Bush's volunteer service disputed (community service)

[Newsjock]

Edit to change title because website changed title after posting.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/9990544.htm?1c

BY MEG LAUGHLIN
Knight Ridder Newspapers

HOUSTON - (KRT) - President Bush often has cited his work in 1973 with a now-defunct inner-city program for troubled teens as the source for his belief in "compassionate conservatism."

... But former associates of White, who died in 1988, have disputed in recent interviews much of Bush's version of his time at the program.

... But White's administrative assistant and others associated with P.U.L.L., speaking on the record for the first time, say Bush was not helping to run the program and White had not asked Bush to come aboard. Instead, the associates said, White told them he agreed to take Bush on as a favor to Bush's father, who was honorary co-chairman of the program at the time, and Bush was unpaid. They say White told them Bush had gotten into some kind of trouble but White never gave them specifics.

"We didn't know what kind of trouble he'd been in, only that he'd done something that required him to put in the time," said Althia Turner, White's administrative assistant.

... "George had to sign in and out - I remember his signature was a hurried cursive - but he wasn't an employee. He was not a volunteer either," she (Theresa Times) said. "John said he had to keep track of George's hours because George had to put in a lot of hours because he was in trouble."

lots more

[Skittles]

1. that would be the cocaine bust

we would know all the details if Bush was a Democrat

[pa28]

11. You know it.

Even if the details do come out it will be "ancient history", "irrelevant" and a "youthful indiscretion".

If it were a Democrat you could fill a book with articles and comments from the Conservative media on why it matters.

Let's face it. There is a double standard and we have to live with it until there can be some kind of media reform or a return to the fairness doctrine.

[Fridays Child]

28. His equally ancient DUI came up just days before the 2000 election...

...and some people on his campaign believe that it cost him the popular vote. They don't want the truth to come out on this.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

2. Can't fly for the TANG when you're doing community service

oooh boy. October Surprise?

[blm]

5. Can't fly for the TANG when you're doing too much blow.

oooh boy. Cocaine.

[ogradda]

10. oooo please please please

that would make me very happy:bounce: :party:

[aquart]

3. Why is Knight-Ridder covering this?

[UpInArms]

4. the KC Star endorsed Kerry last week

:thumbsup:

Hope that those good people are reading it and understanding the lies that have been told.

[aquart]

12. Aww, they've walked into the light.

[AndyTiedye]

7. kick

:kick:

[Retrograde]

14. because they don't want to get burned a la 60 Minutes?

Since it's so out of character for GWB to do any sort of charitable service without pay, I firmly believe that this was community service as part of a plea bargain for some conviction that was later expunged - nice to have cronies in high places. Cocaine? Another DWI? Don't know, but if this were a real volunteer position I'd expect the Bush campaign to bring it up as much as possible.

That said, it's also IMHO hearsay. White is dead, the court records are gone, and it comes down to their word against his. I'd rather the news media spent the remaining time until Nov. 2 covering something provable - the utterly incompetent way Bush handled the economy, foreign relations, the war in Iraq for starters.

[TahitiNut]

6. Yup. Six months in jail in 1972 and 6 months community service in 1973

That's how I see it.

[Mom_and_Dad]

13. We'd know if he was in jail

Far more likely that he was under house arrest for 6 months and the records sealed.
That would be nice and easy to keep hush-hush.

I just hope that the community service time is proved

[Rose Siding]

8. Here's a no-reg site for the full article

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9990590.htm

Knight Ridder. This is exciting.

[JoFerret]

16. Here we go

...it's coming out...what DUers have known and heard for years.

[LiberalFighter]

20. This link works too

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/krwashington/9990590.htm

[Lucille]

9. Will this help or hurt him with the Fundies

Isn't he the myth of the prodigal son come to life?

[Hog lover]

34. Jesus forgave him and became his right-hand man

He done seen the light and his sins wuz fergiven.

[Hog lover]

35. Jesus forgave him and became his right-hand man

He done seen the light and his sins wuz fergiven.

[Cocoa]

41. hurts him with regular folks

makes his whole life story look like the big lie that it is.

[JoFerret]

47. Will they even hear about it?

but - general answer - no.

[JoFerret]

51. God speaks to W

[acmavm]

15. Seems like everybody is fairgame to become a bush* bullshit story

once they're dead.

Man, this has been a hell of a last couple of weeks. And KKKarl has got to be crying himself to sleep at night.

WHEEEEEEEEE!!!!

[JoFerret]

17. THIS George Bush?

Fidel and George both take a fall. Hmmm. Must be significant.

[DeadManInc]

18. Bush's volunteer service disputed

Wouldn't this be a public record if he got into trouble? Or did he have it buried to cover his sorry ass? He wasn't addicted to cocaine, he just liked they way it smelled!!!

[LiberalFighter]

21. When you have judges in your pocket

anything can be done

[sandnsea]

22. Deferred sentencing

Records are supposed to be expunged if you complete the community service. But I know in California we just stapled them shut and stuck them in the basement.

[Jose Diablo]

19. Another brick in the wall

or nail in the coffin if you prefer.

[Fridays Child]

23. Smoke. Fire.

.

[drscm]

24. A lot of soldiers are putting a lot of time in because George made

another mess.

[Fridays Child]

25. Someone ought to look for Jim Bath's arrest records. Or did he...

...get a new driver's license, too?

[LiberalFighter]

26. The guy knew he needed to change his life?

"Let's leave it like that," Maura said, adding, "`43' did more good being in trouble than a lot of people not in trouble. The guy knew he needed to change his life, and he did."


That is total bullshit!!

Then why didn't he quit abusing alcohol until he turned 40?

[proReality]

37. Not to mention that he still hasn't...

quit making major mistakes. Nothing has changed!

[LiberalFighter]

27. Getting paid by the guard? I don't think so

"It was incorrect to say he was working there," spokesman Trent Duffy said. "He was doing volunteer service and getting paid by the Guard."

[Rose Siding]

29. Oh, good good good catch

All the discrepencies have yet to be writ.

[wicket]

30. I've been wondering when this would come up

:D

[grasswire]

31. careful....this is exactly ROVE's M.O.

His favorite play.

Leak something bad about Bush to distract the press.

It has worked every time, especially the DUI that was leaked in order to snuff out the AWOL story breaking that same day.

Be careful.

[jody]

32. Do records show Bush doing community service on or about 6 Jan 73 when

he was supposedly getting a dental exam in Montgomery, Alabama?

see article at http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/12/elec04.prez.bush.military/

[goclark]

33. This sounds so compelling

I have always wondered what he was "volunteering" to do back then.

As soon as I realized that it was an agency that was for minorities I knew instantly that George would not be there to "help" unless he was forced to be there.

This is the only example of him EVER helping minorities that I have ever heard of. If it meant so much to him then, why hasn't that need to help the poor/troubled continued?

Huuum,I smell a rat named Georgie Porgie and I smell another rat named Wimp Daddy, alias Poppy, who was always in the middle of the crap.

Let's dig while the digging is good!

[JoFerret]

36. Where to dig?

...and who can do it?

[jody]

48. Jesse Jackson should use his prestige and find out what happened

and when in the Martin Luther King Community Center in Houston Texas where Dubya performed his community service.

[JoFerret]

52. Good call.

...also get Sharpton on the case.

[prayin4rain]

38. Of course he had to. Anyone who thinks Bush would actually volunteer

out of the kindness of his heart, democrat or republican, is crazy. I didn't even know this was a question, the republicans don't give a damn.

[txindy]

39. Kicking

Because I've been waiting for questions about Junior's community service to be posed in the MSM for what feels like forever.

:kick:

[PermanentRevolution]

40. Anyone remember GOPAgainstW?

I think that was his name... a poster here who said he was part of a group from Texas that had inside info on Bush... Said they had something that could finish him off, and they'd put it out in October... What if this is it? Or, more to the point, what if this is the START of it? What if they found proof that W was convicted for cocaine possession, and had it removed from his record? And they leaked it to Knight/Ridder, who is starting to run with it?

Could be wishful thinking, but who knows?

[Catherine Vincent]

46. I do remember that guy. He hasn't posted lately.

Was wondering what happened to him

[oldtime dfl_er]

42. Amazing how many witnesses you can find when he really WAS there

as opposed to when he WASN'T reporting for duty. Great article.

[TacticalPeek]

43. Kick.

:kick:

[Tesibria]

44. It HURTS him 'cause he's lying about it NOW

IF this were just about what happened in 1973 -- that would be one thing and YES, fundies could disregard it as youthful indiscretions before his conversion.

However, he used this experience in his 2000 campaign -- and I believe still refers to it.

If this story is true -- then Bush is lying NOW. That will hurt him with reasonable folks.

(The Rusho'reillys, of course, will do what they did with the DUI/DWI -- say it's character assassination.)

I think that in forwarding this -- the best approach is to focus on what it means in the "here and now" -- I.e., He's lied about it recently -- and NOT focus on his sins of the past.

Just my opinion ....

[Tesibria]

45. delete/dupe

delete/dupe

[cal04]

49. check out this blogger's links, going back to February

Saturday, February 14, 2004

Cocaine consumption would have barred him from flying, but his connections would still have ensured that he did not suffer the normal consequences, and being barred from flying wouldn't be a problem if you didn't intend to fly anyway. Somehow more levers would have been pulled, and he would have received his honorable discharge, with his earning abilities not damaged in any way.

The answer probably lies in the exchange between Helen Thomas and Scott McClellan as set out in Talking Points Memo, which concerns allegations that Bush had to do community service in Houston in the early 1970's, probably because of a conviction for possession of cocaine. Anybody else would have gone to jail, but his dad managed again to pull some strings with the judge to get Bush off with a bit of charity work.

Note how incredibly nervous and evasive McClellan is, and how Thomas holds on like a shark (every other 'journalist' in the room could have asked the same questions as Helen Thomas did, but lacked the integrity and/or competence to do so). Also note how the White House is releasing, albeit grudgingly and in a manner that evidences guilt, all the military records. Rove is on his game here. By holding back the military records he has made the military records the issue, and has has managed to divert the media from the real issue, which is the community service.

If those legal files ever get out, showing that Bush was convicted of a serious drug offence, his political career will be finished. The real reason that Bush went AWOL was that he couldn't afford to take a drug test. The real reason he couldn't afford to take a drug test was that it would have been a condition of his sentencing that he remain clean. If word of the failed drug test had filtered back to the court, he would have gone to jail. His fear of the criminal legal consequences is why he went AWOL, and that's why the community service is the key to understanding what is going on here. By concentrating on the military records, the media is walking right into Rove's trap.

If Democrats want to win, the only way they can do it is to get information on what happened in that Texas court room in 1972.
It's the community service issue which could blow everything - and I mean everything - wide open.

It would be very interesting to know if Bath was sentenced to the same community service under the same conditions as Bush for participation in the same drug-related incident, which may have involved the sale of some 'excess inventory' being flown into the U. S. by Bath's little CIA-proprietary airline. Whatever happened in Texas may have given both the Saudi Royal Family and its American friends quite a hold over young George Bush, a hold which may even have influenced his failure to heed all the warnings about 9-11.

Bath, who is keeping a low profile, is the key to all this. Bath was suspended for failing to take a medical one month after George Bush was suspended for the same reason. A CIA proprietary airline financed by the Saudis would almost certainly have been involved in one of the CIA's favorite activities, the smuggling of drugs from South America into the United States. Bush was a heavy drug user, so heavy that he couldn't abstain for the few days it would take for the coke to clear his system, and probably avoided the medical for that reason (Bath may have had the same problem)
http://xymphora.blogspot.com/2004/09/bush-drugs-texas-and-1972.html
http://xymphora.blogspot.com/2004/02/bush-and-bath-and-community-service.html

[vetwife]

50. This was mentioned on C-Span yesterday morning

[Jose Diablo]

53. It don't lie....It don't lie..... It don't lie....

Cocaine

[struggle4progress]

54. kick

:kick: :evilgrin: :kick: