Can someone explain to me how, after the glut of news pieces on single moms serving in the reserves and National Guard being asked to leave their kids behind while they deploy to some combat zone, how anyone in this country can think that service in the National Guard gets you OUT OF COMBAT DUTY?
Incidentally, the guys that were court-martialed recently for the friendly fire incident that killed four Canadians in Afghanistan...they were from the Illinois Air National Guard.
Please put a head's up in your subject line warning readers of political content. I don't mind if you post here, since I served for 23 1/2 years to help guarantee your right to do so, I just don't particularly care to be ambushed when I'm thinking about sex.
Thank you,
Yoda
Resume
GEORGE W. BUSH
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20520
EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:
Law Enforcement:
I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver's license suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been "lost" and is not available.
Military:
I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By joining the Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam.
College:
I graduated from Yale University with a low C average. I was a
cheerleader.
PAST WORK EXPERIENCE:
I ran for U.S. Congress and lost. I began my career in the oil business in Midland,Texas, in 1975. I bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas. The company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock. I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money. With the help of my father and our friends in the oil industry (including Enron CEO Ken Lay), I was elected governor of Texas.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS:
I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union. During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in America. I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed money. I set the record for the most executions by any governor in American history. With the help of my brother, the governor of Florida, and my father's appointments to the Supreme Court, I became President after losing by over 500,000 votes.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT:
I am the first President in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record. I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of over one billion dollars per week. I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury. I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history. I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period. I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period. I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. stock market. In my first year in office, over 2 million Americans lost their jobs and that trend continues every month. I'm proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history. My "poorest millionaire," Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her. I set the record for most campaign fundraising trips by a U.S.President. I am the all-time U.S. and world record-holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations. My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. History - Enron. My political party used Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my election decision. I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation or prosecution. More time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest corporate rip-offs in history. I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed. I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history. I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts. I appointed more convicted criminals to administration than any President in U.S. history. I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy in the history of the United States government. I've broken more international treaties than any President in U.S. history. I am the first President in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission. I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law. I refused to allow inspector's access to U.S. "prisoners of war" detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention. I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. election). I set the record for fewest numbers of press conferences of any President since the advent of television. I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one-year period. After taking off the entire month of August, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history. I garnered the most sympathy for the U.S. after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history. I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for protests against any person in the history of mankind. I am the first President in U.S. history to order an unprovoked, pre-emptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. citizens, and the world community. I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families -- in wartime. In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our reasons for attacking Iraq and then blamed the lies on our British friends. I am the first President in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security. I am supporting development of a nuclear "Tactical Bunker Buster," a WMD. I have so far failed to fulfill my pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden [sic] to justice.
RECORDS AND REFERENCES:
All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now in my father's library, sealed and unavailable for public view. All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view. All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.
PLEASE CONSIDER MY EXPERIENCE WHEN VOTING IN 2004.
PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERY VOTER YOU KNOW
Can someone explain to me how, after the glut of news pieces on single moms serving in the reserves and National Guard being asked to leave their kids behind while they deploy to some combat zone, how anyone in this country can think that service in the National Guard gets you OUT OF COMBAT DUTY?
Incidentally, the guys that were court-martialed recently for the friendly fire incident that killed four Canadians in Afghanistan...they were from the Illinois Air National Guard.
Please put a head's up in your subject line warning readers of political content. I don't mind if you post here, since I served for 23 1/2 years to help guarantee your right to do so, I just don't particularly care to be ambushed when I'm thinking about sex.
Thank you,
Yoda
-- Modified on 2/16/2004 2:23:34 PM
Well said. But you'll never convince a Bush-basher of anything.
Instead of informing everyone of the evils of GWB, posts like the one above serve to reveal the supreme idiocy of the poster more than anything else.
RLTW
Right on. When did TER take such a hard LEFT turn!!
Bribite, Megapig, EmeraldVodka, and James86 steered it that way. Just about EVERY political post I've made was in rebuttal to the right wing propaganda spouted by one of them, or someone else taking a similar position, and where I attempted a left turn to get the discussion back to the center. I do agree that I have been totally unwilling to let any post of that right-wing nature stand unopposed, and I continue to hold to that.
Gee, sdstud, thanks. I wouldn't have thought that four people with a merely mild posting record (I didn't even start until two months ago, and have only posted about once every other day) could "steer" into "a hard right turn," as though telling the truth about the lies of the far Left is "hard right."
But you've got one other thing wrong, too. A post from you is tantamount to letting "any post of that right-wing nature stand unopposed."
Then you have to assume that my responses are the same as leaving your views unopposed. That of course is your issue, not mine.
