Dallas Morning News reports Bush NG records trash canned

[Jersey Devil]

From the Dallas Morning News of all places:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/021104dnpolguard.b4fed.html

Retired Guard officer says he saw some files discarded in trash

Retired National Guard Lt. Col. Bill Burkett said Tuesday that in 1997, then-Gov. Bush's chief of staff, Joe Allbaugh, told the National Guard chief to get the Bush file and make certain "there's not anything there that will embarrass the governor."

Col. 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. He said he recognized the documents as retirement point summaries and pay forms.

Bush aides denied any destruction of records in Mr. Bush's personnel file. "The charges are just flat-out not true," said Dan Bartlett, White House communications director.

[Jazzgirl]

1. I can't believe the Dallas Morning News actually said that!

I thought shrub was their savior and idol. I live in the area and just keep my mouth shut about politics here. Seems like a big chunk of the people I work with worship him.

BTW, isn't it illegal to destroy military records??!!??

Jazzgirl

[dennis4868]

4. isn't it illegal to destroy military records??!!??

Since when does Bush and his thugs give a damn what is and what is not legal....that is completely irrelevant to them....question is...will the media hold him accountable for once?

[Jazzgirl]

59. Should've posted as <sarcasm>

n/t

[Jersey Devil]

6. By tomorrow the WH will portray the Lt Col as a nutball and

by Friday he will say he must have been mistaken. We've seen this before, haven't we?

[UpInArms]

16. Bill Burkett is no nut job nor is he

afraid of these people.

He will stand and face the two-bit crackerjack box POS easily and with grace and style.

[0rganism]

21. Then he will meet an untimely demise

We've all seen what happens to men of principle, when they stand in opposition to the welfare of the bush family legacy. Burkett may be a fine upstanding man, but he may suddenly find himself overdosing on blood pressure medication, or suicidally depressed, or perhaps he will fly on a small airplane, or maybe the brakes in his car will fail at an inopportune moment. Grace and style don't count for shit when you have a load of ratshot pumped into your brain.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

24. You must not know anything about Bill Burkett...

...they've done just about everything possible short of killing him to get him to shut up about Junior's NG records. Burkett continues to speak out every chance he gets because, unlike Junior, he is not a cowardly, lying, sack of cow manure.

IMHO, Burkett is a REAL American hero.

[0rganism]

33. "everything possible short of killing him" - my point exactly

The more coverage he gets, the more of a threat he becomes, and the more danger he's in. As long as he's an internet hero, showing up in a few political interest books here and there, no problem. But if he starts getting mainline media coverage now that AWOL is an issue, look out.

The bush regime has a history of pre-emptive neutralization.

[Taeger]

43. He needs to

Actually, the MORE public he gets sooner the less danger he will be in. He needs to do video interviews on the subject. He needs to make notarized statements to everything he says.

Otherwise, he could be "suicided" before he gets a chance. People will just chalk it up to an emotionally distraut person who tried to attract attention to himself.

Once this is WELL documented, the danger to himself will be minimalized. If he is suddenly found one day in a car and an empty bottle of pills (Enron), it will look too suspicious to be overlooked.

[Taeger]

41. Burket should ...

Burket should definitely avoid flying on small planes.

By the way, if he commits "suicide" we know that the Bush clan has done him in.

[Say_What]

25. Maybe, but the general public won't believe it--they know AWOL is a LIAR

eom

[RedEarth]

38. Dallas Morning News....unbelievable...

Next would be for The Oklahoman(the largest paper in Oklahoma...very, very conservative) to publish this.

[Hekate]

70. Tell Peter Jennings via MoveOn!

MoveOn started an e-mail campaign to enlighten dear Peter on this issue.

ACTION: Why did Jennings declare before a national audience that
this is "a reckless charge not supported by the facts" when major
newspapers found Bush's record very much in question and when his
own network has never looked into the matter? Let ABC News know
you'd like to see them look into the charge that Bush failed to
report for his military service.

ABC News
[e-mail]

Your comments will be taken more seriously if you are polite,
professional, and firm.

REPORT YOUR COMMENTS:
After you write, please let us know what you said at:
http://moveon.org/mediacorps/abcdeserter_dash.html?id=2292-514666-
ZOjxsx0vDlfjpfzs0YOR2w

etcetera

It's time to educate members of the news media who are dragging their feet and buying into the party line that this is old news, nothing but smear, and no different than Bill Clinton going to England on a prestigious and hard-earned scholarship. Maybe if enough of us define "chickenhawk" for Peter Jennings he at least will understand that it's not the lack of combat experience that's repugnant, it's that enthusiastic willingness to send others to their death.

