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Tuesday, April 17th, 2012
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11:48 pm - Best thing I have read in a long time:
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I know this is a long article... but it is VERY well researched and written and about the best background about the recent shooting in Afghanistan that you will hear and you will likely never here ANYTHING about this on television or the radio: From Consortium News
Somehow I feel like the last 11 years or so have been one big education in personal hubris. Learning that you can't change "the system" when you cannot even grasp the scale and depth of "the system".
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| Monday, March 12th, 2012
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8:48 pm - This is somehow not a joke:
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Emo's are apparantly a thing in Baghdad's Al-Sadr City now, and they are being persecuted beyond the "Cyberbullying" way and more in the "Religious extremists will murder you" way. I remember when Barbers who gave "western haircuts" were targeted the same way. I remember Al-Sadr and Al-Rubaie making statements in response to the "Death Letters" that got dropped on the doors of people who dressed or acted the wrong way. That was seven or eight years ago, but the memory is still rather fresh.
This development with Emos is far less expected than the recent incident regarding a Staff Sergeant with four tours of duty who lost his sh*t and killed about as many civilians as the average weekly drone strike. The most remarkable thing about that story is that it hasn't happened a hundred times by now. There has been so much killing.
current mood:  blank
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| Monday, September 5th, 2011
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4:03 pm - My Favorite Holiday
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For us Americans, today has been Labor Day, one of the mandatory Federal holidays. It happens to be my favorite. Unlike a celebration of our honored dead (Memorial Day) or our leadership (President's Day), Labor Day celebrates all of the people who do the work necessary to maintain our standard of living. The labor of mankind makes the manufactured goods we use in this modern life, and keep the power on and the networks running so we can use them. Human beings laboring are the single most important ingredient to this modern comfortable life that we take for granted most days.
The Department of Labor Describes it as such:
"Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country."
As of late our culture has shown increasing (and obsessive) amounts of love for businessmen and entrepreneurs and executives and traders and salesmen. Some childish souls have even used the old simplistic dichotomy of "producers" and "parasites". We tend to forget that everything modern that we possess and use and enjoy is the product of intense labor by everyday working men and women.
If we want to get technical about the "Who is a producer?" question, we would be well reminded that there are no factories on Wall Street that manufacture goods, there are no mines to procure raw materials, there are no laboratories to develop new substances and medicines, there are no centers to heal the sick or treat the wounded.... Wall Street does not produce wealth. Wall Street redistributes wealth, from the many who work to produce it to a handful of investment bankers.
I am biases, I am the son of a Steelworker who worked everyday in a man-made hell of molten steel so his family could enjoy a middle class life and I never remember him complaining. I work two jobs and am damn happy I can count myself as one of the employed. I am INTENSELY PROUD of my membership in the working class and refuse to let anyone claim there is a more decent class of people on this earth.
Have a happy remainder of your Labor Day Weekend and never forget you are a member of the greatest group of people on earth.
current mood:  accomplished
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| Wednesday, May 11th, 2011
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2:10 am - Change
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"Willie Gillis in College", 1946, Norman Rockwell's Tribute to the G.I. Bill
Things change....
Thank G-d! things change, the restless among us would never feel happy otherwise.
I graduated from the University I am attending this past weekend. We had former President William Jefferson Clinton come to our University to get an honorary degree and speak for commencement, so that was nice.
I got back from Egypt with a few weeks to cram for finals and to get assignments done that I needed to graduate. I somehow managed to make the Dean's List this semester, although I suspect certain professor's were being generous.
Spring is here and beautiful in Missouri, I love my MidWestern home state this time of year.
I think I am finally ready to try this "commitment to a woman I love" thing that all my friends have sampled.
Osama Bin Laden, an omnipresent background character in my life for the last 10 years is dead.
Not long ago, I was mopey and sad about the political situation here in Missouri but that changed when I was in Egypt researching the revolution (well, technically bodyguarding the researchers but one cannot help but learn some things).
