Bush bio on Web inflates Guard service

[MaineDem]

By Walter V. Robinson, Globe Staff, 2/28/2004

Questions remain about President Bush's long-ago service in the Texas Air National Guard. But the basic outline of his Guard service is not in dispute: After a year in flight school, Bush spent five months learning how to fly an F-102 fighter-interceptor and then 22 months as a part-time pilot. He stopped flying in April 1972 -- 30 months before his formal commitment would normally have ended.

Nonetheless, the biography of Bush on the US State Department's website credits him with almost six years in the F-102's cockpit -- two years on active duty flying the plane and nearly four more years of part-time service as an F-102 pilot. The websites of at least five American embassies -- those in Germany, Italy, Pakistan, Vietnam, and South Korea -- use the identical language, even though Bush spent barely two years flying the airplane.

After the 2000 election, when evidence of Bush's abbreviated flying career and his propensity to miss required drills became public, the presidential biography written for the White House website made no mention of the period of Bush's service, only that he served as an F-102 pilot.

But the State Department biography of Bush, which has been on its website since 2001, makes the president out to be more of a frequent flyer than the embellished account in Bush's 1999 autobiography, "A Charge To Keep." In that book, Bush said he flew with his unit for "the next several years" after his five months of training on the F-102 concluded in June 1970.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/bush/articles/2004/02/28/bush_bio_on_web_inflates_guard_service/

Edited because I forgot the link. Sorry.

[sonias]

1. Imagine that, bu$h had the government lie for him

"The errant biography on the State Department website was called to the Globe's attention yesterday by Hugh E. Scott, a retired Continental Airlines captain and former Air Force pilot from Newbury Park, Calif."
(/snip)

Now that they get caught in that lie, they will correct it of course. Unlike the lie that led to the Iraq war which they won't even touch. Wonder who was responsible for writing the state department lie-ography? Did Karen Hughes ghost write another lie for the bu$h?

Retied captain Scott better be flying his own planes these days. Good thing is you still have thousands of pairs of eyes checking the stories out. Good find Mr. Scott.

Sonia

[Zhade]

19. Ooooh, that's a great term!

Resident b*sh doesn't have a biography, he has a lie-ography.

I like it.

[saigon68]

21. I'd like to see his Form 5 (flight log)

The dirty Bastard will never produce it.

[maxanne]

24. ha ha

lie-ography or buy-ography.

[Robb]

2. I'm trying to remember which columnist...

...made the remark this week about how many pictures there were of * looking "presidential" in the budget that went to print in 2001, 2002, and 2003. Dozens, I believe. And he noticed that Clinton always just adorned the budget with graphs and charts, not his own image. :eyes:

[mumon]

3. Paul Krugman, of course..

Bush needs to be impeached.

[oldshoe]

12. high crimes...

High crimes and misdemenors. Man, has this guy ever accumulated lots of high misdemenors.

[TacticalPeek]

23. Perhaps they will come to rue plastering his pics on the budget

as much as they must rue the pics of him prancing on the carrier.

Some conservatives are plenty pissed at all the red ink.

[kayell]

4. I wonder if the truth in advertising laws apply? nt

[coloradodem2005]

5. I would hardly consider it a revelation.

Something needs to be done. He needs to answer for his lies.

[TacticalPeek]

6. Drip, drip, drip . . . .

Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director, asked yesterday about that language, said: "It does not reflect the facts of his service. It will be corrected."

----

November can correct many things.

[LiberalFighter]

9. But did they know they were lying when they wrote the bio!!!!!!

[TacticalPeek]

22. Let's remember. Their initial lie about this,

when his political operatives began purging his Guard records, was that they were gathering material for his bio.

Bwaahahahahah!

[twilight]

7. more lies more lies more lies more lies more lies more lies

When will the lies ever stop?





:dem: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[July]

8. Yeah, and his WH bio says he "grew up" in Midland and Houston

When, exactly, did Connecticut-born Bush move to Texas? I've never seen that information.

[LiberalFighter]

10. According to Polk Directories and his ANG background check

He lived in Houston at least during the time his dip daddy was a congressman. He lived in Midland shortly before he got married.

[AZCat]

11. I would dispute that

To me, he seems like he never grew up. He acts just like the 11-year-old kid I mentored. This is the guy who, as governor of Texas, had time scheduled to play video games. I guess he finished his 'homework' on the execution reviews and was allowed to leave the table after dinner.

