Uh-Oh George! Pesky questions about your National Guard Duty. Again.

[elehhhhna]

'Fast-track flyboy: Just how did George W. Bush become Lt. Bush, anyway?'
Michael Graham, American Politics Journal

Editor's note: This is an e-mail message Michael Graham sent two days ago to a highly reputed investigative "blog" run by a progressive think tank. Mr. Graham was responding to blog entries concerning Bush's overuse of the National Guard.

Dear troublemakers,

I used to be a prize-winning reporter, so hear me out. Before that, I served in the real Air Force, as a commissioned officer in counterintelligence, at the same time George W. Bush was hiding out in the Texas Guard. At that time, the Guard did relatively little unless there was a hurricane or something. They certainly didn't have to worry about combat.

My theory is that Commander Codpiece -- insanely addicted to power -- is so hung up on the fact that he was a coward back then that he is compensating for it now by forcing today's Guard to be heroes. That way he can be one retroactively -- heroism by association. That may sound nutty, but the man is batshit nuts. And it is just a theory.

But here is something that is provable. No one in journalism has picked up one aspect of Bush's past: He never was properly trained to be a second lieutenant in the first place! I'm talking about before flight school, entrance to which requires an officer's commission.

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/

[driver8]

1. I have always felt that the reason chimpy likes starting wars and

parading around flight decks in a flight suit is because he wants to be a war hero. He ran and hid when he had the opportunity the first time, so now he is making up for it.

[itzamirakul]

6. "He ran and hid...the first time, so now he is making up for it " by

deliberately not being anywhere near the war that he started and by running and hiding in plain sight. A coward is a coward is a coward...ad infinatum....

[eleny]

7. By sending others to war to become dead heroes?

Puh-leeze.

[driver8]

12. Did I say anything about "sending others to war to become dead heroes"?

I must have missed that part.

Thank you for putting words in my mouth for me. How I could complete a sentence without your help is beyond me.

[Canuckistanian]

17. So true

What infuriated me was his little speech he made sometime before 9/11 with the title "What I learned from Vietnam"

[bvar22]

18. He ran and hid on 9-11 too (N/T)

*

[MissWaverly]

2. Yes, please answer the question, Mr. Bush

do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth...

[Gregorian]

3. Music to my ears.

Why aren't there more people talking just like this guy. He almost sounds like Bartcop.

It's like nothing a Bush has ever done was legitimate.

Can we get some teeth going here? Commissions, conventions, and none of them have any real action behind them until after the show is over.

Stop Bushing me around!

[MADem]

4. That all IS true--the fucker went from enlisted boot camp to flight school

and likely because he would have FLUNKED out of officer training.

Astounding, that...it's just NOT DONE.

My favorite bit:

Those of us in the real Air Force got commissioned in one of three ways: The Air Force Academy, ROTC, or -- if already college graduates -- the Officer Training School at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. If you saw the film An Officer and a Gentleman, depicting the Navy's version, you have a rough idea of what that training was like. It was goddamned hard.

But young Georgie didn't have to go through it. If you examine his records, you will find that he was given a direct commission as a second lieutenant after completing enlisted basic training and nothing more! Bang: He went directly from Airman Third Class, which is the rank of someone just out of basic, to a second lieutenant with a few typewriter keystrokes. Then he went to flight school.

Now I don't know if this was standard procedure for everyone in the Guard -- I was too busy spying on Americans to pay attention. We always assumed that Guardsmen and Reservists who wore the same uniform and the same insignia of grade as we did had undergone same training we did. But some kind of favoritism certainly applied to the arrogant young punk who was to become Commander Codpiece -- again, a psycho of the first magnitude who really and truly believes he is a war hero.

I tried to point out this little discrepancy to certain journalists during the media flap over Bush's truncated Guard Duty. But it was of secondary importance at the time, and then it got lost in the shuffle and the Dan Rather - Swift Boat dust-up. But you guys might want to revisit it, as long as Bush keeps the National Guard on the front page. His own Guard service reeks of corruption.
...

That creepy guy who was involved in the old Rather/records scandal actually swore him in, and then they did a "mock" swearing in with his DADDY administering the oath. What a load of shit...!

Ya know, usually, when you graduate with your OCS/OTS/OIS class, they usually have a big parade, your parents or spouse attend the ceremony, ya get all dickie-doo'ed up in your best spit-n-polish uniform, ya march in formation, y'all take your oath in unison, ya toss yer hat in the air, ya toss a silver dollar to the first putz who salutes you. It's a big deal. Not this shit:

[TahitiNut]

5. In those days, he couldn't risk flunking out.

He'd be shipped off to 'Nam where his life expectancy (given his attitude) would've been about 30 seconds under fire.

[MADem]

9. Yep, there were only so many safe slots for the enlisted Dan Quayles

...so they had to throw his ass into training for an a/c that had been taken off the roster for Nam duty! One way to keep Porgie safe!

[TheMadMonk]

11. Freindly fire? n/t

[TahitiNut]

13. The "Social Darwinism" they pretend to support but hide from.

It wasn't fun, pretty, or even sane - but it was effective. I doubt any of these posturing chickenhawks would survive 30 seconds under fire. Any action whatsoever would've been the cue for a junior NCO to do a little "for the good of the service" cleansing of the gene pool.

[blogslut]

8. Is it this Michael Graham?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Graham

Michael Graham is an American author, columnist, and conservative talk radio host who currently hosts the afternoon drive show on Boston's WTKK-FM (96.9). He is a contributor to National Review Online and authors a weekly syndicated column titled "The Usual Suspects," which is offered online and appears in several small to intermediate market newspapers.

<snip>

In 1998, Graham moved to the talk radio circuit. Living up to his self-proclaimed description of being "loud, obnoxious and frequently fired", Graham held positions at seven stations in seven years, including stints in South Carolina and Washington, DC, as well as the internet-only outlet Rightalk.com...

[itzamirakul]

10. I think a lot of us knew or suspected that there were even more

questionable points about Bush's service record, but the media noise was at such a peak pitch that opposing ideas could not even be heard. Dan Rather was quickly shut up over some nonsense error and so he never even got to SAY some of the facts that showed Bush's manipulated service record.

The media noise at that point was (and still is) infuriating. I mean ALL the tv channels, cable and network were working overtime to kill Rather. The media noise reminded me of one of those terrible Crossfire programs.

[LuckyLib]

14. So Daddy pulls a few strings, swings his weight, and Georgie

rises to the top, then gets a cushy assignment in Alabama, where he appears when the mood strikes him. What a friggin' joke. A million plus dollars worth of flight training, and he's a no-show (at least no one can remember that he showed up!). Privilege has its rank, doesn't it? And now, that the National Guard has been officially deputized as the new infantry, Georgie in hindsight will be seen as a veteran of that honored group. Oh, puhleeze! They create their own reality, then manufacture their own history!

[formercia]

15. They teach you to behave in OCS. n/t

[elehhhhna]

16. They say it was fun--the entire Dallas pro fottball team was in it.

[dalaigh lllama]

19. Commander Codpiece

has got to be my favorite descriptive. After all, what else is a codpiece but a cover for Dick?

[CatWoman]

20. I've had similar thoughts about this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=1197088