In November of 2010, the BIG dump of Diplomatic Cables from Wikileaks was out... these included some rather specific cables about the scope and scale of the corruption in the leadership of Tunisia. In December of 2010 the "Jasmine Revolution" began in Tunisia and Ben Ali was out of power with less violence than usually surrounds such events shortly thereafter. In January of 2011 the "White Revolution" in Egypt began in Tahrir square and, since then, more than 100 Million people are living in transitional democratic states in the Arabic Speaking World, with more potentially entering the mix soon. My faith in political action... in the pathway of TRUTH > ACTIONS OF THE PEOPLE > CHANGES IN THE SYSTEM has been restored somewhat.
My new Smartphone has an HDMI-Out and can render graphics better than my Playstation 2 could.
My employer worked with me wonderfully to accommodate my latest trip overseas. I even got a raise I didn't realize I had received.
I am quite happy for many many things right now. I have a nephew graduating and moving on to college on both an academic and football scholarship, another nephew getting married, and a job interview for a career I cannot wait to start next week.
I actually am beginning to feel like the war is behind me. I don't feel like I am on some extended leave from the conflict and that any moment I will have to be back on a plane and in body armor again. I am comfortable sitting safe at home writing this to all of the people who have followed me, offered words of advice, or done anything for me in the past several years.
Thank you, I've come a long way since my first post as a confused PFC in Baghdad back in 2004. I couldn't have done any of it without help from friends, mentors, family and the encouragement of strangers from the internet.
Trying on my cap for graduation.
About to kiss the woman who has somehow learned to put up with me.
current mood:  cheerful
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| Friday, April 1st, 2011
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10:05 am - A fascinating response from Egypt
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Still in Cairo talking with people about the revolution that has taken place. Everywhere here people love the peaceful revolution that happened here, which was no surprise, but the thing that was a surprise was that everyone, and I mean everyone, credits the inspiration to former President George W. Bush and they describe him in words one would reserve for an Angel.
Every single Egyptian and everyone from across that Arab nations are overcome with love and admiration for this man who they think of as a piece of pure heaven made into flesh and given the freedom to walk around on the Earth. None of his actions are criticized in the slightest, no one wished a single harsh word to ever hit his ears and they only wish the best for him and his staff for ever and ever.
Bush is the most admired, most loved, most respected, and most benevolent American leader these people in the Arab world have ever seen. The fondness and love are overpowering and, if the goal of our leader was to gain the United States respect, love, and loyalty from the people in this pivotal region, he truly could not have done any better. All of us in the United States, indeed from the entire Free World, should write President Bush a letter thanking him for his tireless efforts to help the causes of decency, freedom, and justice in this part of the world.
current mood: ecstatic
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| Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
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8:50 am - Cairo
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Well, this is Cairo.
A few Observations:
#1) This city is HUGE. I have been to dense cities, I have been to spread-out cities, but this is both, a huge density of people and vehicles and buildings that goes on and on.
#2) This is the most chaotic place I have ever been to. Everything from traffic laws to building codes to addresses to internet connectivity to personal interactions.... Genuine Chaos. 30 years under a strict dictatorship did nothing to standardize any part of the Egyptian lifestyle.
#3) Cairo could give NYC some serious competition for the "City that never sleeps" title.
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| Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
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7:05 pm - Psychological Operations.
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Psychological Operations, like most Military Operations or Groups, has a well documented history that makes for a fascinating read, a good extensive collection of documents can be found here:
http://www.psyopvets.com/library/index.htm
But the core of what Psychological Operations (Now MISO) is "Persuade, Change, Influence". In Combat, a force multiplier (Surrender Appeals, Precede Shows of Force, Publicize things to our audience that make the good guys look good and the bad guys look bad.) In times of peace, you can work as PR guy for the U.S. Humanitarian Aid (People need to know when and where aid will show up), De-mining, and a myriad of other activities.
PSYOP can be a varied job. I've assessed locals on everything from how well the sewer is working to getting them to join the Iraqi Army and Militias. I've gotten messages out on everything from a loudspeaker you can wear on your back to Newspapers, Radio Stations, and Television Ads. I've dropped leaflets and handed out ungodly amounts of T-Shirts and Soccer Balls.
