White lines and white lies

I tried to lay off politics as long as I could, but as Popeye would say, “I tooks all I kin takes, an’ I can’t takes no more!” You’re more than welcome to disagree with me- in fact I encourage you to submit your opinions to the NEWSpaper, that’s what democracy is all about, Charlie Brown! What follows are not necessarily the opinions of the NEWSpaper’s publishers or their staff, or of my own wife and family for that matter.

London's Daily Mirror reported last week that writer Kitty Kelley claims that President Bush began using cocaine at Yale in her book The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty. Former sister-in-law Sharon Bush is quoted in Kelley’s book as saying that "Bush did coke at Camp David when his father was President, and not just once either."

Other Bush acquaintances say in her book that he "liked to sneak out back for a joint or into the bathroom for a line of cocaine" while he was a member of the National Guard. How ironic that former President Bill Clinton was scrutinized so severely by Bush’s father’s campaign in 1992 for having admitted to having tried marijuana once in college and for protesting against the Vietnam War.

The White House maintains that W. Bush has not used illegal drugs for 25 years. That would be 1979, but if Kelley’s revelations are true, Bush Sr. was in office from 1988-92, just ten years ago. After weeks of pro-Bush ads accusing Sen. John Kerry of embellishing his combat record in Vietnam, one of the most respected news institutions reported that the Bushes pulled strings so that George W. wouldn’t have to serve in Vietnam.

Former Texas House Speaker and Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes told “60 Minutes” that he helped keep Bush from getting drafted when Bush had just graduated from college. Barnes revealed that he had a meeting with the late oilman Sid Adger, a friend to both Barnes and then-Congressman George Bush.

"It's been a long time ago, but he said basically would I help young George Bush get in the Air National Guard," said Barnes.

Bush abruptly stopped flying and moved from Texas to Alabama to work on a political campaign. Bush's squadron commander, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, ordered Bush "to be suspended from flight status for failure to perform" to U.S. Air Force and National Guard standards and failure to take his annual physical "as ordered." According to a Guard memo.

National Guard documents already released by the White House and the Pentagon show that Bush was suspended from flight status for "failure to accomplish annual medical examination.” Do you think that perhaps he wanted to avoid a physical because his drug problem would be discovered?

In a 1973 memo, Killian complained that he was under pressure from his boss, Col. Walter B. "Buck" Staudt, to "sugar coat" Bush's officer evaluations.

Bush has admitted to having had an alcohol problem when he was young. I have no qualms about a recovering addict being in the White House, but it’s a pretty high pressure job. It’s got to be hard to stay sober. It’s also a pretty high powered job witch can easily be abused for personal gratification- as we saw so unfortunately with President Clinton’s indulgence.

Surely transparency and complete disclosure would relieve some of that pressure as well as provide accountability and even moral support for a statesman in recover. Fallible, vulnerable, human leaders can still lead, hypocrites forfeit their authority once they’re found out.

Sociologists think that just like the Civil War did, the specter and divisiveness of Vietnam may plague America until every last member of the generation who fought in it or against it has passed away.

As a member of the generation that followed, I don’t know if my perspective would be regarded as objective, or as uninformed, but I’ll tell you anyway. McCain served, admirable. Kerry served, then opposed, admirable. Clinton didn’t serve, opposed, perhaps unadmirable or perhaps admirable depending, I suppose on your opinion of Johnson and Nixon’s policies.

Bush used privilege to avoid service, misrepresented Iraq as being part of the wider ‘War on Terror,’ and continues to do so. Is that admirable?

Before the Presidential Primaries, I’d talked to dozens of Republicans who were dismayed by the war in Iraq. But now more than ever this administration is trying to associate Saddam Hussein and Iraq with September 11 and al Qaeda. Now, I know that Iraq is not the only issue. I know that Vietnam and both candidate’s military service was over three decades ago. And I know that what mistakes a person made in their youth are just that, mistakes of youth. So, okay, all that aside, do you really feel safer than you did four years ago? Are you better off than you were four years ago? If the Economy is really coming around, why do so many people keep losing their jobs?

Did you know that the National Debt is over $7,000,000,000,000? Last year Government spent $318 billion of our money on interest payments for the National Debt alone- just interest payments! The Deficit this year (which contributes to the debt) is estimated at an all time high of $445 billion. This is the third straight year of deficits, after four years under Clinton of surpluses. How much of that 445 billion went to the tax cut for the richest 2% of Americans? Kiss Social Security, Medicare, any reasonable and helpful government programs good bye.