Just wanted to post this link from Ace of Spades so all the folks at the MilBlog Convention have a better understanding of their condition this morning…one of these days I’m going to that thing…have a few for me!

So Whoopi Goldberg decided she’d play the race card (again).  Well, Whoopti-Doo!  Whoopi, honey, it’s been over-played.  By you, by Janeane Garafolo, by Chris “Tingles” Matthews and by every other liberal that can’t defend the President’s actions and policies with facts or logic.

Stop calling me racist.  It’s old, and it’s trite.  Stop trying to tell me that I don’t know what it’s like to be discriminated against because of my race.  I’ve been discriminated against not only because of my race (both of them) but because of my gender as well.  Piss off, liberals.  You’ve discriminated more against me than any WASP, then turn around and tell me I’m the racist because I abhor the direction the President is taking the country.  You’re going to have to collectively find a new rebuttal.

Today is Diversity Thursday over at CDR Salamander’s place, so I thought I’d join in some of his fun.  I’m half Caucasian and half Filipino.  I was adopted and raised by Mk 1 Mod 0 white parents.  In the course of my life I’ve been referred to as “the Chinaman” and “Ho Chi Minh” by white and black peers, ostracized by Filipino shipmates for being mixed race, and even told that I wasn’t a “real part of the family” by a cousin.  When I was in college, I spent a few years in AFROTC.   A female Captain, who happened to be OSI by trade, made some inquiries after asking me why I hadn’t applied for a scholarship when, in her view, I would have been a shoe-in for one (at first she didn’t believe me when I told her I had).  She later informed me that I hadn’t received one because “you aren’t a black female”.  Evidently, being an Eagle Scout that graduated in the top ten percent of his high school class while taking honors courses and scoring a 32 on the ACT didn’t stand up to the qualifications of having been born with breasts, a vagina, and darker skin.  I’m guessing that’s what happened to the NROTC scholly I applied for, as well.  I’m not touting myself as the reincarnation of Georgie Patton here, but when we select people for leadership and advancement based on “diversity” criteria and not actual ability we have no reason to wonder why things are screwed up.

Let me leave you with one thought to ponder: if the President was Herman Cain or Allen West, what would you hear from the left? They’re already saying it…UNCLE TOM!

But we’re the racists. Liberals, you can kiss my (half) brown…

THE FRONTLINES OF AFGHANISTAN

Taliban insurgents kidnapped 50 Afghan police officers in an ambush in northeastern Afghanistan. Insurgent forces in the Helmand province attacked an American unit with small arms fire, killing SPC. Justin Ross of Wisconsin. Other ISAF members were killed in separate attacks using IEDs and small arms fire. Since our last report nine more American have died in Operation Enduring Freedom. The war in Afghanistan has claimed 59 American lives thus far in 2011, and the total for the war is now 1,514 (www.icasualties.org).

THE FRONTLINES OF IRAQ

Several attacks by gunmen occured throughout the country, and insurgent used bombs to kill contractors, police, and civilians. Gunmen using silenceers killed a police colonel in his house in Ramadi and a roadside bomb was used against a food distribution center in Baghdad. One American soldier died in Iraq since our last update.  American soldiers killed in 2011 is eleven and an overall death total of 4,441 (www.icasualties.org).

If you have a different opinion please email me at [email protected]. Or to learn more visit The Frontlines. Thank you.

very respectfully,

The Warrant

References

The Economist, March 26-April 1, 2011

The Frontlines Weekly Update Brief thefrontlines.com/the-frontlines-weekly-update-brief-march-21-27-2011

iCasualties. (2011). Coalition Casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. Retrieved from www.icasualties.org

Academically, I don’t believe parties to be necessary whatsoever. But I realize that it’s easier; it’s lazy and it’s ultimately become the American way to rely not on the specific positions of a candidate or your own views as a voter, but on the party you support. Politics has increasingly morphed into less about ideas and more about ideological warfare. Politicians and voters alike with the frequency of drawing breath, will undermine and intellectually circumvent their own solid position on an issue, merely to prevent the other party from reaping a reward. We see the damage done across the spectrum in the media and the punditocracy; whatever the issue, one resorts to using a political or ideological label as a pejorative and/or invective.

