I really am sick of the noisemakers in the GOP. It is why, while my positions on most issues have not changed over the past few years, my allegiance to the Republican Party is all but over. Perfect example- this Power Line post mocking John Kerry:
On his visit to Iraq, Senator Kerry apparently got something like the silent treatment from the troops who are “stuck” there. WDAY’s Scott Hennen quotes a message from a friend serving in Iraq:
This is a true story….Check out this photo from our mess hall at the US Embassy yesterday morning. Sen. Kerry found himself all alone while he was over here. He cancelled his press conference because no one came, he worked out alone in the gym w/o any soldiers even going up to say hi or ask for an autograph (I was one of those who was in the gym at the same time), and he found himself eating breakfast with only a couple of folks who are obviously not troops.
What is amazing is Bill O’Reilly came to visit with us and the troops at the CSH the same day and the line for autographs extended through the palace and people waited for two hours to shake his hand. You decide who is more respected and loved by us servicemen and women!
I don’t even like Kerry, yet I am just sick of this carping nonsense. Add to it, Kerry didn’t even insult the troops- the spin machine and noice machine turned his flubbed line into an insult. Regardless, Kerry isn’t the reason we are in this mess, and Kerry, unlike the Powerline folks, is actually over there trying to do something about it.
But, with the current GOP and their noisemakers, that really doesn’t matter. What matters is they have a meme that works for their political advantage, and mocking a Senator who chose to spend his holidays with the troops is perferrable to actually discussing the sad realities on the ground, created in part by the pigheaded cheerleading and know-nothing pontificating of the Powerline and their ilk.
I don’t like John Kerry, but I will take him over over the Powerline. I guess that means the terrorists are winning here at Balloon Juice.
Derek
Kerry is doing something about Iraq? As far as I can tell the Democrates are not comining up with solutions but rather are hoping to avoid being blamed for our final failure there. Critisim alone is not a plan and so far I know of no Demicratic plan for Iraq.
Rick Moran
If you’re so sick of it, why allow it on your blog with that lickspittle Tim echoing Dem talking points while skewering Republicans? Talk about a noise machine! The guy is a one man partisan band complete with a foot operated bass drum beating for the left 24 hours a day.
And if you actually believe Kerry went over there to “spend the holiday with the troops,” then you’re too far from reality to pull back from the precipice. Might as well take the last step and plunge over the cliff of reason, put yourself out of your obvious misery.
Zifnab
Thank you Sean Hannity.
And, of course, you’d right, except that you’re wrong.
On Iraq specifically:
Also on the War On Terror at large:
Steve
Ironically, I am no longer able to tell the difference between bad typing and “clever” mockery of the Democratic Party by altering its name.
Anyway, the Reed-Levin Amendment has been out there as the Democratic position for the better part of a year. The fact that all your friends keep saying the Democrats have no plan doesn’t make it so. Regardless, since Bush has already rejected out of hand any plan that calls for “leaving before the job is done,” why do silly people like you keep insisting the Democrats have an obligation to come up with plans which Bush has already rejected?
John Cole
Hilarious. Your solution to ending the problem of the GOP being dominated by a bunch of party hacks and know-nothings is for me to rid my site of someone you allege (without any evidence- see WMD, IRAQ) is little more than a mouthpiece for the Democrats.
Comedy gold, and complete with the instinctive GOP go-for-the-throat attack on a pretty decent person.
Andrew
Rick Moran likes goat sex.
That’s all I can come up with.
neil
Yep, Tim is just a big suck-up, always trying to please his left-wing extremist Pajamas Media overlords.
SeesThroughIt
It also means you’re just an ignorant Philistine who can’t comprehend the staggering genius of George W Bush.
Blu Flu
“What matters is they have a meme that works for their political advantage”
Yeah, it did wonders for them on Nov 7th.
jcricket
Gotta add the qualifiers to make it real.
I also love the wingnut embrace of the word “lickspittle”. It’s as if we’re hanging out with Bill Buckley or William Bennett at Yale in the 1950s or something.
Keep on moving to the right guys. You’ll end up like you claim Kerry is right now (alone).
Mean Gene
You call Tim a “pretty decent” person? Talk about damning with faint praise!
I find it hilarious to find a 20-watt bulb like Moran commenting here. I’ve been enjoying his writing for months now, the unintentional comedy is just off the scale.
jcricket
Oh, and if this is true it gives John Kerry’s flubbed line
the virtue of being true:
If the person the “troops” respect more is Bill O’Reilly, I feel no shame in saying the “troops” are stupid.
capelza
I tried, but I can’t stop myself…”Get a brain Moran!”.
Jon H
That “damning” photo is taken at an angle such that you can’t really tell who’s sitting at Kerry’s table.
