(Tom Toles via GoComics.com)
__
… with an extra-big bagful of hot air. Per Mr. Pierce, at Esquire:
Bolstered by the roaring cheers of dozens over the past week, the newly butched-up Willard Romney went before the VFW convention in Reno today and gave what was thought to be an “important” speech on “foreign policy.” He needed one of those because, as even the guys at the VFW hootenanny must know by now, Willard worked very hard in his youth not to be a V of the FW that was going on at the time. So, what was Willard’s take on foreign policy that he sought to share with the people who’d fought elsewhere while he was keeping luxury Parisian apartments safe from Viet Cong infilitration?
Well, basically, he is a bigger, tougher man than the president is, and he’s got the speechwriters to prove it…
The rest of the speech was an aria of elaborate dick-waving because, frankly, on these difficult issues, that’s all Romney has. His experience in foreign policy is decidedly limited to finding new places to hide his fortune.
“I am an unapologetic believer in the greatness of America.”
Which I did my level best not to pay for.
Dave Weigel points out another interesting detail about the Romney “No Apologies, No Details” team:
The Romney campaign spent the afternoon issuing statements of pride and agreement with the candidate’s VFW speech. The sure-thing applause lines: Romney’s denunciation of national security leaks, something he effectively re-introduced into the campaign. Among the Romney advisers called on to endorse this: Eric Edelman.
I guess if you’re going to get outraged about leaks, you summon experience. Eric Edelman worked for Scooter Libby during the period in which Libby and others shared info about Joe Wilson’s trip to Niger….
There are people who can pronounce shock and horror at official leaks, and then there is Eric Edelman.
Jon Chait at NYMag goes all sercon (serious & constructive):
… It is not clear whether Romney believes Obama’s “apologies” were wrong as a matter of fact — that the U.S., in Romney’s view, has never made any significant mistake in its international conduct — or simply that such mistakes should never be admitted, even in the course of a broader defense. Would any serious international affairs expert of any stripe endorse either proposition? The worldview is sheer belligerent nationalism, completely inimical to actual thought. In hard times, people grow more open to the appeals of nationalist demagogues. Whether or not it reflects his authentic self, this is in part what Romney is offering to the voters.
Over-thinking, Mr. Chait! The Last Progressive Republican said “Speak softly, and carry a big stick”. Since the mantra for today’s GOP is “Whatever the progressives want, we’ll demand the opposite”, Willard “Mitt” Romney is reduced to talking tough and hoping his band of paid syncophants will be enough to discourage the opposition.
BruinKid
Anyone know how to respond to Ron Paul fans who are demanding the Senate take up his Audit the Fed bill now? Is this a well-written bill, or are there some poison pills in there that could collapse the entire world economy?
Mike G
I liked the first comment at Charles Pierce’s blog post:
trollhattan
Rmoney is saying Holmes’ legally obtained guns were obtained illegally. I hope he doesn’t choke on the next NRA contribution check.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/07/25/4661098/obama-romney-differ-over-guns.html#storylink=cpy
trollhattan
@BruinKid:
Ron Paul…well-written bill? Does. Not. Compute.
i.e., no idea but ain’t going anywhere. Paul’s retiring.
Yutsano
@BruinKid: The Fed is audited by the Congress every year. The Paultards just want an excuse to eliminate it.
dead existentialist
Aren’t the Republican governors who vow to opt out of the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid acting as Death Panels?
Triassic Sands
Oh, Mitt, how I despise thee. Let me count the ways; one, two, three,…a googolplex, a googolplex plus one, a googolplex plus two, a googolplex plus three…
Death Panel Truck
You know who else’s worldview consists of sheer belligerent nationalism? (Besides Adolf Hitler, I mean.)
Starts with Dick…
Triassic Sands
@dead existentialist:
dead existentialist Says:
No, I think executioners is a better word.
Hill Dweller
Willard is a complete fraud.
Yutsano
@Triassic Sands: You just don’t appreciate FREEDUMB you socialist hippie!!
NotMax
Shorter Mitt speech: Wolverines!!
sb
So my students asked me what polls are reliable.
I was stumped. I honestly did not know.
