If John Kerry walked in on somebody having sex with his wife and he held a press conference, it would sound like this:
“Today my opponent did something I find to be simply deplorable, and so I’m wrought with a lot of feelings about him, about my wife, and to get right to the center of what I’m talking about would require me to remind everyone of the fact that…”
Murtha speaks without rhetoric or meaningless filler injected just to kill time and/or confuse whoever might be listening.
That sounds about right. Seeing him on TV nowadays doesn’t fill me with exuberance – but neither does his 2004 opponent.
Well there also was that whole “traitor” thing during the Vietnam war, the guy feeds off of dead men’s fortunes like a parasite and he thinks he invented reverb long before Jimmy Hendricks. Does Kerry hang out with Al “Father of the Universe” Gore?
I don’t know about reverb. As for “feeding off dead men’s fortunes” the same could be said for a number of candidates nowadays. At least John Kerry went to war when his country needed him.
At least John Kerry went to war when his country needed him.
When the country went to war, Kerry went to the safety of coastal patrol. Unfortunately for Kerry, coastal patrol turned into river patrol which isn’t what he signed up for. The military isn’t for everyone and it especially wasn’t for Kerry. Hell, Murtha’s 6 years in the military human resources department accounts for more bragging rights than Kerry’s “tour of duty”. And don’t get me started on the fake medals…
Right, your version of what qualifies as adequate military service, what’s enough to be given credit for it later on in life…
It’s arbitrary. Otherwise you’d have a line in the sand drawn so we all could know who qualified and who did not.
I know and you know that there is a line, and it has everything to do with politics.
It’s a notable aspect of this time in American history…the only ones I hear downgrading the sacrifice of folks who have fought in a war, are on the right-wing.
If there were more military veterans in the GOP, they wouldn’t have to resort to this. Because it’s all a load of crap. Someone had the balls to enlist – – – someone who did not has no business criticizing. That’s how I feel about it.
Fake medals or not, somebody in the defense department decided that he deserved them, unless you want to get conspiratorial.
Lots of soldiers sign up for one thing in the military and end up somewhere else. No one says that you have to like it. You just have to perform your duties without subordination.
I don’t know how Murtha could’ve made the rank of Lt. Colonel with only six years in the “human resources department.”
This is an interesting comparison Murtha and LeMay:
http://hughhewitt.com/archives/2005/12/11-week/index.php#a000777
What Media Bias?
Murtha speaks like you said but does it mean he is right? I think not.
Frodo, that was 40 years ago!
Doesn’t it strike you as odd that the writer doesn’t include any instances of the two men being ‘radical’ in their speech. He just wants the reader to assume that his statement is true w/out any sort of qualification whatsoever?
I can’t read political stuff from writers who just decide what’s what without providing the reader facts, quotes…
…or better than all of that, some reasoning for why the statements of a House member and that of a Vice Presidential candidate from 40 years ago have anything at all to do with one another…because they were both in the military?
He at least had to include quotes, which he didn’t.
Murtha and Timothy McVeigh were both war vets. That must mean that Murtha wants the same thing (tongue in cheek).
Chris,
The arguments that seem obvious to me do not register with you or Wisenheimer. I do not believe either of you are in touch with reality on these issues and the same for Murtha, Dean and John (our soldiers are terrorists) Kerry. Once again you people are putting yourself on the wrong side, the loosing side. The victory in Iraq is obvious to those who investigate what is really going on over there and do not believe the apprehensible reporting of the American biased media. The terrorists have lost and have decided to engage in the political arena because that is the future of Iraq, whether you want to believe it or not.