Further, the O’Reilly comparison is bogus, because I’m sure O’Reilly’s visit was promoted, what with him being a well-connected right-wing celebrity and there being FOX cameras on hand to record everything.
Kerry’s visit, on the other hand, wasn’t about showboating.
Zifnab
And WHY wasn’t it about showboating? Because John Kerry doesn’t have any friends. If he did, he’d be showboating them.
Also, Kerry does girly push-ups.
neil
This picture must be Photoshopped, because as everybody knows no U.S. soldier would be seen with John Kerry.
John Spragge
Every time the issue descends to the level of personal attacks, it makes sense (once again) to call the people involved on it. If you disagree with John Kerry, say so. If you consider his prescriptions bad for the country, bad for Iraq, then you can say so without disrespecting the man, or wishing him ill.
Contrast this with the chortling over John Kerry’s lonely reception in Baghdad. Nor does the ‘right’ have a monopoly on this behavior; when Tom DeLay toppled from power a few ‘lefty’ posters on Tacitus expressed the wish that he would have the opportunity to get to know his constituents up close– in a prison shower room. In all these cases, venom provides a very poor substitute for reason.
Mike P.
I used to be sick and tired of the noise machine. Now, I just ignore them. They got nothin’. Just read through their sites. The “Flying Imams” are still big news, as is Jamil/Jamail, etc.
They’re nothing more than dead-enders, and irrelevant to the national discussion now taking place.
ThymeZone
Not that there’s anything wrong with tha-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-t.
neil
Oops, I see now that the original blog post where the photo was posted is full of accusations of Photoshopping. It’s gotten so people don’t believe _anything_ unless an anonymous administration official says it!
TenguPhule
Fixed.
Because we all know the ‘true’ Republicans fear ‘liberals’ more then anything else on Earth.
Eural
So let me get this straight – when Bush runs out on campaign tours to help his party and they run for the hills leaving him alone on the campaign trail it just demonstrates the depth of his committment to a deeply held cause. When Kerry flys into a war-zone and there are strangely angled photos apparently depicting him not being swarmed like the rock star he must surely be (according to the right’s never ending misunderstanding of the Democratic party) then it demonstrates the complete failure of his political career.
Ok, that makes perfect sense. And explain to me again why the returning troops keep running on the Dem ticket (including two of my friends who went to Iraq as rabid “ditto-heads.”)
Tsulagi
These guys don’t disappoint. No flip-flopping on their retardation! They’re consistent with a vengeance.
That photo is the best they can do to help their masturbation along? Took a look at it. Taken at the U.S. Embassy, I see a room full of civilians, waiters, and only one guy at a table in a military uniform. Probably an officer. But apparently since that one guy isn’t on bended knee looking up at Kerry with a doe-eyed look as they are when in the bathroom with a photo of Bush, that proves whatever dumb ass point they were trying to make.
Gee, maybe Kerry should have done a Colbert and grabbed that officer having a photo taken of him with his soldier friend. You know, be like Bush.
The Other Steve
Definately. If you look closely the kerning and spacing is inconsistent with the type of camera available in Iraq at the time.
Ed
I saw all the links to this on Memeorandum, took a look at the photo, and realized that all the usual suspects had just created a circle jerk in order to drive themselves into wingnut intellectual onastic heaven.
In other words, nothing of value was being created.
SeesThroughIt
“This is Alan, my Soldier Friend!”
I love it.
The Other Steve
I remember sometime back in say 2001 or so a wingnut arguing with me about the legacy of Bill Clinton.
Her final point, which she just thought was the most damning evidence ever presented. “They don’t even like him in Arkansas”
As if being liked was what was important. This seems to my mind to go to the heart of the Republican dysfunction. They suffer from low self-esteem.
If you look at the Presidents who are best remembered… Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Clinton. They’re all Democrats.
And this bugs the hell out of Republicans. That’s why they are so desperate to prove nobody likes Democrats, and Bush is a likeable guy you want ot have a beer with.
Dave
Fixed
Vladi G
John, why do you even link to this piece of shit?
Paul L.
However mocking George W Bush is fair game here at Balloon Juice.
i.e.
The mission accomplished picture. The “plastic” turkey urban legend.
Can the rightwing criticize him for being so tone deaf that he did not realize how the line would be received and did not immediately correct what he say? How dare they quote John Kerry directly.
Of course, the democrats do not think the troops are stupid,
Isn’t that correct Charlie Rangel
TenguPhule
Shorter Paul L: I use a lot of words to say nothing with real meaning.
demimondian
Actually, shorter Paul L. I use a lot of words in the hopes that nobody will actually read what I wrote. Rangel didn’t say that the soldiers in Iraq were stupid, but that they were without opportunities at home. If anything, he made as argument that they made a difficult choice based on their willingness to take a risk in order to get out of the neighborhood they were trapped in.
