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February 26, 2009
Meghan Tisinger
Posted by JumpyPants
So you probably know that the President has lifted the ban on press and cameras at Dover Air Force Base. Great news, right? Finally, after over 8 years, we are admitting through imagery, which is far more potent that words, that this war is killing and maiming thousands upon thousands of Americans.
But Meghan Tisinger's not happy about it.
From the AP, via TPM:
"This is a complete disregard for the will of America's military families and the need for their privacy during this solemn moment," said Meghan Tisinger, spokeswoman for Families United for Our Troops and Their Mission.
How could Meghan Tisinger dish out this mendacious slop and believe that anyone would actually buy it? Who, I wondered, is Meghan Tisinger? The Google tube would have me to understand that she shares the name (including the post-g "h") of a Meghan Tisinger who was a spokesperson for defeated GOP Congressman/convicted drunk driver Randy Kuhl. And this isn't the first time Meghan Tisinger has spoken out as a spokesperson regarding the Iraq war and the troops. Follow me after the jump for more about the mysterious Meghan Tisinger!
So according to the Washington Post, it seems that a couple of years ago, Rep. Kuhl was getting a lot of war protesters outside his office. And the Congressman, who once pulled two shotguns on his wife at a dinner party and threatened to shoot her (this was in 1994, three years before he was busted and convicted of drunk driving, and before he divorced the target of his shotgun aim -- ah, family values!), said that in response to all these anti-war protesters he had:
"thought about packing"
Packing, as in heat. Meaning, his response to anti-war protesters was to start carrying guns in case, you know, one of these people who wanted to stop the war needed to, uh, get shot. By Randy.
So this gets reported, and Randy dispatches his spokesperson to throw some water on the fire he's started, and that spokesperson is, yes, Meghan Tisinger!
And man, does she deliver:
"That comment was taken way out of context," the spokeswoman, Meghan Tisinger, told the Sleuth.She said when Congressman Kuhl told the Democrat and Chronicle editorial board that he had "thought about packing" - he was just joking. (Get a sense of humor, people!) "It was one of those sarcastic, offhanded comments," she said.
Plus, Tisinger explained, Kuhl was joking about arming himself in the context of increased security on Capitol Hill in light of the approaching anniversary of 9/11.
Shooting Iraq war protestors? HILARIOUS! See, it was just a JOKE! Like when he pulled those shotguns on his wife and threatened to shoot her! A JOKE! And I guess the judge in the divorce proceedings didn't get the gag, but really, it was a JOKE! Oh, and also, this comedic genius Kuhl is so fucking HILARIOUS he can loop in a reference to the HILARITY of 9/11!
But if we didn't have Meghan Tisinger to stand up for the families of dead troops/interpret the comic stylings of shotgun-wielding drunk Randy Kuhl, we'd all be in the dark, thinking it was good to tell the truth about dead troops and it was bad to threaten unarmed pacifists and/or wives.
Thanks, Meghan Tisinger!
Filed under: Dover Air Force Base || Iraq
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Posted By JumpyPants | February 26, 2009 2:54 PM
Comments
It's also a lie. The order is for the families to decide if they do or do not want pictures taken... :(
QT
Posted by: QueenTiye at February 26, 2009 3:21 PM
I may be wrong, and please correct me if so, but I think the families must give permission to have full media coverage; all coffins are flag draped, and would therefore be anonymous...(?)
Also. My mother in law says she remembers vividly the shots of Vietnam casualties being tossed out in body bags "like firewood." My boss was at Ohio State during the same time, and she said that they would ring bells every day at noon and read off the casualties of the day. I'm sick of the "out of sight, out of mind" attitude of the government. We need to be adults, and see the real cost of this war.
Posted by: trustno1 at February 26, 2009 3:28 PM
You're right, trustno1: families are allowed to veto the presence of press, and the coffins are draped. And I agree 100%: the entire policy of Bush and people like Tisinger is to pretend that war costs nothing. Because, of course, it makes them a lot of money.
Posted by: JumpyPants at February 26, 2009 3:40 PM
Dids Meghan Whosheis care that families who sons and daughters died in Iraq or Afghanistan and who wanted the press coverage were denied that right?
Posted by: eve at February 26, 2009 3:43 PM
It's another one of those "human" costs that some Republicans like to leave off the balance sheet. Similar to environmental damage done by factories or power plants.
I guess it depends on the value one attaches to life and health and well-being.
Posted by: jane at February 26, 2009 3:46 PM
Now, if only we could lower the enlistment age to "fetus" then we could get the GOP to admit their was a human cost.
Here is some humor to lighten up this post.
Posted by: GIthePotato at February 26, 2009 4:10 PM
Jane, where do you file "human cost" on the balance sheet. I have to do my taxes soon and I don't want to get Daschled.
Posted by: GIthePotato at February 26, 2009 4:12 PM
@trustno1,
great point. No matter how rushed my scanning of the NYT, when I come across the box listing the names, ages, and hometowns of the dead, I always read it in full. To acknowledge that the numbers we hear represent actual lives taken away is the very least those of us at home can do. The tolling of a bell and reading of names at work or school would be a fine way to start every citizen off in acknowledging this human cost.
Posted by: TO'B at February 26, 2009 4:14 PM
@GIthePotato:
It's right there under exemptions. You could, if you wanted, declare the entire human race as an exemption, seeing that we're all in this together.
Posted by: FrictionSoul at February 26, 2009 4:21 PM
TO'B,
Are you kidding? Our school children wouldn't get it. Now, if you sent it in a text message that might work.
Posted by: GIthePotato at February 26, 2009 4:21 PM
I was hoping to get some good dirt on her being that Kuhl was my Representative buy she appears to have absolutely no connection to my area so I can't access her Facebook profile.
Instead there's just this lie.
http://www.fighting29th.com/2008/05/nrcc-poll-kuhl-way-ahead.html
Posted by: twoeightnine at February 26, 2009 4:46 PM
I think the name, "Families United for Our Troops and Their Mission", tells us all we need to know about the organization that what's-her-name represents. The question I have is why is the AP quoting them?
Or better yet, why does anybody take the AP's political coverage seriously anymore?
Posted by: CJ at February 26, 2009 5:12 PM
All those "United" groups are just shells tentacles of Melanie Morgan's bullshite astroturf group- Citizens United. I have a searing headache, sorry no embed, but here are the links
http://www.citizensunited.org/
http://www.familiesunitedmission.com/
http://www.melaniemorgan.com/
There may be more, but the gist is they are bullshit.
Posted by: Paddy at February 26, 2009 5:27 PM
Yikes. What a perfect example of the paranoid narcissism that is the right-wing world view. Lies, violence, and intellectual violence -- the trifecta!
Posted by: Matt Osborne at February 26, 2009 5:39 PM
Wow, relax people. She's spokesperson for an organization of military families... it's ok for people to have different opinions than you. No need to "get good dirt" on people or crucify them personally to make your own points. Get lives and live them. No need to hide behind your sarcastic keyboards and lash out at the world and people you don't even know!
Posted by: Jack at February 28, 2009 1:02 PM
