30
Jun
Another Open Thread
I not only rode in and fired an M1A1 Abrams in the Army, but I drove the bitch, too.
Please donate to my Presidential Exploratory Committe via the paypal link, as I clearly have the right stuff.
*** Update ***
The McCain mancrush on MSNBC never stops. Just put Clark and Rev. Wright on infinite loop and go to Martha’s Vineyard, you hacks. If I were John Kerry, I would be breaking shit right now.
El Cid
U = NOT qualified BECAUSE —> U NOT Republican.
Surabaya Stew
Hey John, what do you really need the money for? If this is just a general appeal for funds, just say so! I’d be more than happy to give.
Punchy
Sandboxes don’t count.
Tax Analyst
You’d better have your Flag Lapel Pin on when you say that, Mister.
4tehlulz
u were not a fighter pilot FAIL
Michael D.
John: How many of those Abrams’ did you crash?
calipygian
I’ve cleaned more aluminum shitters at test depth with cherry Kool Aide powder than any other motherfucker here.
Hail to THIS Chief, bitches!
John Cole
I don’t need money at all. It was a joke about military service qualifying you for the White House.
Dork
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell screwed you, didn’t it?
Dave
Obviously you are much more qualified to be President than that service-shirker FDR.
Hopefully, you will aspire to the levels of greatness that Ulysses Grant reached during his tenure. Obviously, his time in the U.S. Army translated into an Administration for the ages…
JL
I saw Face The Nation and I also saw Morning Joe. Anyone who thinks that MSM is no better than right wing talk radio, make a comment now. It was because of coverage like this that Kerry never stood a chance. If it continues, you might as well just call McCain, President now.
The Grand Panjandrum
You ain’t got shit Cole. I dated Abrahms’ youngest daughter for a while. (Really!) Bekin Van Lines should be here next week with them credentials, eh?
Incertus
Dave,
Grant’s administration is actually an object lesson in how not treating black people like shit gets your legacy shat on. His administration was no more corrupt than any other that preceded or followed it, he was immensely popular, and he was never personally accused of any corruption. His great “mistake” was using federal troops to actually enforce Reconstruction and provide civil rights protection for freed slaves, work which was all undone as soon as Reconstruction ended.
The Moar You Know
I certainly have never been able to tell the difference.
strawmanmunny
I’m at work so I can’t see all this on TV but is it really that big of a deal? I mean there are blogs acting like this is the end of the world and I just can’t see why it’s being touted as such a big thing.
Times like this is what makes me feel ashamed to be a Democrat. I swear, the bitching,whining and all out crying by Democrats over every little thing pisses me off. Instead of our candidate growing some balls, maybe the rank and file need to grow a pair.
Just to be clear, that ^ is in referenced to what I have read on other blogs, not this one. Haven’t noticed the whining here….yet. lol
over_educated
Thisis win.
My favorite part:
ZING
Is America ready to elect a man whose wife has such a tenuous grap on GRAMMAR?
? We all know how important correct grammar is to working class voters.
myiq2xu
I recall the panty-twisting around here about Hillary’s comment on McCain’s experience.
Now Obama says this:
Where’s the outrage?
Zifnab
Except MSM stock is in the trash. Ratings are down across the board. The credibility has been shot all to hell. And who can blame anyone for it?
NPR and PBS are my only sources of news, because they’re the only people running stories that fucking matter. The rest is just rumors, lies, and political porn. And – surprise, surprise – Public Television and Radio have been hitting their fund raising numbers out of the park for the last year and a half.
calipygian
I think the type of people who write bullshit like that at Townhall are suprised/disappointed that she didn’t write her thesis in Ebonics.
Dave
Incertus,
Point taken about how his defense of African-Americans tainted later perceptions of his tenure. But he also tolerated massive corruption even if he didn’t take part.
Nevertheless, you can insert another soldier-turned-president here to make the point. Franklin Pierce…Richard Nixon…Benjamin Harrison…
RSA
But I bet you didn’t graduate in the bottom 1% of your class at one of the service academies. You just don’t measure
updown.cleek
of course there’s a typo in D’Sooooza’s article. what an idjit.
Kat
In case anyone at Balloon Juice is interested, your banner ad ‘Let’s Talk Colorado—Win blah, blah’ has a bad link.
Probably won’t get much money from them if they can’t count our clicks.
Jon H
Ah, but I bet you never landed one on a carrier, at night, in a storm.