You know, Paul, you do a lot better when you are even more selective about taking things out of context. Speaking of which, how is the search for the fraudulent bodies in Qana going?
neil
You go, warbloggers! Sure, there were no WMDs, but you can prove that that was a REAL turkey Bush was carrying!
Never forget.
Steve
I like how use of the “Mission Accomplished” picture is now considered unfair “mocking.” As if the whole thing wasn’t a PR stunt designed to create an enduring image of our glorious President. Regrettably, the enduring image wasn’t the one the White House had in mind.
Although the best part of the story wasn’t the image, it was the White House’s feeble attempts to claim that it wasn’t responsible for the “Mission Accomplished” banner, that the troops on the aircraft carrier had apparently put it up as a spontaneous show of affection. Would Paul L. give a free pass to a Democrat who tried to blame the troops like that? I have my doubts.
John Redworth
Of course I don’t believe it… I think Kerry was there to cop a free meal under the umbrella of official business so he would not be brought under an ethics investigation…
Paul L.
Sure, what is the opposite of bright? Hint: dim.
.
Never gets old to you does it demimondian?
Here you go I was wrong about Qana. The Israelis made a mistake.
Care the criticize Hezbollah for hiding among civilians and firing rockets into Israelis civilian areas?
Report: Hundreds of WMDs Found in Iraq
Yes, I know they were old. But you said “no WMDs” which does not include old ones.
Bruce Moomaw
The New Republic’s “Plank” blogsite reprinted, two years ago (I’ll see if I can dig up the exact date), one of the pamphlets the military was frantically printing up at that point to try to keep an adequate flow of new recruits coming in, given that people were already seeing through the Iraq War. Its cover consisted entirely of a fist clutching a wad of greenbacks, with the word “MONEY” printed in huge letters at the bottom. So, what’s all this nonsense about young Americans joining the military for any reason other than their patriotic support for our brilliant leader’s obviously triumphant war strategy?
Personally, I don’t care whether Kerry’s line was a flubbed joke (as he said afterwards) or not. If he did mean it seriously, it was also very largely correct.
(P.S.: John, is it OK if I start referring to Bush as the “Dear Leader” NOW? Yeah, I know he’s not remotely as much of a monster as Kim Jong Il — very few human beings ever have been — but the amount of pretense and bootlicking associated with Bush’s remaining followers unavoidably summons up certain analogies in my mind. And, when you get down to it, Bush really doesn’t seem to have all that many more qualms about flushing his countrymen’s lives away for no good reason than Kim does. No doubt the latter makes extensive excuses for himself, too.)
Tsulagi
I know. And how does The Deciderator pay them back for their effort and heartfelt exhuberance? By removing all Mission Accomplished photos from the official White House site and a little crop or reframing job on a video eliminating the banner. Didn’t happen. Ahhh, history at work.
Jonathan
Interesting thing about the “mission accomplished” video.
On the White House website it has been “altered” a bit and “Mission Accomplished” no longer appears in the video.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/05/#
See for yourselves, scroll to the bottom of the page and you will find the link to the video.
demimondian
Passive, unambitious.
Oops. Sorry, I forgot that you hate context.
Tsulagi
LOL. Leave it to a Paul to link to a Santorum/Fox News wet dream.
dd
Mr. Cole, thank you. I am / was a registered Republican, but lately have become exceedingly tired of the juvenile behavior of the party’s leaders and promoters.
Dave
Good lord you are an idiot Paul.
Do we really need to go through this again?
From the Iraq Survey Group.
Do you find it hard to remember to breathe Paul?
Even Bush himself had to admit there were no WMDs in Iraq:
demimondian
Actually, there was exactly one thing which would get me to stop harping on that particular statement. This is it:
Gladly! I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again: Hezbollah’s actions against the Arab residents of the West Bank and Lebanon are war crimes. Their actions against Israel are war crimes. Hezbollah is a terrorist group which, though its use of human shields in places such as Qana, causes the mass death of innocents.
And good for you for admitting you were wrong on this one. If I pound on you about your intentional misunderstanding of the scientific method, will you come to understand why it’s called “stem cell research”, not “stem cell therapy”?
demimondian
And, it should go without saying, but probably wouldn’t, so let me add that Hezbollah’s use of indiscriminate rocket fire against Israel is clearly and unequivocally a war crime.
cleek
you’ve got to give PowerLine guys a little slack. the fact that they’re out there interacting with the real world is a huge societal accomplishment. just a few year ago, all those guys would be locked in a group home, making paper snowflakes with blunt-nosed scissors.
