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Wed 1 Sep, 2004 06:57 pm
Looks like another front is going to be opened in the re-fighting of the Viet Nam war.
This is from
Salon:
Quote:The campaign battle over Vietnam War records is still raging, but President Bush may soon be the one answering uncomfortable questions about his past service. Ben Barnes, the former lieutenant governor of Texas, will finally break his silence and talk to the press about what role he played in helping Bush get a coveted slot in the Texas Air National Guard in 1968. Sources say Barnes has already sat down for a "60 Minutes" interview that will air next week. A "60 Minutes" spokesperson declined to comment, saying the program does not discuss reports that are in progress.
Barnes made headlines last week when his videotaped comments that he was "very ashamed" of getting Bush into the National Guard began circulating on the Web. He said the remorse was prompted by a recent visit to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, where he saw the names of thousands of other young men who did not enjoy the connections of the Bush family. Barnes made his comments in May and the video was posted on a pro-Kerry Web site in June, but word of it only began to spread widely last Friday.
Over the weekend, the national press, which for weeks has been amplifying factually challenged allegations against John Kerry by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, gave Barnes' stunning remarks only cursory coverage. The Washington Post, for instance, ran a brief wire story on Saturday, the same day it printed yet another exhaustive piece about allegations surrounding Kerry's war past. In a subsequent WashingtonPost.com online chat, the Post reporter covering the Swift boat story suggested Barnes' comments didn't qualify as "fresh information," and consequently he wasn't interested in "simply regurgitating old controversies." The New York Times ran a brief item on Barnes' statements deep inside its Saturday news section, next to yet another lengthy profile of Kerry's longtime Swift boat nemesis, John O'Neill.
With Barnes now being featured in a sit-down interview with "60 Minutes," the highly rated CBS news magazine, reporters may finally be forced to address the consistent curiosities of Bush's National Guard record. Such as why, after nearly a decade of sifting through military records, neither Bush nor his team of longtime advisors can piece together a coherent explanation for his whereabouts, particularly after April 1972 when Bush inexplicably stopped flying and moved to Alabama, failed to take his physical exam, was grounded by his superiors, and by all accounts failed to show up for weekend training for months at a time. Bush received an honorable discharge in 1973 in order to attend Harvard Business School. Bush supporters insist the honorable discharge proves his service was above reproach. But military legal experts note honorable discharges, particularly in the early '70s as the Vietnam War was winding down, do not indicate unblemished military records.
Rather than offering insight into Bush's so-called missing year, Barnes has firsthand knowledge of how Bush was able to get into the Guard. During the Vietnam War, Guard members were rarely called up for duty in Vietnam, making it a top choice among those seeking to avoid serving in wartorn Southeast Asia. (On his Air Force pilot application, when asked about an overseas assignment, Bush checked "do not volunteer.") In fact, Bush's Guard unit was known as the Champagne Unit, because among its members were sons of prominent Texas politicians and businessmen.
Throughout his political career Bush has adamantly denied that he got a Guard pilot spot through preferential treatment. That, despite the fact Bush was jumped ahead of a nationwide waiting list of 100,000 Guard applicants, while achieving the lowest possible passing grade on his pilot aptitude test for would-be fliers, and listing "none" as his background qualifications.
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Bush has never said where he was in '72 when he was supposed to be showing up for duty; the administration can provide no one who claims to have seen him, and the records he has released do not clear up these questions.
Let's see if the damned liberal media finally decides to start asking the questions with an intention toward getting them answered.
edit: changed thread title to reflect current events
I think it will make a small splash and be swept aside. People are stupidly fixing on the Swiftboat Republican fabrications and can't seem to break out of it.
Then there is the picture with the phony medals.
That's right; George W. Bush
was photographed in uniform wearing a medal he did not earn.
How does that make you veterans feel?
First time I saw the picture. As a veteran, I would like to - well, never mind.
Jimmy Allison, a Texas small-town newspaper publisher (the Midland
Reporter-Telegram, the Plainview
Daily Herald) was a GWHB confidant and pal from the '70s. He was the man who brought Dubya to Alabama to finish ANG duty and work on the doomed Senate campaign of Winton Blount. But the Bushes (instigated by Barbara, apparently) pushed him out of the inner circle during an odd weekend in Florida over the Christmas 1972 holiday. Allison's widow, Linda, tells the story:
Quote:The break happened not long after a boozy election-night wake for Blount, who lost his Senate bid to the incumbent Democrat, John Sparkman. Leaving the election-night "celebration," Allison remembers encountering George W. Bush in the parking lot, urinating on a car, and hearing later about how he'd yelled obscenities at police officers that night. Bush left a house he'd rented in Montgomery trashed -- the furniture broken, walls damaged and a chandelier destroyed, the Birmingham News reported in February. "He was just a rich kid who had no respect for other people's possessions," Mary Smith, a member of the family who rented the house, told the newspaper, adding that a bill sent to Bush for repairs was never paid. And a month later, in December, during a visit to his parents' home in Washington, Bush drunkenly challenged his father to go "mano a mano," as has often been reported.