Hekate

"Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war." ~Donald Rumsfeld

"But why should we hear about body bags and deaths and how many,
what day it's going to happen, and how many this or what do you
suppose? Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my
beautiful mind on something like that?" ~Barbara Bush

"I think these people live in an alternate universe." ~Hekate

ARLINGTON WEST, SANTA BARBARA CALIF.
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/Default.htm
click on the large photo of AW to go here:
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/Arlington_west_121003.htm
Scroll down the page for all the photos...

[dennis4868]

2. Lets see...

how much national medi coverage this will get....probably ZERO!

[calimary]

63. Unless we help stoke it. How many people wrote to the Dallas

Morning News about this, thanking them for telling the truth and not cowering to the bush/rove machine? How many people have tried to contact these outlets and let them know WE are out here, too, and WE are reading and making note, and WE know when we're being lied to, or when smokescreens and cover-ups and coddling and toadying are being attempted.

This is critically important because, when they DO report something adverse to bush, the Limbaugh/Pox News/GOP party machinery cranks up to call, email, fax, complain, question their patriotism, call them traitors and other nasty names, and in some cases actually threaten them.

That is why we ABSOLUTELY MUST COUNTER ALL THIS!!! We have to make sure the opposite message gets through. Because otherwise, there is INDEED a chilling effect on solid, hard-hitting reporting. We HAVE to contact these people, or their editorial boards, and demand MORE! Demand that our media be WATCHDOGS, NOT LAPDOGS! Demand that they serve as true patriots in a FREE, UNENCUMBERED exchange of information. They're supposed to be objective reporters, not embedded propaganda-pushers. They're news people, NOT PR people.

[OKNancy]

69. Read the same article in USA Today..so

it is getting some national play....hum what is next? can you say DRUGS......

[tabasco]

3. This is a whole new can of worms. A BIG can.

Have people finally discovered their consciences?

[Rowdyboy]

12. Drip...Drip....Drip...

Drip

[Say_What]

14. It does kinda look like the snowball headed downhill is gathering speed...

:evilgrin:

[0007]

51. ....and the worms will one day turn to vipers, junior type.

[Lex]

5. Well prove it's not true, Dan Barlett!

Quote: Bush aides denied any destruction of records in Mr. Bush's personnel file. "The charges are just flat-out not true," said Dan Bartlett, White House communications director.
------------------

Oh yeah, well prove it--give us the damn records, Dan Bartlett! Otherwise, the story is seeming very plausible right now.

[Taeger]

44. Methinks the lady doth protest too much (nm)

[CO Liberal]

7. In The Tradition of Richard Nixon & Oliver North

Republicans are good at destroying records.

[underpants]

19. At least Ollie knew enough to SHRED them

No they just throw them away and they didn't even do it "in house". Stoooooooooopid

[Media_Lies_Daily]

26. But Ollie wasn't smart enough to know that the White House systems...

...kept a copy of every single email and document he thought he was deleting or shredding. I knew one of the guys that installed the email system.

Poor Ollie...long on personal bravery, but short to nonexistent on common sense and knowing right from wrong.

[DemoTex]

8. Shrubs Flubs Scrubbed

See GD: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1109135

One of the authors of this Dallas Morning News piece is Michelle Mittelstadt, of the DMN's Washington Bureau. I know Michelle. She is a fine person and a fine reporter. I love to see her byline on the front page, above the fold, as this article was this morning.

[Jersey Devil]

13. Thanks - does that make my post a dupe?

I am still learning the ropes here.

[DemoTex]

15. Not in my book ('course I'm no Mod)

I just thought you might want to see the discussion in GD on this article.

[Taeger]

45. Blood is in the water

The blood is in the water. The sharks simply can't help themselves at this point even though they want to.

The story is TOO BIG and they'll be scooped if they just ignore it. Some outlets are trying to whitewash it, but it's only adding more chum to the water since the explanations obviously dodge the fundamental questions.

Like Jon Stewart said "Where the f*** have you guys been????".

I think the White House press corp see the light at the end of their VERY DARK tunnel. They've known for a LONG time that the Emperor has no clothes. Now they see that the Emperor is vulnerable and want to hasten his departure from the throne.

[Karenina]

71. See image here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=34375

[indepat]

9. Either retired national guard LtCol Burkett is lying or Dan Bartlett,

who surely only knows what he has been told, is either lying or has been lied lied to: inquiring minds want to know. Surely LtCol Burkett would not lie in some political vendetta: it just wouldn't make any sense to risk so much with nothing personal to gain.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

28. Burkett has been reporting the facts in this matter for several years...

...and the NeoCons nearly ruined him. Maybe you should do a Google search on Burkett's name...you might fimnd it enlightening.

[Taeger]

46. Is he suing ????

One must always look for motivations. The man is not suing for sexual harassment. He doesn't have a book deal. He hasn't sold his story to the Enquirer.

He has handled himself in a completely ethical fashion.

That makes his account trustworthy. By Republican standards(Clinton accusations), it's the absolute fucking truth.