AlanDownunder
How IS Powerline funded?
and Demi, when the Prez and his chorus say that “Hezbollah’s use of indiscriminate rocket fire against Israel is clearly and unequivocally a war crime“, it doesn’t go without saying and certainly couldn’t. Are you suggesting that some librul bogeymen are disagreeing but are conspiring to keep their treachery under wraps? Which ones did you have in mind?
Gold Star for Robot Boy
Aaaaaand why should the Democrats be blamed? Was is a Ddemocratic president who demanded this war, and a Democratic Congress that gave it to him?
Also, what’s this about “final failure?” Take that defeatist shit elsewhere, pussy. You sound like a fucking lib. I should turn you in to the gang at Powerline – they know what to do with your kind.
Gold Star for Robot Boy
Paul, find John’s post where he mocked those events, especially the turkey one. Unless you’ve been reading a different BJ than I have, neither happened.
vwcat
I am not a republican supporter but, I have never been thrilled by Kerry. However, that doesn’t mean he should be the gop punching bag. I really feel sorry for the guy because he’s become a joke to them to snicker at. It’s cruel.
However, I have been sick of the noise machine for ages and am hoping others are getting sick of it, too and start tuning them out. It’s time for a new and better era than the politics of hate.
demimondian
Ooh…we’ve got a live one here, eh?
Please, oh enlightened one, aid my poor young soul, by telling me how an attack with a weapon which has an MCE of many metres can possibly be other than an indiscriminate attack on no target…that is, a war crime.
Redleg
PaulL,
First of all, chemical weapons are not generally considered “weapons of mass destruction” even though hacks like Cheney, Rummy, Wolfie, and Bushy like to refer to them as such. Chemical artillery shells, when exploded, create a very small area over which they are deadly. In fact, a terrorist group would have very little success creating mass death using an chemical artillery shell.
Second, inert chemical weapons are not really even weapons, especially since they cannot be effectively deployed against an enemy.
Third, even if Iraq did have active chemical weapons, it apparently chose not to use them even when our forces were invading their country.
Let the [email protected] WMD lies go, man. You are starting to sound insane like the rest of the neocons.
The Other Steve
Money from the Richard Mellon-Scaife foundation, most likely.
One of the differences between liberal blogs and conservative ones… conservatives rely upon handouts, liberal blogs rely upon market forces to buy ads.
demimondian
That’s what I’ve always assumed, actually. *Does* anybody know who funds them?
srv
When is Santorum going to start guest blogging at Delays site?
rachel
*Starting* to sound insane?
Mary
The picture showed up as part of a blog posting at some tv station’s site, too. A commenter at TBogg suggests that the Union Jack on the wall makes it much more likely that it’s a British mess hall, not an American mess hall.
The timestamp for the “lonely” picture is (allegedly ) January 2006, which also seems odd, unless someone never set the date properly on their camera.
And this Yahoo picture shows Kerry with some American soldiers sitting around him. It’s obviously a pretty clever Photoshop as the evil MSM imaging experts restrained themselves from showing the soldiers blowing Kerry. That would have been just a little bit over the top.
Fledermaus
Oh Jebus, Paul. That is how they fight. I know you’d love to fight with queen of marksbury rules but really this is just silly. Imagine if every single person in the US (even including Ward Churchill) let howl a scream of outrage that would cause a sailor to blush. OK so what next, do you really think that they will stop? Are you really that dumb? Perhaps this is the reason we’re losing in Iraq. You have no idea how the world works and why we are losing, you still don’t. So sit down and shut up, we’re not giving you another bed to shit in.
I know you’d love making us leftists condemn everything under the sun. But. It. Will. Not. Fix. Iraq. No matter how much condemning is done. Face it, the GOP couldn’t organize a pillow fight in a whorehouse let alone a democracy in the Middle East. The last 6 years have proven that your party can’t run squat.
demimondian
Ah, Fledermaus. I don’t think you understand Paul’s intention here. I’ve been making fun of him for months now — every time he posts, I bring up one of his more inane dicta from the recent Lebanese war, and remind him of it. So, he finally broke down, and acknowledged that he was wrong, and that Israel had made a terrible mistake. He then hoped to catch me out by asking me to condemn the atrocities that Hezbollah commits.
But I don’t have a problem with condemning them. They *are* atrocities, and we all know that. Now, we can talk intelligently about whether there are alternatives, but, in the cold light of reason, Hezbollah’s use of human shields is a war crime, and we all know it.