The two major parties spend more time, money and effort on gaining or maintaining power in Washington [or their respective state capitols] than they exert moving the nation forward.They uniformly exert that effort on entities other than the American citizen in pursuit of that political power. In short, political parties are far more damaging to the sense of the Republic than they are beneficial. I understand how they emerged and why they are the overwhelming force in politics……people are by and large lazy and intellectually un-evolved. The draw of group think/herd mentality, the desire to belong to something larger than oneself and the need to have a ‘them’ intrudes on all facets of life where there is conflict. It’s too difficult and time consuming for most Americans to research a pool of candidates and decide which is the best to represent their views. It’s far easier to look at the label. Of course, the way the system has been organized, most voters realistically have only the choice between candidate R and candidate D, so they become even further intellectually bankrupt.

Is there a solution? Perhaps. At the very least, reform the electoral system and the media landscape to allow participation of more political parties. This may appear to be contradictory to some, but the infusion of idea’s beyond what Party R and Party D espouse will at the minimum expose choices to the voter and dilution of the party hegemony. Parties won’t go away, they’ve become part of human nature, but the damaging effect can be mitigated somewhat.

If you are military or prior military and want to rant, vent or just let your opinion about politics be heard as we count down the 11 days until the mid-term election, here is your chance.

MilitaryPundits.com wants YOU!!!

If you would like to be heard and let the world know that someone who has earned the right to have an opinion, has one, then drop an email to [email protected] to let us know. Don’t be silent.

You have earned the right defending these freedoms, use them!!

The GOP civil war is rather interesting to view from the sidelines. Karl Rove first came out against the tea party success, being the old school Republican stalwart that he is. Then by all appearances, took an on-air drubbing by Rush Limbaugh….and conveniently softened his position.

The problem I have with O’Donnell and others of her ilk is that her platform appears short on substantive solutions for energizing the economy and long on social issues and vague generalizations like ‘taking our country back’ . How are you going to take our country back if you cannot explain from what and to where? Being a Victorian moralist and anti-condom for AIDS ridden regions is nutty, but I could give her a pass in that she probably wouldn’t have an effect on programs such as that. But when she states:

“it was a misconception that you, quote unquote, can’t legislate morality.”

The reality of that statement is that if you don’t legislate one morality then you are legislating somebody else’s morality,” she said. “So you can’t get around legislating morality.”

Does she not understand the concept that legislating a moral point of view that takes away from some citizens freedom of action is not equal to legislation that doesn’t?

The fact that Sarah Palin is advising her to only speak through Fox news and that she apparently won’t debate Chris Coons without receiving the questions beforehand further detracts from what luster she has.

Oh crap, there I went….I used a word that had ‘lust’ in it…..

I simply don’t understand some candidates. Now after a clip from Bill Maher’s old show Politically Incorrect surfaced, showing CoD admitting that ‘she dabbled in witchcraft’….she cancels her Sunday talk show appearances. And ironically speaking on Hannity’s show, she claims she will conduct no further national media interviews. Man up Christy!

Do these people simply think that ‘who else is the right going to vote for…I don’t have to work at this anymore?’

Hello Military Pundits readers! I just wanted to pop in to let everyone know that I will resume contributing when I return from somewhere in the Middle East. While I know that it is commonplace for deployed soldiers to blog, I am unfortunately under direct orders to not blog while deployed due to the nature of my unit’s mission. On a comforting note, the order is a blanket one issued neither due to anything that I’ve written in the past nor issued by anyone in my military chain of command or the DoD. So until I get back (whenever the hell that may be) rest assured I’ll be reading here along with the rest of you.

