Marine Corps still doesn't get it

Take a look at my previous post. Even after the Department of Defense reissued its uniform policy to make it even more clear that wearing uniforms at political events such as the Larimer County, Colorado Republican Lincoln Day dinner, the Marine Corps continues to defend the practice.

According to this article, Marine spokesman Major Doug Johnson said " “The Marines were in attendance because they were asked to attend to be honored for their service and not as attendees at a political event,” Johnson told the newspaper. “There is nothing wrong with Marines being asked to appear in public and being honored for their service.”

Well, allow me to set Major Johnson straight: The United States Marine Corps uniform wear policy reads:

"...The wearing of the uniform is prohibited under any of the following circumstances:...

(2) During or in connection with the furtherance of political activities, private employment or commercial interests, when an inference of official sponsorship for the activity or interest could be drawn..."

How much clearer could it be? The Department of Defense says no. The Marine Corps policy says no. It ought to be clear that anyone speaking for the Marine Corps or any other branch of the service has no business saying yes.

DoD clarifies policy on military involvement in politics

In several posts earlier this month I wrote that the Larimer County Republicans hosted uniformed Marines at their annual Lincoln Day fundraising dinner. The action of these Marines was a clear violation of military policy that explicitly states service members in uniform cannot attend partisan political events.

A representative of the Marine Corps public affairs office then got it wrong she stated that it was OK for the Marines who attended the Larimer County event in uniform to do so.

Now comes news that the Department of Defense has reissued its guidelines to make it even more clear than before that uniformed members of the military are not allowed to attend partisan political events while in uniform. The policy has not changed --what the Marines in attendance at the Lincoln Day dinner did was wrong when they did it and it's wrong now.

Let's hope the reissued guidelines on military involvement in politics are enough to force the Bush administration to abandon its attempt to use the military as a partisan prop.

Republicans favor term limits, just not for them

Back in 1994, Candidate for Congress Zach Wamp pledged to serve no more than 12 years in the House if he won. He made the pledge, as did almost all the other Republican candidates that year, as evidence of their belief that Congress, then under Democratic control, was corrupt and that only frequent turnover among its members could change things for the better. Wamp won in 1994, and was reelected every two years after that.

Fast forward 12 years. Wamp favors limiting House members to 6 two year terms. He's served 6 two year terms. So he must be retiring, right? Actually no.

Wamp, like the majority of Republican House members who pledged to limit their terms, have gone back on their word. Surprise, surprise, the've decided that experience and seniority are good things to have after all.

Some of the Republican House members who lied are: Barbara Cubin of Wyoming; Phil English of Pennsylvania; Jeff Flake of Arizona; Timothy V. Johnson of Illinois; Ric Keller of Florida; Frank A. LoBiondo of New Jersey; Steve LaTourette of Ohio; and Mark Souder of Indiana.

One of the more egregious examples was George Nethercutt of Washington state, who pledged to serve no more than three terms when he defeated Speaker of the House Tom Foley. Nethercutt broke his word and served five terms before running unsuccessfully for a US Senate seat.

The failure of these and many other members of Congress to keep their word on term limits is only one more example of their corruption and shows clearly why the Republicans in Congress must be defeated in November's elections.

By the way, I oppose term limits on the gounds that they take away freedom of choice for voters. Sure, incumbents have so many advantages they almost never lose. But if the people of Mississippi's first district are happy to send the same Congressman to Washington (Jamie Whitten, seen in the black and white photo above) for over 50 years, who am I to say no? If they're happy with him, they ought to be able to keep him.

Scott McClellan, lying sack of...

Scott McClellan lied at today's press briefing when he said the Afghan constitution protects freedom of religion. Back in 2004 McClellan's boss told the same lie.

This matters because an Afghan man, Abdul Rahman, is on trial for having converted to Christianity. If he's convicted he can be killed.

These guys know they're lying about religious freedom existing in Afghanistan because in 2003 the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom said it didn't exist.