But by simply saying that, I pull Paul’s teeth. I won’t fight him on his ground; I won’t even try to establish a token defense there. Instead, I can reinforce the notion that at the moment, it’s the *left* which isn’t afraid of inconvenient truths. It’s the right which gets all exercised about them, and about _Inconvenient Truths_, to boot.
demimondian
Oh, and Paul? I’m thinking about asking you to go find the thousands of missing of WMD’s in Iraq for a while now. Alternatively, you can do what the pres has finally coughed up to: there really weren’t any. Whether his administration was willfully self-deceptive or consciously deceptive is a question I won’t engage on; I suspect that some of his advisers were lying, and others wrong, so there will never be a single answer to the question.
Andrew
You mean they don’t use their super anal powers to clench their bullshit into diamonds?
TM Cleaver
As Kerry said in his Washington Post Op-Ed this past Sunday:
There’s something much worse than being accused of “flip-flopping”: refusing to flip when it’s obvious that your course of action is a flop.
I say this to President Bush as someone who learned the hard way how embracing the world’s complexity can be twisted into a crude political shorthand. Barbed words can make for great politics. But with U.S. troops in Iraq in the middle of an escalating civil war, this is no time for politics. Refusing to change course for fear of the political fallout is not only dangerous — it is immoral.
Read the whole thing:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/22/AR2006122201182.html
I must compliment these rightie morons for their unceasing daily effort to prove that they are indeed the sixth-generation southernist (which is to actual “Southern” as “christianist” is to actual Christianity) traitors I’ve been saying they are for the past 20 years.
Like my great-grand-uncle Jim McKelvey, Harry Truman’s “eminence grise” since he was Captain Truman’s First Sergeant in that artillery battery during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in 1918 taught me at an early age: “The only ‘good Republicans’ are pushing up daisies.”
TM Cleaver
Shorter Paul L: I use a lot of words to say nothing with real meaning.
The poor boy thinks that Pajamas Media, created by failed Hollywood screenwriter Roger L. Simon and failed Stalinist David Horowitz (who was an illiterate moron when I knew him 30 years ago), have something to say.
The truth is, these two failures realized the truth of the statement that “in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king,” and that there is nothing easier than conning money out of right wing dolts like Richard Scaife, and that living off rightie money and basking in rightie admiration beat being seen for the failures and hacks they are by their former comrades on the left.
Just another pair of “cracking traders” taking advantage of the rubes, but the rubes are used to it, since they’re Republicans and think that letting Dear Leader step on their necks as he robs them blind is the height of loyalty and patriotism. The same way drug-dealing pimps like Horst Wessel thought they were patriots serving Adolf Hitler.
TM Cleaver
So when are you “kaistocrats” going to admit you are fronting for something that doesn’t exist? You guys are the left’s equivalent of “Paul L” which is why your posts are full of “railroad tracks”
With allies like you, we’re sure to beat the enemy. Uh-huh.
Tom Cleaver
That’s Another Fine Mess
TM Cleaver
Old Fumble Fingers strikes again (it’s late here on the Left Coast):
So when are you “kakistocrats” going to admit you are fronting for something that doesn’t exist (for those who doubt me, click their hyperlink). You guys are the left’s equivalent of “Paul L”, which is why your posts are as full of “railroad tracks” as your undies are – like his.
Tom Cleaver
That’s Another Fine Mess
dirk
According to the image data, that photograph was taken on 9th January 2006, and judging by Kerry’s itinerary and the large Union Flag on the wall, it was taken while Kerry was visiting the multinational contingent in Basra.
Great work. Just sit back and marvel at its beauty.
Fingerhose
Shorter TM Cleaver:
I’m a weekday drunk who likes to type random words.
lard lad
Tom Cleaver–
Great post… and an excellent site you have there, mon ami. I quite enjoyed it.
AnneJ
Can anyone explain to me just what this Tom Cleaver caracter is saying?
Nikki
Re: the picture. Someone in the comments section (where the obviously doctored photo is posted):
And sure enough, it’s hanging on the back wall.
cleek
And sure enough, it’s hanging on the back wall.
right next to a Portuguese flag, no less. maybe it’s in the Epcot part of the US embassy.
Steve
The Powerline bloggers are partners at major law firms (well, one of them is a former partner). I’m pretty confident running a blog doesn’t make much of a dent in their yearly income.
I actually have a case right now where I’m working closely with Hindrocket’s law firm. Although up until today I was like “Gosh, why does the name of this firm sound familiar? Have I dealt with them before?” Now I remember what they’re infamous for.
Nancy Irving
Do the troops really get two hours off to wait in line for an autograph? I had no idea.
Jim Bob
Jesus Christ fuck in a chicken bucket. All you fucking retards in Iraq have no idea what you are fighting for. It sure as hell isn’t so Bill O’Reilly has freedom of speech. It is because the republicans don’t want to lose the next election and W doesn’t get in the history books as the Worst pres ever. Too late. Do yourself a favor, read 1984. At least J Kerry went to war, unlike all the rest of the talking heads. Wake up.
