering questions surrounding Bush's service in the Texas
Air National Guard during the height of the Vietnam War, how
Bush's own records indicate he missed mandatory duty for
months at a time, or how he managed to go unsupervised for
nearly two years. The federal court order stems from an
ongoing lawsuit filed by the Associated Press in June to
obtain all of Bush's relevant records. In February, when
White House aides told reporters they had made public
"absolutely everything" about Bush's military service, the
AP noticed several obvious gaps and went to court to obtain
additional documents.

The lawsuit had already resulted in the disclosure of
previously unreleased flight logs that indicated that Bush,
a fully trained pilot since 1970, often flew two-seater
training jets in March 1972, shortly before he piloted a
plane for the last time. This despite his promise, when he
entered the Guard's training program, to serve as a full
pilot until 1974.

What is also already known is that in the spring of 1972,
with 770 days left of required duty, Bush unilaterally
decided that he was done fulfilling his military obligation.
Also in the spring of 1972, Bush refused to take a physical
and quickly cleared out of his Guard base in Houston,
heading off to work on the Senate campaign of Winton "Red"
Blount in Alabama. Referring to that period, one of Bush's
Guard flying buddies remarked to USA Today in 2002, "It was
an irrational time in his life."

It may have been an irrational time for him, but Bush
managed to focus intently on not serving in the Guard in any
significant capacity again. His public records paint a
portrait of a Guardsman who, with the cooperation of his
Texas Air National Guard superiors, simply flouted
regulation after regulation, indifferent to his signed
obligation to serve.

The details can get a bit obscure, but the basic timeline of
Bush's service between 1972 and 1974 is easy to follow: In
spring 1972 Bush attempted to permanently transfer to a
non-flying Alabama Guard unit. During the second half of
1972 he missed many of his required weekend training drills.
At the end of the year he returned to Houston. Bush then had
to make up the absences he had stacked up while in Alabama
through "substitute service" training in 1972 and 1973. In
July 1973, Bush asked to be released by the Texas Air
National Guard so he could attend Harvard Business School.
In September, the Guard let him go, and the Air Force
officially dismissed Bush in November 1974.

Yet looking at the already available public records, they
raise as many questions as they answer about Bush and his
surrogates' accounts of his service -- because from his
Alabama transfer to his missed physical to his substitute
service to his "inactive status" to his honorable discharge,
it was as if Air Force and Guard regulations simply did not
apply to Lt. Bush. He seemed to become a ghostlike figure,
doing -- or not doing -- whatever he pleased, unsupervised
and unrated by his commanders. One serious question is
whether some of Bush's superiors may have played an active
role in hiding Bush's shoddy record -- pressured perhaps by
powerful politicians -- by crediting him with crucial makeup
training days that appear dubious in nature.

None of the discrepancies detailed below between Bush's
accounts and what his records show are based on the disputed
memos reportedly written by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian that were
aired by CBS News last week. CBS executives now concede they
have concerns about the memos' authenticity, but stress that
the contents accurately reflect the turmoil Bush and his
chronic absenteeism created for the Texas Air National
Guard, as reported by others who worked with Killian. In an
interview with New Hampshire's Manchester Union Leader on
Saturday, Bush would not say the documents were forgeries.
He added, "There are a lot of questions about the documents
and they need to be answered." But the authenticity of the
memos, which contain very few facts about Bush's actual
service, is a sideshow in the effort to determine the truth
about Bush's military service. (Independent researchers such
as Paul Lukasiak, retired Army Col. Gerald Lechliter and
Marty Heldt have contributed to this ongoing effort to
uncover the facts.)

Consider the following anomalies:

(Note that statements below that certain documents do not
exist, or that Bush failed to obtain proper authorization,
are based on the White House's repeated insistence that all
relevant Bush military documents have been made public. Some
of these documents, of course, may yet turn up.)

# Bush flew for the last time on April 16, 1972. Upon
entering the Guard, Bush agreed to fly for 60 months. After
his training was complete, he owed 53 months of flying.