PSYOP can be done at the level of a three-man Tactical PSYOP Team who walk up a mountain to talk to some Village elder about cooperating with the upcoming election, or it can be about sending a million text messages to every cell-phone in Baghdad. I've been tasked with running focus groups on ads campaigns being run and dispersing crowds of hundreds of Arabs demonstrating at the gate, I've debriefed locals working with us to give us Intel and worked on programs of disinformation as well. I've manned a crew-served weapon and run around with just an M9 pistol. This is all only over the span of a few years.
PSYOP has existed throughout history of course, but Psychological Operations as we know them began in the 50's as Psychological Warfare (With units like the 1st Psychological Warfare Battalion that supported the Green Berets). There had been a CLEAR line of legality stating the PSYOP was never to influence Americans, but should be limited to targeting the enemy and foreign nationals. In 1965 PsyWar became PSYOP and the name stayed until recently with the change to MISO.
The world has changed much in the past few years, and now a leaflet dropped on a city in Libya can be photographed and sent around the world by cell phone in a matter of minutes. The distinction between "Host Nation Media" and "American Media" was less and less clear. Technology had made borders far less meaningful. PSYOP was moved more towards Information Operations and was to begin coordinating their message with Public Affairs and other, less tactical, elements.
While I was honorably discharged in August of 2010, there are PSYOP soldiers, including my personal friends, now deployed in support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere through the world. The recent Rolling Stone article put them in the news again, and a search of the internet shows that "PSYOPS" has become conspiracy slang for mind control.
I assure you, I cannot make your head explode like in the movie Scanners.... unless I use my rifle. But it would be awesome if I could.
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| Sunday, February 27th, 2011
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10:53 pm - This WOULD be wonderful...
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I am VERY VERY hesistant to believe this is true. This does not sound like the standard Anonymous drop, and Anonymous is quick to abandon tactics that have proven rather useless (Boycotts). Anyhow, the supposed drop where Anonymous targets Koch industries:
http://anonnews.org/?p=press&a=item&i=585
current mood:  anxious
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| Thursday, February 24th, 2011
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9:37 pm - Lordy....
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My god there is SO MUCH going on in the world right now that is a big deal to me.
Pan-Arab revolutions (Peaceful and Otherwise), An Army investigation into using my PsyOp brothers to influence congressional leaders, Crazy attacks on Unions in Wisconsin and some SERIOUS pulling back of the Wizards Curtain by The Buffalo Beast and Anonymous.
I'm still dating the same wonderful girl (her birthday today), battling the blizzard, seeing friends get back from Iraq this weekend, working on my research to present in three weeks, and then headed to Egypt to pull security for a Documentary Crew for a few weeks.
I was planning on writing more, but the plate is full for now.
current mood: busy
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| Thursday, February 10th, 2011
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5:39 am - Beautiful Things From Unexpected Places
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Sidebar: I plan to post more. As I have been writing more for work and academia, I have stopped writing for fun, and I think that is impacting how I write and think in a negative way. Anyhow, here's my observations:
When Soldiers and Hippies work together, it is a beautiful thing.
The Egyptian military has, so far, shown enormous restraint in response to what is likely serious pressure from pro-Mubarak forces. When our Western eyes saw protests flash across their Al-Jazeera web-feeds, many of us had the same thought: "I hope this doesn't turn into Tienanmen Square". And, to our surprise, it hasn't. Sure, there has been brawls and scrapping, but the military has not gunned civilians down.
Part of this is the professionalism of the Egyptian Military officers that were trained in the United States. Thousands of Egyptian Officers have been trained in the U.S. In addition to training on tactics, equipment, theory, and technical skills, they have been trained on the role of the military in a democratic and open society.
We should thank the hippies for some of this. For decades the "School of the Americas" and other programs where foreign military personnel were trained were notorious for cranking out goons for third-world dictators. Survivors brought their stories to American human rights organizations and the reputation led them to push for the shut down of the School of the Americas and other facilities.
