White House Asked If Any of the Bush Clan are in Military

international | anti-war / imperialism | other press

Thursday June 23, 2005 00:39

by redjade

care to guess the answer?

"But why should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many, what day it's gonna happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it's, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that? And watch him suffer."

- Barbara Bush on "Good Morning America," March 18, 2003

Janna follows in her father's missteps...

From the transcript:

Q Is the President concerned about the recruitment being down in his home country, he can't get -- you know, some day you may give a war and no one will come? And, also, the second part of the question, is there any member of the Bush clan who is in the military service now, that you know of?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'd have to go check; that's a pretty large clan, as you --

Q Would you do that?

MR. McCLELLAN: -- as you referred to. In terms of -- and certainly there are members of the family that have served and served very admirably in the Armed Forces.

Q I'm not talking about the past, I'm talking about now.

MR. McCLELLAN: And in terms of your question on recruitment and the recruiting efforts, I think the Department of Defense has briefed on that recently and they've talked about their efforts to address some of the concerns that you bring up. I would refer you --

Q I asked if the President was concerned.

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, it's something he talks to his military leaders about, and they keep him apprised of their efforts.

Q Is the President concerned?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?

Q Is the President concerned?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, it's something he's kept apprised about, but I think you ought to look at the Department of Defense, and the way they have characterized it is the way I would....characterize it. They briefed on it recently, and they talked about their efforts to do a better job of recruiting people to volunteer for the military forces.

***
Reporters also returned to the question of whether the president agreed with Vice President Cheney's recent statement that the insurgency in Iraq was in its final "throes." This marked at least the third time in the past week they had pressed this question.

From the transcript:

Q Scott, can we get a clear "yes" or "no" answer on whether the President agrees on the Vice President's assessment that the insurgency is in "its last throes?" Is it a "yes" or "no"?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think I already answered this question the last couple of days.

Q Is it "yes" or is it "no"?

MR. McCLELLAN: And I've talked about it the last couple of days. If you look -- if you look at the terrorists and the regime elements that are seeking to derail the transition to democracy, they are in a desperate mode, and here's why. Let me walk you through this.

First of all, I think, to begin with, you ought to go back and look back at the full context of the Vice President's remarks, where he talked about the progress we're making to go after and capture al Qaeda elements that are inside Iraq -- like Zarqawi lieutenants. Just last week, we captured one of his top lieutenants, a very dangerous man who is responsible for the killing of a lot of innocent civilians inside Iraq....

So I think you have to look at the facts on the ground. And the facts on the ground show that the Iraqi people are making important progress on the political front to build a free and democratic future. The vision of the terrorists is one of chaos and destruction. They really have no vision. Their only alternative is chaos and destruction and the killing of innocent civilians.

And that's what I talked about yesterday. They, every step of the way, have not been able to stop the progress that the Iraqi people are making on the political front. And they are being defeated and they will be defeated.

Q So that's a "yes"?

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, I said that. I said that the other day.

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000965770

----

Jenna and Barbara Bush are 'of age' to join...

photo:
http://tinyurl.com/7ah5d

Also read:
http://www.thefirsttwins.com

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Comments (8 of 8)

'the tone of the message is too negative'

Thu Jun 23, 2005 00:51

'Crooks and Liars' (an American liberal/anti-war blog) attempted to place this ad in the 'Young Republican National Conference' official program. (big white ad)

but the answer was:

' We are sorry but we must regretfully reject this advertisement. We feel that the tone of the message is too negative.'

check out for links and details...
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/6/21/16116/8359

ad for 'Young Republican National Conference'
ad for 'Young Republican National Conference'

Who's on first? No he's on second...

Thu Jun 23, 2005 00:55

Q Scott, how concerned is the administration about the potential for Iraq to become a sort of training ground for Islamic extremists who may go back to their home countries and use these techniques to destabilize their governments? There's a new report on that recently.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, let me mention a couple things. As the President has said for some time now, Iraq is a central front in the war on terrorism. Wherever you stood before the decision to go into Iraq, I think we can all recognize that the terrorists have made it a central front in the war on terrorism.

