Read Poor Man’s mildy cynical post on our leader being AWOL. This guy uses dry wit and icy humor like a blast furnace.

So, Bush didn’t complete his National Guard duties, after all. You could knock me down with a feather. This is a political problem for the White House, of course, although I believe that most people would be willing to absolve Mr. Bush of dereliction of duty in time of war and lying to God and everyone about it, if he would simply make up the time he missed by serving a 6-12 month tour in Iraq. We Americans are an understanding people, and we believe in forgiveness.

It gets funnier, so read it all.

That’s what Human Rights Watch is claiming, and I can’t say it would surprise me.

The Chinese government has created a “climate of fear” in Hong Kong designed to skew the result of this Sunday’s election, a human rights group says.

Human Rights Watch alleges a campaign of intimidation meant to undermine the pro-democracy opposition. Sunday’s vote will elect politicians to the territory’s Legislative Council.

Beijing has rolled out the triumphant Chinese Olympic team in Hong Kong this week, against a background of Chinese flags and national songs. Critics say the tour is designed to boost support for pro-China candidates in the election.

Meanwhile, Chinese police held a rare news conference giving details of the arrest of pro-democracy candidate Ho Wai-to, on charges of hiring a prostitute. Democrats said that was also part of the government’s campaign.

….
In its report, Human Rights Watch alleges that the Chinese government, or people acting on its behalf, have sent threatening letters and phone calls, and carried out vandalism and arson against pro-democracy targets.

In one case, a businessman was told to take a picture of his completed election ballot or his business would suffer, the group claims.

Amazing, what a difference a couple of years can make. When I lived there in 2001 the very idea of this sort of crap would have been laughed at as absurd. No more, apparently.

I just saw the 60 Minutes segment on bush’s now verified dereliction of duties during his “service” in the Texas Air National Guard. It’s in writing, and it’s verified by others. Of course, Rove and Hughes are spinning away already, with the message that Ben Barnes is a member of the Kerry campaign. Whether that’s true might be a big issue — if there wasn’t a wealth of corroborating evidence, in writing, by bush’s superiors.

Kevin Drum tells the story better than i can:

NATIONAL GUARD SMOKING GUN?….As you know, 60 Minutes is running a segment tonight that features Ben Barnes explaining how he pulled strings to get George Bush into the National Guard in 1968. But the segment also features something else: new documents from the personal files of Col. Jerry Killian, Bush’s squadron commander. According to CBS News, here’s a summary of the four new documents they’ve uncovered:

* A direct order to Bush to take a physical examination in 1972. Physical exams are an annual requirement for pilots.

* A 1972 memo that refers to a phone call from Bush in which he and Killian “discussed options of how Bush can get out of coming to drill from now through November” because “he may not have time.” This was presumably in preparation for Bush’s departure for Alabama that year, but is nonetheless damning since there’s no reason that working on a Senate campaign should have prevented him from showing up for drills one weekend per month.

* A 1972 order grounding Bush. This order refers not just to Bush’s failure to take a physical, but also to “failure to perform to (USAF/TexANG) standards.”

* A 1973 memo titled “CYA” in which Killian talks about being pressured to give Bush a favorable yearly evaluation. He refuses, saying, “I’m having trouble running interference and doing my job.”

This story is a perfect demonstration of the difference between the Swift Boat controversy and the National Guard controversy. Both are tales from long ago and both are related to Vietnam, but the documentary evidence in the two cases is like night and day. In the Swift Boat case, practically every new piece of documentary evidence indicates that Kerry’s accusers are lying. Conversely, in the National Guard case, practically every new piece of documentary evidence provides additional confirmation that the charges against Bush are true.

In fact, these four memos are pretty close to a smoking gun, since it’s now clear that (a) Bush was directly ordered to take a physical in 1972 and refused, and (b) he plainly failed to perform up to National Guard standards, but that (c) he was nonetheless saved from a failing evaluation thanks to high-level pressure.

So why did Bush refuse to take a physical that year? And why did he blow off drills for at least the next five months and possibly for a lot longer than that?

And finally, why did he get an honorable discharge anyway?

Well, my friend Conrad and others, you asked for evidence, and we provided it. This isn’t like 250 people all shouting that Kerry is a liar and a bad man and offering shoddy stories with no hard facts. This is all hard facts.

And the only thing bush’s side is saying: “He had an honorable discharge.” Ha!!! Get this: The entire premise of the SBVFT is that all of Kerry’s medals and awards and high praise from the military were a sham. They’d have you think everything the military says is a crock. Unless, of course, the military is saying bush’s discharge was honorable. Then we should just take what the military says at face value. As though their word can never be questioned. Bastards.

