Journal cyranoVR's Journal: Bush Military Record (er, lack thereof) heating up 3

Two interesting articles to read below. IMO the real story here is that Bush's family connections got him special privileges throughout his life. I wonder what will happen as "NASCAR Dads" start to realize that he's not "one of them?" Probably nothing ("do as I say, not as I do"), but you never know.

Calpundit.com: ARF!
....No, this is not the sound that Barney makes when the White House staff is late with dinner. Rather, it's the beginning of yet another intriguing mystery regarding George Bush's service in the Air National Guard. Read on for more.

To begin, you need to recall the original mystery of the "torn document" that purports to show Bush's guard activity in 1972 and 1973 (details here and here if your memory is fuzzy). Question: is the document genuine? Or some kind of clever forgery?

Answer: it's real.

Bush's war stories simply don't fly
George W. Bush lied about his military service record. The lie can be found in his own 1999 campaign autobiography (as written by Karen Hughes), where he dramatically describes his experience as a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. On page 34 of A Charge to Keep, Mr. Bush claims that, after learning to fly the F-102 fighter jet, he was turned down for Vietnam duty because "had not logged enough flight hours" to qualify for a combat assignment. Before going on to recall the "challenging moments" that involved close formation drills at night during poor weather, he adds: "I continued flying with my unit for the next several years."

In light of what journalists and other researchers have learned since the publication of Mr. Bush's book, his account is unmistakably fraudulent.

Personally, I'm glad the media's going to get this out of the way months ahead of November. That way, they will hopefully focus on the real issues (economy, taxes, healthcare, Iraq, etc) as we get closer to the actual election.