Democratic Veteran :: October 2004 Archives

That sound...it's the Founding Fathers, whirling in their graves

...On the other hand, it will be equally forgotten that the vigor of government is essential to the security of liberty; that, in the contemplation of a sound and well-informed judgment, their interest can never be separated; and that a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidden appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government. History will teach us that the former has been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the latter, and that of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants.

I'm sure everyone remembers this:

"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier," Bush said, pausing and then joking, "just so long as I'm the dictator."

Recently in Florida:

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla.—"I want you to stand, raise your right hands," and recite "the Bush Pledge," said Florida state Sen. Ken Pruitt. The assembled mass of about 2,000 in this Treasure Coast town about an hour north of West Palm Beach dutifully rose, arms aloft, and repeated after Pruitt: "I care about freedom and liberty. I care about my family. I care about my country. Because I care, I promise to work hard to re-elect, re-elect George W. Bush as president of the United States."

What would Alexander Hamilton say? I'm not sure, but I'll bet that gets two thumbs up from Hitler, Himmler and Goebbels. Steve Gilliard even has the words to the Horst Wessel Lied on his site...and it's republican creepy.

Is it any wonder that so many republicans have endorsed Kerry, and the most notable Democrat to plant both lips in Close Codpiece Proximity is the Senator Palpatine look-alike, Zonked-out Zell?

Osama bin Remembered

I'm with some of the other folks who are taking a 'wait and see' attitude towards the ObL video tape. The al-Qa Qaa explosives thing is still likely to get some more press, and it seems that the 1600 Crew is damned if they do and damned if they don't spin either event. Pointing out Osama's presence is a net negative for Fearless Leader, Kerry pretty much tagged him as a failure for letting the name Tora Bora become a synonymous with "fuck up". The media is exhibiting an unusual amount of fascination with its story of the differences between RDX and HMX and why in the hell it's been allowed to go missing...if it were not for the embeds from KSTP this story would have had no legs. But the Mea Culpa Media, they all want to prove (however vicariously) that they too can be KSTP-Too - ie con cojones in the face of Larry Di Rita - all he needs is to start dressing in clownsuit drag like Torie Clark and the circle will be complete.

I'm betting that the al-Qa Qaa story gets more play thru election day than the ObL video tape (unless something ObL-connected happens)...both events show that Fearless Leader is massive fuck-up, but the legs on the explosives story continue to gain traction here and overseas. The Hairy Thunderer forbid that any information come out from a international source sans the blessing of Wolfie, Peter, Dan and Tommy and the crew at Faux. Why, they'd look like they weren't doing their jobs. Or something.

Whoever thought that My Pet Goat would have such international significance. I wonder if that's the book Commander Codpiece read on AF1 while running away on 9-11 to comfort himself. Magic 8-Ball says...probably

CheneyBurton going down?

Will Crashcart's old company be headed for the same ignominy he is on November 3rd? Let's all hope so...seems that the FBI, has managed to reclaim some of the meaning of Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity that they are so famous for...and that's gotta be chapping Asscroft's ass.

The FBI has expanded an investigation into allegations of contract irregularities by Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root Inc. in Iraq and Kuwait.

The FBI requested an interview with a Pentagon official who complained recently that the Army gave KBR preferential treatment when granting it a $7 billion classified contract to restore Iraq's oil fields just before the war began in March 2003, her lawyers said yesterday.

The request comes at a sensitive time because Vice President Cheney once was Halliburton's chief executive and Democrats have accused the Bush administration of favoring the giant oil-services company.

Aw, and if Lynne's Dick gets dragged into it, well that just couldn't happen to a nicer guy, right?

If Fearless Leader has to call the movers, any bets on the number of pardons per second granted on the 19th of January? Bet money he makes Bill Clinton look like a piker...let's see...hmmm....Dick, Tom, Donnie, Paul, Dougie, Poindexter (just for old times sake)...Condi, John A, John S...what a list....

The New American Nazis Struck: Nacht und Nebel in America

The simpering sycophantic neo-Nazi Fascists struck my neighborhood last night, removing all the Kerry signs. How sad. Three houses with "Veterans for Kerry" had their signs removed too, including yours truly.

Yup,
Those republi-Nazis respect Veterans...and monkeys with special mind-altering powers are flying out of Karl Roves ass making them do this right? gee...ass-monkeys, why how appropriate.

Well, I guess they'll all be at a Leni Reifenstahl film festival tonight, learning how to goose-step off to war. Oh, and all the local republican junior gentry with draft-age or soon to be draft-age kids are sporting their Preznit Big Loser signs...I wonder if I can get a seat on the local draft board so I can wish them a fond farewell...yeah, no draft just like imminent WMD's and the balsa-wood gliders of death, right?

I wonder what time the torchlight parade with blood banners begins here in town? Or conversely, will a "terrorist" burn the Reichstag between now and Tuesday? Of course, it'll be a "liberal Democrat", and we'll all get our very own Fearless Leader-inspired kristallnacht...gosh, how lucky we are to see history repeating itself.

Damn. I want my country back.

John Kerry. For all the correct reasons...life, liberty and the American Dream.

Sky...Falling...Condition Bert! or is it Elmo??

In their ever-increasing fervor to make us all believe that Preznit Wasted Daze will keep us safer from roaming puppies while hugging teenage girls, the Department of Chicken Little issued a Terra™ alert a few months ago...

In early July, the Homeland security secretary, Tom Ridge, declared that credible intelligence showed Al Qaeda intended to launch a "large-scale attack" inside the United States to "disrupt our democratic process." More than three months later, counterterrorism officials in the United States and overseas say they are still concerned, but have uncovered little specific evidence of a plot timed to the election.
...
There are now doubts among intelligence officials that a group of eight men arrested in Britain last August planned to strike in the United States around the presidential election, as suspected at first.

And an informant on Al Qaeda, who told authorities last spring that there might be an election-season attack in the United States, has recently been discredited, the officials said.

Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! Bah.

Danger: Reading this may cause projectile vomiting

Raping our Civil Liberties: a Primer. By low-life republicans in a low-life administration. The cast of characters here lacks only direct involvment by Rehnquist, Scalia and Sleepy Clarence to make it real right-wing anti-civil liberties humpfest.

That challenge resounded among young lawyers who were settling into important posts at the White House, the Justice Department and other agencies. Many of them were members of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal fraternity. Some had clerked for Supreme Court justices, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia in particular. A striking number had clerked for a prominent Reagan appointee, Lawrence H. Silberman of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

One young lawyer recalled looking around the room during a meeting with Attorney General John Ashcroft. "Of 10 people, 7 of us were former Silberman clerks," he said.
...
Mr. Flanigan was at the center of the administration's legal counteroffensive. A personable, soft-spoken father of 14 children, his easy manner sometimes belied the force of his beliefs. He had arrived at the White House after distinguishing himself as an agile legal thinker and a Republican stalwart: During the Clinton scandals, he defended the independent counsel, Kenneth W. Starr, saying he had conducted his investigation "in a moderate and appropriate fashion." In 2000, he played an important role on the Bush campaign's legal team in the Florida recount.

Please don't say I didn't warn you.

When is the Infantry not the Infantry

One of the most sensitive (and in some cases rightly so) areas of the military concerns awards and "qualification" badges. The awards generally held in highest esteem are those granted for actually facing down the enemy...so it seems that in the Mess in Mesopotamia there is yet another interesting dimension to the war, one that doesn't mean much to civilians, nor would it be worthy of much note, had it not happened now, given the candy-and-rose petal nature of the occupation.

It seems that the Army, which has an award called the Combat Infanty Badge (or “CIB”) has been reluctant to make the award to soldiers, regardless of rank who are not actually in an Infantry MOS even if they are deployed and fighting as Infantry.

Capt. Steve Gventer is still picking shrapnel out of his right shoulder. It became lodged there last month when a rocket-propelled grenade sailed over his head and exploded against a wall, splattering him with hot metal.

That attack came two weeks after an insurgent in Sadr City, the Baghdad slum, shot Gventer through his left calf with a machine gun.

Gventer's street fighting would appear to qualify him for one of the U.S. Army's most prestigious awards, the Combat Infantryman Badge. The award recognizes soldiers whose daily mission is to pursue the enemy, primarily on foot, and engage in close combat.

But Gventer won't get the award -- at least not under current rules. Normally a tank company commander, Gventer was retrained as an infantry officer before he was deployed. ....
...
But part of the fallout is an intense internal debate over who qualifies for the Combat Infantryman Badge, or CIB, and, more broadly, what constitutes an infantryman in a rapidly changing Army.

The award is "a divisive tool now," said Capt. Chuck Slagle, an infantry company commander who favors expanding the award's recipients to include non-infantry units. He and Gventer "do exactly the same thing," he said. "But because of this, we're separated."

Where this matters for soldiers who are a part of the career cadre is that once this is all over, the post-war Army will be influenced by those men (and women?) who are awarded a CIB, they most likely will be promoted over a non-CIB officer/enlisted who performed the same duties as someone awarded a CIB, like Capt's Slagle and Gvinter.

While I agree with the point about "diluting" the value an award, deserving soldiers should receive them now, and the staff weenies can argue about it later; it's a morale-buster in the long run and certainly not something worth costing unit cohesion or "good order and discipline".

As an aside, I found this comment sort of interestng:

From World War II through Vietnam, four out of five combat deaths were sustained by infantrymen, according to retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert H. Scales Jr., a historian. "Not soldiers and Marines, but infantrymen,"

I don't know about the numbers, and Gen Scales may be right, but he misses a point of honor among all the Marines I have had the honor of serving with: Every Marine is Rifleman. End of Story...Semper Fi.

If memory serves....

I remember getting lots of lectures in some of the schools they sent all us baby Naval Aviators to ... and in many of those classes, we chatted with guys who were ex-POW's from Vietnam. I remember being mightily impressed (then and now) by a guy named Douglas Hegdahl, perhaps the youngest American POW held in North Vietnam. I remember that all these guys seemed ten feet tall, because of the ordeals that they had been through. They talked of the things that happened to them, they talked about Jane Fonda and efforts to propagandize their captive status. They talked about the torture, deprivation, food that you wouldn't think about eating, keeping the faith with themselves and their shipmates, and their God. They talked about a lot of things.

I don't remember any single one of them mentioning John Kerry.

Ever.

And there are a couple of them in that slimefest mock-u-mentary.

How the mighty have fallen. And for a deserting, lying, cowardly fratboy no less.

And no, as far as I know, Hegdahl is not associated with the movie.

Preznit Flaccid Member

All the republicans have been trumpeting the forthrightness and resolve of their "wartime preznit". Truly, he's nothing but a little dick, no apologies to Cheney either. He's gone from cowboy macho “Osama”:Dead or Alive" to Osama bin Forgotten. Now, ripped from the front pages of the Post is a Kerry campaign commercial waiting to happen:

In the second half of March 2002, as the Bush administration mapped its next steps against al Qaeda, Deputy CIA Director John E. McLaughlin brought an unexpected message to the White House Situation Room. According to two people with firsthand knowledge, he told senior members of the president's national security team that the CIA was scaling back operations in Afghanistan.

That announcement marked a year-long drawdown of specialized military and intelligence resources from the geographic center of combat with Osama bin Laden. As jihadist enemies reorganized, slipping back and forth from Pakistan and Iran, the CIA closed forward bases in the cities of Herat, Mazar-e Sharif and Kandahar. The agency put off an $80 million plan to train and equip a friendly intelligence service for the new U.S.-installed Afghan government. Replacements did not keep pace with departures as case officers finished six-week tours. And Task Force 5 -- a covert commando team that led the hunt for bin Laden and his lieutenants in the border region -- lost more than two-thirds of its fighting strength.

The commandos, their high-tech surveillance equipment and other assets would instead surge toward Iraq through 2002 and early 2003...
...
But at least a dozen current and former officials who have held key positions in conducting the war now say they see diminishing returns in Bush's decapitation strategy. Current and former leaders of that effort, three of whom departed in frustration from the top White House terrorism post, said the manhunt is important but cannot defeat the threat of jihadist terrorism. Classified government tallies, moreover, suggest that Bush and Vice President Cheney have inflated the manhunt's success in their reelection bid.

Do or say anything to get elected? Why, shiver me timbers, that sure sounds like the 1600 Crew strategery to me.

Perhaps it wasn't a brain-fart on the part of Preznit Heavenly Speed-dial, that he made the Osama Gaffe in the debate. He was so obessed with wreaking vengence on behalf of daddy to get mommy's approval, that he started a war with not just an imaginary enemy, but one who had been a reliable republican bidness partner for decades. Oil? No, it was never about oil for Preznit Pubescent Pinhead, it was about revenge and mommy's approval. On November 3rd, perhaps we'll start to get our country back, and out of the hands of the worlds oldest pre-adolescent brain-damaged teenager.

She doth protest too much

Ever churlish, the Princess of Pout trots out her best “not-us” whine about the objections of some democrats to a showing of the pile of trash slimevets4Adeserter movie. Der Duchess:

THUGGERY ON THE LEFT: Protesting the broadcasting of "Stolen Honor" on the public airwaves is one thing. Using threats to shut down a public screening of it is another. The Kerry people are being thuggish and illiberal in this. They should stop it.

Just another case of selective memory for one so addled on T-Gel and cannabis that brain functions is slowly ceasing...or at least long-term memory. How about this?

What the world watched was a GOP melee. When Geller walked out of the room with a sample ballot, the crowd accused him of stealing a real one and responded as if he had just nabbed a baby for its organs. Geller says he was pushed by two dozen protesters screaming, "I'm gonna take you down!" Luis Rosero, a Democratic observer, claims he was punched and kicked. Republicans dispute the charges, but video cameras caught scenes of activism that had morphed into menace. The organizers in the RV outside, who GOP protesters have told TIME were led by hardball Washington strategist Roger Stone, had phone banks churning out calls to Miami Republicans, urging them to storm downtown. (Stone could not be reached for comment.) One of them was a fire fighter, Rob Eltus, 45: "What Americans are finally seeing is Republicans fed up."

Remember that you piglet? Thuggery indeed. They want to stop a movie...your fantasy paramour Stone stole an election.

Illiberal indeed.

"Unfit to Serve"

Note:I just received the following from Paul Lukasiak, at the aWol Project and think that in the interest of fairness to the lying, deserting cowardly fratboy it should be passed on, since this is a reality-based blog:

THE PRECISE DEFINITION OF PTI 961 HAS BEEN DETERMINED.

Its literal meaning is “Loss to USAFR – Discharged due to change in residence.”

