Let's get Len to give us a brief bio, emphasizing his progressive/liberal credentials. And let's make sure we especially emphasize his credentials as a patriotic American, i.e., he served in the military, not skulking and hiding somewhere, while advocating someone else go fight and possibly be maimed or killed in Iraq, like all the cowardly Republicans do.
You've been at this here thing for about 2-2 1/2 years now, IIRC, so we know you have some "street cred" in our community. I'm sure you can generate some additional mention outside our small veterans' community.
Included with the bio should be a short introductory exposition of the principles he wants to fight for, now that he's finished fighting for Mr Bush's lies.
Because exposure to intelligent insight towards the truth in (of) the matter stings "certain" people?
posted by: mantega on 03.01.06 at 10:42 AM [permalink]
he served in the military, not skulking and hiding somewhere, while advocating someone else go fight and possibly be maimed or killed in Iraq, like all the cowardly Republicans do.
Hmm. Donald Rumsfeld was a Naval Aviator just like Jo. Bush flew F-102 fighters, a notoriously squirelly airplane. Unless you think National Guard service is somehow inferior to other service.
And let's edit that sentence just a bit: "he said he loathed the military and advocating someone else go fight and possibly be maimed or killed in Haiti and Kosovo, like Bill Clinton did."
posted by: bean on 03.01.06 at 11:57 AM [permalink]
Who is he and what does he do? Let me know and I'll direct folks wherever you want from the Brain.
Is Leonard still in the sandbox? Or has he finally returned to Arizona? I haven't heard anything about him since his blog got taken down last July. He was due to rotate in March I think.
posted by: Lowell on 03.01.06 at 03:25 PM [permalink]
bean..,,
Rumsfeld flew F4U Corsairs, a WWII era fighter in the US Navy during the mid 50s. He was rated as a flight instructor, IIRC, rated to train other pilots on whatever the heck the Navy calls the school you go to before graduating to the Big Leagues, in jets.
I am less than impresseed. (What's that saying about teaching, and doing?)
Mr Bush, on the other hand, flew the F-102, which I am reliably advised is a pig of a plane. His piloting skills were so inadequate that, during his third year of duty he was down-checked, to fly only in the two seater version, with a supervising pilot.
And he went AWOL when faced with a piss test.
When you work up a good argument about a Republican who actually put his nuts on the line for his country, get back to me, OK?
bean, I'll admit that Rumsfeld was a naval aviator. Your list was mighty short. Would you care for someone to list the no shows? And as for Bush's service in the National Guard? As you probably are totally unaware of, during the Vietnam Conflict/War there was something called the DRAFT. And during that DRAFT there were ways of getting out of going to the COUNTRY of Vietnam. Leaving the country was one. Deferments were another favored choice for many, especially the well-to-do (Cheney, Delay, Ashcroft and on ad nausea…). One of the best ways to avoid service in the COUNTRY of Vietnam was get a slot in the Guard (Bush, Quale) which, while not a perfect way to avoid Vietnam, was still very, very, very good. Now let me explain why obtaining a position in the Guard during the Vietnam conflict is NOT equivalent to service in today's Guard. True, the Guard fought hard in WW II and other conflicts, but by the time of Vietnam the regular forces, augmented by draftees, were doing more than the lion’s share of the fighting (especially in combat arms, which is armor, infantry and artillery). Guys coming home from Vietnam used to rag on these weekend warriors. Many of the Vietnam vets I personally know/knew (and there are many) considered the younger Guardsmen on par with draft dodgers. The Guard did not become a popular choice again for actually serving in conflicts until around 1990 and Operation Desert Storm when, possibly just by coincidence, a former Vietnam era Guardsman by the name of Dan Quale was sitting in the Vice President's office and needed to legitimize the role of the Guard. Now, why does your ilk praise Bush's role in the Guard while attacking those who actually made it into a war zone? Please understand me well: Because of the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth attacks on the war records of Vietnam vets running as Democrats while ignoring the Vietnam era records for many Republicans, please forgive me if a Vietnam vet runs under the Republican Party banner in the future that I personally become cynical and won't consider their service but only what current policies they advocate.
Getting back to Leonard Clark (ignore the beans of the world going off-topic so they can stand on their half-assed soapbox), there are a lot of components to a run at office, and a run at Senate against an incumbent like Kyl takes more than willpower. First, he needs a campaign manager to take charge of things NOW, or better yet, three months ago at least. That guy or gal has to contact state organizations in Arizona and see what she can do to get endorsements. Veterans groups would be a great start, but any endorsement is a good start. Labor endorsements will already be sewed up by the mainstream Dem candidate. He needs to work out policy positions on ALL the issues, because they all come up, even if Iraq is the biggest one. He needs to be fully vetted. He needs to line up money pronto. He needs to get a street organization gathering signatures because if he isn't going to just start his own party, a doomed effort, then he needs enough signatures to get on the primary ballot. What is the Arizona filing deadline? All the primary filing deadlines are coming up very soon. He needs to get enough signatures and he needs to make sure he has twice as many as the law requires because when those signatures are challenged, a bunch of them are going to be disallowed.
And that's just what he needs to have started doing before today.
posted by: DBK on 03.02.06 at 04:55 PM [permalink]
Leonard Clark needs some real advice about what it means to run for national office against a repu: he will be swiftboated, have his family slandered and will constantly deal with fake reporters asking him questions that have no basis in fact (e.g. 'are you still taking drugs' or something like that), and know that dems won't back him necessarily (hello and good-bye, Paul Hackett). Based on his letter I know he has a lot of important things to say, so if nothing else, he should work on getting the life-and-death info about the Iraq disaster to as many people in Arizona as possible. Leonard, if you are reading, get to know the people in your state, find out what worries them really (not just what the 1600 Crew tells them they should worry about) and figure out what you can do as their rep to keep them informed and participating in this democracy of ours.
I've mentioned Leonard CLark before and will gladly do it again if it means some more publicity for him and a chance to make a difference. Granted my site doesn't get much traffic, but Main and Central does and I'll be glad to cross-post. From a bloggin perspective, we need a blogswarm and quick.
On another front, Leonard needs to get an ActBlue page up to start taking donations 'cuz he's gonna need 'em.
If Leonard is serious about this, he needs to contact the Fighting Dems here:
http://www.fighting-dems.com/
They can probably help him. I noticed some fussing over various people's service records. Here's a good source for the curious:
http://www.awolbush.com/whoserved.html
and it has links to other similar sources.
posted by: the cyber ruffian on 03.04.06 at 04:15 PM [permalink]
