I expect apologies will be forthcoming from those who accused the man of going AWOL? Not a light charge to throw around you know?

Posted by: mark buehner at February 10, 2004 12:14 PM

Bush needs Ari Fleischer back. Scott McClelland just doesn’t cut it. Heck, even I could have fielded those press questions at the White House News Conference better than he did.

Posted by: CERDIP at February 10, 2004 01:02 PM

Apologies, hell.

I want resignations.

Won’t get either. Being liberal is never having to say you are sorry.

Posted by: jones at February 10, 2004 01:05 PM

All aside, I think that the question still stands - just because someone was “paid” for being in the guard at the time doesn’t mean they were there half the time. A lot of people reported that at the time, you could float around as a guardsman and get away with it - which was the reason a lot of people joined up, if they could get in.

So while he may have the paystubs, and that’s fine - why can’t we just get a firm answer on him showing up regularly to meetings, etc.

Posted by: djspicerack at February 10, 2004 02:12 PM

OK, so now that the records are there, the issue changes?

If it wasn’t so pathetically predictable, it would be laughable.

I’m still waiting for a Bush hater to explain to me why they consider a fellow who shoots a surrendering wounded enemy in the head to be a war hero?

Posted by: CERDIP at February 10, 2004 02:24 PM

djspic - you don’t get paid for just being in the Guard/Reserves - your pay is determined by how many drills you showed up for. They are very careful about that. If he got drill pay, it means he showed up - unless he got the wheels greased so well that somebody was willing to falsify records.

Posted by: samuelv at February 10, 2004 02:29 PM

Let me annoy the Kerry Kool-Aid drinkers here: Didn’t Kerry admit to war crimes?

****1971 MTP interview excerpt follows****

(Audiotape, April 18, 1971):

MR. CROSBY NOYES (Washington Evening Star): Mr. Kerry, you said at one time or another that you think our policies in Vietnam are tantamount to genocide and that the responsibility lies at all chains of command over there. Do you consider that you personally as a Naval officer committed atrocities in Vietnam or crimes punishable by law in this country?

KERRY: There are all kinds of atrocities, and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other
soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free fire zones. I conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50 calibre
machine guns, which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search and destroy missions, in the burning of villages. All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare, all of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this is ordered as a
matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down…

****

Wow, seems cut-and-dried to me. No statute of limitations, either. Cuff him, I guess?

Posted by: DrSteve at February 10, 2004 02:50 PM

“All aside, I think that the question still stands - just because someone was “paid” for being in the guard at the time doesn’t mean they were there half the time”

Here we go…

Didnt it used to be, when you decided to accuse someone of a serious crime like desertion, the accuser would be the one to gather evidence? Does the new way we do it include demanding that the accused prove that he didnt bribe his superiors into forging records? How exactly does one go about that btw?

Posted by: mark buehner at February 10, 2004 03:06 PM

Those records are thirty years old anyway. What good are they. They prove nothing.

Posted by: jones at February 10, 2004 05:26 PM

HA HA!

Good one !

Records are too old. That’s rich. Rusty records.

Posted by: CERDIP at February 10, 2004 05:53 PM

CERDIP It has a MoTown Sound to it - ‘Deserter and the Rusty Records’.

Posted by: Cap'n DOC at February 11, 2004 07:52 AM

Must be a party. Lotta whine here…

Posted by: GDubya at February 11, 2004 04:53 PM

The drunk tank in Mobile, that’s where you’ll find Bushs’ real story.

That’s why he couldn’t report for duty.

Posted by: blair at May 4, 2004 12:39 AM

The drunk tank in Mobile, that’s where you’ll find Bushs’ real story.

That’s why he couldn’t report for duty.

Posted by: blair at May 4, 2004 12:40 AM