Anybody want to help? They want to know which polls are trustworthy. Know that when one of my more challenged students used the word trustworthy, I damn near cried.
What polls should they be following, folk? Some? One? None? Thanks in advance for any and all feedback.
The prophet Nostradumbass
Going back to an earlier thread, which had something about Romney trying, and failing, to guess people’s ethnic heritage, I just remembered a time when my Irish dad was asked by a ding dong in a store if he was German. The reaction to that question was priceless.
Triassic Sands
@Yutsano:
Until recently, I had never realized that my two most precious freedoms are:
1. My “God-given” right to die as a result of one of my fellow citizen’s exercising his own “God-given 2nd Amendment rights.”
and
2. My right to die for lack of affordable health care.
A third right, only slightly less divine right is my right to be financially ruined by medical bills I can’t afford to pay.
Yep, Yutsano, I am deeply thankful for these rights, and especially for the Republicans who are ensuring that I (and millions of my fellow citizens) will continue to have these rights until one or the other finally gets me (us).
FlipYrWhig
@sb: Nate Silver has made a cottage industry slicing and dicing poll numbers. I’m not sure the issue is exactly reliable vs unreliable, but more a matter of how to take into account different methodologies, different assumptions, and the whole notion of the random sample that is also representative.
jwb
@sb: I second Nate Silver.
TheMightyTrowel
@sb: TPM used to have a nice feature up on the various pollsters and how they leaned but the links seem to be broken today. Their poll aggregates are also nicely graphed and show very clearly the divergence between different polling companies (or even the same polling company!) over time.
Calouste
Let me explain to Mr. Chait where this
comes from:
It is
notclearwhetherthat Romney believesObama’s “apologies” were wrong as a matter of fact —thatthe U.S., inRomney’s view,has never made any significant mistakein its international conduct —or simply that such mistakes should never be admitted, even in the course of a broader defense.JoyceH
@Mike G: But the best comment is – “Romney is headed overseas to visit his money.” Let’s spread that one around. Make it a Meme, make it Viral, all that good internet shit.
Villago Delenda Est
The VFW and the American Legion are made up of REMFs who probably have little problem with guys like Rmoney. Hell, they looked the other way at desertion in the case of the previous commander in chief. Why should they object to draft dodging in a Rethug? Heck, actual honorable military service in combat won’t help a Dem with these assclowns.
They probably endorse Joe Walsh over Tammy Duckworth.
TS
If there was ever any doubt as to what is important to Mitt Romney – it sure isn’t family. To make a political point he will throw anyone under the bus – no wonder Miss Ann has no idea how to communicate with real people.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/25/romney-says-country-doesnt-need-new-gun-laws/#more-224674
Nethead Jay
Anne Laurie, a question if I may: In your last post, about that nutball Wes Riddle in Texas, you used the word revenant. Was that just a coincidence or do we share an interest in the webcomic Girl Genius? (/geek)
Walker
@Nethead Jay:
Revenant is a classic term for the vengeful undead.
Raven
@Villago Delenda Est: Easy with the REMF shit John Wayne.
amk
mittbot showing the you-guyz-suck-at-olympics anglo-saxon way to the brits.
Raven
OH NO, Harold Ford doesn’t like the Senate tax bill! He wants certainty for businesses!
NotMax
@Raven
Harold Ford has as much credibility about politics as Henry Ford did about macramé.
:)
Raven
@NotMax: How’s that sleep?
Patricia Kayden
He’s so tough that when he had the opportunity to go to Vietnam, he went to France instead (to live in a castle and cycle around the countryside).
Also, I’ve heard that he demonstrated in favor of the draft, which is ironic because he made sure that when drafted, he did not go to Vietnam.
Just another Chickenhawk.
NotMax
@Raven
Comes and goes. How about you?
JCT
@Patricia Kayden: I think that demonstrating in *support* of the war and then avoiding the draft to go live (and have fun) in France makes you something far worse than just a chickenhawk.
I just had a childhood flashback – my youngest uncle was a Vietnam vet, came back without most of his left arm. The first time I ever heard the word “motherfucker” was in the context of bitching to my dad about some “REMF” – my mother was infuriated with him for saying that in front of all of us.
