What people like Noah seem unable to grasp is that what the White House did here was because they didn't care, it's a non-issue to them, because it's yesterday's news, and that they've MovedOn™. It's like dealing with a whiny 13-year old who demands to see the latest Star Wars movie for the 47th time. "Whatever."

The Noahs are the ones obsessing over this stuff, praying that somewhere in all of it there's the magick potion which will vanquish Bush so they don't have to do the dirty work of articulating rational reasons themselves. (And the even dirtier work of finding rational reasons to want Kerry as his replacement.)

The thinking of the Dem true believers is on display in the second paragraph i.e. it doesn't really matter that the documents are forged because we know all the allegations (AWOL, favoratism) are true anyway.
And the Dems can't seem to grasp the difference between Bush (perhaps) missing some drills 35 years ago which is not an important part of his biography vs. Kerry being accused by 250 men with documented evidence claiming Kerry lied about a matter that Kerry has made the centerpiece of his campaign.

RE: Missing drills, move to Alabama.

From roughly 1973 through 1979, the Vietnam drawdown caused a huge excess of AF pilots. I'll bet the AF and the ANG at the time were quite happy to release pilots from flight duty.

Meaning it is likely that all the AWOL stuff is far more a product of the environment than anything else.

I'd bet Rove had the "Doc.s" sent from the WH and he knew exactly what they were. Rope-a-dope time once again.

My response to Noah:

'We know strings were pulled on his behalf to get in. '

We do? I have only heard of the Barnes stuff and would at this point conclude that it may be a partisan hit-job (I’m not saying it is, but I can’t see how you can KNOW this)

'We know that, for whatever reason, he wouldn't take a required physical.'

Why would someone not want to take a physical? does anyone know if drug-screens were common practice in the Guard during the period in question? I honestly don’t know the answer.. but if there were no drug – screens , then the insinuation would tend to collapse, true?

'We know that Bush agitated for a transfer to Alabama'

So what?

', and that for a period of six months there exists no evidence that he ever showed up.'

It does not logically follow that no evidence of his showing up equates to his absence ..

‘guilty’ ? I don’t think you can sell that to anyone but the Danosaur.

Noah's (being typically) arch.

My understanding is that no strings needed to be pulled; there were slots for pilots but those interested in that had to commit to up to two and one half years of active service. That was a longer time than one would serve if drafted. Since GWB was willing to make that commitment, it is hardly a surprise that he was accepted.

One point I'd like to make that I haven't seen made. My view is that GWB went the ANG route not to avoid Vietnam (after all, the unit he joined was serving in Vietnam at the time and he inquired about a program in which pilots in his unit were sent to Vietnam), but because his father had been a fighter pilot in WW2. If he's guilty of anything, I think, it's trying to emulate his father. Then, once it became apparent that his piloting skills were no longer needed as the war began to wind down, he just wanted to get on with his life.

I suppose Matley's drawing all that spiritual analysis from handwriting is a more PETA-friendly form of divination than poking through the entrails of a sacrificed goat...

"For your male client, you will be able to recognize the facade of machismo — and also recognize the hurt boy- child who uses that as a defensive hiding place."

I don't know about handwriting, but don't you all agree that comes through clearly in Harry's blogging style?

Sorry (Harry), that was me.

Jon -- My understanding, based only on blog hearsay, is that the Air Force was starting to use drug testing as part of flight physicals, but that the Guard was using random drug testing not tied to physicals.

I read a comment last week from an old air force or guard pilot that testing for drugs in physicals began in the early 80s. Before then, a unit commander could if he suspected order a test, but it wasn't standard practice to test automatically in physicals. Can't find the link tho.

Most folks seem to agree tho that Bush wasn't going to be flying in Alabama anyway, so there was no reason to take a physical -- apparently pilots hate the damn things.

For Tim Noah:

Bill Clinton never released his medical records while President. Why not?

Wouldn't the real reason be a bigger story than anything (even fabricated) about George Bush?

The big deal made of the time when Bush may not have shown up for drill merely reflects a lack of knowledge about how the military Reserves work.

IT IS NOT THE SAME AS ACTIVE DUTY.

