A commenter on my last diary asked me to compare Bush's record to Kerry's,and it occurs to me that, though Ive done it myself, Ive never seen it done publically.
This head to head comparison should have been done by the American media but never was. Why not? Because it would have interfered with the Republican instigated Swiftboating orgy the media was having so much fun with. Remember how they pilloried Al Gore's utility bill but never compared it to anyone else's, like Cheney's? Same thing.
To compare all records would take a book itself, I can only do a little here, but you can do it pretty well at this site this shows almost all of Kerry's papers and some of Bush's. You can get most--but not all--of Bush's paperwork here. You can get the rest here but you have to search and scroll a lot
This is dedicated to John Kerry, a real American hero. Hope you read this, John, I should have done it long ago. But you should have done it anyway--if you had, you'd be president now.
"He volunteered to go to Vietnam."
-- Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot, [2/23/04], on National Public Radio
"No, I didn't."
-- President Bush, 2/8/04, responding to a question on NBC's "Meet the Press" about whether he volunteered to go to Vietnam
They just can't keep their lies straight, can they? Racicot was still claiming it two weeks after Bush said it didn't happen.
There's a lot more lying in this story.
Warning: many of these references are PDF
Some general notes: look at all Kerry's paperwork on that findlaw website---theyre all stamped "OFFICIAL COPY" whereas none of Bush's are. Why? because Bush's paperwork was released first to and vetted by Gen Danny James commander of the National Guard Bureau (former head of the TXANG, appointed to head of NGB by Bush) and then by the White house before they released them. The official archives released Kerry's records directly, stamping them official copy, as they should have done for Bush. This is extremely significant. Bush's paperwork has been vetted and important documents removed.
its also important to note that while Kerry had positions of command and commanded men in combat, Bush was never in any leadership post throughout his service, though his superiors liked to rhapsodize about what a leader he was.
Both were discharged the same pay grade: O2. A Navy LtJG is the same paygrade as 1st Lt TXANG.
One of the things thats important to remember is that Kerry EARNED his commission by going through the rigorous 6 month Officer's Candidate School while Bush, a Congressman's son, was given a direct commission two days after enlisting and sent through a short "Officer's Basic training," where he was taught to salute, stand up straight and not pick his nose. Direct commissions always go to people with critical highly technical experience--like doctors, dentists and lawyers-- who then work in their fields. Bush was only a Yale history grad with a mediocre GPA but had the highly technical qualification of being a Congressman's son with cheerleading experience. (We have to assume he had a mediocre GPA--on his transcript, all the grades have been redacted. It is safe to assume they wouldn't do this if it was a 4.0 GPA or even a 3.0. He also had a two item arrest record he had to get waivered)
Lets compare their discharges. Each had two: the first was when they went from Enlisted man/trainee to officer. SOP is to discharge them as enlisted men and then commission them as officers the same day. The second one is their discharge from active duty, which is really a resume of your miliitary service. The second one is the one to look at--the first is merely a paperwork shuffle/formality.
Bush's first discharge
Bush's final discharge
Kerry's 1st and final
The first thing to compare is the medals on the final discharges:
Kerry's discharge:
National Defense Service Medal (for 6 months active duty)
Vietnam Service Medal
Vietnam Campaign Medal
Bronze Star with V
Silver Star (this discharge erroneously states "with a V." There is no Silver Star with V, this is a mistyping by the clerk. nevertheless, the swiftboaters had a fun time with that one. Kerry had this corrected in a form 215 in 1976 , not available now on the net)
Purple Heart (3 awards)
Combat Action Ribbon (The Navy equivalent to the Combat Infantryman's Badge)
Bush's discharge:
NO FREAKING MEDALS AT ALL!!
thats right, there's not one single medal on Bush's discharge, not even the NDSM: the most basic medal of all, the one EVERYBODY gets. Now what the hell is the story behind THAT?
