NYTIMES: Portrait of George Bush in '72 ....

[annxburns]

Sorry if a dupe.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/20/politics/campaign/20bama.html?pagewanted=1
MONTGOMERY, Ala., Sept. 17 - Nineteen seventy-two was the year George W. Bush dropped off the radar screen.

He abandoned his once-prized status as a National Guard pilot by failing to appear for a required physical. He sought temporary reassignment from the Texas Air National Guard to an Alabama unit but for six months did not show up for training. He signed on as an official in the losing campaign of a Republican Senate candidate in Alabama, and even there he left few impressions other than as an amiable bachelor with a good tennis game and a famous father.

[rawstory]

1. non-restricted altavista link...

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/20/politics/campaign/20bama.html?ex=1096257600&en=d90c225d3ed58c80&ei=5006&partner=ALTAVISTA1

[Rose Siding]

2. Whoa. The repubs are gonna be sooooo mad...

:bounce:

[hlthe2b]

4. It's about time!

NYT has had that info on their own Army expert's review of Bush* record for some time. Where is the reporting on his time at the youth center and the rumours that this was required public service? Someone has that info...

Well, at least it keeps the real story alive--that Bush* did not appear to earn that early honorable discharge...

[skooooo]

3. Oh this is rich!

excerpt:

Mr. Bush, while missing months of the Guard duty that allowed him to avoid Vietnam, was the political director of the Blount campaign, which accused Mr. Sparkman - a hawk on the war - and the national Democrats of supporting "amnesty for all draft dodgers" and of showing "more concern for coddling deserters than for patriotic American young men who have lost their lives in Vietnam." In the last week of the race, the Blount campaign ran a radio advertisement using an edited recording of Mr. Sparkman that made him appear to support forced busing of schoolchildren, which he opposed.

[Hekate]

17. W just says whatever pops into his head, regardless ...

...of its truth or relation to reality. Kind of a twisted "If it feels bad, say it" in service to winning at any cost by destroying your opponent.

What a piece of work.

Hekate

[Thurston Howell IV]

5. I was hoping for stuff like this to happen -- finally!

This week the shit hit the fan in Iraq -- as least as far as media coverage and the punditocracy. About time!

And now Bush is getting creamed as the "Wandering Pleasure-Seeker!"

[Pachamama]

6. Excellent...time to renew my subscription to NYT....

especially if they keep up the good work....

:kick:

[rawstory]

7. Oh come on, they got us into the Iraq war.

Yeah, I'm a subscriber, but don't resubscribe to a paper over this. PARTICULARLY for the fact that salon had to report it first before they'd even touch it.

[Catfight]

27. Ditto, I'll give them a call today and renew mine! n/t

[Princess Turandot]

8. Change a few words..

and this may be his plan for post-war Iraq:

"After the election, Mr. Bush returned to Houston, moving out of his small rented bungalow in Montgomery. He left the place a mess, with a broken light fixture and piles of debris, according to Mary Smith, whose husband was the bungalow's caretaker. Ms. Smith said her husband, who has since died, sent Mr. Bush a bill for professional cleaning but never heard back."

From page 4 of the article linked above.

[truthisfreedom]

9. jeepers! what a remarkable article. i wonder what page it will get in

the actual paper. monday edition, too! jeepers! it makes him look like a complete schmuck!

[speedoo]

12. Not on front page.

It's in the "Campaign 2004" section... usually it's back in the first section.

But I have a hunch this will be the first of several articles.

[NoSunWithoutShadow]

20. Starts on the Front Page, below the fold (eom)

[Demit]

23. yeah, below the fold but the jump takes you to a glorious full page...

and they tell the story very well. I LOVED them quoting Mrs. Allison referring several times to "Georgie".

Oh, it did warm my heart to open the New York Times today!

[grasswire]

10. well, well....the meat is at the bottom of the story

How festive they are to put the new information at the very bottom!

Here's part of it:

A review of records raises questions about whether he was properly credited for his service. Documents released by the White House show that he was paid for drills in January, April and several days in early May 1973. These drills were in Alabama, the White House said, and his old friend Emily Marks, now Emily Marks Curtis, said she remembered Mr. Bush returning to Montgomery for Guard duty.

