Dan Rather files lawsuit over Bush National Guard Story

Actually this question is bogus, as are several others. I chose to address this one simply because it's the easiest to debunk and the one that is the most obvious lie.

He never refused the physical. The fact is that at the time he was serving out his time in a non-flight status and there was no point in taking a flight physical. It's much ado about nothing as the bard would say.

Rather is an ass.

Still beating that horse gene? Nobody cares about this anymore. Bush is not being elected again, move on.

Reply By: MasonMPosted: Sunday, November 25, 2007Why did George Bush refuse to take his Flight Physical?Actually this question is bogus, as are several others. I chose to address this one simply because it's the easiest to debunk and the one that is the most obvious lie.He never refused the physical. The fact is that at the time he was serving out his time in a non-flight status and there was no point in taking a flight physical. It's much ado about nothing as the bard would say.Rather is an ass.

Bush was grounded because he did not take his physical. A copy of that order was released by DoD from the official records of GWB. He also failed to maintain his flight qualifications before he was grounded because he did not attend enough drills to meet the flying hours required. Pilots must drill double the number then to just qualify for a "Good Year". Bush had requested to drill in Alabama and that request was turned down and he was ordered to drill with his unit in Texas. Bush failed to comply with that order for about 5 months in late 1972.

Air Force Regulations require a Board of Inquiry when ever a pilot is grounded. The results or even existence of this mandatory board can not be found. In addition although the order used by CBS from Lt. Bush's Commander was not authentic, the secretary of Bush's Commander said she did in fact type such an order which means who ever fabricated the order CBS used must have scene the actual order typed by the Secretary of Bush's commander. In addition annual Physical exams are REQUIRED by regulation and not subject to the wishes of ANY officer. Bush did not comply with that regulation!

Reply By: Island DogPosted: Sunday, November 25, 2007Still beating that horse gene? Nobody cares about this anymore. Bush is not being elected again, move on.

You may not care but a lot of people do care. Had Bush been treated like any other member of the military he would NEVER have been granted an Honorable Discharge because of his conduct and failure to obey regulations and the orders and his commander. That would have prevented him from being elected so this issue is very important. I hope some day all the facts about this sorted issue are made public.

Yes, never mind the fact that he had already been transferred to non-flight duty long before this. It was nothing more than a typical military paperwork screw up, which has been proven many times. Probably committed by some incompetent Kernel much like yourself. But that's ok, keep beating that dead horse and looking like an ass.

Reply By: MasonMPosted: Sunday, November 25, 2007Bush was grounded because he did not take his physical. A copy of that order was released by DoD from the official records of GWB. He also failed to maintain his flight qualifications before he was grounded because he did not attend enough drills to meet the flying hours required. Yes, never mind the fact that he had already been transferred to non-flight duty long before this. It was nothing more than a typical military paperwork screw up, which has been proven many times. Probably committed by some incompetent Kernel much like yourself. But that's ok, keep beating that dead horse and looking like an ass.

The transfer in 1972 was never approved to Alabama. The transfer you talk about was AFTER he failed to take his physical. You also fail to acknowledge that the annual physical is REQUIRED and BUSH was ordered by his Commander to take the Physical. Bush did not have the option of Not taking the physical and WHY would he not take a routine physical unless he was on Drugs that would have shown up when taking that Physical? I do not know if you were in the military but individual officers can not choose to disobey regulations. I had to take a physical each year and I was not a pilot!

I doubt that.  Even the far left doesn't touch this one much anymore.  Nobody cares gene.




And?  It changes nothing, and it seems you are now even more desparate to smear Bush.  Get over it.

One more time knucklehead, he never refuse to take a physical, he simply didn't take a flight physical that was no longer necessary, which is not the same thing. His transfer and change of duty status are not the same thing as you know perfectly well (unless you're an idiot).

And yes, kernel knucklehead, I was in the military and know perfectly well how the military works. As a matter of fact I worked in Aviation and so am very familiar with flight physicals and the conditions under which one is required to take them.

Your stupid drugs assertion is grasping at straws. At no time did he refuse a physical or fail a drug test. The more you type the more stupid you make yourself appear.

