uniformityville_horror: 10/17/2004

UNFIT FOR SERVICE�

New information with regard to the meaning of a special code which appears on George W. Bush�s Air National Guard discharge papers indicates that he was being thrown out of the Air National Guard for failing �to possess the required military qualifications for his grade or specialty, or does not meet the mental, moral, professional or physical standards of the Air Force.� In other words, despite the fact that Bush had an unfulfilled six year Military Service Obligation, he was discharged from the Air National Guard not because he moved to Boston, but because he failed to meet his obligation to maintain his qualifications as an F102 pilot.

The special code is �PTI 961�, and is found[1] in the �Reason and Authority for Discharge� section of Bush�s NGB-22, his �Report of Separation and Record of Service in the Air National Guard of Texas and as a Reserve of the Air Force.�

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4-Star Plans for Sanchez After Abu Ghraib

4-Star Plans for Sanchez After Abu Ghraib

Trying to buy his silence, Bushies ?

Top administration figures are angling to promote Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who ran detention facilities in Iraq, officials say.

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon plans to promote Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, former head of military operations in Iraq, risking a confrontation with members of Congress because of the prisoner abuses that occurred during his tenure.

Senior Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have privately told colleagues they are determined to pin a fourth star on Sanchez, two senior defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said this week.

Rumsfeld and others recognize that Sanchez remains politically "radioactive," in the words of a third senior defense official, and would wait until after the Nov. 2 presidential election and investigations of the Abu Ghraib scandal have faded before putting his name forward.

Top Pentagon strategists do not have a specific four-star job in mind for Sanchez, and the officials conceded that the appointment would probably not occur if Bush were defeated in his reelection bid by Democratic rival Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who has made his criticism of the conduct in the war a centerpiece of his campaign.

Among his duties in Iraq, Sanchez oversaw all detention facilities, including Abu Ghraib prison.

Support for the general among the senior-most policymakers in the Pentagon reflects the Bush administration's insistence that the prisoner abuse affair — which began in Abu Ghraib outside of Baghdad and then drew scrutiny to military jails in Afghanistan and at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — was an aberration.

But an appointment would encourage a confrontation in the Senate, where Democrats and some Republicans who would have to approve the nomination have criticized Sanchez's oversight of Abu Ghraib and the conduct of the war.

The end of Republican dominance: the Pottery Barn Rule

"The GOP has no idea what is about to hit them.

If you tune into AM talk radio...it sounds no different than it always has. If you follow the words of leading GOP Senators, you see that it is business as usual.....Sen. Hagel reconfirms his support for Bush, Sen. McCain is standing next to George on Air Force One. Fox and Rush and Tucker and David are all in line, on board and down with the GWB program. Hell, the GOP House just voted in unison in support of Tom DeLay....same old, same old.

What's funny and sad about this is what they don't realize: this is the worst President in the history of the United States. And he has had a GOP Congress and judiciary to do his bidding. At the end of the day, Colin Powell was right: the Pottery Barn rule will be the dominant meme of this election. The GOP broke it, and the GOP owns it.

* Iraq
* Abu Ghraib
* WMD
* the economy
* gas prices
* the flu shots
* Medicare
* lack of election reform
* Health Care premiums
* our National Guard system

You see, there are three weekends till election day. Congress is shut up. Everyone's home working their base...and yet there is something that is becoming absolutely clear about the Republican party this year: the only thing they will understand is a good old-fashioned ass whupping at the polls. And this year, they are going to get one."

Rove Is Said to Have Testified in Inquiry

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 - President Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, testified on Friday to a federal grand jury investigating whether it was anyone at the White House who had illegally disclosed the name of a C.I.A. undercover officer to a newspaper columnist, a lawyer for Mr. Rove said.

'He answered fully and truthfully every one of their questions,' the lawyer, Robert Luskin, said."