I will be in and out today, so entertain yourselves.
By the way, I failed to comment on this yesterday- this moderator should be beaten with a stick. Disgraceful behavior.
*** Update ***
Heh.
Open Thread
by John Cole| 32 Comments
This post is in: Site Maintenance
Andrew
I hear Matt Sanchez has some experience disciplining naughty soldiers.
capelza
And, one last time, referring back to ScottThomasgate, they wonder why the corroberating soldiers won’t come forward?
brock o. baum
Funny…I thought he’d be the kind of guy you and your ilk would be cheering on…
jake
See … what … happens … when … you … think?
Seriously, did the mod forget to take his meds? If he thought a soldier was breaking a rule, why not let him do it and then (if he were still bothered) file a complaint? He’s going to feel extra amounts of the stoopid if it turns out the guy borrowed a uniform from a friend or went to Ranger Surplus and picked up some gear.
capelza
brock, that’s because you march in here with a buttload of assumptions about the posters, when in fact you don’t really know much about us at all.
Otto Man
Christ, what a fucking moron.
You can direct that to the moderator and Brock as well.
John Cole
Seriously- if I was rocking all the assumptions about me that Brock is, I wouldn’t like me either.
TR
Conservatives don’t need facts and truth. They operate from the gut.
capelza
The moderator did ass out completely. But it should be noted that the kid did get to speak for a minute and a half, even though he disrpted the closing of the panel.
cain
Not to hijack the whole Beauchamp thread… but what the hell is this about the Senate allowing Bush to update FISA? I don’t ever want to read “xxx has succumbed to pressure from the white house”. The white house should have no power to dictate anything, it has no credibility, no public support except from die hard 25% wingnuts. Democrats should no better than that.
Once again I think politics have trumped good sense. Perhaps a little indignation and derision sent to the House is in order.
cain
jake
The DoD hates the Baby Jesus. And soldiers.
DougJ
The fact that progressives are condemning the moderator speaks volumes of the difference between those on the right and those on the left. Had the shoe been on the other foot, Tom Maguire would have waterboarded the contrarian questioner while Jeff Goldstein slapped him with his cock.
cain
Doh. Sorry for my post. I should have read the previous post which was on topic.
That said, the moderator was a cock.
cain
Perry Como
http://ustream.tv/channel/yearlykos-convention-2007
Watch the unhinged go at it.
ThymeZone
So, it’s cassidy back with a new handle and the same shitty material.
“You and your ilk?” Christ, man, at least cover your tells.
The Other Steve
I don’t understand why the guy was in uniform. Was it really an active duty uniform?
That being said, I have a real problem with shouting down people. They should have let the panel smack him down properly. This is a real problem with dKos. Many feel as I do, that by learning to argue with opposing viewpoints, you strengthen your own position. Others are just so tired of arguing with asshats, they don’t want to let them in the door.
I can see both sides. Arguing with asshats is tiresome, but Republicans don’t seem to know how to argue rationally.
Joe Max
If he thought a soldier was breaking a rule, why not let him do it and then (if he were still bothered) file a complaint?
Exactly. The moderator was a pompous ass. Always keep in mind, pompous asses are not exclusive to any political philosophy. I would venture that they are pretty evenly distributed across any political demographic.
What characterizes the Left blogosphere is that (as was pointed out here) is that we don’t generally hail our pompous asses as heroes, but more often call them out as pompous asses.)
That being said, the moderator didn’t have to behave like a authoritarian jerk, demanding the soldier’s name, rank and serial number. Like someone else here commented, it’s the same as dealing with bad cops: let them violate the rules and complain about it to their superiors later. If he was in uniform then he would be wearing a name tag. That’s all the information needed to report the guy, since his command would know generally where he was going to be on leave (especially Airborne) so he can be called to duty if needed.
If the people in the room and on the panel couldn’t give good answer to his claims that the “surge is working” without shouting him down, then their arguments must not be very good.
jake
And … NEW, XTREME … ELLIPSIS POWER (TM)
jake
Concepts like Democracy and freedom can pale in importance when you’re seriously dehydrated, sitting in the oven fresh dark and the only light is coming from the Green Zone.
If Rice trots out another “No one could have possibly foreseen,” I might just lose my temper.
Pug
Said moderator was an idiot but there’s and upside for our friends in Wingutistan. They now have a new hero. And he’s a man in uniform, too.
Drudge, Rush, Sean, Billo, Bloody Bill (not a veteran in the bunch, by the way) and Fox News can crank it up now and show how much those leftists hate the troops. Good for them. It does make them feel good, you know.
Rod Sanchez or Matt Majors or whatever is so last week.
jcricket
What happened to all the power we were building for the Iraqis? Wasn’t that one of the “success stories” the wingers are always crowing about? Damn that reality and its liberal bias.
Bubblegum Tate
Maybe the power grid is being overwhelmed by the paint factories that are working overtime to churn out all the pain being used on Iraqi schools. Didn’t think of that, did ya, moonbat?
attaturk
Viewing the clip, I think there was ample idiocy going all the way around. Bad questioner behavior, bad moderator behavior.
David Broder is plotzing.
Wilfred
Speaking of building
Karen E. Crummy
So much for freedom of the press.
jcricket
No, didn’t think about that. Was too busy thinking of ways to undermine the troops’ morale and bring down America from within.
Plus I was edumacated in the public school system, so you know that can’t have resulted in anything good.
brock o. baum
i think the major point is being overlooked here; that being he DID NOT SAY ANYTHING POLITICAL..
…John Soltz did not like what he as saying and he despeartely tried to use military regs, which he is not the arbiter of, to shut him down..
…saying the surge is working is not political speech..
Bill Hicks
There is a post over on DKos explaining the moderators action.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/8/5/3940/86488 (sorry, I forgot the html code for links)
Apparently the moderator is an officer and according to the post is required to confront the soldier who was breaking a military rule to not engage in politics while in uniform. I am not well informed on military rules so if those of you who have more experience can let me know what you think of this I would appreciate it.
capelza
I read that post at Kos just now.
So this guy in uniform, when this was filmed, was going for seconds. He did it the day before as well.
myiq2xu
I read Ezra’s version, then watched the video, which was better than Ezra
Didn’t see any “freak out” by the moderator, saw a troll with a book and no sense.
When I was in the service, we weren’t s’posed to wear our uniforms when we were off duty and off base.
The dude in the video was way off base. I’m guessing blunt trauma – head injury or too many blunts.
OhReally
The moderator did the right thing. The soldier was clearly out of line and should face disciplinary action. Listening to him I thought, “Just give the poor guy the two to three days he needs to make a point, however small, incoherent, or silly that point may be, and let him get back to the medical facility from which he is most likely AWOL.”
The mere existence of a uniform does not demand respect or consideration. When the person wearing it is violating military regulations (or being an idiot for pretending he’s in the Army), he deserves little of either.
Andrew
This fuckstick soldier apparently considers YearlyKos “part of the battlefield” in the war on terror. He needs to take his fascist fucking attitude and read the god damned Contitution and then spend the next five years reading history and figuring out why declaring that your fellow Americans are the enemy makes you entirely unfit to wear the damned uniform.