A political third rail
Posted on:: September 9th, 2004
When candidates – or CEOs – lie about their service record, don’t they generally get forced to resign? Isn’t that the norm? Just wondering.
The following passage from Salon is merely coincidental:
In 1978, during an unsuccessful run for Congress in west Texas, Bush produced campaign literature that claimed he had served “in the US Air Force and the Texas Air National Guard.”
George W. Bush was never in the US Air Force.
Categories: Uncategorized dw
Interesting stuff – I actually talked about this on my radio show today… There are now rumors swirling that the memos were faked by 60 Minutes.
You may want to check out my radio network actually:
http://www.renegadetalkradio.com
We are an internet-only broadcast network with no FCC regulation. I’d love if you’d check it out and let me know what you think!
Can you please critique my thesis here? I’m trying to believe in something good.
Two Meditations for God’s Existence:
I. from subjectivity (experience–in the universal sense, inclusive of anything thought)–Cartesian cogito:
-To think at all, one must first know that one is (there is–Dasein) thinking (even if doubting (dubito), dreaming, or imagining, which is still thinking).
-To know this, something, howsoever provisionally indeterminate, must exist (Dasein–as the subject of thought).
-This being, then, is reality (in the sense of existence–or nothing would be as such, which is absurd–principle of non-contradiction and excluded middle).
-Reality must, thus, be true (or it would not be real).
-Truth requires perfection, by its very definition, from concealment and falsity which are deficiencies.
-Perfection is absolute (not contingent) and, thus, necessary.
-Being, as absolute and necessary, must, thereby, be eternal (or it would be contingent and transient).
-This, essentially, only God can be (for I am mortal, and, like nature, shall change and perish, yet I know of the ultimate greatness of eternity through my finite mind).
-God, then, must exist for anything at all to be as such.
-God, therefore, exists, but existence is not an attribute; thus, God’s essence is identical with his existence (principle of identity).
-I think, therefore God must be why (PSR).
II. from reality (essence)–the ontological proposal:
-Being opposes nothing, thus, being is necessary (principle of non-contradiction and excluded middle).
-A necessary being must be perfect, and a causa sui (principle of identity).
-This is God (PSR).
I’m cheered by the reminder, yet depressed – bemused, actually – by the demonstration of the lengths to which one can be driven in order to believe in something good.
Candidates don’t typically resign though they generally stop making the claim, as example Senator Tom Harkin claimed to have been a fighter pilot in Vietnam and shot down enemy planes. Goldwater’s staff caught the lie and exposed it in 84 and now he is generally listed in stories as a “Vietnam era pilot”.
Likewise Kerry’s backing off of being in Cambodia at Xmas of ’68.
In the long run I don’t think it much matters in your example or these two. Once the truth is exposed people forgive and move on.
Close Dave… They commit suicide like Admiral Boorda over what to most of us would look like administrivialities. Then while their families are still grieving and friends and collegues still stunned, Senators denounce them as liars…
“In a sense, there’s nothing that says more about your career than when you fought, where you fought and how you fought.” “If you wind up being less than what you’re pretending to be, there is a major confrontation with value and self-esteem and your sense of how others view you.” “Is (falsely displaying military awards) wrong? Yes, it is very wrong. Sufficient to question his leadership position? The answer is yes, which he clearly understood,” “The military is a rigorous culture that places a high premium on battlefield accomplishment,” … “When you are the chief of them all, it has to weigh even more heavily.”
David,
It appears Bush was on active duty for 120 days:
see http://www.drudgereport.com/bush.pdf
A technicality perhaps, but probably not an outright lie…