John McCain was a POW. I had to report that because he’s so reluctant to say it he says it every five minutes.
This just in.
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Morris, have you seen this ad yet?
Funny..The Genius Ad!
LOL. Seriously.
Damn.
Countdown to first whine from butthurt wingnut in 5…4…
Is that the partner to the business that was closed down by the state?
Wow. Completely wrong post.
“Carol McCain should have understood a POW has needs”-Sean Hannity defending McCain’s affair with Cindy
Hey it’s better than mr 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11.
Did Hannity say that McCzin was having prison sex?
You’re kidding me right? He really was a POW? Wow. How about that.
Military service > Community organizing
‘Nuff said.
How dare you denigrate his service. No class at all.
That’s right, respond to a post you *wish* Oliver had written.
What the rest of us read here is that McCain’s phony reticence on the subject (ie of being a POW) is a laugh (or is it sad? I’m on the fence here).
I, for one, feel that McCain has more than earned his right to cash in and cash in hard on his military service, but he is spreading it thin, certainly at the convention and especially when he uses it to deflect questions on completely unrelated topics
I just heard some shocking news, guys.
John McCain? He was a POW.
Uhh, no.
Military service isn’t inherently greater than anything. It’s the quality of the service and the individual involved. The soldiers involved in the My Lai massacre, Abu Ghraib, Haditha and other atrocities are < dog shit.
What phony reticence?
If you listened to him speak last night, or read his book you would understand that his 5 years imprisonment changed the way he looks at the world. He makes this point because he is a better leader for it, and it explains his current ideology.
While people like Repack were cheering on Jane Fonda, or “fragging” their officers, McCain was literally rotting away in a tiny cell.
And I can’t tell you how offensive it is to listen to a morbidly obese blogger who has never lifted a finger for this country attempt to denigrate this mans service, whether or not you agree with his political ideology or not. He has EARNED the respect of EVERY reasonable american.
No-one’s denigrating his service, particularly his 7 year service chained to a wall. He showed strength getting through that shit.
But it’s not something you should actually be listing on your CV unless you’re a ghoul. Or applying for Terry Waite’s old job.
While people like Repack were cheering on Jane Fonda, or “fragging” their officers, McCain was literally rotting away in a tiny cell.
I see. No one should dare speak ill of McCain’s military service while we listen to you denigrate other people’s service.
You mindless trolls are really starting to piss me off.
This is denigration to the extreme. Did you think his extraordinary service to this country wouldn’t be used as valid proof of the man’s character? It takes a special kind of hack to ridicule what McCain went through for this country. It would have at the least, bizzare for the media and McCain himself *not* to mention it.
McCain’s military service > Obama’s community organizing
By a longshot.
How dare anyone. This is one of the most vile posts I’ve seen on here.
You cons are really stupid on purpose. John McCain’s admirable service is a crutch John McCain uses to further John McCain’s political ambitions. John McCain and his pals in the media pretend like he never references his time as a POW when it is in practically every sentence John McCain uses. I wish there had been this sort of sensitivity to veterans when John Kerry was running.
By the way, did you guys hear? John McCain was a POW!
This is your attempt to obfuscate your denigration of his service. His mention of his time as a POW isn’t a crutch, it is an explanation.
You are completely unable to fathom the sort of depth of character required to be tortured for years, really tortured, and then to be one of the first to recommend opening relations with that country. Here is a man with reason to hate a group of people, and who has moved on. The stories that these POW’s tell would set a chill to heart of the most callous observer but this man drew strength from it.
There is no generalized sensitivity for “Veterans” here. Kerry was a crass opportunist who lied about his service (Christmas in Cambodia) and put himself in for purple hearts “earned” for literally a scratch which then got him a one-way ticket home, early (where ARE those Navy medical records he promised to release). When McCain was offered a ticket home, early, he declined it. There is NO comparison between Kerry and McCain.
I don’t blame you for trying to negate the importance of this, because the trials and tribulations of the Young Obama pale in comparison. It is the strength of McCain’s character that makes him such a compelling candidate.
You would think someone with a record of service to this country like yours (non-existent) would at least have the grace to shut his ample pie-hole with regards to this one,completely nonpolitical issue, but grace and honor don’t appear to be your strong points.
duh: It is the strength of McCain’s character that makes him such a compelling candidate.
