Thursday, February 05, 2004
aWol's blue dress? The Torn Document
Via CalPundit, here it is:
See that "W" that the red arrow is pointing too? That's the only proof that this record is, in fact, aWol's. And this record is the only proof that aWol fulfilled his obligations to his country during his National Guard duty.
CalPundit makes the following excellent points:
Read the whole thing. CalPundit has more here. (It's only fair to say that CalPundit thinks the document, on balance, is genuine. But if so, why the tear?) Of course, see The Howler too. And there's a book coming out (below).
And the beauty part is, we haven't even gotten to the real scandal: Why did aWol stop flying? Was it because he knew that if he did, he'd have to take a medical exam, and if he did that, he'd have to take a drug test? See UggaBugga's timeline (done almost a year ago, for cryin' out loud. SCLM).
Of course, to make this whole controversy go away, all Bush has to do is release his military records, as Kerry, Gore, McCain and his own father all did. So why doesn't he?
Pass the popcorn!
See that "W" that the red arrow is pointing too? That's the only proof that this record is, in fact, aWol's. And this record is the only proof that aWol fulfilled his obligations to his country during his National Guard duty.
CalPundit makes the following excellent points:
This document supposedly records Bush's attendance record in Texas from May 1972 to May 1973 [part of the "missing year"; there are no records for Bush's alleged Alabama service at all]. However, the astute observer will note several things about this document:
- It is strategically torn along its left edge.
- There is no name on the document, only a single letter: W. Does it say "1LT BUSH GEORGE" just before the initial? Maybe, but the page has been torn so there's no way to tell.
- The Social Security number is blacked out.
- The tear eliminates the year and month of all the dates. (The date at the bottom right is just a note added by a reporter.)
But it's even worse than that: it turns out that this document wasn't even part of Bush's original service file.
Rather, back in 1999 the nascent Bush campaign, which was apparently already worried about his service record, hired Albert Lloyd Jr., a former Texas Air National Guard personnel director, to help make sense of Bush's file. Lloyd "scoured" the archives and found the document above, which he says contains Bush's Social Security number beneath the redaction. It has since been inserted into Bush's file.
Read the whole thing. CalPundit has more here. (It's only fair to say that CalPundit thinks the document, on balance, is genuine. But if so, why the tear?) Of course, see The Howler too. And there's a book coming out (below).
And the beauty part is, we haven't even gotten to the real scandal: Why did aWol stop flying? Was it because he knew that if he did, he'd have to take a medical exam, and if he did that, he'd have to take a drug test? See UggaBugga's timeline (done almost a year ago, for cryin' out loud. SCLM).
Of course, to make this whole controversy go away, all Bush has to do is release his military records, as Kerry, Gore, McCain and his own father all did. So why doesn't he?
Pass the popcorn!