[snip]

Q Just following up on that question, you said at the outset of that, the terrorists have made it a central front in the war on terrorism. I thought it was a central front in the war on terrorism before we invaded.

MR. McCLELLAN: It is. It's part of the war on terrorism, yes.

Q It was.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, it is.

Q It is now --

MR. McCLELLAN: Both.

Q Was it prior to --

MR. McCLELLAN: Both. It's part of the war on terrorism, David.

Iraq May Be Prime Place for Training of Militants, C.I.A. Report Concludes

Thu Jun 23, 2005 00:59

NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/22/international/middleeast/22intel.html

A new classified assessment by the Central Intelligence Agency says Iraq may prove to be an even more effective training ground for Islamic extremists than Afghanistan was in Al Qaeda's early days, because it is serving as a real-world laboratory for urban combat.

The assessment, completed last month and circulated among government agencies, was described in recent days by several Congressional and intelligence officials. The officials said it made clear that the war was likely to produce a dangerous legacy by dispersing to other countries Iraqi and foreign combatants more adept and better organized than they were before the conflict.

-- --- --

'''N' if you can find a Afghan rebel
That the Moscow bullets missed
Ask him what he thinks of voting Communist...''

The Clash
Washington Bullets
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palladium/1028/lyr_sandinista_2.html

No, I don't make this sh*t up...

Thu Jun 23, 2005 01:05

Porn star's dream:Sex with Bush twins
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44905
Now that the presidential fund-raiser is over, hard-core porn star Mary Carey doesn't mind the public knowing about one of her secret desires – having sex with the twin daughters of the president.

Carey was the guest of her boss, pornographer Mark Kulkis of Kick A– Pictures, at the National Republican Congressional Committee's multimillion-dollar dinner with the president here last week.

[....]

"Oh my God, his daughters!" she said. "I'd love to party with his daughters. I'd love to meet them. I totally want to have sex with them. You can write it the day after I leave here."

-- -- --

Porn star candidate to attend GOP dinner
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/06/09/gop.pornstar.ap/
Carl Forti, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is co-hosting the dinner, had no qualms about Carey and her boss, adult film executive Mark Kulkis, attending.

"Their money was donated to the NRCC. The NRCC's job is to elect Republicans. We'll take that money and use it to elect more Republicans," Forti said.

Screenshot - CNN Webeditors exhibit a bit of dark sarcasm...

Fri Jun 24, 2005 15:18

posted at Eschaton
http://atrios.blogspot.com/2005_06_19_atrios_archive.html#111961547456527869

'04 Bush Campaign may be prosecuted - Support the Denver 3!

Sat Jun 25, 2005 15:26

The Secret Service says it will let the U.S. Attorney's Office decide whether to file criminal charges of impersonating a Secret Service agent against a volunteer who ousted three people from a presidential speech in Denver on March 21.

The move passes responsibility for the politically touchy decision from the president's bodyguard agency to the Denver district's acting U.S. attorney, William Leone.

Karen Bauer, Leslie Weise and Alex Young say a man who looked and acted like a Secret Service agent ousted them from the president's Denver appearance because of a "No More Blood for Oil" bumper sticker on the car in which they arrived.

The Secret Service and the White House know the man's identity but have not revealed it.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3879017,00.html

- - - - -

Interview with the 'Denver Three'
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/05/05/int05019.html

Denver Three appeal denial of data by Secret Service
http://colorado.indymedia.org/newswire/display/11129/index.php

-- -- --

The Tenacious Trio
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/21/AR2005062101583.html

Individually, they are ordinary citizens and political unknowns. But collectively, they are the Denver Three -- a political sensation in Colorado that is causing agita to a White House that has bested far more sophisticated foes.

