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This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit here. Wednesday, February 11, 2004 Whass going on here? 7 referrals from Bark Bark Woof Woof? Mustang Bobby has added me to his blogroll, thank you, sir! Just in from Calpundit: more on the Bush Air National Guard pay records. The White House announced today (um, that was actually yesterday, I guess, since it's after midnight here now) that DoD had requested the pay records from the archive in Colorado (and does that strike anyone as kind of strange? Why would the Department of Defense be requesting the records?) I had planned on commenting on this myself, but Kevin has upstaged me. Here is a summary, anyway. The records which were released are for the period from October 28, 1972 to July 30, 1973. They are not for service in the Texas Air National Guard, but for hours earned with the Air Reserve Force (which has resulted--inevitably, I suppose--in a veritable explosion of acronyms related to and rhyming with ARF). Many of the former National Guard and Reservist personnel who commented on Cal's Feb. 8 post say that being transferred to ARF was not necessarily a disciplinary measure, as a lot of people have assumed. Okay, I'll buy that. For whatever reason, Bush was redirected to a unit with no airplanes. Might be because he failed to show up for his flight physical, and thus was grounded, but . . . whatever. I should point out, because this has been widely circulated, that the so-called "disciplinary note" which he signed, the infamous "Document 23," is actually the second page of the standard enlistment contract that everyone had to sign. If we're going to criticize him, we'd at least better get the facts straight. Many of the same people who commented on Cal's Feb. 8 post also said that record-keeping screwups were common, that officers routinely had to be hunted down to take their flight physicals, that it wasn't even that unusual for people never to show up and for nothing to be done about it. I'll buy all that too. I worked for the Navy for a couple of years and I can tell you some horror stories myself about messed up records. It does seem a bit strange that John McCain, John Kerry and Wesley Clark voluntarily made their entire military record public, and that we've had to pry what little we've gotten so far out of Bush, but maybe he's just modest about the details. The bottom line is that there is still no evidence that he performed his National Guard duty anywhere during the time he was in Alabama, in spite of his claims to the contrary, and no good reason why he should have been allowed a temporary transfer to an Alabama unit that had no airplanes in which he could practice his $200,000 price-tag flying skills. His unit commander in Texas turned down his first request for a transfer, noting in more military language that the request was inappropriate. Strangely, his second request was granted, and he certainly did go to Alabama to work for the senate campaign of William Blount [EDIT: note to self--pay attention, doofus, it's Winton Blount]. There seems to be no dispute about that. But no one has any record, memory, vague recollection, or other hint of knowledge that he put in his time in the Alabama unit. Yet he continues to insist that he did. What it comes down to for me is that while Bush was hiding out in the Air National Guard, one sister and both of my brothers were on active duty service overseas, my first high school boy friend was being buried after dying in Vietnam, and one of my co-workers, who had seen early service with the Special Forces in Vietnam, was having a nervous breakdown. Yet he cites his "military service" as evidence of his qualification for the job of our country's Commander-in-Chief. I just want to grab him and yell, "How DARE you put yourself in the same category as the people who risked their lives in active military service!" Wow, that felt better! posted by Liz @ 1:34 AM | The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section RSS Feed PERSONAL Send email toliz at life-as-a-spectator-sport.com Home I'm a mother, grandmother, a computer professional, Democrat, Christian. I welcome politely worded comments and email, my spam filter throws the rest away, so don't bother to flame me WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT' "If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart. THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3 KNITTING BLOGS Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits FINISHED PROJECTS -------FINISHED IN 2006------- Peruvian Cap Tutti-Frutti Socks Shelley's Socks Carol's Socks -------FINISHED IN 2007------- Chain Link Socks Baby Surprise Jacket Valerie & Friend Baby Bonnet Rainbow Baby Socks Girls Pixie Hood Mitred Square Heart Red & White Socks Coffee Cup Pot Holder Nubbins Dishcloth Garterlac Dishcloth Suede Booties Kate's Socks Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap Half Thumbless Mittens Red Mittens for Akkol -------FINISHED IN 2008------- SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE -- Blogs and websites -- Causubon's Book Club Orlov Food Storage Made Easy From the Wilderness In the Wake Listening to Katrina Survival Topics The Modern Homestead The Oil Drum Notes from a Hillside Farm -- Mailing Lists -- 12vdc Power Living on the Land Rainwater Refrigeration Alternatives Old Ways of Living POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES The political sites have moved BOOKS I'M READING How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising ARCHIVES February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 Feedjit Live Blog Stats
