What can I say? I’m thorough.
If one can believe Matt Sanchez (dubious, given where he’s housed his pecker in the past, I realize — but what the hell, let’s just pretend), the army has concluded its inquiries:
After a thorough investigation that lasted nearly a week the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division has concluded that the allegations made by Private Thomas Scott Beauchamp, the “Baghdad Diarist”, have been “refuted by members of his platoon and proven to be false”.The official investigation the 4th IBCT Public Affairs Office qualified as “thorough and professional” concluded late August 1st. Officials would not speculate on the possibility of further action against Private Beauchamp, nor would they confirm his current whereabouts or status.
Not much to it, really, so there’s not a whole lot to comment on with respect to the investigation itself, but for those of you concerned that Beauchamp’s leftwing supporters are working to secure the narrative thus: “Beauchamp was wrong only about the single detail of Iraq / Kuwait — the rest was true, if not logistically or temporally, at least actually” — be heartened. Others are working to make sure that such a second order set of prevarications, being crafted in the service of mitigating the “significance” of Beauchamp’s attempt to pawn off fraught fiction as fact (in the process, contributing to the mythologizing of soldiers as necessarily [SEK] “coarsened and dehumanized” by combat), is itself held up to strict scrutiny.
One of the arguments I’ve heard repeatedly from many on the left (and John Cole) is that this story is a tempest in a teapot, that Beauchamp is, when all is said and done, a virtual nobody, and TNR was simply publishing subjective accounts of the effects war has had on him, which serve no larger purpose than to illuminate how an individual soldier deals with combat.
But if TNR didn’t find the story representative in some way, then why publish it? It’s not like Beauchamp is Prince Harry gone off to war, after all — nor even Kurt Vonnegut, for that matter, who had the benefit of actually being caught in the horror of Dresden — so one is left wondering why him, and why now?
From the perspective of the hot war itself, as it is being fought on the ground, the Beauchamp dustup is, in fact, a tempest in a tea pot. But given that Beauchamp’s pieces and their subsequent discrediting have illuminated questions about how mythologies are created and / or reinforced — and given that we have been told that a story’s “significance” is often more important than the veracity of the individual facts that are used to construct it (recall Jeff Jarvis’ argument in the aftermath of Katrina and its sensationalistic coverage that it is the job of the media to place the story in some sort of socially instructive context, which editors and authors work to determine) — I’d offer that this story is indeed significant, precisely for its unveiling of the how “significance” is itself a carefully constructed and guarded rhetorical maneuver that can be, and in this case has been, ideologically manipulated.
Unfortunately for TNR and Beauchamp, the real significance of his pieces have outgrown their intended context, becoming a much larger story, one that encompasses their production and publication — beginning with Beauchamp’s own sense of mission (an agenda he seems to have been determined to carry out, while in the process covering himself with the absolute moral authority the left likes to bestow on types who come to certain ideologically approved conclusions) — and highlights the battle over the importance of controlling, framing, or contributing to a particular master narrative that will vie for pride of place when the histories of this war are written.
Which is why I pay little attention to those who would try to wave off the significance of this second-level story, even as they’d happily embrace the significance of Beauchamp’s original tales, had they turned out not to be carefully manipulated fictions.
Framing matters. And we need no further proof of that than the frequency with which the VietNam police action has been used to try to “contextualize” this current war.
Those of us who are unwilling to allow the Iraq war to become another in a series of anti-military “object lessons” to be wielded in the future like a rhetorical cudgel owe it to those fighting this war to make sure their sacrifices aren’t minimized or marginalized — and owe to those who have remained steadfast in their support of the mission (if not the actual tactics or specific strategies) to refuse to have their idealism reduced to barbarism, racism, imperialism, or some other putative evil that represents the exact opposite of their motivations and beliefs for lending support to the overall strategy to beat back Islamic terrorism and the fevered dreams of Islamists for pan Arabism or a new Caliphate.
****
Tolerance
Comment by RiverC on 8/3 @ 11:47 am #
Hume says we cannot know truth by mere material rationality. The Radical Enlightnement says we must make our own meanings and change the world through redefining it.
As of yet, zero quantums have been moved by tears and inner angst.
TW: jejune hopes
Comment by scooter (not libby) on 8/3 @ 11:54 am #
Brit Hume said all that?
Comment by RiverC on 8/3 @ 12:00 pm #
Yes, and the Jessie Jackson wing of the Democratic Party agreed with him…
Comment by ahem on 8/3 @ 12:08 pm #
Yes. We have to fight the Left’s mythologizing at every point. For years American culture has been shaped by the lies of the Left: the Rosenbergs, Tet, Vietnam, so-called McCarthyism, ’swift-boating’, to name but a few. It’s time we woke up and forcibly put a stop to this evil. The Left will recreate reality right under our noses if we let them. It’s been doing so for the last 50 years. It’s time we woke up fought back.
Comment by dicentra on 8/3 @ 12:10 pm #
TNR was simply publishing subjective accounts of the effects war has had on him, which serve no larger purpose than to illuminate how an individual soldier deals with combat.
Those were not subjective accounts of the effects war has had on him. When you publish “subjective accounts,” you write about your reaction, interpretation of, and philosophizing about real events.
Passing off fiction as fact isn’t subjective, it’s outright prevarication. EGREGIOUS, in other words (Emohawk Gains Renown, Emoting Garbage In Outrageously Untrue Slander).
WHAT A DOUCHEBAG (Wannabe Hemmingway Artlessly Trashes Army, Driving Opinionators Utterly Crazy, Having Evidence Blasting All Garbage).