The only Democrat that is making any sense on the Iraq issue is Sen. Hilary Clinton. She sees the progress not only in Iraq but also in the whole Arab world. See sees the wisdom of seeing the job through to the end. Does this mean she has to be considered as a viable candidate now? I think so and she will certainly get a look from me when the time comes. What the Demo-defeatists have failed again to understand is that a majority of Americans, me included, would prefer that we engage this battle or war on someone else’s turf and that we want our military to fight it. And not depend only on the villigence of our citizens to keep the watch. The defeatist democrats and media have a hard time acknowledging that we are even at war. They would have preferred that we just stayed home and pretended 911 never happened. Maybe the bad people will just go away and leave us alone. I do not think so. There is a time to stand and fight and this was and is such a time.
Lincoln was suffering for poor popularity polls right after his re-election during the Civil War. He had many critics and many calling for a stop to the hostilities. He did not and to Bush’s credit he has not either. History has been kind to Lincoln and the results of the Civil War. It took years after the end of the war to say that and yet people want instant victory in the Iraq war and the war on terror and anything else is failure. Specifically Bush’s failure. Do I dare say some of the things you people have been saying are giving the impression you hope we actually loose? Now we cannot bring the troops home fast enough. I say wrong, keep them there and where else is needed and make our country safe. Again I would rather have them fight this war than rely on me and you to be villigent and keep watch for the bad guys and hope another 911 does not happen. It may take years to see all the results from this fight but I think in ten to twenty years history will look back on this and give its nod of approval.
Again I can not say this as well as others have. Read this excerpt:
“For some time, a large number of Americans have lived in an alternate universe where everything is supposedly going to hell. If you get up in the morning to read the New York Times or Washington Post, watch John Murtha or Howard Dean on the morning talk shows, listen to National Public Radio at noon, and go to bed reading Newsweek it surely seems that the administration is incommunicado (cf. “the bubble”), the war is lost (“un-winnable”), the Great Depression is back (“jobless recovery”), and America about as popular as Nazi Germany abroad (“alone and isolated”). But in the real adult world, the economy is red-hot, not mired in joblessness or relegating millions to poverty. Unemployment is low, so are interest rates. Growth is high, as is consumer spending and confidence. Our Katrina was hardly as lethal as the Tsunami or Pakistani earthquake. Thousands of Arabs are not rioting in Dearborn. American elderly don’t roast and die in the thousands in their apartments as was true in France. Nor do American cities, like some in China, lose their entire water supply to a toxic spill. Americans did not just vote to reject their own Constitution as in some European countries.
The military isn’t broken. Unlike after Vietnam when the Russians, Iranians, Cambodians, and Nicaraguans all soon tried to press their luck at our expense, most of our adversaries don’t believe the U.S. military is losing in Iraq, much less that it is wise now to take it on. Instead, the general impression is that our veteran and battle-hardened forces are even more lethal than was true of the 1990s — and engaging successfully in an almost impossible war.
Nor are we creating new hordes of terrorists in Iraq — as if a young male Middle Eastern fundamentalist first hates the United States only on news that it is in Iraq crafting a new Marshall Plan of $87 billion and offering a long-oppressed people democracy after taking out Saddam Hussein. Even al Jazeera cannot turn truth into untruth forever.”
More:
“Instead, the apprentice jihadist is trying to win his certification as master terrorist by trying his luck against the U.S. Marines abroad rather than on another World Trade Center at home — and failing quite unlike September 11.”
Read the whole thing here: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson200512160710.asp
Good I say. And to the soldiers who are fighting so well and so bravely keep up the good work and God bless you and your families that also serve. As the Holidays, and dare I say the un-politically correct Christmas, approach know that many of us here in the states see your sacrifice and understand your commitment to completing the job. Be safe and hurry home. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your families. Some of us are not afraid to say were are proud of you and love you and wish you all a safe return.
A final note as this has gotten very long in length. I got this poem from a co-worker. He is a Democrat and voted for Clinton twice and was a “Four more with Gore” rallying supporter. We have had many arguments/discussions about elections and the war on terror. Even he has is shaking his head over the current Democratic strategy of defeat and turn and run from Iraq. He understands what is at stake. But to have him send me this poem just blew me away. I think about this a lot, but could never put it so eloquently as this:
“A DIFFERENT CHRISTMAS POEM
The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn’t quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
“What are you doing?” I asked without fear,
“Come in this moment, it’s freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!”
