Maybe Dick Cheney comes forward now as proof. He always likes a fast-$.

Group offers $50,000 for proof of Bush service
Tuesday, September 14, 2004 Posted: 3:33 PM EDT (1933 GMT)

(CNN) -- The founder of the group Texans for Truth said Tuesday that he is
offering $50,000 to anyone who can prove President Bush fulfilled his
service requirements, including required duties and drills, in the Alabama
Air National Guard in 1972.

The group made the announcement as Bush was in Las Vegas, Nevada, to
address the National Guard Association's convention.

"Today would be a fine day for him to finally answer all the questions that
have dogged him since he entered public life," the group's founder, Glenn
Smith, said in a statement.

"Bush's dishonesty about missing from service during Vietnam goes to the
heart of his presidency. He was dishonest then just as he is misleading us
about why we went to war with Iraq. He dodges responsibility then just as
he dodges responsibility for Iraq today."

White House communications director Dan Bartlett has said that the fact
Bush received an honorable discharge means he fulfilled his military
duties. Bartlett has dismissed questions about Bush's service as partisan
attacks.

Smith said the controversy about whether documents obtained by CBS News --
alleging the future president failed to obey an order to undergo a physical
exam and failed to complete his service in the Alabama Air National Guard --
 was irrelevant.

"Authentic or not, they don't really answer the question about where Mr.
Bush was when he was supposed to be doing his duty in the National Guard,"
he said.

On Monday, first lady Laura Bush said that she believed such documents were
probably forgeries.

"You know, they probably are altered, and they probably are forgeries, and
I think that's terrible, really," she said in an interview with Radio Iowa.

"That's actually one of the risks you take when you run for public office
or when you're in the public eye for any reason, and that's that obviously
a lot of things are said about you that aren't true and that's the
drawback -- that's the one thing that's not great about serving in public
office."

CBS News has said it stands by its story and will continue to report on it.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Tuesday that the president
has seen the documents and "he has no recollection" of any of them.

White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said the first lady's comments do not
mean the White House has done an investigation into the authenticity of the
documents but that news organizations' probes have raised questions about
whether the documents are real.

CBS reported that the memos were written in 1972 and 1973 by Col. Jerry
Killian, Bush's squadron commander. Killian died in 1984.

In the memos put forward by CBS News, the author complained he was being
pressured to "sugarcoat" the future president's performance evaluations and
that Bush failed to meet performance standards while a pilot in the Texas
Air National Guard, including getting a required physical exam.

Killian also purportedly wrote that he believed Bush -- at the time the son
of a Texas congressman -- was "talking to someone upstairs" to get
permission to transfer to the Alabama National Guard to work on a Senate
campaign.

But the authenticity of the documents has come under fire in media reports,
with some experts insisting they were not written on a typewriter in the
1970s but generated on a computer at a later date.

Forensic document experts who have examined the memos have told CNN that
they cannot conclusively determine whether the documents are authentic --
but some features do raise questions about whether the documents were
written in the early 1970s.

Killian's son, Gary, and former wife, Margorie Connell, have said they do
not believe he would have written the memos.