The Denver Three's quest: to learn the identity of the "Mystery Man" who, impersonating a Secret Service agent, forcibly removed them from a taxpayer-funded Social Security event with President Bush three months ago because of a "No More Blood for Oil" bumper sticker on one of their cars.

They and their attorneys have filed 10 freedom-of-information requests. They won support from eight of Colorado's nine members of Congress and persuaded lawmakers to send letters of protest to the White House and Secret Service. Working from a Denver coffee shop and from a loft apartment, they spend hours each day contacting reporters, producing almost daily news coverage and provoking questions at White House briefings. They have a Web site and bumper stickers, and they got a well-funded liberal group to send them to Washington. Now they're talking about public meetings and a lawsuit.

== == == ==

The Denver Three's Website
http://www.denverthree.org/

Help save the youth of america

Sat Jun 25, 2005 19:23

Help save the youth of america
Help save the youth of the world
Help save the boys in uniform
Their mothers and their faithful girls

Listen to the voice of the soldier
Down in the killing zone
Talking about the cost of living
And the price of bringing him home

http://billy-bragg-lyrics.wonderlyrics.com/Help-Save-The-Youth-of-America.html

-- -- -- -- --

Wed, Sep. 01, 2004

Young Republicans support Iraq war, but not all are willing to join the fight
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9556221.htm
By Adam Smeltz
Knight Ridder Newspapers

NEW YORK - Young Republicans gathered here for their party's national convention are united in applauding the war in Iraq, supporting the U.S. troops there and calling the U.S. mission a noble cause.

But there's no such unanimity when they're asked a more personal question: Would you be willing to put on the uniform and go to fight in Iraq?

[....]

Lee said she supports the war but would volunteer only if the United States faced a dire troop shortage or "if there's another Sept. 11."

"As long as there's a steady stream of volunteers, I don't see why I necessarily should volunteer," said Lee, who has a cousin deployed in the Middle East.

In an election season overwhelmed by memories of the Vietnam War, the U.S. military's newest war ranks supreme among the worries confronting much of Generation Y'ers. Iraq is their war.

"If there was a need presented, I would go," said Chris Cusmano, a 21-year-old member of the College Republicans organization from Rocky Point, N.Y. But he said he hasn't really considered volunteering.

At age 16, Chase Carpenter has.

"It's always in the back of my mind - to enlist," Carpenter, a self-described moderate Republican visiting Manhattan this week from Santa Monica, Calif., said Wednesday on the convention floor. He said he's torn over whether he'd join the military if he were 18.

Others said they could contribute on the home front.

"I physically probably couldn't do a whole lot" in Iraq, said Tiffanee Hokel, 18, of Webster City, Iowa, who called the war a moral imperative. She knows people posted in Iraq, but she didn't flinch when asked why she wouldn't go.

"I think I could do more here," Hokel said, adding that she's focusing on political action that supports the war and the troops.

"We don't have to be there physically to fight it," she said.

more at
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9556221.htm

Denver 3 in the NY Times

Mon Jun 27, 2005 11:56

For President Bush, it is bad enough that his campaign to sell Americans on his overhaul of Social Security has not been considered a brilliant success. Now a flap over who got to go to one of the president's recent Social Security events has erupted in a swing state, showing the power of a dogged little anti-Bush group now called the Denver Three to irritate the Goliath of the White House.

[....]

The White House was having none of it.

"It's clear that these three protesters are trying to advance their own political agenda," Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary....

[....]

In the meantime, the Denver Three's exploits are chronicled almost daily in the Colorado press. They have a Web site and pass out bumper stickers, playing on Mr. Bush's plan to add private accounts to Social Security, that say "Don't Privatize My Freedom." During their trip to Washington, the cameras were rolling when they tried, unsuccessfully, to hand-deliver a letter to the White House demanding answers from Mr. Bush.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/politics/27letter.html?
username: mediajunkie
password: mediajunkie

The Denver Three

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White House Asked If Any of the Bush Clan are in Military

Comments (8 of 8)