DNC TO LAUNCH FRESH ATTACK ON BUSH GUARD DUTY: WILL RAISE QUESTIONS ABOUT 1978 CAMPAIGN LIT

The Drudge Report ^ | 9-12-04 | Matt Drudge

[Crazieman]

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN SEPT 12, 2004 19:02:38 ET XXXXX

DNC TO LAUNCH FRESH ATTACK ON BUSH GUARD DUTY:  WILL RAISE QUESTIONS ABOUT 1978 CAMPAIGN LIT

**Exclusive**

Faster than a CBS eye can blink, dogged Dems are set to take to the airwaves anew hoping to keep questions about President Bush's National Guard duty in play, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

Candidate Kerry apparently has rejected former President Clinton's advice not to get further locked in a 2004 Vietnam quagmire.

"George W. Bush's campaign literature claimed that he 'served in the U.S. Air Force.' The only problem? He didn't,"  slams a new DNC press release set for distribution.

Dems will attempt to increase the heat on Bush ahead of his planned Tuesday address before The National Guard Association gathering in Las Vegas.

In 2000, Bush opened his National Guard Association speech: "General, I am reporting for duty."

MORE

Kerry plans to speak to the group on Thursday, but he personally hold back questioning Bush's service, sources explain.

The coordinated nationwide effort this week by the DNC has been code-named "Project Fortunate Son."

"George Bush has a clear pattern of lying about his military service," DNC Communications Director Jano Cabrera blasts in the new release. "From 1978 to the present day, George Bush has refused to tell voters the truth about his service. It's time for the President to come clean."

"Flyers distributed to Texas voters during Bush's failed Congressional race say 'he served in the U.S. Air Force and the Texas Air National Guard.' But according to Air Force officials, Air National Guardsmen are not counted as members of the active-duty Air Force."

MORE

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Filed By Matt Drudge
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(c)DRUDGE REPORT 2004
Not for reproduction without permission of the author

[Lexinom]

I know. My comment was in jest.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

BRING IT ON!

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

Proof of the charges is not required.

Doesn't matter now. If they find or rather manufacture very convincing proof, all Bush has to do is ask the Swift Boats or some other group to air ads showing exactly how the last documents were faked, and how the new proof is faked. Our new chant should be FLIP FLOP, FRAUD!

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

Good grief don't these idiots realize that the ANG is a part of the USAF?

Actually it's not, or at least it shouldn't be. But no matter, they have been discredited, just need to advertise that.

[pepsionice]

WORDSTAR!

[TASMANIANRED]

"Kerry hired Shrum to run his campaign. Shrum is 0 out of 7 so far in Presidential campaigns."

Rush has said it before. The Democrats love losers. The bigger the screw up the more they are admired. That is why Carter is held in such esteem.

[Future Useless Eater]

What a REDICULOUS slam the democRATS are trying to pull this time.

The TANG is part of the Air Force. The August 1st memo even calls the group the USAF/TexANG.

This Bush writeup was obviously written in the third person by a reporter. It would be very easy for someone to mis-translate the abbreviation USAF/TexANG to mean Air Force -AND- Air National Guard. Here is the title of another officer that flew with Dubya

    COL. WILLIAM CAMPENNI (retired)
    U.S. Air Force/Air National Guard
    Herndon, Va.5 

Once again, a reporter could easily misunderstand that to mean he was a member of the U.S. Air Force, AND the Air National Guard

http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/BushGuardaugust1.pdf

[jayef]

Volkswriter!

[Libertina]

ROTFLOL What year...decade, is it again? Someone please remind me... ;)

[garjog]

I didn't read all 750 posts, but I wonder if the reason Kerry stressed his Vietnam experiences early in the campaign was because of a plan to unload this crap a few weeks before the election to confuse uninformed voters by contrasting "AWAL Bush who didn't even serve in the AF" with three medal war hero John F'ing?

It isn't working very well, now is it. This mud is transparent.

[El Gato]

Apparently the Dems have never heard of the "Total Force", these days, more than ever, the Air National Guard is part of the U.S. Air Force, unless engaged in purely state missions, like riot control or disaster relief. For instance the OK ANG flying unit at OK City was once teased as the Hay Haulers, for their effort in airdropping hay to cattle after some really bad winter storms in western Oklahoma.

All the R's need do is supply a picture of Bush in a TxANG F-102A, like the one in the foreground below, where the "U.S. Air Force" markings are visible. Or better yet, a T-38 which Bush likely flew in pilot training. (And newbies are still flying today, if they are going to fighters).

