Bush Service Documents Only Deepen Controversy

[JOEM]

Hard to believe you served in the military, Taik, sometimes. You should know that reserve service means you meet minimum requirements, get credit for meeting them, and otherwise you're a civilian. I've handled lots of reservists, including what are called IMAs (Individual Mobility Augmentees) and I can't say for sure if they showed up for their weekend or after hours duty. I know the base commanders probably never saw them.

It was President Johnson, a Democrat, who decided not to send more Reserve units to Vietnam. But if you wore a uniform as a reservist back then, you could have ended up in Vietnam with very little notice. I am getting sick and tired of honorable Vietnam era reservists being hit with "draft dodging" accusations when the real draft dodgers fled the country. I really am.

[OC Cruzer]

Originally Posted by my80volare

Get the Facts, not DNC spin The complete story is there, and FactCheck.org is hardly a right wing site. They scrutinize statements made by both sides of the issue.

Just added it to my favorites list. I've got a feeling I'll be spending alot of time there between now and November

[Overtake]

Originally Posted by 4ABRUZN

Wheres spending $41 million to investigate a bl*wjob was a wise investment of the taxpayers money....

[4ABRUZN]

Originally Posted by saxonburgcruiser

That is just about the dumbist thing i have read this week....if you truly feel that 41 million was spent to investigate a BJ, then i really feel sorry for you

No, I realize it was wasted in a vain attempt to discredit and impeach President Clinton; but that doesn't make me feel any better.

[TomCat]

I've avoided all the politically-based posts up to now, but for some reason (boredom?) read this one.
Bottom line, I think it's great that we live in a country where people can freely express their opinions, for the world to see. Where else does this happen?
I voted straight Democratic (as my parents did) until the last election, when I voted for President Bush. This November, I'm not sure yet who I will vote for and might not make up my mind until the last minute.
I think there a lot of "me's" out there, who aren't locked into one party or the other, but just vote for who you think is the best guy (or gal) to lead us for the next 4 years at that time.
So keep up the debate, but I would hope that everyone would also keep an open mind and don't get trapped into being straight "Republican" or "Democrat" come hell or high water.

I would never run for political office because someone would dredge up the fact that I smoked some weed and felt-up Janie at the drive in. And that was the LEAST of my transgressions!

Keep the banter going, and I hope everyone can still be friends afterwards.

What about this
If Mr. John Kerry gets the Democrat Presidential nomination, and you have
thoughts of voting for him...you might want to read this E-mail, and then
further investigate his past...to see if he's the one that you would like to
support for the position of 'President of the United States.'

This came from a retired Marine Col.

'War Hero' john kerry

I keep hearing "Vietnam Veteran" every time this joker makes a speech.
Below adds some perspective.

As Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, [consolidates his]...bid for the
White House, Americans should know a few things about him that he might
prefer go unmentioned - and I don't mean his $75 haircuts.

When Mr. Kerry pontificated at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Veterans
Day, a group of veterans turned their backs on him and walked away. They
remembered Mr. Kerry as the anti-war activist who testified before Congress
during the war, accusing veterans of being war criminals. The dust jacket of
Mr. Kerry's pro-Hanoi book, "The New Soldier," features a photograph of his
ragged band of radicals mocking the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial, which
depicts the flag raising on Iwo Jima, with an upside-down American flag.

Retired Gen. George S. Patton III charged that Mr. Kerry's actions as an
anti-war activist had "given aid and comfort to the enemy," as had the
actions of Ramsey Clark and Jane Fonda. Also, Mr. Kerry lied when he threw
what he claimed were his war medals over the White House fence; he later
admitted they weren't his. [The ones he received are] now...displayed on
his office wall.

Long after he changed sides in congressional hearings, Mr. Kerry lobbied for
renewed trade relations with Hanoi.[Interestingly] at the same time, his
cousin C. Stewart Forbes, chief executive for Colliers International, assisted in brokering a $905 million deal to develop a deep-sea port at Vung Tau, Vietnam - an odd coincidence.

As noted in the Inside Politics column of Nov. 14 Nation), historian
Douglas Brinkley is writing Mr. Kerry's biography.
Hopefully, he'll include the senator's latest ignominious feat: preventing
the Vietnam Human Rights Act (HR 2833) from coming to a vote in the Senate,
claiming human rights would deteriorate as a result. His actions sent a clear signal to Hanoi that Congress cares little about the human rights for which so many Americans fought and died. [Of note], the State Department ranked Vietnam among the 10 regimes worldwide least tolerant of religious
freedom.