But Mr. Bush had been authorized to drill in Alabama only from September through November 1972.

<snip>
A retired Army colonel, Gerald A. Lechliter, who has prepared an extensive analysis of Mr. Bush's National Guard record, described Mr. Lloyd's memorandum as "seemingly an attempt to whitewash Bush's record." Mr. Lloyd declined comment last week.

Mr. Lechliter, who describes himself as a political independent, also said that Mr. Bush was not entitled to 20 credits he received from Nov. 13, 1972, until July 19, 1973, because the service was being made up improperly.

Mr. Lechliter also said that Mr. Bush should not have been paid for these sessions. "That would appear to be a fraud," he said in an interview last week.

[grasswire]

11. FRAUD

Did ya see that?

FRAUD.

[leftchick]

16. FRAUD!

yep! I saw it... :)

[Octafish]

24. FRAUD!

No doubt about it.



Fraud. n. (frôd)

1. A deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain.

2. A piece of trickery; a trick.

One that defrauds; a cheat; a CROOK.
One who assumes a false pose; an impostor.

See picture of crook above.

[bloom]

29. Time for the "I am not a fraud" speech

a la Nixon...

[AnIndependentTexan]

41. Bush photographed wearing false medals

I haven't heard much of this story in a while:
http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=64556

Is there anyway to bring this up with news people? This has been out and it is a photograph of Bush wearing Air Force awards he never won.

[JoFerret]

42. Another irrelevant tidbit

courtesy of Kelley:Page 257:

At Andover, W. proves a poor athlete. He rides the bench in basketball until a starter falls ill, and he is given the chance to enter the lineup. Bush smacks an opponent's face with the ball and winds up back on the bench.

Ibid.: Bush elects not to tell his friends back in Texas—where all-male Andover is derided as "Bend Over"—that he has become the school's head cheerleader.

[laylah]

44. Welcome...

:toast: THAT said...google is our friend, use it. There were many threads about that; however, unlike my more involved bretheran, I cannot come up with a link. Stay however long you choose and soak up the AMAZING intelligence here! I have since late December 2000...you are home!

Jenn

[laylah]

45. Welcome...

:toast: THAT said...google is our friend, use it. There were many threads about that; however, unlike my more involved bretheran, I cannot come up with a link. Stay however long you choose and soak up the AMAZING intelligence here! I have since late December 2000...you are home!

Jenn

[blitzen]

13. just one of the many good parts....

"After the election, Mr. Bush returned to Houston, moving out of his small rented bungalow in Montgomery. He left the place a mess, with a broken light fixture and piles of debris, according to Mary Smith, whose husband was the bungalow's caretaker. Ms. Smith said her husband, who has since died, sent Mr. Bush a bill for professional cleaning but never heard back."

[struggle4progress]

14. kick

<snip> "To say he brought in a bunch of initiatives and bright ideas," said a fellow campaign worker, Devere McLennan, "no he didn't." <snip>

:kick:

[Algomas]

15. That's what you get for dissing the NYT...

I wonder if they will get an invite aboard the campaign jet now? You all remember the news about the NYT not allowed on Cheney's plane, right?

[0007]

18. Pull the wool over the eyes of America?

"The White House has said that he did not take the physical because Alabama units were not flying the F-102


"A review of records shows that not only did he miss months of duty in 1972, but that he also may have been improperly awarded credit for service, making possible an early honorable discharge so he could turn his attention to a new interest: Harvard Business School."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/20/politics/campaign/20b...

[Francine Frensky]

19. This is much more damning than the CBS memos

Wow. and it came out on a Monday, not buried on a Friday, like the admin would have.

Of course, at this point, I think the majority of americans are past caring about stuff from 30 years ago.

But if you associate the word "Fraud" with bush, that would be something that might stick with Americans.


You could even make a commercial: Fake military records, Fake Turkey (bush in Iraq at Thanksgiving), Fake Heart (Cheney's heart), Fake President.

