Who cares? The family's of the 1000+ American men and women who were killed at the behest of a man who was too chicken*hit himself to legitimately serve in the military when his country was in need. He was busy getting drunk and snorting coke, attending a college he was not qualified to attend - by virtue of family name and strings. Anybody who slimed out of his duty via family connections and money, well - perhaps any of us would have done the same thing if we had the opportunity . . . it just means *we* also shouldn't be electable to Commander and Chief. Oh wait, thats right - he was *appointed* not elected!
CBS News threw in the towel today on Memogate. From the Monday morning New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/20/politics/campaign/20guard.html Other interesting blurbs from the article (cuz I think it's subscription again):
Here is a piece of Greg Palasts latest on this subject: Is Rather's report accurate? Is George W. Bush a war hero or a privileged little Shirker-in-Chief? Today I saw a goofy two page spread in the Washington Post about a typewriter used to write a memo with no significance to the draft-dodge story. What I haven't read about in my own country's media is about two crucial documents supporting the BBC/CBS story. The first is Barnes' signed and sworn affidavit to a Texas Court, from 1999, in which he testifies to the Air Guard fix -- which Texas Governor George W. Bush, given the opportunity, declined to challenge. And there is a second document, from the files of US Justice Department, again confirming the story of the fix to keep George's white bottom out of Vietnam. That document, shown last year in the BBC television documentary, "Bush Family Fortunes," correctly identifies Barnes as the bag man even before his 1999 confession. At BBC, we also obtained a statement from the man who made the call to the Air Guard general on behalf of Bush at Barnes' request. Want to see the document? I've posted it at: http://www.gregpalast.com/ulf/documents/draftdodgeblanked.jpg This is not a story about Dan Rather. The white millionaire celebrity can defend himself without my help. This is really a story about fear, the fear that stops other reporters in the US from following the evidence about this Administration to where it leads. American news guys and news gals, practicing their smiles, adjusting their hairspray levels, bleaching their teeth and performing all the other activities that are at the heart of US TV journalism, will look to the treatment of Dan Rather and say, "Not me, babe." No questions will be asked, as Dan predicted, lest they risk necklacing and their careers as news actors burnt to death.
I don't think there's any question that Bush attempted to dodge the Vietnam conflict by serving in the guard, but we knew that before the story. But the story that Bush skipped out on the last portion of his service is now in doubt. That's because the source of these documents appears now to have been Burkett, who's claims are countered by the family of Killian. He's also a known partisan and has had high-level meetings with the Kerry campaign. This puts Memogate in the same territory as the Swift Boat Veterans controversy. As with the SBV claims, they may be true, but they're completely mired now in partisan politics. (Note that Kerry's position is supported by documentation in the SBV controversy. The SBVs have nothing but their word.) Mind you, I'm not saying the story is untrue. I'm saying that since the Burkett/Memogate/CBS News claims are not supported by documentation, they are not substantially more believable than the counter-claims put forth by Killian's family.