The error was made because “change of residence” is not among the criteria
listed for discharges in ANGR 36-05, the “authority” cited by the Texas Air
National Guard on Bush’s discharge form.

That is all, you may now resume your regularly scheduled mopery and dopery.

Diggin' the Digby...he published a bit from Paul Lukasiak that nails Preznit Deperately Deserting...big time. Long time readers may recall that I cast around for quite awhile looking for a DD-214 associated with Capitan Crotchfruit's service. As it turns out, there is a document the National Guard uses (or used) called an NGB-22, which has their version of the infamous Separation Program Number (SPN) on it. Let the Wingnuts Whine all they want about the characterization of Preznit Razed Twins and his "honorable discharge", here's the bottom line:

New information with regard to the meaning of a special code which appears on George W. Bush’s Air National Guard discharge papers indicates that he was being thrown out of the Air National Guard for failing “to possess the required military qualifications for his grade or specialty, or does not meet the mental, moral, professional or physical standards of the Air Force.” In other words, despite the fact that Bush had an unfulfilled six year Military Service Obligation, he was discharged from the Air National Guard not because he moved to Boston, but because he failed to meet his obligation to maintain his qualifications as an F102 pilot.
...
The rest of the “rule” (“does not meet the mental, moral, professional, or physical standards of the Air Force) makes it clear that the purpose of Rule 8 is to get rid of people who are “unfit to serve.” This rules is about those who don’t measure up to Air Force standards.

It should be noted, however, that Bush’s discharge orders do not contain the language specified in Table 12-1 for all “standby screening” discharges. All such discharges were supposed to include “discharge from ANG and transfer to USAFR, ARPC(ORS), Standby Screening, by authority of Rule [XX], Table 12-1, AFM 35-3.” But insofar as no reason whatsoever appears in the discharge papers, and a PTI number is actually not considered part of the “authority” for a discharge per se, it is not unreasonable to conclude that the inclusion of “PTI 961” was a means by which the Air National Guard could communicate the fact that Bush was considered “unfit to serve” without making it obvious on the paperwork involved in the discharge.

That boys and girls be the proverbial smoking whatzis..."unfit to serve" in military bureaucratese. So, now how to answer the question, if you're unfit to serve, how can you possibly be Fit to Command?

Lukasiak's tenacious work in this matter should net him something on the order of Journalistic Nobel Prize.

Reading the narrative in the Lukasiak page, I get the feeling that the TANG and the Air Force would rather have been able to say: "a mental and moral defective not possibly ever able to be a professional Air Force Officer, due to his conduct". Yeah.

Send this to ten people with a request for them to send it to ten people...and so on and so on. This is HUUUUGE!!!

UPDATE: Apparently I read what I wanted to read into this piece from Paul Lukasiaks website. Not trying to be intellectually dishonest I got a bit overeager with my interpretation of the fine analysis provided by Mr. Lukasiak, and came out sounding more like a raving loony-toon than normal. So, in the best bos'un speak, cue the 1MC and pass the word: “DISREGARD MY LAST”. Sorry 'bout that, but I still think Preznit Twin Leashes is unfit to command a rowboat.

UPDATE UPDATE I misunderstood Lukasiak's comments, they were apparently directed at another commenter, not yers truly. Whew. Disregard all...BTW...rowboat/ship of state he's still UNFIT.

Calling Dr. Hackenbush!

And he might be the first guy drafted. Implementation of a draft, not by part-and-parcel, but by selectively lifting folks out of their everyday lives might be just the 1600 Crew plan to inure Joe Sixpack of the travesty going on around him until, well, he needs that Rush Limbitis removed from his butt.

The Selective Service has been updating its contingency plans for a draft of doctors, nurses and other health care workers in case of a national emergency that overwhelms the military's medical corps.

In a confidential report this summer, a contractor hired by the agency described how such a draft might work, how to secure compliance and how to mold public opinion and communicate with health care professionals, whose lives could be disrupted.
...
On the other hand, it said, such contacts must be limited, low key and discreet because "overtures from Selective Service to the medical community will be seen as precursors to a draft," and that could alarm the public.
...

That view was echoed in a newsletter circulated recently by the Selective Service System, which said the all-volunteer force had "critical shortages of individuals with special skills'' that might be needed in a crisis.

The Selective Service and Widmeyer held focus groups this summer to sample public opinion toward registration and a possible draft including medical personnel. People from a variety of professions, including doctors and nurses, were questioned.

The report summarized the findings this way:

¶"There was substantial resistance to the notion of a call-up of civilian professionals that would send draftees to foreign soil."

¶A draft of civilian professionals was seen as unworkable because "training would be inadequate to transform groups of people who had never worked together into cohesive units."

¶People are apprehensive about the length of service that might be required. The "occupation of Iraq has proved more costly, in terms of dollars and lives, than most Americans expected." Members of the National Guard are "serving tours of duty far longer than many ever anticipated."

¶People believe the government has the ability to "find whomever it needs" in a crisis, by using a "master database" if necessary.