The CBS report came days after the Texans for Truth group began airing
television ads questioning whether Bush fulfilled his military obligations.
Its name is a takeoff on Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which has been
airing ads questioning the military record of Democratic nominee Sen. John
Kerry. That group's allegations are at odds with the official Navy records
and Kerry's former crew mates.
On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 08:13:31 -0700, Larry Barnes <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>Now I understand why Mr. Rather jumps the gun wanting to be first to
>report a story even if the facts may not be correct!  ;-)
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Denys Beauchemin [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 7:45 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: 60 Minutes Documents on Bush Believed Fake
>
>That was cute.  Now, try this one:
>
>
>Rather, the Sequel
>A parody. Or perhaps a premonition?
>
>By George Conway
>
>6 of 30 DOCUMENTS
>
>Copyright 2004 Amalgamated Press
>All Rights Reserved
>Amalgamated Press Online
>
>These materials may not be republished without the express written
>consent of The Amalgamated Press
>
>September 25, 2004 Saturday
>
>HEADLINE: CBS Stands By Claim of Bush National Guard Payoff
>
>DATELINE: WASHINGTON
>
>BODY:
>
>Faced with the second major controversy this month about its reporting
>on President Bush's National Guard service, CBS News on Friday defended
>its report that President Bush had used $3 bills to bribe Texas Air
>National Guard officials in 1973.
>
>The latest dispute erupted after the CBS News program "60 Minutes II"
>reported earlier this week that Bush had used several thousand $3 bills
>to buy the silence of National Guard officials who were questioning
>whether he had met his service obligations. The program featured color
>photocopies of some of the currency allegedly used to pay the bribes.
>
>Conservative critics on the Internet immediately cried foul, claiming
>that there was no such thing as a $3 bill, and some news organizations
>later quoted "experts" as expressing doubt that such a denomination ever
>existed.
>
>Claims were also made that the bills were "doctored" versions of recent
>$5 dollar bills. Some of the bills, while containing 3's in each corner,
>bear the text "FIVE DOLLARS." The bills contain portraits of former
>President William Jefferson Clinton that appear roughly one centimeter
>left of center on the face of the bills.
>
>The right-wing critics contend that the Treasury Department did not
>begin printing currency with left-of-center portraits until the
>mid-1990s. They also argue that Clinton's portrait would not have
>appeared on currency in 1973, 20 years before he became president.
>
>The critics also assert that the copies of the bills were produced by
>color imaging and printing methods that weren't available three decades
>ago.
>
>CBS has declined to say where the bills came from, but has said they
>came from "solid sources."
>
>On Friday's "CBS Evening News," anchor Dan Rather said that "no
>definitive evidence" had emerged to prove the currency was not
>authentic.
>
>"As with the earlier memos, if any definitive evidence comes up, we will
>report it," Rather said.
>
>The show broadcast an excerpt of an interview with Terry McAuliffe, a
>currency expert, who said that the $3 bills were genuine. In Friday
>night's report, McAuliffe said, "I've handled a lot of cash in my life,
>and I can't say that I've never seen a $3 bill. These bills look real to
>me. But if they aren't real, then I'm sure Karl Rove had something to do
>with them."
>
>The CBS report stated "with absolute certainty" that the disputed
>currency could have been produced by the government in the early 1970s.
>
>According to CBS, its sources in the United States Bureau of Engraving
>and Printing had confirmed that the government had the capability of
>producing $3 bills in 1973. Rather said that "Treasury officials
>acknowledge that the government was able to print a '3' just as easily
>as it could print a '1', '2', or a '5.'"
>
>Independent experts consulted by the Amalgamated Press appear to share
>this view. A leading practitioner of numerology said that "the number
>'3', like the other Arabic numerals, has been around a long time."
>According to the numerologist, who requested anonymity, the number '3'
>dates back to at least the 6th century AD, and perhaps earlier. "There's
>no question the United States government was aware of the number before
>1973 and easily could have put it on legal tender," she said.
>
>The CBS program also pointed out that several of the documents found in
>Bush's official National Guard files used the number '3'. The number
>appears, for example, in the date "1973," the year some of the documents
>were created.
>
>"These documents demonstrate conclusively that the number '3' was
>available for use by the government in the early 70s," said CBS's
>Rather, who reported both the Friday segment and the earlier "60 Minutes
>II" piece.
>
>Noting that Clinton was born in 1946, CBS's consulting experts also
>stated that it was entirely possible that the future president could
>have posed for a portrait before 1973.
>
>Nevertheless, the network's right-wing critics continued to deny the
>possibility that the $3 bills were real.
>
>One blogger's online post exclaimed: "It's RIDICULOUS that we're even
>DISCUSSING the possibility of a $3 bill. Haven't you ever heard of the
>phrase "queer as a $3 bill"? It only makes sense because there is NO
>SUCH THING as a $3 bill!!!"
>
>Responding to this claim, a CBS spokesman said, "The credibility of our
>news organization should not be called into question by the homophobic
>rants of people in pajamas."
>
>Reached by telephone late last night, the blogger declined to comment on
>whether was wearing pajamas.
>
>- George Conway is an attorney in New York City who is familiar with the
>default settings in Microsoft Word.
>
>
>Denys
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
>Behalf Of Larry Barnes
>Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 9:02 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: [HP3000-L] OT: 60 Minutes Documents on Bush Believed Fake
>
> Here's another link on the subject:
>
>http://www.fakeconstitution.50megs.com/
>
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