And is it that supposed strength of character that lead him to reverse his position on the use of torture?
Out of anyone currently (or ever most likely) in Congress John McCain should know better than any that torture simply doesn’t work. From his own experiences he should know the either the victim doesn’t break (and you don’t get what you want), or they do and say whatever they think will make it stop (meaning no info they give is reliable). Not to mention the larger toll it takes on our credibility and standing.
McCain knew this and opposed torture and it was admirable.
Then he started running for President and completely switched his position on it.
He could stand up to his Vietnamese captors, but not to the political right? What strength of character.
While people like Repack were cheering on Jane Fonda, or “fragging” their officers, McCain was literally rotting away in a tiny cell.
I support Jane Fonda’s First Amendment rights, just as I support yours. No more, no less. Do you support different levels of First Amendment rights for different subjects, or do you believe that everyone has the same First Amendment rights, no matter what the subject matter?
I never fragged an officer, and you may start a lengthy apology any time for suggesting that I did or that I am like anyone who did.
I served honorably, made E-5, 20,000 of my comrades in arms came home in boxes and a lot more have suffered ever since from the experience, and you are a chickenhawk unworthy of the First Amendment rights that I will continue to defend on your behalf.
Click my link. I put this one up just for you.
If you don’t love America, you can always MOVE.
“How dare you denigrate his service. No class at all.”
He denigrated it when he used it as an excuse for every gaffe on the campaign trail. Had he not done that, it wouldn’t be a punchline right now.
“His mention of his time as a POW isn’t a crutch, it is an explanation.”
For why he can’t remember how many houses he has?
“You are completely unable to fathom the sort of depth of character required to be tortured for years, really tortured…”
You realize the Americans are currently using techniques developed by the Chinese to be used on American troops, troops like John McCain. So if what the Americans are doing now is not torture, than John McCain wasn’t tortured either.
Also, on a side note, the techniques developed by the Chinese to be used on American troops were developed to illicit false confessions from the Americans. They were not designed to extract actionable intelligence.
Still think waterboarding works?
Besides, according to the Bush administration, McCain wasn’t actually “tortured” at all, just “aggressively interrogated.”
My Uncle Barney fought his way as a grunt through North Africa in 1942-43, then was pinned down on Anzio beachhead for 4 months in 1944. He got several decorations, including 2 Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star. He was a real American hero.
In his later years, my Uncle Barney cheated on his wife, causing a painful divorce that emotionally crippled his only daughter. He cheated his business partners and lied to his family when it would have been just as easy to tell the truth. John McCain is just like my Uncle Barney. Brave, even reckless, as a young man, all too frail in adulthood. Uncle Barney was an asshole despite his heroic past.
Yeesh. OK, we’re supposed to love John McCain for his service. But you thugs _bashed_ John Kerry for serving admirably!
WTF? Jesus, you guys are shameless hypocrites.
“strowbridge” the guy who writes movie reviews for a free newspaper thinks he can define torture?
Please.
We waterboard our own soldiers, routinely (google SERE school). John McCain of all people KNOWS what true torture is. An your weak ass statements to the contrary are meaningless.
John Kerry didn’t serve admirably, he served for his own purpose. He wanted to be in politics, he jerried up his purple hearts and went home early. You lefties can’t even gin up enough courage to look THAT fact in the face.
Hey repack, were you drafted?
duh, when were you promoted to the position of INTERNET TOUGH-DUDE WHO CAN TELL WHO SERVED ADMIRABLY AND WHO DIDN’T ZOMG?
Dude, Kerry went to Vietnam and got shot at. McCain also served honorably. You’re really willing to smear vets simply because they became a Democrat later in life rather than a Republican?
Sorry, but you’re a sick, twisted little fuck. Your personal attacks are also getting tired. Stick to the substance or get your own blog, kay? OW has a hell of a lot of patience in letting you stick around.
I never served, but I have the basic decency to acknowledge the sacrifices of those who have. Humility and gratefulness — two qualities you obviously lack.
Let me take a wild guess — you never served in the military, did you? Then STFU about vets, people you obviously haven’t spent much time around.