President Bush and Mr. Kerry have said they oppose a draft. "Forget all this talk about a draft," Mr. Bush said at the second presidential debate, on Oct. 8 in St. Louis. "We're not going to have a draft so long as I'm the president."

But Mr. Kerry said, "You've got a backdoor draft right now" because "our military is overextended" as a result of policies adopted by Mr. Bush.

Bryan G. Whitman, a spokesman for the Defense Department, said: "The all-volunteer force has been working very well for 30 years. There is absolutely no reason to go back to a draft".

Yeah, fucking duh. Then why mobilize the resources to mobilize the resources.

The 1600 Crew has to believe that we are all morons...

Retiring Fearless Leader

The recent push by Preznit Contribution Whore to spotlight the social security "fixes" he spouts off about need more sunlight. The platitudinous mouthings of the 1600 Crew include this chestnut about allowing "younger" workers to "invest" in their retirement accounts to ostensibly earn higher rates of return and accept lower social security benefits at retirement. Yeah, OK...like the market returns that are being generated now?

But as short on specifics as the plan is, it's instructive to see who might benefit from this "privatization" effort, because you know that someone's gonna make a buck or six from any 1600 Crew program (Iraq-CheneyBurton?). Seems that there's an investment company waiting in the wings for just such an opportunity...and surprise surprise surprise, guess with whom it's affiliated?

Current President Bush has his own connections to Carlyle and the bin Laden family. Carlyle appointed W. in 1990 to the board of its Caterair subsidiary, an airline catering company. W. stepped down from this board in 1994, the year he was elected governor. With W. as governor, Carlyle landed at least two business deals involving Texas government funds. In the same month that Bush was elected president, the Teacher Retirement System of Texas selected Carlyle to invest $100 million of its pension funds. In 1996, the quasi-public University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO) began awarding lucrative contracts to private firms to invest portions of UT’s $14 billion endowment. The Houston Chronicle reported that UTIMCO’s board (which is appointed by the governor’s handpicked UT System Regents) awarded many of these contracts to firms close to W.–including Carlyle. As of May 2001, Carlyle controlled more than $15 million of University of Texas public endowment funds. This includes $10.5 million that is commingled in the same Carlyle Partners II Fund where the bin Ladens parked their money.

Oh, my does it get any better? Well, I'm sure it does...

Both Lowry Mays and the vice chairman of Clear Channel’s board of directors, Tom Hicks, helped Bush make millions of dollars while he was governor of Texas in the 1990s. Hicks is chairman and chief executive of the leveraged buyout firm Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, which at one point owned the radio conglomerate AMFM Inc., before AMFM was bought out by Clear Channel.

When Bush assumed the office of Texas governor in 1994, he supported the appointment of Hicks to the University of Texas Board of Regents. Within a year of taking office, Bush established the University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO), which was given unprecedented powers to use the $13 billion University of Texas endowment fund for private investment and financial speculation. Hicks was placed at the head of UTIMCO, and Lowry Mays was appointed and still serves on UTIMCO’s compensation committee.

So, not just one, but about as many cronies as possible stand to benefit from this so-called "privatization" effort. How much you want to bet that there's no scenario where privatization does not include capitalization of some bank account related to Fearless Leader his family and friends (Saudis anyone?). Neilsie and Silverado will look like amateur hour if this happens, count on it.

Damn-it-all continues

Steve Gilliard has an excellent essay up on a recent and not-so-recent history of "combat refusal". It seems that the practice, if you want to call it that, was more widespread in Vietnam than is generally known, and has a significant history going back to at keast the early 19th century.

"They have set up separate companies," writes an American soldier from Cu Chi, quoted in the New York Times, "for men who refuse to go into the field. Is no big thing to refuse to go. If a man is ordered to go to such and such a place he no longer goes through the hassle of refusing; he just packs his shirt and goes to visit some buddies at another base camp. Operations have become incredibly ragtag. Many guys don't even put on their uniforms any more... The American garrison on the larger bases are virtually disarmed. The lifers have taken our weapons from us and put them under lock and key...There have also been quite a few frag incidents in the battalion."

Can all this really be typical or even truthful?

Unfortunately the answer is yes.

The article also goes into a history of "fragging" as a means for bending the reality of the chain of command, as well as the choice method for seeking revenge on those officers and senior enlisted thought to be to "gung ho".

The article Steve cites also raises another interesting question, suppose entire units decided to begin doing shall we say "forbidden" things, like this:

Symbolic anti-war fasts (such as the one at Pleiku where an entire medical unit, led by its officers, refused Thanksgiving turkey), peace symbols, "V"-signs not for victory but for peace, booing and cursing of officers and even of hapless entertainers such as Bob Hope, are unhappily commonplace.