But I’m not surprised that some lefties think that fiction is the same as subjective experience: I sat in a lit crit class trying to explain why their conflation of the terms “lie” and “fiction” was not appropriate, and all I got were blank stares.
It’s hard to believe that people can lose contact with the very concept of truth, especially in a society that invented the scientific method, but here you have it: if you play fast and loose with the truth long enough, you’ll lose the ability to even define it, let along distinguish it.
Comment by Pablo on 8/3 @ 12:13 pm #
The notion that Sanchez is lying about something that is entirely verifiable and which so many people are waiting to hear about is absurd. If it isn’t true, the entire world is going to know about it by Monday. And if it isn’t true, and he’s fraudulently quoting the Army Public Affairs office, his credibility is going to be in worse shape than Scott Beauchamp’s and he might as well just pack up and come home. This is all extremely improbable.
Comment by Karl on 8/3 @ 12:14 pm #
UPDATE: If — per Son of Blumenthal — being gay lessens credibility, what are we to make of The Boys In Brazil? Or Grizzly Man?
I’M GOBSMACKED!!!
GOOD DAY SIR!!!
tw: MONARCHY Flipinos. NTTAWWT.
Pingback by beauchamp’s revenge « empty rhetoric on 8/3 @ 12:14 pm #
[...] UPDATE 2: See here, here, and here for more on the story. The more TNR talks– and the more investigation that is [...]
Comment by slackjawedyokel on 8/3 @ 12:15 pm #
Those of us who are unwilling to allow the Iraq war to become another in a series of anti-military “object lessons†to be wielded in the future like a rhetorical cudgel owe it to those fighting this war to make sure their sacrifices aren’t minimized or marginalized
Ironically, now everyone here knows who Scott Thomas Beauchamp is, but who will be able to name just ONE of the men who have been awarded the Medal of Honor, Navy Cross/Distinguished Service Cross, or Silver Star in Iraq or Afghanistan?
These are men who performed deeds of valor that in another time would have made them household names. Instead, TNR (and the rest of the left)glorifies a pissant.
Comment by jamrat on 8/3 @ 12:19 pm #
“Unfortunately for TNR and Beauchamp, the real significance of his pieces have outgrown their intended context, becoming a much larger story…”
Can you say busman’s “holiday”? I knew you could.
Comment by jamrat on 8/3 @ 12:22 pm #
Whoops, messed up my quotes marks. Damn.
Comment by Rick Ballard on 8/3 @ 12:22 pm #
“owe it to those fighting this war to make sure their sacrifices aren’t minimized or marginalized”
Yep & Hear, hear!
It is also helpful to continue to note that Pvt Killbot Dogsquisher is an artifact of the Left. A pathetic simulacrum in comparison with Lt. Magic Hat, to be sure, but deadline pressure being what it is and the fact that Foer had a limited budget for the project, I suppose this is the best the progs can do at the moment.
It’s gotta be tough when there are much better “diaries” being published every day.
Comment by Pablo on 8/3 @ 12:26 pm #
Just….wow. Hypocrisy knows no bounds.
Serviceman Shouted Down at YearlyKos
For expressing one soldier’s view of the war in Iraq.
Comment by Mr. Boo on 8/3 @ 12:31 pm #
Meanwhile, timb and heet can be heard chanting to themselves “Burn woman IS real, Burn woman IS real. The wingnuts CAN’T be right. The wingnuts CAN’T be right.”
Comment by Joseph on 8/3 @ 12:40 pm #
The best part about all of this nonsense is that I think it’s spawned some of the more entertaining examples of purple prose in recent memory. Soulpatterns and mindthoughts Batman!
Comment by happyfeet on 8/3 @ 12:45 pm #
One thing what Jeff is saying is bringing to mind is that young Beauchamp was not someone who was exactly passing muster as a very together kind of guy BEFORE his military service, and after, with the trauma of having his perfect life plan and all of its underlying propositions forcefully and rudely rejected both by the institution he had placed his trust in to be the instrument of his ascension to the plane of the moral authoritah, but also, when they get back from vacation, by the other institution he was depending on to facilitate the world’s discovery of his superlative Beauchampiness. His faith in the institution of marriage will also probably be somewhat compromised cause of the devastating humiliation suffered by his wife. Right now she is like so totally embarrassed that she married him cause now everyone thinks she married a misogynist neurotic loser and even she is wondering if this doesn’t expose some underlying self-esteem issues.
What this leads to I think is that people would be forgiven for thinking of Beauchamp when confronted with a whole host of issues with respect to the fraughty readjustments of some of our soldiers to civilian life.
A couple illustrations:
and here is another supremely multifaceted illustration.
Something else also…
Comment by TomB on 8/3 @ 12:48 pm #
Reading the comments on Sanchez’s blog is nothing short of mind-boggling.
It all boils down to “you just can’t trust a gay guy”.
I wonder what they think of Sullivan and Greenwald?
Comment by Ric Locke on 8/3 @ 1:00 pm #
Nono, TomB, you didn’t finish the sentence:
You just can’t trust a gay guy unless he agrees wholesale with Sullivan and Greenwald. Which is the point of the exercise.
Regards,
Ric
TW: “alty Praflauné”, complete with accented “e”. WTF?
Comment by SarahW on 8/3 @ 1:02 pm #
TNR will defend Beauchamp’s story till the end of time.
