Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 11, 2004)
WHERE THERE'S HURT THERE'S HOPE POST ABORTION PEER COUNSELING ♦ Peer Grief Counseling ♦ Help for Symptoms of Abortion Trauma ♦ 10-week Recovery Program ♦ Emotional & Spiritual Support ♦ Free & Confidential Jfope PtepHOHcy Gentetol Call and ask for the PACE (Post Abortion Counseling & Education) Director. 695-9193 205 Brentwood • College Station www.hopepregnancy.org How would you score? GMAT GRE MCAT DAT PC AT Take a FREE practice test at Kaplan's Test Drive and find out. Texas A&M Saturday, February 21 1:00 PM To register, call or visit us online today! KAPLAN 1 -800-KAP-TEST kaptest.com/testdrive Test Prep and Admissions ♦Test names are registered trademarks of their respective owners. 6B : NATIO! Wednesday, February 11, 2004 THE BATTALIO White House releases Bush’s military pay record White House offers proof of dut) The White House released President Bush's National Guard payroll records on Tuesday, citing it as proof that he fulfilled his duties in the Vietnam era. President Bush’s activities during Vietnam era Completes Pilot training Assigned Air Force at Moody fighter pilot qualification Air Force test Base in Georgia duty at Ellington Air Force Base in Texas Loses flight Honorablf credential discharge after missing physical Non-flying: exam drills at ; Ellington j 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 Joins Graduates Transfers to Alabama Gets reserve Texas from Yale unit for three months to status; attends National University work on a Senate campaign Harvard Guard ' Business School By Scott Lindlaw THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — The White House, trying to end doubts about President Bush’s Vietnam-era military service, released documents Tuesday that it said proved he had “met his requirements” in the Texas Air National Guard. “These documents outline the days on which he was paid. That means he served,” said Bush spokesman Scott McClellan. However, there were still gaps in the record. “The handful of documents released today by the White House creates more questions than answers,” said Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe. McAuliffe had helped reignite the story earlier this month when he charged Bush had gone “AWOL.” With Vietnam War veteran John Kerry emerging as the Democratic presidential front runner, Democrats have been trying to stoke longstanding questions about Bush’s service in the Guard during the war. Bush joined in 1968, and spent most of his service time based near Houston. But in May 1972 he requested and received a temporary assignment with the Alabama National Guard so he could serve as political director on the Senate campaign of Winton “Red” Blount, a family friend. Bush says he recalls showing up for drills in Alabama, but his supporters have struggled to prove it. Bush was not paid for any service during a five-month period in 1972, from May through September, according to the records released with Bush’s approval Tuesday. He was paid for two days in October, four days in November and none in December 1972. He was not paid for February or March 1973. The records do not indi cate what duty Bush per formed or where he was. Nevertheless, spokesman McClellan repeatedly held up the 13-page packet his office had released, and he declared in his televised briefing, “I think these documents show that he fulfilled his duties.” At the same time. White House officials were careful to stop short of claiming that the records proved definitively that Bush had shown up for all the Guard duties he was expected to. Indeed, the payroll docu ments and annual service “point summaries” could throw new fuel onto a story the White House wants to quench this election year. McClellan expressed a note of frustration at the persistent SOURCE: Associated Press questions on the matter. “It just kind of amazes me that some will now say they want more information after the payroll records and the point summaries have all been released.” “Now people are trying to move the goal post even more,” he said, adding that White House officials smelled politics. “It’s just really a shame that people are continu ing to bring this up.” Kerry stayed silent on the subject Tuesday. “1 just don’t have any com ment on it,” he told reporters between campaign stops in Tennessee and Virginia. “It’s not an issue that I chose to cre- « ate. It’s not my record that's a issue and I don’t have anyques tions about it.” But Kerry has not answeid Republicans’ urging that he con demn criticism like ilit McAuliffe “AWOL”remarks.Os the stump, he opens his appear ances by saluting his audiences — a remirlder of his militan service and two Purple Hearts. While Kerry surrounds him self with fellow veterans on the campaign trail, the White House has not been able to produce fel low guardsmen who could testi fy that Bush attended meetings and drills. “Obviously we would have made people avail able if they had been found." McClellan said. Ethicists say guidelines needed for troubling living donor cases By Lindsey Tanner THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CHICAGO — Medical ethicists are warning that guidelines are needed to cover instances in which family members want to take organs for transplant from living but comatose relatives who never gave consent. “The specter of keeping patients alive to har vest their organs over time seems horrific,” two ethicists from the National Institutes of Health said in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association. The article accompanies a report from doctors in Los Angeles about a young firefighter who recently suffered sudden, severe bleeding in his brain and lapsed into a coma from which he was not expected to recover. His family won permission to donate a kidney before doctors pulled the plug, even though he had never signed an organ donor card or expressed his wishes about organ donation. The kidney was given to an ailing cousin. NIH ethicists David Wendler and Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel said that allowing family members to decide whether to take organs from a living but incapacitated relative should be discouraged and should be permitted only for patients who are in a persistent vegetative state. And they said that immediate family members should not get the organs. The practice risks undermining public trust in the organ donation process, Wendler said. “If people start thinking they can take your organs if you’re not feeling very good and your spouse thinks it’s OK, that’s going to cause more problems than it solves,” he said. Because of the JAMA reports, the issue will be on the agenda for a March meeting of ethicists from the United Network for Organ Sharing, which runs the nation’s organ donation system. NEWS IN BRIEF Islamic law proposal could result in changes in Iraqi lives BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq’s current top official lias demanded that Islam be the principal basis for Iraq’s laws,a move that breaches a previous agreement among the framers of the interim constitution ani creates the possibility ttial Islamic law could rule the land If approved, the proposal could have broad effects on secular Iraq, taking amyrights of women in divorce andinfier- itance cases, shuttering lirp stores and banning gambling, legal advisers here say Elements also run counter lo President Bush’s goal of turn ing Iraq into a beacon lor democracy in the Middle East. Save $5 from FTD.COM this Valentine's Day! Romance Candle Kit #2571 Fresh Cuts! Red and White Tulips #F079 Save $5 i Don't forget - Valentine's Day is Saturday, February 14th! Shop online at www.ftd.com/battalion or 1 Call 1-800-SEND-FTD and give promo code 9188 Limit one coupon per purchase. Coupons cannot be combined. No cash value and not valid with any other offer.