Thursday, September 27, 2007
Rush "Anal Cyst Deferment and College Dropout" Limbaugh Dishonors the Troops. Calls anyone who disagrees with Him "phony soldiers."
During the September 26 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh called service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq "phony soldiers." He made the comment while discussing with a caller a conversation he had with a previous caller, "Mike from Chicago," who said he "used to be military," and "believe[s] that we should pull out of Iraq." Limbaugh told the second caller, whom he identified as "Mike, this one from Olympia, Washington," that "[t]here's a lot" that people who favor U.S. withdrawal "don't understand" and that when asked why the United States should pull out, their only answer is, " 'Well, we just gotta bring the troops home.' ... 'Save the -- keeps the troops safe' or whatever," adding, "[I]t's not possible, intellectually, to follow these people." "Mike" from Olympia replied, "No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media." Limbaugh interjected, "The phony soldiers." The caller, who had earlier said, "I am a serving American military, in the Army," agreed, replying, "The phony soldiers."
On August 19, The New York Times published an op-ed by seven members of the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division. They ended their assessment of the situation in Iraq with the following passage:
In a lawless environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act. Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence. When the primary preoccupation of average Iraqis is when and how they are likely to be killed, we can hardly feel smug as we hand out care packages. As an Iraqi man told us a few days ago with deep resignation, "We need security, not free food."
In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are -- an army of occupation -- and force our withdrawal.
Until that happens, it would be prudent for us to increasingly let Iraqis take center stage in all matters, to come up with a nuanced policy in which we assist them from the margins but let them resolve their differences as they see fit. This suggestion is not meant to be defeatist, but rather to highlight our pursuit of incompatible policies to absurd ends without recognizing the incongruities.
We need not talk about our morale. As committed soldiers, we will see this mission through.
On September 12, The New York Times noted: "Two of the soldiers who wrote of their pessimism about the war in an Op-Ed article that appeared in The New York Times on Aug. 19 were killed in Baghdad on Monday."
As Media Matters for America has documented, Limbaugh denounced as "contemptible" and "indecent" MoveOn.org's much-discussed advertisement -- titled "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?" -- critical of Gen. David Petraeus, but has repeatedly attacked the patriotism of those with whom he disagrees. For instance, on the January 25 broadcast of his radio show, he told his audience that he had a new name for Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), a Vietnam veteran: "Senator Betrayus." A day earlier, Hagel had sided with Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in voting to approve a nonbinding resolution declaring that President Bush's escalation in Iraq was against "the national interest." Additionally, on August 21, 2006, Limbaugh said: "I want to respectfully disagree with the president on the last part of what he said. I am going to challenge the patriotism of people who disagree with him because the people that disagree with him want to lose."
As Media Matters has also documented, on the August 2, 2005, program, Limbaugh repeatedly referred to Iraq war veteran and then-Democratic congressional candidate Paul Hackett as "another liberal Democrat trying to hide behind a military uniform" and accused him of going to Iraq "to pad the resumé." On the day of Limbaugh's comments, Hackett narrowly lost a special election to Republican Jean Schmidt for Ohio's 2nd Congressional District seat.
Labels: Chickenhawk, fuck you, Rush Limbaugh
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
A rant
The following diary contains highly offensive language and may not be suitable for all audiences. Consult your physician before reading. Those with high blood pressure or heart conditions may not want to read. Nursing mothers or pregnant women also should be advised that the toxicity of the diary has been shown by some studies to be passed on to young children, causing them to swear like drunken sailors after they learn to speak. Other side effects may vary.
God damn fucking Billy Kristol.
If anyone ever deserved to be punched in the fucking pie hole or thrashed with a whip, it's that mother fucking son of a bitch.
He wrote in an ironically named piece called "A moment of truth":
Here's what I gather is a basic lesson of tactics: When you find yourself in an ambush, attack into the ambush. Don't twist and turn in the kill zone, looking for a way to retreat. Especially when the ambush is not a powerful one, and the Democrats' position (to mix military metaphors) is way overextended. The Democrats are hoping the president will break and run. They will not allow him a dignified retreat or welcome him with compromise. They will spring to finish him off completely. It doesn't matter what the president's motives are. Some of his advisers are trying to persuade him that he needs to go for a grand bargain now so as to build bipartisan support for his policies when he's gone. But the only way to do that is to hold firm now--and to counterattack. Those who try to convince him otherwise offer nothing but defeat, for the troops, for the mission, and for the president.
How the fuck would you know about what to do in an ambush you chickenshit chickenhawk?
You pushed this damn war and now you're stomping your feet and threatening to break with Mr. Bush and President Cheney. You helped create this mess. You own it. Blood is on your head and your hands.
Even the New York Times editorial page has abandoned the pretence that its preferred strategy will lead to anything other than catastrophe in Iraq, and in the very near term. If the president gives in now, he will not be credited with a statesmanlike compromise. He will be lambasted by the left for fighting a bad war, and by the right for fighting it badly, recommitting us to the fight, and then losing it. The remainder of his term will be mired in congressional investigations as the waters fill with blood and the sharks go in for the kill. The Democrats will be emboldened to press him on every front, especially since Iraq is virtually the only position he's actually been defending. Lame duck does not even begin to describe where President Bush will be if he does this.
You mocked -- fucking mocked those who had the sense to see disaster looming ahead.
Your very life is a mockery to all that is decent. You should hang your head in shame, change your name and dedicate the rest of your continued existence to quiet servitude of Iraqis maimed by the war.
You won't because if ever any mortal lacked humanity, it is you and your ilk.
And now you're trying to lay the disaster at the feet of those of us who opposed and tried to stop you and your ilk from taking us over a cliff.
You want to blame people like me for breaking the God damn fucking back of your fucking imperial war machine?
On behalf of those who fucking opposed your God damn war from the start, I am damn proud to accept, you bastard. We broke your God damn war imperialistic vision and plan for a 1,000 year Republican rule. We broke the fucking back of your fucking ideology, you son of a bitch.
We took the insults and threats hurled at us on street corners and in cyber space and beat you. We had our phones taps, our emails read, our meetings spied upon and the hate mongers among you boast of plans to round us up to put us in camps and we beat you. We took on the Boy Dictator's entire might of the perverted federal government and we God damn beat you. We took on the biggest war machine ever fucking assembled in the fucking history of man and we God damn beat you.
We turned the country from supporting your God damn fucking war and occupation when you had most of the populace and the media and the political might of the majority of Congress, the Supreme Court and the White House and we fucking turned it around. You and your ilk wanted to march on Tehran and Damascus and we erected the barricades with our words and our deeds that fucking stopped the mightiest war machine ever assembled.
You fucking want to blame us?
Good.
We'll take that credit.
We did the impossible and as Joss Whedon would say that makes us mighty. That makes us God damn fucking superheroes.
Labels: Bill Kristol, fuck you