Elizabelle
What is REMF?
NotMax
@Elizabelle
R is for Rear
E is for Echelon
The MF is self-revelatory.
Tony J
@Elizabelle:
Rear-Echelon-Mother-F#&%#r
i.e. Someone who was in the military, but didn’t serve on the front-line.
Nethead Jay
@Walker: Oh, I know it’s in use far beyond that little corner of the net, it’s just that it’s been a theme there lately, so I wondered whether Anne Laurie might be a reader too.
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
REMF = rear-echelon motherfucker.
NotMax
@Nethead Jay
Don’t know whether you’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting him; Phil Foglio is a genuinely nice guy.
Looks kinda like Paul Williams.
Elizabelle
@NotMax:
Thanks. How did that term achieve prominence? Who came up with it?
Linda Featheringill
@sb:
Maybe you’ll check back with the thread on Thursday or so.
I like 538 and the daily kos poll wrap by steve singiser. Reports on polls and analysis thereof.
Nethead Jay
I’ve not had the pleasure but would very much like to. What you say is what I’ve heard from other Studio Foglio fans too. I’m in Europe so attending cons isn’t easy, but I’m working on moving to the Bay area, so maybe someday… ;)
bemused
Mitt told Hannity that it is entirely possible that Iraq had WMD and Saddam hid them in Syria. There doesn’t seem to a limit to how low he will go in outrageous lying to get more batshit crazy voters to the polls. It’s going to be fascinating in a horrifying way to watch what insane things he will say and do in the next three months. I’m more than a little freaked out that the guy wants to be president so badly that nothing is off limits to get there.
NotMax
@Nethead jay
That I do not know.
If you’ve never seen the graphic novels of MythAdventures, with art by Foglio, seek them out. Good fun.
A real shame he had such a lousy contract and the consequent bad taste in his mouth from dealing with a wheeler-dealer publisher along the way – his art was brilliant and perfectly suited to the stories.
JPL
@trollhattan: Is Mitt that isolated or was it just another lie?
@bemused: Is Mitt that isolated or was it just another lie?
NotMax
@Nethead Jay
You might e-mail him and ask about it. Have it on good authority (a close friend) that he does promptly respond back to e-mails other than the fanboy “You rock!” type.
Raven
@Steeplejack: Otherwise known as bout %85 of the people who serve in the military. Depending on who is doing the defining it can be anyone who wasn’t standing next to YOU.
JPL
@Raven: I can’t help but notice that when you are in town, the weather is hot and dry. My electric bill was quite high.
NotMax
OT: where does Obama stand in the Twitterverse?
Obama’s outsourced tweets top twitocracy
Omnes Omnibus
@Raven: I mentioned this on another thread, but I am not sure if you saw it. I got word back from my uncle that his fish taxidermist is retired, so no joy there. Sorry.
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
It’s an old military acronym, around at least since Vietnam, and probably before. Author: anonymous.
Steeplejack
@Raven:
Well, you do have to have a pole to stick the sharp end of the spear on.
Anya
@amk: When he met with Miliband he backtracked but I LOLed at the this….poor Mittenz is not putting any effort into this London trip.
Raven
@NotMax: Fine, back to my normal six or so.
Raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Yea, I saw it a minute ago. I’m getting quotes from $600 up, I’ll have to wait.
Raven
@Steeplejack: I don’t think before. Here’s a REMF site.
NotMax
@Anya
Mitt, if you’re by any chance reading this, when in Israel, do NOT tell anyone “I like your beanie.”
Go ahead and make anti-union comments in Poland, though. They’ll just lo-o-o-ove that.