[fdr_hst_fan]

36. I CARE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED 30 YEARS AGO!

AND EVERYONE ELSE SHOULD, TOO! IT'S REAL EASY TO SEND YOUNG MEN TO DIE WHEN YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO GO YOURSELF! AND I CAN ASSURE YOU, IF I'D MISSED ANY TIME IN THE GUARD, I'D HAVE BEEN TRIED, FOUND GUILTY OF DESERTION, AND SENTENCED TO HARD TIME IN LEAVENWORTH! YES, I CARE!

:mad:

[Maeve]

21. LOVE the picture of Poppy and Blount!

He looks so very elite-East Coast!

[0007]

22. The photo is rather sickening considering that junior was sent

to Alabama to campaign for the schmuck.

Did 'ya read the Solon article. It is more detailed.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/20/bush_guard_records/index.html

BTW I do like your avatar.

[Maeve]

25. This should have been a big story in 2000, not today

Not that I'm sorry to see it FINALLY get some press...There seems to be a concerted effort to ignore Dubya's pResidential record in this election that bothers me--I think the press and the Repubs prefer to wallow in the past. I can only hope that they will get it out of their systems and move on to substance over the next month.

Thanks--I searched long and hard for a good one! :D

[notadmblnd]

26. Is it just me or does it look like GHW

look like a ballerina?

[MisterP]

39. down to the ridiculous, simpering man-lady pose

[Mandate My Ass]

28. "amiable bachelor"

from what I've heard he was a loutish boor who thought playing grab ass was an acceptable form of flirtation.

[Lisa]

37. "The Texas Souffle"

Evidently some of the women weren't impressed with him.

[JoFerret]

30. Here's a spot for further investigation

<<By January 1973, Mr. Bush had a new job, with an inner-city youth program organized by John L. White, a former professional football player who knew his father.>>

All of a sudden the spoilt, immature, self-obsessed, socially unaware party boy starts community service??

[Bandit]

31. This story is forged....Forged I say.. It is critical of Bush* so must

be forged. I think the author of this story should be charged with treason. How dare anyone actually search for facts. Rush told us what the facts really are and anyone who says different must be a traitor with forged articles.

[Rose Siding]

32. The more I think about it....

the more I'm inclined to believe that this thorough piece offers cover for today's CBS story. Parts of it can be used to steer any Rather conversation to the actual PROVEN points of the whole.

[Scairp]

33. This should stay at the top

This is the best and only real investigative reporting I have seen anywhere in the mainstream media about Shrub's TANG service failures. I think it may be too little too late though.

[JoFerret]

34. Unduly fair and unbalanced

portrait of a lazy idle good-for-nothing who needed help to tie his shoelaces.

[Bridget Burke]

35. AWOL made it to the news once in 2000

But was shoved aside by Bush's DWI story. What a coincidence!

On November 2, 2000, four days before the most disputed election in American history, military veterans in the US Senate lashed out at candidate George W Bush for his failure to explain a six-month lapse in his National Guard service. "At the least, I would have been court-martialed. At the least, I would have been placed in prison," Senator Daniel Inouye said.

Bush would offer no explanation for his absence and, as he had throughout the campaign, refused to discuss his military service during the Vietnam War. Why would a man who was running for the office of Commander and Chief of the US Armed Forces refuse to discuss his service in the military? Why didn't the public and press take notice? Their attention that day was focused on something else.

That same day, while senators were asking for an explanation of Bush's National Guard absence, the media and the public were watching another breaking Bush scandal: the sudden revelation of a 1976 drunk driving conviction that Bush had failed to mention during the campaign. As Bush spent the final days before the election explaining to America that he hid the arrest to protect his daughters, the National Guard absence was swept under the rug, not made into a campaign issue by Democrats.

www.hereinreality.com/commander.html

This is a "partisan" site but I remember the overlapping stories.

[napi21]

38. You need a hand drawn time line to follow shrub's activities!

That's a very good article, and I read the entire thing. I must say, when you get to 1971/72/73, you need a chart to figure out where he was, what he was doing, what he said he was doing, and the statements from others who say he wasn't!

I wonder if this will be part of the CBS/Dan Rather statements tonight or tomorrow?

[robbedvoter]

40. But, but - I thought it was all Rather's fault?

[Kimber Scott]

43. He makes me sick.

nt