CTV News just ran a stunning interview with Dan Rather about his new book Rather Outspoken. As we know Dan Rather is a very credible and well establish news reporter who was fired for reporting a true story about how George Bush got an elite assignment within the National Guard because of his father’s influence instead of going to Vietnam. On top of that he didn’t show up for a year. I remember the segment well. I was shocked at Dan Rather’s termination.
In today’s interview he points out that everything in the report was true. When asked what his most profound news story he covered in his career he replied it was covering Dr. Martin Luther king and the civil rights movement. He said it moved him and transformed him. What a great man. Lest we forget a credible new reporter was fired for reporting a true story. It reminds me of the Dixie Chicks documentary Shut up and Sing.
Dude, anyone who reads this blog even occasionally knows how you feel about the Bush family, but Rather was fired because he used documents that were blatant forgeries for that story. I'm not even gonna post the links to this shit because it's that widespread you should be able to find that in 30 seconds on your own.
ReplyDeletePreferential treatment? This shocks you? It's not like his family isn't connected. But you fall into the trap of just parroting the idea pushed by the MSM that Bush is an idiot who partied his way through Harvard, got a degree based on these same family connections, and then avoided Vietnam by joining the Guard and then never showing up.
Truth:
1) He graduated with a higher GPA than John Kerrey, who actually did go to VN but lied about his service there to the point where guys who served with him couldn't stomach it and stepped forward.
2) It was the AIR National Guard, and Bush was a pilot, just like his father was in WW2. HE FLEW JETS. You know, "Top Gun" shit. The US Air Force does not allow idiots with no ability to make it through training or fly multi-million dollar aircraft because Daddy made a phone call.
Also, if you TRULY believe that Rather's most influential experience in life was covering Dr. Martin Luther King, I'd like to sell you the Second Narrows Bridge. Do you have any idea how many self-serving oxygen thieves in America have tried to connect themselves to that guy over the years since his death? Jesse Jackson used to tell the story about how he cradled a dying MLK in his arms until someone threw the BS flag on that. Dan Rather's most influential experience in life, like many of his ilk, comes every morning when he looks in the mirror.
Where exactly do you get that I have any devotion to that guy? I do not, you assume that I do because I say something that doesn't agree with the picture of him that you hold. He started a war in Iraq that did not need to be fought, throwing copious amounts of blood and treasure away.
ReplyDeleteDidn't show up for a year? That wasn't right away, that was later, after he got through Officers basic training, primary flight school, (prop) and advanced flight school. (jets) Not showing up at the end of a Guard stint is actually pretty common, I myself didn't show up for the last 2 drills of my Guard stint. They don't bother with it when they know you aren't re-enlisting anyway, they just transfer your personnel file to the Inactive Reserves.
His Air Guard unit was actually scheduled at one point to deploy to RVN but a combination of the draw down and of the airframe his unit flew (the F-102) being one scheduled for retirement changed that, along with the fact that Bush was a low time pilot with only 336 hrs in the air when 500 was required for deployment.
Dan Rather suffers from the brand of egomania common to his profession at the level he was at. And I say "was" because he will never be there again, no one will hire a guy who got caught using blatantly forged documents for a story. It doesn't matter that he may not have known that, it's enough that he didn't do his due diligence to determine their authenticity. He's not the first and will not be the last to suffer that fate, the desire to be the one that breaks the story sets these folks up to be used by those who have no problem faking such documents to further their political ends.
Dude, I am not a fan of George Bush Sr. OR Jr......but it doesn't mean I buy wholesale the propaganda of his political enemies either. There's no need to, the actual facts are there if one is willing to do a bit of comparative reading. But for those who don't really want the facts, one can always just pick a side......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush_military_service_controversy
Dan Rather is not an egomaniac. That is very far from the truth. He has a long standing career as a competent and capable journalist. Not withstand his competence, he is in reality humble and articulate. That kind of divide and discredit disinformation is cult like. That’s what they did to the Dixie Chicks. That’s what they did to Gary Webb. That’s what they did to Martin Luther King.
ReplyDeleteBush Jr got a sweetheart job in the National guard because he was a Senators son to avoid having to serve in Vietnam. The Wikipedia doctored record is very different then the filmed testimony of witnesses at the time and subsequent journalists searching for his record of service. The fact is George Bush was not only an idiot but a traitor. Invading Iraq based on a lie. Embarking on an era of war profiteering through Halliburton. Years of investment fraud he and Jeb were involved with that crashed banks in the S&L crisis. Vetoing the bill to stop torture. Voter fraud in Florida. The list goes on.
Dan Rather’s case is very relevant to preserving the constitution because it shows how the attack poodles, as Catherine Austin Fitts describes them, operate. They divide and discredit good journalists like Dan Rather and Gary Webb to prevent the public from knowing the truth.