Kerry went to vietnam, lied about what he did, turned himself in for a purple heart every time he got scratched, literally.
He did serve, and that is certainly admirable, but then he came home,early and crapped on his supposed brethern in arms (”Reminiscent of “Jhenghis” Kan”").
I did serve, for quite a while actually, but unlike Repack, don’t have to justify it to you or anyone else. But why would I have to since you have the “basic decency” to acknowledge the sacrifices of those who have…” as long as they aren’t running for president on a republican ticket.
Unfortunately, this IS the substance. Oliver denigrating McCain’s service and what it means to him and how he plans to lead.
(queue the lefties screaming “you lie, you never served….” in 4,3,…..)
Hey repack, were you drafted?
I’d like to know what duh does for a living that makes him so su-fucking-perior to everyone else here. “A guy who writes movie reviews for a free newspaper”(snark), “moves pianos for a living”(snark).
What do YOU do for a living, duh? Cure cancer while saving democracy?Write important works of scholarly research? Sell ladies’ shoes?
Hey duh, do you have a Silver Star? Do you even know what that is?
I’m kind of curious too, duh. Can you go upstairs and ask your mom for permission to tell us about yourself, since you’re so interested in our personal lives?
(queue the lefties screaming “you lie, you never served….” in 4,3,…..)
You know what? I believe you. I do believe you served in the military. At least until you were dishonorably discharged for razing a Korean village for serving your soup cold.
(And duh, it’s Republicans like you who denigrate our vets, not Dems. Me? A godless leftist? I respect them, McCain and Kerry alike, for their service. So does Obama. It’s little inbred cretins like you who wear the “Purple Heart Band-Aid” stickers.)
“You are completely unable to fathom the sort of depth of character required to be tortured for years, really tortured, and then to be one of the first to recommend opening relations with that country.”
I just love turn on a dime (or rather an election) conservative principles. Bush beat McCain in the 2000 primaries, in part, because his surrogates spread stories about how McCain’s POW experience basically left him totally nuts. At the time, I don’t remember any conservative pundits racing to John McCain’s defense or ever holding Bush accountable for his campaign surrogates actions. Now, of course, to suggest that McCain gets a lot of speech mileage of the POW thing is to denigrate his service.
You just have to be brain dead to be a conservative.
By early November, stories about McCain’s temper problem were frequent enough that Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz wrote a survey article about them.[25] Some of McCain’s opponents, including those in or close to the Senate Republican leadership, intimated that McCain’s temper was a sign of mental instability.[26] Attributions of McCain’s supposed instability to his POW days caused Admiral James Stockdale, a fellow former POW and 1992 vice-presidential candidate for Ross Perot, to write an op-ed piece for The New York Times, “John McCain in the Crucible”.[27] In it, Stockdale said that the reverse was true: that the experience of resisting during the POW experience made former POWs more emotionally stable in later life, not less.[28] In early December, McCain released some 1,500 pages of his medical and psychiatric records,[29] which showed several psychiatric evaluations over a number of years following his POW release that indicated no signs of lingering mental or emotional difficulty from that period.[30][31]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain_presidential_campaign,_2000
The phrase is “CUE the lefties”, not “QUEUE the lefties”. As in theater.
yea jaim, you respect them when it suits your purpose. Don’t have the stones to join and serve yourself, but when you think it might help your cause, wrap that flag right around yourself.
The only ribbons I wore were ones that I earned. Never got a purple heart or a silver star.
Funny how the topic of conversation is suddenly me. No longer does anyone want to discuss the horrible treatment that McCain gets at the hands of the left with regard to his service. No longer is anyone interested in trying to justify Kerry.
Like I said earlier in another post, you guys are running so scared you can’t stay on message for more than a minute at a time.
Its the internet. What I do doesn’t make a bit of difference, I could lie, or tell the truth and you were all decide whether or not you wanted to believe it anyway. It is telling that you won’t address the issues that I raise though, as that is really all that counts.
Duh, yeah, I was drafted. The difference was that if you enlisted, you got to pick your MOS (kind of) and you had to do three years. I figured I would take my chances with the MOS, since I was going to serve anyway, and I let myself get drafted so I could get out a year earlier.
What that means is that I served, and you didn’t. I expected to be handed a rifle, but that’s not what the Army wanted me to do.