Around the same time, for the 1972 Christmas holiday, the Allisons met up with the Bushes on vacation in Hobe Sound, Fla. Tension was still evident between Bush and his parents. Linda was a passenger in a car driven by Barbara Bush as they headed to lunch at the local beach club. Bush, who was 26 years old, got on a bicycle and rode in front of the car in a slow, serpentine manner, forcing his mother to crawl along. "He rode so slowly that he kept having to put his foot down to get his balance, and he kept in a weaving pattern so we couldn't get past," Allison recalled. "He was obviously furious with his mother about something, and she was furious at him, too."
More
here.
I would think that wearing a ribbon for a purple heart you didn't earn would be far more grievous than wearing a ribbon for an outstanding unit award...
edgarblythe wrote:I think it will make a small splash and be swept aside. People are stupidly fixing on the Swiftboat Republican fabrications and can't seem to break out of it.
If MCG is any indication, your right.
McG, Kerry's Purple Heart was given to him by the military. By definition, he earned it. He didn't borrow it, he didn't steal it.
Man, as usual, I'm torn on how to address this. On the one hand, I can't stand that underhanded, dishonest smears are being used that actually are doing some harm to Kerry, and so I want to fight back with the obvious analogue. In the right hands, the Bush stuff is much worse than the Kerry stuff. If the roles were reversed...
But on the other hand, that's not a party I want to vote for. I love the Barack Obama/ Zell Miller contrast, and love that I'm voting for the Barack Obama side there.
So, fight back, go for the lowest common denominator? Take the high ground? Some combination thereof? -sigh-
I've been thinking about this too. Maybe the thing to do is to talk over it about things that are more important -- like lime green shoes. It would be nice if there was a way to use the bullying momentum against the bullies.
So lets see if the 60 Minutes report has any meat, for instance can Ben Barnes corroborate his actions? Who did he call to make the arrangements? You know, factual stuff. Otherwise he is an overwhelmingly partisan witness, and what he says has to be suspect.
Not that facts matter to the libs. Over 200 Swifties saying Kerry is a jerk, a handful (who he is taking care of) saying he is god's gift........why a child could figure this out.
A child could come to A conclusion, Shaggy, which is what the SBVfT want. Not neccessarily the right conclusion, or the truth, but a conclusion nonetheless.
Cycloptichorn
Bush is being accussed of wearing a ribbon for a medal that he allegedly hasn't earned. So is Kerry. It has been brought forth that Kerry's first purple heart was a result of an accidental self-inflicted wound. You don't get a purple heart for hurting yourself.
Bush's Outstanding unit ribbon is an unknown. I have no idea if he earned it or not, but really, does it matter? An outstanding unit award? You'd think he'd be a bit more creative if he was going to fake a medal.
Well put Cyc. I guess only Kerry himself admitting his fault would convince you? No amount of testimony or evidence would do it? Not saying the swifties have that, but as a theoretical question..............
It matters as much as the SBVfT matters.
Which is to say, not much. But as long as people keep focusing on the past and not the issues, this kind of mud-slinging will go on and on.
Cycloptichorn
Absolutely agree Cyc. If Kerry hadn't highlighted Vietnam, and blown his few months there into a combination of D-Day and Iwo Jima, while milking the system for a medal a month and relating everything he can think of to it, the Swifties message would be a non starter.
shaggydog wrote:So lets see if the 60 Minutes report has any meat, for instance can Ben Barnes corroborate his actions? Who did he call to make the arrangements? You know, factual stuff. Otherwise he is an overwhelmingly partisan witness, and what he says has to be suspect.
Not that facts matter to the libs. Over 200 Swifties saying Kerry is a jerk, a handful (who he is taking care of) saying he is god's gift........why a child could figure this out.
So Barnes is partisan and needs facts to back up his story, but the swiftvets don't?
PDiddie
PDiddie, are you able to access the complete Slate story and post it here. You have to pay a subscription to Slate to read their stories beyond the first paragraph. This is an important story.
BBB
previous posts
Barne's video tape and transcript of his speech plus the big money pay off from poppy Bush - BBB
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=32408&sid=ee232b8dd51e211404c7518686b4ec2b
Duck, corroboration means physical evidence or testimony by more than one witness. Both the Kerry BoB and swifties have that, tho obviously the swifties have a bigger pile at this point. Ben Barnes said something, now he has to back it up. Not too much to ask I think.
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