After decades of pressure, the SOA changes it's name to the "Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation", and more importantly they added mandatory classes in Human Rights and the proper role of the military in democratic societies. An example from the 2004 Course List:
CMS-2 Democratic Sustainment Course Course Length: 6 weeks
To introduce and teach theory and practice of military and civilian leadership in a constitutional nation-state, drawing on the shared traditions of the countries in the Western Hemisphere. This course explores the role of the military within a democratic and constitutionally derived, civilian-controlled government. The American Council on Education (ACE) has recommended three university credit hours for this course based on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Troy State University.
These courses have been mandatory for officers receiving training the the U.S. for years now at the WHISC and elsewhere, thousands of mid-grade officers in nations like Egypt have been through them, and whether this was a genuine act of decency or just something to make the hippies happy, it looks like it might be changing the world for the better.
Imagine that: A program that was the poster-boy for dictators, human-rights abuses and military coups might become a institution of progress throughout parts of the world that need progress very badly. Maybe hippies and soldiers should work together more often.
current mood: cheerful
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| Monday, January 3rd, 2011
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1:13 pm - Too Easy
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I am in a relationship at that critical time when I have to decide to either make it permanent or break up.
I started dating my best female friend. This is wonderful and... not so wonderful. On the upside, your girlfriend is now you best friend! You can be with someone who knows you well and avoid that awkward fake front we people date. On the downside... your best friend has now become your GIRLFRIEND. Everything that was ephemeral and fun and meaningless now might have meaning. Those times when you were "hanging out" now become "dates".
Being Single is EASY. Too easy. I've never had a problem getting dates or having a social group and plenty to keep me busy. I have aimed for "fun, but meaningless" with my dates for the last year or so, and gotten pretty good at it, and my best/girlfriend was my friend throughout as I drifted around my social scene and had various dating adventures and misadventures.
Relationships are HARD. Another human being is another HUMAN BEING and has all the inherent complexities implied. Their own desires for a life, family, career, home, etc.... this is obvious, but somehow easy to forget sometimes.
Being in this relationship has been good for me. I am doing better at work, academia, taking care of myself. Being in a relationship means you have an "other" who is at least vaguely aware of what are doing all the time. This stands in the way of little sessions of self-destruction. Taking two days off to shut in and eat delivery food and drink whiskey shots? Not if you have to explain it to someone who cares about you. My XBOX time has truly suffered, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to contemplate.
I am three months into this relationship. This is usually a good place to end, any more time and soul invested in another person and breaking up becomes hard, but I don't want it to end. Thing is, I don't want it to be any more than it is. I don't want to be limited in taking off on some ill-advised misadventure. I don't know if I could keep up being a good man to this woman (and her son, by the way) forever.
current mood: anxious
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| Saturday, December 18th, 2010
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7:05 pm - DADT and a ple
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Sore from moving some stuff down on my Dad's farm... came back from the sticks to the world of technology to a pleasant surprise!
I was amazed that the Senate could Man Up and pass a Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal before the end of the session.
Three cheers to promises kept from the Senate! I thought that was where good legislation goes to die, but 63 Senators proved me wrong.
(It will be adorable listening to the bitchy right wingers predict the end of the world, and then watching the Army have no problem serving with open gays just as well as Britain and Israel do a few months from now.)
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| Tuesday, November 30th, 2010
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1:33 am - Abe Lincoln's Beard
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| Monday, November 15th, 2010
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6:45 pm - Coping
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Some background for this post:
Growing up, my family was usually not big on organized religious events or professional sports. As such, politics kind of filled both spots in my life. Organized actions of the people to accomplish meaningful goals is where I put the energy others put into salvation or cheering on the home team. The name "Roosevelt" was spoken by my grandparents nearly the reverence people would have for "Our Father, Who Art in Heaven" and I was reminded that when he intervened, his opponents said "The market would sort things out" and during that time "The Market" was "sorting things out" by letting people in United States starve to death. I also learned politics could be fun, getting together with like minded people from different walks of life all trying to accomplish something they believe is good time, and there is no shame in enjoying what you do.
