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BushFamilyFortunes * Lawsuit * Un-Convention
08 September 2004
"When shall it be said in any country of the world, my poor are happy,
neither ignorance or distress is to be found among them; my jails are
empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want,
the taxes not oppressive; the rational world is my friend because I am
friend of its happiness. When these things can be said, then may that
country boast of its constitution and government ."
- Thomas Paine1) "Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy"
2) Lawsuit Uncovers New Bush Guard Records- - Globe: Bush Didn't Meet Guard Commitments
- - Flip-Flopper In Chief
- - US troops death toll mounts as Iraq danger persists
- - Video: Bush's Words... The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
- - Video: 9/11 In Plane Sight
- - Bush Family Wounds America Below The Belt Line
- - Neocons Preparing the Sequel to Plan of Attack
- - The Unwinnable War
3) Post Republican Convention Notes- - Why Democrats shouldn't be scared
- - A Father Gets Anti-War Message to the Floor
From CBSNEWS.com -- Sad Milestone For Iraq War -
"U.S. warplanes swooped over Fallujah, a day after a recent spike in violence pushed the U.S. death toll in Iraq past 1,000. Conservative estimates by private groups put the number of Iraqi deaths at 10 times that number." Editor's Notes:The above marker of fatalities in Iraq is proof enough of the failure of the Bush administration's policies. The former Texas House Speaker and Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes,"the man who says he got George W. Bush into the National Guard, tells his story for the first time to Dan Rather, Wednesday (September 8) at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
For more information, see:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1999/05/24/60II/main48284.shtmlItem 1 begins with information on a new tool to dethrone George Bush from office. The new film, "Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" "..follows reporter sleuth Greg Palast on the trail for BBC television, from Florida election rigging, to the hard-core info on the Saudi-Bush family connection, to the Bush team's spiking the investigation of the bin Ladens before September 11. Palast reveals documents from deep inside the US State Department on pre-war plans to divide up the oil fields of Iraq. Plus the real story of the fix to get little Georgie out of 'Nam. Fast, at times funny, always infuriating ... if you liked Fahrenheit 9-11, get ready for the investigative journalism on which it was based." You can get this film for yourself and join affiliate members of Howard Dean's Democracy For America in pre-release screenings of the blistering 70-minute documentary.
In item 2 is more on the truth and repercussions on a Lawsuit uncovering new Bush Guard Records. Sub-items in this item cover quite a varied perspective on the Bush and US against Iraq fiasco. And item 3 covers post-Republican Convention notes, on an article by Michael Moore, "Why Democrats shouldn't be scared" and a special father reporting in civil disobedience to get a message to the floor of the Convention.
As proof of the destructive nature of violence: "At least 322 people, including 155 children, died during the bloody end to a hostage-taking at a school in southern Russia, a senior prosecutor said on Saturday. [
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6150734 ]
There is already talk of this tragic event inspiring the Russians to join in on a new level of preemptive attacks to act against terrorism, which will only inspire more.
Now is the time to wake up for the role of peace and the strength of a nation to be considered in such terms to actually reduce or end violence.
"You can no more win a war,
than you can win an earthquake."
-- Jeanette Rankin
1) "Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy"Palast Film Premieres ... Join Democracy For America Affiliates
"Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy"
September 7, 2004
Bush Family Fortunes follows reporter sleuth Palast on the trail for BBC television, from Florida election rigging, to the hard-core info on the Saudi-Bush family connection, to the Bush team's spiking the investigation of the bin Ladens before September 11. Palast reveals documents from deep inside the US State Department on pre-war plans to divide up the oil fields of Iraq. Plus the real story of the fix to get little Georgie out of 'Nam. Fast, at times funny, always infuriating ... if you liked Fahrenheit 9-11, get ready for the investigative journalism on which it was based.
Join affiliate members of Howard Dean's Democracy For America in pre-release screenings of the blistering 70-minute documentary, "Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy". Beginning this week, DFA's affiliates will show the film woven from Palast's original award-winning investigative reports for BBC television.
The Philadelphia Weekly had this to say of the film's underground premier at Philadelphia's Lost Film Fest:
"Greg Palast's Bush Family Fortunes appears to be the big find, being that Fahrenheit 9/11 was inspired by its fevered take-down of the seated president."
"Stunning ... disturbing ... important."
- Sen. John Edwards
"Courageous reporting."