Pantywaist.
Jeff
Matt Lauer right wing shill
I love how the freepers are going to go off and say, “See, anyone could do it.” At least he corrects himself even before he says the whole name.
slag
Here’s the magical place where Democrats go to make it impossible for their base to enthusiastically support them. Instead of standing behind Clark and help make the case, they wimp out. Ceding the ground that Clark just gained completely. This is a non-troversy turned controversy because of typical Democratic capitulation. Weak, weak, weak.
Incertus
In your pointed little head, and it’s lonely.
The Moar You Know
Matt Lauer right wing shill
I love how the freepers are going to go off and say, “See, anyone could do it.” At least he corrects himself even before he says the whole name.
Not an accident, not a mistake, not a Freudian slip.
Lauer knows what he’s doing.
JL
http://www.votevets.org has a petition up supporting Clark’s statement.
The Grand Panjandrum
I think what Clark said was fine. Even IF he had crossed a line I would feel ZERO compunction for anyone in the Obama campaign, much less the candidate himself to even acknowledge these statements until:
1. Every motherfucker involved, even tangentially, in starting the Iraq War is on his/her knees publicly begging for forgiveness because they were WRONG.
2. Everyone perpetrator of the John Kerry Swift Boating publicly and profusely apologizes for being wrong AND lying.
3. Everyone involved in torture, extraordinary rendition black site prisons, and Gitmo is hanged for being a war criminal.
Until then, my friends on the right can put the pearls away, because all the clutching ain’t changing my reaction. Wes Clark isn’t my favorite retired general but he stated the fucking obvious and has done so more than once. He basically said the same thing on the MSNBC Morning Joe show just recently and I say BRAVO.
NOW, how is this faux outrage going to bring back the 4000+ dead Americans and scores of thousands of dead Iraqis? How is this faux outrage going to keep 2 million Americans from losing their home? How is this faux outrage going to bring relief to all those people flooded out by the breaking levees all along the Mississippi?
Jesus! I can’t even get outraged at the faux outrage anymore. Its just fucking pathetic. (As is Obama’s rejection of Clark’s statment.) Maybe its all just too tedious for me.
jake
Unless you threw coins bearing scriptural passages while you were driving, who cares?
El Cid
“non-troversy”—I love it.
4tehlulz
It gets better.
AP headline on Yahoo:
McCain critics on left and right attack war record
He’s a moderate who’s being attacked by the left and the right! He’s not so crazy!
Superspecial bonus points if you find out what the story really is about.
tiny flags for all
martha’s vineyward is looooovaly right now, media hacks. i’m on the library porch in a rocking chair soaking up the wifi. come on by!
Davis X. Machina
Obama’s not playing to win, he’s playing to not-lose.
Which is how you lose.
AkaDad
John
I could be your VP, because I used to plan missions during paintball skirmishes.
Incertus
Aravosis is such a fucking tool sometimes. I called it on the other thread and didn’t even have to go to his fucking site.
jake
The headline now reads “Some on left target McCain’s war record.”
I also note this SHOCKING EXPOSE comes to us courtesy of The Politico.
Bleah.
John S.
I’m outraged!
Obama clearly said that McCain has crossed a threshold for being CiC that he himself has not. We can expect to see him featured in a McCain commercial any day now…
Ron M
So basically, by denouncing what Clark said, Obama’s campaign accepts this media narrative that military experience=exceptional qualification for President.
By doing so Obama is furthering one of his perceived weaknesses that he isn’t a safe choice for president due to lack of military experience.
Thanks for letting this endless self defeating cycle of BS go on and on…
mapaghimagsik
Well, remember that a good pilot was Randy “Duke” Cunningham. That worked out really well.
Seriously. Perhaps we should be looking for the guy who crashed 10 jets, not just 4 or 5.
mapaghimagsik
Oh sure, and Obama will take the high road. Watch the other surrogates—that’ll be the fun. If they hit and hit hard, Obama can look all loving and it’ll be great.
I think this could be teh win. After all, Clarke makes the gaffe, and people talk about it, which gives another surrogate “Well, what does it mean?” and the “Well, he did crash 4 others…”
4tehlulz
That’s the trick. The front page says left and right while the article page title mentions just the left.
jake
Ah. I thought it was another Yahoo!/AssPress fuck up of the accidental variety.
Dan
I drank more than George W. Bush. Can I be president?
myiq2xu
Look, everyone here knows I’m no Obama supporter.
