TPM has link to Ben Barnes apologizing for getting Bush into TANG

Dang, that is heavy. It made me nearly want to cry.

It's so nice to know that some people actually have a conscience.

Hopefully, it will reach some of those vets that were put off by the lies of the Swiftboat gang.

From page 148 of the hardcover edition of Powell's 1995 autobiography "My American Journey":

"I particularly condemn the way our political leaders supplied the manpower for that war," he wrote. "The policies -- determining who would be drafted and who would be deferred, who would serve and who would escape, who would die and who would live -- were an anti-democratic disgrace. I am angry that so many sons of the powerful and well placed and so many professional athletes (who were probably healthier than any of us) managed to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units. Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to our country."


http://george.loper.org/~george/archives/2004/Feb/842.html

George "Waste-product" Bush.

n/t

National Guard and Reservists called up to fight a war in a back door draft, being ripped apart from their families and jobs with no indication when they will be able to get back to their lives.

Save the rich.... They're the investor class....... they create the jobs...Yeah right, in China.......

Josh Marshall reports that this is in fact Barnes in the video. The beginning and end show Barnes speaking at a rally, Marshall says this was recorded 6/8/04. The middle portion has Barnes seated, speaking as though in an interview.

Transcribed myself watching the video:

Speaking to an audience:
"Let's talk a minute about John Kerry and George Bush, and I know them both. And I'm not name dropping, saying I know them both. See I got...I got a young man named George W. Bush into the National Guard when I was the Lt. Governor of Texas, and I'm not necessarily proud of that. (audience laughs) But, But I did it, and I got a lot of other people into the National Guard because I thought that's what people should do when you're in office and you helped a lot of rich people. And I walked to the Vietnam Memorial wall the other day and I looked at the names of the people that died in Vietnam, and I became more ashamed of myself than I've ever been because it's the worst thing I did was help a lot of wealthy supporters, and a lot of people who had family names of importance get into the National Guard. And I'm very sorry about that, and I'm ashamed. And I apologize to you, the voters of Texas. (Applause)"

Cut to Interview:
"John Kerry volunteered to go to Vietnam. And that was a pretty courageous thing, because John Kerry could have gone on and gotten another degree. He was in a position where he didn't have to go to Vietnam. I admired that so much, that he went. But I admired even more the fact that he came back talking about Vietnam and what a mistake it was. A matter of fact he talked about it so much that he got the FBI looking at him and got on Richard Nixon's list. And that took, that takes a lot of courage of a young man who particularly has an interest in politics and that wants to serve this county to go get on the President's black list. And I know a little bit about that because I got on Richard Nixon's black list also, and that's a story for another time. But it's, it's incredible that John Kerry, uhh, had the courage to go do that. And, you know, I think he deserves to be in Profiles of Courage for his service in Vietnam. But I also think, and I'm not upset with him at all that he came back and, and, talked about Vietnam and said that we were wrong. And I think he deserves equally as much credit for that as he does fighting. We should not look upon anyone that disagreed with our Vietnam policy as being unpatriotic. As we should not look upon anyone today that disagrees with our policy, or our lack of policy in Iraq. I am very unhappy with Republicans that want to make anyone that questions this administration's policy in Iraq is, is not being a freedom loving American."

Cut back to him speaking to the audience:
"And I tell you, for the Republicans to jump on John Kerry and say that he's not a patriot, after he went to Vietnam and was shot at and fought for our freedom and came back here and protested against the war, he's a flip flopper. Let me tell you John Kerry is a 100 times better patriot than George Bush, or Dick Cheney, or Donald Rumsfeld." (crowd cheers)

you can hear a female voice from the audience say "Thank you for taking responsibility" I think it coincides with your (audience laughs) part.

There is a woman's voice there. I couldn't make out what she was saying, so I stuck with Barnes' words. Good catch.

"Let’s talk a minute about John Kerry and George Bush and I know them both. And I’m not name dropping to say I know ‘em both. I got a young man named George W. Bush into the Texas National Guard when I was Lt. Gov. and I’m not necessarily proud of that. But I did it. And I got a lot of other people into the National Guard because I thought that’s what people should do. If you’re in office you help a lot of people and I walked to the Vietnam Memorial the other day and I looked at the names of the people that died in Vietnam and I became more ashamed of myself that I have ever been because the worst thing that I did was that I helped a lot of wealthy supporters and a lot of people who had family names get into the National Guard and I’m very sorry about that and I’m very ashamed and I apologize to you as voters of Texas."

:wow:

Link to BuzzFlash: http://www.buzzflash.com

:toast:

Onedit: Of course, everybody and their mother is trying to download it right now, so...

:shrug:

This is much bigger than anything the swiftvets have accused Kerry of. Draft dodging was a felony.

If true, Bush is a felon.

have publicly disavowed any knowledge of a preferred placement. They say if a friend called Barnes on W's behalf, it was entirely without their consent.

That sort of stretches the limits of believability, doesn't it?

Hate to sound so inarticulate, but all I can come up with at the moment is . . . DAMN!! :yourock:

He now has a link to the video on his page: http://atrios.blogspot.com/

I posted the full transcript in his comments section.

Story is starting to move!

This clip should run as a campaign commercial- powerful stuff.

JUNE this came out?

they're applying an electron microscope to every aspect of Kerry's service in, uh, where was it again?

and they have VIDEO of the guy who got Bush into the Guard, and it's almost three months later, and ZERO media coverage of this?

am I missing something here?

can somebody explain to me why the liberal media has nothing to say on this?

the same so-called 'liberal media' that's sitting on the "unearned medal" story. What a bunch of BS. And the way those media jerks bend over backwards to give equal time to the Swift Boat Liars, given them automatic credibility, and the (unearned) benefit of the doubt.

Why isn't the Kerry campaign or moveon.org or somebody using this? Why isn't this on the cable news shows? damn librul media :mad:

THIS is MoveOn's ad! Hell, it's even the Kerry campaign's ad! Forget those ads countering those shit-heads at SBVT.

THIS is the killer ad. I got Bush out of Vietnam and other men died in their place. "Bring it on" SBVT! Vote for your coward!

Just run it as it is. You need no speaker leading up to it, no voice-over, nor any goober providing a sound bite conclusion. Use silence as a roar. The public will get it. At the end, just a display the Kerry for President logo, and sit back.

I could only say Holy Sh*t! They did get the report on the TV news!

I don't know if the rest of them will air it or not, but it was one fo the articles read from a newspaper article, so it's out there!

here it is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/28/politics/campaign/28barnes.html

You may need to register to read the article- but registration is free and takes a minute.

I haven't bought my print copy yet, but I suspect this story is buried- definitely not front page. But, it's a positive that it's even there, I suppose. Now, time to see whether it gets ignored by the 'liberal' media- yeah, right.

Bush = Wimp