TXANG Debate Re-Igniting?

Last night, the Pentagon revealed that new records of President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard have been found, due to a FOIA request. This morning sees a New York Times column (free reg. req.), and a detailed "reexamination of the records" by the Boston Globe. Tonight, 60 Minutes II airs an interview with the man who got Bush into the Guard (though my TiVo says otherwise for some reason).

Comments

How long until some Kerry news

[tdoane78]

Ahh, how many more anti-bush slanted views until we see some anti-kerry views. Oh wait, i'm at moveone.org...oh wait slashdot. -Tim

Compare

[toddhisattva]

George W. Bush is documenting his service.

John F. Kerry is lying about his "service."

Vote for the American.

Re:Compare

[toddhisattva]

You're living in the liberal capital of Texas, you're a musician (long-haired FM type), a game programmer, a fan of science fiction, a Buddhist, and a former BBS operator? And you support GW Bush?

It's called "thinking for myself."

I find nothing contradictory about any of this. Living in Austin, I get to examine liberals close up and personal. I know what is wrong with them, I blame it on Rousseau.

BTW, I've never had long hair because it requires maintenance and gets caught in machinery. Also, I describe myself as a fan of Tibetan Buddhism -- I am not a Buddhist because I have not taken refuge vows.

I think George W. Bush's actions in Central Asia are more likely to result in a free Tibet than whatever position Kerry is taking on Central Asia this afternoon. I am of course concerned by George W. Bush's uncle being heavily invested in China, but since Tibet will be free when Peking is free, it is much better to support an American capitalist than an anti-American communist mouthpeice like John Forbes Kerry.

There is no safer way to study the operational art than with hardcore simulation and discussion with military professionals. By learning the art as best I can, I can evaluate for myself the situations in Bactria and Babylonia, instead of relying on Duh Press. (A bug in my exostocin prevents enlisting, so I contracted to the U.S. Army radlab for four years.)

And why would anyone be surprised that a Science Fiction fan would be non-leftist? I mean, starting with (or even before) Orwell's critiques of socialism, SF has a long history of political criticism. But "Sci-Fi," that Hollywood garbage, is of course all bent over leftwards. I am not a fan of Sci-Fi movies.

Given what Ronald Reagan did for electronic communication with his bustup of AT&T and SDI programs, I'm amazed that any BBSers ended up leftist!

To say I am a supporter of George W. Bush is perhaps overstating it. I am not a fan of "faith-based" anything, I hate both country and western music, and I can say "nuclear" correctly. I am a supporter of George W. Bush in the War on Terror, because if we retreat it will invite more attacks.

In this I break with dogmatic Libertarians who are unwilling to grasp the fact that this is a new kind of war, a war without declared combatants, a war that does not fit the nation-vs-nation pattern of civilized warfare. The Libertarian Party's nonviolence doctrine, that it is immoral to initiate the use of physical force, cannot and should not be extended to nations which harbor terrorists.

Harboring terrorists IS violence. Therefore, I support George W. Bush against Michael Badnarik.

Re:I think it matters, and here's why

[meta-monkey]

The problem is those "served honorably" and "spoke truth" parts.

There are 250 swift boat vets who served with Kerry (that doesn't mean the same boat...that means the same group of boats. You know what the guy 10 feet away from you on the next boat is doing) who say that Kerry did not serve honorably, showed extreme cowardice, and lied to get his medals, all the while filming documentaries about how heroic he was for future campaign material.

Next, he comes back and speaks about "horrors of war..." that he never witnessed! No, he heard about them. From somebody. Somewhere. Again, trying to further his political career. He lies about atrocities. He lies about being in Cambodia. Did these things happen? Maybe. But Kerry didn't see them.

The mainstream media refuses to investigate these charges. The media's coverage of the SBV's charges has been limited to attempts to tie them to the Republican party, and to say, "well, they weren't on the same boat!" However, they go all out over W's TXANG history. I honestly don't give a rats ass about W's TXANG history, because he hasn't made it the centerpoint of his campaign. W originally ran on his record as Texas governor, and on his plan for the presidency. Tax cuts, education reform, medicare reform, etc etc. Kerry is running solely on his Vietnam war record. That's it. Read the transcript of his speach at the DNC. He starts off with "Reporting for duty!" and goes on and on about his Vietnam service. He has all of one line about two votes in his 20 years in the Senate. 20 years...and he can't point to a single legislative victory of his own. No bills he sponsored, no deals he brokered, nothing. His plan for America is that he's for things that are good, and against things that are bad, and whatever W did he would do the same, only differently. His strategy for the war on terror is to get France to fight for us. I much more about what they want to do NOW than what they did 20 years ago, although I find it very interesting that the media is desperately trying to dig up something, anything about W's service in the TXANG, but they won't look twice at the SBVT, except to smear them as Republican operatives.