Eventually they will be forced to concede it was anything but a nonfictional memoir….but they will counter that it was “real” because we all know stuff like that goes on for real, and it doesn’t really matter that the brilliant and sensitive genius Scott Beauchamp was cribbing, embellishing and manufacturing narrative that would get this “truth” across. It matters that it motivated people to end the war and bring our boys home.
Beauchamp was showing off, conning people, and driven by (IMO) frank mental illness or personality disorder. He is not much of a man and less of a writer.
Will anyone who willingly drank up his swill ever admit that his stories were evidence enough, all by themselves, that the stories were full of crap?
People questioned wheter Scott Thomas was real, because his stories were full of all kinds of tells that they were made up. His public scribblings showed he was making up this crap before he ever got to Iraq, and disclosed his self-serving motives and the instability of his character. Now, it’s clear that the cocktail party raconteuring that amazed his friends and got him this gig is undeniably, hooey.
Will anyone ‘fess up why they fell for it? Or even THAT they fell for something made up to impress them?
Comment by happyfeet on 8/3 @ 1:04 pm #
The other thing I was going to look at I can’t find a link for now, and I’m almost out of coffee and if I let this pot burn up and get all gross while I look for a link I will have to go to Ralph’s and get more coffee and that would suck.
Comment by J. Brenner on 8/3 @ 1:05 pm #
The willful blindness that Beauchamp’s enablers exhibit, even in the wake of assertions by him that have been exposed as lies or embellishments, is usefully compared with that of the individuals who repeated the “something happened” mantra during the Duke (non) rape case – a vile and intellectually dishonest chant that was heard long after that accuser was debunked. In each case it was demonstrated that a large number of individuals on the left of the political spectrum, will, having been presented with a narrative that is too good to disbelieve, refuse to disbelieve it no matter what, and remain wedded to it with religious devotion. Are there individual on the right of the political spectrum that wear similar blinders? Of course there are, but good luck finding them in the tenured faculty of an ivy league university like Duke or on the staff of a respectable mainstream publication like TNR.
Comment by Darleen on 8/3 @ 1:12 pm #
What if Scotty’s fiction took place in a legal setting rather than a literary one?
Say, “Bob” is on trial for solicitation of murder and Scotty is the state’s witness and he regales the jury with testimony of having several meetings with Bob in various nightclubs in Vegas, where Bob wore him down with drink, women and money to the point where Scotty agrees to commit the deed ..
Then on cross the jury finds out that the meetings never took place. That Scott met Bob once in a Starbucks in Barstow on his way to Vegas.
Would a jury put any credibility in Scott in ANY of his testimony after this “singular” mistake??
Then again I realize we are talking about the Left… where some members to this day believe the Duke players are “guilty of something.”
TW: those disorders …. yep, not just BDS anymore
Comment by Darleen on 8/3 @ 1:13 pm #
J Brenner
heh!
Comment by PMain on 8/3 @ 1:17 pm #
Let’s see TNR has partially corroborated that the disfigured woman existed & Beauchamp & another anonymous “soldier†have admitted to making fun of her. Given the unwavering support of Beauchamp shown by the likes of heet, timmyb & SEK here, where exactly are they claiming the moral high ground again?
Congratulations heet, timmyb & SEK, if the story is true, you have spent hours publicly supporting one of the most disgusting & cowardly individuals I have every heard of, & if it isn’t true, well besides supporting a flat out liar, you have actively supported & defended someone who claims to have been involved in one of the most disgusting & cowardly actions I have ever heard of.
You sure have shown us & put us in our proper place, again.
Comment by happyfeet on 8/3 @ 1:18 pm #
SarahW – I guess I don’t know exactly why, but my feeling is that TNR will end up scrubbing the Beauchamp stuff like they did with Glass. Their idea of their own editorial integrity has to prevail here. It’s not just Frankie involved, but there’s an institutional consensus that will emerge. The other staffers there want to be proud of where they work. A lot of them never even applied to Salon when they were looking around for where they wanted to work. I could be wrong, but my understanding is that working at TNR is not so perkish as to rationalize getting Beauchamp all over you.
Comment by N. O'Brain on 8/3 @ 1:21 pm #
BECAUSE OF THE TRUTHINESS!!!!!
Comment by BJTexs on 8/3 @ 1:50 pm #
J Brenner:
I’m pickin’ nits but, as a tribute to truthiness in reporting, Duke University is definitely not and Ivy League school. Our schools are far too white man oppressing elitist to venture south of the Mason Dixon line.
You just can’t get a decent Bombay Martini and Chateaubriand down there.
tw: connects stated I do mine at the polo matches…
Comment by psychologizer on 8/3 @ 2:00 pm #
Despite all the soap operatic back-and-forth, this is a boring story.
TNR will remain an authority to lefties who will continue to hate us, soldiers, etc. (and claim they don’t), for reasons that predate this story–easily discredited propaganda is a team-building exercise; no one’s meant to change teams–and no one will say anything about this but what they were already stuck saying regardless of the blabber between TNR and its critics. Human nature might not exist, but it seldom acts like it doesn’t.
But there’s one thing I want to know. The narrative of the necessarily coarsened and dehumanized soldier does exist. We all know it. We all know it works how narratives are supposed to, making “truth” a matter of will and denial. But has anyone ever seen it? The thing, these men–not the story?