This is unheard of! Why didn't they put down ANY medals for Bush at all? There you go, America: a Vietnam veteran's Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Hearts were pissed on by the supporters of a man who was discharged with NO medals at all and the media helped them do it. Read it right off the page. The unfairness just screams, this is unprecedented, bizarre.
And, even more bizarre, the Swiftboating of Kerry and others still goes on TODAY in the name of George "No Medals" Bush, and he does and says nothing about it, surreptitiously encourages it, even pays for it. All done by others while he hypocritically praised Kerry's service (and Murtha and others) Thats why this story is still relevant today. Thats why the truth needs to be told. When the truth is known about Bush the Swiftboating will cease, they can only do it based on his phony image.
the TAFCS and TAFMS in his medals box are not--repeat NOT---medals, they stand for, respectively Total Accumulated Federal Civilian/Military Service. These are categories of training days and there should be a number and colon after these indicating time in category. ( at: You can see this configuration here bottom of 2d page)
Why isn't there any colon and number after them? Major Rufus Martin, personnel officer of the 147th wouldn't have typed them there without the numbers and colons--its meaningless. The for sure indication is that the numbers and colons were whited out when the remarks box was changed because they didn't match the "5 vears 4 months and 5 days." that was put later in the Remarks box. (for amplification of this see this
this is dropdead proof of Alteration of Documents, that there's no colons or numbers there---or whats the explanation for just them being there as they are in the medals box with no medals at all? Without the colons and numbers, its meaningless and in the medals box its completely irrelevant. There's more proof of alteration: see the diary referred to in the preceding paragraph.
But wait a minute---Bush WAS awarded the NDSM and a pistol qualification ribbon supposedly--its what he's wearing in this offical picture It would be virtually impossible to get through the military without at least an NDSM and a weapons qualification badge yet thats what this discharge shows. So why aren't they listed here? Ask George Bush...or Rufus Martin. You'd be the first to ask---nobody ever has yet.
The reason is that this is a "Kiss of Death" discharge--it may say honorable on top but what it says in the content is not honorable at all. No medals, NONE in the qualifications box, didn't show up to sign it, says only completed 5+ years of a 6 year hitch. Not a very pretty picture, just reading it off the page. It looks really blank compared to Kerry's doesn't it?
They obviously never meant for Bush to frame this and show it off as some do. Why not? because Bush was a major problem for his command when they shoved him out the door: a pilot who hadn't flown in over a year and was suspended from flying, though still on flight status--they wanted him out quietly, especially because he had had so many high ranking officers kissing up to him and Dad getting in to the TXANG. They lined up to kiss Bush ass.
If George Bush Junior (as he called himself then) was investigated and booted out of the TXANG it would have really damaged GHWB's future presidential hopes and made his command look real bad. When they let him go, they never thought this would ever be looked at---who in their right mind would ever have guessed in 1973 that Bush would be elected President? So they got careless and made mistakes. Thats how we can see whats there.
(They also hired someone else to fly his plane when he left, which shoots the "they let him go because his F102 went obsolete" BS right out of the skies, pun intended.)
To put this further in context, neither of the only two units he could have been attending have any record of him attending after 4/16/72--yet he was still getting paid as a pilot with flight pay untill July '73. Who authorized the pay and for what? Not the only two units he could have attended--they say adamantly that he wasn't there and their records agree.
The answer is: George Bush was "ghosting:" on the rolls somewhere enough to get paid but not showing up. The WWII generation callled this goldbricking. Someone (Rufus Martin and Bobby Hodges) was fraudulently authorizing pay for work he was not doing---could NOT have done because he was suspended from doing it--while he was on the rolls of no unit at all. This is a HUGE anomaly, a complete disconnect, an easily understood fraud, just on the face of it. And yet you only read about it here.