Because of this, I have been REALLY down these last few weeks. I was more involved than most this election cycle. I had the national picture to look at, the state picture to look at, a couple of ballot issues, some local candidates I knew personally who I KNEW would make great representatives, and thought I would get lucky on at least one of them. But this did not happen. Ike Skelton, who has served Missouri for 33 years, who served on the Armed Services Committee and was instrumental in keeping Missouri bases open and active and not moved away to some more expensive state, he lost to a full-on teabagfoxpublican, a person who wears her lack of awareness about the law and history with PRIDE rather than SHAME. Tommy Sowers, an SF vet with two tours of duty and a teacher and a sharp mind that is exactly what we need more of, he lost by a nearly two-to-one margin. The three State reps I supported all lost. I heard the results one by one, but knew it was coming since that morning.
Election day morning I volunteered to drive people to the polls who could not get rides. I drove an older blind veteran to the polls and, waiting on him to vote (the audio voting the blind do takes time) I noticed someting REALLY REALLY disturbing. NO YOUNG PEOPLE WERE AT THE POLLS. The voters were nothing but a parade of grey and white. Despite having a college campus nearby and a non-negligible segment of working young adults in this town, I didn't see any of them. I was only there till 11:00am (I had class) but... old people everywhere.
It is a really sad indictment of our voters, but it is true that if nothing but really old, really white people voted, Republicans (Who love scaring old people) would dominate at every level of government. Not having young people involved, especially right now, is political suicide. None of the ideas that Republicans are putting out there (Infinite Wars overseas, Tax Cuts for Billionaires, More mercury in the water we drink, less education, less privacy, less diplomacy, more spying, more pollution in our air, less regulation on the dope the pharmacies get us hooked on, more jails, a big wall, etc....) will help maintain an America that is competitive with China or other rising powers. If you believe that you will be dead or raptured in 5 years, sure.... none of that matters. But to the rest of us who want to be Americans for another half a century or so... it DOES matter.
I went to a "Students for Political.Involvement" meeting today to cheer myself up. It had FOUR students show up, including myself. That didn't help. We are so fucking doomed. Old people who get their news from Fox (Owned by a Australian Billionaire and the Saudi Royal Family) outvote every other group put together, and none them are sane. Have you seen the emails they forward? Drivel that 30 seconds of research discredits, but they just keep forwarding.
I don't hate old people, but the greatest generation is dying off, and the most self-centered turds the world has ever known (baby boomers) are replacing them. If they believe Bill O'Reilly they will believe ANYONE with a Fox logo in the corner. As soon as this congress takes session it will be phony trial after phony trial about "Kenya..blah blah ... Birth Certificate... blah blah.... Communism... blah blah.... " and whatever B.S. they invent between now and then.
I know this sounds dark and whiny. I like my job, my studies, where I live, my awesome girlfriend, my family and the Autumn weather this year.... but if my nation where I have these things becomes a third world shithole (and that is the teabagfoxpublican agenda, more like Somalia than Sweden) then what comes next?
current mood:  depressed
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| Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010
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3:27 am - Last chance for me to cook some crow to eat...
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A hope and a prediction:
Some background. I have not had a land line since about 2004, since then moving around for the Army and affiliated parties made it pointless. My cell phone and I get along fine, and I like having no one tele-market or push-poll me. I have had VOIP lines in the States and elsewhere and several phone numbers, but I have no urge to return to the era of confusing rate plans for long distance and having to refer to no-call lists and such just to maintain peace and quiet in my own home.
At this point, nearly EVERYONE I know under 30 has "cut the chord" and stuck with their mobile phone, if not at the moment, at least at some point in the last few years. This is how most polls sample people. Asking around, almost NONE of us have been polled in this election, asking around to those who own land lines, almost ALL of them have been polled MULTIPLE times. I am pretty hesitant to give polls the benefit of the doubt if they writing off something like 1/3 of the voters out there, (Younger voters are less likely to be caught up in the "Jesus Hates Gay People" rhetoric, more likely to not have health insurance, more likely to be unemployed, more likely to be immigrants or the kids of immigrants, all of these skew Democratic).