But he flew for only 22 of those 53 months.

# Upon being accepted for pilot training, Bush promised to
serve with his parent (Texas) Guard unit for five years once
he completed his pilot training.

But Bush served as a pilot with his parent unit for just two
years.

# In May 1972 Bush left the Houston Guard base for Alabama.
According to Air Force regulations, Bush was supposed to
obtain prior authorization before leaving Texas to join a
new Guard unit in Alabama.

But Bush failed to get the authorization.

# In requesting a permanent transfer to a nonflying unit in
Alabama in 1972, Bush was supposed to sign an acknowledgment
that he received relocation counseling.

But no such document exists.

# He was supposed to receive a certification of satisfactory
participation from his unit.

But Bush did not.

# He was supposed to sign and give a letter of resignation
to his Texas unit commander.

But Bush did not.

# He was supposed to receive discharge orders from the Texas
Air National Guard adjutant general.

But Bush did not.

# He was supposed to receive new assignment orders for the
Air Force Reserves.

But Bush did not.

# On his transfer request Bush was asked to list his
"permanent address."

But he wrote down a post office box number for the campaign
he was working for on a temporary basis.

# On his transfer request Bush was asked to list his Air
Force specialty code.

But Bush, an F-102 pilot, erroneously wrote the code for an
F-89 or F-94 pilot. Both planes had been retired from
service at the time. Bush, an officer, made this mistake
more than once on the same form.

# On May 26, 1972, Lt. Col. Reese Bracken, commander of the
9921st Air Reserve Squadron at Maxwell Air Force Base in
Alabama, informed Bush that a transfer to his nonflying unit
would be unsuitable for a fully trained pilot such as he
was, and that Bush would not be able to fulfill any of his
remaining two years of flight obligation.

But Bush pressed on with his transfer request nonetheless.

# Bush's transfer request to the 9921st was eventually
denied by the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver, which
meant he was still obligated to attend training sessions one
weekend a month with his Texas unit in Houston.

But Bush failed to attend weekend drills in May, June, July,
August and September. He also failed to request permission
to make up those days at the time.

# According to Air Force regulations, "[a] member whose
attendance record is poor must be closely monitored. When
the unexcused absences reach one less than the maximum
permitted [sic] he must be counseled and a record made of
the counseling. If the member is unavailable he must be
advised by personal letter."

But there is no record that Bush ever received such
counseling, despite the fact that he missed drills for
months on end.

# Bush's unit was obligated to report in writing to the
Personnel Center at Randolph Air Force Base whenever a
monthly review of records showed unsatisfactory
participation for an officer.

But his unit never reported Bush's absenteeism to Randolph
Air Force Base.

# In July 1972 Bush failed to take a mandatory Guard
physical exam, which is a serious offense for a Guard pilot.
The move should have prompted the formation of a Flying
Evaluation Board to investigation the circumstances
surrounding Bush's failure.

But no such FEB was convened.

# Once Bush was grounded for failing to take a physical, his
commanders could have filed a report on why the suspension
should be lifted.

But Bush's commanders made no such request.

# On Sept. 15, 1972, Bush was ordered to report to Lt. Col.
William Turnipseed, the deputy commander of the 187th
Tactical Reconnaissance Group in Montgomery, Ala., to
participate in training on the weekends of Oct. 7-8 and Nov.
4-5, 1972.

But there's no evidence Bush ever showed up on those dates.
In 2000, Turnipseed told the Boston Globe that Bush did not
report for duty. (A self-professed Bush supporter,
Turnipseed has since backed off from his categorical claim.)

# However, according to the White House-released pay
records, which are unsigned, Bush was credited for serving
in Montgomery on Oct. 28-29 and Nov. 11-14, 1972. Those
makeup dates should have produced a paper trail, including
Bush's formal request as well as authorization and
supervision documents.

But no such documents exist, and the dates he was credited
for do not match the dates when the Montgomery unit
assembled for drills.

