Just found some interesting videos on Kazzaa: BBC - Exposing the Bush Family.
Which I thought would probably be something flashy like Moore… but without much journalism. Was I surprised. This Greg Palast guy really digs up some interesting stuff I haven’t even seen in SMDB. (Searched SMDB archives and found no direct reference to this program only to Palast himself.)
I normally view the BBC as extremely serious. So that little BBC logo goes a long way towards indicating serious TV work. To those interested in seeing the videos… use Kazzaa or any other P2P. Its in 4 parts. Roughly 9 mega each.
So I’ll pick something that stood out for me… I’ve seen the Bush = Dumb debates rage a lot in SMDB. Then defenders present Bush SAT scores and the fact that he was a Airforce Pilot and that requires some brain matter no matter what. Palast mentions that Bush “scored, out of a possible 100, only 25” in an aptitude for pilot test. Something I’ve never seen thrown around here. Check it out:
Molly Ivins, in Shrub, writes: “Despite the waiting list of 100,000 men trying to get into the Vuard at that time, and a list of 150 pilot applicants who often had ot wait eighteen months to be considered for flight school in the Texas unit, he [GWB] got in…What actually happendd in 1968 is that a close family friend of the Bushes telephoned Ben Barnes, then the speaker of the Texas House…This friend told Barnes that Congessman Bush’s son needed a spot in the Texas Air National Guard. Barnes called the general in charge of the Texas Air National Guard, Brigadier General James Rose, and recommended George W. for a pilot position…Barnes, Kralj, and another Barnes aide, Robert Spellings, ran an underground railroad that quietly moved the sons of privilege from Selective Service offices into a safe haven in Texas Guard units. The unit that accepted Bush included the son of former Texas senator Lloyd Bentsen, the son of former Texas governor John Connally…”
Where’s the news-hook in this story? I thought it was stuff everybody (everybody on this board, at least) already knew. Cecil did a column on it: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030411.html
I searched for Palast and Greg… not specific Bush topics by Cecil… thanks. Still surprised the low grade didn’t get beaten around the “bush=stupid” threads.
If you do get a chance download the series… not that big and quite well done.
No, its been brought up before several times. Its pretty well agreed upon that GW got into the guard based on his fathers influence. My understanding was, despite his test scores (which were passing but far from steller), he was a pretty good pilot (when he could be bothered to break away from his other pursuits of course).
Being a spoiled rich kid who gets all the breaks doesn’t make him stupid though…it makes him a spoiled rich kid who got all the breaks. If the anti-Bush crowd used this tact instead of trying to paint him as stupid they’d get a lot more mileage out of it IMO.
I don’t think the BBC is bringing out anything new here. But I’ll try and download the series tonight if I have time RM.
I'd like some conservative americans to check it out. Not much new stuff but well presented I thought. I like Michael Moore but I have to accept critic's view of his being inflamatory and exagerated... so it was good to stumble onto something more balanced and BBC.