As for drugs and race, Vietnam’s problems today not only reflect but reinforce those of t he Armed Forces as a whole. In April, for example, members of a Congressional investigating subcommittee reported that 120 to 15% of our troops in Vietnam are now using high-grade heroin, and that drug addiction there is "of epidemic proportions."
...
Early this year, and Air force regular colonel was court-martialed and cashiered for leading his squadron in pot parties, while, at Cam Ranh Air Force Base, 43 members of the base security police squadron were recently swept up in dragnet narcotics raids.
...
For this very reason, our Armed Forces outside Vietnam not only reflect these conditions but disclose the depths of their troubles in an awful litany of sedition, disaffection, desertion, race, drugs, breakdowns of authority, abandonment of discipline, and, as a cumulative result, the lowest state of military morale in the history of the country.

Sedition – coupled with disaffection within the ranks, and externally fomented with an audacity and intensity previously inconceivable – infests the Armed Services:

As Steve points out, we spent 30-plus years getting away from this, and successfully too, I might add. Preznit Fanatical Evangelism has in 18 months managed to raise the specter of this behaviour again, singlehandedly.

What would happen to an entire unit (or ten) that popped positive for pot after an R&R? Would they get sent back to the world? Courts-martials would have an incredibly corrosive effect on the morale of other soldiers, I think, not to mention the time and expense involved. Any alternative that caused the soldiers to be separated, especially for those held over or on a second or third tour in Iraq might seem like a better choice than being stop-lossed or sent back into Iraq. I am certainly not advocating a course of action that violates the UCMJ, but if someone in the Pentagram has not thought about this long and hard, they're not doing their job(s).

More on the damn-it-all front

Our republican-support-the-troops friends have now proven for once and for all that the troops are not being supported in the way that they need to be. A platoon of reservists in Iraq, there for the great food and dancing girls basically told the powers that be "fuck no" when ordered to do a convoy run, and now they're being investigated for their alleged infraction.

A 17-member Army Reserve platoon with troops from Jackson and around the Southeast deployed to Iraq is under arrest for refusing a "suicide mission" to deliver fuel, the troops' relatives said Thursday.

The soldiers refused an order on Wednesday to go to Taji, Iraq — north of Baghdad — because their vehicles were considered "deadlined" or extremely unsafe, said Patricia McCook of Jackson, wife of Sgt. Larry O. McCook.
...
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson said he plans to submit a congressional inquiry today on behalf of the Mississippi soldiers to launch an investigation into whether they are being treated improperly.

"I would not want any member of the military to be put in a dangerous situation ill-equipped," said Thompson, who was contacted by families. "I have had similar complaints from military families about vehicles that weren't armor-plated, or bullet-proof vests that are outdated. It concerns me because we made over $150 billion in funds available to equip our forces in Iraq.

"President Bush takes the position that the troops are well-armed, but if this situation is true, it calls into question how honest he has been with the country," Thompson said.
...
"I got a call from an officer in another unit early (Thursday) morning who told me that my husband and his platoon had been arrested on a bogus charge because they refused to go on a suicide mission," said Jackie Butler of Jackson, wife of Sgt. Michael Butler, a 24-year reservist. "When my husband refuses to follow an order, it has to be something major."

Well, this certainly brings the 1600 Crew 'overwhelming support' for the men and women into focus, doesn't it? Other than having to ride around in vehicles that were pretty piss poor, what else was wrong?

The platoon is normally escorted by armed Humvees and helicopters, but did not have that support Wednesday, McClenny told her mother.

The convoy trucks the platoon was driving had experienced problems in the past and were not being properly maintained, Hill said her daughter told her.

Going through my comments, there was this, which I find pretty interesting in light of these events:

Mr. David Martin,

I am writing regarding the refusal of the Iraq platoon to go on its mission today.

My comment is that there is indeed precedent for involvement of the Armed Services Committee of the Senate for looking into this present based on this country's experience in Vietnam.

It is my understanding that you are based at the Pentagon. There also is a former Vietnam B-52 pilot and ex-POW whose experience as the last pilot to be shot down in Vietnam, and therefore the last pilot to be repatriated in 1973, was preceded by the refusal of 2 B-52 pilots to fly that same mission on December 26, 1972.

At that time, as his former wife, I called Senator John Mathias, then Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, expressing my opinion that at the time my former husband was called back to fly in place of these pilots, Christmas of 1972, that his squadron of B-52 pilots at Mather AFB in Sacramento, CA, all knew the flying was too hazardous to be reasonably undertaken.

In sum, Senator Mathias, without knowing my name due to my fear of being quoted on national TV, did indeed take steps. Neither B-52 pilot who refused to fly was court martialed.

Even though their refusal to fly meant that my former husband had to fly in their place(s), my belief remains that the Nixon Administration, like that of the Bush Administration, was asking more than even the bravest of the brave, the US Air Force pilots, should be required to give.

I believe that the Senate Armed Services Committee has an opportunity now to investigate this incident and to show, finally, the unparalled danger that this President has sent his troops into without the proper preparation.

Sincerely,

Wynne G. Lewis, Ph.D.
Michigan State University
Department of Microbiology

My esteemed colleague, Mark Kleiman, whom I consider to be one of the smartest bloggers out there, makes a comment:

Look, nothing justifies refusing orders in a combat situation.

I don't personally believe that to be the case, and we have no idea what these men and women knew (the current intel on the ground, for instance) and no one ever said that committing suicide was either a smart or particularly patriotic plan for winning a battle or doing a routine (?) resupply mission.

In the most cynical view, getting a Duck Dinner (dishonorable discharge) means you're alive to get one. I doubt that a courts-martial will happen, if it does it's because the Neocons want to make an example of an enlisted guy who is making fools of them and their policies ....

This story is far from over...

St Ralph of the Flaming Ego

Fucking Nader. As happy as I am to see folks like Bill Maher and Michael Moore supporting John Kerry, it was their over-the-top douchebaggery four years ago that gave this self-aggrandizing prick the ego boost he needed. In his long and substantial career, the only place that ever received a warm welcome and a cup of coffee was from Democrats. Now, due to a Hindenberg-like ego, he's driving his corvair campaign off the cliff. Ralph Nader: Unwelcome In Any Context. And, as the ultimate hypocrite, who's saying this:

Mr. Nader repeated this week that he had no intention of leaving the race. He said no one from the Kerry campaign or Democratic National Committee was pressing him behind the scenes to quit, and he said he thought that Mr. Kerry would not make a good president anyway.

"He's not his own man," Mr. Nader said on Tuesday in a telephone interview from California. "Because he takes the liberals for granted, he's allowing Bush to pull him in his direction. It doesn't show much for his character."

Nader, whose campaign is being kept alive by republicans...

In his run for the White House, Ralph Nader is getting help from an unexpected source: Republicans. Of the $1 million that Nader has raised for his campaign so far, about $50,000 is from donors who have also given to President George W. Bush's campaign. One in 10 of Nader's biggest contributors—individuals who've written checks of $1,000 or more—are longtime GOP donors.

When did someone with so much to offer, suddenly become a pawn of the very people he fought against for so many decades? A: When his ego overwhelmed his common sense.

Bye, Bye Ralphie...history will remember you as the fool, not the hero you once were.

Liars Anonymous, Tempe Chapter

By the Hairy Thunderers man-boobs, I don't think I ever saw a more blatant lie than Preznit Mellow Buzz told tonight....

I truly am not that concerned about him

That would be the same Osama bin Laden whose family bailed out the Cowardly Fratboi from his Big Misadventures in Bidness, right? Karen Hughes, Le Madame of the 1600 Crew hooker Brigade was on spinning this gaffe, saying that Osama was in possibly three places and anyway, it was all Tommy Franks fault. There they go again, blaming the soldiers...here's the April 17th, 2002 Washington Post:

The Bush administration has concluded that Osama bin Laden was present during the battle for Tora Bora late last year and that failure to commit U.S. ground troops to hunt him was its gravest error in the war against al Qaeda, according to civilian and military officials with first-hand knowledge.

Intelligence officials have assembled what they believe to be decisive evidence, from contemporary and subsequent interrogations and intercepted communications, that bin Laden began the battle of Tora Bora inside the cave complex along Afghanistan's mountainous eastern border. Though there remains a remote chance that he died there, the intelligence community is persuaded that bin Laden slipped away in the first 10 days of December.

After-action reviews, conducted privately inside and outside the military chain of command, describe the episode as a significant defeat for the United States. A common view among those interviewed outside the U.S. Central Command is that Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the war's operational commander, misjudged the interests of putative Afghan allies and let pass the best chance to capture or kill al Qaeda's leader. Without professing second thoughts about Tora Bora, Franks has changed his approach fundamentally in subsequent battles, using Americans on the ground as first-line combat units.

Even as they try and rewrite history, it's there to bite their lying asses.
...chirp chirp chirp....

And...Do we now have a new Prezinitial Word? PayGoo...hey, you! I'll take my cheesesteak wit wiz'n'paygoo...mmmmm paygoo...we give that to you Murika, from Preznit Paygoo...

I was absolutely obsessed by the foam in the right corner of Preznit Paygoo's mouth for about the first 30 minutes or so, before he retrieved the vodka from below the podium...it was, I think, proof that he's in fact a rabid wingnut...I don't think the man can do anything but talk in soundbites...truly it's the cracker campaign for the republicans, everything is bite-sized.

I wish that on the 2nd Amendment question, Kerry had brought up how Asscrack restricted the use of background checks to look for terrorists, but I like how he tossed in how it's in the al-Q handbooks, that its soooo easy to come to a gun show and buy a weapon that al-Q gets a competitive advantage thanks to them. And the beauty of it, Kerry never said "NRA".

The Preznit talked (again) in soundbites, Kerry talked in the grown-up language of policy. Did you see Preznit Paygoo almost shit a brick when Kerry referenced Bill Clinton...best shocker of the night...

The other thing was, and someone else pointed this out...almost every answer by Preznit Blow Hole came back to edumacation somehow...I was sure that somehow he was going to bring the question on homosexuality back to readin' rightin' and rithmatic....NCLB = Non-Caring Lying Bush? Just askin'.