I know soldiers who went in assholes and came out louder assholes with goofy jargon, and soldiers who went in nice guys who came out quieter nice guys with secrets that bother them. A good chunk of my family is one or the other. There are soldiers who enter war as opportunistic serial killers and use their missions as cover for a base will to kill; Che Guevara leaps to mind. There are psychos and weaklings who, pressured, snap one way or the other. There are female soldiers who turn slutty, and male soldiers who bang a bunch of hookers because the chance arises. There are men who come back and find their wives untimely pregnant and shoot them because now there’s a gun handy.
But does the formless or well-formed youth molded or re-molded into a mindless killbot or an emotionally dead horror transcription machine by either the military itself or the horror it shows him exist? Is there one example? I’m not one to deny the power of institutions to shape the identities of their members, but the military–the US military, at least–doesn’t seem to do that to anybody. And The Horror isn’t like it is in the movies, as anyone who’s caught a glimpse will tell you.
Can we get a name here? Just one? Everyone who says “Me!” is lying.
Comment by happyfeet on 8/3 @ 2:14 pm #
I know someone who went to work at a media company and was super-nice and in 6 months he had become one of those people who sends email where he always copies the boss of the person he is writing to.
Comment by J. Brenner on 8/3 @ 2:15 pm #
BJTexs,
I stand corrected. Although I’m sure that the Duke cafeteria offers a better selection of pork rinds than those found in true ivy leauge schools.
Comment by ThomasD on 8/3 @ 2:16 pm #
Interesting question Psychologizer.
Could we also consider the obverse of that question? Name someone who’s humanity was so senstized bye the horrors of war that they were compelled to do good and greater things later in life?
Obvious and easy example; Kurt Vonnegut.
Comment by Karl on 8/3 @ 2:21 pm #
TomB, Ric,
Beat ya to it! (#7)
Comment by RDC on 8/3 @ 2:28 pm #
This whole storyline reminds me of a scene in “Shattered Glass”. In the scene Michale Kelly is explaining to one of the other editors why they need to come clean on the whole fabricated story issue. The other editor seems to honestly not understand that what Glass did was wrong! Didn’t even occur to her…Making up a story, Oh is that a bad thing? Somehow, I don’t think we will be seeing an applogy from TNR on this one. ;
Comment by memomachine on 8/3 @ 2:35 pm #
Hmmmm.
1. Considering the truly outrageous nature of these media manipulations a more on-the-ball President would have long since setup a Presidential Commission and forced these idiot publishers and editors to stand on up and answer questions under oath along with the twits that wrote them. I expect Private Beauchamp wouldn’t last too long as a witness under oath and neither would Foer.
2. I still think that there is no chance in hell of anybody getting away with mocking anybody wounded by an IED. Or wounded at all regardless if they are a contractor or a soldier. Looking back at my own experience in the USMC I can’t imagine anybody not instantly ready to crack skulls in a situation like that.
3. The explanation given by TNR for how a Bradley could run over a dog still doesn’t ring true to me. I’ve driven APCs a lot and that explanation doesn’t make any sense at all. For it to work the dog would have to not only move into a position where the Bradley could possibly run it over, but it would also have to stay there regardless of that 14′ wall of aluminum and steel heading towards it.
Comment by Synova on 8/3 @ 2:39 pm #
“but who will be able to name just ONE of the men who have been awarded the Medal of Honor, Navy Cross/Distinguished Service Cross, or Silver Star in Iraq or Afghanistan?”
Leanne Hester. Silver star.
Dangit… not a man.
(hegemony; dissolve)
Comment by BJTexs on 8/3 @ 2:47 pm #
J Brenner:
Ha! We didn’t need no stinkin’ pork rinds at Penn!
We had Scrapple!!!
Don’t ask…
Trackback by baldilocks on 8/3 @ 3:36 pm #
Army Concludes Investigation on Beauchamp Stories…
Since I had some out-of-house business to attend to this morning, many people are out in front of me on Matt Sanchez’s report regarding the conclusion of the Army’s investigation of Private Scott Thomas Beauchamp’s anecdotes from Shock Troops.Aft…
Comment by timb on 8/3 @ 3:41 pm #
You know, I just realized something. Jeff’s attack on me on the other thread (and, in fact, his attack on all people who giggle at the idea that Sanchez has credibility) is based upon his continuing strange belief that my criticism of the former whore Sanchez is based upon his gayness. He and Pablo accused me of homophobia. Gents, I don’t want to accuse you of anything, but, if you read the post, I don’t care if he’s gay. I care that he was a whore. I think being a prostitute hurts one’s credibility.
Further, these two gentlemen, who both oppose gay marriage (which I support) have the cojones to call me a bigot, despite the fact that I never mentioned gay in any of my posts (Id din’t go back and read the thread until today). It’s a bit like being called a racist by David Duke.
In fact, Jeff, could you go ahead and reproduce the tortured rationales involved in opposing gay people and their drive for equality?
Meanwhile, rather is Jenn Jameson or Matt Sanchez, I will continue to doubt the credibility of whores.
Comment by happyfeet on 8/3 @ 3:47 pm #
John Kerry fucked for way more money than anyone you name, and he didn’t even get to fuck anyone hot.
Comment by Pablo on 8/3 @ 4:05 pm #
Timmah! shouldn’t you just get lost? No one is buying what you’re selling. No one is impressed with your attempts. And the “Look at me! I’m boldly go where I’ve been told I’m not welcome, armed with nothing but bullshit!” act is just plain pathetic.
Comment by ef on 8/3 @ 4:07 pm #
Happy, a beautiful woman is only a flip of the light switch away. I might flip a lot of light switches for that fortune.
Comment by Jeremy on 8/3 @ 4:08 pm #
I’d love for all this to matter. But the Narrative has been set. It is over. Beauchamp will forever be the righteous poet warrior speaking truth to power. I used to believe in the power of research and a clear elucidation of the facts but that faith has waned.
Jeff, I demand more Billy Jack. Or at least an update from Martha Stewart.
Or pie.
Comment by Jeff G. on 8/3 @ 4:09 pm #
Okay, Timmy. I’ve given you way too many passes.
Go, and don’t return.
You annoy the fuck out of me, to the point where you set my teeth on edge.
And now you’ve essentially called me homophobic because I don’t support same sex marriage. I don’t care about homosexual sex, and I’m perfectly willing to compel the state to provide the same protections to gays it provides for heterosexuals, but because I don’t believe in redefining marriage, that’s just a tortured back door into my queer hatin’.
Fuck you, you miserable, caterwauling prick. Fuck you and the fucking fuck you fucking rode the fuck in on.
As to what I really said to you, I asked if Sanchez was still a whore. Or if whores have some problem with their eyesight or hearing. Or their ability to recall.
And if so, what causes it? I jokingly asked if you thought they were diseased. But you are so stuck in your own miserable world of constant contradiction and poorly wrought sophistry that you didn’t even take the force of that jibe.
Now go. Away. And don’t come back.
You bring nothing of value to any conversation you enter, and the more you write, the dumber we all become for having read through it.
Piss off.
TW: “revulsion act.” No, it’s not an act. So fuck you too.
Comment by Karl on 8/3 @ 4:11 pm #
Timmah,
Let’s get you on record.
What is Sanchez lying about?
Comment by Karl on 8/3 @ 4:12 pm #
Timmah,
I retract my challenge.
Jeff,
Thank you for making my day.
Comment by happyfeet on 8/3 @ 4:12 pm #
Oh. Ok. Now I’m going to work out and then maybe go somewhere kind of upscale for happy hour.
Comment by Jeff G. on 8/3 @ 4:13 pm #
Don’t just stand there chewing on your outrage, timmah.
BEAT IT!
Jesus. Take a fucking hint, why don’t you.
Comment by Jimmie on 8/3 @ 4:20 pm #
TNR already has their defense in the bag. The line I guarantee we’ll be hearing almost immediately is that the soldiers who could corroborate STB’s stories were intimidated into silence by the military’s investigation.
I can almost haer the keyboards banging out the lines now.
Comment by Swen Swenson on 8/3 @ 4:30 pm #
And many of us will continue to doubt the credibility of idiots. To each his own, but I’ve got nothing against the poor working stiff.
Comment by Pablo on 8/3 @ 4:36 pm #
As for the credibility of whores, they are by definition pretty up front about what they are and what they’re doing. You might not like what they’re doing, but they’re as credible as anyone else.
It’s an illegal, yet fundamentally honest profession. Unless you’re progressive, like in Europe or Harry Reid’s home state where it isn’t illegal.
Comment by Rick Ballard on 8/3 @ 4:36 pm #
Geez, Jeff. You were far too hard on the captcha box. I know it’s just an algorithm but….
TW Alsace Washburn – see ya broke it. Or it really is… nah.
Comment by km on 8/3 @ 6:48 pm #
So. Anybody up for some wings?
Comment by incontrolados on 8/3 @ 7:00 pm #
And we need no further proof of that then the frequency with which the VietNam police action has been used to try to “contextualize†this current war.
ooops
But given that Beauchamp’s pieces and their subsequent discrediting
Imaginary at best :)
Which is why I pay little attention to those who would try to wave off the significance of this second-level story, even as they’d happily embrace the significance of Beauchamp’s original tales, had they turned out not to be carefully manipulated fictions.
Pajamers not paying attention to you? SCREAM louder. Or THREATEN to go away. Or SCREAM louder.
It’s your choice.
Comment by Big Bang Hunter on 8/3 @ 7:03 pm #
“…and the fevered dreams of Islamists for pan Arabism or a new Caliphate.” (or the dreams of a Marxo-Socialist Utopia by the Islamists handmaidens, the Left collective.)
- The other day My local Ill-Liberal rag, the San Diego Union, whose editors, it seems, fullfill their self-annointed function each day, by simply downloading NYT bylines, and arranging them between the advertisements, substituting page layout for anything approaching jounalistic integrity. To Paraphrase the small insert on page 10:
“…Private Beauchamp’s assertions of brutilizing, and various anti-social bahaviors by Americam trrops in the field, had been challenged by various Conservative blogs and groups, not withstanding, that a comphrehesive investigation had found his statements to all be accurate, save for a single instance, which could not be confirmed. For its part, The Army refused to comment, simply taking the course of silencing the Private from further disscussions of military misdeads, by comendeering his cell phone and computer.”
- So yet another patriotic American has once again been silenced, by the evil NeoCon establishment.
- The Union, like its sister Leftist publications, has hit such a low circulation number, they can’t even give it away in some areas.
TW: “egoistic struggle …Hey…you play the cards you have, no choice, even if they’re total losers. What the hell, theres always the chance you can bluff your way through.
Comment by incontrolados on 8/3 @ 7:04 pm #
From Pablo: Tell the children it’s ok to be a prostitute. Just be careful about the state.
k
Comment by marcus on 8/3 @ 7:09 pm #
Wow, one troll gets whacked and another immediately pops up to take it’s place.
Is this Chuck E Cheese?
Comment by incontrolados on 8/3 @ 7:09 pm #
So yet another patriotic American has once again been silenced, by the evil NeoCon establishment.
