WASHINGTON - 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 1972. The regulations also required commanders to confirm in writing that Bush received counseling after missing five months of drills.

No such records have been made public and the government told The Associated Press in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that it has released all records it can find.

Back by popular demand, it's the handy Soros vs. Moon chart:

Which sugar daddy is right for you? A consumer's guide
		George Soros	Reverend Moon
	Claim to fame	Investor	Cult leader (Unification Church), businessman, owns The Washington Times and UPI
	Agenda	Liberal democracy	Moon-centered theocracy
	Net worth	$5-7 billion	$10 billion in assets
	Big gifts	$35 million to the liberal groups MoveOn.org, Americans Coming Together, and the Center for American Progress	His Times loses $100 million every year promoting the Republican cause. Pays lavish speaking fees to George H.W. Bush, William Bennett, and others. Has spotted Jerry Falwell and other hard-up Christian evangelicals for millions of dollars. Grassroots promotion of the Faith-Based Initiative, more. Cut a check for the "Contra" part of Iran-Contra. Maze of crypto-Moonist conservative foundations (like the American Family Coalition)
	Controversial idea	Wants to legalize drugs. Has been called a "left-wing crank" by Tony Blankley	Claims to be the Messiah and True Father of humanity. Has urged deacons to "tear down the cross." ("My enemies are America and Christianity. How am I going to win over those enemies?" he mused in 1993.)
	Shocking quote	Compares War on Terror talk to Nazi slogans heard in his boyhood: "When I hear Bush say, 'You're either with us or against us,' it reminds me of the Germans."	Calls the Holocaust payback for killing Christ: "Jewish people, you have to repent. Jesus was the King of Israel. Through the principle of indemnity Hitler killed six million Jews. That is why."
	Pet causes	Anti-Communism in the old East Bloc (i.e. Polish Solidarity). Fostering "open societies" throughout the world. Funding study of the root causes of crime. Campaign finance reform	Anti-Communism in Asia, South America. Reconciliation of Korean "Fatherland." Amending the U.S. Constitution to enforce sexual purity. Abstinence. Ensuring that newlyweds make love in white robes, with his photo nearby
	Thoughts	"I propose replacing the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive military action with preventive action of a constructive and affirmative nature. Increased foreign aid or better and fairer trade rules, for example..."	"Individualism is what God hates most"..."The separation between religion and politics is what Satan likes most."
	Deprogrammers hired to rescue teenagers from his remote compound?	No
	Does business with North Korea?	No
	Buying influence	Vows he'll buy a Bush defeat	"I influenced America through the Washington Times and so many different activities," he says. Claim: "Republicans' only hope is to unite with Father."
	Trouble in court	Convicted of insider trading in France, fined $2 million	Landed in federal prison in the early '80s for tax crimes and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Also, a group of lawyers in Japan attacked his "spiritual sales": aggressive missionaries scamming widows out of $622 million, by telling them their husbands would burn in hell unless they bought certain objects.
	Coronated the Messiah in a bizarre Congressional ceremony at the Dirksen Senate Office building?	No
	Claims to be endorsed by former president William Howard Taft (1909-1913)?	Unknown

(Click check boxes for more information. Note: For purposes of accuracy, the simple description of Moon as a "Republican" has been removed, in mind of the uptick in Democrats drawn to his recent events. Moon's politics, however, remain conservative and he's been rewarded with $450,000 in your tax dollars for some...er..."faith-based programs"

Wow. Even Susan Estrich, who usually seems to have forgotten she was ever a liberal (which I'm guessing has something to do with her token liberal post at Fox), wants blood: Thanks Suburban Guerilla:

The mask came off at the Republican convention on Wednesday night. After the video tribute to Ronald Reagan, the man whom his son described as a conservative without anger, the angry men took over.

The angriest of all was Zig Zag Zell. It was stunt casting gone wrong. Sen. Zell Miller calls himself a Democrat, but he has no friends left in the Democratic Party, and after last night, some Republicans must be shaking their heads and wondering whether they want to claim him as one of their own.

