They have no idea because they take people like Palin's word as Gospel and since they don't do anything but watch Fox News Channel and listen to Rush Limbaugh for three hours a day, any time the President does acknowledge the sacrifice of our military it's disregarded as a photo op, like the Dover visit above was.

And let's not forget the President's visit to Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery. Remind me again when Bush did something even remotely similar?

Fuck 'em.

Seriously, they are going to say this shit no matter what Obama does. He could declare that no member of the armed forces would have to pay taxes ever again and that they would each get a mansion and they'd still claim he wasn't acknowledging their sacrifices or honoring them enough.

It's just what they do.

So,

Fuck 'em.

What DC said.

Double it for me.

I'm so sick of this chit and the chitty wingnuts that go with it.

As I was reading her quote, I remembered the grief he got for the transfer ceremony and scrolled down to see the photo. Yep. DC is right. They will never find anything he does to be worthy of silence or acceptance. So, yep. Fuck 'em. Except, wait. I really like the word fuck and don't want to waste it on them. So, Cheney 'em.

Jennifer

This was the best response to this bullshit. I read this on the politicl this afternoon and was thrilled with Woodhouse's take:

Democratic National Committee Communications Director Brad Woodhouse responded: “It's not surprising that someone who doesn't know the difference between Iraq and Iran, whose outrageous claims on health reform have been repeatedly debunked and whose book has been called ‘fiction’ by members of her own party would get the facts wrong or, worse, simply lie on this.”

“Just in the past four weeks the president has met with troops on bases in Jacksonville, Alaska and South Korea and the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M,” Woodhouse said. “While it's not surprising that Sarah Palin will lie and ignore the facts to appeal to the right wing, tea party fringe of the Republican base, what is surprising it that anyone else would pay attention to what she has to say.”

That pretty much says it all!

I think the thing that bothers us the most ( I mean Palin is a flaming dingaling . . . "so stipulated your honor)" is that the media loves this shit.

Consider this: Our TV programming consists of a hundred channels of shit provided by people that know exactly what they are doing. The people that watch this are voters!!!

Until we can get back to smart . . . we are fucked.

sorry, that's the politico. Fuck them too because they suck but, that's a great quote from Woodhouse.

Remember that facts are irrelevant. All that matters is imprinting. Imprinting the message. That's it. Obama could have dedicated a billion dollar Iraq War memorial, rebuilt Walter Reed to be the most modern hospital in the world, doubled the pay of all US soldiers and Palin would be saying "Obama doesn't recognize the sacrifices of the American soldier. He also has never admitted palling around with terrorists." And all her followers (and Politico) would repeat this ad nauseum.

Again - facts do not matter. Imprinting is the only game in town.

These people believe Obama is a communist so obviously it makes sense that he hates our military. They really believe this. The more I think about it, I don't think it is really that personal with them and Obama. They said the same thing about Clinton, Gore, Kerry, they would've said it about Hillary. They think democrats inherently have no respect for our armed forces. And of course, most of us probably believe Bush didn't really care about our military either, seeing as how little thought he gave to sending thousands of them to die in a foreign desert.

As for Palin, she's 100% full of shit, always has been and always will be. Can't do anything about that.

Eljefejeff,

I have friends still in that foreign desert; friends from America and friends from Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Show those countries some fucking respect. REAL people live there, in case you've forgotten; real people who were raped, tortured, burned alive, crucified, and murdered at whim by a character you still seem to think was no danger whatsoever.

You must still be in mourning for poor, defenseless saddam hussein.

Personally, if we hadn't gone in, I might have murdered the fucker myself. And the world would have thanked me.

PPP - we're also mourning for the over 1 million Iraqis that have dies since we've been there. What a way to spread democracy. As for you Saddam Hussein line, don't be such a dick.

NO!!!! I am not buying the bullshit.

PPP,

You are absolutely correct. It was a SOVEREIGN NATION with REAL PEOPLE and a terrible human being as their leader.

So, what gave us(the USA) the right to invade a country that had ZERO to due with 9/11? Answer: We had no right.

Now with those same principles as I just stated, I have to ask; Why didn't another country invade the USA during the Bush Era? Answer: It was not the right thing to do.

Please stop grandstanding about Saddam and your 1989 hatred for a man that has been dead for 3 years. He is gone. His people are free from his regime.

Also, no one believes you! You would have watched the news and blogged angrily. All talk.

PPP, you're such a hero. The world needs more great and wonderful people like you.

God bless America and God bless Political Party Pooper.

Sorry for the typos. Imbecilic comments causes me to slam keys inadvertently.

I'm confused...what did eljefejeff say that was disrespectful to any other the countries Pooper named? Bit of reading into something that's not there, Poop.

Now taking bets that if Obama or Biden make an unannounced visit to a base in Iraq or Afghanistan to serve turkey on Thursday, Palin et al will call it grandstanding or using the troops for political purposes.

adding, the communist regimes have LOVED their militaries - May Day parades with columns & columns of tanks & heavy artillery, etc. That seems to be what the rightwingnuts are advocating for the US, no?

but ceu, that would be a communist thing to do.

Well, PPP just stepped on his dick. Unless you are a female. In that case, please just STFU. You have zero credibility. And . . . iI used to look forward to what you had to say.

Go away asshole.

Ceu, the "foreign desert" comment was over the top. He might as well have said we were sending troops to die for "ragheads".

GI Joe, not sure what you are talking about.

Hielo, I love you , too.

Broadway Carl, One million Iraqi dead...if that's an actual statistic, is short of what Hussein did to his own people, Kurds, and Iranians, in less time.

Mind you, AMERICANS didn't kill one million Iraqis. If you have anger over that, talk to the fear mongers in Iraq who tried to Mafia-style their way into a brand new Saddam suit.

PPP

Go to Redstate. Your sort of logic works there.

Honestly, I have to wonder if someone has hijacked your monicker. The comments attributed to you make no sense at all tonight.

GI Joe,

One other thing. I have NEVER claimed that Iraq had ANYTHING to do with 9/11. You have me confused with someone else.

However, I HAVE claimed that the Iraq war was the right thing to do. You disagree; that's okay. Have you ever seen me slam you for not agreeing with it?

Why is it that when I agree with you all on the health care bill, you all are as nice as can be? Yet when I state something that disagrees with the Democratic National agenda, you jump all over me like I'm public enemy number one?

If I had made the comment that eljefe made, maybe about sending troops to die in some foreign jungle (like Darfur), you all would have jumped down my throat as a racist.

His implication was pretty clear from my perspective.

PPP, obviously this is a sore subject for you, but don't make any assumptions about me. That's extremely insulting, considering how much time and energy I spent trying to convince pro-war Americans like you why our soldiers should not be sent to the desert to kill innocent Iraqis, which would make us no better than Saddam Hussein. In case you forgot, usually the pro-war folks were the ones throwing around terms like raghead, as in "let's go get those ragheads who attacked us on 9/11", you know, as they gave their rationale as to why we should invade IRAQ.

And for your information, when I speak of Vietnam, I usually say "were sent to die in a foreign jungle". If that's derogatory, I apologize to any Vietnamese who may be offended(although they're probably more upset about the 2 million of them who died in our horrendous war of choice)

PPP, I just read your latest post, only after I wrote what I did about Vietnam and the jungle. The point I'm making is that I find it that much more sad that these soldiers couldn't live a long and full life here in their country and instead die in a foreign place, so far away from home. I find it that much more tragic.

My stepfather was a medic in Vietnam and said most of these guys, before they died, usually said something about wanting to go home, or tell my wife I love her, or Momma! or something about home, where they never should've been taken from in the first place. It's heartbreaking. These guys were robbed. They signed up to defend America, not to die for resources, political power, or Halliburton.

I apologize if my words insulted you, eljefe. A sore subject? Maybe. I just see it from a different perspective. A United States soldier's job is not just to protect and defend America and Americans. A much deeper moral exists than that.

A soldier defends those who cannot defend themselves, and fights for those who cannot fight for themselves, and that duty knows no boundaries. That's what the word "sacrifice" means for a soldier.

It's cruel. It can mean death indiscriminately. It tortures mothers, fathers, wives, children, and friends with constant worry and sometimes, ultimate grief.

Eljefe, I'm not belittling anyone's sacrifice, and no soldier's life is meaningless or easily thrown away. But most of them realize what their decision to join means.

For the ones who don't, how could they not? We were there to serve, not to be served. I wanted Hussein dead for a long time; that is true. But my reasons had nothing to do with WMD's. I saw what he was capable of in a very short period of time. He had no need of WMD's. His army was all he needed to kill hundreds of thousands in months.

History will judge whether the Iraqi war, in the end, was the right thing. We are too close to it right now to judge rightly. We know Bush lied. His reasons were faulty. But the war itself, I believe, accomplished the right end. Years from now, many, many vets of the recent Iraqi war will recall with pride what they accomplished there. They will remember their friends, those who died, and those who lived. And they WILL remember that it was them who helped Iraq become a free nation.

There are times when it seems like history chooses the right leader for that exact moment. History is a bitch that way, using people despite themselves.

And now, history might well have chosen President Obama to finish the job in Iraq and Afghanistan because maybe, he is the right man to do it right so that it will last.

I see the Iraqi war from that perspective.

PPP - So since one million Iraqi dead resulting from a US invasion i less than what Saddam Hussein did to his own people, that makes it's okay?

http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq

Unfortunately, people ARE buying this shit...and sorry to say it, DC, but "fuck em" is just not a realistic political strategy. I happen to agree with you, btw...however, the reach of blogs like Bob's are limited. He's "preaching to the choir", as they say. While we wring our collective hands over the shoddy "journalism" of the right-wing media machine and poo poo the gullibility of the "masses", we are being constantly put on the defensive trying to justify why our worldview is inherently better than theirs. The problem lies with the delivery, not the message. Sometimes we may just have to "dumb things down" (ie. make things relevant)in order for people to be willing to move outside their comfort zone.

We can trade bon mots all day here and on DK or FDL or MM or C&L...bottom line - but until we can get our message across to the rest of the nation, we will always be the runner-up to a delivery system that's always been vastly superior to ours. So yeah...people will continue to buy their shit...because it's delivered in a pretty package with a shiny new bow. Form over substance matters - unfortunately.

PPP, it's all good. Peace.

It is form over substance and until we, meaning Progressives, have a news conglomeration of our own, these kinds of websites and good ole political activism is all we have. The general populace does indeed appear to be to "buying" this bullshit.

@PPP, my family has fought in every war since the American Revolution.....and I disagree with you.

An American soldier's job is to protect and defend America. If your larger moral stance was the case, then we would be in every country and involved in war forever. Injustice exists everywhere, all the time--but we have "chosen" certain conflicts over other due to national interests. That may be cynical and ugly, but it's the truth.

It cannot be our job to police the world--we will never have enough resources, enough political will, nor enough soldiers for such a thing. I think the greater moral objective is a wonderful goal, but the only for individuals and governments--because that personal responsibility of "do no harm" MUST begin from the individual up. Social change, particularly ethical changes, do not take place at the end of a gun, nor should they because it violates the other ethical principle of autonomy.