# When Guardsmen miss monthly drills, or "unit training
assemblies" (UTAs), they are allowed to make them up through
substitute service and earn crucial points toward their
service record. Drills are worth one point on a weekday and
two points on each weekend day. For Bush's substitute
service on Nov. 13-14, 1972, he was awarded four points, two
for each day.

But Nov. 13 and 14 were both weekdays. He should have been
awarded two points.

# Bush earned six points for service on Jan. 4-6, 1973 -- a
Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

But he should have earned four points, one each for Thursday
and Friday, two for Saturday.

# Weekday training was the exception in the Guard. For
example, from May 1968 to May 1972, when Bush was in good
standing, he was not credited with attending a single
weekday UTA.

But after 1972, when Bush's absenteeism accelerated, nearly
half of his credited UTAs were for weekdays.

# To maintain unit cohesiveness, the parameters for
substitute service are tightly controlled; drills must be
made up within 15 days immediately before, or 30 days
immediately after, the originally scheduled drill, according
to Guard regulations at the time.

But more than half of the substitute service credits Bush
received fell outside that clear time frame. In one case, he
made up a drill nine weeks later.

# On Sept. 29, 1972, Bush was formally grounded for failing
to take a flight physical. The letter, written by Maj. Gen.
Francis Greenlief, chief of the National Guard Bureau,
ordered Bush to acknowledge in writing that he had received
word of his grounding.

But no such written acknowledgment exists. In 2000, Bush
spokesman Dan Bartlett told the Boston Globe that Bush
couldn't remember if he'd ever been grounded.

# Bartlett also told the Boston Globe that Bush didn't
undergo a physical while in Alabama because his family
doctor was in Houston.

But only Air Force flight surgeons can give flight physicals
to pilots.

# Guard members are required to take a physical exam every
12 months.

But Bush's last Guard physical was in May 1971. Bush was
formally discharged from the service in November 1974, which
means he went without a required physical for 42 months.

# Bush's unsatisfactory participation in the fall of 1972
should have prompted the Texas Air National Guard to write
to his local draft board and inform the board that Bush had
become eligible for the draft. Guard units across the
country contacted draft boards every Sept. 15 to update them
on the status of local Guard members. Bush's absenteeism
should have prompted what's known as a DD Form 44, "Record
of Military Status of Registrant."

But there is no record of any such document having been sent
to Bush's draft board in Houston.

# Records released by the White House note that Bush
received a military dental exam in Alabama on Jan. 6, 1973.

But Bush's request to serve in Alabama covered only
September, October and November 1972. Why he would still be
serving in Alabama months after that remains unclear.

# Each of Bush's numerous substitute service requests should
have formed a lengthy paper trail consisting of AF Form
40a's, with the name of the officer who authorized the
training in advance, the signature of the officer who
supervised the training and Bush's own signature.

But no such documents exist.

# During his last year with the Texas Air National Guard,
Bush missed nearly two-thirds of his mandatory UTAs and made
up some of them with substitute service. Guard regulations
allowed substitute service only in circumstances that are
"beyond the control" of the Guard member.

But neither Bush nor the Texas Air National Guard has ever
explained what the uncontrollable circumstances were that
forced him to miss the majority of his assigned drills in
his last year.

# Bush supposedly returned to his Houston unit in April 1973
and served two days.

But at the end of April, when Bush's Texas commanders had to
rate him for their annual report, they wrote that they could
not do so: "Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit
during the period of this report."

# On June 29, 1973, the Air Reserve Personnel Center in
Denver instructed Bush's commanders to get additional
information from his Alabama unit, where he had supposedly
been training, in order to better evaluate Bush's duty. The
ARPC gave Texas a deadline of Aug. 6 to get the information.

But Bush's commanders ignored the request.

# Bush was credited for attending four days of UTAs with his
Texas unit July 16-19, 1973. That was good for eight crucial
points.

But that's not possible. Guard units hold only two UTAs each
month -- one on a Saturday and one on a Sunday. Although
Bush may well have made up four days, they should not all
have been counted as UTAs, since they occur just twice a
month. The other days are known as "Appropriate Duty," or APDY.