The substance of his speech was dubious at best. He attacked John Kerry for voting against the very weapons systems that Dick Cheney, as secretary of defense, had himself questioned. How could he justify this, Wolf Blitzer asked him after the speech. He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. It's all here, he mumbled, seemingly unable to understand the question, much less answer it, even though it was repeated over and over. Why did you praise John Kerry when you came to the Senate, he was asked. Couldn't answer that one, either. He attacked John Kerry for describing the United States force in Iraq as occupiers, a term George W. Bush himself has used. Why? He couldn't explain that, either.

Earlier in the week, in an interview with Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday," Zell Miller found himself making the case for change, as he did when he nominated Bill Clinton for president to run against George H.W. Bush. He stopped mid-sentence, clearly confused. Change? That was 12 years ago. Confused? Clearly. He quickly switched gears, and began to argue for stability. Could it be true, as those who have known Zell longest are suggesting, that he may not be all there, that a minor stroke or early onset Alzheimer's has clouded his judgment? That's the word among Democrats in Georgia, and if you watched his performance on Fox, you had to wonder if they could be right. But Wednesday night was worse. In the hall, partisan Republicans called it an old-fashioned stemwinder. On television, it came across as the tirade of a bitter old man. Who could forget that Zell Miller got his start in politics working for the angry segregationist Gov. Lester Maddox, who used to give out pick handles to his white customers at the Pickrick restaurant to use against blacks who might seek service? Zig Zag is not a new nickname for Miller, but one he earned years ago, for the ease with which he switched positions to suit his ambitions. Dick Cheney was not so angry. Or happy. Or engaged. Or anything. Passion was almost altogether missing from his performance. So was one of his daughters, who supposedly did not join the family on stage afterward for personal reasons. Even though she works full-time for her father, apparently there was no place on the podium for the vice president's openly gay daughter. Too bad. It might have brought some energy to what was the flattest moments of the week. Was the vice president that bored? That uninterested, patronizing or contemptuous? Hard to tell. What he certainly wasn't was engaged with his audience, or interested in anything other than attacking John Kerry or addressing the war on terror. No Ronald Reagan he. No Arnold Schwarzenegger, either. Rich Lowry, the editor of The National Review and as partisan a Republican as you can find, called it the worst night of the convention. It was one of the worst nights of any convention I can remember. It was enough to make you yearn for the much-criticized Bush twins and their "Sex in the City" jokes. But it's not simply a problem of style. In three days, no one has said a word about jobs, health care, education, children, seniors, prescription drugs, the environment, the cost of health insurance, clean air, clean water, urban sprawl, housing, poverty, cancer, the loss of manufacturing jobs, the working poor, the price of oil, etc., etc., etc. This has been a convention about fear and terror, about anger and hate, not about America's families sitting around their kitchen tables. Every poll says swing voters care most about the economy. They ain't heard nothing yet. To find out more about Susan Estrich, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2004 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC. Originally Published on Friday September 3, 2004 Archive: To See Earlier Columns Friday September 3, 2004 Wednesday September 1, 2004

9/11 hijackers tied to Saudi government, Graham says in book.

WASHINGTON -- Two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers had a support network in the United States that included agents of the Saudi government, and the Bush administration and FBI blocked a congressional investigation into that relationship, Senator Bob Graham wrote in a book to be released Tuesday.

The discovery of the financial backing of the two hijackers "would draw a direct line between the terrorists and the government of Saudi Arabia, and trigger an attempted coverup by the Bush administration," the Florida Democrat wrote.

And in Graham's book, "Intelligence Matters," obtained by The Miami Herald yesterday, he makes clear that some details of that financial support from Saudi Arabia were in the 27 pages of the congressional inquiry's final report that were blocked from release by the administration, despite the pleas of leaders of both parties on the House and Senate intelligence committees

Dan Froomkin puts together a partial list of things not addressed by George Bush last night: No beef...or veggies, or fruits, or starches either.

Where's the Agenda? (washingtonpost.com): "Tonight," President Bush said at the top of his hour-long convention speech last night, "I will tell you where I stand, what I believe and where I will lead this country in the next four years." Not much luck on that last part.... [I]n substance, there was essentially nothing new last night, no detailed agenda... vague on the big stuff and otherwise small-bore. He didn't address the job losses that have plagued his tenure.... [On] Iraq, Bush defended his actions, but didn't describe a way out. Standing accused of having fudged the connection between the war on terror and the war on Iraq, he continued his attempt to conflate the two, without substantiation, leaving unclear where we go from here....