[Say_What]

10. If we're lucky someone retrieved those trashed records

eom

[CO Liberal]

11. Proposal for the GW Bush Presidential Library

(That's where all the important papers appear to have gone.)

:-)

[underpants]

18. I'll bet they could charge $2,000 entry fee

Hell they are selling hot dogs and hamburgers for that much to campaign contributors.

That was hilarious CO

[CO Liberal]

56. Thanks, underpants

Sometimes, I just get inspired....

:-)

[kskiska]

17. The reporter, Wayne Slater, is the guy who said that

Bush started to tell him about his drunk driving arrest when Karen Hughes pulled him away. This was well before the DUI in Maine was discovered.

[kath]

49. Is Wayne Slater also the reporter that W taunted about the rumor

that he had crashed a jet? Something like "well, show me the plane"?

[KansDem]

20. Say...I was thinking, do you suppose there's a connection...

between Bush's AWOL status and his alleged arrest for cocaine? Could this be the reason why his records were scrubbed?

I thought either one by itself would be damaging enough, but didn't think in terms of the two being connected. If Bush was arrested for cocaine use, wouldn't this information be made known to his guard command? And if he wanted to avoid the guard (embarrassment, discipline, consequences), he would simply stop showing up...

The alleged arrest took place in 1972:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/10/18/cocaine/

Bush was absent from the Guard during this time (1972-73):
http://www.awolbush.com/

How are arrests and consequent bouts with the (civilian) court system while "off duty" handled by the military?

Is this the general consensus?

[Jackpine Radical]

22. He stopped showing up during the period

that he was working off his community service in Dallas after the drug bust.

[Lex]

27. Ahhhh . . . so he didn't show up because

because he couldn't show up.

Shrubbie was working his little inner-city stint to get his record of arrest expunged. Couldn't report to the guard because his parole officer (or whatever) would've noted the absence and his diversion program (community service) would not have been fulfilled.

Same time frame, here, you're right.

[Taeger]

47. Who could believe

Who could really believe this ass-hole had an ounce of voluntary community service in him?????

Obviously, if he was in Houston he could have done his guard duty.

[DenverDem]

30. Actually he did community service in the ghetto of Houston.

This was why his drivers records were scrubbed and he was given a new drivers license number when he became governor of Texas. This is common knowledge in Texas. He was given a deferred adjudication for blow possession when other Texans were doing years of hard time for possessing pot SEEDS.

[Jackpine Radical]

42. You're right--it was Houston.

Project Pull.

For some reason I guess they didn't wanna call it "Project Push."

[mike1963]

53. Houston.

Project PULL

[Media_Lies_Daily]

29. There used to be a picture on the Net of Junior and a lady...

...that used to run a community service operation in Houston. It appears to have been taken in the 1971-1973 time frame, and shows Junior involved in loading or unloading a truck for the woman's business.

My conjecture is that Junior was caught with coke in his car in the early 1970s (1972??) and in return for having the record expunged from his record, he did community service in Houston for the lady described above. You may recall that Junior had the number on his Texas driver's license changed sometime before the 2000 election.

Where that picture has gone, nobody seems to know.

[KansDem]

39. Madge Bush (no relation)

Hatfield took his suspicions to Madge Bush, the Director of the MLK Community Center, but she refused to give him any comment. Regardless, his brief talk with Ms. Bush (no relation) only serves to heighten his suspicions. "More important than what Ms. Bush said was what she didn't say," writes the author, dipping dangerously close to the realm of speculation, "I detected an unmistakable hint of regret in her voice, as if she was saying, 'I wish I could tell you the truth, but I'm between a rock and a hard place because so many underprivileged people depend on me and this agency and I can't jeopardize the community center's existence."
http://www.evote.com/store/reviews/review110499.asp

edited to add this link:
Madgelean "Madge" Bush (no relation), the director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center denied, quite rightly, that Bush junior had ever attended her establishment, but she refused point blank to answer Hatfield's follow up question:" Did Governor Bush perform court-ordered community service at ANOTHER agency in Houston or elsewhere in Texas other than the Martin Luther King, Jr., Center?"

There was a long pause, Hatfield reports in his book, and then she said:

"No comment because Madge Bush is not gonna talk to youI am not getting off into anything about George except he's the governor of Texas. That's all I'm gonna say about George W. Bush". With that she hung up.
http://www.davidicke.com/icke/articles/fortson.html

[Media_Lies_Daily]

65. Thank you, sir! Appreciate the data.

[Jackpine Radical]

23. If this story has no legs, then it must be crawling around

on its belly. It showed up today in the Eau Claire (WI) Leader Telegram--on P. 5, kinda typical for that RW rag. The story was sourced to the Dallas M N via Knight Ridder.