Can we get a constitutional amendment that someone's 'developmental age' must at least be 35 years also?

[Thor_MN]

13. And not have ADD???

has * ever completed ANYTHING? He jumps into things headfirst, then quickly gets bored and looks for something else to do.

[AZCat]

16. I wonder if he really has ADD

There have been some interesting perspectives on DU about this- written by people familiar with the disorder. But I am concerned that we- as a society- are so repulsed by the idea that a man so incompetent became our national leader, we are actively seeking rationalizations for his behavior? Is it possible, that in this case, a cigar is just a cigar? Is it possible that Dubya is just dumb and uninterested in anything other than his daily jog- for which I applaud him. More of us should be exercising (but that is beside the point).
He reminds me of royalty- and not in a good way. Stories abound of behavior by royals in lots of cultures who, after the first couple of generations, have become so soft that they no longer are capable of living without considerable assistance.

A charming anecdote about the Duke of Marlborough for comparison:
(brought to you by http://www.anecdotage.com/index.php?aid=9739 )

<snip>
The Duke of Marlborough, who lived in considerable style at Blenheim Palace, once visited one of his daughters in her relatively modest home.
Early one morning, she was astonished to hear her father hollering down the stairs, complaining that his toothbrush was "not working": it was not foaming as it should, the duke explained, angrily demanding a replacement.
Marlborough's daughter was obliged to explain that foam was produced only when "toothpaste" was applied to the brush- a task usually performed by the duke's valet.
<snip>

Reminds me of Dubya!

The dyslexia, the ADD, the heavy drinking, the (alleged) cocaine use- these are all elements of our rationalization. I think it is time we drew back the curtain and let the light shine on the truth- Dubya is inbred.

[Zhade]

20. He's distantly related to the House of Windsor, so he probably is inbred!

At least his genes have some unfortunate remnants of the family line.

I do think b*sh, aside from being a murderous lying traitor, is dyslexic and ADHD.

[Lisa]

14. he got in trouble for misleading advertising in Midland ...

During that failed 1970s run for Congress. His opponent slammed him for saying in his campaign literature that he was "born in 1946 and raised in Midland" because most people assumed he was born in Texas. Actually he was born in New Haven, Connecticut.

I noticed that in the "Who's Who", he doesn't list a birthplace. This is unusual, because every other president, VP, and virtually all of his cabinet who are in there come out and say where they were born.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

26. Birthplace is important in the South

I assume the same applies in Texas. "He lives in Texas, but he's from Connecticut" is how they'd put it in South Carolina, Alabama, etc.

I used to work on a newspaper in Tupelo, and since I was a Yankee (until they learned I was born in Montgomery, AL before my Air Force father was assigned to New York), I didn't understand that that fact as I took obituaries over the phone. If you were born in Biloxi but at the age of one your family moved to Tupelo, where you lived the remainder of your life, your obituary would read, "Mr. Johnson, of Biloxi, died Tuesday."

That's why they won't put his birthplace in *'s biography. He would cease being a "Texan", which has a certain John Wayne straight-talking no self-doubt image associated with it, and be seen for what he truly is -- an Easterner who happens to have lived part of his life in Texas.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

15. This Is What Bush Was Doing When Vietnam Started Heating Up

Just when America began sending its young men and women to die in a pointless war in Vietnam, Bush was trying out and obtaining the head cheerleader position in his all-male school at Andover. Not only that, but he was crossdressing in bra, skirt, and wig, along with all his fellow cheerleaders. He was a high school senior back in 1963, about to graduate. Many young Americans would have been looking forward to spending their 18th birthday in bootcamp. I think this photo (link below) of Bush the homecoming queen should be posted every time a point is made about what a war hero he was:

http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/061000wh-bush.html

[JusticeForAll]

18. Thank you for this post

Great article

[UpInArms]

17. from the State Dept site

http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/presbush/bio


George W. graduated from Yale in May of 1968 with a major in history. Two weeks before graduation, he went to the offices of the Texas Air National Guard at Ellington Air Force Base outside Houston to sign up for pilot training.

So he was immediately put at the top of the list? I say this because don't his documents show that on May 27, 1968 he was "in".

[pfitz59]

25. Bush has about 300 flight hours.

For active duty pilots in the '60s that was about a month's flight time. Shrub could maybe take off and land (or tow targets!), but that was about it! If he ever releases his flight logs watch for the operational codes. training, training and more training!