/snark
sherparick
@trollhattan: I was going to remark that one of Mitt’s problems, as opposed to Newt Gingrich, he that he is such an horribly bad demagogue. But the sad thing is that none of this matters. That he is a horrible rich swell who believe he has what he has because he is God’s chosen and that he is entitled to the Presidency by right of class and wealth and can spew out any garbage necessary to make the sale will certainly make sure that 48% of the country will vote against him. However, the other 48% who despise the swarthy Kenyan Socialist who is in the White House would vote for just about any breathing white male over 35 who is not the Kenyan Socialist Muslim, and whether that person was caught in bed with a dead woman or a live boy would not change their vote. So that leaves the remaing 4% who do not pay attention Come November and they find that the economy sucks, and therefore their lives kind of suck, this 4% vote out the guy in in charge the last 4 years and they will take their chances the new guy will have better luck. And right now, all Obama’s bad mistakes on the economy (starting from the biggest, picking Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary, along with the second biggest, reappointing Ben Bernanke and not appointing other Federal Reserve board members who would consider unemployment and economic growth priority in 2009 when he had a 60 vote Senate majority), along with the even worse mistakes by Europeans appear to be knocking the economy back into recession.
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack:
Thank you. Had never heard the term before; wondered how it popped up suddenly and with frequency. (It’s been on a few threads.)
NotMax
@Raven
Glad to hear it. You might be passingly interested in this:
Gas station owners here responded “Totally coincidental” and “Unrelated” when gas prices finished dropping from 65 cents per gallon higher than Honolulu (a price differential that had held true forever and ever – the only refinery in the state is on Oahu and sells to all the regular stations here, branded and not branded) to 8 cents per gallon higher leading up to the opening of a gas station here by Costco earlier in July.
And Costco is still underselling them all by a quarter per gallon.
bemused
@JPL:
Ha, no one could be that isolated particularly on wmd.
MattF
It’s hard to come up with a description of the vacuity of Romney’s campaign. Not only is there no there there, there’s no there there there.
Bill Arnold
The current Conservative version is “Bluster loudly and brag about the size of your stick”.
Southern Beale
Husband and I were just talking about this. He says – and I agree – that Romney’s lies are just a political calculation. They know that most people won’t know the difference.
But we remembered when the media jumped all over Al Gore for his “misstatements” — saying he flew over some wildfire somewhere when he didn’t, the stuff abut Love Story being based on him and Tipper, inventing the internet, etc. Remember how Gore was labeled a serious exaggerator and liar? Yet Romney isn’t exaggerating. He’s out and out LYING. Where the fuck is the media framing now?
I want an Obama campaign ad that’s nothing but a list of Romney’s lies. Just scroll ’em all down there. He needs to be called on this shit.
NotMax
Well, the presidential/veep debate schedule has been announced.
And the third debate, in late-ish October, will have questions from screened “independent” voters in a “town hall” setting. If they can find enough, I suppose.
Because nothing screams democracy like having such an important event be driven by bozos who couldn’t be bothered to pay attention yet. It has become such a sham.
Philo Vaihinger
Romney another chicken-hawk?
Well, I’m not surprised, I suppose.
JPL
Mitt is not ready for prime time. He goes to London and tells the Brits that he finds preparations for the games “disconcerting”…hahaha link
Maybe he’ll blame that gaff on the current President..
Chris
I brought up the topic on a wingnut blog soon after the election. It’s both. They don’t believe America has done anything wrong, AND they believe that even if it didn’t, we should never admit it openly because admitting your mistakes is a sign of weakness and it’s a dangerous world out there, yadda yadda.
Yeah, it’s called conservatism. Welcome to it.
Ash Can
@amk: Wow. For a straight news story, that piece is simply brutal to Romney. And no wonder — I figured that the guy would be a gaffe a minute on this tour, but really? Criticizing the Brits on their handling of the Olympic Games? Right off the bat? Him??
Willard’s going to be champing at the bit to get to Israel, because I’m sure he knows Bibi will roll out the red carpet for him and give him the full presidential treatment (probably even more so, just to send a FU to Obama). The thing is, Willard will already have left such a trail of wreckage behind him that the natural spin for the we-can’t-allow-anything-straight-out-good press will be “Romney was warmly welcomed in Israel today, in stark contrast with all the people in Europe he pissed off over the past few days.”
NotMax
@JPL
Disconcerting = What? You had stuff made by union labor in your own country? Pikers.
sherparick
I just had to add this this post as it is so rich! And this is in the Telegraph, which is so Conservative they make Murdoch and his papers look liberal.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/mitt-romney/9428764/Commentary-if-Mitt-Romney-doesnt-like-us-we-shouldnt-care.html
Apparently, Mitt started out his London tour stating that expected the Brits to F-up the Olympics. So much for the repair alliances meme. If this guy gets to be President, I expect he will have united the whole world – Against us.