Re:Example of the problem with American politics.

[toddhisattva]

You are an example of the amazing gullibility of the left, blithely accepting whatever garbage the Democrat bullshit factory a.k.a. "the Press" hands you without a second, or even first, thought.

To quote Paul Tsongas, "do your goddamn homework!" Google all sides of the stories, read things you disagree with, challenge your assumptions.

For instance, I assumed "if Kerry's war record is good enough for the U.S. Navy, it's good enough for me." Then I started doing my goddamn homework....

you couldn't believe this slander if you'd bothered to research any of the evidence

The more research I do, the more I'm convinced Kerry is a liar. His own stories do not match each other.

How did memories of Cambodia get seared in Kerry's memory? Probably from watching "Apocalypse Now." Anyway, here he's been caught telling a whopping hell of a lie.

Then there is his infamous testimony before Congress, much of which was taken from Jane Fonda's "Winter Soldier" propaganda festival. Real men took torture to avoid signing false confessions. John Kerry proffered false confessions to Congress, just to enhance his standing with political leftists.

Increasingly, John Kerry has only his little band of brothers corroborating his stories. Scores of veterans have gone on the record to correct Kerry's lies. Sample chapters are widely available.

Kerry has his eight veteran supporters. Hundreds of veterans who served with him remember him as a pathetic coward who inflated his war record so he could hurry home and spread shit about them.

It is very easy for a rich man like J. Forbes Kerry to buy off his small crew. A million bucks each and they'll be his whores forever!

Let's not forget this..

[mabu]

There are many issues regarding Bush's records that aren't being made available. The military service issue is probably trivial compared to this:

Justice Department Says It Can't Share Lobbying Data Because Computer System Will Crash

By Ted Bridis Associated Press Writer
Published: Jun 29, 2004

Source: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBDP9DE2WD.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is offering a novel reason for denying a request seeking the Justice Department's database on foreign lobbyists: Copying the information would bring down the computer system.

"Implementing such a request risks a crash that cannot be fixed and could result in a major loss of data, which would be devastating," wrote Thomas J. McIntyre, chief in the Justice Department's office for information requests.

Advocates for open government said the government's assertion that it could not copy data from its computers was unprecedented but representative of generally negative responses to Freedom of Information Act requests.

"This was a new one on us. We weren't aware there were databases that could be destroyed just by copying them," Bob Williams of the Center for Public Integrity said Tuesday. The watchdog group in Washington made the request in January. He said the group expects to appeal the Justice Department's decision.

Many Justice Department computer systems, especially at the FBI, are considered outdated. The FBI is spending nearly $600 million to modernize its antiquated systems.

The Center for Public Integrity sought information about lobbying activities available under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act, a 1938 law passed in response to German propaganda before World War II. Database records describe details of meetings among foreign lobbyists, the administration and Congress, and payments by foreign governments and some overseas groups for political advertisements and other campaigns.

"What they're asking for is a lot, and it's not something at this particular point in time we have the technical ability to do," Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra said Tuesday.

McIntyre explained in a May 24 letter that the computer system - operated in the counterespionage section of the Justice Department's criminal division - "was not designed for mass export of all stored images" and said the system experiences "substantial problems."

"It sounds like incredible negligence for an agency that is keeping public records to keep them in such a precarious condition," said Stephen Doig, interim director at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. "I've never heard the excuse that making the equivalent of a backup copy would somehow cause steam to rise out of the computer."

The government said an overhaul of the system should be finished by December and copies should be available then.

Paper copies of records still are available for review four hours each day for people willing to travel to Washington, the Justice Department noted. Williams said the index available to researchers there is at least 12 months outdated, "which kind of renders it useless."

Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered federal agencies in October 2001 to review more closely which documents they release. Ashcroft's policy lets officials withhold information on any "sound legal basis." Under looser policies issued in 1993, agencies could hold back information to prevent "foreseeable harm."

"This is an administration and Justice is an agency that does not go out of its way to make information available to the public," said David Sobel, general counsel for the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Re:I think it matters, and here's why

[Remlik]

Rush played a sound byte today of Kerry being interviewed in August of 2003 when Bush was asking for 200billion for Iraq.

I can't give you the exact quote (you could probably get it off rush's site) but in effect he says "200 billion? Spend whatever we need to in order to get the job done!"

If thats not a position of support for the war AFTER his vote in 2001, then I must not be speaking english.

Re:I think it matters, and here's why

[meta-monkey]

No, I'm accusing Kerry of lying. Kerry wrote the Navy's reports, or the reports were based off false information provided by Kerry.