I was a medic, so I didn’t have any grenades to frag people with. I made E-5 in the minimum amount of time you can reach that grade. Want to hear about some gory shit?
“yea jaim, you respect them when it suits your purpose. Don’t have the stones to join and serve yourself, but when you think it might help your cause, wrap that flag right around yourself.”
Cite please. I respect vets for being vets, period. That’s just the way I was raised. I was disgusted by Republicans in 2004 demeaning Kerry for his actual military service to our country. For being a liberal? Sure, go ahead. But you and your party went there, not me or mine.
So stop making shit up. Go upstairs and ask mom to make you lunch. Take a break, duh. Wipe the Cheetoh dust from your fingers. Go outside and and try to talk to a girl or something.
“Funny how the topic of conversation is suddenly me.”
Well, you’re the one who started casting personal aspersions. And actually, we’re talking about your holding up McCain as a hero but bashing Kerry for his service. See, that’s called “logical inconsistency.” Look it up.
“the issues that I raise”
LOL.
Fine. What you do doesn’t make a difference. So enough with the snark about what others do. Honest work is honest work, and deserves respect, whether it is writing movie reviews, moving pianos, or whatever it is that YOU do.
When the Department of the Navy awards one a Silver Star,as they did Kerry, I assume it’s deserved. Unless one didn’t really earn it, as we are told Kerry didn’t. But, if Kerry didn’t deserve it , how do we know McCain deserved his?
I was always fine with medal-winners. I found out in 2004 that, just because you got a medal, that doesn’t mean you earned it.
Bruce I sincerely apologize if that was the impression I left. I am with you, honest work is honest work.
I was snarky with Repack cause he was bragging on himself so much. I actually have a lot of respect for a guy who runs his own business, and who is proud of the fact that he does excellent work (seriously repack).
It is funny to me that liberals are happy to take the military at it’s word when it hands out a shiny piece of metal to Kerry (who then values it so much that he throws it away), but when they say abu ghraib was not something they knew about they are all liars.
Unfortunately the military is like any big organization. Some people know their way around it better than others, and use that to their advantage. I will tell you this: John McCain didn’t have to put himself up for any medals, and there is no reasonable question about how he spent the war. He also comported himself with honor upon his return.
I served too Repack, I did it of my own accord. And left as a selected O-5….and trust me, you have no idea the sort of “gory shit” I have dealt with. But again, its the internet…
OK, duh, but what do you DO? And no, nobody “trusts you”.
Then what I tell you I do doesn’t really matter does it?
“No longer does anyone want to discuss the horrible treatment that McCain gets at the hands of the left with regard to his service. No longer is anyone interested in trying to justify Kerry.”
Maybe you’d like to take a moment to address the horrible treatment that McCain has received at the hands of the right with regard to his service, as well.
duh, if you’re gonna sling shit you better be willing to back it up. And this thread proves what you are — a scared little coward.
Me, I’m a teacher. Honest work. Hard work. Do you even have a job?
Just say it, duh. “I’m an attorney”, “I’m a podiatrist”, “I’m a firefighter”, “I’m a sewer-plant worker”, whatfuckingever, dude. But if you are NOT willing to declare your occupation, let’s have an end to the condescenscion when you refer to another’s job. It’s un-fucking-called for.
Here it is again Bruce, so you don’t have to scroll all the way back up
“Bruce I sincerely apologize if that was the impression I left. I am with you, honest work is honest work.”
I mean, it’s as if you think an American citizen’s opinion doesn’t matter unless he/she has a “prestigious” job.
Oh, I forgot who I was talking to….
Oh well, I’m responding to a confused rejoinder probably forgotten by now, but by “phony reticence” I was referring to this phony reticence (one example), on the off-chance that you were sincerely unaware:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25100176/
Look, I am not even suggesting that McCain should not make hay out of his extraordinary service to his country. But it is just silly to feign reluctance to talk about the subject, don’t you agree? If you listened to him talk last night (as you suggested, and yes: I did), then *you* would understand that he has absolutely no qualms about advertising his 5 years of imprisonment.
