Colbert has a Huge Pair

Colbert takes on the idiocy of DADT (and discrimination against gays in the military in general) standing in Camp Victory, Iraq.

Link in case the embed doesn’t work.
No one ever discusses the real reason the manly-men are afraid of having teh gays around. I’m sure there will be plenty of dissent, but here’s my personal observation over nearly three decades: The manliest men look at women they work with and think of them sexually. The worst expect you to thin the same way and share their thoughts with you. My usual answer to, “I’d do her.”, was “like you’d have the opportunity?” As usual, I was called an asshole.

So, what’s their beef? They’re afraid teh gays will be looking at their asses like they do the women and thinking about having sex with them.
I’m embarrassed to admit I was vehemently anti-gay early during my career. In my defense, that’s part of how I was raised to be a bigot. I had overcome my father’s hatred of those who aren’t white by meeting some and learning that the crap he spewed was lies. The same thing happened with gays, but took longer because those I served with rarely were open about it.

The most important thing to me in my fellow service members is job performance. I expected the same professionalism from all. It seems many (if not most) of the younger folks grasp this too.

Rule vs. Govern

I was responding to Glenn Greenwald’s post at Salon and decided to copy and paste my post here as well:

Glenn,  Your writing says a lot of what is swirling around inside my head.

If, however, you think “regular” or “average” Americans are smart enough to finally figure it out, you are dreaming.  These are the same people who bought the W is a regular guy story hook, line and perpetual indebtedness.  That anyone other than the ridiculously rich can still support his administration is telling.

Your choice of the word rule instead of govern is accurate.  I remember being appalled when I heard someone (probably cheney) use that in early 2001.

Whoever is really running the republican party now (they definitely aren’t truly conservative) have been consolidating power since at least Nixon.  They learned from watergate what the boundaries were.  When they next had the reigns under Ronnie, they continued to subvert the balance of power:  Iran/contra was government employees INTENTIONALLY breaking the law by selling military hardware to Iran [yes, THAT Iran] then using the illegal funds to support rebels trying to overthrow the ELECTED government of Nicaragua.  Once back in power, they again began to push for more executive power with the assistance of a compliant republican-controlled congress.  On Sept 11 2001, they were given a free pass to go hog-wild and trample on the constitution.  That’s about the only thing they have done a good job of.

People were appeased by (most) not having to personally sacrifice – most in the military who are sacrificing have been easily strung along by a simplistic winning vs. surrender argument.  Uncle W said to go out shopping to help.  The easy credit made living beyond your means easy.

Now that it’s crashing down around their heads, they turn to faux news to be told that in the last two years a democrat-controlled congress has ruined everything – forget all the previous talk about how they are a do-nothing because they can’t muster enough votes to get anything passed.

I live in an area that is heavily funded by the federal government through several military bases.  In addition to the actual military personnel, the economy is buoyed by government civilians and contractors.  The pain is finally trickling down here, too, but the mccain/palin signs are still ridiculously frequent.  I spent almost 27 years on active duty and found very few people who looked beyond the common knowledge of republicans are pro-defense and democrats are pansies who want to give all my money to lazy poor people.  During the clinton years, when people first started quoting rush as fact, I would ask them what had become worse for them.  Like palin, they had no real answers so fell back on babbling gibberish – actually more often shouting.  Since 2001, the amount of money thrown at the defense budget – even without the costs of war – has grown.  But anyone who has ever been involved with budgeting in the military knows that no matter how much there is, it will never be enough.  And don’t forget how much of that budget is funneled to contractors outright.

Back on topic:  I hope I’m wrong.  I really do.

Palin interview debacle

Since my previous post discussing Palin’s babbling, she has been impressing many more people.  When even the propagandists on the right’s payroll (including Kathleen Parker) find her gibberish unacceptable, it is jaw dropping.

Thankfully, crazy old uncle John swooped in for the follow-up interview so he could show his ire with her and the “gotcha” media.  Hey John, you really didn’t help her case.

Taboo conversations

From page 133 of Service Etiquette: Fourth Edition:

Controversial subjects – religion, race, and politics – and any unpleasant subject should not be discussed at social unctions, and are treated carefully at all times.

This is very similar to the way I was taught, except that sex replaced race in the maxim.  But at some point over the last twenty years this sage advice has become completely ignored within the military.  My specific experiences have been mostly within the US Navy Officer corps but I have read reports and news articles that verify similar abuses in other services.

For some reason, it is assumed that everyone is aligned with the extreme right.  Based on observations, I suspect a vast majority are.  I did, however, note at least a few like me who didn’t “ditto” along and laugh at the jokes.  There was rarely anything to be gained by correcting that misperception, but now that I’m retired I’m free to comment without fear of retribution.

Just before I retired, I attended a sister service’s “Birthday Ball”.  During the pre-dinner small talk, one of the several officers senior to me was going table-to-table greeting guests.  When he arrived at my table, he told a joke that ended with the punchline that a kid lied and said his parent was a porn star because it was too embarrasing to admit the parent worked for Hillary CLinton’s campaign.  When the majority of the table’s guests guffawed (my wife and I weren’t alone in not laughing) the senior officer confided he was glad this table found it funny as the last didn’t.

So, hope is not lost. But at some point, unless free thinkers make an effort to recruit more into the military, it will be nothing more than an extension of the extreme right.

Lemmings

RE: “victory” in Iraq. It’s easy to keep the lemmings in line by throwing around words like victory vs defeat, finishing the job vs surrendering when no one demands definition. All we had was a stated objective of getting rid of Saddam Hussein; the yahoos who sent us there (even though it had nothing to do with the “Global War on Terror”) believed their own BS about the Iraqis magically coming together to create a democracy when Saddam was gone so they neither required nor desired input on a real strategy. By refusing to admit they screwed up they took years to implement a real strategy to counter the insurgency they created. The “surge” was a part of the new strategy and it is politically beneficial for them to act like this increase in troops was the only factor involved with a decrease in overall violence. [Side note: The arses that screwed it up for years were well rewarded for their excellent work.]

And how about the “defeat” of Al Qaeda in Iraq (AIQ)?  AL QAEDA WASN’T IN IRAQ UNTIL YOU CREATED A CESSPOOL WHERE THEY COULD GET A FOOTHOLD AND OPERATE!

Have you seen the ads running from a purported veterans organization asking you to call Senator Obama to convince him to support a bill fronted by Droopy Dog and Howdy Doody (why is Stewart the only “journalist” wiling to ask really important questions and throw the BS flag?) “Recognizing the strategic success of the troop surge in Iraq and expressing gratitude to the members of the United States Armed Forces who made that success possible.”  That’s right, waste valuable time passing BS legislation instead of doing your jobs.

BTW, it’s interesting to note that we veterans who have decided to actually think for ourselves are apparently NOT for freedom.  I bet the people who came up with the name for this group are the same ones who came up with freedom fries.

Dear John McCain, When did you finally give up?

I’m composing a letter to John McCain asking the title question.  It’s jumbled p in my head at the moment so this is a place holder.

Just babble and hope for partial credit …

I watched both parts of the Sarah Palin interview on CBS the past two nights and couldn’t stop thinking, “She’s the kid in class who doesn’t know the answer and just babbles until she can’t think of anything else to say – maybe, just maybe there will be something that answers the question sort of in there.”  I actually read a comment from someone else about her being that kid, so I can’t take credit for the idea, but man is it accurate.  What happened to John McCain?  If he ever really was the “Maverick”, that man is long gone.

But hey: She’s folksy about it! Isn’t that cute?