- Michael Moore
Locations and dates below and at:
http://www.takeyourcountryback.com/BUSHFAMILYFORTUNES/screenings.htm Sept. 10th
Gainesville, Florida
Sept. 11th
Cincinnati, Ohio
Spokane, Washington
Brooklyn, New York
Sept. 12th
Davis, California
Atlanta, Georgia
Decatur, Georgia
St. Augustine, Florida
Dallas, Texas
Middlebury, Vermont
Spokane, Washington
Sept. 13th
Spokane, Washington
Sept. 14th
Spokane, Washington
Sept. 16th
Taos, New Mexico
Sept. 17th
Greenbank, Washington
Sept. 19th
Santa Rosa, California
Amherst, New Hampshire ((PENDING))
Sept. 25th
Little Rock, Arkansas
Oct. 2nd
Chicago, Illinois ((PENDING))
Oct. 4th, 6th, & 7th
Madison, Wisconsin ((PENDING))
October 15th
Austin, Texas
Oct. 22-24th
New Orleans, Louisiana ((PENDING))
Oct. 28th
Seattle, Washington
Watch the trailer and buy your own copy at:
http://www.gregpalast.com/bff-dvd.htm For more from Greg Palast, see:
http://www.gregpalast.com
2) Lawsuit Uncovers New Bush Guard Records- - Globe: Bush Didn't Meet Guard Commitments
- - Flip-Flopper In Chief
- - US troops death toll mounts as Iraq danger persists
- - Video: Bush's Words... The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
- - Video: 9/11 In Plane Sight
- - Neocons Preparing the Sequel to Plan of Attack
- - The Unwinnable War
- - Lawsuit Uncovers New Bush Guard RecordsBy MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - President Bush ranked in the middle of his Air National Guard flight class and flew 336 hours in a fighter jet before letting his pilot status lapse and missing a key readiness drill in 1972, according to his flight records belatedly uncovered Tuesday under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Pentagon and Bush's campaign have claimed for months that all records detailing his fighter pilot career have been made public, but defense officials said they found two dozen new records detailing his training and flight logs after The Associated Press filed a lawsuit and submitted new requests under the public records law.
"Previous requests from other requesters for President Bush's Individual Flight Records did not lead to the discovery of these records because at the time President Bush left the service, flight
records were subject to retention for only 24 months and we understood that neither the Air Force nor the Texas Air National Guard retained such records thereafter," the Pentagon told the AP.
"Out of an abundance of caution," the government "searched a file that had been preserved in spite of this policy" and found the Bush records, the letter said. "The Department of Defense regrets this oversight during the previous search efforts."
Bush's Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard has become an issue in the presidential campaign as the candidates spar over who would make the best commander in chief. Supporters of Democratic nominee John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran, have
criticized Bush for serving stateside in the National Guard. Kerry's Republican critics claim Kerry did not deserve some of his five medals.
Bush has repeatedly said he is proud of his Air National Guard service. White House spokesmen said as late as last week the administration knew of no other records of Bush's military service.
"These documents confirm that the president served honorably in the National Guard," White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said Tuesday night.
Democratic National Committee communications director Jano Cabrera disagreed. "For months George Bush (news - web sites) told the nation that all his military records were public," he said. "Now we know why Bush was trying so hard to withhold these records. When his nation asked him to be on call against possible surprise attacks, Bush wasn't there."
The newly released records show Bush, a lieutenant in the Texas Air National Guard, ranked No. 22 in a class of 53 pilots when he finished his flight training at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia in 1969.
Over the next three years, he logged 326.4 hours as a pilot and an additional 9.9 hours as a co-pilot, mostly in his the F-102A jet used to intercept enemy aircraft. Of the 278 hours he flew in the interceptor, about 77 hours were in the TF-102A, the two-seat trainer version of the one-seat fighter jet.
The records show his last flight was in April 1972, which is consistent with pay records indicating Bush had a large lapse of duty between April and October of that year. Bush has said he went to Alabama in 1972 to work on an unsuccessful Republican Senate campaign. Bush skipped a required medical exam that cost him his pilot's status in August of that year.
Bush's 2000 campaign suggested the future president skipped his medical exam in part because the F-102A was nearly obsolete. Records show Bush's Texas unit flew the F-102A until 1974 and used the jets as part of an air defense drill during 1972.
A six-month historical record of his 147th Fighter Interceptor Group, also turned over to the AP on Tuesday, shows some of the training Bush missed with his colleagues during that time.
Significantly, it showed the unit joined a "24-hour active alert mission to safeguard against surprise attack" in the southern United State beginning on Oct. 6, 1972, a time when Bush did not report for duty, according to his pay records.