Y’all just love that, no? That’s what you wanted, right? To silence that one guy?
What are you pissing and moaning about there big guy?
Comment by baldilocks on 8/3 @ 7:14 pm #
Paul Smith and Jason Dunham (didn’t look it up, but I have posted on the two more than once. In case no one in the post has mentioned these fine men,I just wanted to do so.)
Pat Tillman, for one, and a (living) chick, Leigh Ann Hester (in Iraq)! Again, just off the top of my had.
Comment by baldilocks on 8/3 @ 7:15 pm #
had=head
TW: ord(i)nances some
Comment by incontrolados on 8/3 @ 7:25 pm #
Wow, one troll gets whacked and another immediately pops up to take it’s place.
There was a whack?
k
Comment by baldilocks on 8/3 @ 7:31 pm #
Again off the top of my head, let’s not forget that wild USMC man, Brian Chontosh, also still living. (Feel free, readers, to Google all the names I’ve mentioned.)
Comment by B Moe on 8/3 @ 7:32 pm #
incontrolados- I take it you are referring to your train of thought?
How many michelles are there, by the way?
Comment by baldilocks on 8/3 @ 7:35 pm #
Correction: Chontosh is a recipient of the Navy Cross; one award under the MOH.
Comment by Pablo on 8/3 @ 7:35 pm #
Oh, so you rape kittens, k? Thanks for letting us know. Forewarned is forearmed.
Comment by incontrolados on 8/3 @ 7:36 pm #
Just one B Moe. Just one.
Comment by Pablo on 8/3 @ 7:38 pm #
Oh, Keeeerist. It’s our internationalist again, back for another round. This should be boring.
Comment by maggie katzen on 8/3 @ 7:42 pm #
What is it with you and kittehs, Pablo? huh!? YOU are the one that keeps bringing them up.
Comment by Pablo on 8/3 @ 7:44 pm #
Rowr!Meow.Comment by Pablo on 8/3 @ 7:44 pm #
Friday is catblogging day, innit?
Comment by incontrolados on 8/3 @ 7:51 pm #
Hi, Pablo. You seemed to go *splat* at BJ.
Comment by maggie katzen on 8/3 @ 7:52 pm #
yes, yes it is, Pablo. Okay, I’ll try to be topical from now on. I promise.
Comment by incontrolados on 8/3 @ 7:58 pm #
maggie katzen: if you knew me, you would know that I don’t take bait.
See:
Notice that she left blogging (sort of).
She’s back now (sort of).
See maggie katzen?
Comment by incontrolados on 8/3 @ 8:01 pm #
Still friends with the Sparkly are you there Jeffy?
Comment by incontrolados on 8/3 @ 8:03 pm #
blank
Comment by RTO Trainer on 8/3 @ 8:04 pm #
maggie katzen: if you knew me, you would know that I don’t take bait.
See:
Notice that she left blogging (sort of).
She’s back now (sort of).
See maggie katzen?
I think we have another drinker.
Meechelle. Your ESL is showing.
Comment by incontrolados on 8/3 @ 8:07 pm #
link
Who’s sceered of a link? Jeff, Dan or Pablo?
TW: barracks — never seen one never will.
pussies.
Comment by Pablo on 8/3 @ 8:07 pm #
I know when I’m wasting my time, Michelle. Unlike you, obviously.
Comment by incontrolados on 8/3 @ 8:10 pm #
I think we have another drinker.
Meechelle. Your ESL is showing.
How so?
Comment by incontrolados on 8/3 @ 8:14 pm #
rightwingsparkle is out of commition on the local paper.
Why is that?
TW: buck fifty is about your, Jeffy and RWS, worth.
Comment by happyfeet on 8/3 @ 8:15 pm #
ever so lonely?
Comment by Pablo on 8/3 @ 8:19 pm #
Because your EFL is failing. “commition”?
Have a couple more pops and a nap, Michelle. You’ll be glad you did. And when you wake up, 16 hours from now, maybe you could go visit RWS at her blog and ask your inane questions there.
Comment by incontrolados on 8/3 @ 8:20 pm #
Pablo, Jeffy or who ever have not let my link go through.
If you could let Jeffy know that http://blogs.chron.com/texassparkle/ is in a public space, I’ll thank you.
Pablo, I’d rather you not visit my blog. You are a poison.
You’ve doomed more blogs to death than me.
Just sayin’
Comment by incontrolados on 8/3 @ 8:27 pm #
ever so lonely?
Not so much.
Bigger fish, other ponds.
But you all get extra attention.
you know why :)
Comment by incontrolados on 8/3 @ 8:32 pm #
And when you wake up, 16 hours from now, maybe you could go visit RWS at her blog and ask your inane questions there.
Silly Pablo. Are you playing with a “pre-9/11″ play book?
Comment by Pablo on 8/3 @ 8:35 pm #
You can’t kill a dead man, Michelle. And frankly, a couple of good body slams are the only hope you have of getting the EKG above flatline. I’ll defer to someone who gives a shit, though.
Meanwhile, you could scroll up to #76 and see where your link came through just fine. Psycho.
Comment by SmokeVanThorn on 8/3 @ 8:44 pm #
Isn’t “incontrolados” the Latin term for verbal incontinence?
Comment by incontrolados on 8/3 @ 8:53 pm #
Meanwhile, you could scroll up to #76 and see where your link came through just fine. Psycho.