Of course people who normally favor the death penalty, people who call themselves conservatives and religious traditionalists, are protesting that a convert to Christianity might be killed. In other words, Bush's and McClellan's recent claims of religious freedom in Afghanistan are simply a lame attempt to quiet their base.

The photos are of Afghanistan's once famed Buddhas of Bamiyan, which the Taliban destroyed in 2001. It looks like not much changed in Afghanistan when the regime did.

Follow up to John McCain -- anything to win

The other day I wrote that Senator McCain had hired as a top advisor to his PAC a Republican operative with ties to Tom DeLay and other GOP dirty tricksters.

Well, according to this, yesterday McCain appeared on a radio talk show in Seattle. A caller asked how McCain as a reformer could justify hiring Terry Nelson given that Nelson was named in the indictment accusing DeLay of money laundering and was the supervisor of a Republican campaign aide who was convicted of jamming Democratic get out the vote phones in New Hampshire. According to the story, McCain denied that Nelson did what Nelson, in fact, did.

The story also goes on to say that McCain may really not have known about Nelson's past and was asking his staff assistants "what it was all about."

Let's see the man who would be President spin his way out of this one.

More proof of Bush administration incompetence

In his book (page 289) former FBI Director Louis Freeh claims that if it had been possible for authorities to obtain susubpoenas to view the enrollment records of US flight schools, they might have been able to connect Zacarias Moussaoui to the 9-11 hijackers. Freeh goes on to say that if that connection had been made, perhaps the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon would never have happened.

However, at the trial of Moussaoui, which is currently in the sentencing phase, Agent Harry Samit says he warned his supervisors about Moussaoui more than 7o times and was prevented from following up. Samit says he warned his superiors in Washington in August 2001 that it was possible Moussaoui planned to hijack a plane.

In short, it's clear that information did exist to show that Moussaoui should be investigated. The 9-11 attacks might have been stopped. It's not that the connection hadn't been made. It's that the policy makers, including Freeh, weren't listening.

General Eaton speaks his mind

Retired Army Major General Paul D. Eaton had an editorial published in yesterday's New York Times. In this piece, "A Top Down Review for the Pentagon," Eaton makes the argument that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld is incompetent, has managed the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism badly, and should resign.

Eaton was the guy in charge of training the new Iraqi Army. This story on the Defend America web site gives a glowing account of his efforts while he was in Iraq in 2003-2004. You'd better read it while you can -- now that General Eaton is identified as a critic of the administration, he can expect his career to be denigrated and his accomplishments belittled.

And just to make sure everyone knows the level of expertise General Eaton brings to his observations and conclusions,let me acquaint you with his resume. He's a graduate of the United States Military Academy and has a master of arts degree in French Grammar and Civilization from France's Middlebury College. He's a graduate of the Infantry Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, Command and General Staff College, and the Army War College. He speaks French. He's commanded platoons, companies, battalions, and brigades. He's served as an operations officer at all levels and in a variety of other staff assignments. He was an assistant division commander, and he was the commanding general and commandant of the US Infantry School. He was also the commander of the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team in Iraq, an organization I'm familiar with since I worked with members of that organization when I trained soldiers in Iraq during 2005.

General Eaton's awards include:

Distinguished Service Medal (two awards)

Defense Superior Service Medal

Legion of Merit (four awards)

Bronze Star Medal

Meritorious Service Medal (three awards)

Army Commendation Medal (three awards)

Army Achievement Medal

Expert Infantryman Badge

Parachutist Badge

Ranger Tab

Joint Chiefs of Staff Identification Badge

John McCain -- anything to win

Senator John McCain, alleged reformer, alleged moderate, and alleged maverick apparently wants to be President so badly he'll do anything. The proof? he recently hired Terry Nelson as senior advisor for his Political Action Committee, Straight Talk America.

Nelson has been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the ongoing case where Tom DeLay and his aides have been accused of laundering donations to evade a law banning corporate contributions to candidates in Texas.

