Hi Bart,
I was in Portland last week and had an excellent sushi meal with Mr and
Mrs. Bartcook.
I'm still on the road, so here is as good as I can manage without access
to all my books.
Cheers,
Faun
_________________________
There is a time line of the Bush AWOL problem being published by several
news outlets including MSNBC
until they scrubbed their article. It included the following interesting
facts:
> * May 1972: Bush asks for and receives permission to continue his duties
in Alabama while he works as
political director on the Senate campaign of Winton M. Blount, a friend
of his father. Loses flight
credentials after missing physical exam.
* May-July 1973: Participates in non-flying drills at Ellington. Works at inner-city poverty program earlier in the year.
If you want to fact check, here is the link for you 'do-it-yourself' investigative reporters:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/02/10/national1120EST0568.DTL
It certainly raises some questions and some eyebrows...
Why did Bush minor miss his physical?
Was it only coincidence that drug testing was introduced at that date..
Why was frat boy Bush working at an inner city poverty program? He has
confessed many times that he was drunk
and only living for the moment as part of his ongoing 'youthful indiscretions'
back in 1972.
One of his grown up handlers seems to know the answer. Karl Rove
told Jim Hatfield that it was the result of
a plea bargain on a coke possession charge. See "Fortunate Son" second
edition (306 - 318)in which
then campaign spokesperson Scott McLellan was interviewed by Hatfield:
...I queried McClellan about Bush's involvement at Project P.U.L.L. in
1972 as a condition of having his
cocaine possession charge purged. There was a moment of electric silence
, and then McLellan muttered an
almost inaudible, "Oh shit," and after hesitating for a moment, finally
said, "No comment."
or online you can browse:
http://www.davidcogswell.com/Political/HatfieldPredictions.html
and find this comment on the first edition of the biography:
"The charge that Bush had been arrested on a cocaine charge was brought
out in an afterword to the book at
the last minute at the urging of St. Martin's press, who hoped it would
boost the book's sales. (It zoomed
to the bestseller list immediately.) But that detail had eluded Hatfield
until it started cropping up in other places,
such as Salon. Then, he said, he went back to his sources and got confirmation
off the record. Hatfield said the
pieces were there in the text but he had not previously been able to put
them together. "The piece about the
community service just didn't fit," he said. "Why did this rich young playboy
alcoholic pleasure seeker suddenly
go do community service in a center for inner city kids." When the drug
bust surfaced, it made the piece fit."
The next stage of this Rovian cover up is described in a Salon article at:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/10/21/hatfield/
"Publisher halts George W. Bush bio
As J.H. Hatfield's credibility crumbles, St. Martin's Press stops distribution
of his new book, which says
the GOP front-runner was arrested on drug charges in 1972.
By Daryl Lindsey
Oct. 21, 1999 | The publisher of a controversial new
biography about George W. Bush has halted publication
of the book after published reports opened up serious
questions about the veracity of the book's claims, the
publisher's fact-checking process and the credibility
of the author, J.H. Hatfield.
<snip>
In the book, Hatfield alleges that Bush was arrested
for cocaine possession in 1972, but had his record
expunged by a Republican judge in exchange for Bush's
participation in a community service program at
Project P.U.L.L. in Houston's inner city. The author
cites three anonymous sources to support his claim."
Hatfield was set up to 'break' the coke story. Rove
knew Jim had a conviction himself and could thus be
discredited as a source. That was exactly what
happened. Fortunate Son was released and the Bush clan
had it withdrawn and burnt (yes my shocked little
ones, burnt) After Softskull press took up the
publishing and distribution, a process detailed in the
documentary "Horns and Halos," Hatfield received death
threats and had a breakdown which culminated in him
committing suicide.
http://www.bushwatch.com/hdeath.htm
Lurking behind the Bush deserter story is the bigger
tale of his coke problems and conviction. Will the
media give him a pass as usual? I am not betting the
farm on this one.