My dad asked me about how I said a few days ago that Bush went AWOL from the Texas. Here's my best attempt to clear it up: Was Bush Really AWOL? The answer seems to come down to a "he said/she said" thing, the word of one side against the word of another.

Here's how it looks to me: Bush graduated from Yale in 1968 and started grad school in 1972. He spent most of that time in the Texas National Guard, but not all of it. One side says he vanished for a year and got away with it just because of who he is, the other side says that he fulfilled his duties to the letter, and rules were bent or attendance was irregular but only so that he could work for a political campaign at the same time.

Maybe "pathetic" was an exagerration - that depends on which side of the "he said/she said" is correct. But on the other hand, Bush is a very hawkish president who spent his time in Texas (or maybe another part of the South) during a foreign war. I'm prejudiced against him to begin with, and this does not improve my opinion.

This fact-checking mission of mine had a serendipitious benefit: http://factcheck.org. It seems useful. And non-partisan.