Each number is more than a mangled corpse in a body bag. Each number brings with it a story, a fresco of relationships, of lives interwoven and shatterred, fatherless children and grieving widows and bewildered children. I think of a rock tossed into a pond, and all the ripples that flow outward, representing all the lives that that single soldier touched and all the people who will be affected by his or her death. Yes, I know it sounds sentimental, but it’s also true. Reading this a few minutes ago drove it home.

Dixie Codner had a question for the marines who came down her gravel road, past the rows of corn and alfalfa, to tell her that her 19-year-old son, Kyle, had been killed in Iraq. Should she bring them the dress blues, still pressed and hanging in his closet, for his funeral? No need, she recalled them answering. They had dress uniforms from all the services, all sizes, waiting back at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the bodies of American service members come home.

“What does that say?” Codner asked as she sat at her kitchen table on a recent morning. “How many more are they expecting? All I know is that there are 1,000 families that feel just like we do. We go to bed at night and we don’t have our children.”

Each of the 1,000 soldiers and marines, sailors and airmen killed in nearly 18 months since President George W. Bush sent troops to invade Iraq leaves behind a grieving family, a story, a unique memory of duty and sacrifice in what has become the deadliest U.S. war since Vietnam..

It’s so painful, so infuriating, so fundamentally wrong that it hurts. And they want to focus on whether Kerry was in Cambodia or not some 30+ years ago. We can’t let this continue, not for another day let along four more long, horrible years.

Update: Please go here to read Rush Limbaugh’s utterly repellent response to the death toll topping 1,000. Unfuckingbelievable.

There’s going to be a party for you — and I sure wish I could be there. Click here for the details, and never forget, every single vote counts. We’re fighting for our lives, so bring a friend. Or even an enemy. A vote is a vote is a vote.

Big thanks to the emailer who sent me this — you know who you are. 🙂

If I could go back in time, I would have ignored an impassioned email I received from someone making complaints against the China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing. I fell for it, or at least I found it credible enough to mention it on my site and ask for the comments of others. Bad mistake.

Other China bloggers, including my good friend Joseph Bosco, warned me that there was a complex story behind all this and that the charges were less than honorable. No one asked me to delete the post; it was my own decision.

To my deep dismay, the original emailer, Uriel, has taken this episode and blown it up into a major issue, using it to smear Joseph in a manner one might expect from an enraged child or someone bearing an ancient family grudge. Joseph’s wife Ellen has just posted about this insanity.

Frankly I wish it would all die and go away, but Uriel is redefining the very concept of the word “asshole,” creating incredible stress for people just for the sake of winning some attention.

I bring it all up again now only because I want you to see Ellen’s post, and to be aware that this guy is out there, lying and slandering whoever he crosses.

If anyone approaches you to tell his story on your own blog, all I can say is delete his request and steer very clear. I sure wish I had. (And Uriel, if you comment to this post I promise I will delete it as fast as I can. You’re a menace, and many other Chinese bloggers know it.) Sorry for the passion, but people who might get sucked into Uriel’s bizarrre universe need to understand what’s going on here. And then, I want this entire episode to end forever.

Update: Read Angry Chinese Blogger’s intelligent response to this nightmare.

And you won’t believe what you read in what may be one of the most bitterly funny posts ever to hit the blogosphere. (And the comments are just as funny.)

In an extraordinary column that’s sure to contribute to this being a totally miserable day for bushco, Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff makes it clear that our war-time president showed America his very worst side during another time of war. Oh, and he’s consistently lied through his teeth about it.

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 that Mr. Bush was also a bachelor, so he was looking forward to partying together. He’s confident that he’d remember if Mr. Bush had shown up.

“I’m sure I would have seen him,” Mr. Mintz said yesterday. “It’s a small unit, and you couldn’t go in or out without being seen. It was too close a space.” There were only 25 to 30 pilots there, and Mr. Bush – a U.N. ambassador’s son who had dated Tricia Nixon – would have been particularly memorable.

Kristoff says he’s only writing about this because “if Bush supporters attack John Kerry for his conduct after he volunteered for dangerous duty in Vietnam, it’s only fair to scrutinize Mr. Bush’s behavior.” After all, the most dreadful sin Kerry made was saying he was in/near Cambodia a month earlier than he actually was. In bush’s case, we’re talking about actually going AWOL and then covering it up.

Mr. Bush signed up in May 1968 for a six-year commitment, justifying the $1 million investment in training him as a pilot. But after less than two years, Mr. Bush abruptly stopped flying, didn’t show up for his physical and asked to transfer to Alabama. He never again flew a military plane.

Mr. Bush insists that after moving to Alabama in 1972, he served out his obligation at Dannelly Air National Guard Base in Montgomery (although he says he doesn’t remember what he did there). The only officer there who recalls Mr. Bush was produced by the White House – he remembers Mr. Bush vividly, but at times when even Mr. Bush acknowledges he wasn’t there.