Bush's lone service in October was outside Texas, presumably with an Alabama unit he had permission to train with in September, October and November 1972.
As part of the mission, the 147th kept two F-102a jets — the same Bush flew before he was grounded — on ready alert to be launched within five minutes' warning.
The records also show Bush made a grade of 88 on total airmanship and a perfect 100 for flying without navigational instruments, operating a T-38 System and studying applied aerodynamics. Other scores ranged from 89 in flight planning to 98 in aviation physiology.
The newly released records do not include any from five categories of documents Bush's commanders had been required to keep in response to the gaps in Bush's training in 1972 and 1973. For example, National Guard commanders were required to perform an investigation whenever any pilot skipped a medical exam and forward the results up the Air Force chain of command. No such documents have surfaced.
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- - Globe: Bush Didn't Meet Guard CommitmentsPresident Bush fell well short of meeting his military obligation in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War, the BOSTON GLOBE is planning to front on Wednesday, newsroom sources tell DRUDGE.
The 1,500 word expose on Bush's records comes just hours ahead of an exclusive CBSNEWS interview set to air Wednesday night with a man who secured for the 22-year-old Yale graduate Bush a coveted place in the Guard -- a man who now claims he regrets helping Bush.
The GLOBE claims: "Twice during his Guard service - first when he joined in May 1968, and again before he transferred out of his unit in mid-1973 to attend Harvard Business School - Bush signed documents pledging to meet training commitments or face a punitive call-up to active duty.
"He didn't meet the commitments, or face the punishment, the records show."
After laying dormant for most of the summer, big media picks up where it left off on the Bush national guard issue in a post-Labor Day filing frenzy.
In the next hours and days, the ASSOCIATED PRESS, CBSNEWS, BOSTON GLOBE and NBCNEWS [who will host Bush author Kitty Kelley on Monday] will revisit Bush National Guard.
The upcoming reexamination of Bush's records by the GLOBE show that Bush's attendance at required training drills "was so irregular that his superiors could have disciplined him or ordered him to active duty in 1972, 1973, or 1974. But they did neither. In fact, Bush's unit certified in late 1973 that his service had been "satisfactory" - just four months after Bush's commanding officer wrote that Bush had not been seen at his unit for the previous 12 months."
Developing...
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- - Flip-Flopper In ChiefDavid Brock, Jamison Foser, AlterNet
George Bush's image as a strong and decisive leader is a
creation of journalists too lazy to notice that the
president has a long history of changing his positions to
suit his political needs.
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/19800/= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - US troops death toll mounts as Iraq danger persistshttp://www.deepikaglobal.com/latestnews.asp?ncode=19768= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Video: Bush's Words... The Daily Show with Jon Stewarthttp://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/113414/index.php= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Video: 9/11 In Plane SightThe controversial September 11 video.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6847.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush Family Wounds America Below The Belt Lineby Thom Hartmann
Published on Tuesday, September 7, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0907-15.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Neocons Preparing the Sequel to Plan of Attackby Gordon Prather:
http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=3506 = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Unwinnable Warby James Carroll
Published September 7, 2004 by the Boston Globe
GEORGE W. BUSH finally told the truth. It happened last week when he said of the war on terrorism, "I don't think you can win it."
We know it was the truth because of the way it embarrassed him, because of the way his handlers immediately required him to repudiate it ("I probably need to be more articulate"), and because the mass of Republicans were deaf to it. Just as Bush had inadvertently spoken the exact truth about the war on terrorism at its onset ("This crusade, this war on terrorism"), he had inadvertently done so again.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0907-01.htm
3) Post Republican Convention Notes- - Why Democrats shouldn't be scared
- - A Father Gets Anti-War Message to the Floor
Why Democrats shouldn't be scared
By Michael Moore[Excerpts]
NEW YORK — If I've heard it once, I've heard it a hundred times from discouraged Democrats and liberals as the Republican convention here wrapped up this week. Their shoulders hunched, their eyes at a droop, they lower their voice to a whisper hoping that if they don't say it too loud it may not come true: "I...I...I think Bush is going to win."
Clearly, they're watching too much TV. Too much of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Zell Miller, Dick Cheney and Rudy Giuliani. Too much of swift boat veterans and Fox News commentators. (Related item: Moore index page)
Action heroes always look good on TV. On Wednesday night, the GOP even made an action-hero video and showed it at the convention. There was White House political czar Karl Rove and other administration officials dressed up for "war" and going through boot camp on the National Mall in Washington..
