Redstate

I can really only repeat here what I said at the time:

I don't have much use for people who, in the course of defending Kos, describe his remarks merely as "stupid". Yes, they were stupid. But the problem isn't that they were stupid, or ignorant, or prejudiced, none of which is exactly rare on blogs or anywhere else people air their opinions. Nor is the problem that Kos was too flip and too disrespectful of the dead. The snarky, quick-hit, shoot-from-the-hip style of blogs does, sometimes, lead to undue callousness. As someone who writes under intense time pressure (when time runs out, I gotta run for a train), I can sympathize with bloggers who don't always get to dress up their statements with the appropriate nods to convention and politesse.

No, the problem with Kos' remarks is that they were vicious and mean, and effectively took sides with a lynch mob. Now, I recognize that many on the Right have been equally rough on Ahmed Yassin, Uday and Qusay, and even on less thoroughly evil figures like Rachel Corrie. But there's a common denominator there: those are all people who chose to take sides with those who want to kill us. They're on the other side.

And that's how Kos treated the men who were lynched in Fallujah: as not on his side. Except that, whatever you think of "mercenaries" and their motives (more on that below), there's no dispute that these guys' were in ultimately in Iraq because the Coalition Provisional Authority wanted them there to assist in its efforts to rebuild the country into a democracy. The fact that Kos sees the people engaged in that task as being on the other side puts him, at least emotionally, on the side of the lynch mob, the fascists, and the Islamists.

Kos is, apparently, still on the side that wants America to lose.  Screw him.

The best way to respond to Kos: ignore him.  Why?  He isn't worth anyone's time.  Have you ever read one of his posts that offered anything original or substantive on its own merits?  I haven't.  He's pure bluster and spin, like the guy in high school who attracted the girls your freshman year but was ignored by your senior year.  The minute the Democrats win an election, he'll suddenly be forgotten by those in office who no longer need him, his outraged audience will dwindle, and his revenue streams will slowly dry up.  

To me, Kos' relevance is defined by the fact that he feels "vindicated" and sees a personal victory in what he sees as America's defeat.  In this, he just reflects the larger Democratic Party.  As much as they deny it, the Demcorats have positioned themselves to win when America loses.  They seem to be more than willing to sell out the interests of this country if it would help them win back power.  American history books are littered with people like that--and they are all forgotton footnotes.  That will be Kos' fate, and the fate of the modern Democratic party.  History won't view them unkindly--it won't even pay attention to them.

From the same Article:

"By his own admission, he just doesn't care about policy. It's here that the correlation between sports and politics breaks down. In sports, as Vince Lombardi is said to have put it, "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." When the season is over, you hang up your cleats and wait for the next season. But in politics, that's not the case--you have to govern, and if you don't govern well, you won't get reelected."

was it really neccessary to change the emphasis on why he felt vindicated.

Your...left out the following: "The media has recently begun to question the role of American contractors in Iraq, he pointed out, which was the point all along."

And I believe that on occasion, Markos does things to get a rise out of both the left and the right (mostly the right). Leading to posts like this one, and only adding to the hits he recieves on his blog.

It's kindof the Howard Stern factor. The more people talked about how bad Stern was, the more others wanted to listen to him.

I found part of the piece a little touching and a little on the border of the absurd. The part where he seemed in despair about still having to rent his home, and having the dream of being able to buy a plot of land in the Berkely hills. Amazing. The anti-capitalist, is a capitalist at heart.

"During late 2001 and early 2002, he developed a following, for the strength and clarity of his denunciations of the Bush administration."

Now, I don't care enough to do this, but someone should look into just what this guy said right after 9/11.

It might help in '06.

"There was another reason, though, why hundreds of thousands of liberals around the country found themselves addictively checking and rechecking Daily Kos as the 2004 election approached. It made them think Democrats were going to win. Moulitsas wasn't just posting any polls, he was selecting those that suggested Democrats--from John Kerry to congressional candidates--were heading for victory, while downplaying less encouraging signs. It left liberals trapped in a bubble of reassurance. Heading into the election, it would have been reasonable to assume from the evidence presented on Daily Kos that Kerry was the clear favorite to beat Bush, and that Democrats were likely to pick up seats in both houses of Congress. When none of these things happened, there was a sense of incomprehension. All of Kos's confident predictions had been wrong. "It's a valid criticism. Looking back, I was too optimistic," Moulitsas told me. "[At] the beginning, I didn't even know what a margin of error was."

Worse, Kos hadn't just fared poorly as an armchair quarterback--he'd been beaten on the field, too. In the Democratic primaries, he first backed Dean, then Wesley Clark. Both sparked grassroots excitement, but ultimately, of course, flamed out. Then, of the 13 Democratic candidates for Congress that Moulitsas handpicked for his readers to support--and for whom he raised over $500,000- not a single one prevailed."

That's vindication only if the media agrees that the contractors deserve to be lynched.

Rorschach1, hello, and Season's Greetings.  If there is a fault with the incomplete quote, it is mine, and not Leon's; I did the original post that Leon was kind enough to link to.  I intentionally left out the excuse that the role of American contractors in Iraq was the point all along.  I don't feel the need to assist Markos in retrospective analysis of why his 'screw them' comment was really a deep political statement.  It is the worst kind of after-the-fact justification for a really heinous comment.

So, if blame there be, cast it my way...

Is that now, he can't even claim that he posted it hastily, or without reflection. He's had two years to mull over that little nugget, and apparently feels stronger about it now than he did then.