I agree, the Bush family has made a ton of cash starting this f...ing war
DeleteListen, I'm not liking you for making me defend this guy, 'cause there IS A LOT about him I can't and won't defend. BUT
ReplyDeleteYou keep referring to a "sweetheart job", and you're being a hypocrite because you are doing the exact same thing you accuse others of all the time with fudgeing the truth. You don't know shit about how the US military operates, you just think you do because you've read anout it and watched "Good Morning Vietnam". Are you really trying to tell me he did not go to any type of pilot training, did not fly jets, did not accumulate over 300 hours of airtime, etc.? There's no fucking "witnesses" claiming that did not happen. There's paperwork out the ass to demonstrate Bush's service (or near the end of his service agreement, the lack of it) trust me the US Mil excels at documenting shit. When you join up and go through training, there's records of all that, just as the records show he basically dropped of the map for the last 2 years of a 6 year commitment.
Also, I am willing to bet you've never met a single major US media personality in all your years. Doing the kind of work I do, I've had dealing with 4 of them off the top of my head, you saw the back of my helmet a foot from Ted Koppels head about 8 months back. I can tell you that they are much the same as many other entertainment folks as regards their ego's and sense of importance/entitlement. What they show you when they're on camera is not who they are, it's a projection, an IMAGE, not reality.
Whatever else you may think about Bush, he had an excellent rapport with people (security/mil) who worked around him, in that he knew people by name and made sure they weren't on post too long, doing stupid shit out in the heat, sent the wife out with cookie's, etc. Clinton (both of them, especially the bitch) and Obama (both of them, especially the bitch) are pretty much disliked by the people who watch their backs for the fact that they plainly view, and treat, such people as servants they are entitled to.
Al Martin claims Neil Bush instructed him to commit investment fraud to fund raise for Iran Contra in his book the Conspirators. This was a regular scam the bush family pulled. Pump up a dried up Texas oil well and over state it’s worth. Get people to invest and take out a bank loan to invest in it. Then take the money and run and default on the bank loan with the promise to bail them out with tax dollars. Neil Bush did this with Silverado and George Bush did it with Harken Energy. He is a dirty scoundrel and a traitor to the constitution: http://www.almartinraw.com/harken.html
ReplyDeletehttp://www.steamshovelpress.com/offlineillumination11.html
Yeah, this would be part of what I won't defend about the Bush's....and yet I notice you managed to avoid addressing my points about how you attempted to mis-characterize his mil service. You do this all the time when you just can't bear to concede a point, you talk about a different aspect of whatever is under discussion....but as you've pointed out (and I agree of course) it's your blog so you are free to do this if you wish.
ReplyDeleteA side note on POTUS's past, present, and future....I dislike Obama the way you dislike Bush. And yet I am not any fan of Romney either. The thought that this is the best we can do to replace Obama sickens me. You saw how they dealt with Ron Paul.....
I did say that other sources disagree with the credibility of his military service. He didn't go to Vietnam he went to the National Guard instead. More than one source claimed he didn't do much there after he was assigned. No doubt the disinformation posse that hated on the Dixie Chicks for expressing their opinion and got Dan Rather fired would be zealously trying to rewrite that if it was in fact missing.
ReplyDeleteThe point I stress to avoid partisan defensiveness is that Bush and Clinton were both bad and both tied to criminal activity. Obama is a much better speaker. Yet he hasn't followed through with his promises likely because of his ties to the CIA. Romney is too much of a Bush ass kisser but was way better than Donald Trump and Sarah Palin. Ron Paul made it further than many thought. He's likely down and out now given his age. Perhaps Jesse Ventura will rise to the occasion.
See, it's not as simple as "go to Vietnam or go to the Guard" and this is the misunderstanding people who have no familiarity with the US military or history of the American mil during Vietnam have from hearing over and over that people joined the Guard to get out of going there.
ReplyDeleteWhile it is true that people joined the Guard with the INTENT of not winding up there, (same as they joined the Navy or Air Force, to avoid being drafted by the Army or especially the Marines) like anything when you join the military it does not always work out the way the recruiter promised you. There were in fact numerous Army National Guard and Air National Guard units activated and deployed to SE Asia during that time just as there has been full participation in the last 10 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan by Guard units. A personal friend of mine did two tours of Iraq as Active Duty Infantry, completed his full time commitment, went to a National Guard MP unit, the unit was activated for service and he did another tour with them.
"Didn't do much there after he was assigned". Well, you are aware (probably not) that Guard units train ONE WEEKEND a month and TWO WEEKS in the summertime. So yeah, while that statement is strictly true, it doesn't really paint an accurate picture does it now?
A good part of the anti-"Chicks" thing was not that they spoke out against Bush per se, but that they did it to curry favor with an audience they were performing in front of in EUROPE. If you don't understand why that would piss Americans off ("paging Jane Fonda"....) I'm disinclined to bother explaining it since you'd probably not agree anyway.
Dan Rather was fired because he was found to have used forged documents to buttress a story. I am not suggesting he knew that, but it doesn't matter if he did or not, because if he'd done his own due diligence he would have found that out. Even in what passes for modern journalism that level of sloppiness is a cardinal sin, for which he paid the price. Note that he was not able to just move to another major network as is so often the case.
What we seem to agree on here is that in stagnant water, the scum always rises to the top......
Jesse Ventura is an assclown and a former 1%'er. For more on that, you may wish to read Chris Kyle's "American Sniper", pages 310-312, where he is referred to as "Scruff Face" rather than by name in the story told therein.
Doc from the Mongols claimed Jesse Ventura still is one of them. He's a good speaker though. I think he could have gone a lot farther than his conspiracy tv series. Vietnam was a horrible war. Many conscientious objectors didn't want to go. If I had the chance I'd try and prevent my son from having to go too. Not at the expense of others though. I don't believe Dan Rather used forged documents. What he said was true. The disinformation attack poodles destroyed him. That is my point. Discrediting a good journalist for his freedom of association.
ReplyDeleteThe Dixie Chicks assault was simply because of politics. You weren't allowed to say anything against Bush at the time. Much like Hitler or Stalin. I even heard people misquote Lincoln at the time claiming if you said anything against the commander in chief during a war you were a traitor. I guess that would make Nobel Peace Prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn a traitor too. Funny how those same people now publically trash Obama. The assault on the Dixie Chicks was just mindless cult like propaganda trying to divide and discredit someone from expressing their opinion. Ironic that Dan Rather and the Dixie Chicks are both from Texas, Bush's investment fraud stronghold. No wonder they wanted to shut them up.
Dude, you don't believe a lot of stuff. I guess CBS fired him "just because".......
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, you believe a lot of stuff there's no proof for. You never met a conspiracy theory you didn't like.
I think it would have been a little different if Natalie Maines went on TV in the States on a discussion show or something and said her piece about Bush, vice standing in front of a crowd at a concert in Europe and trying to ramp up crowd enthusiasm by her words.
It might be difficult for you to get that book, so here's the excerpt....
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Punching Out Scruff face
After the funeral we went to a local bar* for the wake proper.
As always, there were a bunch of things going on at our favorite nightspot, including a small party for some older SEAL's and UDT members who were celebrating the anniversary of their graduation.
Among them was a celebrity I'll call Scruff Face.
Scruff served in the military, most people seem to believe he was a SEAL. As gar as I know he was in the service during the Vietnam conflict but not actually in the war.
I was sitting there with Ryan and told him that Scruff was holding court with some of his buddies.
"I'd really like to meet him", said Ryan.
"Sure". I got up and went over to Scruff and introduced myself. "Mr Scruff face, I have a young SEAL here who's just come back from Iraq. He's been injured* but he'd really like to meet you." Well, Scruff kind of blew us off. Still, Ryan really wanted to meet him, so I brought him (Ryan) over. Scruff acted like he couldn't be bothered.
ALL RIGHT.
We went back over to our side of the bar and had a few more drinks. In the meantime, Scruff started running his mouth about the war and everything and anything he could connect to it. President Bush was an asshole. We were only over there because Bush wanted to show up his father. We were doing the wrong thing, killing women and children and murdering.
And on and on. Scruff said he hates America and that's why he moved to Baja California. 9/11 was a conspiracy.
And on and on some more.
The guys were getting upset. Finally I went over and tried to get him to cool it.
"We're all here in mourning" I told him. Can you just cool it? Keep it down."
"You deserve to lose a few." he told me. Then he bowed up as if to belt me one.
I was uncharacteristically level headed at that moment.
"Look," I told him, "why don't we just step away from each other and go on our way?"
Scruff bowed up again. This time he swung.
Be level-headed and calm can only last so long. I laid him out.
Tables flew. Stuff happened. Scruff Face ended up on the floor.
I left. Quickly.
I have no way of knowing for sure, but rumor has it he showed up at the BUD/S graduation with a black eye.
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* believed to be "McPhee's", the SEAL watering hole in San Diego.
* Ryan was a SEAL who had been blinded in Iraq.
Sounds like you and Jesse would get along just fine....
I recommend the book. Amazon is your friend. After all, I've bought 2 books you recommended... ;)
Actually Jesse Ventura was the one that broke through my resistance and got me to look at the 9/11 inconsistencies. The third tower did not collapse into it’s own blueprint at freefall speed from a fire. It was a controlled demolition. I think Dan Rather was shafted just like the Dixie Chicks and Gary Webb were by blind cult like extremism.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMITfJEGRJw