February 18

The Guys at the Console: A New Medal for Sitting Around Killing Someone Thousands of Miles Away

     

     The Pentagon has created a new Distinguished Warfare Medal to be awarded to drone "pilots" and other cyber warriors who push a button in a building somewhere to target someone, often innocent, always unknown, many miles away, thus honoring for the first time what Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called "the extraordinary actions that make a true difference in combat operations." In an Orwellian twist, in military hierarchy the medal will rate above the Bronze Star, given for heroic acts performed under fire by those who are, like, actually there.

     Let's get one thing straight: I never, ever liked Leon Pannetta. He was just the latest in a series of career chair fillers that came in the toxic wake of Donald Rumsfeld, by far the worst Defense Secretary we've ever had (and that includes Dick Cheney). But the other seat warmers at the Pentagon have obviously forgotten what war is. When real veterans tell you it's Hell, that it sucks, listen to them. But war nonetheless occasionally makes heroes and not the ones manufactured as was Jessica Lynch. We give medals to real heroes who put their lives and bodies on the line and risk never seeing loved ones again for flag and country. We're not supposed to give medals to those who cower inside a fucking climate-controlled trailer in the Nevada desert and casually murder innocent men, women and children from 7000 miles away without once risking anything or being allowed to actually witness the consequences of their actions while playing the deadliest video game on earth.

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Angry old white men don't just shoot innocent people as they have this past winter. Sometimes they content themselves to merely slap black babies while saying to the mother, "shut that nigger baby up."
     Take the remarkable case of 60 year-old Joe Rickey Hundley, a high-ranking executive of an Idaho aeronautics company. Hundley, who was plastered when he first boarded the plane, was complaining that little Jonah was too big to be a lap baby. The toddler's mother, who was seated next to Hundley, claimed that her baby's assailant told her to "shut that nigger baby up" then slapped the child, leaving a cut under one of his eyes. The FBI arrested him and of course, despite numerous witnesses, Hundley's pleaded innocent (no doubt another lib'ral conspiracy dedicated to smearing the reputations of angry, white, privileged, racist old males).
     Oh, and this isn't the first time he's been charged with assault. He was charged in 2007 for assaulting his girlfriend with a wine corkscrew.

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     You probably heard about the still totally relevant Ted Nugent being invited to the President's State of the Union Address. That would be the samepantsloaded, genetic misfire who'd threatened the life of the President by screaming, "Suck on my machine gun!" Well, getting invited to the SOTU takes some pull from someone on the inside and right about now you're probably wondering, "What walking brain stem thought it would be a good idea to invite an elderly yahoo of a hasbeen such as Ted Nugent to the State of the Union Address?" Well, wonder no more because Hunter at DKos has the inside scoop.

     You have Texas Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Of Course) to thank for that unimaginable brain fart. Stockman, a man who's stupid, ignorant and crazy enough to make Michele Bachmann look like Margaret Meade by conspicuous relief, thought it would be a corker of an idea to invite to Washington DC and bring literally within shooting distance of the leader of the free world a draft-dodging child molester whose threats aimed at Mr. Obama were virulent enough to get a visit from the Secret Service. Not only that, Stockman recently called Nugent "a patriot." Because, you know, there's absolutely no degree of separation between a guy who shit his pants to get out of Vietnam and a colonial farmer who defended his newfound country with no military training at the risk of life and limb.

Thanks to fucking morons like Stockman, who hopefully will once again get voted out after one term, we're literally one step away from States of the Union looking like this.

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From the left-wing anarchist firebaggers at NBC news:

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba — While the prisoners accused of plottingthe September 11 attacks were in the Guantanamo courtroom this week, guards seized confidential legal documents, books, photos and even toilet paper from their cells, according to a prison camp lawyer.

Most of the seized items will be returned, the camp lawyer testified in a hearing Thursday marked by angry outbursts, eye-rolling and lengthy diversions from the docket in the war crimes court at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba.

Defense lawyers said some defendants returned to their cells after court sessions earlier in the week to find that bins containing their legal documents had been ransacked and confidential papers relating to their defense were missing.

The seizures happened while the camp's top legal adviser was on the witness stand giving assurances that no one was reading those private legal documents, said Cheryl Bormann, an attorney for defendant Walid Bin Attash….