More on Bush cocaine story?

"There is nothing like a meme..." Especially when it's a meme with data. And right now, we have additional data to buttress the oft-heard report that Bush did community service in 1973 (while he still was in the Texas Air National Guard) because of a drug violation.

Check out this very important article by Meg Laughlin. An excerpt:

"I was working full time for an inner-city poverty program known as Project P.U.L.L.," Bush said in his 1999 autobiography, "A Charge to Keep." "My friend John White...asked me to come help him run the program. ... I was intrigued by John's offer. ...Now I had a chance to help people."

But White's administrative assistant and others associated with P.U.L.L., speaking on the record for the first time, say Bush was not helping to run the program and White had not asked Bush to come aboard. Instead, the associates said, White told them he agreed to take Bush on as a favor to Bush's father, who was honorary co-chairman of the program at the time, and Bush was unpaid. They say White told them Bush had gotten into some kind of trouble but White never gave them specifics.

"We didn't know what kind of trouble he'd been in, only that he'd done something that required him to put in the time," said Althia Turner, White's administrative assistant.

"John said he was doing a favor for George's father because an arrangement had to be made for the son to be there," said Willie Frazier, also a former player for the Houston Oilers and a P.U.L.L. summer volunteer in 1973.

Josh Marshall picks up this meme on his site. Marshall reminds us that questions of Bush's community service brought an exceptionally testy response from administration spokesman Scott McClellan.

The story of Bush's drug use, and the resultant community service, was first leaked to the late James Hatfield, author of "Fortunate Son." The source, Hatfield's publisher has claimed, was none other than Bush's master strategist, Karl Rove. Hatfield, of course, had a criminal past. When this sordid past became public knowledge, the book -- and the drug allegation -- were discredited.

Incidentally, during this time of volunteer service, Bush received National Guard pay for nonexistent drills.

One poster to Democrats.com noted this startling irregularity:

Here is a remarkable passage from Bill Minutaglio's First Son, George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty, Random House, NY, 1999 Pg. 151.

"David Anderson was another PULL employee, two years older than Bush, and he especially liked the fact that Bush had made arrangements to take some of the PULL kids such as Jimmy up for their first airplane ride.

"The day of the ride, Bush asked his sixteen-year-old brother, Marvin, to come along. One of the PULL kids started popping off, making noise, once they were up in the air. Bush stalled the engine for a second, and the passengers, scared to death, grew quiet."

At the time of this flight - 1973 - Bush had been GROUNDED by the Air Force for failing to take (or pass) his annual flight physical.

Did Bush even have a civilian pilot's license?

If Bush had been grounded, how could his civilian license be unaffected?

Did Bush commit a crime by flying an airplane without a current civilian license?

Apart from the law, did Bush endanger the lives of these children by taking them up in a plane when he was unfit to fly?

One follow-up question: Would the parents of this kids have appreciated seeing the youngsters "get high" with a guy doing community service for coke use?

Looks like September 11, 2001 was not the only time Bush endangered children!