Philo Vaihinger
Presidents like to think they are above politics and represent the entire nation.
They do on primarily ceremonial occasions, more or less.
But not when they express political values or judgments controversial in their own countries or actually opposed to the feelings of most of their people.
But it’s like anything else and people always approve when it’s their own values that are served.
How would any of us like it if Romney, at a meeting of the Concerned Citizens of the South, apologized for Sherman’s march through Georgia?
Or even for the “War of Northern Aggression”?
Raven
@NotMax: Whoa!
JPL
@Ash Can: That’s pretty funny. I didn’t link to the previous post but I’m pleased that BBC has it also. Mitt will just tell Cameron he was taken out of context.
El Cid
Mitt Romney’s current spokesperson is embarrassing herself on the BBC’s NewsHour right now.
And yes, the “Special Relationship is Truly Special” is repeated again.
And the argument really is ‘he doesn’t bow to for’n leaders’: when the BBC interviewer [Julian Marshall] asked her how Romney’s policies would actually differ, he didn’t cross-examine her, I think out of pity:
She said that Obama was ‘deferring’ to Russia re. Syria, whereas Romney wouldn’t. Not what Romney imagined he could do differently in Syria — maybe send Trump to tell them to ‘shut up’ and ‘stop the bullshit — but just that he wouldn’t ‘defer’.
Maybe Romney would take away Russia’s veto at the UN Security Council.
Ash Can
@NotMax: That doesn’t really bother me. If the low-info undecided shmoes out there see that the town hall is featuring a bunch of low-info shmoes like them, some of them may actually watch and pay attention. And Obama gains from people paying attention.
Elizabelle
@amk:
Good catch.
From your Telegraph link:
NotMax
@El Cid
Nah, he’d just get the Kochs, Adelson, and his other benefactors to buy it. With leveraged securities.
Problem solved.
(+3 double martinis in)
Raven
@Elizabelle: Whenever we discuss military-related issue it, and chickenhawk, will surely arise. I have no problem with vets using the term but I’m not crazy about other folks throwing it around. Villago Delenda Est is a vet and he kicked it off this time. Those of us who served know exactly what we did and where we were and what the difference between life for the relatively few that were in the daily business of kill or be-killed and the rest of us. The odd-angry-shot sure, but most people in any of our wars including WWII were not in the shit.
amk
@Ash Can:
Way to endear himself to his “anglo-saxon” brethern, huh ?
Wonder if the bot has public events scheduled over there. Would love to see the brits’ reactions to him.
Jay in Oregon
@Triassic Sands:
Especially when #2 is brought on by #1. See Aurora, CO.
Having the Ron Paul-given right to not be forced into having health insurance sure sounds good now, huh?
El Cid
Also, the Romney spokeswoman said that Obama has been looking East, where as Romney would look more to more traditional allies.
Presumably those across the Atlantic, as in Europe, which technically are a bit eastward of the USA, but no nevermind.
I don’t know what the substance of this is alleging — did Obama link up with China on Libya policy? Coordinate international banking policy with Malaysia? What?
NotMax
@Raven
Great, oft-overlooked movie about Viet Nam.
Anya
@El Cid: Stupid Romney spokesperson is truly stupid.
paulfl
Mitt Romney and the other raging neo-con hawks have miscalculated. Their aggressive rhetoric on foreign policy and relentless bashing of the president’s record underestimates the support Obama has on foreign policy and the complete disgust among the public with any talk of more neo-con military adventures that will hit America hard in the pocketbook and with the lives of our soldiers. We do not need war with Iran. This agenda is out of touch with both reality and the sentiment of most voters. — Principled Progressive
Cassidy
A quick note about the term REMF and the modern version of Fobbit. I can’t speak for the Vietnam era guys, but today’s combat arms recognizes the difference between someone who’s job is to be on the FOB doing support stuff and someone who’s chickenshit and not willing to go on missions, for the most part anyway. You’ll always have the judgemental fucks who think that anyone who isn’t an Infantryman is shit, but the rest of us could tell the difference.