Normally, when someone didn't take his physical, there would have been an investigation, punishment and being booted out in disgrace(and then drafted.) Someone besides a Congressman's son I mean (tho By that time GHWB was UN rep) But instead of doing their duty as required by regulation, his superiors, under extreme pressure, chose to quash the investigation and went on pretending Bush was still a pilot on-fly, untill he got close enough to his discharge date that they could get rid of him. Thats what his paperwork shows and its a good reason to scramble them all up before releasing them, which is exactly what happened.
To do this, they had to falsify documents like this one wherein Rufus Martin "certifies correct" that Bush was a pilot on-fly this whole year May 72-73--when he never flew at all and was suspended from flying 4 months into this year. He also fraudulently awards Bush 15 extra unearned points, without which Bush wouldn't have gotten the "honorable" discharge. Bush lost his flight status on Aug 1st 1972, and his flight pay should have ended then, but falsified documennts like this kept him getting paid for a year, 52 paid days, after he was suspended from flying. Its not a mistake, its a falsification: Martin knew Bush was suspended on Aug 1st, 1972, his signature is on Hodges confirmation order This is more fraud....and embezzlement.
Bush knew when he signed the checks for pilots work he'd been suspended from doing that he wasn't doing it--and thats embezzlement of federal funds, pure and simple. Or whats the explanation for why he continued to get pilots pay---with flight pay--for a year after he'd been suspended from flying? Definitely illegal!
Notice in this OETR covering this period that they don't mention his supension at all? This is suposedly a Pilots Evaluation form, but they don't ever mention he was suspended 4 months into this year, though he's still listed as a pilot doing pilot's work ("Pilots F102 type aircraft and..."). This document is falsified also. Notice its not actually SIGNED by his superiors? there's no confirmation from Hodges either like on the first two OETRs. (compare to his previous OETR)
So they were trying to pretend Bush hadn't been suspended by keeping him listed as a pilot and still paying him pilots pay. ( Or what? he's ONLY listed as a pilot throughout) Meanwhile, he was on the rolls of NO unit at all.
So the spectacular comparison of Kerry's many medals to Bush's NO medals was ignored completely in the media--they'd much rather help the Swiftliars piss on Kerry's medals. The media just love slamming Democrats to curry favor with the republicans theyre in bed with and it never seemed more so than in 2004, the Year of Whack-A-Democrat.
Next to compare is that Kerry, unlike Bush, actually showed up to SIGN his 2d discharge. This is another huge anomaly--your discharge day is your last paid day but not for Bush--he'd been gone since July 28th, another anomaly. the military wasn't a correspondence course for anyone but, appparently, Bush. The special treatment he got runs all through his papers.
Kerry's first DD214 is not signed--this was a paperwork thing, he never actually left the service then. But his final one is. Bush's first one is signed but his final one isn't. He left the srvice without signing himself out or appearing on what was supposed to be his last paid day. He actually left Texas and was attending Harvard before he even requested his discharge! Its hard to claim you were there serving your country on the important days when you didn't even show up to sign your final discharge, but thats the story here.
The NONE in Bush's qualifications box is spectacular because it also says he was a pilot 1125D on his discharge. This is another huge anomaly, another phenomenal disconnect because you can't BE a pilot when you're unqualified to do anything and haven't taken your required physical. (Unless, of course you have the "Congressman's son" qualification mentioned above.) Its like saying youre a truckdriver when you have no license, but you have a lot better chance of driving a truck with no license then flying an F102 when you've been suspended from flying for failing to take your physical.
So Bush's discharge clearly says he wasn't qualified to hold the only job he's listed as having, with a big NONE in capital letters. Kerry's doesn't list his qualifications (theyre listed elsewhere) but you don't need qualfications to run a Swiftboat like you do to fly a jet. And it sure doesn't say NONE there in capital letters.
this is getting too long, I'll have to quit here. I'll pick this up next diary. I'll leave you with another fact completely ignored by the media: Chicken Georgie is the only president in history suspended from both flying AND driving
What a freaking fuckup!! and this man commands our armed forces with NONE in his qualification box...in capital letters yet. The bizarreness just never ends in the Bush Era.
Hope I made the point, John.