Posted on 08/28/2004 12:29:43 AM PDT by adam_az
Edited on 08/28/2004 12:21:18 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
UPDATED 8/28/04 at 8:21 MST
According to an 8/27/2004 article in the the New York Times, a new Swiftboatesque testimonial video was released featuring Texas lobbyist Ben Barnes who claims that he got George W. Bush into the National Guard in 1968.
"I walked through the Vietnam Memorial the other day," Mr. Barnes said, according to a videoclip posted on the Internet this summer, "and I looked at the names of people who died in Vietnam and I became more ashamed of myself than I've ever been because the worst thing I did was get a lot of wealthy supporters and a lot of people who had family names of importance into the Guard and I'm very sorry about that and I apologize to you and the voters of Texas."The New York Times did not mention Ben Barnes connections with John Kerry's campaign, or the DNC connections with the release of these videos.
Who Is Ben Barnes?CBS News reports that Ben Barnes is one of eight "bundlers" who have raised more than $500,000 for John Kerry's campaign. He is also listed as a Vice Chair of the Kerry campaign on the John Kerry campaign website. According to the Dallas Ft. Worth Star Telegram, Barnes is one of the "gatekeepers and endorsers for Texas appointees and job-seekers" in a potential Kerry administration.
Ben Barnes, then Lieutenant Governor... has admitted that he personally interceded with Guard officials at the behest of a business associate of Congressman Bush. The ex-President says he is "almost certain" he didn’t ask Barnes, directly or indirectly, to intercede for his son; the carefully crumbling denials suggest there is smoking documentation somewhere, and we may yet get a more precise snapshot of how the people who start the wars avoid risking their children to fight them.These claims were already discredited by then. CNN reported in July 1999 that the Los Angeles Times had already investigated them, reporting that the "Los Angeles Times said it found no evidence that either Bush or his father, former President George Bush, had personally tried to influence or pressure anyone to get the younger Bush a place in the Texas Guard. Bush's father was a congressman from Houston at the time."
Who is Distributing This Video NowAccording to the New York Times, the website which released the video, Austin4Kerry.com, crashed when James Moore, the author of "Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential" and "Bush's War For Reelection : Iraq, the White House, and the People" sent an email to his mailing list, with the resuling traffic crashing the website hosting the video.
If I remember correctly, each of his first 2 years was over 200 points. The next two were over 100, and the final two were each 56 or so.
Excellent post.
TalkLeft has a thread on this topic.
The comments are a hoot.
http://talkleft.com/new_archives/007695.html#007695
Update from Austin: My mother-in-law used to work for Ben Barnes at the Texas Capitol many years ago...she once walked in on "Baby Ben" and one of his many mistresses "doin' it" on the floor. He's a worthless piece of political fecal matter and will sell his soul to Lucifer or any other high bidder!!!
Who cares what Barnes says? He didn't serve in the same Jet Fighter as Bush!
bump
In Texas the most likely to get special attention would actually be a football player for UT!
Unfortunately I disagree. What happened during the Vietnam War illustrated some of the social weaknesses of our society of that time. Many of these weaknesses still exist and it may manifest itself if we bring back the draft during a war. Look at all the politicians we have today. They exist on both sides of the aisle. Many took deferrments, others got into the National Guard, others delayed their draft eligibility until they reached an age where the chances for being selected is very low, others went to Vietnam but got assignments that lowered their chances to see combat (i.e military photographer with body guard, swift boats when they were limited to coastal patrols) while others fled to Sweden and Canada (to be pardoned by Pres. Carter) with the financial support of their well to do parents. It was not a pretty picture, the rich made sure their kids had the option to avoid Vietnam and the middle/poor class kids could not. We the middle/working poor class are the largest voting block in the US. The next time they set up a draft, we should unite and make sure it is a fair system. That is the social lesson Americans should learn from the Vietnam War experience.
Excellent post, thank you.
And while there were waiting lists for some positions in the NG, there were no waiting lists for F-102 pilots.
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/07/04/bush.02/
"However, the Dallas Morning News, which also looked into Bush's military record, reported that while Bush's unit in Texas had a waiting list for many spots, he was accepted because he was one of a handful of applicants willing and qualified to spend more than a year in active training flying F-102 jets."
bump
Bump for later
There should never be another draft. In old style warfare (Viet Nam and before), most of our troops were minimally trained "shooters". If they could duck bullets for 2 years, they came home.
These days, our troops are highly trained professionals. It takes longer to train them completely, and the idea is that a much higher percentage of them come home alive and well.
There will always be casualties in war, but they shouldn't happen because we don't invest enough in training and technology. And for sure, not because we put people there who don't want to be there.
Was President Bush a Congressman when Congress voted to give Dwight D. Eisenhower or John F. Kennedy (or whoever was President when the Vietnam war started) the authority to wage war in Vietnam?
Is that chart yours??? it's great.
"Update from Austin: My mother-in-law used to work for Ben Barnes at the Texas Capitol many years ago...she once walked in on "Baby Ben" and one of his many mistresses "doin' it" on the floor. He's a worthless piece of political fecal matter and will sell his soul to Lucifer or any other high bidder!!!"
And Ben Barnes (AKA - "the fastest zipper in the West" see page 91 "Shadow on the Alamo") certainly saw nothing wrong with an ex-stripper as first lady when he encouraged Dan to get into the governor's race.
http://www.johnworldpeace.org/gd020105a.html
FASTEST ZIPPER IN THE WEST. Pretty Slick.
Not always.
Sometimes, we need to be reminded of just what kind of man it is who leads today.
You just did that.
There were two, I believe.
George H. W. Bush from Houston and Jim Collins from North Dallas.
At the same time, there were 20 Democrat Congressmen.
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