If John McCain ever had any principles he's clearly sold them out for a chance to succeed the current occupant of the White House.

Why George W. Bush is a hack

According to this MSNBC story, federal investigators recently attempted to carry bomb making materials through security screenings at 21 airports. How many airports spotted the materials and detained the people carrying them? NOT ONE! That's right, according to this story "in all 21 airports tested, no machine, no swab, no screener anywhere stopped the bomb materials from getting through. Even when investigators deliberately triggered extra screening of bags, no one discovered the materials."

For Christ's sake, it's been nearky five years since the 9-11 attacks caused the US to go on alert and "President" Bush swear to stop terrorism. As this story clearly shows, Bush still hasn't caused even the most basic airport security precautions to be implemented.

Between the lax security at airports as proven here and the lax security at US ports, which is written about here, it's clear that Bush and his political supporters care about security only as a rhetorical device for beating Democrats at election time.

By the way, the cartoon is by Jack Ohman of the Portland Oregonian.

Another installment of Ann Coulter is a douche

White House domestic policy advisor Claude Allen resigns with no notice. It's later learned that Allen was involved in a fraud of long duration which involved buying items at department stores such as Target, then returning to the store with the receipt, placing items that matched the receipt in his cart, then returning them for refunds. So far it appears that he may have stolen more than $25,000.

How does Ann Coulter explain Allen's theft and duplicity? She blames the allegedly liberal media, of course. That's right, the woman who claims to speak for the party of "personal responsibility" is willing to blame anyone but the thief and liar himself.

Coulter writes:

Allen isn't even working for the Bush administration anymore. Yet the Times is wallowing in his agony. I've never seen people enjoy another person's private pain so much — at least not since a prosecutor started investigating Rush Limbaugh for taking too many back pain pills.

Are you kidding me? If you want to read about how ANN COULTER not only ENJOYED someone else's private pain, but actually CAUSED IT, I direct you here (.pdf), here, here, here, here, and here.

God, what a fucking hypocrite! That's why Ann Coulter is a douche.

Congress shall make no law...

In one more example of how the Bush administration's concept of media manipulation is spinning wildly out of control, Douglas County, Minnesota Coordinator Bill Schalow recently decreed that news articles about the county had to be submitted to the county (in other words, Schalow) for "fact checking" and prior approval before publication or broadcasting. The penalty for not adhering to this decree was to be loss of access to the county government, making it more difficult, if not impossible, for journalists to report the news. For the enlightenment of Mr. Schalow and anyone else who hasn't reviewed the US Constitution recently, the first amendment reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." The public outcry from Douglas County's citizens caused Schalow to rescind his media relations policy. The outrage is that he ever thought it was ever acceptable for him to introduce in the first place. Mr. Schalow's phone number is 320-762-3873. His e-mail address is bill.schalow@mail.co.douglas.mn.us. His mailing address is 305 8th Ave W, Alexandria, MN 56308. What do you say we all let Mr. Schalow knows what we think about his attempted trampling of our Constitution.

Scott McClellan is a lying whore

Today Scott McClellan, the spokesperson for the current occupant of the White House, was asked today about Senator Russ Feingold's motion to censure said White House occupant. McClellan said:

"...it would be interesting to see how many Democrats actually agree with the view of Senator Feingold. Do Democrats support Senator Feingold’s view or do they support this vital program? The American people have made it very clear they support the president’s efforts to defeat the terrorists and prevent attacks from happening. The president has made it very clear he’s not going to wait to be hit again."

Allow me to explain my view as clearly as I can -- Oh BULLSHIT. McClellan and his liar boss do this all the time -- create a false choice through a ridiculous characterization of the opposition's views, then knock down the phony argument to make themselves appear reasonable.