Raven
@NotMax: Got a copy right here! Check out The Anderson Platoon and A Face of War, both docs. I saw them as a double bill right before I shipped out.
El Cid
@Anya: Well, you know, special.
Raven
@Cassidy: Roger that.
amk
Payback time from cameron.
Re-endorses same sex marriage by hosting a reception for members of the LGBT community at 10 Downing Street on the eve of mittbot’s meeting with him.
Ash Can
@amk: I do wonder if his campaign people are dumb enough to have scheduled him for any public appearances or speeches. The contrast between his reception and the one given Obama would be big enough, but after his Olympic remarks he’d be lucky if people didn’t show up just to throw shit at him.
Raven
@Cassidy: I had a buddy in the Nam who had a wife and kids and his ass was not going out the gate on our convoy’s PERIOD. I, on the other hand, was a complete fucking idiot and couldn’t wait to hit the road. Didn’t know what the fuck an IED was, we called them MINES!
Raven
@NotMax: Ever see 84 Charlie Mopic or Go Tell the Spartans?
Cassidy
@Raven: I get that. If it isn’t your job to go out, I don’t blame you. If you actively avoid it and increase the danger to other’s that’s where I had a problem. When it’s your turn to ride, you ride.
I’ve got a friend who is an AF linguist. After a night of much consumed liquid bread and him asking me about being in combat, he confessed that he felt guilty that he doesn’t deploy. He worked in the NSA building and did ELINT stuff. I asked him, “would you go if ordered?”. He said of course. I told him to relax, that’s good enough. It isn’t your job and you’re doing your part back here. It was wierd, but it seemed like he needed to be told by a Combat Arms guy it was okay. I’ve never been the judgemental type, though, of other MOS’s. I was a big believer in the wagon wheel concept.
Raven
@Cassidy: Yea, the guilt I have over my friends who died will never go away. I had a big conversation with Pat Lang over the notion of a “combat” soldier. I would never refer to myself that way after tours in Korea and Vietnam. He contended that “in theater” was good enough for him.
NotMax
@Raven</a.
No, but shall seek them out.
One of the things which has stayed with me from that time was an anthology of anti-war poets called "Where is Vietnam?"
As for war movies in general, for both those in service and those who did not participate, would recommend "A Walk in the Sun," "All Quiet on the Western Front," and "Grand Illusion" as absolute must-watch films about the experience of war.
Cassidy
@Raven: I think that term is outdated anyway. We have a name for it now, but Vietnam was the same type of unconventional battlefield; the term used now is Assymetrical Warfare. Basically, it’s a 360 degree battlefield and traditional lines of engagement don’t exist. In that respect, every one is a “combat soldier”. Even the CSS guys have to be ready to respond and engage if necessary. I think the modern conventions of warfare have gone a long way towards integrating CA and CSS. One of the things we say now, before I got out anyway, is “One Team, One Fight”. I think that most troops believe that now. You’ll always have assholes and shitbags, but again you can always tell.
I hear ya with the guilt thing. Sucks.
Raven
@Cassidy: This dude was West Point, Ranger and the “least decorated” officer in Vietnam. Great comments on combat and medals!
Raven
@Cassidy: Yea, FIDO.
Cassidy
@Raven: Dude, don’t get me started about medals. I don’t have my CMB. I earned it, but hey kept not processing the paperwork, had to re-submit 3 times, until it was too late.
I put one of my Soldiers in for a Bronze Star. He treated some civilian casualties at a checkpoint and saved their lives. downgraded because he was a Specialist.
Two of our Fobbits, the shitbag kind, got Bronze Stars.
Not even gonna go into the Purple Heart shenanigans.
I’m still bitter about the CMB shit.
Cassidy
@Raven: Dude, don’t get me started about medals. I don’t have my CMB. I earned it, but hey kept not processing the paperwork, had to re-submit 3 times, until it was too late.
I put one of my Soldiers in for a Bronze Star. He treated some civilian casualties at a checkpoint and saved their lives. downgraded because he was a Specialist.
Two of our Fobbits, the shitbag kind, got Bronze Stars.
Not even gonna go into the Purple Heart shenanigans.
I’m still bitter about the CMB shit.
