Re: Vets on the Hill

(Hat tip to commenter Rita in the original post)

I don't think Dadman was aware of the brewing shitestorm. Many (if not all) of those media reports only offered the quote, without that crucial bit of further explanation.

Ever alert to a racist dog whistle, Keith Olbermann springs into action:

OLBERMANN, from the April 8 "Countdown" opening credits: Nothing obscure about this: Racism as a Republican campaign plank. Sen. McCain introduced at a rally on Capitol Hill."

BELLAVIA, introducing then hugging McCain: You can have your Tiger Woods. We've got Sen. McCain.

OLBERMANN: Did he actually just say that? And why did McCain then embrace him?
<...>
Those comments by Sergeant Ballavia - how would you describe them?

Well I think they're pretty ridiculous. I guess one multiracial black man is interchangeable with another. I think that it indicates that Republicans in broad stroke and Mr McCain in particular have a huge problem with black people. This kind of at least racial insensitivity suggests that there's something disturbing going on here and they can't even make a distinction about who the right opponent is of Mr McCain. So I think that it speaks for a broad concern and a kind of legitimate concern for what his candidacy means, especially for black people in this country.

OLBERMANN: When you hear something said like that, is intent impossible to calculate? And does it even matter? Is the idea behind the remarks the same regardless of the intent?

DYSON: Well, my pastor used to say, look, a mosquito's intent is only to get blood from you, but the consequence, it could give you malaria. So at that level, the intent will never exhaust the consequence. The consequence here is huge. Now, we can't discern the person's intent, it may have been fine, but that's even more problematic. If there was no specific and particular and conscious intent to do harm, that means that this grows out of a pattern of habit. That it's just a natural reflex, and that one, you know, interchangeable African-American multi-racial person is as good as the other, or they're indistinguishable...

Viceo at the link.

Damn those pesky milbloggers!

More trendspotting

What's with all the bogus bus stories from Iraq lately?

Re: Tour Lengths

via AP

WASHINGTON - Senior defense officials say President Bush will announce on Thursday that Army units heading to war after August 1 will serve 12-month tours rather than the 15 months that soldiers are currently deployed.

I guess last Friday's announcement that tours would be cut was just a bit of a cruel hoax for anyone that is currently or about to be deployed.

Vets on The Hill

Vets for Freedom hosted our Vets on the Hill event Tuesday morning, featuring Presidential Candidate and Senator (Sen.) John McCain. Sens. Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham also attended, along with other leading pro-war Congressmen and Women.

The VFF event was extremely well-organized, pulled together by an excellent staff led by Pete Hegseth, VFF Executive Director. VFF covered the travel expenses for over 400 Iraqi and Afghanistan vets, most of whom arrived in DC Monday night and reported for VFF duty at 0530 Tuesday morning. We were addressed by Hegseth, his key staff, and Georgetown Men’s Basketball Head Coach John Thompson III and Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers.

Hegseth and Thompson both made humorous references to Hegseth’s Basketball career under Thompson at Princeton, during which Hegseth never played in a game. Thompson said his goal was always to help his young men achieve their goals, and since Hegseth’s was to serve in the Army, Thompson made sure that happened by keeping him on the bench.

General Myers gave an excellent talk about courage and sacrifice, and was the first of many speakers Tuesday who said that, as we served our country in war overseas, so the country needed us to continue to serve, in the war for public opinion and policy here at home.

At 0700, we were bused to Senate Park for the outdoor event, to feature McCain, Lieberman, and other congress people and participants in the VFF Heroes Tour, which stopped in DC yesterday and concludes in NYC today.

Numerous mainstream media outlets covered the outdoor event, as did Amie Parnes for Politico:
Several hundred veterans stood in the cold drizzle Tuesday morning for a man they called their hero.

“You can have your Tiger Woods,” David Bellavia, a former Army staff sergeant, told the crowd of pro-Iraq veterans. “We’ve got Senator McCain.”

They'll set about ye

My new best friends are Scottish...

and they like the M-4 because it is lighter than their rifles. Sadly, I had to mention that it probably jams more frequently than theirs.

The Basrah area has been interesting lately, but OPSEC forbids me from telling too many stories. Suffice it to say, that if we have another go 'round, the IA will be ready.

More Re: Cuts

A few days ago:

Over the past couple of months the media have been attempting to create a narrative on troop drawdowns - as far as I can tell they've been fairly successful at it.

Here's an example from CNN, February 2008:

A pause in the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq after the current reduction is completed in July "makes sense," Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters in Baghdad Monday.
<...>
The official said there is "no determined length" of the pause, but Petraeus wants to "let the dust settle" from the first round of reductions so he can assess the security situation.

The construction of the narrative is a bit subtle, but seems obvious to me.

Simple facts: The surge added troops to Iraq, and plans are to end it this summer.

Media narrative: There is an ongoing drawdown of troops in Iraq that will be paused this summer.

There are additional phases to this construction, by the way. One is already apparent in the CNN story above: getting quotes from "officials" defending the decision to "pause" the drawdown - which will in turn reinforce both the claim that there is a drawdown and the implications of pausing it. Next, "pundits" will courageously wade in, making the case for or against this "pause". All will "forget" that there was never any action that could be paused.

Possible Vice-Hillary?

Just because you've spent hours with John Edwards' hairdresser before the big show doesn't mean you're going to impress the General...

Did I blink?

The London Sunday Times:

IRANIAN forces were involved in the recent battle for Basra, General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, is expected to tell Congress this week.

Military and intelligence sources believe Iranians were operating at a tactical command level with the Shi’ite militias fighting Iraqi security forces; some were directing operations on the ground, they think.

Petraeus intends to use the evidence of Iranian involvement to argue against any reductions in US forces.

Dr Daniel Goure, a defence analyst at the Lexington Institute in Virginia, said: “There is no question that Petraeus will be tough on Iran. It is one thing to withdraw troops when there is purely sectarian fighting but it is another thing if it leaves the Iranians to move in.”

RE: RE: National Media vs Local Media

via American Digest

The "team" responsible for tossing litter onto my lawn every so often grew smaller today. Seattle Times to Cut Approximately 200 Employees "

Re: Time Travel

Rocky needs the publicity. In a recent survey of gap toothed, slack jawed West Virginia meth whores only 47% could identify his photo.

Update: In fairness, we should note that Rocky "regrets his poor choice of words". Is that an apology? (Sounds more like a response to Salamander to me.)

Ed Morrisey:

If this sounds familiar to you, it should; it’s basically what the North Vietnamese said about McCain while they tortured him in the POW camps.