# On July 30, 1973, Bush, preparing to attend Harvard
Business School, signed a statement acknowledging it was his
responsibility to find another unit in which to serve out
the remaining nine months of his commitment.

But Bush never contacted another unit in Massachusetts in
which to fulfill his obligation.

Despite the laundry list of Guard discrepancies, Bush, when
asked about his service this weekend, insisted, "I did
everything [my superiors] asked me to do."


So what ?

Kerry introduced his service as a campaign tool. There are no
indications that he is not the same person, there is no road to
Damascus for him. No obvious life changing event.

These attempts to smear Bush are in a different category. Bush and his
aides admit that he had a fondness for the high life and alcohol when
he was young. However at around 40 he found God and had that life
changing event. Bush is not the same person as he was in his twenties,
so none of this stuff is relevant. So get over it and move on.

As I see it Kerry is a dubious hero married to serious money ( I
wonder how his wife's fortune and their consequent social circle
influence him). Bush is a reformed drunk and non hero with family
money; and his social business circle may influence him; but he looks
a good, righteous man from here; and one who has a conscience to
follow.

The liberal agenda as always looks to smear that which they cannot
beat by fair means . And they cannot breat it because their views and
policy and behaviour is based on emotion, not logic or reason. Oh and
if you want a liberal there's one called Tony Blair that you can have.

JH

"John Hill" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 05:18:55 GMT, Jim wrote:




Bush in the National Guard: A primer
The flap over dubious documents has obscured the real story.
Here it is.


snipped liebral propaganda


- - - - - - - - - - - -

So what ?

Kerry introduced his service as a campaign tool. There are no
indications that he is not the same person, there is no road to
Damascus for him. No obvious life changing event.

These attempts to smear Bush are in a different category. Bush and his
aides admit that he had a fondness for the high life and alcohol when
he was young. However at around 40 he found God and had that life
changing event. Bush is not the same person as he was in his twenties,
so none of this stuff is relevant. So get over it and move on.

As I see it Kerry is a dubious hero married to serious money ( I
wonder how his wife's fortune and their consequent social circle
influence him). Bush is a reformed drunk and non hero with family
money; and his social business circle may influence him; but he looks
a good, righteous man from here; and one who has a conscience to
follow.

The liberal agenda as always looks to smear that which they cannot
beat by fair means . And they cannot breat it because their views and
policy and behaviour is based on emotion, not logic or reason. Oh and
if you want a liberal there's one called Tony Blair that you can have.

Here is another look at Bush's guard service

http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200402180840.asp


JH

John Hill wrote in message
The liberal agenda as always looks to smear that which they cannot
beat by fair means . And they cannot breat it because their views and
policy and behaviour is based on emotion, not logic or reason. Oh and
if you want a liberal there's one called Tony Blair that you can have.

JH

Really now? What about the conservatives smearing anything and
everything Kerry has to say? How come you don't mention THAT?

John Hill wrote:

Have they, are you suggesting the Bush campaign is smearing Kerry ?

ha ha ha ho ho ho he he he

Have you been off-planet the last few months, hill?

--
We today have a president of the United States who looks like he is the
son of Howdy Doody or Alfred E. Newman, who isn't smarter than either of
them, who is arrogant about his ignorance, who is reckless and
incompetent, and whose backers are turning the United States into a pariah.

What, me worry?

On 21 Sep 2004 08:12:05 -0700, (basskisser) wrote:

John Hill wrote in message
The liberal agenda as always looks to smear that which they cannot
beat by fair means . And they cannot breat it because their views and
policy and behaviour is based on emotion, not logic or reason. Oh and
if you want a liberal there's one called Tony Blair that you can have.

JH

Really now? What about the conservatives smearing anything and
everything Kerry has to say? How come you don't mention THAT?

Have they, are you suggesting the Bush campaign is smearing Kerry ?

Kerry raised the issue of his service. So the, AIUI independent ,Swift
Boat Veterans express their concerns how is that the conservatives ?
Oh and of course if Kerry is emoting and lying why shold it be left to
stand ?