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[Jack from Charlotte]

34. Someone should call for an investigation...........

Tampering with federal documents is a very serious allegation. Someone with some stature needs to stand up and call for an investigation into this.

I'd suggest Sen. Inoye. Not only is he a decorated war hero........ my god, that pinned up sleeve is a red badge of courage....... but he was also on the Senate Watergate Committee.

[yellowcanine]

32. What is the statute of limitations on destroying military records?

Maybe it is not to late to haul Joe Allbaugh, Col. Burkett, and others involved in front of a grand jury and see who is lying.

[pacifictiger]

36. gee, how many investigations

going on at the same time would that be now? Anyone counting?
Plame, Halliburton, energy policy, public records access, Frist office hacking, WMDs, 9/11, the breast, Awol, ..??.,
Maybe they're trying to set a record. Sort of puts whitewater, travelgate, and the blow job to shame.

[yellowcanine]

37. Always room for one more....

Maybe Bush will get Rove and Cheney to lead this one?

[RamboLiberal]

35. Hope someone puts Burkett on TV

BTW, the book mentioned hits the stands March 5th, this is by the author who wrote Bush's Brain (book on Karl Rove). I can't wait to get this one.



A news-breaking exposé of the Bush administration's rush to war, from the coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Bush's Brain
In this exclusive behind-the-scenes account, veteran journalist James Moore reveals how the overthrow of Saddam Hussein was a key goal of the Bush administration from the very beginning—and a critical component of the president's reelection strategy. Drawing on high-level sources inside the administration and the military, Moore weaves together a multifaceted narrative that probes the political underpinnings of the administration's push for an Iraq war, exposes efforts during the war (and after) to manipulate perceptions of U.S. military success, and contrasts it all to the ultimate price paid by soldiers duped into believing they were fighting for a just cause, not for political gain.

Moore takes us inside strategy meetings at the White House and the Pentagon, revealing the political calculus behind critical military decisions. He examines the administration's unprecedented efforts to control and withhold information, including in-depth discussions with Joseph C. Wilson, husband of Valerie Plame, the CIA operative allegedly exposed by Karl Rove. Moore also gives us an uncensored view of combat in Iraq, reporting opinions of a senior Air Force source and troops on the ground; he shows how the war's first American casualty actually died, and reveals what really happened to Jessica Lynch's unit.

Finally, Moore uncovers what might be in store if Bush wins reelection: the use of Iraq as a forward base in the fight against terrorism, and where the war may go next. Publishing at the height of the presidential election season next spring, Bush's War for Reelection is sure to be one of the most talked about books of the year.

James Moore (Austin, T-X) is an Emmy Award-winning television news correspondent with more than a quarter century of journalistic experience. He has covered every presidential campaign since 1976, and his reports have appeared on CNN, NBC, and CBS. He is the coauthor of the 2003 New York Times bestseller Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential (0-471-47140-2).

From amazon.com

[wicket]

52. nice!

We should all pre-order it and make it a bestseller!!!!

[RamboLiberal]

54. I hope it is a best seller - it's already on my calendar to

go to the bookstore at lunch time March 5th and hopefully get it.

[BlueCollar]

40. So What...

Anybody wanna bet me that the DMN and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram endorse Bush for pResident* anyway...

no news here folks...time to move on and discuss morality issues like Janet's boob...

end sarcasm:

[Taeger]

48. Thank you Peter Jennings !!!!

None of this would have been possible without your ineptitude!!!

[truthisfreedom]

57. and thank meet the press with Tim Russert, who cracked open the door

for looking into both bush's IRS records and service records.

so... how about those IRS records he promised us?

[truthisfreedom]

50. fun! this one sounds like a real hole in the dike.

[0007]

55. Now let's throw the idiot out of office

He has done enough damage to this country and the life of millions of Americans.

Put a muzzle on his mother, Barbara, a carton of cigarettes for Laura, a place in the hall of shame for poopy. The folks in Florida know what to do with Jebb.

[Danieljay]

58. Keep this one going!

and the plot thickens....

[Postman]

60. this fits in with the Bush habit of sanitizing their dirty laundry.....

...from public records.

From sanitizing his driving record to sanitizing his NG record.

He's a lying liar.

[bushwakker]

61. How is this not the lead story everywhere?

:grr:

[Nashyra]

62. Burkett

should get in touch with Clark. He has nothing to lose now.

[grasswire]

64. the freepers are already trashing Burkett

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1076243/posts

[Ernesto]

67. It will be very soon

Try in the AM (Thats Thursday 2-12).

[young_at_heart]

66. Secrecy....not true....denial....etc. etc.

Image Building 101....the president is a strong leader. "If we keep saying it over and over the masses will believe it, and don't forget to destroy anything that might prove otherwise". Would a strong leader sit in a classroom for 1/2 hr. while our country is under attack?

[Karenina]

68. Tee-hee!

:kick: