Yes, the Blogosphere DOES Make Things Happen

Due to the blatantly partisan nature of "Vets for Freedom," two sitting U.S. Senators have walked away from the group after appearing at one of their rallies in April and serving as policy advisors:

Senators Joseph I. Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, prominent surrogates for Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign, stepped down Wednesday from their positions with an independent group that released a pair of Internet advertisements attacking Senator Barack Obama on Iraq.

Mr. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and Mr. Graham, Republican of South Carolina, were both on the policy advisory board to the organization, Vets for Freedom, which on Wednesday released its second Web advertisement in less than a week attacking Mr. Obama.

The senators’ positions with the group, which describes itself as a grass-roots advocacy organization pushing for victory in Iraq and Afghanistan, seemed to place them in contravention of new conflict-of-interest rules released by Mr. McCain’s campaign that specifically prohibit anyone “with a McCain campaign title or position” from participating in a “527 or other independent entity that makes public communications that support or oppose any presidential candidate.”

Vets for Freedom has tried to start a phony issue out of the fact that Senator Barack Obama has not been to Iraq in recent years for the Petraeus Promenade, otherwise known as the "dog and pony show." Instead of condemning Obama, real veterans would appreciate the fact that Senator Obama has not gone into a hot combat zone and forced troops to go without overhead protection, heavy vehicle support, and force protection for their operations so that VIPs can buy rugs in a closed marketplace for five bucks.

One of the blogs that noticed what was going on was Crooks & Liars, who picked it up from The Huffington Post:

Will the corporate media hold McCain to task for this violation? [Having Lieberman and Graham serve on the advisory board of Vets for Freedom] Will McCain be forced to disavow their support as he did with Parsley and Hagee? Or will the media be too busy talking about other things and give McCain a pass yet again?

On April 8, 2008, Senators Lieberman, Graham and McCain appeared at a Vets for Freedom rally:

John McCain, (R-Ariz.) the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, did not disappoint. At a pit stop at the Vets for Freedom rally outside the Capitol before appearing on the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain, called Army Gen. David Petraeus "one of [America's] greatest generals."

He also thanked the veterans.

“I just wanna say what you know so well,” McCain said. “No one detests war more than a veteran. But the veteran also knows the consequences of defeat means greater sacrifice and greater numbers who are wounded and killed. You know better than any the consequences of defeat.”

“My friends, we will never surrender to the extremists,” McCain added.

“HOOAH!” dozens of vets yelled in response.

Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman, (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham, (R-S.C.), who have both endorsed McCain's candidacy and joined him on stage, echoed his sentiments.

“Do not underestimate the contribution you have made on the political battlefield at home,” Lieberman said. “Do we want al Qaeda and Iran to win a victory in Iraq?”

“No!” the vets screamed.

Graham added, "More than anything else, we need you to win."

“You want to know who wants you to come home more than anybody?” Graham continued. “Al Qaeda because you’re kicking their ass.”

Saturday Morning Quick Hits

Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out [.pdf alert] Republican hack, election tamperer and voter-disenfranchisement expert Hans Von Spakovsky has asked the current occupant to remove his name from the list of FEC nominees. Democrats had held firm and refused to approve him to the post, effectively shutting down the FEC in an election year, so odious did they find the prospect of Von Spakovsky on the FEC. In his letter to the aWol, he did the obligatory whining that it wasn't fair, but he would take on for the team, asnd hoped to serve America again some day. Yeah, whatever. Be never served the American people. He served The Party. So as the brits say, good riddance to bad rubbish, since his mission for the republican party was to keep people who were born here before his family even landed on our shores from exercising their hard-fought right to vote, we are glad to see him go and hope he has as hard a time finding employment as Bradley Schlozman and has to go on Wingnut Welfare in Wichita.

Screwing Vets just comes natural to these assholes, apparently Our friends at VoteVets have received a forwarded copy of an email that originated from a psychologist at a facility in Texas in late March with the subject line message "Suggestion." In the email, this so-called helping professional suggests that clinicians avoid diagnosing Veterans with PTSD because so many are returning with problems and seeking disability payments.

"Given that we are having more and more compensation seeking veterans, I'd like to suggest that you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out," Norma Perez wrote in a March 20 e-mail to mental-health specialists and social workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs' Olin E. Teague Veterans' Center in Temple, Tex. Instead, she recommended that they "consider a diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder."

VA staff members "really don't . . . have time to do the extensive testing that should be done to determine PTSD," Perez wrote.

Adjustment disorder is a less severe reaction to stress than PTSD and has a shorter duration, usually no longer than six months, said Anthony T. Ng, a psychiatrist and member of Mental Health America, a nonprofit professional association.

Veterans diagnosed with PTSD can be eligible for disability compensation of up to $2,527 a month, depending on the severity of the condition, said Alison Aikele, a VA spokeswoman. Those found to have adjustment disorder generally are not offered such payments, though veterans can receive medical treatment for either condition.

I would like to remind everyone that five years ago, the VA was a highly effective healthcare delivery service and a model for single payer healthcare, and we were damned proud. Then they ruined it by dumping a lot of high-need patients into the system and didn't increase the funding to cover it, and now the system is broken, and wingnuts point and say "See! It doesn't work! Free markets are the answer!" Bullshit. It works fine, but it takes money and staff. Elect people this fall who will provide those things because yellow ribbons on SUVs just aren't cutting it.

Culture can't keep up with technology, and Iraqi women pay with their lives

She was the latest victim of a huge increase across Iraq in the number of "honour" killings of women for alleged immorality by their own families.

Many are burnt to death by having petrol or paraffin poured over them and set ablaze. Others are shot or strangled. The United Nations estimates that at least 255 women died in honour-related killings in Kurdistan, home to one fifth of Iraqis, in the first six months of 2007 alone.

The murder of women who are deemed to have disobeyed traditional codes of morality is even more common in the rest of Iraq where government authority has broken down since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

A surprising reason explaining the massive increase in the number of honour killings is the availability of cheap mobile phones able to take pictures. Men photograph themselves making love to their girlfriends and pass the pictures to their friends. This often turns out to be a lethal act of bravado in a society where premarital or extra-marital sex justifies killing.

The first known case of sex recorded on a mobile leading to murder was in 2004. Film of a boy making love with a 17-year-old girl circulated in the Kurdish capital, Arbil. Two days later she was killed by her family and a week later he was murdered by his.

Since then there has been a sharp increase in the number of women suffering violence – it is almost always the women rather than the men who suffer retribution – as a result of some aspect of their love life being pictured on mobile phones.

In 2007, at least 350 women, double the figure for the previous year, suffered violence as a result of mobile phone "evidence", according to Amanj Khalil of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, citing figures compiled by women's organisations and the police directorate in Sulaymaniyah.

[h/t Juan Cole for directing me to the Independent article]

It sure was Monday - 2/25/08

We are kicking off tonights roundup by announcing the rollout of a national ad campaign by our friends at VoteVets (ad is at the end of tonights post). Our blog is proud to have a long standing association with that fine organization, and as such, it is my honor to pass on the information that they are launching a national ad campaign to push back against the M$M meme that McCain has unequivocal support of vets and their families. He doesn't. If you can help VoteVets get their ad on the air, click here.

Ya think?!?!? St. John "four more years, four more wars!" McCain is backing away from his admission that it all comes down to Iraq, and he is tragically out of step with the American public. On Monday McCain told the AP that in order to win the White House he has to persuade a war-weary electorate that the latest incarnation of a policy on Iraq is succeeding. If he can't, "then I lose. I lose," he said bluntly. Immediately he tried to soften it, but the cat is out of the bag and up the tree, my friend.

John doesn't realize that the purpose of the unsustainable surge was never intended to help the next Republican nominee. It was intended to run out the clock for the current occupant so he can limp across the finish line with his bubble unpunctured. It's about the next schmuck losing Iraq, and everyone else can go pound sand so far as the delusional, self-satisfied Charlie Gordon squatting in the Oval is concerned.

Is Clear Channel trending Blue? Maybe it's merely a case of reading the handwriting on the wall? Whatever is behind it, Monkeyfister is fascinated...I ran the three purchasing parties through Open Secrets.org. Bain Capital Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners both seem to be heavy Democratic supporters. Providence Equity Partners gave to Lincoln Chafee pretty heavily in the past, but, they appear to be fully in the Democratic arena this cycle...Has there been such a heavy tilt in the Force? I wonder what is happening here. I'm already fascinated. Me too, mf, me too.

THIS is the sort of thing I am talking about when I say I want to be represented by fighting Democrats. Let McCain spin his campaign finance BS until he has himself tangled beyond escape. Whatever. While he is doing that, the DNC is cutting to the chase and petitioning the FEC to have campaign finance regulators look into McCain's unique, er, "arrangement" with his loan and public financing. Or as my people sometimes say...Keep it up, and before you know it, it'll be time for the lawyers!

What Atrios Said...

Those of us in the know understand that the "gang of 14" thing was not a victory for Democrats, or bipartisanship, but a blessing bestowed on the Republican right to cheat by promising that Democrats wouldn't do anything to make them want to cheat.

But it pissed off conservatives because while they want conservative judges to be appointed, what they want even more is to extend a middle finger to Democrats as often as possible. In other words, they wanted the Republicans to cheat so they could laugh at the impotent Democrats.

Their politics is mostly driven by a desire to say "fuck you!!!!!!!!" to their perceived political enemies. There isn't much more there.

Pretty much sums it up, Dr. Black.

Ashcroft will Testify - after stonewalling for a couple of months, John Ashcroft will testify on the latest GOP feather-your-cronies-nest scam: appoint them as monitors of defendants in federal cases!

SMU Professors Protest Bush Library...Wow. Usually a presidential library is considered a coup and universities clamber for the acclaim. Not the case with the Bush 43 library - getting the library placed at SMU took three years of debate and negotiations, and now that they have agreed, the professors are pissed. Turns out they don't want a censored library on campus. Go figure. Academics value integrity over ideology. Who could have suspected such an uppity response?

On second thought, I hope the door does hit you in the ass on the way out...and I hope you get a big honkin' splinter, and it gets infected, and you suffer severe complications...I told you last week about former Guantanamo chief prosecutor retired Colonel Morris Davis, who resigned rather than serve below pentagon political appointee Chief Council William J. Haynes, who said "we can't have acquittals" in regard to detainees...Well, today Haynes suddenly resigned his position at the Pentagon. No word yet on whether the war-criminal bastard has lawyered up...

Now, as promised, here is that ad:

John Batiste: A Profile in Integrity

By now, everyone who does not live in a neo-luddite Unabomber cabin has seen the VoteVets.org commercial featuring retired Major General John Batiste – the one in which he proclaims openly “Mr. President, you did not listen. You continue to pursue a failed strategy that is breaking our great Army and Marine Corps. I left the Army in protest in order to speak out. Mr. President, you have placed our nation in peril. Our only hope is that Congress will act now to protect our fighting men and women.”

Everyone also knows by now that CBS News fired the General from his consulting position because of the ads.

Something tells me that General Batiste is not troubled by the fickle devotion of the CBS news division. Not after I read his description of the decision making process that led him to forgo a third star and command of day-to-day operations; casting aside a 31-year military career in the process.

“In the Army, you communicate up the chain of command, and I communicated vehemently with my senior commanders while I was in Iraq,” he said. Of his departure from the Army, he said: “It was the toughest decision of my life. I paced my quarters for days. I didn’t sleep for nights. But I was not willing to compromise my principles for one more minute.”

But General Batiste did not step out of the active duty role just to step into a cushy defense industry job. Instead, he now runs a small steel fabricating plant in Rochester, New York that has no ties to the defense industry at all.

It just looks like the man has scruples in spades. There is no wishy-washiness, there is no flip-flopping and there is zero room for rationalizations or statements like “what you have to understand.” Since resigning and retiring in 2005, he has been steadfast and committed. He was among the first to criticize failed Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld (Rumsfailed?) and call for his ouster.

General Batiste said he chose to go public with his critique of the war effort only after 30 years of honoring the Army’s rules of silence. He said it was that time commanding 22,000 troops in combat, in 2004 and 2005, that convinced him that American fighting in Iraq was short of vision as well as troops.

“There was never enough. There was never a reserve,” he said. “Again and again, we had to move troops by as many as 200 miles out of our area of operations to support another sector. We would pull troops out of contact with the enemy and move them into contact with the enemy somewhere else. The minute we’d leave, the insurgents would pick up on that, and kill everybody who had been friendly.”

He is quick to point out that VoteVets is not an antiwar organization – but it is against the Iraq war/occupation. The organization has thus far done an excellent job of walking that tightrope

VoteVets.org says it has tried to calibrate its message carefully, although there is a limit to the nuance that can fit into 30-second television spots. (Two other retired generals, Paul D. Eaton and Wesley K. Clark, speak in the campaign’s other advertisements.)

As described by General Batiste, the message is not antiwar; it argues that continuing the war in Iraq as a civil, sectarian conflict that cannot be won by outside forces is crippling the Army and the Marine Corps. It does not deny the danger of violent Islamic extremism, he says, but contends that the war in Iraq prevents the armed services from preparing to battle other global security threats.

And it says that if terrorism, and especially terrorists armed with unconventional weapons, truly threaten America’s very survival, then the rest of the country — not just the military — should be called to sacrifice.

America stands at a fork in the road. We must choose our path carefully. I vote we follow men like General Batiste and Lt. Colonel Yingling - and Tommy “Stupidest Man on the Planet” Franks and Jack Keane can just fade away - and the sooner the better.

As for me, I will stand shoulder to shoulder and ramrod straight with those who know how a Patriot ought to act.

[Cross-posted from Watching Those We Chose]

General Distrust, General Disgust

General Batiste does not need my help. He says it just fine all on his own.

Watch it. In 30 seconds, he holds both the Resident and the Congress accountable.