Where was this program when my middle son was wanting to drop out of Boy Scouts, which he eventually did. I can guarantee you he would still be in and probably be the top Scout had they offered this in pack 93.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/us/14explorers.html

The responding officers — eight teenage boys and girls, the youngest 14 — face tripwire, a thin cloud of poisonous gas and loud shots — BAM! BAM! — fired from behind a flimsy wall. They move quickly, pellet guns drawn and masks affixed.

Keith Olbermann has provided us with a new folk hero to compete with Joe the Plumber. I would like for you to meet “Jeff the Unemployed Blogger,” Olbermann’s nickname for the man who attended a Tea Party in Pensacola, Florida… but not because he wanted to add his voice to their call. His real name is Jeff Spoeri of Pensacola, Florida. No, Jeff and Sid the Cameraman attended the Tea Party with some sort of mischief in mind and the ability to videotape it for Mr Unemployedblogger’s (spelled Spoeri) website. The experience exceeded Jeff’s expectations when, in true “grassroots” fashion, they started offering the microphone around to whoever wanted to contribute. Jeff excitedly took the microphone, happy for the opportunity to “exercise his First Amendment rights.”

Except it wasn’t to contribute. It was to heckle and disrupt the rally, and it was rather artful. However artfully asshattery is performed, it is asshattery nonetheless. Our little Jeffy, who is as proud as the Code Pink protester who all made us throw up in our mouths a little at the RNC back in August, has taken asshattery to a new level. This man wears Oprah’s ass as a hat. Now that’s an asshat.

Keith Olbermann lost his freakin’ mind enthusing about this guy. Olbermann, the propagandist who ran a “list” of Tea Parties which downplayed the significance of 800 simultaneous rallies across the United States (skewing the news as only MSNBC can… it’s not like they’re a real news network, after all,) included his video in his nightly hatefest.

I’m sorry, but anyone who accepts political commentary from Garofalo as being anything other than a lame attempt at substance-addled comedy is just so misguided. Keith Olbermann does. ‘Nuff said. If she wasn’t so outlandishly offensive, it would be funny. She is funnier than 6 out of 10 angry barstool drunks, though. Those guys are hard to beat for blithering rages, but she keeps right up with them. “Teabagging rednecks.” Come on, that’s funny, I don’t care who you are.

I don’t know what she’s into, but if Garofalo keeps it up, she’s going to sound like Mohammad Ali. She doesn’t really look well, and she’s got a hint of a slur. That’s over and above the racist slurs, just to clarify. The rage disorder is a hint, too. Gets cranky when she has to sober up enough to talk on the TV, I guess. She does make a nice counterpoint to Olbermann’s self-righteousness, though, doesn’t she?

But I digress.

Back to our boy Jeffy. So Jeffy takes gets an opportunity to get on the microphone and he has a strategy; draw them in with things they’ll agree with and then blame it all on the previous administration. He starts off by thanking the veterans, which I have thanked him for in his comments, always a crowd-pleaser in the type of crowd a Tea Party might attract and an excellent rhetorical ploy, and then he begins his diatribe when he realizes he’s losing them. Hundreds of people are staring at Mr. Spoeri at this point as if he has a cucumber growing out of his forehead. Jeff pauses, sensing that he’s made a tactical error. Quickly regaining his composure, like the Grinch confronted by little Cindy Lou Who, he asks a leading question: “Who here is making less than $250,000 a year? Cheer! Let’s hear you cheer!”

I enjoyed the part when I asked, “How many here make less than $250,000 a year?” and there’s a big cheer

He was drawing them in…

you have to “speak to your audience,” y’know

Wanting to believe that this man has some sort of plan to say something relevant, they cheer. His plan working perfectly now, Jeffy drops it on them, blaming the former administration for all the world’s woes and congratulating them on their new tax cut. His mission accomplished, Spoeri throws his hands in the air like a victorious fighter as boos rain down upon him.

