When John Kerry wins the 2004 race for the presidency, we will all owe Howard Dean a thank you. I was never a big Dean supporter but I think he has given the Democratic Party the gift of momentum and the energy to beat the Bush war machine in November. It's been a long four years but thanks in part to Howard Dean we can see light at the end of the tunnel.
Thank you, Governor Dean. Thank you, sir, and farewell.
And Now For Something Completely New Predictable From The White House
I find it amusing how hard the White House is trying to change the subject when faced with Shrub's, uhhh, service in the National Guard. It is, however, going off the deep end for him to propose a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. That is a major shot across the bow of our democracy. It is a call to war to a very large group of Americans and we will not be silent nor will we roll over for this shameful pandering to the right wing at our expense. I don't think the framers of the constitution were interested in legislating marriage which is a religious institution not, obviously, a matter for the federal government. An amendment like this is simply un-American.
It's the same old Rowe strategy: trash your opponents then call it dirty politics when it is done to you. The Bush administration gets away with outing a non-official cover CIA agent then they flip the hell out when Shrub's attendance in the National Guard is questioned.
When a president champions his service in the military and that same president is sending troops in harms way then that president better not be lying about his own service. More than a few men of draft age in 1972 were trying to find a way not to go to Vietnam. Shrub tried to paint his service in the National Guard as serving his country when in reality he was simply serving himself and his desire not to fight in Vietnam. It's that simple and he couldn't even follow through with that plan by attending the required drills.
The Bush administration's methods have become unsound and that is why I don't have the luxury to support a candidate like Howard Dean. We Democrat’s today can't afford the luxury of a Eugene McCarthy type candidate. We need a viable candidate. We need a winner.
I read three articles yesterday about Bush's, umm, military stint with the National Guard during the Vietnam War and am still shaking my head that this didn't make a bigger splash when it came out in 2000. Hell, even Gore served in Vietnam.
If an Air National guardsman today vanished for a year, military attorneys say that guardsman would be transferred to active duty or, more likely, kicked out of the service, probably with a less-than-honorable discharge. They suggest the penalty would be especially swift if the absent-without-leave guardsman were a fully trained pilot, as Bush was.
Active duty in 1972 meant Bush would have been shipped off to Vietnam before you could say "weapons of mass destruction" hell, probably before you could say "wmd's."
A second lieutenant did not last long in the jungles of Vietnam. "All laughed nervously when confronted with the cold statistics that measured a second lieutenant's combat life expectancy in minutes and seconds, not hours" (from We Were Soldiers Once And Young).
And of course, a dishonorable discharge means we would surely never have had a second President Bush and maybe not a first one either.
It remains unclear, however, whether mainstream journalists will take the time to examine Bush's military record and ask the president why, after receiving pilot training that cost 1970s taxpayers nearly $1 million, he took it upon himself to decide he was finished with his military requirements nearly two years before his six-year obligation was up.
Which by my estimate means at the very least Bush owes the American Taxpayer another $1 million dollars. I think I'll take my share of that refund in euros now that Bush has trashed the dollar. So including Cheney's Halliburton debt and the trillion dollar surplus we had in 2000 and the cost of the war in Iraq...aw hell, I can't even count that total without my head spinning. Let's just say the Bush administration owes us a huge pile of money and I'm sure we can think of ways to spend it on healthcare and social security.
It was an era when service in the Guard was a coveted assignment, often associated with efforts to avoid active duty in Vietnam. Bush was accepted for pilot training after having scored only 25 percent on the pilot's aptitude test, the lowest acceptable grade.
I can see he was an over achiever even back then.
In August 1972, Bush was suspended from flying because he failed to complete an annual medical exam. A month later, Bush requested to be assigned to a different unit in Alabama and was approved. Although he was required to attend periodic drills in Alabama, there is no official record in his file that he did.
Think they did drug testing on those annual medical exams? I'm willing to bet they did especially for a guy flying around in a multi-million dollar jet fighter plane.
Bush said in 2000 that he did "show up for drills. I made most monthly meetings, and when I missed them I made them up."
Uhhh Shrub, the meetings you were supposed to attend were National Guard meetings not frat party meetings.
During the 2000 campaign, he was pretty vague about his military service and couldn't recall much detail at all about serving which I find hard to believe unless it never really happened.
My father was in the R.O.T.C. in the 1950's and then after college joined the U.S. Air Force as a second lieutenant and he recalls much of his time in training and service as a bomber pilot. My dad was also third in his class of seventy in flying and flew bombers. Bush scores a disgraceful 25 percent on his pilot's aptitude test and god knows where he stood in his class rankings upon graduation from flight school and he flew fighter jets?! Flying fighters has always been considered the choice spot for the best pilots in the service (at 6' 4" my father was too tall for fighters-his legs would have been, uhhh, removed violently during ejection). I'm guessing someone pulled some strings there or our young Bush would have found himself flying WWII transport planes carrying spare parts for the real fighting men.
John Kerry and Wes Clark both earned the Silver Star while serving in Vietnam. Bush played dress up and probably just used his wings to pick up girls.
What I find most appalling is that he is sending National Guard troops to fight and die in Iraq and Afghanistan while he couldn't even show up to meetings while serving stateside. They are proudly doing the same job he neglected to do when it was his turn.
In keeping with the Anybody Who Can Beat Bush theory I am officially endorsing John Kerry for POTUS. And for VPOTUS Edwards or Clark will do fine. Whoever can win in the south works for me.
It's interesting how the Dean campaign has seemingly imploded. He may have started too early because now he's out of money and out of steam with little prospect of getting more at this juncture.
In other news, it appears now that Cheney's own Halliburton's subsidiary Kellogg, Brown, & Root has overcharged the U.S. military some $16 million dollars on meals at one Kuwaiti base this year. Let me repeat, overcharged $16 million dollars for army food! Has anyone ever met a soldier that even sort of liked army food? Though I will admit that fake turkey Bush posed with Thanksgiving looked yummy.
This is on top of the $7 million dollars they already overcharged the military for gasoline. Folks, as you all know, that's our money and I want my portion refunded.
On a tragic note, we are now losing U. S. Soldiers in Iraq at the rate of one per day. That's American men and women serving their country proudly and they deserve better than Bush, Cheney and their thieving cronies.
Note: Don't forget to vote over at Karen's for her Donate To The DNC To Help Elect Anyone But Bush In 2004 contest.