I can’t help but sense a victim mentality in the comments calling out denigration where there has been none. Sorry, you are commenting in the wrong post, wrong blog. Keep searching the internets: somewhere out there you might find a post where some ass actually slipped up and dissed McCain’s service. But it wasn’t here: so you are wind up sounding as out of touch as McCain is with the dynamics of 2008
“’strowbridge’ the guy who writes movie reviews for a free newspaper thinks he can define torture?”
No, Duh, I just used your definition of torture.
Wow, what a fucking retard.
Your own definition of torture proves you are wrong, so you attack me for what I do for a living. Amazing.
What you lack in intellect, you make up for in stamina, I will give you that.
“It is telling that you won’t address the issues that I raise though, as that is really all that counts.”
You are such a hypocrite.
You say McCain was tortured, but what America does is not torture.
I point out that the United States uses the same techniques that the Vietnamese used.
AND THEN YOU ATTACK ME, NOT THE ISSUE I RAISED.
And now you prove you are a hypocrite. Very nice.
Strowbridge you continue to demonstrate your idiocy.
McCain wasn’t waterboarded. They didn’t just play loud music at him and keep him awake at night.
This is torture
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23301752-663,00.html
Currently our prisoners in cuba have big medical problems too. Their blood pressure is going up cause they are gaining so much weight.
Don’t be more of a dumbass than you absolutely have to “strowbridge”
“Strowbridge you continue to demonstrate your idiocy.”
Okay. Let’s try this again.
The Chinese wrote a manual on how to torture someone till they gave a false confession. In this manual there were several techniques. This manual was used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnamese war on many, many POWs, including McCain.
The Americans got a hold of this manual and translated it and are now using the same techniques on prisoners in the War on Terror. This includes sleep deprivation and stress positions, like the kind they used on McCain.
Since the techniques are the same, they are both being tortured, or they are both not being tortures.
A = B
A = Torture
Therefore
B = Torture
Got it?
No. Of course not. You are either completely retarded, a master of self-deception, or a fucking liar.
To everyone crying that Mccain’s service deserves more credit than it gets, just remember the rules of US Politics. That whatever one puts out there as there strong pillar is the thing that gets attacked the hardest. When that pillar falls, so does the candidate. So the next time you neocons want to get all huffy and puffy about Mcsame’s service, take a look at this-
Should Mccain be seen as a war hero, or as a collaborator for the enemy?:
BTW, I for one am ready to put partisanship aside and help VVAJM spread their message.
Duh, since we know you don’t have a job, what is it that your mom does to pay for your computer?
Public library computer? Really. Who would have guessed that you knew where that was?
What kind of mortgage do you have on that refrigerator box?
I did serve, for quite a while actually, but unlike Repack, don’t have to justify it to you or anyone else.
And yet, you expect him to justify it to you.
Look, bottom line is this. I respect John McCain’s service. I respect Repack’s service. I respect your service, duh. I respect John Kerry’s service (you fail to point out that Kerry re-enlisted and went back to Viet Nam for a 2nd tour). You apparently don’t honor your fellow veteran’s service, seeing as how you are so quick to denigrate others.
John McCain has used up all his Sympathy Points for me. And a lot of other Americans, including fellow veterans.
CSS got me curious. Here’s one piece on what he’s talking about.
Demented and bizarre as it is, it appears we did in fact learn from the best. Or we learned from the guys that learned from the best (i.e. Stalin’s USSR).
CSS, don’t forget, the Japanese interrigators that waterboarded American soldiers were prosecuted as war criminals in the States. So I guess it’s not torture if America does it?
None of you took a logic class did you?
The chinese invented pasta. Lasagna is pasta
Ergo: Lasagna is chinese food.
But I recognize that most of your see the fallacy and are just desperate to be seen winning an argument.
I have to check the mortgage Repack, its in my guest house, I’ll get back to you.
It’s been 14 hours since I called duh out about his fabulous career that entitled him to be oh so snide about what others do for a living. Now he’s dropping hints about a “guest house.”
It’s really transparent, dude. You are either the loser you imply your adversaries are, or you are just way too genteel to make the rest of us envious. Somehow I doubt it’s the latter.
C’mon, fess up.
The chinese invented pasta. Lasagna is pasta
Ergo: Lasagna is not pasta
That’s the line of logic you’re using here.