In contrast, Mr. Mintz is a compelling witness. Describing himself as “a very strong military man,” he served in the military from 1959 to 1984. A commercial pilot, he is now a Democrat but was a Republican for most of his life, and he is not a Bush-hater. When I asked him whether the National Guard controversy raises questions about Mr. Bush’s credibility, Mr. Mintz said only, “That’s up to the American people to decide.”

….The sheer volume of missing documents, and missing recollections, strongly suggests to me that Mr. Bush blew off his Guard obligations. It’s not fair to say Mr. Bush deserted. My sense is that he (like some others at the time) neglected his National Guard obligations, did the bare minimum to avoid serious trouble and was finally let off by commanders who considered him a headache but felt it wasn’t worth the hassle to punish him.

“The record clearly and convincingly proves he did not fulfill the obligations he incurred when he enlisted in the Air National Guard,” writes Gerald Lechliter, a retired Army colonel who has made the most meticulous examination I’ve seen of Mr. Bush’s records (I’ve posted the full 32-page analysis here). Mr. Lechliter adds that Mr. Bush received unauthorized or fraudulent payments that breached National Guard rules, according to the documents that the White House itself released.

Some have pointed to bush’s service in the ANG as a sign of his bravery and patriotism. With all due respect, I think we can all see that this argument just doesn’t hold up. In order to escape Vietnam, he got into the Guard by skipping the line thanks to Poppy’s connections, and he got out the same way he got out of most situations in his early years – he walked away, unconcerned and unaccountable.

If Kerry is to be reviled for all sorts of BS from 30 years ago, bush certainly deserves much worse. After all, unlike the discredited charges of the discredited SBVFT, this stuff is true.

Yet another assault on the truth.

ANY FAMILY that borrowed $1 of every $5 it spent would soon be hauled into bankruptcy court. Yet President Bush’s campaign aides were touting the news yesterday that this year’s federal budget deficit is estimated at only $422 billion — a new record by only $47 billion.

The Bush camp grasped at the only straw it could find in the new estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office: The deficit forecast for this year is $55 billion less than the CBO’s forecast in March.

But the Bush campaign ignored the fact that the $422 billion would be an all-time high and that the record being broken is its own — the $375 billion in red ink that it ran up last year. Even more serious is the CBO’s new long-term projection: that the deficits over the next 10 years will total nearly $2.3 trillion — almost $300 billion more than the office had previously estimated.

Under Bush, the White House no longer makes 10-year estimates, but it has no trouble promoting policies that jeopardize the nation’s long-term economic well-being. Many Bush-sponsored tax cuts will have their greatest impact on government spending in future years. And if he succeeds in making them permanent, the burden on the next generation will be crushing.

“Crushing.” bush’s gift to our children and our children’s children: staggering debt and guaranteed misery. But he talked through a bullhorn at Ground Zero, and he always says what he means. Hail to the chief.

This one speaks for itself.

This China, would have been split and subverted into many different lands and many different slave nations for the west, if not for a group of men led by one man, and that man was the mighty Chairman Mao.

Slave nations, under Russia and the USSR, under Japan, under, the USA, under Canada, under the UK, under France, under Germany, under even Australia and New Zealnd, under Thailand and Vietnam, under India and even Pakistan.

Split and destroyed as was their intention and their pre determined malice to do so.

Only the massive strength of Chairman Mao and the CCP kept China free

There are those of us, that desire to see China forever free from the west.

Only because Chairman Mao and the CCP did have the bomb that they had to have, did the west back off and keep their distance.

Too many write this that and the other, that is trash, has no fact.

Why is the face of Chairman Mao on every single note of money in China.

Do you know why. ?

Because the money would have little power and little value to the people if the mighty mans image was not on the notes.

Wake up to yourself, you elite and you western running dogs.

Chairman Mao was the man, is the man, that made China all that she is.

Stop your very dumb and very stupid talk that is was this man or that.

It was not.

It was Chairman Mao.

The strength of China to this very day, to this very second is still the same man and that man is Chairman Mao.

Combine that with the magnificent PLA and that is the reality.

Write all the trash and all the elite thought you want.

This China is here because of Chairman Mao and the CCP.

One mans face on every note, to inspire confidence and to inspire memory and to make sure the truth and the facts are remembered.

Chairman Mao

He made China, he protected China, he is the reason there is a China.

Chairman Mao

Wake up you running dogs, you westerners and you elite. China will never be taken over and destroyed by the west.

Never.

Why.?

Chairman Mao

That is why.

Chairman Mao

No Chairman Mao No New China.

Now, give the running dog theory a rest and eat the truth and the facts.

What a mighty man he was and all China miss him dearly.

Chairman Mao the man who made the China you are looking at.

They put this out over Google News, so millions of readers see it. Is this really the face China wants to put forward to the world? I sure hope not.