THE "New" CBS BUSH DOCUMENTS: Let's do some investigating

www.freerepublic.com | September 9, 2004

[Howlin]

These are the NEW documents "discovered" by CBS with conjunction with their Ben Barnes expose/confessional tonight regarding George Bush's National Guard service.

They've gotten some interesting comments on the Live Thread, so I thought I'd give them their own thread so you people out there with the knowledge can dissect them for their accuracy/truth/existence.

[Congressman Billybob]

All these years I've known you, my friend, and I never knew you played piano in a whorehouse. I'm impressed.

Congressman Billybob

[conservative in nyc]

Why does the name "Robert Strong" sound so familiar? There is a Robert Strong who is a professor of politics at Washington & Lee University. But there are other Robert Strongs teaching as well.

[Southack]

"Good point. Perhaps the man typed his own memos?"

Nope. Not on a proportionally spaced typewriter (had to type in each line twice with no errors) from back then. That was the realm of clerks and specialists and typesetters, not doctors or officers, and certainly not for a memo.

3 Full Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires

[Indie]

Dan Rather just proved once again what a low life he is. Actually, he is in so much pain now. You know it hurts to be on the losing end when you are such a die hard liberal Communist.

There, that's better.

[Wild_Bill_8881]

Thanks

just never heard it called that before, but I wasn't in the guard and went active in 1973

is OETR a guard thing, or an older Air Force thing?

[Texasforever]

As has been pointed out and asked, is it standard procedure to produce your letterhead with each correspondence?

Sorry I can't answer that with any authority. I do know that you don't write "CYA" memos to yourself and no one else. It defeats the whole purpose.

[Mo1]

Different typewriters or typists? I think that would indicate the Lt Col had these memos typed up by a clerk....

I don't know about back then .. but when I use to work in an office .. we always put our initials at the bottom of a letter/memo to indicate who typed up the letter/memo

I don't see that on these documents

[The Bandit]

course I'm still trying to figure out what an "OETR" is

Officer Effectiveness Training Record

[bobo1]

" The use of proportionally spaced fonts did not come into common use for office memos until the introduction of laser printers, word processing software, and personal computers."

Not to throw a monkey wrench into this, the IBM Executive typewriter did have proportional fonts. I used one in the army in 1975-78. It was probably a few years old, as it would have been a hand me down from S-1. Most small letters would have been a full space. The letter "i", a puctuation mark, etc. would have been a half space.

If I remember correctly, and "M" or a "W" was two full spaces, or at least a space and a half.

The type on the memos looks familiar to me. I think that I would find a way to compare it to an IBM Selectric before drawing any conclusions.

Blessings, Bobo

[Robert A Cook PE]

Very good!

[Doctor Raoul]

All these years I've known you, my friend, and I never knew you played piano in a whorehouse. I'm impressed.

Hey, that qualifies me to be Ombudsman at the Washington Post.

Same deal, as if there's anything I could say or do to make them stop what they're doing in either place.

[Congressman Billybob]

Your point about corrections is well-taken. The documents I had declassified for a book was the WW II correspondence of Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes. We got access to microfilm copies of the carbon paper originals kept in the Secretary's office. ALL the documents showed evidence of erasing and retyping the corrections in the original and the carbons.

John / Billybob

[Terp]

is OETR a guard thing, or an older Air Force thing?

Don't know. I just googled OETR.

[Law is not justice but process]

By gum you're right. Can anyone explain why the 111th in the May 4th memo would be superscripted. Even assuming the letterhead was preprinted (as the 111th in the address at the top is not superscripted), I never saw a typewriter (except an electronic one) that could do superscripts. Also the 111 F.L.S. in the prior paragraph left out the th. A strange inconsistency since the typist would have to go to a good deal of trouble to make the superscript (assuming it is even possible, he would at least have had to change type balls) in the second paragraph but not have even bothered in the first.

[Mike Darancette]

Surely someone in the Houston Area can check out that address and see if it is legit.

Yahoo maps shows that zip-code for 5000 Longmont Dr., Houston, TX is 77056 not 77027 as addressed in memo #1.

[Mo1]

I do know that you don't write "CYA" memos to yourself and no one else. It defeats the whole purpose.

Yea I thought that one was pretty odd

[rolling_stone]

there is no way this guy would type it himself.

if he typed it himself shouldn't it have bmh for by my hand?

also one of the memos was written on a saturday... http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/index.html?year=1972&country=1

[M1911A1]

That makes sense. So, memo to what file, typed by what clerk? Where are the initials of the typist? Why does the memo show up in the man's papers, if they are part of an official file? If the non letterhead memos are CYA documents for his personal use to take home, why have them typed in such a manner, and expose these "office politics" and CYA antics to a clerk, when a written note would do?

[Law is not justice but process]

I cede you the point. Good observation.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Sure: Look up Bush's REAL records, and look at the "mailing address" on his actual Fitness reports (OER's I think is the Air Force term) and his old pay stubs.

Those would have the actual address on them.