This issue is far from settled. Just because a bunch of left wing media types buy into it, does not mean it's science. A few short years ago, the same ones who are now crying global warming were predicting an ice age!

Dont'cha just love it?

It's okay for that factory farm to dump 25 metric tons of cow shit into your drinking water -- because Al Gore "made up" global warming!

It's perfectly alright for PG&E to dump as much cancer causing toxins as they want into your families drinking water -- because Al Gore is lying about global warming!

Point 1: exactly how does this international cabal of Freemasons, Illuminati and Communists work? Doesn't it seem just a little (who do I put this diplomatically?) silly to suggest that the climate change is really just a international "hoax" perpetrated by a super secret cabal of evil doers who (wait for it...) plan to destroy America by making our water, air and food less toxic? Can one of the die hard Al Gore haters explain exactly how those evil commies are going to "destroy" America simply by requiring poorly run and inefficient companies to adopt superior pollution controls? Just not clear on how that plan is going to work.

Point 2: Even if the cancer causing industrial pollution doesn't contribute to climate change then don't we still have the problem of, you know, it causes cancer?

It just boggles my mind how some people can be so violently opposed (opposed!) to reducing cancer causing industrial pollution in their air, water and food.

Al Gore wants to make upgrading pollution control for industrial sites mandatory instead of just (shrug) voluntary.

And the Republicans go nuts!

They start screaming that to require a coal plant or an industrial site to meet the highest pollution standard possible is...is...a million times worse than Hitler.

What really baffles me is how lowering standards so that even the most inefficient and poorly run business can still be in compliance improves the market. How does protecting stupidity make sense? Wouldn't it make more sense to raise standards?

What happens when you raise standards? The dumb CEO's (cough*Bush*cough) are forced out of the market because they can't adapt -- newer, stronger, more intelligently run businesses move in and take over -- and everyone wins. Just not clear on how lower standards and protecting weak, inefficient companies makes sense. You wouldn't graduate a high schooler that couldn't read, so why coddle a CEO that can't (or won't) upgrade to the highest pollution controls that are technologically possible?

All this technical debate about how the documnents were produced is TOTALLY BESIDE THE POINT! Whether the documents were valid or not, the following facts remain:

. The key witness asserts that the INFORMATION in them is TRUE, and there is additional corroborating evidence. The underlying story is true. Therefore, the man who got himself elected by cultivating an image of military toughness while his campaign denigrated the service of others, who led us into a disastrous war under premises that have been demonstrated to be false and who staged a carrier landing and posed in a flight suit in order to bolster false claims of success in that war is revealed to have used his family's pull to get into the National Guard in order to avoid going to Vietnam and then SHIRKED a good part of his obligation.

. CBS News failed in its obligation to report the truth and inform the public of the significant facts they needed to make an informed decision. They were more afraid of offending those in power and the effect that might have on their financial bottom line than they were of failing in their basic function.

Those are the things we need to keep the focus on! I fervently hope that Rather's suit will serve to bring the truth to light in such a way that all will finally be forced to acknowledge it.

-- debpet

I say forget any grand conspiracy theories -- this seems more like a case of Bush going AWOL and the commanders just kind of shrugging their shoulders and not doing anything about it because of who George's dad was.

At the time the thinking must have been, "Who cares?"

Once George got into politics years later THEN embarrassing records started getting lost, misplaced, shredded, etc. I'm sure some people did it just to protect their own ass because they allowed George to break the rules and they didn't want to get in trouble -- others may have "lost" records as a favor to George.

The bottom line is the guy DID go AWOL. You really don't need a "grand global conspiracy" to explain it. All that's required is that George had a powerful daddy and the commanders figured, eh, why bother going after George for not showing up? They either didn't care or they looked the other way as a favor. Bigger fish to fry and who cares. Years later, however, when people started trying to hide the fact that they didn't do their jobs...