Pasted below is a forward from my lib mother inlaw. She's fairly typical in that she takes the evening news as absolute truth, never wonders about sources, etc. Your basic uninformed sheeple.

She sent me this to "prove" that repubs are hypocrits I guess. I pointed out to her that it barely contains a source (from a Senator Howard M. Carrol, some sort of democratic ill. state senator/convention delegate) and isn't really statistical. From my initial analysis it appears to pick politicians selectively in order to make its "point."  

I was wondering if anyone here sees any obvious inaccuracies or can add anything more scientific/statistical regarding the military service rate of presidents (not so hard), congressmen and senators.

> Democrats:
>
> * Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71.
> * David Bonior: Staff Sgt., Air Force 1968-72.
> * Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72.
> * Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam Jan. 1971 as an army
> journalist in 20th Engineer Brigade.
> * Bob Kerrey: Lt. j.g. Navy 1966-69; Medalÿ of Honor, Vietnam.
> * Daniel Inouye: Army 1943-47; Medal of Honor, WWII.
> * John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat
V,
> Purple Hearts.
> * Charles Rangel: Staff Sgt., Army 1948-52; Bronze Star, Korea.
> * Max Cleland: Captain, Army 1965-68; Silver Star & Bronze Star,
Vietnam.
> * Ted Kennedy: Army, 1951-53.
> * Tom Harkin: Lt., Navy, 1962-67; Naval Reserve, 1968-74.
> * Jack Reed: Army Ranger, 1971-1979; Captain, Army Reserve 1979-91.
> * Fritz Hollings: Army officer in WWII; Bronze Star and seven campaign

> ribbons.
> * Leonard Boswell: Lt. Col., Army 1956-76; Vietnam, DFCs, Bronze
Stars,
> and Soldier's Medal.
> * Pete Peterson: Air Force Captain, POW. Purple Heart, Silver Star and

> Legion of Merit.
> * Mike Thompson: Staff sergeant, 173rd Airborne, Purple Heart.
> * Bill McBride: Candidate for Fla. Governor. Marine in Vietnam; Bronze

> Star with Combat V.
> * Gray Davis: Army Captain in Vietnam, Bronze Star.
> * Pete Stark: Air Force 1955-57
> * Chuck Robb: Vietnam
> * Howell Heflin: Silver Star
> * George McGovern: Silver Star & DFC during WWII.
> * Bill Clinton: Did not serve. Student deferments. Entered draft but
> received #311.
> * Jimmy Carter: Seven years in the Navy.
> * Walter Mondale: Army 1951-1953
> * John Glenn: WWII and Korea; six DFCs and Air Medal with 18 Clusters.
> * Tom Lantos: Served in Hungarian underground in WWII. Saved by Raoul
> Wallenberg.
>
> Republicans -- and these are the guys sending people to war:
>
> * Dick Cheney: did not serve. Several deferments, the last by
marriage.
> * Dennis Hastert: did not serve.
> * Tom Delay: did not serve.
> * Roy Blunt: did not serve.
> * Bill Frist: did not serve.
> * Mitch McConnell: did not serve.
> * Rick Santorum: did not serve.
> * Trent Lott: did not serve.
> * John Ashcroft: did not serve. Seven deferments to teach business.
> * Jeb Bush: did not serve.
> * Karl Rove: did not serve.
> * Saxby Chambliss: did not serve. "Bad knee." The man who attacked Max

> Cleland's patriotism.
> * Paul Wolfowitz: did not serve.
> * Vin Weber: did not serve.
> * Richard Perle: did not serve.
> * Douglas Feith: did not serve.
> * Eliot Abrams: did not serve.
> * Richard Shelby: did not serve.
> * Jon Kyl: did not serve.
> * Tim Hutchison: did not serve.
> * Christopher Cox: did not serve.
> * Newt Gingrich: did not serve.
> * Don Rumsfeld: served in Navy (1954-57) as flight instructor.
> * George W. Bush: failed to complete his six-year National Guard; got
> assigned to Alabama so he could campaign for family friend running for

> U.S. Senate; failed to show up for required medical exam, disappeared
from
> duty.
> * Ronald Reagan: due to poor eyesight, served in a non-combat role
making
> movies.
> * B-1 Bob Dornan: Consciously enlisted after fighting was over in
Korea.
> * Phil Gramm: did not serve.
> * John McCain: Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart
and
> Distinguished Flying Cross.
> * Dana Rohrabacher: did not serve.
> * John M. McHugh: did not serve.
> * JC Watts: did not serve.
> * Jack Kemp: did not serve. "Knee problem," although continued in NFL
for
> 8 years.
> * Dan Quayle: Journalism unit of the Indiana National Guard.
> * Rudy Giuliani: did not serve.
> * George Pataki: did not serve.
> * Spencer Abraham: did not serve.
> * John Engler: did not serve.
> * Lindsey Graham: National Guard lawyer.
> * Arnold Schwarzenegger: AWOL from Austrian army base.
>
> Pundits & Preachers:
>
> * Sean Hannity: did not serve.
> * Rush Limbaugh: did not serve (4-F with a 'pilonidal cyst.')
> * Bill O'Reilly: did not serve.
> * Michael Savage: did not serve.
> * George Will: did not serve.
> * Chris Matthews: did not serve.
> * Paul Gigot: did not serve.
> * Bill Bennett: did not serve.
> * Pat Buchanan: did not serve.
> * John Wayne: did not serve.
> * Bill Kristol: did not serve.
> * Kenneth Starr: did not serve.
> * Antonin Scalia: did not serve.
> * Clarence Thomas: did not serve.
> * Ralph Reed: did not serve.
> * Michael Medved: did not serve.
> * Charlie Daniels: did not serve.
> * Ted Nugent: did not serve. (He only shoots at things that don't
shoot
> back.)
>
> (Please keep this information circulating)
> Sen. Howard W. Carroll
> [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>

I found this:

Carroll, Howard W. Democrat. Member of Illinois state senate 8th District; elected 1992; delegate to Democratic National Convention from Illinois, 2000. Still living as of 2000.

Why is military service only important when  the lib canadate has some background. It didn't seen to mean shit for Bob Dole,  or Bush #41. Why is voteing for a coward who goes to Canada OK but a guy who joins the Guard not.

My mother in law (who did cook us dinner and babysit so can't be completely evil) would say, "see how the repubs always send us off to war but have never served themselves!."

Noteably, the list is quite selective. For example, when mentioning Supreme Court justices, it just skips Rehnquist, who served in the Army Air Force in WWII and paid for school on the GI Bill.

Mostly crap.  Someone should do the research on this  but I thought Cleland never got a Purple Heart since his wounds were self-inflicted.  If you do the research you will find that few of the Dems on her list saw combat and some of them actively avoided it.

In my state (Maryland) only one Congressman is a vet and he has two Purple Hearts from Vietnam.  He's a Republican.  All the Dems congressmen were in college or law school during Vietnam.  

I notice she left both George HW Bush and Bob Dole off the list.  Both were highly decorated WWII vets who lost to a draft-dodger who cut the military in half and refused to fight Al Queda even as they killed Americans at the WTC (1993), Khobar Towers (Saudi), two African embassies, and the USS Cole.

She also left Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon off the list.  Both were staff officers in the Navy in the Pacific in WWII for the duration.  Ford was on an aircraft carrier and Nixon mostly served ashore.  Compare their combat records to LBJ or Jimmy Carter (who hid out at the Naval Academy for all of WWII).

She also forgot about Hubert Humphrey, who although he was prime military age during WWII was never drafted because he was running some New Deal program in the midwest and later a very young Mayor of Minneapolis.  

Walter Mondale and Teddy Kennedy both served safely stateside during the Korean War.  Al Gore lied to get sent home early from Vietnam.  he said he was enrolling in Divinity school so he was sent home after a few months.  He never went to divinity school.  

GunLvr

Just to be clear, I didn't mean to imply that this is mom's list. She just sends and receives without question. The only source it had was the state senator.

Thanks for the replies. Intereseting stuff.

there was a thread on this a while ago

what about arnold?