|
The racist, reactionary Blount senatorial campaign plastered Alabama with billboards that proclaimed, "A vote for Red Blount is a vote against forced busing . . . against coddling criminals . . . against welfare freeloaders." Although Blount lost the election, Bush learned the rudiments of dirty-tricks campaigning without over-exerting himself.
He didn’t strike his peers as a go-getter. "Those who encountered Bush in Alabama remember him as an affable social drinker who acted younger than his 26 years. Referred to as George Bush, Jr. by newspapers in those days, sources say he also tended to show up late every day, around noon or one, at Blount's campaign headquarters in Montgomery. They say Bush would prop his cowboy boots on a desk and brag about how much he drank the night before." (First Son: George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty, Bill Minutaglio, Times Books, 1999)
The Progressive Southerner, February 2, 2004, describes "George W. Bush’s Lost Year in 1972 Alabama":
"Many of those who came into close contact with Bush say he liked to drink beer and Jim Beam whiskey, and to eat fist-fulls of peanuts, and Executive burgers, at the Cloverdale Grill. They also say he liked to sneak out back for a joint of marijuana or into the head for a line of cocaine. The newspapers that year are full of stories about the scourge of cocaine from Vietnam and China, much of it imported by the French. (Remember the French Connection?)
"According to Cathy Donelson, a daughter of old Montgomery but one of the toughest investigative reporters to work for newspapers in Alabama over the years, the 1960s came to Old Cloverdale in the early 1970s about the time of Bush's arrival.
‘We did a lot of drugs in those days,’ she said. "The 1970s are a blur." (http://www.southerner.net/blog/awolbush.html)
In April 1972, the military began to include routine drug tests in servicemen's annual physical examination, including urinalysis, an examination of the nasal cavities, and queries concerning drug use. According to the regulation, the medical was scheduled for the month after the serviceman's birthday, August 1972 in Bush’s case.
On September 29, 1972 the National Guard Bureau sent Bush an order that put the seal of officialdom on Bush’s verbal suspension from flying that had occurred in August. Reason for the suspension: Failure to accomplish annual medical examination. Bush was ordered to acknowledge his grounding in writing and the Bureau noted that "the local commander who has authority to convene a Flying Evaluation Board will direct an investigation as to why the individual failed to accomplish the medical examination." There is no record that the investigating board was ever convened. Nor was there any record that Bush served from May 1, 1972 until April 30, 1973, although he should have logged at least 36 days of service.
There is no evidence that, in the 42 months between May 1971 and November 21, 1974, when he was officially discharged, Bush ever had an Air Force physical examination.
In December 1972, Bush returned to Houston, but apparently not to his Air Force unit. In January 1973 he did community service with the P.U.L.L. inner-city poverty program. On May 2, 1973, the two lieutenant colonels in charge of Bush's unit in Houston, one of them a friend of Bush, were unable to rate him for the prior 12 months, saying he had not been at the unit during that period. Later that month, Bush received two special orders to appear for active duty. Because he was officially grounded, during May, June, and July, he served 36 days of non-flying drills at Ellington before leaving the Guard early.
<snip>
"Brigadier General David L. McGinnis, a former top aide to the assistant secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, said in an interview that Bush's failure to remain on flying status amounts to a violation of the signed pledge by Bush that he would fly for at least five years after he completed flight school in November 1969.
"‘Failure to take your flight physical is like a failure to show up for duty. It is an obligation you can't blow off,’ McGinnis said.
"McGinnis said he, too, thought it possible that Bush's superiors considered him a liability, so they decided ‘to get him off the books, make his father happy, and hope no one would notice.’
"But McGinnis said there should have been an investigation and a report. If there were no investigation, it would show how far they were willing to stretch the rules to accommodate Bush."
(http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/articles/2004/
02/12/bushs_loss_of_flying_status_should_have_spurred_probe/)
It looks a though both Congress and the American people now realize they have been too willing to stretch the rules to accommodate Bush. Let’s give him a dishonorable discharge and send him back to Texas. <the whole enchilada> http://www.hermes-press.com/dishonorable.htm
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