Cassidy
@Raven: Dude, don’t get me started about medals. I don’t have my CMB. I earned it, but hey kept not processing the paperwork, had to re-submit 3 times, until it was too late.
I put one of my Soldiers in for a Bronze Star. He treated some civilian casualties at a checkpoint and saved their lives. downgraded because he was a Specialist.
Two of our Fobbits, the shitbag kind, got Bronze Stars.
Not even gonna go into the Purple Heart shenanigans.
I’m still bitter about the CMB shit.
Cassidy
@Raven: Dude, don’t get me started about medals. I don’t have my CMB. I earned it, but hey kept not processing the paperwork, had to re-submit 3 times, until it was too late.
I put one of my Soldiers in for a Bronze Star. He treated some civilian casualties at a checkpoint and saved their lives. downgraded because he was a Specialist.
Two of our Fobbits, the shitbag kind, got Bronze Stars.
Not even gonna go into the Purple Heart shenanigans.
I’m still bitter about the CMB shit.
Cassidy
WTF? I hit submit once. FYWP.
Raven
@Cassidy: You’re really pissed!
xian
@sherparick: recession? evidence please…
Soonergrunt
@Death Panel Truck: Head? Mr. Richard Head?
Soonergrunt
@Villago Delenda Est: The “Service Organizations” as we’re directed to call them most certainly did turn a blind eye to Chimpy’s desertion.
And the VFW, of which Tammy Duckworth was a member, endorsed non-vet Peter Roskam in her race in the IL6. I dropped my membership in VFW the next day.
There were a lot of guys in the local hall who were combat arms vets, and a leaning conservative but fairly even mix in the hall. Even some of the conservatives had a problem with VFW national endorsing a non-vet over a vet.
I don’t know what the makeup of the national board is, but back then it was an extension of the RNC.
Note–the Teamsters and the IUOC, both member unions of the AFL-CIO endorsed Roskum in that election, having bought into his bullshit. They have both come to regret that.
Soonergrunt
@Raven: John Wayne never even qualified as a REMF in my book. A REMF at least is in the service.
Villago Delenda Est
@Raven:
Raven, you know I respect you. You also should recall that I’ve said here that I was (particularly during my tour in Korea) a classic REMF. Of course, the rest of the time, I was much closer to the bang bang stuff than that, serving in tactical units or, at REMFiest, on a division staff.
However, those two organizations are full of blustering blowhards who talk tough and treated guys like you who served in ‘Nam as losers when you came home, and consistently talk big about war, but can’t back it up with their own deeds.
And they embrace Rmoney, draft dodging shit.
Raven
@Villago Delenda Est: You know I’m just fuckin around! I shoulda put a smiley face on that post but, shit, it was 5:30!
Soonergrunt
@Tony J: Or even more accurately, it’s an especially loathesome attitude held by those who were in the service in wartime but didn’t see combat.
There are non-combat vets who weren’t REMFs. Guys who did their jobs well without complaint, who did everything they could to assist the operational effort without making the lives of grunts and other field guys undully difficult.
But a REMF–I came in to a FOB from being forward for six weeks. The only water we had was bottled water for drinking. Every day, you’d wipe your pits with baby wipes to keep from getting rashes, but there’s not much else. You don’t shave because that wastes water, and also as an embedded trainer, the Afghans you serve with respect men with beards because they are older and wiser than those without. I haven’t slept in days nor showered in weeks.
So I come into a rear area in Jalalabad. I get my truck parked after seeing the motor sergeant for maintenance, and the ammo sergeant for ammo resupply and having submitted my other resupply requests. I’m walking across the compound towards the latrines in my filthy uniform, carrying a shaving kit and a towel. I get stopped by a Master Sergeant (E-8) who starts very publicly dressing me down for my appearance, including such gems as “you may let your discipline go to shit in the field, but here we have standards!” Orders me (Staff Sergeant, E-6 at the time) to parade rest while he continues his harangue, and this goes on for about 5 minutes before he dismisses me on my way.
THAT’s a REMF.
Cassidy
@Soonergrunt: MTT teams never got respect. We were always catching hell from our big unit that was supposed to support us.
