WP: Some in Ala. Recall Bush Mentioning Guard Duties

[kskiska]

Firsthand Knowledge Of Service Is Elusive

Sunday, February 15, 2004; Page A01

(snip)

The flap over Bush's Guard service arcs back to an aimless time in Bush's life that he has referred to as his "nomadic years" -- a search for a career and purpose as he drifted from opportunity to opportunity, job to job.

Bush was unquestionably out of step with his generation and, as his mother has said, a late bloomer. While many of his 1960s contemporaries were openly challenging authority and convention, Bush held on to his father's values and ambitions, but with little success at the time. He partied and drank, clashing with his father after a night of carousing in 1972, and supported a war that many of his peers reviled.

Bush never went to Vietnam. He instead enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard 12 days before he was to lose his student deferment in 1968, and committed to flying fighter jets part time at home. Four years later, after long periods of unemployment, a family friend took Bush under his wing.

Alabama was a logical place to park the young Bush while he sorted out his life. His father, then the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, had befriended Red Blount years earlier in Washington.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42735-2004Feb14.html

[latebloomer]

1. his mother said he was a "late bloomer"?

When exactly did he bloom?

[joeybee12]

2. Bloom? Hell, he withered on the vine before he could mature like

real human beings!

[yellowcanine]

3. I think he is a bloomin idiot/nt

.

[kskiska]

4. Gotta wonder about this reporting

One night in December 1972 in Washington, while staying with his parents for the holidays, Bush went carousing with his 16-year-old brother, Marvin. He ran over a neighbor's garbage cans on the way home, and when their father, then ambassador to the United Nations, confronted them, Bush challenged him to go "mano a mano." Within a month, the elder Bush had found a job for his son at an inner-city youth program in Houston. In the spring of 1973, the younger Bush was accepted to Harvard Business School, quickly finished up his Guard requirements and asked for an early discharge.

I think a lenient judge "found" him that job.

[JoFerret]

5. The press is leaking this story

drip by drip.

[Bozita]

7. I'll bet everybody involved has lost the pay records from this "job"

I believe that we're the ones getting the "job" today.

[LiberalFighter]

12. So it was probably in 1973 instead of 1972

In the spring of 1972, he left this job and went to Alabama to work on the unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign of Republican Winton Blount. Returning to Houston, he became a counselor for African-American youngsters in a program called PULL (Professional United Leadership League). The program brought together volunteers from the athletic, entertainment, and business worlds to work with young people in a variety of ways. George taught basketball and wrestling and organized field trips to juvenile prisons, so his young charges could see that side of life and resolve not to end up there themselves.

http://usembassy.state.gov/posts/vn1/wwwhbiobush.html

[AngryWhiteLiberal]

16. I believe the proper term is "developmentally delayed" n/t

Wha' da maroon...

JB

[markses]

6. Buried at the end of the article

"Within a month, the elder Bush had found a job for his son at an inner-city youth program in Houston."

Where is the evidence for this claim? This seems to be one of the claims of contention regarding Bush's records: How - and why - was he working at an inner-city youth program in Houston? Keep in mind that the young Mr. Bush had no training in social work, had previously evinced no desire for social services, and had just participated in a divisive racially charged Senate campaign in Alabama. Furthermore, it is not at all clear how the "job" (elsewhere said to be volunteer work) fits into a career trajectory for the young Mr. Bush. And we are to believe that his father, who wanted him to straighten up his act at this time, picks some job that has little to do with the career trajectory he would have his son follow, and is also seemingly at odds with his son's interests. Stinky like a rotten fish, this little tidbit at the end of the article. Where did this information come from?

[MikeG]

8. You mean, when they weren't soaking their crosses in kerosene,

they remembered W mentioned the National Guard.

[Old and In the Way]

10. Not one iota of evidence to support Bush family "public service"

Somehow, I just don't see Poppy deciding at this juncture of GWB's career that he suddenly needs public sevicing.

[Bozita]

13. Poppy said it was a "job" -- We need pay records

"Within a month, the elder Bush had found a job for his son at an inner-city youth program in Houston."

IRS, the community center, Bush himself, and the State of Texas should all have pay records.

[xxqqqzme]

11. could we possibly

speak w/ someone who remembers him from this 'volunteer' effort? squatter is so expansive when it comes 2 everybody else volunteering their time - surely there MUST B pictures of rich, pampered white boy working w/ those inner city youths?!?

[kskiska]

15. Hatfield questioned a woman who worked there

He asked whether * had ever done work/community service there. She said no., but when he asked whether he'd worked for PULL at a different location, she said she couldn't talk anymore.

"Fortunate Son" documents this episode.

[Habibi]

9. Love the title

". . . recalls Bush mentioning his Guard duties" is right up there with "weapons of mass destruction program related activities."

[belle]

14. I know, it reads like an Onion headline, doesn't it?

[opihimoimoi]

17. Peel the Onion, layer after layer, until there is NOTHING

Its the same with PUB Lies and deception... Nothing.

The Master Pubs are pulling a con job on their own sheep.

Fraudulent gain through deception is their Game.