bush

awol’s pass may be revoked this time around

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Perhaps this time around bush’s military record (or lack thereof) will see the light of day in complete detail.
It looks like the dems are going to keep active in the media:

Mr. McAuliffe criticized President Bush on his attendance for National Guard service during the Vietnam War. The comments delineated a line of attack that Senator John Kerry, the front-runner in the campaign and a decorated war veteran, may adopt should he be the party’s nominee and face Mr. Bush in a one-on-one race.

Jack Balkin has some thoughts on this here:

Instead of cowering in the corner when the media said that the charge of desertion was false, Terry McAuliffe is raising the more plausible question whether the President was AWOL while in Alabama. Nevertheless, it is particularly strange to me that McAuliffe chose to break this story on Super Bowl Sunday, which is not a good time to cover a political event.

and quotes extensively from a 2000 NYT article that suggests bush should be cut some slack on this. However there is this:

Mr. Bush went to work for Winton M. Blount a few days after Mr. Blount won the Republican primary in Alabama on May 2, 1972.
From that time until after the election that November, Mr. Bush did not appear for duty, even after being told to report for training with an Alabama unit in October and November.
Mr. Bartlett said Mr. Bush had been too busy with the campaign to report in those months but made up the time later.

It seems to be that if you have been told to report for duty and you don’t show up that is a pretty good description of AWOL. It certainly was when I was in the service.
It might be worth some journalistic time to look more closely at exactly how bush got into the Air National Guard. For instance how well did w match up with the requirements that everyone else had to meet?
As mentioned in the last post honesty is a good policy. And for governments and those wanting to play with other folk’s lives honesty and complete transparency are mandatory.

Uhhh, when will the bs stop?

This entry was posted in bush Democracy Iraq US Foreign Policy US Politics War on Terrorism on by

From the Guardian:

Intelligence sources, policy makers and weapons inspectors familiar with the details of the hunt for WMD told The Observer it was widely known that Iraq had no WMD within three weeks of Baghdad falling, despite the assertions of senior Bush administration figures and the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

As Jim Henley notes:

The official hawks, like bad dope dealers, got too fond of their own product. They wanted it to be true and convinced themselves of their desires.

Most of us have been taught that honesty is a good thing and will bring good results in life. The republicans still have time to nominate a candidate who has learned this lesson.

One Child Who Was Left Behind

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Ok, I haven’t picked on someone’s use of the english language in a long time.
From Ampersand who picked it up from Trish Wilson:

George W. Bush on January 23, 2004

The illiteracy level of our children are appalling.

’nuff said.
Well, not quite enough. Trish quotes the entire paragraph for context and w’s closing sentence is:

I expect you, as mayors, to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations. I challenge you to keep raising that bar and standards.

I probably have no hope of ever understanding what he means by ‘soft bigotry’ but I do know that low expectations is a problem that does permeate our culture

“Though your qualifications are quite impressive, I regret to inform you that we have selected another candidate. It was felt that your demeanor and therefore presence in the classroom would serve as an unrealistic expectation as to what high school students could strive to achieve or become.

and that setting high expectations can lead to success.
Thanks to Resurrection Song and The World Wide Rant for the pointer to the Marquis Harris story.