Safliar, liar, pants on fire

If it had been up to Safire, the Watergate Burgulars would have been spun as building safety inspectors, there to do a good-will inspection of those offices in the middle of the night, on their own time. Witness:

Powerful officials and their profiteering friends in France had a reason to try to stop the U.S. from overthrowing Saddam Hussein: they were pocketing billions in payoffs through a United Nations oil-for-food front.

That's the import of the Duelfer report.

Never mind the parts about the non-existant weapons. The Evil one was trying to make a buck. Hey, when Donald Rumsfeld was selling weapons to Iraq in the 80's, it was OK. When CheneyBurton sub, Dresser, sold equipment to Saddam in the 90's, that was OK. Now that crony capitalism is running rampant in Iraq, hosing their economy but enriching major campaign contributors, well, that's OK. It's all of no import.

'Safliar', how appropriate. I'll bet Fearless Leader makes him wish Nixon had been so ruthless.

Charles Murray, yeah, the lazy one

In this day and age it takes alot of work to be an unrequited, ummm, lover of the philosophies of yore. Like rascism. But Charles Murray, "fellow" (does that mean ignoramus?) at the American Enterprise Institute manages to prove he's both inept and lazy in one paragraph. Inept, because the use of Google is obviously beyond him. Lazy, because if he could use Google, he'd have found the answer to one of his "insightful" questions for John Kerry.

You promise to create millions of jobs, but many people who run businesses say that nothing in your life has taught you how much effort, risk and sometimes heartbreak goes into creating one real job. Could you describe your experiences when you last had to meet a payroll, or when your boss had to meet a payroll?

A quick (.32 seconds) Google search finds this:

The Kerry camp would argue that their man has some of the best Main Street business credentials since Truman. In 1976, Kerry and his friend K. Dun Gifford opened a cookie business in Boston under their mothers' maiden names, Kilvert & Forbes. It was intended to sound, Gifford says, like "a pretty snooty upscale company."

Though Kerry also had a law practice at the time, Gifford says his partner proved to be a hands-on operator, reviewing sales data daily. They started with two types of cookies based on family recipes, selling for $1.25 each because of costly ingredients. Kerry insisted on the Lindt chocolate he remembered from his Swiss boarding-school days and the same butter used in traditional croissants.

Political ambitions cut short Kerry's cookie-mogul dreams; when he ran for office in 1982, he bought out Gifford, then sold the business. "I could've been Mrs. Fields," he joked with reporters in May, but "I thought it was smarter to earn $23,000 as lieutenant governor."

Fellowship that, Murray. Honestly, people like Murray think they're so smart. Someone should ask him "What one thing of value have you ever produced as a paid beltway-bandito "thinkerati"?" The answer, would of course be: Nothing. Ever.

War on Reality

It amazes me that someone as edumacated (allegedly) as the Duchess talks about the War on Terra™ as if it were World War Second. I guess that's what the brainwashing after consumption of Karl's kool-aid does to you...bends reality like light passing over the Event Horizon of a black hole. If the Baroness of the Bong would stop and think about it, the War on Terra™ is a much more equal to the War on Drugs than an actual war. Given her cannabinoid cravings, it's amazing that there is so little understanding of this, and her the inability to draw that parallel. I guess actual thinking would be involved, instead of wingnut sloganeering. Well, "smoking marijuana is more fun than drinking beer...but a friend of ours got captured and they gave him thirty years*"...sounds about right for the Fearless Leader/Asscrack War on Terra™, but I guess that the Duchess missed the part where in the War on Terra™ Asscrack has yet to have a successful prosecution, but got Tommy Chong locked up.

Now, what was she braying about again, Fearless Leader being Fabulously Resolute with respect to the Terra-rists?

*apologies to the late Phil Ochs

The unseen voters?

The republican-leaning Gallup organization and other polling entities use some weird criteria known only to them and the hairy thunderer to pick their pollees (is that even a word?). I seriously doubt that they are talking to Olivia Smith, or her friends or family or friends of friends, because I'll bet the numbers would be a whole lot different.

Nov. 2 will be much more than Election Day for Oliva Smith, although the West Liberty woman plans to vote in what she calls the most important election of her lifetime.

" November 2nd is the anniversary of Bruce's death, and I hope to God the election turns out the way he would have wanted," Smith said about her husband, one of 15 Iowans killed in Iraq.
...
Bruce Smith, 41, died after a rocket attack on his helicopter west of Baghdad. That hasn't changed how Oliva Smith will vote - it has galvanized her opposition to the war and her plan to vote for Democrat John Kerry.

Granted that not every person who has had a casualty in the family from the Mess in Mesopotamia will vote for John Kerry or against Preznit Incipient Dementia, but you have to wonder how the numbers break out among the relatives of casualties, and those who are coming home with long-term injuries, a medical discharge and benefits that have been reduced to give the Chimp Base their tax-cuts.

Those would be some numbers to see indeed.