Bush Service Documents Only Deepen Controversy

[4ABRUZN]

BUSH AIDES ACCUSED OF DESTROYING MILITARY DOCUMENTS

Just four days after pledging to open up his entire military file, President Bush has reneged on the pledge, with "Administration officials declining yesterday to commit to releasing further records" on top of the inconclusive ones they have already released. Additionally, new charges have surfaced that Bush actually deployed his Texas gubernatorial staff to destroy incriminating records.

As first reported by the Dallas Morning News, retired National Guard Lt. Col. Bill Burkett said that, in 1997, Joe Allbaugh (chief of staff for then-Governor Bush) told the National Guard chief to get the Bush file and make certain "there's not anything there that will embarrass the governor." Burkett said that a few days later at Camp Mabry in Austin, he "saw Mr. Bush's file and documents from it discarded in a trash can."

While the White House has claimed the attack is baseless, Burkett's credibility was bolstered today after the New York Times reported that he made his complaint known right after the incident. In 1998, he sent a letter to a member of the Texas State Senate saying Bush and his aides improperly reviewed the file to "make sure nothing will embarrass the governor during his re-election campaign." Burkett repeated in interviews this week that Bush and his aides "ordered Guard officials to remove damaging information from Mr. Bush's military personnel files."

Yesterday, the commander of the Alabama unit Bush claimed he served in during his year-long absence said "[Bush] never did come to my squad. He was never at my unit." Additionally, in a signed report, commanding officers in Houston said Bush "has not been observed." In order to clear up the controversy, the president would have to follow through on his Sunday pledge to release all of his records rather than continue stonewalling.

Visit Misleader.org for more about Bush Administration distortion. --> < http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1985100&l=18085 >

[QuicksilverDon]

Originally Posted by TomCat

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.

I'm like you, up to a point - I usually feel it's lesser of 2 evils rather than the better of 2, and the last incumbent I voted for was Gerald Ford.
I don't like the way things are going - we're now the world's bully.
WMD or not, what was the "imminent danger" Iraq posed? Why did we go against the consensus of the UN & most allies? What's our plan to "win the people"? There is no link to 9/11 and Iraq, but there is to 9/11 and Saudi Arabia, but we're not touching that.
A piece of legislation impinging on some basic freedoms is called "the Patriot Act" - there's some irony - I feel more threatened by my government than I do by terrorists, and I now work in Manhattan - ground zero for loonies.
Guess I'm just a lefty liberal.

[lisa]

Originally Posted by saxonburgcruiser

That's odd, just this morning on the news i heard an interview with a colonel who remembers quite a bit of him being there.

Gee-I wonder how much they paid him to say that??? As for the woman who says she dated him-big deal-that still doesn't prove he did any guard duty-just that he disappeared for while (probably to do some drunken driving or snort some coke) and then came back and SAID he was at guard duty. Can anyone really believe what he says?? What ANY politician says????

[lisa]

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. And that was the LEAST of my transgressions!

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

Hey TomCat-PM me with the details of the MOST of your transgressions-Don't make me wait for your autobiography!!

[taikuchin]

Originally Posted by JOEM

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.

You may be sick & tired of it, but you know that it's the truth if you were alive during that era. Getting into a reserve unit was the only way to legally dodge the draft (after your college deferrments ran out). It was well known & looked down upon by those who had the guts to stand up for what they believed in rather than hiding in a country club reserve unit (& we all know that some of them were). You are as usual quoting the current rnc party line. Dubya was a draft dodger who couldn't even finish his hitch. Is it only a coincedence that he quit going to meetings when the guard started testing for alcohol & drugs? We know he was a drunk & a doper in his youth (nothing wrong with that if you have the guts to admit it). Dubya is the kind of liar who answers any & all questions with what he thinks will make him look good at that moment. I don't think he even knows or cares when he's lying.

[NSCR FAN]

Originally Posted by TomCat

I smoked some weed and felt-up Janie at the drive in. And that was the LEAST of my transgressions!

Soooo, you knew her too? Nice, wasn't she. Her weed was the bestest!!

[BlueMeanie]

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. And that was the LEAST of my transgressions!

Her name was Janie?? She told me her name was Bobbie Jean.

Dan

[rockstr3]

This is the only time i will ever agree with flip-flopper john kerry. back in the 92 election he was quoted saying that who severed and how shouldnt be an issue in the election. i guess he only beleives it shouldnt be an issue on the democratic side

[taikuchin]

Originally Posted by rockstr3

This is the only time i will ever agree with flip-flopper john kerry. back in the 92 election he was quoted saying that who severed and how shouldnt be an issue in the election. i guess he only beleives it shouldnt be an issue on the democratic side

I seem to recall that republicans were obsessed with the issue right up until dubya was appointed president. Calling Clinton a draft dodger even though his lottery number was never called. Now the right has their own draft dodger/deserter so they'd like to bury the issue, but it's hard to resist pay back time.

[JOEM]

Originally Posted by taikuchin

You may be sick & tired of it, but you know that it's the truth if you were alive during that era. Getting into a reserve unit was the only way to legally dodge the draft (after your college deferrments ran out). It was well known & looked down upon by those who had the guts to stand up for what they believed in rather than hiding in a country club reserve unit (& we all know that some of them were). You are as usual quoting the current rnc party line. Dubya was a draft dodger who couldn't even finish his hitch. Is it only a coincedence that he quit going to meetings when the guard started testing for alcohol & drugs? We know he was a drunk & a doper in his youth (nothing wrong with that if you have the guts to admit it). Dubya is the kind of liar who answers any & all questions with what he thinks will make him look good at that moment. I don't think he even knows or cares when he's lying.

The real draft dodgers fled the country or claimed college deferment or faked illnesses or bribed politicians. Clinton received an indiction notice which he at first ignored and then finally returned to the States from Oxford to stymie, which he did.

Few, if any, reserve units amounted to country clubs. Reservists were subject to call-up at any time and there was no guarantee at all that the mercurial President Johnson wouldn't do just that. Bush did finish his hitch and was honorably discharged. You're ascribing negative motives to folks who served their country honorably. That's what I'm sick and tired of. The mounting evidence is going against your aspersions. Of course, that won't stop you from making them.