AWOL's Huge Monstrous Legs

[Beetwasher]

Lead editorial in the NYT today:

The Presidents Guard Service

If President Bush thought that his release of selected payroll and service records would quell the growing controversy over whether he ducked some of his required service in the Air National Guard three decades ago, he is clearly mistaken. The payroll records released yesterday document that he performed no guard duties at all for more than half a year in 1972 and raise questions about how he could be credited with at least 14 days of duty during subsequent periods when his superior officers in two units said they had not seen him.

--snip--

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/11/opinion/11WED1.html

The release of the docs only made things worse...Ha Ha!

[jean]

1. shallow, but I'd really like to hear Barbara Bush's thoughts on this

[Don Claybrook]

4. She won't waste her beautiful mind on this

Or on all the people whose death her son has caused.

[Karenina]

16. But remember her threat...

"Criticise my children and you're DEAD." :scared:

[tom_paine]

17. And I think Livia Augusta was quite serious

I still wonder if she's not the one givign Wellstone Assassination Oredrs and the like.

See "I, Claudius" and the Roman Histories of Tacitus and Suetonius for more elaboration.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

5. Why?

What could that malicious, wrinkled old doyen of the BFEE bring to the table that would count for anything that would matter to anyone with more than two firing neurons?

Why should I care what she thinks?

[jean]

10. because every once in a while we get to hear the toxic phlegm

coming out of her mouth and it gives great perspective on the portrayal of the Bush family, and esp, HER.

She is supposed to be the beloved, grandmotherly, nurturing woman America loves. The quote posted above your post, "why should I bother my beautiful mind," was said in response to news coverage of body bags and dead soldiers. She couldn't be bothered with such tripe.

Come to think of it, maybe this is one reason the press is not allowed to televise the caskets coming off the planes with our wardead. Barbara doesn't want to be bothered.

You don't have to care what she thinks or says - she certainly does not give a rats ass what becomes of any of us.

[truthspeaker]

2. poor Chimpy, reporters are actually reading and examining the documents

He thought it would be like the WMD intel and the Kay reports; he could tell us what they said and we'd believe him without checking for ourselves. Honestly that's what I assumed the press would do too. Could the American press be growing a spine?

[Karenina]

19. They are still *corp controlled

and may back off some bit, but the "story" is now out of even their control. The "story" is in the barbershops, laundromats, diners and malls that have wheelchair access.

What we will see now is the LENGTHS to which the *cabal is willing to go to maintain its grip. *aWol is a hot coal in the palm. Let's watch them drop it into the dry grass of NO JOBS OR HEALTH INSURANCE, INFRASTRUCTURE DECAY, ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION, PRIVACY INVASION, LOSS OF ESTEEM IN THE WORLD, ECONOMIC DEVASTATION AND THOUSANDS OF RETURNING, PISSED OFF SERVICEPEOPLE WHO WITNESSED THE CLUSTERFUCK UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL.

Somebody, pass me the popcorn. And don't bogart either. Erraaa... Any Dr. Pepper in the fridge? :silly:

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. Yup.

I ran this past a friend of mine, a former National Guard Adjutant General(They do personel stuff, doncha know...). Boy howdy, is their paper trail full of holes!

Chimpy is hiding something and a hella lot of the citizenry know it. Add to that the other manifest and manifold issues on the table and you have a guy who would do well to start now to plan for a career change.

People know. People know we can do better.

[JohnyCanuck]

6. What's he hiding? Is Michael Moore giving us a hint?

Michael Moore recently updated his front page at www.michaelmoore.com with a new letter to President AWOL. DU thread here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1108277

In his letter open letter to Dubya MM said:
Mr. Bush, this issue is not going to go away -- and I think yesterday's actions just dug you into a deeper hole. You're probably wondering why the heck this story won't just die. You probably thought that after I brought it up last month and then got slammed by Peter Jennings for uttering the "d" word, the whole matter would just disappear as fast as bag of blow being thrown out the window of a speeding car on a deserted Maine highway.
(my emphasis /jc)

Now putting on my :tinfoilhat: I'm wondering if MM doesn't maybe have some inside info on this issue and is dropping a hint here, re. the blow being thrown out the window, of some incident in Frat Boy Fighter Jock's previous existence that might be related to the AWOL issue. This is just strictly a guess and speculation on my part of course.