History has shown that get exactly the type of leadership that we deserve. And unfortunately, you deserve the Cheney / Bush / Ashcroft regime.
He actually fulfilled his duty while stationed in Texas. As well he should have, since a call from Daddy (who was a congressman at the time) got him jumped OVER 500 people who otherwise either needed to SERVE in Vietnam or go to Canada, or break the law in this country.
It was only after being transferred to Alabama's Air National Guard that there is no record of his showing up over a 5+ month span, and then he got his entire obligation ended early with another call from Daddy after he got into Harvard Business School (based, obviously, on his stellar? C average from Yale and distinguished? Military record, rather than any family connections).
I simply don't think it's appropriate to cast false aspersions that Bush was AWOL from the Texas National Guard. It was the Alabama National Guard.
Even General Turnipseed that was quoted as saying he didn't remember Bush in Alabama has admitted his has Alzheimer's disease! His second in command Lt. Col John Calhoun recalls Turnipseed introducing Bush to Calhoun. It has all been a bunch of shit, but you will still continue to post these moronic diatribes, it's your nature!
The Boston Globe is backing away from their story and have admitted it is without merit! It's a dead issue with everyone but you who worship Michael Moore. Now there's a great American...not.
The only thing you guys accomplished with this rant is to alienate every man and woman who has ever served in the National Guard and their families and friends. Most vets vote by the way.
That's all I ask. Nothing more. I would even settle for duty records, or pay records, or Flight Logs, from the period of May through October of 1972, that establish Bush's participation in those service duties.
The fact is, none of this exists, FOR A REASON: He DIDN'T SERVE!
So, similarly, what would it take for YOU to accept that Bush's claim that he DID fulfill his obligation is the lie?
-- Modified on 2/16/2004 2:56:56 PM
People hate it.
Now he has several people who have served with him in Alabama coming forth.
Pay records showing he was there and paid.
Duty records show he made his training committments.
The jet he was trained on was being decommissioned and not in service in Alabama so he could not fly.,
And an Honorable Discharge. I would go into what honorable means with you, but I fear it a waste of time.
Add to that anyone who did not show up for National Guard duty for 6 months would not be now or then a big deal. Alot of soldiers put in their points in 4, 5 or 6 months.
It all boils down to a big lie, but please, keep running that dear horse, I like it! It just makes you look as foolish as you truly are.
I DID fully expect that they'd be able to get someone who supported him politically to claim that they served with him. Many people lie, when the stakes are high enough. That ain't proof. And he was well enough connected that the Honorable Discharge wasn't too hard to come by. Just like his admission to Yale and to Harvard B-school with grades that NEVER would get 99% of the other applicants accepted.
But they have NOT come up with pay records or duty records for the specific 5+ month stretch of May '72 through Oct. '72. And you already acknowledge that there were no flight records, because the plane he flew was obsoleted. Which, I would contend is one of the reasons nobody CARED AT THE TIME that he was not showing up for duty. But that still don't make it right.
In any case, I agree, that this particular part of the political attack strategy is not pleasant, and many people dislike it. Of course, that never stopped the Republicans from engaging in it either, because, at the end of the day, it actually works. We are doing it NOW, because it IS so unpleasant. But by November, the only part of this that anyone will remember is that it will stick in the subconscious of 1% of the undecided voters that Bush was AWOL, while Kerry was getting 3 Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, and a Silver Star. It actually wouldn't matter if it wasn't true (although I believe it IS true) And it will swing that 1% of the undecided vote. The people who HATE this attack were Bush voters ANYWAYS, and we simply don't care about how THEY feel, their votes were never up for grabs. It WILL sway a few hundred thousand votes over the national campaign. And in the LAST election, that would have DEFINITELY been enough to overcome Bush's margin of theft.
This is now how this game is played. The REASON it is played this way is because the Republican campaigns developed this game, as early as Nixon, and refined up through Bush's last victory. Well guess what? The Dems have now learned how to play it too. And play it they will. Until Bush packs his bags for Crawford.
-- Modified on 2/16/2004 3:45:13 PM
you would realize it is a dead issue.
After admitting it is a lie, you actually think the American people will be motivated by it. Hmm, you think quite highly of the American people. I just wish everyone read your brain dead vomit.
My tendency IS to assume that these charges would not stick at all if there were no validity to them. The fact that the Bush administration has had SO MUCH PROBLEM providing any actual proof that he DID serve, that this has kept the issue alive. Since most everyone knows in these scandals, that were there is so much smoke for so long a period of time, there most likely IS fire.
And Bribite, as someone who has already posted an acknowledged lie about Jane Fonda on the board previously (the story about accepting coded messages and turning them into the Viet Cong captors is a total fabrication), you have very little moral high ground to stand on here.