From Milbank and Allen: "The speech dealt lightly with some of the more vexing issues facing the Bush campaign. The president dealt only briefly with jobs and the economy, and the Democratic National Committee was quick to point out that he made no reference to Iran, North Korea or Osama bin Laden. The speech continued the efforts of other convention speakers -- whose remarks were vetted or written by the Bush-Cheney campaign -- to conflate the war in Iraq, which is generally unpopular, with the war on terrorism..."

From Balz: "Nowhere did he confront directly what he has heard along the campaign trail in battleground states such as Ohio and Michigan, which is the loss of jobs during his presidency and uneven economic recovery that casts a shadow over his hopes for reelection. . . . "Bush also did not confront the enormous fiscal problem that has been created during his presidency, an explosion of the deficit brought about by recession, the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the massive tax cuts he pushed and promoted even as he dramatically boosted spending on defense and homeland security."

From Tom Shales in The Washington Post: "Bush, however, did not address his own recent flip-flop on whether the war on terrorism is winnable."

From Nagourney and Stevenson: "[T]here was one notable omission from Mr. Bush's speech. The president made no mention of the foreign figure who arguably most influenced his first term in the White House: Osama bin Laden, the yet-to-be-captured leader of Al Qaeda."

From Fournier: "He didn't mention Kerry's combat service in the Vietnam War or his rivals anti-war protests, issues that have dominate the political debate the past month. "

Todd S. Purdum... Bush "offered few critical details of the second-term domestic agenda he outlined. His big policy ideas -- restraining government spending, simplifying the tax code, offering tax credits for health savings accounts, allowing personal investment accounts for Social Security -- were vague. And the specific proposals he cited -- increasing money for community colleges, opening rural health centers -- were mostly small. . .

From AFP: "Bush's speech was as notable for what was not in it: He did not mention the failure to find the weapons of mass destruction he cited as the reason for the war in Iraq, which has eroded US credibility. . . .

"Bush offered no new details on when the roughly 130,000 US troops in Iraq or their comrades in Afghanistan might return home, saying only that their goal was to help both war-torn nations 'get on the path of stability and democracy as quickly as possible.' "Todd S. Purdum... Bush "offered few critical details of the second-term domestic agenda he outlined. His big policy ideas -- restraining government spending, simplifying the tax code, offering tax credits for health savings accounts, allowing personal investment accounts for Social Security -- were vague. And the specific proposals he cited -- increasing money for community colleges, opening rural health centers -- were mostly small. . . .

John Tierney and Sheryl Gay Stolberg write in the New York Times: "The Walter Mondale Where's-the-Beef Award [goes to]: George W. Bush, who told the conventioneers, 'Anyone who wants more details on my agenda can find them online.' Ever the wonks, we followed the directions to georgewbush.com, seeking the details of the crowd-pleasing promise in his speech to 'lead a bipartisan effort to reform and simplify the federal tax code.' Here's all we found: 'President Bush will work with Congress to make the tax code simpler for taxpayers, encourage saving and investment, and improve the economy's ability to create jobs and raise wages.' "...

Los Angeles Times: "His well-written speech would have been more convincing if he had not actually been president for the last four years."...

From Howard Kurtz on (washingtonpost.com) "There was, you might have noticed, no mention of the nearly half-trillion-dollar budget deficit."

Unfogged: ...guess what word—other than "a," "and," and "the"—occurs most fr frequently in the acceptance speech George W. Bush delivered tonight. The word is "will." It appears 76 times. This was a speech all about what Bush will do, and what will happen, if he becomes president.

Except he already is president. He already ran this campaign. He promised great things. They haven't happened. So, he's trying to go back in time. He wants you to see in him the potential you saw four years ago. He can't show you the things he promised, so he asks you to envision them. He asks you to be "optimistic." He asks you to have faith.

My favorite moment was when Bush touted the No Child Left Behind Act. No more social promotion, he promised. "We are transforming our schools by raising standards and focusing on results. We are insisting on accountability." Wasn't this speech, full of unfulfilled promises and appeals to good character, basically a plea for social promotion? Isn't that the message of the entire Bush campaign? Shouldn't the president have to show results, too?

