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Chainsaw Muthuafucka -
ROTH ARMY MILITIA
Originally posted by EAT MY ASSHOLE
Sharky sometimes needs things spelled out for him in explicit, specific detail. I used to think it was a lawyer thing, but over time it became more and more evident that he's merely someone's idiot twin.Comment
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Ford was only there by default. And he probably seemed benign compared to Nixon's augering in...Chainsaw MuthuafuckaComment
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Another one of those classic genius posts, sure to generate responses. You log on the next day to see what your witty gem has produced to find no one gets it and 2 knotheads want to stick their dicks in it... Well played, sir!!Comment
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Gerald R. Ford's contributions to America can be summed up by two things: Comedic impressions of his general ineptitude and the cultural significance of his campaign to end overwhelming inflation by creating buttons with the word "WIN" (Whip Inflation Now) on them, as if wishing and positive thinking would make the problem go away. No one was particularly upset when he left office.
Conversely, when Ronald Reagan left office, there was a weird sense of an era coming to an end, typified by once critical newspapers and magazines featuring a picture of the departing Reagans waving goodbye with the caption "Happy Trails".
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”― Stephen HawkingComment
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ROTH ARMY MILITIA
Originally posted by EAT MY ASSHOLE
Sharky sometimes needs things spelled out for him in explicit, specific detail. I used to think it was a lawyer thing, but over time it became more and more evident that he's merely someone's idiot twin.Comment
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Yeah, that's apparent. Some of us went to college instead of enduring bellicose idiocy and apparent infantile behaviors by "lifers" like you to afraid to have to get a job. I'll take my education and the volumes I've read on warfare over your toilet plunging, poop-deck swabber...
And I think your post is asinine and makes no sense, and gives McChrystal as sort of pass as a water-walker. But then, I don't think you actually made that post...Re-read my posts. Nowhere did I say McChrystal SHOULDN'T be relieved. I merely said he wanted out of a situation with inept civilian leadership.
Obama did not solely, personally "choose" McChrysal. He was on a list of candidates and his prior service in Iraq hardly fit in to the mold you're trying to pigeon-hole him, and Obama, in...BTW, McChrystal didn't give "intimidation to goad Obama into spending trillion$ on his "COIN" baby." McChrystal was chosen to replace Gen. McKiernan last May because he fit in with Obama's desired strategy for Afghanistan.
What difference would it make to you? You sucked Bush's dick all the way through the Gulf war, and he got his arm "twisted" after the Democrats won the houses in 2006? Yet, you've never said ONE FUCKING WORD of criticism, Brian.It really wouldn't speak well of Barry and his National Security "Team" if they let a General twist their arms now would it?
The truth is that you're a retard. I told you EXACTLY the only way we could stabilize Iraq in 2005, and you called me some sort of 'terrorist-sympathizer' for it when I was merely anticipating the strategy that the Surge would ultimately take (namely "reconciling with" and paying off the Sunni insurgents). But for a guy whose pretty slow, and had gotten nothing right in the last ten years, you're pretty apt at second-guessing now...Comment
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Who were the Dicks and who were the Assholes? McChrystal "fucked" by Rollingstone?
Did Rolling Stone betray McChrystal?
Military contends Rolling Stone reporter broke interview ground rules
By Karen DeYoung
The Washington Post
updated 5:20 p.m. ET, Fri., June 25, 2010
WASHINGTON - Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal has made no public comment since President Obama relieved him of his Afghan war command Wednesday, silently taking his lumps for disparaging remarks he and his aides made about administration officials in the presence of a reporter from Rolling Stone magazine.
But the command has concluded from its own review of events that McChrystal was betrayed when the journalist quoted banter among the general and his staff, much of which they thought was off the record. They contend that the magazine inaccurately depicted the attribution ground rules for the interviews.
"Many of the sessions were off-the-record and intended to give [reporter Michael Hastings] a sense" of how McChrystal's team operated, according to a senior military official. The command's own review of events, the official said, gleaned "no evidence to suggest" that any of the "salacious political quotes" in the article were made during a series of on-the-record and background interviews Hastings conducted with McChrystal and others.
The official, one of many subject to a Pentagon advisory not to discuss the situation without authorization, spoke on condition of anonymity. He said he was motivated by what he described as untrue claims made by Rolling Stone.
Two others with direct knowledge of the command's dealings with Hastings offered similar accounts.
Rolling Stone executive editor Eric Bates categorically denied that Hastings violated any ground rules in writing about the four weeks he spent with McChrystal and his team. "A lot of things were said off the record that we didn't use," Bates said in an interview. "We abided by all the ground rules in every instance."
"In every case in this story there were multiple times in which there were express requests for off the record and background or not-for-attribution and we abided in every instance," Bates said.
No push-back
Neither McChrystal nor anyone else has denied making the derisive comments, including a depiction of Obama as "uncomfortable and intimidated" in his first meeting with the general and of national security adviser James L. Jones as a "clown."
Some commentators have questioned why McChrystal and his aides were being pilloried for complaints about Washington commonly heard in diplomatic and military facilities overseas. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Thursday that the atmosphere of disrespect for civilian leaders that McChrystal tolerated was grounds for dismissal regardless of the context in which the offensive comments were made or who made them.
In an interview with Politico.com this week, Bates said that the Kabul command was forewarned about the article and offered "absolutely" no push-back.
"We ran everything by them in a fact-checking process as we always do. They had a sense of what was coming and it was all on the record and they spent a lot of time with our reporter, so I think they knew that they had said it."
But 30 questions that a Rolling Stone fact-checker posed in a memo e-mailed last week to McChrystal media adviser Duncan Boothby contained no hint of what became of the controversial portions of the story.
In the e-mail, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, Boothby is asked to confirm the makeup of McChrystal's traveling staff on a trip Hastings took with them to Paris, and the communications equipment they brought with them on an earlier visit to London. "They don't come close to revealing what ended up in the final article," said the military official.
"Does McChrystal's staff joking refer to themselves as Team America?" the fact-checker asked. "Not really," Boothby replied. "We joke that we are sometimes perceived that way by many of the NATO forces" under McChrystal's command.
In the article, Hastings wrote that McChrystal and his aides "jokingly refer to themselves as Team America, taking the name from the South Park-esque sendup of military cluelessness, and they pride themselves on their can-do attitude and their disdain for authority." In other passages, Hastings took what appear to be similar minor liberties with the facts as Boothby described them.
Off the record
In the last question, the fact-checker asked "Did Gen. McChrystal vote for President Obama? (The reporter tells me that this info originates from McChrystal himself.)"
Boothby replied in all capitals. "IMPORTANT -- PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE THIS -- THIS IS PERSONAL AND PRIVATE INFORMATION AND UNRELATED TO HIS JOB. IT WOULD BE INAPPROPRIATE TO SHARE." He went on to describe the "strict rules" under which military personnel keep their political views to themselves.
In the article, Hastings reported that the general "had voted for Obama."
Bates said that the remark was "absolutely" not off the record, and noted that Boothby's appeal "isn't on accuracy or even that it was off the record," but that it was irrelevant.
Why this remark, but not other controversial utterances, were included in the fact-checker's questions was unclear. But the magazine was under no obligation to check them, Bates said. "If we have [remarks] on tape or said . . . in our presence, and we have detailed notes, it's not like we're hearing from someone else and checking 'Hey, is this right?'" he said.
When public figures say things that are unwise, "we don't go back to the sources and say 'Hey, did you really say that?' " he said.
© 2010 The Washington Post Company
Last edited by Nickdfresh; 06-25-2010, 07:44 PM.Comment
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That's a pretty creative line of defense. Essentially, the staff isn't denying or upset the words were said, what is at issue is that they were heard and quoted. This is more or less like someone defending against a DUI charge by claiming he was too wasted to walk.
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”― Stephen HawkingComment
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I agree with your sentiments, Craig. But there is a such a thing as "off-the-record" as a means to record honest whistle-blower statements. Something like this could be a severe setback to open and honest military journalism, a field already beset by Pentagon spin doctors...Comment
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