..Exactly what moment was it during the convention that convinced them that the Republicans had now "connected" with the majority of Americans and that it was all over? Arnold praising Richard Nixon? Ooooh, that's a real crowd-pleaser. Elizabeth Dole decrying the removal of the Ten Commandments from a courthouse wall in Alabama? Yes, that's a big topic of conversation in the unemployment line in Akron, Ohio. Georgia Sen. Miller, a Democratic turncoat, looking like Freddy Krueger at an all-girls camp? His speech — and the look on what you could see of his strangely lit face — was enough for parents to send small children to their bedrooms.
My friends — and I include all Democrats, independents and recovering Republicans in this salutation — do not be afraid. Yes, the Bush Republicans huff and they puff, but they blow their own house down.
As many polls confirm, a majority of your fellow Americans believe in your agenda. They want stronger environmental laws, are strong supporters of women's rights, favor gun control and want the war in Iraq to end.
Rejoice. You're already more than halfway there when you have the public on board. Just imagine if you had to go out and do the work to convince the majority of Americans that women shouldn't be paid the same as men. All they ask is that you put up a candidate for president who believes in something and fights for those beliefs.
Is that too much to ask?
The Republicans have no idea how much harm they have done to themselves.
Kerry supporters and Bush-bashers should not despair. These Republicans have not made a permanent dent in Kerry's armor. The only person who can do that is John Kerry. And by coming out swinging as he did just minutes after Bush finished his speech Thursday night, Kerry proved he knows that the only way to win this fight is to fight — and fight hard.
He must realize that he faces Al Gore's fate only if he fails to stand up like the hero he is, only if he sits on the fence and keeps justifying his vote for the Iraq war instead of just saying, "Look, I was for it just like 70% of America until we learned the truth, and now I'm against it, like the majority of Americans are now."
Kerry needs to trust that his victory is only going to happen by inspiring the natural base of the Democratic Party — blacks, working people, women, the poor and young people. Women and people of color make up 62% of this country. That's a big majority. Give them a reason to come out on Nov. 2.
For the complete USA Today article, see:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnist/2004-09-02-moore_x.htm = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - A Father Gets Anti-War Message to the FloorEscondido resident cracks GOP security
by David Washburn
NEW YORK – Thousands voiced their anger toward President Bush in the streets on Tuesday, but peace activist Fernando Suarez del Solar of Escondido took his message to the floor of the Republican National Convention.
Fernando Suarez del Solar, left, of Escondido, Calif., carries a sign with a picture of his son Jesus Suarez Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2004 in New York outside a hotel where former President Bush was speaking to the Hispanic Alliance for Progress Institute as part of their 'Celebrating Hispanic Progress & Opportunity' reception in conjunction with the Republican National Convention being held this week in New York. Jesus Suarez was a lance corporal who became the first Marine killed in the Iraq war when he died in March of 2003 seven days after the U.S.-led invasion began. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
As first lady Laura Bush was delivering her prime-time speech in Madison Square Garden, Suarez, standing near the Texas delegation, held a banner that read, "Bush Lied. My Son Died." Suarez, who had made it through security on a borrowed credential and hid the banner under his clothes, was quickly escorted out. Yesterday, the father of 20-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Jesus Suarez del Solar, who died in Iraq, said he welcomed the opportunity to perform his act of civil disobedience. "A friend told me, 'Now is your chance,' so I took it," Suarez said. He was surprised by and thankful for the responses of a few Republican delegates who expressed sympathy and understanding as he was being led out of the convention hall. "They said, 'I agree with you. I'm sorry,' " he said. Suarez was not arrested and said he was treated well by security personnel. The Tijuana-born Suarez has been active in a peace organization, Military Families Speak Out, since his son's death in March 2003. He walked at the head of Sunday's United for Peace and Justice march through midtown Manhattan. Suarez was one of several protesters who made it to the convention floor in the past two days. Not long after Suarez was escorted out, Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink, an anti-war women's group, got within 30 feet of Vice President Dick Cheney during Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's speech. "How much money has Halliburton made in Iraq?" she yelled at Cheney, the former CEO of Halliburton. She held a banner reading: "Be Pro Life. Stop Killing in Iraq." And yesterday morning, demonstrators from ACT UP, the AIDS activist group, crashed a Republican youth gathering on the convention floor just after Bush's twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara, introduced White House chief of staff Andrew Card. Although multiple levels of security checkpoints make it virtually impossible to smuggle a weapon into the convention, many credentials do not have photos and can be swapped freely. Suarez said he got his credential from friends who had radio and television credentials, but he would not say who they were.
© 2004 Copyright Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
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