What I say about liberals (in all countries) stands - the politicians
of envy. Nasty

JH

"P.Fritz" wrote in message ...
"John Hill" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 05:18:55 GMT, Jim wrote:




Bush in the National Guard: A primer
The flap over dubious documents has obscured the real story.
Here it is.


snipped liebral propaganda


- - - - - - - - - - - -

So what ?

Kerry introduced his service as a campaign tool. There are no
indications that he is not the same person, there is no road to
Damascus for him. No obvious life changing event.

These attempts to smear Bush are in a different category. Bush and his
aides admit that he had a fondness for the high life and alcohol when
he was young. However at around 40 he found God and had that life
changing event. Bush is not the same person as he was in his twenties,
so none of this stuff is relevant. So get over it and move on.

As I see it Kerry is a dubious hero married to serious money ( I
wonder how his wife's fortune and their consequent social circle
influence him). Bush is a reformed drunk and non hero with family
money; and his social business circle may influence him; but he looks
a good, righteous man from here; and one who has a conscience to
follow.

The liberal agenda as always looks to smear that which they cannot
beat by fair means . And they cannot breat it because their views and
policy and behaviour is based on emotion, not logic or reason. Oh and
if you want a liberal there's one called Tony Blair that you can have.

Here is another look at Bush's guard service

snip the conservative trash.

On 21 Sep 2004 12:13:41 -0700, (basskisser) wrote:

The liberal agenda as always looks to smear that which they cannot
beat by fair means . And they cannot breat it because their views and
policy and behaviour is based on emotion, not logic or reason. Oh and
if you want a liberal there's one called Tony Blair that you can have.

Here is another look at Bush's guard service

snip the conservative trash.


Proving my point

JH

On Tue, 21 Sep 2004 14:48:49 -0400, Harry Krause
wrote:


Have they, are you suggesting the Bush campaign is smearing Kerry ?

ha ha ha ho ho ho he he he

Have you been off-planet the last few months, hill?

--


Can you prove the Bush campaign is doing the smearing ?

JH

On Wed, 22 Sep 2004 07:35:27 -0400, Harry Krause
wrote:

ush deserves all the "denigration" he gets. He's the dumbest president
in the history of the United States, so far as I can tell, and on top of
that, he's intellectually lazy, a liar, and grossly incompetent.

Bush and his gang of thugs have a long and dishonorable history of dirty
tricks. Just ask John McCain. You want photos of Bush with his hand in
the cookie jar? I don't have them. But I also don't have photos of the
electricity running through the wires in my house when I flick on a
switch and the room lights up.



And you continue proving the point with hearsay


And still you have not answered the main thrust. Bush now , whatever
he may, or may not have done in the past is a committed christian who
has changed his life.

Bush may indeed deserve to be committed. If, by Christian, you mean a
follower of Jesus, Bush is no Christian. By any reasonable account,
Jesus, the Prince of Peace, would not condone massive scale warfare
perpetrated on trumped-up charges. Nor would Jesus condone ignoring the
plight of the poor.

Bush is not a Christian. He may follow the precepts of some
simple-minded fundamentalist sect that claims to be "Christian," but it
isn't. True Christians follow as closely as they can the path of Mother
Teresa, not Attila the Hun.


Whatever. see above

And, as far as Bush "changing his life," if you are referring to his
claim he has given up booze, drugs and skirt-chasing, well, we only have
his word for that.


We have no evidence to the contrary - after all he's no Bill Clinton


There is no eveidence that Kerry has done the
same.

I don't recall John Kerry ever claiming to now being "holier than thou."
But, then, as far as I know, Kerry isn't a booze-ingesting,
coke-snorting skirt chaser...


But he did "Report for duty" raising the spectre of his dubious
service

But Bush's past isn't the problem. It's his present. He is an
unmitigated disaster for the United States and the world.

I'd love to see a point by point reasoned argument of that pov, but
doubt I will

JH