Whass going on here? 7 referrals from Bark Bark Woof Woof? Mustang Bobby has added me to his blogroll, thank you, sir! Just in from Calpundit: more on the Bush Air National Guard pay records. The White House announced today (um, that was actually yesterday, I guess, since it's after midnight here now) that DoD had requested the pay records from the archive in Colorado (and does that strike anyone as kind of strange? Why would the Department of Defense be requesting the records?) I had planned on commenting on this myself, but Kevin has upstaged me. Here is a summary, anyway. The records which were released are for the period from October 28, 1972 to July 30, 1973. They are not for service in the Texas Air National Guard, but for hours earned with the Air Reserve Force (which has resulted--inevitably, I suppose--in a veritable explosion of acronyms related to and rhyming with ARF). Many of the former National Guard and Reservist personnel who commented on Cal's Feb. 8 post say that being transferred to ARF was not necessarily a disciplinary measure, as a lot of people have assumed. Okay, I'll buy that. For whatever reason, Bush was redirected to a unit with no airplanes. Might be because he failed to show up for his flight physical, and thus was grounded, but . . . whatever. I should point out, because this has been widely circulated, that the so-called "disciplinary note" which he signed, the infamous "Document 23," is actually the second page of the standard enlistment contract that everyone had to sign. If we're going to criticize him, we'd at least better get the facts straight. Many of the same people who commented on Cal's Feb. 8 post also said that record-keeping screwups were common, that officers routinely had to be hunted down to take their flight physicals, that it wasn't even that unusual for people never to show up and for nothing to be done about it. I'll buy all that too. I worked for the Navy for a couple of years and I can tell you some horror stories myself about messed up records. It does seem a bit strange that John McCain, John Kerry and Wesley Clark voluntarily made their entire military record public, and that we've had to pry what little we've gotten so far out of Bush, but maybe he's just modest about the details. The bottom line is that there is still no evidence that he performed his National Guard duty anywhere during the time he was in Alabama, in spite of his claims to the contrary, and no good reason why he should have been allowed a temporary transfer to an Alabama unit that had no airplanes in which he could practice his $200,000 price-tag flying skills. His unit commander in Texas turned down his first request for a transfer, noting in more military language that the request was inappropriate. Strangely, his second request was granted, and he certainly did go to Alabama to work for the senate campaign of William Blount [EDIT: note to self--pay attention, doofus, it's Winton Blount]. There seems to be no dispute about that. But no one has any record, memory, vague recollection, or other hint of knowledge that he put in his time in the Alabama unit. Yet he continues to insist that he did. What it comes down to for me is that while Bush was hiding out in the Air National Guard, one sister and both of my brothers were on active duty service overseas, my first high school boy friend was being buried after dying in Vietnam, and one of my co-workers, who had seen early service with the Special Forces in Vietnam, was having a nervous breakdown. Yet he cites his "military service" as evidence of his qualification for the job of our country's Commander-in-Chief. I just want to grab him and yell, "How DARE you put yourself in the same category as the people who risked their lives in active military service!" Wow, that felt better!
The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section
RSS Feed
PERSONAL
WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT'
"If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart.
THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME
Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3
KNITTING BLOGS
Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits
FINISHED PROJECTS
SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE
POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES
BOOKS I'M READING
How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising
ARCHIVES
February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002
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