[El Gato]

But according to Air Force officials, Air National Guardsmen are not counted as members of the active-duty Air Force."

Typical DemocRat parsing, no they are not part of the *Active Duty* Air Force, but that doesn't mean they are not part of the Air Force. The same could be said of AF Reservists (which ANG members are as well as being part of their state's organized militia). Air Guardmen wear a "US Air Force" strip on their BDUs opposite their name strip. ANG officers wear the same "U.S." on the lapels of their uniform as active duty Air Force officers do and the same is true ANG enlisted members.

[Maria S]

http://www.democrats.org/fortunateson/index.html

Please go to this website, use one of your "alternate" e-mail names and post your opinion about this really vile piece of garbage. (You don't have to watch it; I didn't. Drudge compared it to Fahrenheit 9/11.)

My comment suggested that the democrat party and kerry could surely do better than stoop to such petty, low-class propaganda.

It won't let your comment go thru unless you add "friends" e-mail addresses: how about "nobodyathome@nowhere.net"?

[El Gato]

Carvile was on the Timmy Russert hour (the CNBC show) this weekend. Enough to make a grown woman puke

My mother always says "Enough to gag a maggot", which seems to fit the "Rajan Cajan" Carvile to a "T".

[El Gato]

The fraud that wouldn't die....is this really the best the've got?

No, this is just the plausibility build up. They'll combine it with push polls showing loss of support for Bush (even though the polls say he's gaining *voter* support). Then the fix will be in. The dead and felon vote will turn out in truly massive numbers. The Army of Lawyers will prevent or at least reduce the effect of any significant challenges to the vote. Then we'll have a coup via fraudulent election. Something like this has to be their plan, they're dumb, but they're not that dumb, and they are craftyslimy.

[El Gato]

They are going to release an old GWB campaign flyer from the 1970s that says he served in the USAF and the TANG.

He did, he held a commission as a reserve of the Air Force, as do all Air National Guard officers. The Air Guard is part of the Air Force. I guess these guys have never heard of the "Total Force".

Meanwhile he was on active duty for the better part of two years, 607 days, and his total points were 761 (assuming I can add in both case).o, That means he spent an addition 154 half days (each inactive duty drill counts for one point, but they are typically half days, sometimes longer especially for pilots who do a single drill for single mission from home base, which with pre and post flight could easily take more than 4 hours, but they still only get 1 point). Thus he served 684 full days in uniform. Kerry only was on active duty from 22 Aug 66 to 3 Jan. 70, 3 years and 4 months, including time at OCS. Reservists on active duty for training do not in general accrue leave, nor for inactive duty training drills. So you have to subtract about 2-3 months from Kerry's total to have a comparable time. So while Kerry did spend more days in uniform, not counting all those days in half a uniform before Congress, speaking at anti-military rallies, and maybe even negotiating with the enemy, the differences are not all that great.

Nobody ever asked Bush to leave because he was endangering others, the same cannot be said of Kerry.

[El Gato]

That would be better if the background picture was an F-14, the Bomb Cat version, launching rather than recovering. It would be a cool picture, especially if it were a dawn or dusk launch, with the afterburner exhaust clearly visible. Something like this :)

[El Gato]

Lets concede ....Kerry can be in the Texas Air National Guard if he wants

Sorry, the Tx ANG doesn't take traitors. We might hang 'em, but we sure as h#ll don't commision 'em.

[El Gato]

In addition, it serves as a reserve component of the U.S. regular Air Force.

component:
Definition: [adj] forming or functioning as part of a whole

Thus the Air National Guard is a part of the U.S. Air Force. Case closed.

[El Gato]

Bush spent nearly two continuous years in the active duty USAF - in officer training and then in UPT (pilot training) before returning to his Guard unit.

Actually I don't think he ever went through officer training, at least I don't see in his record any time spent at OCS/OTS or even at basic training. That would make his a direct commision. I would think he'd have needed some kind of training, in military customs and courtesies at least, to avoid having his head taken off by some senior officer while he was at UPT. The two years included both UPT and specialized training in interceptor techniques (T-33 aircraft) and in flying and fighting the F-102. Some of that was back at Ellington, his home base. They were the school house for Guard F-102 and later F-101 transition training, at least starting "by" January 1970, Bush started his F-102 training, officially, on 29 Dec 69. Thus he most likely did his transition training at his home base. The unit had a dual mission for some years, both standing alert (and keeping it's pilots ready to do that mission) and training pilots from ANG units of many state's ANGs.