A career Reservist, now retired, laid it out perfectly at the end of an article posted on Brosjudd a few days ago, when he explained that missing drill for a while is not uncommon, and no big deal, as long as the time is made up, which Bush did.

Bush was NOT AWOL, even if he didn't show up; that's not the way the Reserves work.
Really, the whole "AWOL" flap is a pathetic indictment of how few of the chattering classes actually served in the military, and how little investigation and research they're willing to perform: One phone call to an ANG unit could've set them straight.

Peter B:

RE: Harry
No, not at all, with the exception of Chick-fil-A and his boyhood experiences with religion.
If anything, his writing is often passive or neutral.

He does want all Muslims to die, but I don't hold that against him: It's my Plan B.

Chicago Jim -- Pilots hate physicals beside they only have a downside. Either you get a pass or they find something (e.g., nascent heart problem) and you're grounded.

I'm so much with Jim Hamlen regarding Bill Clinton's medical records. It was just one of many things he managed to get away with, and all through his time in office I wondered why the heck he didn't want the public to see them. Was he taking some kind of perscription drug? Was there something unseemly in his medical past? Of course, I have not idea, but when left in the dark we are bound to wonder, and speculate.

I just noticed something that I put in my own post(!)
Noah says:
'We know that, for whatever reason, he wouldn't take a required physical.'

"wouldn't" ?

assume we know:

1) Bush was supposed to take a physical, and;
2) did not do so

which, BTW, seems about what we DO know.

does it follow that he refused ?

put it this way, if I miss a dentist appointment, would you say: 'Jon will not go to the dentist.' ?

what a joke.

For something that OJ has been at pains to prove ancillary to either the Bush campaign or the man's personal character in the here and now, his Guard service, or lack thereof, sure pops up often enough here.

In any case, it remains to be seen that anyone was duped. So far it's been an education in typewriter technology, fonts and armed forces procurement for anyone bored enough to read on...but so far, we've discovered that MS Word doesn't actually reproduce the documents in question very well; that in fact said documents are rather clearly the product of a typewriter, not a word processor; that typewriters capable of producing all of the "questionable" features of the documents (raised "th's", proportional spacing, etc.) were available in 1972 and (as shown by contemporaneous documents, including other official Bush Guard files released earlier by the White House) in use by the armed forces; and that all of the conclusions reached using the "questionable" memos can just as easily be reached using those other, officially released documents.

It goes without saying that the Killian memos could still be forgeries. But what would it matter?

Links for the above (not exhaustive):

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/roane040908.htm

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/9/10/34914/1603

http://www.maxspeak.org/mt/ [Scroll down to "Of a Communist Typography"]

I used to work for a Democratically inclined NPO in Washington. During that time I received a few letters from the head of CBS News, asking that if I came across “any information that could damage a Republican politician, or the Republican Party in any way”, I was to “please forward it right away so that we might use it to oppose the Republican Party in our newscasts”.

I will be releasing these memos shortly. When I do, you may expect me to then inform CBS and the world that it is THEIR obligation to prove they are NOT true, and mine to sit back and watch. I will helpfully point out that such behavior is fully in line with CBS’s overall behavior, and with what we have come to expect, and that such there do exist other witnesses to testify to that behavior. I will hold onto the original documents (which I think will be just copies anyway, I haven’t decided yet), and allow no outsider to see them. After all, they are MINE.

If you need testimony to their authenticity, here’s a tape of my buddy talking about those same memos. I’d love to have you question him, but he JUST left for polar studies in Antarctica, darn the timing!

If others should question of technical grounds the documents, I will remind them that “We know CBS does this, so what’s the problem? Quick! Look at the monkey! Look at the silly monkey!”

So look for my memos shortly. I am still deciding on a font.

This IS how things are done in this day and age, no?

M:

No one cares about the Guard--we're just enjoying the dirty trick agony of Rather and the Democrats.

M. -

Just who is the "we" in "we've" discovered?

Gideon:

Take a look at yesterday's WSJ Best of the Web. It does an on-off superposition of the alleged forgery and the LGF version thereof.

Tell me they aren't the same.