Everyone who is part of the commentary class has decided that Democrats are going to be devastated by TeabagFoxPublicans today. That is the conventional wisdom. They also believed the 2008 primaries would come down to Hillary and Guiliani, that the recession would quickly end, that Iraq would be a 'cakewalk' and so on. That they are all wrong together is not unthinkable. This is especially true if No One is following the 1/3 of us who have cut the chord, who are on no-call lists, or who are working 2 jobs and not sitting at home waiting to talk to a pollster.
I've put some work into this election. I have my signs up, I've gone door to door knocking, I've attended events, I've donated money, I've registered people to vote, I've encouraged those who share my beliefs in working together, and argued with those who oppose them. I haven't done as much as I wanted but I've done more than most, I WANT THIS TO PAY OFF VERY BADLY.
If the Republicans win the House by even a one-vote majority, the next session is going to be nothing but investigations into birth certificates and flag pins while the nation cannot address its most serious problems. It is unsatisfying to define your vote choice by the negative traits of the opposition, but sometimes you have to notice the elephant in the room, especially if it is foaming at the mouth and making the craziest noises one has ever heard.
I've put it out there, thanks to everyone who gets out and votes today.
current mood: hopeful
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| Thursday, September 30th, 2010
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6:35 am - I'm buying Rolling Stone again this month
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Again, Matt Taibbi does a great job getting in with a crowd and GENUINELY understanding what makes them tick and how they work and where this is all going:
"It would be inaccurate to say the Tea Partiers are racists. What they are, in truth, are narcissists. They're completely blind to how offensive the very nature of their rhetoric is to the rest of the country. I'm an ordinary middle-aged guy who pays taxes and lives in the suburbs with his wife and dog — and I'm a radical communist? I don't love my country? I'm a redcoat? Fuck you! These are the kinds of thoughts that go through your head as you listen to Tea Partiers expound at awesome length upon their cultural victimhood, surrounded as they are by America-haters like you and me or, in the case of foreign-born president Barack Obama, people who are literally not Americans in the way they are.
It's not like the Tea Partiers hate black people. It's just that they're shockingly willing to believe the appalling horseshit fantasy about how white people in the age of Obama are some kind of oppressed minority. That may not be racism, but it is incredibly, earth-shatteringly stupid...."
Go. Read. This. Now.
It's election season here and the yard signs and poll phone calls are in full effect, In Mid-Missouri, just like every else, this kind of harsh honesty needs to be out there in public and quickly. If Time or Newsweek or any other other magazines or newspapers had reporters like this, they might not be going out of business. I'm willing to pay money for reporting like this. I'm not willing to do that for the meaningless stuff George Will or Tom Friedman writes (And very few younger Americans are).
current mood: anxious
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| Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
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5:16 am - Contrast
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Most of everything I post on Livejournal is negative. This is a shame because I am pretty satisfied with my personal life at the moment.
I've been back in School a year and have achieved most of my academic and career goals during this time. There have been paperwork problems, but nothing unthinkable or that wasn't eventually rectified.
For the most part, I enjoy my studies. There can be tedious moments, but a couple of my classes actually teach me valuable information that could be applicable to my career or life.
I've been at my job for a year and have nothing but positive feedback from my employer at this point. I actually enjoy my work. Helping people with substance abuse issues can be pretty rewarding at times, although it can be challenging with others.
Despite being in my thirties, I am still young-enough looking/acting to get invited to college parties. I have a dozen years drinking experience on these kids, but some of them can hold their own. I'm looking forward to the slip and slide party this weekend.
Sure, I'd like to have the level of disposable income I had a few years ago, and some certainty about my upcoming future, a steady relationship with a mature woman, but I'm OK with my current situation. No one has tried to murder me with improvised explosives in a couple years now, and I am OK with that.
This contrasts HEAVILY with how I feel about the situation of the State and Nation that I live in, where I don't feel like things are going positively right now. I post on this alot, usually in some kind of snarky anger. That is my therapy. I feel like this nation could be SO MUCH MORE than it is, if we were only willing to dig deep like my grandparent's generation did. I am optimistic about my own future but I fear it will be in a world where so many are left out, or where my own optimism was premature.
current mood: cheerful
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| Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
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5:35 pm - Rolling Stone
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At what point did Rolling Stone become one of the best sources for print journalism about non-music/non-culture?