[Terwilliger]

8. It culd all be coming together

Why was someone who committed to 6 years of service and to flying a jet fighter...why was he grounded? Why didn't he fly anymore? Why didn't he take a physical?

I hope the mainstream media keeps pressing on these issues.

[Malva Zebrina]

9. I wondered myself about that reference

and couldn't imagine why he mentioned a deserted highway in Maine. :shrug: It is too specific to be metaphor.

[seemslikeadream]

11. According to Josh Marshall

Kevin Drum is all over the nitty-gritty details of the relevant documents. And while some of his points -- as he himself says -- remain speculative, he's on a trail that could turn this whole story upside-down.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com

[calimary]

13. Maybe some points were just "scrubbed" out by a bush aide.

An earlier thread here on DU included this MOST thoughtful post. THANK YOU to whoever first provided this link:

Former National Guard officer says Bush aide scrubbed military records – from OnlineJournal.com

http://onlinejournal.com/bush/110400Starr-Conover/110400starr-conover.html

By Linda L. Starr and Bev Conover
November 4, 2000—Here comes the other shoe to the denials and cries of “desperation” from the George W. Bush camp: A former officer in the Texas National Guard says an aide to George W. Bush scrubbed Bush’s military records to get rid of the disparities between those files and an account of Bush’s military service in his official biography.
Bill Burkett, a former lieutenant colonel in the Guard, said, “As the State Plans Officer for the Texas National Guard, I was on full-time duty at Camp Mabry when Dan Bartlett was cleansing the George W Bush file prior to G.W.'s presidential announcement. For most soldiers at Camp Mabry, this was a generally known event. The archives were closely scrutinized to make sure that the Bush autobiography plans and the record did not directly contradict each other. In essence it was the script of the autobiography which Dan Bartlett and his small team used to scrub a file to be released. This effort was further involved by General Daniel James and Chief of Staff William W. Goodwin at Camp Mabry.”

that's just a snip. Check it out. Could explain what this latter-day "18-minute gap" might be, or what/who caused it. I sent this to both Calpundit AND Josh Marshall last night. They need to see this. EVERYONE needs to see this.

[htuttle]

14. There is an ongoing rumor...

...that Bush got busted for cocaine possession around the time he was 'missing' from the guard, and that's why he had to do the community service that seems so out of character. The arrest was supposedly 'expunged' after the community service.

I suppose that would explain why he couldn't pass his Air Force physical, too.

[kayell]

15. Maybe related to *s 1976 DWI in Kennebunkport? nt

[Terwilliger]

7. Remember that the torn ARF record didn't show up until 2000

Somebody should ask him about THAT!

[DeepModem Mom]

12. Asked my daughter if she thought AWOL had legs: "Mom, it's WALKIN'!"

[Karenina]

18. DeepModem Daughter got it right.

Please give her a (((BIG HUG))) from me!

It's walking like a T-Rex, DMD!!! BOOM! BOOM! EAT *SMIRKING SHIRKER! Gonna gobble the *sucker UP! Pass me a file, I need to sharpen my teeth!

No, fear not, dear ones, this little tidbit goes to the VERY HEART of the mythical American concepts of fairness and equality. The MORE his handlers try to wave it away, the sooner it will break out into a wildfire of angry questions and demands. Military or not, ANY AMERICAN inculcated with the "work hard, keep your nose clean and you too can succeed" meritocracy meme will seethe in resentment at even the appearance of this level of string-pulling for SUCH A *LOSER. This is ESPECIALLY true for us Boomers. We've seen how it's done and it AIN'T GONNA WORK this time.

WE have draft age children. We lived through the Viet Nam debacle. And now this *archetype-fratboy-pansy who NEVER really worked a day in his life and EVEN BLEW OFF THE MILITARY confident in his arrogance that the "rules" don't apply to him, thinks he can ship our kids into another clusterfuck ALL for the benefit of lining his *cronies pockets. He dresses up in costume to prance on a carrier and hold a platter of plastic turkey. Meanwhile MILLIONS are affected by the OBSCENE VIOLENCE he's sparked with his slurred pronouncements.

And THIS *GUY DIDN'T EVEN SHOW UP? WORSE YET, HE'S LYING ABOUT IT?

FULL STOP.