The Other Steve
Portuguese? They left Iraq back in 2005.
Where is the Polish flag? Did John Kerry forget Poland!?
Zifnab
Ew. Remember to take long showers after work. You don’t want to track that filth around outside the office.
The Other Steve
In other news…
Ethiopia has invaded Somalia, and as of today just took Mogadishu. Although it appears resistance by the Islamists has been light.
I realize that Americans probably don’t even know where these countries are, certainly the news doesn’t seem to think it’s important that this be mentioned.
But this is actually a fairly signifigant event, especially when looked at from a War on Terror, or probably more accurately a Christian/Islamist War. Watch and see what happens.
John D.
Here’s a fun time waster:
Go to the blog that originally hosted the picture. Right-click the picture, save it locally. Right-click local copy, select Properties. Click the Summary tab. Scroll down.
“Date Picture Taken 1/9/2006 12:57 PM”
Yep, these are totally honest folk. Totally honest folk with no idea about EXIF data.
Fred Farkle
I went to the WHITE HOUSE site and submitted the question “Why
has the Mission Accomplished” banner been erased from all photos/videos? I then took a nap and dreamed that “Elmer” Cheney was wawking thew the woods with his twusty 28-gauge
shotgun, wooking fo wabbits or vawmits, like woyyas disguised as fwiends.
Darrell
I agree that Kerry should not be skewered for choosing to spend Christmas with the troops.. and it was wrong to criticize him for it, just as it was wrong for the entire leftwing side of the blogosphere to go apeshit for weeks and months attacking Bush over a turkey when he visited the troops. Btw, it’s worth noting that virtually the entire left attacked Bush over that visit. Other than Powerline and 1 or 2 other conservative bloggers, was their a similar level of rancor coming from the right over Kerry’s decision to spend Christmas with the troops? I think an honest answer to that question would say a lot.
I disagree strongly that Kerry didn’t insult the troops though. You’re dead wrong on that one John. I’ve seen the tape several times, and Kerry was being his typical condescending jackass-elitist self…it was a backhanded insult to the troops without a doubt.
Zifnab
Shorter Darrell: But lefties are worse.
Steve
Some liberals wish John Kerry would just go away at this point. I couldn’t disagree more. Even though he’ll never be a viable candidate for President again, he serves an important purpose by causing the wingnuts to foam at the mouth every time he draws a breath.
They just can’t stop crowing about how he hates the troops and shot himself to get a Purple Heart and all that. And given that they haven’t figured out yet that voters are tired of their juvenile name-calling antics, I don’t want to do anything to discourage them from engaging in more of the same. Yes, guys, America is eager for you to keep piling on John Kerry! Keep it up!
Halffasthero
Actually, Darrell made a good point. That was the least rabid I have ever seen him be. I was also shocked to see Rick Moran come out with guns blaring. Reading his blog (which I do regularly) he doesn’t get quite so personal in his attacks. I don’t agree that Tim is a “partisan hack” but clearly has a point of view. Powerline, on the other hand, does not know when they have crossed the line of decency or good judgement in defense of their GOP. In any case, opinions are why we are here after all. What fun are blogs without them?
And my interpretation of the Kerry photo doesn’t leave me with the impression that the troops are ignoring him. It only looked like a photo the same as any other. Much ado about nothing in my opinion.
John D.
Darrell, given that there is quite a bit of dispute as to whether it was an insult or not, it can hardly be said to be “without a doubt”. *You* see it as an insult, as is to be expected, but you are hardly an impartial observer.
Also,
Who skewered Kerry for spending Christmas with the troops? They’re mocking him for being alone at that table. And, as it turns out, he was alone in JANUARY 2006 — are we now claiming that the “troops” are prescient?
It was a hacktastic smear job attempt, nothing more.
kchiker
Once the Dems have their national convention with their attendees unanimously wearing purple-heart bandaids to mock a Republican war hero, you can talk about backhanded insults the Dems make to/about troops. But not before.
Zifnab
No, he didn’t. He gave an inch, in refuting that mocking Kerry for showing up at an Army Base in Iraq somehow deserves derision. Then claimed a mile, suggesting that all criticism of the current President is equally unjustified while digging up the Kerry Joke Debacle just in case we thought he was going soft on the Senator from Assachusetts.
This is classic Republican Party politics. Reminicent of the Mark Foley, “Yes molesting pages was wrong, but… Gerry Studds! Rahm Emmanuel didn’t stop him! Democrats are worse!”
