Got this from Melissa Clothier, who rocks, who apparently got it from Red State. The guy who did this video does a ton of stuff I like and I would give him full credit, but no one linked back to the source.
Found source, had to search exhaustively, which is to say read it off the top of the video.
Hey guys, sorry for the radio silence, but I am back from my vacation in Texas.
Last night Jonn sent me the link to Soltz’s latest pronouncement on Iraq, a country he was in for 4 months 5 years ago. It’s about what you would expect. But, I’d like to start this post with a quotation sent me this morning that is the exact anti-thesis of VoteVets:
“It behooves you, therefore, to think and act for yourself and your people. The great principles of right and wrong are legible to every reader; to pursue them requires not the aid of many counselors. The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.”
–Thomas Jefferson, A Summary View of the Rights of British America, 1775
Apparently Soltz’s duty is to shill for Biden, even when he makes no sense.
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Does this look like the face of a man who would attack an elderly British Veteran?
The Future Mrs. Marcus Luttrell sent me this from Boing Boing today:
A British hard-partying 24-year-old bartender got upset that his elderly neighbour called the cops over all the noise he was making, so he got drunk and broke into the 72-year-old’s house, wielding some kind of Mall Ninja knife that incorporated brass knuckles. What he didn’t know was that the neighbour was a retired boxing champ, and the older man beat the everloving crap out of the would-be assailant. The judge in the case sentenced the burglar to four and a half years and said, of the beating, “You got what you deserved.”
Plans, plans, everywhere the plans.
With Obama preparing to undo the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, the military is preparing programs and materials to recruit queer youth. These programs will exploit the isolation and oppression felt by many queer youth and recruiters will lie to queers (and everyone else) about the benefits of military service while hiding the truth of imperialism. By engaging in queer counter-recruitment, we protect and strengthen our queer communities while undermining US imperialism. In this workshop, we will provide a context around queer militarism and develop some concrete strategies for engaging in queer counter-recruitment.
Sign me up! I’m in for some serious queer counter recruitment!
Male Lesbians Against Bush Unite!
The other day Carissa from VV came over here, and one comment she made really pissed me off, and I wanted to delve into it a bit further:
I am not anti-war, but I believe in fighting SELECTIVELY. I believe there is a difference between patriotism and nationalism. Being anti-IRAQ war does not = being anti-war overall.
I have a problem with pro-war Republicans who have not served in the military and/or neither are their children. I have a problem with hypocrisy
At the time I responded with the following:
Also, for clarification, “Pro-war” republicans with no service are not allowed to back it, what about Anti-business Democrats being allowed to vote on bills which impact small businesses if they never owned one? Is that okay? What about any Rep who is not a doctor voting on health care issues? For that matter, what about tax cheats voting on Tax bills? Or are Republicans the only ones exempted under your form of representative democracy?
I’d like to look at that some more, but from a slightly different perspective. Imagine if you will a group of citizens who band together. Largely they are significantly more wealthy and more educated that the populace at large. Less than 4% of this group has served in the military, and yet, on behalf of the entire populace, these people declared war. Carissa would apparently not espouse the belief that they had political authority to do so, nor that they had any moral authority whatsoever to do so. And yet, that is in fact what they did. Because I had a friend of mine research it for me today, and of the 56 signers to the Declaration of Independence, only 2 (Matthew Thornton & Oliver Wolcott) had served in the military prior to serving in the Continental Congress.
Now, many of them did serve during the war, but that is impracticable during today’s conflicts, as the ages of the Members of Congress back then were significantly more youthful than today. Clearly Carissa meant something different, or at least I assume she did. But looking at the analogy further, I find it interesting that a further complaint of Ms. Picard’s was that:
My issue with most Republicans is that they want to overfund military actions while underfunding veterans care. I believe if you send our men and women to war, you have to take care of them accordingly when they return if they are suffering the effects of that war. Period.
My assistant, Siggurdson also sent along this Wiki Page, recounting the Newburgh Conspiracy:
With the end of the war and dissolution of the Continental Army approaching, soldiers, many of whom were now deeply in debt due to their pro bono service, imagined that Congress would not meet previous promises concerning back pay and pensions. Congress, at the mercy of the states for all revenue, did not seem to have any way of paying more than a fraction of the money owed. The result was that, by March 1783, many officers were talking of launching a coup and setting up martial law to secure what had been promised to them.
