Bush Air Guard Fix Still Unreported: The Pay-off

[cal04]

This week, former Lt. Ben Barnes of Texas 'fessed up to pulling the strings to keep Little George out of the jungle. "I got a young man named George W. Bush into the Texas Air Guard."But you already knew that if you watched TV ... in Britain. Last year, in BBC television's, "Bush Family Fortunes," we showed viewers a document buried deep in the files of the US Justice Department. In it, a tipster fingers Barnes and another Texas mover and shaker who made the call to get young Bush out of the war and into the cockpit at the Air Guard. (Take a look at the letter yourself. I’ve posted a link to it at the bottom of this article.)

That’s far from the end of the story. Ben Barnes left office to become a big time corporate lobbyist. To an influence peddler, having damning information on a sitting governor is worth its weight in gold – or, more precisely, there’s a value in keeping the info secret. Barnes appears to have made lucrative use of his knowledge of our President’s slithering out of the draft as a lever to protect a multi-billion dollar contract for a client. That's the information in the secret letter, most of which we have confirmed with other sources.

Here's what happened. Due to an appearance of corruption, Barnes' client GTech Corp. was about to lose its license to print money, its contract to run the Texas state lottery. Barnes allegedly made a call to then Governor George W Bush's office and saved GTech's state contract. The happy client paid Barnes, the keeper of Governor Bush’s secret, a fee of over $23 million. Barnes, not surprisingly, denies that Bush took care of his client in return for Barnes’ silence. However, confronted with the evidence, the former Lt. Governor now admits to helping the young George stay out of Vietnam.

Look, I don’t care if President Bush cowered and ran from Vietnam. I sure as hell didn’t volunteer … but then, my daddy didn’t send someone else in my place. And I don’t march around aircraft carriers with parachute clips around my gonads talking about war and sacrifice.

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=365&row=0

[Wickerman]

1. the pay off seems to be the big story here

Now, will anyone report it?

[stopbush]

2. Unfortunately, many Rs won't care about it.

I had a lot of R neighbors when I lived in NJ. They'd get their panties in a bunch over a blowjob. But bring up real corruption like this and it was "that's the way things are done (wink, wink)." For these people, engaging in such illegalities was admired because "the Rs know the way the game is played...you do what you need to do."

An extra-maritial blowjob was a character flaw. Bribes - and worse - was being realistic.

Sick, but true.

[Keirsey]

3. the media

Yowza! This story definitely needs to be sent out to all media!

[hansolsen]

4. Not quite. What they can't abide, is anyone getting caught getting a BJ.

[klook]

5. This is a smoking CANNON

If whoever wrote that letter comes forward, it will be very big news.