Foregone Conclusion
@amk:
The crashing irony of a private security subcontractor having to be bailed out at great expense by the army and police is, of course, lost on Mitt. Also, the strike has been called off now, thanks in no part to a little bit of flexibility from the government.
Seriously, what a dick. This is just reminiscent, writ large, of the infamous cookies incident. It’s not awkward or absent-minded, which are both forgivable characteristics; it’s just unpardonable rudeness.
Villago Delenda Est
@Raven:
It’s incredibly hard to read tone in a flat sentence!
Still, you were in the shit, not knee deep, but close enough. Which is more than I can say as a cold warrior.
amk
@Foregone Conclusion: Good point. Tweeting that.
Soonergrunt
@Cassidy: We didn’t have that problem with either the 10th MTN guys with the exception of the one asshole I just posted about, or the 82nd ABN guys who replaced them, in Afghanistan. I didn’t do the ETT/MTT thing in Iraq, but heard stories.
We actually got more ignorant shit from our parent NG brigade and battalion than we ever did from the active army guys.
And medals–fuck–only saw ONE guy in my actual unit who deserved the award he got. Everybody in the paygrade E-7 or above got a Bronze Star including several people worked in air conditioned offices and never left Camp Phoenix except to go on R/R leave. A Soldier I submitted for BSV for pulling a wounded Soldier and securing the encrypted radios from a burning hummer while under fire got denied by my chain of command because he was a PFC, and our REMF battalion commander said “troops lower than E-6 can’t do that level of work.” I talked to s Sergeant Major with 10th MTN and they got him the medal because some of their guys were present at the time.
But EVERY swinging Richard in the battalion got an ARCOM, by order of the same Bn CDR. They even gave ARCOMS to the two guys who spent the majority of the deployment in confinement in Kuwait because they weren’t paying close enough attention when the approvals started.
Cassidy
@Soonergrunt: Heh. That BS I referred to earlier, when I first submitted it, it was a standard bronze Star for meritorious service. It wasn’t a V scenario, but the kid did save some lives of civilians who’d been opened up on with a 240. The first time it came back, I was told it “wasn’t enough” it needed to be sexed up some more. Of course I did it, but I also wrote up a citation which described how this kid held off an army of ninjas, cured ebola and cancer in his downtime, and whole bunch of other shit I don’t remember. A couple of days later I got called into the CO’s office and that was an exciting conversation. My CO was cool, but he wasn’t in the position to fight for it. BS downgraded to ARCOM. My Soldier kept the citations I wrote, though. He got a kick out of it.
Soonergrunt
@Cassidy: But for all of that, back to the original discussion of REMFs. A lot of guys who never left the camp or the FOB were NOT REMFs, and I want to make that clear to the others reading these.
The Ammo Sergeant at J-bad–I’d come in with my Consumption Report and he’d be like “no problem. We’ll get you loaded right up.” and he’d have a detail help me load my truck. The mechanics just about anywhere–those guys and girls would work twelve hour days, six days a week, in unheated or un-airconditioned bays if they were lucky and tents if they weren’t, and if you needed your truck fixed and no one was available, they’d roll out of their racks and get right to work, and not a one of them ever complained about it that I EVER heard. And those boys and girls would work fucking miracles. I was awful hard on my trucks, but they always got me back on the road a hell of a lot faster than I thought they could do it. The mechanics at FOB Blessing were the archetype.
Cassidy
@Soonergrunt: Oh I know. I said as much earlier (not sure if you’re thinking I said otherwise). Some peoples job was to support and they did it well, a lot of times above and beyond. Some used there job as an excuse to stay in AC and not do anything. Those are Fobbits.
Maude
GW Bush’s military records were missing during his years as prez. A military historian was told that the records weren’t there and they don’t lose records.
Why didn’t the media ever say anything about it?
Soonergrunt
@Maude: Everything you need to know is here:
http://www.glcq.com/bush_at_arpc1.htm
But the press liked Bush more than Kerry, so that’s the primary reason they didn’t delve into it.
Maude
@Soonergrunt:
Thank you. I will read it. I bookmarked it.
This has bothered me greatly since I first hear about it.
rachel
@Soonergrunt: Shakepeare described people like that: