Our Leadless Feeler: Bush and Business School

by Phantom Stranger 12 Replies latest social current

• 

  Phantom Stranger

  Found Object: Bush's Early Discharge They also serve who attend B-school. By Timothy Noah
  Updated Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2003, at 3:50 PM PT
  
  

  Certain documents available on the Web are so piquant that commentary seems superfluous. In honor of Veterans Day, Chatterbox serves up an objet trouvé concerning President George W. Bush's Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard. The found object is young Dubya's request?four months after his superiors reported they'd seen hide nor hair of him during the previous year?that he be discharged early so he can attend Harvard Business School. Enjoy. (You may need to click on the lower right-hand corner of the document to enlarge it to readable form.)

  If you need a refresher course on President Bush's elusive career in the Air National Guard (first reported in May 2000 by the Boston Globe's Walter V. Robinson), David Corn of The Nation provides one here. A complete set of documents concerning the president's military record, obtained via the Freedom of Information Act by Martin Heldt, can be found here. For a chaser, you might sample the Veterans Day speech President Bush gave today, in which he said, "Every veteran understands the meaning of personal accountability and loyalty and shared sacrifice."
• 

  Stacy Smith
• 

  SanFranciscoJim
• 

  Phantom Stranger

  Oh, Stacy, I was just honoring the men and women who served in the armed forces on Veteran's Day. Jim, what the hell is that?
• 

  DakotaRed

  I got an early out from my second tour in Vietnam. Guess that makes me unrespectful of the men and women serving today too, huh?
• 

  Phantom Stranger

  Gosh, Dakota, going to Vietnam sounds like it required you to show up. Sounds like you and John McCain and John Kerry and so many others did, and Dubya didn't.
• 

  DakotaRed

  PS, Bush wasn't given orders to Vietnam. Still, he did train to fly fighter jets and if his unit had been activated and he didn't go, I would join you in condemning him.

  However, for 8 years, we had a President that so many felt was the best ever and where was he? Dodging the draft and not inhaling. But, for those 8 years, all the left could say was that character didn't matter. Now, since a Republican is in office, character matters again?

  What about the opposition candidate to Bush? Yes, he was in Vietnam, for less that 5 months. A normal tour was a year. He too received an early out to attend Divinty school and guess what? He didn't finish it either. But, since Bush has been in office, we hear about how much better a person he is. What job did he have? Writing articles for news and magazines. Yet, he had no problem circulating pictures of himself with an M-16, back pack and bush hat, looking like infantry, when he wasn't.

  Sure seems like very much a double standard to me.
• 

  Aztec

  Making an honest critique of our current president's military service is fair game. As far as Clinton goes, I actually agree with you Dakota. I don't think he was a very moral person however, he was a damn good president (although definatly not perfect). Of course, if I had my way, we'd find a way to clone Teddy Roosevelt and put him in office.

  ~Aztec
• 

  DakotaRed

  Aztec, I have no problem with an "honest" critique of any public official, they all should be held to standards. Let's just make sure it is the same standards.

  I'll have to disagree over Clinton's being a good president, though. But, since he is old news, no need to debate him any longer. At least we agreed on something

  I like seeing the same standard for all, across the board. If I had my way, I wouldn't mind seeing Harry Truman cloned either. He may have been the last decent Democrat President we had. Kennedy may have been too, but he really wasn't in office long enough to be able to make an effective comparison. Johnson, though, was a joke.

  If the Democrats ever move back towards the conservatism they were once known for, I might start voting Democrat occassionally, depending on the candidate. In the same light, the Republicans need to ignore the radical Christian right as well.
• 

  Aztec

  I might start voting Democrat occassionally

  OMG! I must save this for historical purposes!

  I like seeing the same standard for all, across the board.

  Agreed! I'm eagerly anticipating the newly elected Democrat President's bashing that will surely ensue next Fall.

  In the same light, the Republicans need to ignore the radical Christian right as well.

  If only that would happen! I have voted Republican a few times but the majority of candidates suck up to the fundamentalists and that really turns me off! I wish there was some middle ground. I think we need stronger third parties.

  I think we agree more than disagree Dakota.

  ~Aztec