Reply By: Island DogPosted: Sunday, November 25, 2007You may not care but a lot of people do care.I doubt that. Even the far left doesn't touch this one much anymore. Nobody cares gene.That would have prevented him from being elected so this issue is very important. I hope some day all the facts about this sorted issue are made public.And? It changes nothing, and it seems you are now even more desparate to smear Bush. Get over it.

It is an example of how privilege is used to get special treatment that is NOT deserved. Many on this web site complain about what they believe is give always to the poor. Here we have an example of a person from a family with wealth and power that after being handed a commission, he did not earn or deserve, failed to uphold his obligations and then was able to go unpunished for failing to keep his commitments. This is the story of his entire life-- from getting off for DWI's to getting into colleges his grades did not warrant to keeping his ASS out of Vietnam while kids who did not have the pull Bush had were sent and 58,000 were killed. The way Bush has abused his power is an example of someone that was handed everything and then is giver special treatment when he failed to meet his committees and get away Scott free. It does make a difference to every officer that worked for their commission and then followed their orders. I am so glad I did not serve in the military with the likes of GWB as the Commander-in-Chief.

Your stupid drugs assertion is grasping at straws. At no time did he refuse a physical or fail a drug test. The more you type the more stupid you make yourself appear.

That is the ONLY rational reason why Bush would have risked what he did by disobeying the requirement to take an annual physical. Taking an annual physical is no big deal UNLESS he was on drugs and given his abuse of alcohol until he was 40, it is VERY likely that is just why Bush did not take that physical!

Personally I think you're the one taking drugs. That's the only explanation for your inane babbling.

dan rather is not sueing over the story


dan rather is sueing because they broke his contract.

Don't confuse Klink with facts, he doesn't like them very much.

don't insult klink he was doing a job he didn't like. and he never gave up.

You all deserve Bush but the rest of us do not!

Medication? You just have no idea how much you play the village idiot do you? I love a good character spoof as much as the next guy but you've become more unbelievable than Sir Peter Maxwell. I suspect you're actually one in the same, at least in insane spirit.

MasonM said (in answer to the Inferior Officer):

Personally I think you're the one taking drugs.

Nah, he's just off his meds and out of the asylum to bug us all.

The sad part is someone else already COVERED this story here at JU, but of course it wasn't spun in the right direction, with the right allegations and slanderous comments, so the Clueless One had to bring it back up again and fling baseless accusations against the current Commander-in-Chief.  I swear he really ought to lose his retirement for such behavior, but apparently he feels that no one is really watching.  (They definitely aren't buying his books.  I figure he's sold about 12 total, all to himself....)

Yeah, I've said it before, I'll say it again...it's pretty tragic when the left, who is DESPERATE for some sort of messiah, won't even TOUCH Col. Gene!

Once again it's your opinion, because you have no proof otherwise as you have been debunked on this topic about 100 times now.  Move on with your life.

Yet another example of original thought missing the Gene boat.

gene for president

This is a good Summary of what happened:



Since you've already covered the Bush family's relationship to the Nazis (thank you), I thought maybe you'd also cover another timely topic. I've heard many times and in many places (but none mainstream that I can think of) that George W. Bush was AWOL for at least a year from the National Guard during Vietnam (after "jumping the line" to get a slot in the guard in the first place). For some reason (I'm not sure why), I have trust in the Straight Dope. Can you tell me/us if the person sending others to war in Iraq was really derelict in his military duties? How serious an offense would that behavior have been considered, generally, during the Vietnam war? Lastly, if George was actually AWOL, and that would have been the equivalent of a felony for most people, why haven't we been hearing about this issue? --Kerry J. Johnson, Bellingham, Washington
Cecil replies:
Yeah, the mainstream media have really kept a lid on this one. We wouldn't know anything about Bush going AWOL if it hadn't been for that obscure underground newspaper the Boston Globe, which broke the story nationally in May 2000. But you're right that coverage has been pretty thin. A few months after the 2000 election, former Bill Clinton adviser Paul Begala said he'd done a Nexis search and found 13,641 stories about Clinton's alleged draft dodging versus 49 about George W. Bush's military record. Why the disparity? We'll get to that. First the basics: Yes, it's true, Bush didn't report to his guard unit for an extended period--17 months, by one account. It wasn't considered that serious an offense at the time, and if circumstances were different now I'd be inclined to write it off as youthful irresponsibility. However, given the none-too-subtle suggestion by the Bush administration that opponents of our Iraqi excursion lack martial valor, I have to say: You guys should talk.
Here's the story as generally agreed upon: In January 1968, with the Vietnam war in full swing, Bush was due to graduate from Yale. Knowing he'd soon be eligible for the draft, he took an air force officers' test hoping to secure a billet with the Texas Air National Guard, which would allow him to do his military service at home. Bush didn't do particularly well on the test--on the pilot aptitude section, he scored in the 25th percentile, the lowest possible passing grade. But Bush's father, George H.W., was then a U.S. congressman from Houston, and strings were pulled. The younger Bush vaulted to the head of a long waiting list--a year and a half long, by some estimates--and in May of '68 he was inducted into the guard.
By all accounts Bush was an excellent pilot, but apparently his enthusiasm cooled. In 1972, four years into his six-year guard commitment, he was asked to work for the campaign of Bush family friend Winton Blount, who was running for the U.S. Senate in Alabama. In May Bush requested a transfer to an Alabama Air National Guard unit with no planes and minimal duties. Bush's immediate superiors approved the transfer, but higher-ups said no. The matter was delayed for months. In August Bush missed his annual flight physical and was grounded. (Some have speculated that he was worried about failing a drug test--the Pentagon had instituted random screening in April.) In September he was ordered to report to a different unit of the Alabama guard, the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group in Montgomery. Bush says he did so, but his nominal superiors say they never saw the guy, there's no documentation he ever showed up, and not one of the six or seven hundred soldiers then in the unit has stepped forward to corroborate Bush's story.
After the November election Bush returned to Texas, but apparently didn't notify his old Texas guard unit for quite a while, if ever. The Boston Globe initially reported that he started putting in some serious duty time in May, June, and July of 1973 to make up for what he'd missed. But according to a piece in the New Republic, there's no evidence Bush did even that. Whatever the case, even though his superiors knew he'd blown off his duties, they never disciplined him. (No one's ever been shot at dawn for missing a weekend guard drill, but policy at the time was to put shirkers on active duty.) Indeed, when Bush decided to go to business school at Harvard in the fall of 1973, he requested and got an honorable discharge--eight months before his service was scheduled to end.
Bush's enemies say all this proves he was a cowardly deserter. Nonsense. He was a pampered rich kid who took advantage. Why wasn't he called on it in a serious way during the 2000 election? Probably because Democrats figured they'd get Clinton's draft-dodging thing thrown back at them. Not that it matters. If history judges Bush harshly--and it probably will--it won't be for screwing up as a young smart aleck, but for getting us into this damn fool war.
--CECIL ADAMS

LOL

Gene : At least do a tiny bit of formatting.

Do you really think that folks will be persuaded of anything by dumping long blocks of contiguous text into a comment or an article?

Or is it more likely that it comes off as kooky and wierd thus losing possible support?

Here are the facts about the service of Bush that were PROVEN by his own records that have been released by DoD.

During time of War this how LT. George W. Bush failed to obey Air Force Regulations, directives and the direct orders of his Commanding Officer:

During part of 1972 Bush failed to report for drills with his unit in Texas. Bush had requested a transfer to a unit in Alabama where he was working on a campaign. That request was denied and Bush was ORDERED to continuing attending drills with his unit in Texas.

Bush failed to report for a mandatory training exercise in 1972 for the simulated defense of the U.S.

Bush failed to have enough flight hours to because he did not report as ordered for drills with his Texas Air Guard Unit.

In 1972 Bush did not take a REQUIRED annual physical examination.

Bush failed to obey the written order from his commanding officer to take his physical.

Bush was grounded in late1972 for failure to take his required physical

EVERY one of the above should have resulted in disciplinary action against GWB and would have PREVENTED him from receiving an Honorable Discharge.

ALL BS in the world can not alter these facts. ANY officer in the military worth anything can no0t condone the actions of Bush and to think that such a person is now Commander-in-Chief is unbelievable.