The truth is that NO ONE I know of wants al Qaeda to operate unmolested. The REAL question, which McClellan is trying to direct attention away from, is whether Boss Bush has the authority to conduct warrantless surveillance of AMERICAN CITIZENS on US SOIL. Clearly McClellan and Bush and Cheney and the rest of the administration think they can. Opponents, both Democratic and Republican, liberal and conservative, think they can't. THAT'S the real debate, and it's one worth having.

When the best argument Bush's press flak can come up with to defend the Boss is a lie, you know there's not much to their position in the first place.

Political involvement for military OK if they're Republican

Check out this letter from 2003. It appeared in the Sumter, South Carolina Item. The writer was a Marine Sergeant who was charged with making "disloyal statements" because he expressed his anti-administration political opinions in a letter to the editor. This Sergeant, an 8-year Marine veteran who had received several commendations and awards, was forced from the military simply for expressing an opinion, something he is allowed to do.

Contrast this with the conduct of two Marine NCOs who appeared in uniform at a county Republican party event. An anonymous spokeswoman at the Marine Corps public relations office says that's OK.

Clearly service members are now permitted to participate in partisan politics, but only as long as they're Republicans.

Let's reacquaint USMC public affairs with the regulations

This is Major General Mary Ann Krusa-Dossin. She's the head of Marine Corps Public Affairs and the boss of the anonymous spokeswoman who said that it was OK for uniformed Marines to appear at a partisan political event.

I suggest that we all contact general Krusa-Dossin to tell her we insist that the regulations be enforced correctly. Here's her contact information:

Department of Public Affairs -- Command Element

CMC (PA)
Headquarters Marine Corps
3000 Marine Corps
Pentagon 4B548
Washington, DC 20350-3000

Telephone:
703-614-1492/4080/8010

Fax:
703-697-5362

Marines used as partisan props

Here's a follow up to my previous posts about the Marines in uniform who attended the Larimer County Republican party Lincoln Day dinner.

An anonymous spokeswoman for the Marine Corps public affairs office says it's "not against regulations."

Allow me to counter this argument: Oh, bullshit.

It absolutely IS against regulations for service members to engage in partisan politics by appearing at events while in uniform. Just look at my previous posts and see for yourself -- it's black and white, not ambiguous.

I promise you I'm going to do some research -- if I find even ONE example of someone in the military being punished for attending a political event, especially a Democratic one, expect me to tell the reporter for the Coloradoan, the anonymous spokesman for the Marines and anyone else who will listen.

We CANNOT allow members of the military to be used as partisan props.

Damn that liberal media

Here's a photo of Tom DeLay with convicted felon Jack Abramoff. It's from an upcoming Vanity Fair story. Here's part of today's CNN story about Congressman Tom DeLay's victory in yesterday's Texas Republican primary:

"...he (DeLay) will face Democrat Nick Lampson in the general election. The former congressman (Lampson) lost his seat in an adjacent district in 2004 after DeLay and his allies pushed a controversial reapportionment plan though the Texas Legislature, making Lampson's district more Republican.

Lampson, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, is expected to put up a nasty fight for DeLay's seat."

I'm sure you've guessed my question: Why is it LAMPSON who's associated with the word "nasty," as though he's underhanded and sleazy while DeLay is an innocent victim? DeLay has been indicted, as have several associates, and he was forced to relinquish his leadership position. If anyone's "nasty," it's DeLay, not Lampson.

So, I'll ask again -- WHAT liberal media?

Larimer County GOP is full of crap

To continue with the story I began a couple of days ago (see previous posts), the Larimer County Colorado Republicans have now defended the fact that Marines in uniform appeared at their fundraising dinner by saying, among other things, that it's OK because their presence at the event wasn't "required." This story in the Fort Collins Coloradoan makes it appear that the issue is ambiguous -- an "on the one hand, on the other hand" article designed to make the paper seem "balanced."