Now, I don’t mean to say that we *can’t* take care of veterans. Hell, I spend all day pointing out how much money we waste on stuff, and how it would be better spent caring for veterans. But unlike Carissa, I don’t believe that helping veterans is the sole provenance of either political party. There are DEMs and GOPs who are good on veterans issues, there are DEMs and GOPs who suck on veterans issues. But these groups just sow confusion by citing to votes that aren’t so clear cut. Beware scorecards on veterans issues, because as I showed with the IAVA scorecard, not all votes are as they appear.
Anyway, the whole Chickenhawk meme thing pisses me off. It seems like it is some mantra of the left to ward of evil spirits or something. No matter what the issue I get to hear about the phantasmagorical boil on Rush Limbaugh’s ass, or Dick Cheney’s deferments, regardless of whether either of those have any bearing. We live in a representative democracy, wherein we elect people to espouse our views on Capitol Hill. On selective issues, like the various venues in the Global War on Terror, Carissa and the others in the “GOP as Chickenhawks” brigade would try to rob those representatives of their voice to speak for us. I never really understood the logic of that before, and in looking at it through the lens of the revolutionary war it makes even less sense to me.
I had hoped Carissa would come back to respond to my follow up questions, but she seems to have disappeared on us.
OK, need advice on a good book on audio tape. I listen to them at work and when I go to sleep. My most listened to are A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson and Guns, Germs and Steel.
The other day I got 1776 by McCollough. I gotta tell you, not all that exciting.
Brits in Boston. Good guys outside. Build up inside. Build up outside. Cannons arrive with Knox. Brits split. Move to NY. Build up inside. Build up outside. High Grounds. Brits land. Shots fired. Good guys slink away to Jersey. Bad guys have Germans. Germans enjoy Christmas. Big river, lots of boats. Row Row Row. Walk. Shit we’re late. Walk faster. Arrive. Kill Germans. End, 1776.
Anyway, anyone have any advice? Anyone ever listen to or read the Ambrose book about Lewis and Clark?
** OK, I have changed to Diarist per request from Lurker. I remain unconvinced that VV doesn’t maintain control over the postings there, but at the least I got to a login screen….not sure exactly how germane such a distinction is, but in fairness thought I should update.
OK, so in the past I did a piece on Jon Soltz entitled “Just Making $hit up!“. (as an aside, if you do a search on “Jon Soltz DA Form 2404” TAH is the first to come up.)
Then I talked about some of their phonies, like Duncan and Josh Lansdale, in my piece “Embracing the Phony and the Farcical: The VoteVets story“.
Yesterday I was just sort of all over the place. Today we turn our attention to VoteVets diarist Jim Starowicz. Here is Jim and his Bio: 
USN ’67-’71 GMG3 Vietnam In-Country ’70-’71 Member: Veterans For Peace, Chapter 150, as well as other Veterans and Pro-Peace Groups. Also Activist in other Area’s, Questioning Policies that only Benefit the Few, Supporting Policies that Benefit the Many and Move Us Forward as a Better Nation and World! Politics: Registered Independant Profession: Carpenter and Multi-Tradesman
My favorite though wasn’t that bio, but this one where he was named the “boomer of the month” for September 1999.
Love the Ladies, especially the ones who don’t play Any Games, are Honest with themselves first and with others…Vietnam Vet, Ran Armory Naval HeadQuarters Saigon and Rode Rivers on PRB’s.
Do tell me more. Did you ever work with Special Ops types?
Also worked with the Seals as they had an Amory in same Compound! Served 4yrs, in the Navy Came out a GunnersMate 2nd Class. 1st year Merridian Naval Air Station,1 1/2yrs. Rodman Naval Station Panama Canal Zone. Naval SERE Training Coronado Calif. Then In Country Vietnam!!!
The “Amory” thing threw me for a loop, so I looked it up on Urban Dictionary, and apparently an Amory is “a word to describe a mixed-nationality person who spends a lot of money per week. Most are known to eat a lot of kimchi and listen to the METAL genre of music frequently.” So there you have it.
Anyway, when not blogging for VoteVets, Jim has his own blog entitled “‘Imagine’ A World Of Peace,Understanding,Tolerance“. Jonn has actually linked there before when Jim was pontificating about “Fragging” and the Iraq and Viet Nam meme going around.
Jim likes to make movies, like this one honoring Flag Day by ridiculing anyone who puts out that flag. “Old Glory was pimped out into some kinda two bit whore.”
Jim also wrote up the “Declaration of Impeachment, Veterans for Peace” apparently, or at least spent a great deal of time posting it all over the internet.