Darrell
John, if you can’t see that TimF is an extreme partisan hack, then you really are too far gone. I agree that Tim seems like a nice guy, but please, he is one of the most extreme one-way Dem hacks on the internet…
To suggest that the “evidence” of this fact is somehow in question or doubt, shows a lack of integrity or reality on your part. As an exercise, perhaps you can point to even 1 political post from Tim in the past 6 months which wasn’t pure 100% partisan Dem talking points. I’m seriouss
Darrell
It is nothing short of a bald-faced lie to assert, as Zifnab has done, that I have EVER suggested that “all” criticism of Bush is equally unjusified. Zifnab, you’re simply a lying sack of shit, nothing more.
Purple heart bandaid
Yeah, look that (purple heart bandaid) up on “The Google”.
No fan of Dems am I (I am a true liberal-John Kerry opposes gay marriage and he’s no libby) but they have proposed both balkanizing and drawing down as potential solutions.
What’s yer fuckin’ plan, Stay the Course?
“It’s never been stay the course, George”.
ibid:”Mission Accomplished”…
Darrell
I see, so in the reality based community, the truth has morphed into “unanimously”. And Kerry’s purple heart “wounds”, at least one of which was self inflicted, really were bandaid scratches. Unless you can point us to time Kerry spent in the hospital. 3 purple hearts in 4 months? A disgrace which diminishes the real sacrifices made by other troops who really did suffer serious wounds in combat.
Darrell
Look, it’s John’s blog, but if he’s going to scream over GOP “mouthpieces”, it’s more than a little ironic and hypocritical that he himself hosts one of the most consistently partisan liberal Dem mouthpieces on the internet. It was entirely fair for Rick Moran to point this out.
Zog The Obvious
“Report: Hundreds of WMDs Found in Iraq
Yes, I know they were old. But you said “no WMDs” which does not include old ones.”
…so, we went to war with Saddam for manufacturing old WMDs? Oh, but wait… if they’re old, then they came from the Reagan Administration which shared WMDs with Saddam back when ol’ Donny Rumsfield was shaking hands with him.
Silly me.
TenguPhule
Shorter Darrell: I am a proud member of the Swiftboaters.
Tom in Texas
Cheebus Darrell — I’m getting a strong sense of Deja Vu. We’ve been down this road before. It is an insult to American soldiers who received one when you say that the Army awards Purple Hearts frivolously. It is not an insult to accept a Purple Heart. Kerry didn’t nominate himself, and he didn’t award it to himself either. And all that without even touching the absurd position that he shot himself.
Bruce Moomaw
This just in: there is now solid proof — some of it provided by a commenter at Powerline — that the photo of Kerry eating alone was taken on Jan. 9, over nine months BEFORE his botched joke, and in fact was probably taken in Britain rather than Iraq. (That is, it’s in the same category as that E-mail from the gung-ho Iraq soldier that Clifford May was pushing yesterday on NRO, which has turned out to be provably a year old and quite possibly faked even then.) See the entry on the subject at TPMuckraker: “More Right-Wing Blog Fun with Iraq War E-mails”.
James
I agree; the GOP has become the rhetoric party. The lies, the hypocracy, the absurd attacks on new ideas. What happened to the GOP? It’s being led by a bunch of out of touch, partisan, religious zealots looking to enrich their corporate friends who slip in and out of the private sector. All the time using our money. There have been no checks and balances. No fiscal responsibility. How did they manage to get so many people to vote against their own interests?
Darrell
Kerry wrote his own after action reports.
not the senator
Steve-
The Powerline boys are fellows of the Clairemont Institute http://claremont.org/ which was founded by Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr. the rightwing backer of the Discovery Institute, the Intelligent Design guys.
I’m pretty sure Richard Mellon-Scaife will be involved here somewhere.
The Other Steve
Normal persons version of self-inflicted: shooting yourself in the foot while cleaning your gun in the barracks.
Darrells version of self inflicted: He didn’t throw the grenade far enough at the enemy and got hit by some of the shrapnel.
Darrell is an expert on war from having played Dungeons and Dragons a lot.
Nikki
You know, I don’t get why this would be damning. Since they are the people with firsthand knowledge of the event, don’t police officers write up their own reports after an incident?
The Other Steve
Not surprising. The rightwing is notorious for fabricating emails.
I always love it when they get reused. My parents had a Kennedy joke in their scrapbook that I saw reused as a Clinton joke.
Then there was that billion seconds ago email, that apparently was from 1950, but had been brushed off and changed slightly to make it sound contemporary.
E. E. Keller
“It also means you’re just an ignorant Philistine who can’t comprehend the staggering genius of George W Bush.” Thank you, thank you, thank you. I haven’t laughed that hard since your “STAGGERING GENIUS” said “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
Steve Soto
Congrats John for this post.