That's bullshit. This is black letter -- the Marines were wrong, and so is anyone who condones their actions. According to the relevant Department of Defense Directive, number 1344.10 dated 2 August 2004, a member on active duty may "Attend partisan and nonpartisan political meetings, rallies, or conventions as a spectator when not in uniform." (Paragraph 4.1.1.3)

A member on active duty may not "Participate in partisan political management, campaigns, or conventions (unless attending a convention as a spectator when not in uniform)." (Paragraph 4.1.2.3)

Further, according to the relevant reference at the end of this directive, Reference E, among other prohibited activities service members may not "Serve in any official capacity or be listed as a sponsor of a partisan political club." (Reference E, Paragraph 3.3.7)

"Speak before a partisan political gathering, including any gathering that promotes a partisan political party, candidate, or cause." (Reference E, Paragraph E 3.3.8)

"Sell tickets for, or otherwise actively promote, political dinners and similar fundraising events." (Reference E, Paragraph 3.3.17)

"Attend partisan political events as an official representative of the Armed Forces." (Reference E, Paragraph 3.3.18)

In addition, Reference E contains the following additional guidance:

"Members of the Armed Forces on active duty engaging in permissible political activities shall refrain from participating in any political activity while in military uniform, as proscribed by reference (f) or using Government facilities or resources for furthering political activities." (Reference E, Paragraph 3.6.3)

In regards to the last paragraph, the point is that even if the Marines in Larimer County were engaging in a permitted activity (which they weren't), they wouldn't be allowed to do it in uniform.

Americans everywhere need to register their disapproval of this politicizing of the military. Don't let any political party act like it has a monopoly on support for service members and veterans.

Update to yesterday's post

The Larimer County Colorado Republicans scrubbed their web site to remove the photos I linked to yesterday -- the ones showing Marines in uniform participating in a partisan political event, which is a violation of military regulations and policies.

I went through the photos on the party's web site and made copies of each photo still on the site that showed a Marine in uniform attending the event, and I'm posting them here so you can see for youself. One Marine was identified in a news article about the event as Brandon Forsyth.

Republicans politicize the military

This story really bothers me. The Larimer County, Colorado Republican party recently held a fundraising dinner. At this event, Rep. Marilyn Musgrave introduced Marines in uniform who were in attendance. Here's the photo of Rep. Musgrave performing the introduction. See the rest of the photos here, here, here and here.

Here's what bothers me: Members of the military are expressly prohibited from attending political events while wearing their uniforms. This is black letter --it's not even a close call.

Here's what else bothers me: As Bob Novak made clear in a recent column, the national Republican party is going to continue using uniformed military members for partisan politics as a purposeful strategy -- the Larimer County event is no accident.

The greatest thing about being in the military, in my experience, is that we try to be totally professional, which means staying out of partisan politics and agreeing to follow all legal orders of the civilians in charge of the military, even orders with which we disagree.

The Republican party is wrong to politicize the military and any member of the military who goes along with this strategy is violating laws, regulations and policies. I call on all my brothers and sisters in arms to refuse to be used in this way by politicians with partisan motives.

The latest Bush smoking gun

George W. Bush, discussing poor federal response to Hurricane Katrina, September 1, 2005: "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

Max Mayfield to Bush and other federal officials in August 29, 2005 video teleconference on preparations in advance of Hurricane Katrina's landfall: “I don’t think any model can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not but that is obviously a grave concern.”

Cheney's smoking gun is an actual smoking gun. Bush's is the video of a teleconference in which he participated before Katrina struck. Will the allegedly liberal media report on Bush's blatant "I don't think anybody anticipated" lie? Of course not -- after all, it's Al Gore who's a "serial exaggerator" and John Kerry who's a "flip flopper."

Quit Picking Hacks

The people at Act for Change have started a great petition that calls on the current occupant of the White House to quit appointing cronies to important government jobs. Among the unqualified hacks Bush has appointed are: John Pennington; Hal Stratton; Julie Myers; Stewart Simonson; and Paul Bonicelli.

I agree with Act for Change -- we should all tell Dear Leader to stop putting less than capable men and women in top jobs simply to reward them for political support. Please sign the petition today.