Recently, 354 churches of the Montagnards, a Christian ethnic minority, were
forcibly disbanded, and by mid-October, more than 50 Christian pastors and
elders had been arrested in Dak Lak province alone.
On Oct. 29, the secret police executed three Montagnards by lethal injection simply for protesting religious repression. The communists are conducting
a progrom against the Montagnards, forcing Christians to drink a mixture
of goat's blood and alcohol and renounce Christianity. Thousands have
been killed or imprisoned or have just "disappeared." [During the V ietnam
war] the Montagnards lost one-half of their adult male population fighting for
the United States; and without them, there might be thousands more American
names on that somber black granite wall at the Vietnam memorial.

As Mr. Kerry...[makes his] run for the presidency, people must remember that
he has fought harder for Hanoi as an anti-war activist and a senator than he
did against the Vietnamese communists while serving in the Navy in Vietnam.

MICHAEL BENGE
Foreign Service officer and former Vietnam POW (1968 to 1973); Washington

[dreamer]

Originally Posted by Unregister

What about this
If Mr. John Kerry gets the Democrat Presidential nomination, and you have
thoughts of voting for him...you might want to read this E-mail, and then
further investigate his past...to see if he's the one that you would like to
support for the position of 'President of the United States.'

This came from a retired Marine Col.

'War Hero' john kerry

I keep hearing "Vietnam Veteran" every time this joker makes a speech.
Below adds some perspective.

As Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, [consolidates his]...bid for the
White House, Americans should know a few things about him that he might
prefer go unmentioned - and I don't mean his $75 haircuts.

When Mr. Kerry pontificated at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Veterans
Day, a group of veterans turned their backs on him and walked away. They
remembered Mr. Kerry as the anti-war activist who testified before Congress
during the war, accusing veterans of being war criminals. The dust jacket of
Mr. Kerry's pro-Hanoi book, "The New Soldier," features a photograph of his
ragged band of radicals mocking the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial, which
depicts the flag raising on Iwo Jima, with an upside-down American flag.

Retired Gen. George S. Patton III charged that Mr. Kerry's actions as an
anti-war activist had "given aid and comfort to the enemy," as had the
actions of Ramsey Clark and Jane Fonda. Also, Mr. Kerry lied when he threw
what he claimed were his war medals over the White House fence; he later
admitted they weren't his. [The ones he received are] now...displayed on
his office wall.

Long after he changed sides in congressional hearings, Mr. Kerry lobbied for
renewed trade relations with Hanoi.[Interestingly] at the same time, his
cousin C. Stewart Forbes, chief executive for Colliers International, assisted in brokering a $905 million deal to develop a deep-sea port at Vung Tau, Vietnam - an odd coincidence.

As noted in the Inside Politics column of Nov. 14 Nation), historian
Douglas Brinkley is writing Mr. Kerry's biography.
Hopefully, he'll include the senator's latest ignominious feat: preventing
the Vietnam Human Rights Act (HR 2833) from coming to a vote in the Senate,
claiming human rights would deteriorate as a result. His actions sent a clear signal to Hanoi that Congress cares little about the human rights for which so many Americans fought and died. [Of note], the State Department ranked Vietnam among the 10 regimes worldwide least tolerant of religious
freedom.

Recently, 354 churches of the Montagnards, a Christian ethnic minority, were
forcibly disbanded, and by mid-October, more than 50 Christian pastors and
elders had been arrested in Dak Lak province alone.
On Oct. 29, the secret police executed three Montagnards by lethal injection simply for protesting religious repression. The communists are conducting
a progrom against the Montagnards, forcing Christians to drink a mixture
of goat's blood and alcohol and renounce Christianity. Thousands have
been killed or imprisoned or have just "disappeared." [During the V ietnam
war] the Montagnards lost one-half of their adult male population fighting for
the United States; and without them, there might be thousands more American
names on that somber black granite wall at the Vietnam memorial.

As Mr. Kerry...[makes his] run for the presidency, people must remember that
he has fought harder for Hanoi as an anti-war activist and a senator than he
did against the Vietnamese communists while serving in the Navy in Vietnam.

MICHAEL BENGE
Foreign Service officer and former Vietnam POW (1968 to 1973); Washington

unless you register, I disregard any and all posts.

[Dreamacre]

Originally Posted by TomCat

I would never run for political office because someone would dredge up the fact that I smoked some weed and felt-up Janie at the drive in.

So YOU are the one

She never told me your name, just that you were a cool cat and liked to be called "Daddyo"

[dreamer]

As for Bush's service record, I don't care. Really don't. I've listened to what's out there, and know one woman who knew him from the time he was in Al. but she never saw him come and go from work and says she "assumed" what he was doing there was his Natinal guard duty fulfillment. It is weird nobody remembers him, most would claim they knew him when. However, not greatly important in my book. Unless he lied about it.

[4ABRUZN]

Originally Posted by dreamer

unless you register, I disregard any and all posts.

I'm with ya, dreamer.

"Advance and be recognized, Unregister."