But WTF?
General Clark made a good clean hit on McCain. He’s got the cred to do it.
One of the strongest selling points for McCain is the war hero meme, especially against Obama. Clark called bullshit on it.
So Obama tosses Clark under the bus.
Is Obama trying to lose?
jibeaux
Right. Obama was clearly saying that someone should torture him, because only then will he be qualified to be C-in-C.
/eyeroll
Now, on to the open thread bit. I want to put something together and have it printed up that would involve digital pictures as well as pages of text, it would be sort of in booklet format. I’ll only need about 7 or so copies, and it might be 20 pages or so. I have used snapfish before to make photo booklets, but they don’t seem to have a service for including pages of text in the booklets. Any recommendations for an online service that could do this?
myiq2xu
We’re not into kiddie porn here.
Neal
Get a few 8-balls under your belt and then talk to me.
jibeaux
I think this is a very simple story. Clark says something that gets completely manhandled by the media. He said something indisputable, that being shot down doesn’t make you presidential material. The narrative that he’s smearing McCain’s patriotism/service/whatever, which of course he didn’t do, takes hold.
Obama can either point out this nuanced distinction and expect the media to immediately clarify the situation and withdraw all their criticism and outrage, or he can use it as basically a springboard to talk about himself and patriotism, something that people with the IQ of banana slugs keep worrying about.
I’m disappointed that he didn’t have a better, more supportive, response to Clark. But some things are not going to change, and the media’s mancrush on McCain is one of them, and the war hero narrative is something nuance just needs to stay away from. It can only hurt Obama to even be perceived to be going after McCain on that front.
So instead, he tried to turn the topic around back onto himself, like, y’know, politicians do.
KevinD
Yeah, but were you held prisoner for five years, locked away in the dank basement of some German nightclub, “tortured” by groups of teenage German Goth chicks who forced you to smoke hash and denounce Reagan?
Or am I the only one that’s experienced that?
Dork
He simply cannot win if this will be the media coverage until November. Impossible. Any criticism of McCane becomes “assailing his war record! How unpatriotic!”.
There’s no criticism Obama can now make. The media will torch him for anything negative he proffers. For reasons I think I understand, the media companies need McCane as President.
JL
My brother was a fighter pilot over NAM, needless to say his political leanings are opposite of mine, but he won’t vote for McCain because of propaganda films McCain made while a pow. For someone to say that it’s the left attacking his record, forget about it.
JL
My brother was a fighter pilot over NAM, needless to say his political leanings are opposite of mine, but he won’t vote for McCain because of propaganda films McCain made while a pow. For someone to say that it’s the left attacking his record, forget about it.
Martin
John was the teenage german goth chick.
myabilitytoannoy2xu
Not only can I not get outraged by Wes Clarks comments, I can’t get shocked by the outrage of others.
I just dont care. Not about the comments. Not about the reaction to the comments. I think the whole issue is shit and the issue about the issue being shit is, itself, shit.
How jaded am I?
jake
Yep. Bad news is news, good news is no news.
“Tonight on CNN - Under the boardwalk. More Americans are homeless than at any point during the history of our nation. We’ll take you on a tour of California’s newest beach front community…”
4tehlulz
Tonight on CNBC, Jim Kramer will tell us the best stocks to have after the nuclear holocaust. Also, are we experiencing a bubble in lead prices?
The Moar You Know
I drank more than George W. Bush. Can I be president?
June 30th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
How are you still alive?
linda
there are hundreds of detainees who’ve been tortured and held now for longer than st john. are they now eligible to run for president.
JL
Dan obviously meant just the booze and not coke.
JL
If I slept at a Holiday INN before would that mean that I’m qualified?
Oracle
myabilitytoannoy2xu FTW.
Jon H
Stuff five psychoactive toads up your butt and get back to us.
Dennis - SGMM
I not only carried an M60A1 machine gun (Plus 400 rounds of ammunition and a spare barrel and the “oven mitt” to change same) in combat, I actually shot people with it – none of whom were on our side I might add.
While I’m not inclined toward the presidency I would at least appreciate a Cabinet post.
Tax Analyst
Yeah, but were you held prisoner for five years, locked away in the dank basement of some German nightclub, “tortured” by groups of teenage German Goth chicks who forced you to smoke hash and denounce Reagan?
Or am I the only one that’s experienced that?