Bruce Moomaw
By the way, if Scott Hennen’s name sounds familiar, he’s the ultraRight North Dakota radio talk show host who previously got Cheney to say that (A) we are indeed waterboarding detainees, and (B) he thinks it’s an excellent idea — thereby forcing the White House Press Office into emergency overdrive to explain that when Cheney said both those things, he didn’t actually MEAN them. Hennen did this by the simple technique of enthusiastically declaring that he thought waterboarding was a wonderful idea and that he hoped Cheney agreed with him, which he promptly did. I don’t suppose this guy is a liberal mole?
Pete Sea
What does this say about the soldiers in Iraq, if their actions are what you say was displayed. The trouble is there is no longer any punishment for lies, BS and propaganda if you happen to be a republican. This administration has a banner line of news media to attack and say anything it wishes against any democrat that the republicans see as a threat or any new democrat that might be a threat to them in the future. O’Reily makes up BS every program and there is no fine, punishment or dismissal for him actions. But, it you ride down the road, go anywhere there is a crowd that has an anti-Bush statement you are fined or jailed so the republicans can have you harassed.
Notice the anthrax that was sent to the “democrats” in the senate and other places there were no arrest or anyone charged with that crime. Is it any wonder that the democrats are attacked and harassed every single day when you have the lied, propaganda and BS feed daily through the republican controlled news media.
When (D) Sen. Johnson was taking to the hospital for his brain problem, the first and continually repeated news reports were that this could give the control of the senate to the republicans, and that he would have to step down if he was unable to perform his duties and if he dies that the republican controlled state would appoint a person to take his place. I don’t remember seeing the type of news reporting when (R) senator Spector was having brain surgery for cancer or why doesn’t Cheney step down because of his heart problems. The news media is owned and controlled by the republican Global Corporation and will give you the propaganda and type of news that they wish. Bush complains about the coverage of the war by the news media was bias, yes, it is, they leave out about every bit of the negative news that makes Bush and his war hawks look bad…..
I personally thought the republicans had values, but in the last 10 plus years they have shown there is nothing that was to low, that they will not do in order to gain votes, wealth and power.
If the servicemen avoid anyone from a political party it should be the republicans, they have used them for an unjust war with Iraq.
They showed their their lack of concern when sending to the troops with not the best of equipment, while cutting the medical health and other benefits. The less they paid to the soldiers, the more tax dollars the war profiteers could receive of us our tax money with their no-bid war contracts. Even Bush’s uncle Bucky made out in the war contracts with the of providing ??body armor ?? to the troops. Wonder what kind of equipment would have been denied if it were the Bush twins or Cheney’s daughter in Iraq????
Laszlo Panaflex
The picture was taken nearly a year ago, when Kerry was in Britain, which explains why there is a Union Jack on the wall. But the right can’t resist a smear even when it’s based on a lie. Pathetic.
Amst
I only clicked on to this from Raw Story out of curiosity. I couldn’t believe the Kerry bashing still going on. Man, what a bunchy of Bush lapdogs you all are. You learned well, I’ll say that. Don’t have the answers to end the war, blame the person/s who aren’t running the country.
Btw,
I just had to check out this “PowerLine” site. As I thought, a very “conservative” blog/publication. Especially after reading the comment of how many people were greeting Bill O’Reilly. ha ha ha!! I don’t buy any of it.
Enjoy know you little lapdogs. You’re days are numbered.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Line_(blog)
Allen
No sense arguing with people who don’t even believe what they are posting. It’s like the kind of silly crap you give people about their city’s sports team. I see people knocking Kerry or the NYT, why? They act like they are “the other team.”
Oh ignorant nitwits, this isn’t sports. Stop pissing in your own pool and craping in your own bed. This is your country, not some stupid partisan game. Our children are sitting in the wood chipper, on a fools mission. Have some decent sympathy and with these important issues STOP LYING, STOP TRYING TO MAKE DUMB ASS POINTS YOU DON”T EVEN BELIEVE! This is important — STOP IT!!!
tony
George Bush is a genius? What a joke. You need to take your head out of the sand and see the mess he has made of our country, our economy, our environment, and his personal little war. He has gotten more Americans killed, in a country that did nothing to us, then were killed on 9/11. He is the laughing stock of the entire world. He has turned the word American into the most hated word in every language. The R’cons are champs at spin. It doesn’t matter what a person says, they can tell enough lies to change the meaning of it. And they lie so well that they even believe their lies. The Democrats have offered different plans at different times according to the way the war was going. Each time the R’cons shot them down. Why? Because they knew the Dems were right and did not want to be made a fool of. They will do anything to hold onto power.
rachel
:-D Man, was that ever mailed to the wrong address!