After the fact, Pablo and you know it. When will you, Pablo, stop carrying water? RWS is just putting her toe in the water and finds it too hot.
Pablo, you have carried water for jeffie, dan, qnado, who else? Why not be yourself? Your appearance on BJ was all too predictable. What does Jeffy or Dan give you? Seriously, what do you get for alll of you knee-pads?
Pablo, you must know that that’s where you are, no?
tw: eggs ummmm
Comment by happyfeet on 8/3 @ 9:03 pm #
you’re stupid
Comment by Pablo on 8/3 @ 9:09 pm #
I get drunken nutcases with psycho fixations. But now that I’ve seen the error of my ways, you can go away.
tw: 365 spear
Prolly ought to upgrade that to a .45 or something
Comment by incontrolados on 8/3 @ 9:09 pm #
WoW, happyfeat ;)
Comment by happyfeet on 8/3 @ 9:11 pm #
I really meant it
Comment by incontrolados on 8/3 @ 9:16 pm #
I get drunken nutcases with psycho fixations.
That’s unfortunate. Not enough for maryrdom, but hey, anything goes. Just look at Sparkly’s new header
Comment by Synova on 8/3 @ 9:19 pm #
Leigh Ann Hester not Leanne. My bad. I’ve been trying to think of the names of the other people in her unit. I’m thinking… Nice? But I don’t think that’s the right spelling. Nein!
So I suppose that doesn’t count because I couldn’t remember it right.
“The highest decorated hero of the Raven 42 crew is now Staff Sgt. Timothy Nein. His medal has been upgraded from a Silver Star to the Distinguished Service Medal.”
Comment by incontrolados on 8/3 @ 9:24 pm #
I really meant it.
Lo siento mucho, pobrecito. Ya ni poyu myu.
Sleep in peace knowing that I wish you no harm and your comment was swallowed by a sound heart.
happyfeat, could you please tell Jeffy that he can’t comment on my school’s site. Seriously, it would mean a lot to me.
Thanks.
Comment by happyfeet on 8/3 @ 9:28 pm #
ok, have a good night
Comment by incontrolados on 8/3 @ 9:33 pm #
tu tambien, feliz de pedro.
que tenga un buen fin de semana.
Comment by Major John on 8/3 @ 9:36 pm #
Jeff, you forgot to leave the bug zapper on again…
Comment by ahem on 8/3 @ 9:52 pm #
I think I’ll buy dead-bolts next time.
Comment by daleyrocks on 8/3 @ 10:22 pm #
That was Michelle the Latvian Loony Language teacher from Greenwald’s swamp. She usually doesn’t have the guts to travel out of the liberal bubble alone. Where’s Jim Montague or her other friends? She must be tanked up.
Last I heard she was about to lose her job in Houston for being an uncooperative employee – you know spouting of lefty political shit at work that no one wanted to hear. Maybe she’s working at a new school or sued for discrimination. Lefties love to sue.
Comment by happyfeet on 8/3 @ 10:34 pm #
she swallows comments
Comment by daleyrocks on 8/3 @ 11:30 pm #
How does that pay compared to ESL?
Comment by RTO Trainer on 8/4 @ 12:29 am #
Sorry, I went temporarilly blind after “she swallows.”
Comment by ef on 8/4 @ 12:59 am #
Is it a quarterly requirement around here to have a drunken guest troll?
Comment by Sean M. on 8/4 @ 2:57 am #
You know, Jesus would be upset about that. He was a fan of that Mary Magdalene, who was a whore, you know? And Islam considers Jesus as a Prophet, timmah.
You’re not Islamophobic, are you? Heaven forbid! All seven of them!
Comment by DrSteve on 8/4 @ 3:54 am #
OK, so Sanchez lacks credibility, but a guy who blogged that he was enlisting more or less to hit the “off” switch on the critical judgment of most of his readership? Bet the farm!
Moore, Glass, Beauchamp, et al. — what is the deal with Leftists cozying up to people who play them for dupes?
Easily led, I guess.
Comment by Sean M. on 8/4 @ 4:25 am #
But, you see, Sanchez is a “whore” since he may or may not have engaged in gay sex, possibly. And since he’s supporting the “neocons,” he’s not an authentically “gay” “whore.”
If he was just a “regular” “gay” guy and a “regular” “whore,” and supported the policies that all of the “regular” “gay” “whores” supported, then it wouldn’t be a problem.
Pingback by Game Over for TNR on 8/4 @ 6:11 am #
[...] the usual deranged suspects found it easily dismissable, having already assigned their own significance to the facts arrayed before [...]
Comment by klrfz1 on 8/4 @ 8:08 am #
So timmyb gets kicked off at 4:09 PM and incontrolados doesn’t show up until 7:00 PM. Almost 3 hours with no troll. The left really is lazy, aren’t they?
tw: these Honorable
??? That makes no sense. I too think you broke it, Jeff.
Comment by Jeff G. on 8/4 @ 11:22 am #
Sorry, I was away and hadn’t checked this thread. Seems it was derailed a bit by the not lonely Michelle, our internationalist ESL friend who posted 20 of the last 50 or so comments — not a single one of which contained a coherent thought nor even an argument (though she did catch a “then/than” error: her students are certainly getting their money’s worth!; and she did allude repeatedly to Rightwingsparkle in a show of winking significance, as if I’m supposed to be sharing the connections that are taking place inside her otherwise empty head).
To be clear, I have no idea what you’re talking about, Michelle. But then, you probably don’t either, so I guess not much is being lost in translation.