I had a similar fantasy once. Does that count? Well, except it was just one girl and it was my hash in the first place and she didn’t have to force me to smoke it. But I did say really terrible things about Ronald Reagan, although I must admit I meant virtually all of them.
Sign…the good, old days…where have they gone?
myabilitytoannoy2xu
Does on-line combat experience count?
Can I cite my BF2142 medals and awards?
Tax Analyst
OK, so I can’t proof-read worth a shit anymore.
dslak
A modest proposal.
jake
You’ll need to prove you capped at least one lawyer before your request can be considered.
Martin
If they were on our side, and you shot them in the face, AND got them to apologize to you for being shot in the face, we could talk VP. But it sounds like you’ve got a bit of work to do yet.
Surabaya Stew
Gosh, am I a dumbass…
Read into you a little too literally there, John. You may not need money, but you sure as hell deserve some for entertaining and informing me over the past couple of years. While I appreciate your tank driving days as much as the next taxpayer, somehow one doubts you are of presidential caliber. But you sure run one hell of a blog!
matt
You guys should follow my lead and give up cable news. I didn’t even know this whole thing was going on until I read about it here.
Life is much less stressful without WATB Republicans, the “liberal” media, and their collective fake outrage.
bago
Acttually, the click is tracked by this number:
var axel = Math.random() + “”;
var ord = axel * 1000000000000000000;
You go to doubleclick and get redirected to the ClickUrl so the click can be tracked.
Dennis - SGMM
Well, I was threatened with being written up by a very green LTJG for shooting one guy more than fifteen times. Hey, it was in the middle of the night. The shootee was a sapper who’d bound his torso with medical tape and likely loaded up on the easily available heroin. In addition to his Chicom pistol he was carrying two one-kilo blocks of plastique with detonators attached. The young JG was gracious enough to apologize after he got the right of it.
pinola
Seems the Matt Lauer vid is unavailable now
Koz
Fortunately for me, I haven’t been paying attention to any of this. From what I’ve seen, I agree with most of you. In fact I actually agreed with Gloria Steinem when she essentially said who cares about John McCain’s five years in captivity.
But notwithstanding any of this, it’s pretty clear (and getting clearer) that there is no real rationale for the Barack Obama candidacy except for the typical MUP bullshit. We know, if nothing else, that John McCain has the character to do the right thing in the face of adversity. And we know no such thing about Barack Obama, and in a time where we’re going to be facing some adversity, this is what will make John McCain President and Barack Obama a Senator.
pinola
Lie back, boys, and think of Englan’,um, America.
Grendel72
in a time where we’re going to be facing some adversity we might as well vote for the bloodthirsty psycho to ensure it?
Xanthippas
Maybe this is what makes Olbermann feel like has to be so over the top that he offends Glenn Greenwald?
Koz
Yes, but for Syria not for the United States. But if you’re so inclined, you can move there and vote for them.
skippy
yeah, like coming home and finding his wife was crippled in a car accident and so he gets a rich mistress that he later dumped the first mrs. for.
now that’s adversity!
Delia
um, hug Bush? sing ditties about bombing Iran? lose his place while reading his speech off a teleprompter in front of a green screen while grinning at inappropriate moments? propose a summer gas tax holiday that every economist in the country said would do nothing? flip-flop on tax cuts for the rich? claim that oil drilling off the coasts would have a psychological benefit?
Which?
Oh, wait. I know the answer. Give great barbeque to the press corps at his ranchette in Sedona. And I’ll tell ya. If you’re going to have a ranchette, Sedona is waaay better than Crawford. Although that part doesn’t actually count as adversity. More as the opposite of.
rachel
Sometimes adversity brings out the best in people… And then when that’s over, they go back to being punks.
Sour Kraut
I not only carried an M60A1 machine gun (Plus 400 rounds of ammunition and a spare barrel and the “oven mitt” to change same) in combat, I actually shot people with it – none of whom were on our side I might add.
I demand that you produce said machine gun so we can check the kerning on it.
Clark/McCain II « Indistinct Union
[...] But sadly we do not live in a rational universe. Though by the logic of the US pol. universe we do inhabit, John Cole in ‘12: I not only rode in and fired an M1A1 Abrams in the Army, but I drove the bitch, too. [...]
flick47
I went thru about a dozen rocket attacks at Da Nang in 71 and 72. I’m thinking that qualifies me for at least Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense along with the appropriate Federal pension, of course.