I started picking up RS again after Matt Taibbi's piece on Goldman Sachs last Summer, I had been reading Taibbi's stuff since his time with the The Exiled, so that was not TOO much of a surprise. But now they release a glimpse into Gen. McCrystal's inner circle, and it stands out as something utterly able to cut through the bullshit:
"...He also set a manic pace for his staff, becoming legendary for sleeping four hours a night, running seven miles each morning, and eating one meal a day. (In the month I spend around the general, I witness him eating only once.) It's a kind of superhuman narrative that has built up around him, a staple in almost every media profile, as if the ability to go without sleep and food translates into the possibility of a man single-handedly winning the war. "
Compare this to Newsweek's total on-board embrace of the "Superman will Save Us!" narrative from 2009
"McChrystal, 55, is a purebred warrior, the son of a two-star general, West Point class of '76, a former commander of the elite Rangers Regiment, and, from 2003 to 2008, the head of hunter-killer black ops in Special Operations. He eats one meal a day, works out obsessively every morning at 5, and is so free of body fat that he looks gaunt. Lately, as commander of the war in Afghanistan, he has become a kind of Zen warrior..." and later in the same piece "McChrystal is so sincere, well informed, and impassioned that he will make a good case for getting more troops if and when he is ever summoned to Washington. But he has a natural bias toward assertive action, not retreat. What if Obama says no to more troops, or does not approve enough troops?..." Wow! At some point between the Reporter's dispatch and the article going to print it was decided which side Newsweek was going to take on the issue of the troop request and the (still unprosecuted) leak of a classified document making the request.
I am not trying to make the case that the leaders of these missions are not uniformly amazing and dedicated people (remember, these are men who have agreed to spend less than a month a year with their families until their commitment is done, and who could take a posh consulting gig for several times their salary the day after they resigned - that alone should remind us of their dedication).
But I DO like that there are journalists who know Bullshit when they smell it, and aren't afraid to print it. If this is the future of real journalism - tucked in between pieces about Dave Matthews and LCD SoundSystem, and behind a cover of 40-year old Jay-Z wearing sunglasses indoors - well at least it has SOMEWHERE to exist.
I remember when the press was being given another very carefully crafted (but with enough planning to appear genuine) glimpse at the Command Staff in Iraq, and how - across the board - journalists did not express any doubts or reservations about what they were seeing (although a few did question what they were NOT seeing) and it is refreshing to see an embedded journalist with enough horse/street sense to realize when they are being fed a line.
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| Tuesday, June 15th, 2010
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2:50 am - THIS SMELLS FUNNY.
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There is something about the blurred faces, the never shown cameraman, the cropping and editing...
All this makes me think that there is something funny going on on the production side of this video:
This should remind us of the heavily cropped/edited/subtitled "Acorn" videos by the world's worst piece of shit James O'Keefe. After full investigations by several police departments those videos never displayed any wrongdoing, it was all an illusion of editing by the piece-of-shit producers of the video.
The sheer douchiness of the kid's shoulder-padded suit and "I drink Reagan's sperm" haircut make me think he went to the same "How to use journalism to be a piece of shit" school as O'Keefe, or is trying REALLY hard to take the "Being a total piece of shit" --> "Cash in as a TeabagFoxPublican" road to easy wealth and fame as O'Keefe. This might be the whiskey talking but that haircut just screams "Don't let this piece of shit near anything important ever" to me.
Something fishy is going on and let's demand answers to all of those questions any time this comes up any place. Who is this kid?, Where is the full unedited video?, Who is the Cameraman?, which group of douchebags are you associated with?, etc...
current mood:  awake
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Saturday, May 22nd, 2010
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5:23 pm - Not Cynical Enough
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On May 21, 2010, we passed the date at which Candidate Obama promised we would be out of Iraq
Based on the math of his sixteen months.
I am re-posting this video of the Candidate.
I know I should be cynical enough to not surprised that a candidate did not exactly live up to something they promised during a campaign. But I was really hoping to have more of my buddies in the States for a 4th of July BBQ this year.
current mood: blank
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