It starts off with sign at an anti-war protest.

Via Atrios:

Navy veteran Robert McHaney of Reno made a sign, “Vet for peace: I served. Bush deserted.”

“We have a president of the United States who didn’t serve his time in Vietnam. He went to the Texas Air National Guard and disappeared,” McHaney said. “If he didn’t have his daddy in place, he would have been arrested for desertion and gone to jail.”

Yes, that is correct. George W. Bush, our President, was actually a deserter from the armed services. The conservative media has never carried, nor investigated the story. You can read about it, and read the documents that actually survive at awolbush.com. The name of the site is a bit misleading. Bush was not AWOL, that is absent without leave for less than 30 days. Bush was gone for over a year, and so is guilty of desertion from the National Guard. Bush refuses to answer any questions on the issue. Of course he refuses to answer any questions on his DUI and the cover up of his DUI. He also refuses to answer any questions about the abortion his girlfriend, Robin Lowman, had many years ago. I don't think he has ever been asked about his grandfather profiting by working with the Nazis and by using slave labor at the Auschwitz concentration camp. (Yes, these links are on websites with leftist slants. Neither major media, nor any conservative pundits would ever report on these stories, however. By using google, you can probably find more websites with more info.)

The DUI and the abortion are nothing very alarming.  many young men have been through similar things. What is concerning about these is the extent many have gone to cover these up. The abortion sdoes seem hypocritical since Bush appears to be on a mission to appoint anti-abortion judges to our federal courts, and the Supreme Court. He of course had no control over what his grandfather did in business, but he will still inherit. The desertion, however, was very alarming and illegal, as was the cover up. I don't know if there is even a statute of limitations on desertion. It is conceivable that charges could still be pressed against Bush.

Now all the conservatives please shout at once, "But Clinton was a draft dodger!" First off, Clinton is no longer President and is not driving the country to war. So, it does not matter what Clinton did. That is not a defense. Then of course, Clinton was not a draft dodger. Bill Clinton received 5 student deferments, I believe. In 1969 he finally entered the draft, but receiving a high draft number, he was never actually drafted. Did he avoid the draft? Yes, through student deferments and joining, but not enrolling, in ROTC. Nothing he did was illegal, and many people all over the country did what he did.

Now all the conservatives can yell "Gore was a reporter in Vietnam, and didn't fight." As the statement suggests, Gore was in Vietnam. Gore enlisted in the Army in 1969, and was sent to Vietnam in 1971. The majority of soldiers in Vietnam were not in combat positions. Gore was an information specialist, also known as a writer. He wrote press releases and such, but also did interview soldiers in battle zones. After almost two years, Gore opted out early to return to school.

Are you stunned that you have never really heard all this about George W. Bush, even during the elections? You should be. You are probably not alone, however. At a UAW Media Panel Discussion held in February 2001 and reported in a UAW News and Views article:

Wasting no time, delegate Charlie Cox from UAW Local 2162, who is a Vietnam veteran, set the tone by asking why George W. Bush got a free ride from the media regarding reports that he was AWOL during most of the time he served in the National Guard during the Vietnam war.

"Let me give you some statistics," responded panelist Paul Begala, "I worked for Bill Clinton in 1992 and …in anticipation of this very question, I looked this up on Nexis. There were 13,641 stories about Bill Clinton 'dodging the draft' …and there were 49 stories about Bush and the National Guard," Begala said.

Conservative media, owned by large corporations, which are run by Republicans, do not want you to know about any of this. No longer is news reported. Editorial and news divisions of media are no longer separate. They are dictated to about what to cover and what to cover up. They are directed on their editorial content. Media is now controlled. It is up to the people to investigate what is going on. It is up to the people to demand coverage from their local news sources. It is up to the people to help distribute the news.

It starts with a sign at an anti-war protest. Perhaps it can end with the truth getting out. Can you help? It doesn't take much- maybe sending a letter, maybe sending a link, maybe starting a blog, maybe spreading the news. Do what you can.

BTW, if you want to know about the military records of many politicians and pundits, see this webpage.

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