But, like all good villains, I reveled in the booing just a bit … although I should have closed with “Enjoy the rest of your teabagging!” Maybe I should have paid more attention in rehearsal …

Jeffy hurried home to post his new video and seek his attention. He was largely successful, but he may have gone a little too far with the Daily Kos. This from mariosavio, a Daily Kos writer:

Nice job. But a little desperate for attention? (0+ / 0-)

“Yeah, I’m the guy…”

Thanks for the transcript of your speech.

You did a good job, but by posting here & bragging that you risked your life to do this you have only proven that you are desperation for attention & affirmation.

Are you really that insecure that you need pats on the back from us Kossacks? Come on, you’re better than the GOP.

To which our Jeffy replied on his blog (but not in his response to the writer on Kos, who would have disassembled him):

Seriously, d00d. That was a pretty dickish thing to say.

You know it’s pretty bad when you’re a liberal and your drive for attention brings a negative reaction from a Daily Kos contributor. You can tell it left a mark, too, by the response. This guy really doesn’t like to be called on it. You should read his responses to a woman who was actually there at the rally and who called him a liar.

He demanded an apology. *sniff, sniff* I can feel his pain. *sniff*

I wrote Spoeri in his comments, telling him that his trollish behavior had given me a teaching point with my children. He responded innocently that he had gone to a non-partisan rally and was simply participating in it. His web page shows otherwise, as he gloats about the unbelievable success of his mission.

Seriously — I didn’t realize there would be an opportunity to speak, but they were practically begging folks to come up and say a few words … and I was right there

Mr. Spoeri states that he was a participant, and that he was just trying to have his say in support of the theme of the rally. He claims that he was just trying to educate the poor misguided souls who, if they knew what he knows, would obviously be celebrating the Obama presidency like he is, not protesting the massive programs and bailouts being launched by our new and glorious messianic fiscal savior. He wasn’t trying to upset anyone or be trollish, he claims. Later he reveals what he really thinks of them.

Do you think I feel bad that I made them all look like asses? Nope, can’t say that I do. But the thing is, Andy, they already looked like asses

The thing about being a sneaky bag of shit is that you will out yourself in the process. While claiming innocence and batting his eyes like a little schoolgirl with a cookie hidden behind her back, he lets fly with this one.

My rhetorical style is not the issue here, although I must say that it worked better than I ever could have expected …

What would an innocent participant have expected? Hmmmm.

Mr. Jeff Spoeri, unemployed blogger from Pensacola, Florida, whose greatest accomplishment in this world is to have appeared on Jeopardy, I’ve got an award for you…

Asshat of the Month

Since you are the inaugural Asshat of the Month, we’ll have to come up with a certificate for you.

They may be teabaggers, but you are the teabagee. Suck it up, buddy. Tell me, does that taste like Earl Grey?

*UPDATE*

Jeff Spoeri has graciously accepted the award and posted an acceptance speech at his blog, which is overblown, but very nice. However, when pressed in comments, it’s amazing how quickly his “appreciation for the troops” evaporates when one disagrees with him. Here are two of his tweets from today.

New comment: Now I’ve got to go. Andy Wahl Bye, hero.

Nice, Jeff. Where’s your appreciation for those who have served now? Pretty thin, that soup you’re serving at the Tea Party. Although your “outrage” when I challenged your sincerity with your intro at the Tea Party was some stellar acting, it wears thin really fast. But then, most truly genuine things do, right?

Ummm… No.

New comment: I thought Andy left. The last refuge of a scoundrel is patriotism, Andy.

Oh, snap… there it is. Like I said, when you’re trying to pass asshattery off as something innocent, you will out yourself. I didn’t even have to push much.

This is the type of guy that Olbermann holds up as a good example, folks. Liberals want to compare him to Joe the Plumber… sort of… Uh… yeah.

Remember, folks… patriotism is for scoundrels.