October 2004 Archives

On CNN the Bush-Cheney campaign admitted to photoshopping in a bunch of
soldiers to fill the gaps. Click here to see the ad and who got turned
into a "force-multiplier" (hehehe)

http://www.salon.com/ent/wire/2004/10/28/cnnfn/story.jpg

This reminds me of when the University of Michigan got caught putting
out a brochure that had a black student photoshopped strategically
several times into a picture of graduation, to give the idea that blacks
were well-represented. They were embarassed to admit that they didn't
have any actual photos of non-white people graduating! When word got
out, it was a pretty big scandal.

"One of the Pentagon's best arguments for rejecting the draft was that
it wanted to move away from this style of warfare, where whole divisions
of conscripts were thrown into the meat grinder of combat...But the
unfortunate truth is that today's Guard and reserve units are being
thrown into the fight in ways similar to conscript-based units of past
generations."

http://slate.com/id/2108357/

The author is jumping a little too far ahead in my opinion...the single
incident of the 343rd doesn't necessarily indicate that the reserves are
acting like draftees (though it's an interesting idea). To me it much
more likely indicates a chain of poor officers ... a captain giving
orders out of personal spite, and the majors/colonels above him being
such poor uncaring leaders that the soldiers felt alone with no-one to
go to. (disclosure: I was an army officer for a while too).

Did you see Jon Stewart on the TV show Crossfire? I didn't but I read
the transcript:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0410/15/cf.01.html

(scroll down to where Jon Stewart first appears (Ctrl-F for find).

Wow! I wish I had guts like that. Actually this is very appropriate
coming from him. The people on Crossfire totally misinterpreted the
Daily Show on Comedy Central. They saw it as a comedy show making fun
of life, politics, you know, what's going on in the world. And so they
expect him to make fun of the politicians, Kerry and Bush, and try to
push him around about that.

But they missed the point altogether - the Daily Show is a satire of
NEWS SHOWS. So he is doing his job very well when he points out that
today's news shows are complete partisan crap. There is no place left
to get objective news anymore. Fox can't go a single day without
declaring all others "the liberal media". Sinclair is broadcasting an
anti-Kerry documentary as "news". And Farheinheit 9/11 is biased too,
according to its own author. (but at least no one's making me watch
that, and I haven't seen it, yet).

I think it all results from politicians doing whatever it takes to get
into and stay in power. Ideas are shortened to the tiniest soundbite,
reduced to the lowest common denominator and broadcast without regard to
their truth. I have another blog coming on this topic entitled "God,
Guns, Gays!!!" :)

In any case, thank the Lord for Jon Stewart. What cajones to go on
Crossfire and tell them on live TV they are failing their duty to America.

John Eisenhower, son of General and President Eisenhower, is a
Republican like his father, with an interesting point of view.

http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=44657

While some compare this to Ron Reagan with Ronald Reagan, I think people
knew those two were estranged for a while. While Esienhower is much
more in sync with his father's point of view. Worth reading the article.