Michael P. O'Connor

Well this weekend I went out to visit my friend Trish. This is the second time I have visited her. She was a bit distracted this weekend since her grandfather is going to go into surgery on Monday, but I still had fun visiting her. She is a great person and I really like her.

But Even so, there is no feeling like the feeling of coming home, to your home town. Today when I drove into town, it just look so beautiful to me. This city of Pittsburgh is my home. With all of the uniqueness and idiosyncrasies it has. It is my home. With the problems it has (aka the people that run it) it is still my home. And it is always such a joy to come home. It is good to be home.

I find this odd, I am not use to my internet being so slow, I am dialing into a modem pool to get some of my files off of the work computer, and it seams to be taking a long time. I have been on for 18 minutes, and this for me normally would take only 5 minutes, and it is still working here, I have only gotten 26.4Kbps. I probably should get use to the fact that I will not always have high speed internet access. Oh Well.

Today Trish and I went on a farm tour today, it cover a few of the farms that they have here just outside of Findlay, OH. It was a bit interesting to see some of the ways they keep the animals that we will soon eat. We stopped at an apple orchard, there I got a bag and picked a few apples from the trees (I love apples). Tomorrow is her churches picnic and we are thinking of going there tomorrow.

One thing I found out today, is boy do farms where they raise live stock stink. Pigs were the most pronounced of the stimulants to the nose.

And tonight I made some food for her. I made Kielbasa and pierogies. The one thing that got me was out here they don’t seam to know about pierogies. Trish had said she did not hear of them before, and when I was looking for them in walmart (I figured I would have the best bet of finding them there since it is a national store) they were hard to find. When I asked someone where they were, they had never heard of them. But I did finally find them. I made them the way I usually make them. That is I will boil them and cook the kielbasa in difference pan. When the pierogies are finished boiling, I will put some butter in the pan with the kielbasa and drop all the pierogies in the pan. then just mix it all together. I find it has always turned out good (even the times I burn them, I am glad I did not burn them tonight)

I would have to say drive in country roads is a different experience, when I look at these roads I see a road that I think would be a 35MPH road, but they are 55MPH, it is a different feeling to go so fast on such roads, first they are are only 2 lanes (one in each direction) and the are not complete flat like an interstate.

Bushs National Guard years
Before you fall for Dems spin, here are the facts

What do you really know about George W. Bushs time in
the Air National Guard?
That he didnt show up for duty in Alabama? That he
missed a physical? That his daddy got him in?

News coverage of the presidents years in the Guard
has tended to focus on one brief portion of that time
to the exclusion of virtually everything else. So
just for the record, here, in full, is what Bush did:

The future president joined the Guard in May 1968.
Almost immediately, he began an extended period of
training. Six weeks of basic training. Fifty-three
weeks of flight training. Twenty-one weeks of
fighter-interceptor training.

That was 80 weeks to begin with, and there were other
training periods thrown in as well. It was full-time
work. By the time it was over, Bush had served nearly
two years.

Not two years of weekends. Two years.

After training, Bush kept flying, racking up hundreds
of hours in F-102 jets. As he did, he accumulated
points toward his National Guard service requirements.
At the time, guardsmen were required to accumulate a
minimum of 50 points to meet their yearly obligation.

According to records released earlier this year, Bush
earned 253 points in his first year, May 1968 to May
1969 (since he joined in May 1968, his service
thereafter was measured on a May-to-May basis).

Bush earned 340 points in 1969-1970. He earned 137
points in 1970-1971. And he earned 112 points in
1971-1972. The numbers indicate that in his first four
years, Bush not only showed up, he showed up a lot.
Did you know that?

That brings the story to May 1972 the time that has
been the focus of so many news reports when Bush
deserted (according to anti-Bush filmmaker Michael
Moore) or went AWOL (according to Terry McAuliffe,
chairman of the Democratic National Committee).

Bush asked for permission to go to Alabama to work on
a Senate campaign. His superior officers said OK.
Requests like that werent unusual, says retired Col.
William Campenni, who flew with Bush in 1970 and 1971.

In 1972, there was an enormous glut of pilots,
Campenni says. The Vietnam War was winding down, and
the Air Force was putting pilots in desk jobs. In 72
or 73, if you were a pilot, active or Guard, and you
had an obligation and wanted to get out, no problem.
In fact, you were helping them solve their problem.

So Bush stopped flying. From May 1972 to May 1973, he
earned just 56 points not much, but enough to meet
his requirement.

Then, in 1973, as Bush made plans to leave the Guard
and go to Harvard Business School, he again started
showing up frequently.

In June and July of 1973, he accumulated 56 points,
enough to meet the minimum requirement for the
1973-1974 year.

Then, at his request, he was given permission to go.
Bush received an honorable discharge after serving
five years, four months and five days of his original
six-year commitment. By that time, however, he had
accumulated enough points in each year to cover six
years of service.

During his service, Bush received high marks as a
pilot.

A 1970 evaluation said Bush clearly stands out as a
top notch fighter interceptor pilot and was a
natural leader whom his contemporaries look to for
leadership.

A 1971 evaluation called Bush an exceptionally fine
young officer and pilot who continually flies
intercept missions with the unit to increase his
proficiency even further. And a 1972 evaluation
called Bush an exceptional fighter interceptor pilot
and officer.

Now, it is only natural that news reports questioning
Bushs service in The Boston Globe and The New York
Times, on CBS and in other outlets would come out
now. Democrats are spitting mad over attacks on John
Kerrys record by the group Swift Boat Veterans for
Truth.

And, as it is with Kerry, its reasonable to look at a
candidates entire record, including his military
service or lack of it. Voters are perfectly able to
decide whether its important or not in November.

The Kerry camp blames Bush for the Swift boat
veterans attack, but anyone who has spent much time
talking to the Swifties gets the sense that they are
doing it entirely for their own reasons.

And it should be noted in passing that Kerry has
personally questioned Bushs service, while Bush has
not personally questioned Kerrys.

In April before the Swift boat veterans had said a
word Kerry said Bush has yet to explain to America
whether or not, and tell the truth, about whether he
showed up for duty. Earlier, Kerry said, Just
because you get an honorable discharge does not, in
fact, answer that question.

Now, after the Swift boat episode, the spotlight has
returned to Bush.

Thats fine. We should know as much as we can.

And perhaps someday Kerry will release more of his
military records as well.

Byron York is a White House correspondent for National
Review. His column appears in The Hill each week.
E-mail: byork@thehill.com  

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UpDate Sep 4 2004, this post was posted on the 29 of August the gmail invites have expired, sorry, I will keep the name of the people that responded (all 1 of them) if I get them again, you who have responded will get it.

Update Nov 11 2004, as I said I am out of gmail invites look at the above update, please do not ask for them, I can not give anymore out since I don’t have any more.