We, therefore…do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People…solemnly publish and declare, That these…Free and Independent (People)…are Absolved from all Allegiance to the (Bush Administration), and that all political connection between them and (this Administration), is and ought to be totally dissolved…And for the support of this Declaration…we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
Honestly, half of the time I have no clue what he is talking about, like this one:
These last years only enhanced, greatly, the already growing hatreds from our past failed foreign policies in meddling in their countries, resources, and politics. They have greatly increased the numbers of those we label as al Qaeda or Taliban and especially the new 21st century label, for all who oppose us and our actions, similar to theirs, “Terrorist”, as we wage our Terror! Only ours is High Tech terror,, with greater destruction and death, theirs low tech, so ours is righteous, it cost more, and well we’re the supreme power and leader of freedom? and democracy?!! “God Bless America”?!!
The point of that is to praise some piece by Gordon Duff of Veterans Today wherein he (Duff Guy) espoused crackpot 9/11 conspiracy nonsense:
Why would 9/11 be covered up if there wasn’t some reason? Our military and intelligence community is filled with people who have gone public about 9/11. Few questions were answered and it was just too convenient, falling right into the middle of a plan we now know for certain was designed to create a reason to invade Iraq. Only cowards refuse to demand answers.
So, anyway, everyone say hello to Jim Staro, VoteVets Blogger, member of Veterans for Peace, possible truther, and maker of bad videos.
Another one sent to me was this genius treatise on something or other, written possibly by a Pirate, entitled: AARRRGGGHHH! The hypocrisy! (Iran v. China and other thoughts) . It has all the intellectual heft one would expect had they read its progenitors.
First of all, what exactly is different between Iran and say, oh, CHINA, with whom we are VERY VERY VERY close economically? When it comes to international trade, they maintain “most favored nation” status despite killing THOUSANDS and injuring up to tens of thousands of their own people during the Tianamen Square protests. Like Iran, China is not a democracy.
Trivia Question Ms Picard (please insert joke about “number two” here): Which Republican President was it that hammered that one through? Answer: Bill Clinton. Also, it is no longer called “MFN” as over 50% of countries were “most favored” making it a bit like calling someone “my favorite girlfriend” when you are dating half of women 18-33 in the mid-Atlantic region.
MOREOVER, HOW ARROGANT is it for AMERICA to declare whether or not the winner of ANOTHER country’s election is legitimate or not? A body of the Iranian government decided the results were valid (sound familiar?) and that THE PEOPLE would have to deal with it.
Dude, what with the CAPS? And why is “ANOTHER” capitilazed? I would have gone with LEGITIMATE and RESULTS, but that’s me. If you really want to make a point, juSt starT raNdomLy putTing capS in mId worD. And, haven’t you guys been talking shi’ite about the Iraqi and Afghan leaders? Who is VV to be declaring whether they are legitimate? But, let’s move on to the dramatic ending:
OH, OH, and then McCain says on Larry King that it is important that Congress be recognized as a co-equal branch of the government (to the President). While I totally agree (because technically, in a broad sense, the executive and legislative branches ARE co-equal), I am just wondering why this wasn’t an issue under the last REPUBLICAN President, whose Administration was the most expansive in presidential history? Funny how under a Democratic president they decide to freshen up on their Con Law. I just hate partisan politics. Both sides do it, I am just ranting about the Republicans b/c I am sick of the war-mongering.
What is this “they” shit? I’m against any and all expansion of the Executive as well as the Legislative and Judicial, and this blog has been arguing that from Day 1. As far as I remember, Congress had the right to vote on anything they wanted, and as memory serves, they decided to take a pass on most of this crap. As for that “I just hate partisan politics”, excuse me while I whip this out….
Carissa Picard is a licensed attorney and the creator and President of Military Spouses for Change (MSC), a non-partisan, non-profit membership organization that seeks to promote and protect the rights, interests, and needs of service members, veterans, and military families by educating the public and empowering military spouses. She is also on the Government Affairs Committee for the non-partisan, political advocacy organization, Veterans and Military Families for Progress.
The very non-partisan VMFP endorsed 27 Candidates in the last election, what say you look at those names and point out those who are not Democrats. Go ahead Carissa, I have all day. Non-Partisan my aching ass. Yet another phony veterans group strikes again.
UGH. (If this post doesn’t make sense, it is b/c I have a migraine right now and I am not going to re-read or edit it.) End of rant.
Thanks, I have one now too. UPDATE: Now with more video. After the jump!
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