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NEW YORK (Talon News) -- The Wednesday evening broadcast of CBS's 60 Minutes featured an interview by news anchor Dan Rather of former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes, now a fundraiser for the Kerry campaign, on the role Barnes claims he played in getting a young George W. Bush into the Texas Air National Guard. "Just how did he land that coveted spot in the Guard in the first place," Rather asked. "Tell me the truth, the whole truth." Claiming "I'm not here to bring any harm to George Bush's political career," former Texas House Speaker and former Lt. Gov....

Anticipating a barrage of unflattering accusations and innuendo about President Bush's personal life in a soon-to-be-published book by the celebrity biographer Kitty Kelley, the Bush campaign has opened a wave of advance counterstrikes intended to undermine her credibility.

Amazingly biased piece. Richard Clarke, Bob Kerrey, Jamie Gorelick and a Ms. Breitweiser are blistering Bush, Rice and Cheney as scenes from the attacks and 9/11 hearings are intercut. No attempt to show conflicting views.

September 9, 2004 Documents Suggest Special Treatment for Bush in Guard By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE and RALPH BLUMENTHAL ASHINGTON, Sept. 8 - President Bush's Vietnam-era service in the National Guard came under renewed scrutiny on Wednesday as newfound documents emerged from his squadron commander's file that suggested favorable treatment. At the same time, a once powerful Texas Democrat came forward to say that he had "abused my position of power" by helping Mr. Bush and others join the Guard. Democrats also worked to stoke the issue with a new advertisement by a Texas group that featured a former lieutenant colonel,...

Records Say Bush Balked at Order National Guard Commander Suspended Him From Flying, Papers Show By Michael Dobbs and Thomas B. Edsall Washington Post Staff Writers Thursday, September 9, 2004; Page A01 President Bush failed to carry out a direct order from his superior in the Texas Air National Guard in May 1972 to undertake a medical examination that was necessary for him to remain a qualified pilot, according to documents made public yesterday. Documents obtained by the CBS News program "60 Minutes" shed new light on one of the most controversial episodes in Bush's military service, when he abruptly...

Posted on Wed, Sep. 08, 2004 Guard memos cite colonel's issues with Bush's service BY PETE SLOVER The Dallas Morning News AUSTIN, Texas - (KRT) - President Bush's Air National Guard commander said he felt pressured by higher-ups to "sugarcoat" his evaluations of the young pilot after grounding Bush in 1972 in part for failing to perform up to standards, according to military memos disclosed Wednesday. The documents, presented on the CBS News program "60 Minutes," appeared to contradict Bush's and the White House's longtime contention that the future president was voluntarily grounded in August 1972 because he took on...

Salon: '60 Minutes' to Feature Man Questioning Bush Service. September 01, 2004, 17:56:35 EDT Over at Salon, Eric Boehlert reports that CBS has already taped an interview with Ben Barnes, a former Texas Democratic politician who currently is a fund-raiser for Democrat John Kerry, who says he helped George W. Bush evade the Vietnam draft during 1970s by getting him into the national guard. The article does not say if CBS interviewed any of John Kerry's critics, including members of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Reached last week, a spokesman for the group told RatherBiased.com that CBS had not been...

On Guard: 'Globe' Reporter Explains Timing of Latest Bush Probe By Joe Strupp Published: September 08, 2004 11:00 AM EDT NEW YORK Walter Robinson, the lead editor and writer on The Boston Globe's sure-to-be-controversial major story Wednesday that concluded President George W. Bush did not fulfill his military obligations, said the timing of the report had nothing to do with the beginning of the fall campaign or the recent attacks on Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam service.

AP Lawsuit Prompts Release of New Records Showing Bush Grades As Air National Guard Pilot WASHINGTON Sept. 8, 2004 — Months after insisting it could find no more records of President Bush's Air National Guard service, the Defense Department has released more than two dozen pages of files, including Bush's report card for flight training and dates of his flights. The records, released under pressure of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by The Associated Press, show Bush ranked in the middle of his 1969 flight training class and flew 336 hours for the Texas Air National Guard, mostly in...

Part of the problem was the candidate. Kerry rarely opened up about Vietnam, leaving the glory for his crewmates to share. But he concentrated on overcoming his own Brahmin-bred modesty, advisers said, talking more than ever about how he had "bled for his country" and killed Viet Cong

Last modified Tuesday, September 7, 2004 9:54 PM PDT New Bush records show he logged more than 300 flight hours in National Guard By: MATT KELLEY - Associated Press WASHINGTON -- President Bush ranked in the middle of his Air National Guard flight class and flew 336 hours in a fighter jet before letting his pilot status lapse and missing a key readiness drill in 1972, according to his flight records belatedly uncovered Tuesday under the Freedom of Information Act. The Pentagon and Bush's campaign have claimed for months that all records detailing his fighter pilot career have been made...

President Bush claims that in the fall of 1972, he fulfilled his Air National Guard duties at a base in Alabama. But Bob Mintz was there - and he is sure Mr. Bush wasn't. Plenty of other officers have said they also don't recall that Mr. Bush ever showed up for drills at the base. What's different about Mr. Mintz is that he remembers actively looking for Mr. Bush and never finding him. Mr. Mintz says he had heard that Mr. Bush - described as a young Texas pilot with political influence - had transferred to the base. He heard...

In February, when the White House made public hundreds of pages of President Bush's military records, White House officials repeatedly insisted that the records prove that Bush fulfilled his military commitment in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. But Bush fell well short of meeting his military obligation, a Globe reexamination of the records shows: Twice during his Guard service -- first when he joined in May 1968, and again before he transferred out of his unit in mid-1973 to attend Harvard Business School -- Bush signed documents pledging to meet training commitments or face a punitive...

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that's right. I said it. The Associated Press has lost any and all shreds of credibility as anything other than a mouthpiece for the floundering Kerry-Edwards campaign. The verbal battle over who really controls the mainstream media is now officially declared over, as the Associated Press has done us conservatives the favor of leaving us without even the shadow of a doubt.

E-mail alerts at the bottom of the page. OUTRIGHT SUPPORT FOR THE DEMONRAT SOCIALISTS!! Not even trying to hide their support for Kerry! Scroll down to the bottom of the page, look at the e-mail alerts. ONLY related to Kerry and Demosocialists!

Media: From watchdog to lapdog By Joe Sciacca Recent Columns by Joe Sciacca Monday, September 6, 2004 CNN rented a New York City diner for the GOP convention and still ended up chopped liver in the ratings. Comedy Central's ``The Daily Show'' billed itself as ``the most trusted name in fake news'' - which is, actually, true. Chris Matthews ended up in a spitting match with Zell Miller, a moment that had millions of Americans calling their cable companies - to complain that their cable was working. All of which begs the question, when it comes to presidential politics, is...

When your world is caving in, when everything looks grim, ignore the overall polls and focus on those segments that lean your way. That was CBS' obvious strategy, on display in the Evening News just now. I'll preface this by saying that, I *swear*, I virtually never watch the broadcast networks' evening news shows, but I was at loose ends and curious to see how the MSM was handling things . . . Obviously it would have been too painful for The Network of Rather to focus on the devastating news coming from the Time and Newsweek polls that reveal...

Top Stories - AP Bush's National Guard File Missing Records 20 minutes ago Add Top Stories - AP to My Yahoo! By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON - Documents that should have been written to explain gaps in President Bush (news - web sites)'s Texas Air National Guard service are missing from the military records released about his service in 1972 and 1973, according to regulations and outside experts.      For example, Air National Guard regulations at the time required commanders to write an investigative report for the Air Force when Bush missed his annual medical exam in...

BEHRENS, DAVID S        Newsday        $1,000HALL, RITA                      Newsday        $1,000STEWART, ELIZABETH    NY Times    $1,000ANGELL, ROGER            New Yorker     $500FLIPPEN, ALAN            NY Times        $250MUHLKE, CHRISTINE    NY Times        $500JAVERBAUM, DAVID    Daily Show    $750ROBERTS, MATTHEW    Daily News    $404BRAMBLETT, REID        Newsweek    $500ENSLOW, ANNE        Newsweek        $1000KEIFFER, JANE        Newsweek        $200ERMAN, MICHAEL    Reuters        $200CUCCIA, NICK        LA Times    $500OWENS, MARGARET    ABC News    $250KRESAL, DONALD    Washington Post    $250WALLACE, JOAN E        Washington Post    $2,000SHRIVER, JERRY DEAN        USA Today    $1,000BARDACH, MARTHA        Time        $250BURGHEIM, RICHARD    Time        $2,000HALAKI, HELGA        Time  $500MINTZ, STEVEN            Time        $202SNIERSON, DANIEL    TimeWarner (senior writer)  $2,000WINDHEIM, BENNETT    Time    $500