Tip: try to state your thesis more clearly. Pass that one on to your students, too. On me.
And my name is Jeff. Putting the ‘y’ on the end is an attempt to what? Diminish me? Emasculate me? Turn me into stove-top popcorn?
Add that to the “pussies” slur, and you have a prototype of today’s compassionate leftist. I bet you even think of yourself as a feminist, don’t you?
In which case, let me be the first in this thread to call you a cunt (h/t Marcotte).
Now, if you have an argument to make about the post, make it. Otherwise you can join timmy in his magical mystery tour to “Fuck Off.”
Comment by ushie on 8/4 @ 11:27 am #
Man, your trolls are SOOOOO pointless…I mean, I can’t understand what they’re on about…whores or cats or something…
Comment by Rick Ballard on 8/4 @ 11:33 am #
Oh good. Captcha has forgiven Jeff.
TW: asserting This
I’d say.
Confederate Yankee received a nice reply from Gen. Petraeus’ very own PAO re Pvt Sadsack:
Seems rather definitive.
Comment by Rick Ballard on 8/4 @ 11:35 am #
Confederate Yankee link
Comment by Jeff G. on 8/4 @ 11:45 am #
Well, somebody is lying — either to TNR or the Army investigators. What the army should do is ask TNR for its sources, given that they have admitted to TNR to witnessing violations that they didn’t report.
And we know from yesterday’s Yearly Kos incident how caught up the lefties are in following regulations and honoring military codes.
But more to the point, the army investigation doesn’t really prove much — though the Kuwait/Iraq gaffe is already enough for honest folk.
Comment by Rick Ballard on 8/4 @ 12:00 pm #
Jeff,
I don’t quite understand how the Army could do much more than it did by interviewing all the soldiers in that company (I also think that “all” has to be read as “every available”). I suppose they could take the time to provide sworn affidavits from each soldier but how would that prevent Pvt Sadsack’s “supporters” from claiming coercion?
Is the game really worth the candle? TNR has printed barracks tales as a form of gospel. “Proving” the tales is on Foer’s head – it can’t be on the army’s head to disprove a dud’s fantasies. There just ain’t enough time in this universe to do so, even if it were logically possible.
Comment by maggie katzen on 8/4 @ 12:05 pm #
I tend to agree with you, Jeff. I don’t think anyone inclined to believe Beauchamp is going to just take the Army’s word for it that they investigated his claims and found them to be false. Even if Beauchamp himself were to issue a retraction it’s going to be seen as some kind of “military coverup”. I don’t think any progress is going to be made on this one way or the other at this point unless they start naming names.
TW: stifle road; yep.
Comment by Pablo on 8/4 @ 12:13 pm #
As I understand it, there is a report forthcoming, and we haven’t seen it yet. And as always, you can’t prove a negative, so the burden of proof is on TNR. If the Army can prove that their proof is false, and it sounds like that’s the case, it’s game, set and match.
Comment by ef on 8/4 @ 12:14 pm #
Jeff, it does go to show that if anything like these incidents occurred, those that observed or participated in them are a bunch of honorless sacks of empty humanity. First for not intervening and second, for refusing to say anything about it when their names are attached. That having been said, at least one soldier, when faced with the very real possibility of at least a http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/27-1/Ch4.htm> field grade article fifteen would start pointing fingers. Soldiers watch each others backs, but not usually to the point of career suicide and confinement.
Comment by ef on 8/4 @ 12:14 pm #
html>me
Comment by happyfeet on 8/4 @ 12:26 pm #
It depends on what kind of magazine TNR wants to be. They are owned by CanWest Global Communications Corp, which is Canadian. I think it’s controlled by the Asper family, who are politically engaged and there have been controversies about how that gets reflected in their properties. Being that this fiasco adds to that pile of controversies, we’ll have to see if they want Beauchamp to remain readily available as ammunition to critics who would point to a willingness of that company to publish propaganda. Canadians are enigmatic by nature, so we’ll just have to wait and see I guess.
Comment by incontrolados on 8/4 @ 4:51 pm #
As I understand it, there is a report forthcoming, and we haven’t seen it yet.
Pablo, Hugh Hewitt says to check his blog and Dean will have it. Check it all weekend.
And BTW what wrong with you people? Can you only comment on one site? Can you not boost me into the top 100,000 on alexa? :)
TW(s): degraded — you lot — 1919 — Murder of Rosa Luxemburg
Comment by ef on 8/4 @ 5:00 pm #
Oh no, PW farms out it’s commenting. You just need to cross a secret coherency threshold, then come up with something that’s amusing to pick apart, one sad little line at a time.
Comment by incontrolados on 8/4 @ 7:08 pm #
As I seem to recall the Oath of Service language is to protect and defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, which isn’t necessarily the same thing as upholding the constitution. Not to say that the job of a soldier should be to trash it, but I don’t know if the presumed mission carries with it any significance.
One of yours, Jeffy?
Comment by Rusty on 8/5 @ 6:11 am #
The Houston Chronicle? Go Astros?
Beauchamp, who?
Subject needless
Comment by Jeff G. on 8/7 @ 3:59 pm #
Where’s incontrolados now?
Pingback by "Beauchamp recants" [UPDATED] on 8/7 @ 4:05 pm #
[...] as I wrote earlier in response to Cole’s hysterics, it does matter (sorry, Uncle Jimbo) — and those who were instrumental in preventing Beauchamp’s [...]
Comment by incontrolados on 8/25 @ 9:07 pm #
I’m still here, Jeffy :)
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