Wordplay

Number of times the following words/phrases (or variants) were uttered in George W. Bush's acceptance speech Thursday night:

• Deficit: 0
  
• Unemployment: 0
  
• Balanced Budget: 0
  
• Surplus: 0
  
• Blue Skies Initiative: 0
  
• Intelligence Failures: 0
  
• Gay/Homosexual: 0
  
• Estate Tax: 0
  
• Corporate Fraud: 0
  
• Elderly: 0
  
• Prosperity: 0
  
• Investigation: 0
  
• Commission (any commission): 0
  
• Osama Bin-Laden: 0
  
• Weapons of Mass Destruction: 1*
  

* "We knew Saddam Hussein's record of aggression and support for terror. We knew his long history of pursuing, even using, weapons of mass destruction. And we know that Sept. 11 requires our country to think differently." [The 9-11 Commission reported 'no credible evidence' linking 9-11 and Saddam - Ed.]

And, for the record, here are a few other things he didn't mention:
• The prison abuse scandal or allegations of torture in IIraq.

• His proposed mission to Mars.

• The value, past or future, of having a Republican-contrrolled Congress.

• His "miscalculation" in Iraq.

• A headcount of the dead in Iraq.

To be fair, one should note that Bush was very resolute in his refusal to address any of these things. The only problem, really, with the president's big speech was that the policies he's actually pursuing bear little resemblance to the policies he was talking about, the candidate he's actually running against bears little resemblance to the candidate he was talking about, and the world he's actually living in bears little resemblance to the the world he was talking about.

GOP Prism Distorts Some Kerry Votes. A number of the specific claims made in attacks against Sen. John F. Kerry this week are at best selective and in many cases stripped of their context, according to a review of the documentation provided by the Bush campaign.
As a senator, Kerry has long been skeptical of big-ticket weapons systems, especially when measured against rising budget deficits, and to some extent he opened himself to this line of attack when he chose to largely skip over his Senate career during his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention last month. But the barrage by Republicans at their own convention has often misportrayed statements or votes that are years, if not decades, old.

For instance:

• Kerry did not cast a series of votes against individual weapons systems, as Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) suggested in a slashing convention speech in New York late Wednesday, but instead Kerry voted against a Pentagon spending package in 1990 as part of deliberations over restructuring and downsizing the military in the post-Cold War era.

• Both Vice President Cheney and Miller have said that Kerry would like to see U.S. troops deployed only at the direction of the United Nations, with Cheney noting that the remark had been made at the start of Kerry's political career. This refers to a statement made nearly 35 years ago, when Kerry gave an interview to the Harvard Crimson, 10 months after he had returned from the Vietnam War angry and disillusioned by his experiences there. (President Bush at the time was in the Air National Guard, about to earn his wings.)

• President Bush, Cheney and Miller faulted Kerry for voting against body armor for troops in Iraq. But much of the funding for body armor was added to the bill by House Democrats, not the administration, and Kerry's vote against the entire bill was rooted in a dispute with the administration over how to pay for $20 billion earmarked for reconstruction of Iraq.

Six years later, Kerry took part in a complex and serious debate in Congress over how to restructure the military after the Cold War.

Cheney, at the time defense secretary, had scolded Congress for keeping alive such programs as the F-14 and F-16 jet fighters that he wanted to eliminate. Miller said in his speech that Kerry had foolishly opposed both the weapons systems and would have left the military armed with "spitballs." During that same debate, President George H.W. Bush, the current president's father, proposed shutting down production of the B-2 bomber -- another weapons system cited by Miller -- and pledged to cut defense spending by 30 percent in eight years.

Though Miller recited a long list of weapons systems, Kerry did not vote against these specific weapons on the floor of the Senate during this period. Instead, he voted against an omnibus defense spending bill that would have funded all these programs; it is this vote that forms the crux of the GOP case that he "opposed" these programs.

On the Senate floor, Kerry cast his vote in terms of fiscal concerns, saying the defense bill did not "represent sound budgetary policy" in a time of "extreme budget austerity." Much like Bush's father, he singled out the B-2 bomber for specific attention, saying it is "one of the most costly, waste-ridden programs in a long history of waste, fraud and abuse scandals that have plagued Pentagon spending."

Every time I look on Fox News channel's website, I always see these funny anti-Kerry ads.

Now they have a new one .

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I keep checking CNN and MSNBC's websites and have never seen a campaign ad quite like this!

I report and you decide,

JA