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire’s light
Then he sighed and he said “Its really all right,
I’m out here by choice. I’m here every night.
Sleep without fear as you turn out your lights.”
It’s my duty to stand at the front of this line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one has asked or begged or implored me,
I’m proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ‘Pearl on a day in December,”
Then he sighed, “That’s a Christmas ‘Gram always
remembered.”
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ‘Nam’,
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I’ve not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he’s sure got her
smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue… an American flag.
“I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.”
“So go back inside,” he said, “harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I’ll be all right.”
“But isn’t there something I can do, at the least,
“Give you some money, prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you’ve done,
For being away from your wife and your son.”
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
“Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we’re gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.”
Frodo
Have The Democrats Walked Into a Trap……Again?
This is a very interesting commentary on the Democrats, with the help of the biased media, possibly walking into a trap. To those of you here who are politcal activists for the cause of the Democratic party, and not just Bush is evil and hatred for everything associated with him or originated by him, I think you can learn some things here.
Some excerpts:
First, the Democrats still do not grasp that foreign affairs and national security issues are their vulnerabilities, not their strengths. All of the drumbeat about Iraq, spying, and torture that the left thinks is so damaging to the White House are actually positives for the President and Republicans. Apparently, Democrats still have not fully grasped that the public has profound and long-standing concerns about their ability to defend the nation. As long as national security related issues are front page news, the Democrats are operating at a structural political disadvantage. Perhaps the intensity of their left wing base and the overwhelmingly liberal press corps produces a disorientation among Democratic politicians and prevents a more realistic analysis of where the country’s true pulse lies on these issues.
And while 9/11 has certainly faded in the consciousness for most in Washington these days (and for many in the country as a whole), for average Joe American security is still a critically important issue. And the bottom line
is that average Americans’ sympathies are not with terrorists trying to kill innocents, but rather with our troops and security agents who are trying to combat these jihadists.
One of the major problems working against Democrats is many on their side appear to be rooting for failure in Iraq and publicly ridicule the idea that we actually might win. When this impression is put in context of the debate over eavesdropping or the Patriot Act, Democrats run the significant risk of being perceived to be more concerned with the enemy’s rights than protecting ordinary Americans. This is a loser for Democrats.
Read the whole thing here. Well written I would say and possibly helpful to the Democratic cause.
http://realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-12_19_05_JM.html
Frodo
(We are all Americans and have at least that in common.)
Great posts Frodo, seriously. While debate is health in our country the liberals have stopped “deliberating in good faith” and have adopted a slash-and-burn approach to forced acceptance of their ideology. Great for Republicans but bad for improving our understanding as a nation.
This brainless Bush Lied crap is, in effect, taking serious issues and reducing them to moronic sound bites of fraud. Now they are going after Lieberman and the other moderates because they aren’t extremists. Sad….
Everything I thought I knew was wrong.
FRODO’S LINK
What media mias??
I do not know why I put this here but here it is.
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/006045.php
Quote: “Why doesn’t the Exempt Media want to report these findings on the policy about which they have railed on their editorial pages ad nauseam? Perhaps it has more to do with their efforts to protect the Bill Clinton legacy than to report the news, and the former effort has more to do with allowing Senator Clinton to run for president on that legacy in 2008. It certainly appears that the large media outlets suddenly couldn’t care less about extraordinary rendition at an odd moment in time — when its principle architect goes public to explain its origins.”
Are you sure we are getting a clear picture of what is happening here?
OK guys read “Ex-Friends” by Norman Podhoretz! It is an eye opener about Lefties/Liberals and their ilk.
Is it non-fiction? I’ll do it, but you’d have to promise to read a non-fiction I suggest.