...I remember that dKos was a definitely partisan but not actively pernicious site up to the 2002 elections - which everybody thought was going to be a Democratic blowout.  The site didn't really start turning into the collation point for, ah, enthusiasts that we all know and love until the aftermath of that, the Trent Lott excision and the decision to begin purging his comments of deviationists.  The new course was pretty much set by the summer of 2003.

I almost pity him.  But the man chose his path, and of his own free will; may he get everything that he deserves.

I got it.  Still, what Trent Lott said was wrong.  That guy got exactly what he deserved.

The part where he seemed in despair about still having to rent his home, and having the dream of being able to buy a plot of land in the Berkely hills. Amazing. The anti-capitalist, is a capitalist at heart.

The only people I know who own vacation condos and investment property seem to be liberals. I guess I'm just not rich enough to be a liberal.

I was never impressed with him, but the birthday party comment was totally overblown.

It's not like he started talking about n**** in a television interview. But I guess that is OK.

...but this sez why I tend to reluctantly go to the polls.  As much as I hate the GOP acting like Dem light, that doesn't change the fact that Dem control of the House will mean $2trillion in New Spending.

Liberalism is not a coherent ideology but rather a semi-hereditary class asserting a neo-feudalistic privilege to rule ordinary people and be exempt (like the Medieval nobility and clergy) from duties to the State.

There is a reason you don't see average ordinary people as Liberals, and they are concentrated in Hollywood, the Media, and Dem circles. It's the same reason Libs "hug a thug" and hate home ownership, the suburbs, and the average middle class person.

"What's the point of being rich" Rose Kennedy wondered, "if ordinary people have nice things too?"

Hollywood and the Media have every reason to make their positions hereditary as much as possible, and that's in direct opposition to the upward mobility aspirations of ordinary people. So yeah Markos is the same dynamic. He aspires to the new priesthood of Liberalism which is all about maintaining power/position by keeping ordinary people down and acting in direct opposition to their desires and wishes (in a power-alignment of the very, very rich and very poor).

Of COURSE Kos is happy when anyone American is murdered. I'm sure he's celebrating the release of Robert Stethem's murderer. He celebrated the murder and ugly lynching spectacle of former Servicemen at Fallujah and has consistently dishonored the troops and and allied with the enemy. If your objective is to create a priestly caste to keep ordinary people down and controlled in contempt this makes perfect sense.

It was wrong. Kos feels that with radical right wing extremists spewing hate on anyone and everyone who might stand between them and (more) political power, liberals should fight back.

He's right in a sense. You guys are so far out you'd call me a liberal. One guy informed me that while he has undying respect for the guys who volunteer for service in Iraq, he has NO respect for me.

That's nice. I just got back from Iraq (it's so good to be home) in November. I volunteered. After 9-11. Army National Guard... someone else called me a liar.

So I get why Kos does what he does. But he was wrong to say what he did.

The situation was complicated, from any perspective. Although I doubt you want to hear this, some contractors (a minority, I hope) have been guilty of rampant criminality in Iraq.

It's quite simple, they are unaccountable and in a position to do harm. Power corrupts. This sort of thing was reported in Bosnia. US contractors raping young girls and the like, they could not be tried by anyone because they were beyond the law. I think that loophole was closed, but in Iraq these guys were apparently acting with impunity.

So some random contractor goes into Falluja and commits atrocities. That's plausible, and it explains why things went so horribly wrong there. But the hajis wouldn't necessarily punish the guilty party for such an act... I'll explain.

When I got into Iraq, I was told that a big problem they'd been having was POIs (pissed off Iraqis). It goes like this, an American does something to humiliate, harm or even kill an Iraqi. He or his family then retaliates, but randomly.

So it is entirely possible (if not likely) that the contractors who were mutilated were innocent of wrongdoing. I seriously doubt the GI who was with them had been engaging in any kind of dishonorable behavior. I doubt the hajis would have gone to such extremes unless something awful had been done to their kin, they are not wild animals. So it was probably revenge, Iraqi style.

But it doesn't matter. Kos was wrong to say what he said regardless. It was inappropriate, even by DailyKos/FreeRepublic/RedState (you guys are nasty) standards.

He doesn't know the circumstances of what went down in that city. He can't assume that those guys "deserved it". Even if they were bad guys as Kos assumes, they died horribly. It's not the sort of subject matter for these political food fights people like to have.

So whatever, Kos shouldn't have said that. He's wrong to try and maintain his position or justify it whenever revelations of misconduct by mercenaries in Iraq come to light. That's not the point.

But hey, what are you going to do about those crazy liberals?

Iraq is still a disaster, and it is likely to get worse. I feel for the guys who are stuck there now.

Last Christmas I was there. That was a memorable day. It rained all day, I had to pull a double shift, 24 hours straight. No phone calls home, no sleep, just pulled convoy escort patrols all day. I think I did about 12.

It's good to be home this year. Merry Christmas, indeed.

And again, I believe Markos likes to rile people up.

Call it the shock blogger factor.

Steve on the news blog, likes to do it too.

Shock brings attention. Attention brings hits. Hits bring in more ads.

Its the 'net at its finest.

(gotta remeber, kos' primary income comes from his blog work)

Oh, and I wish I could be in the holiday spirit. But this year, my largest customers have shut down/gone on vacation, for the holidays, leaving me in the lurch, without paying some bills. As a result, my giving list has been cutdown, which is bumming me out.

If anyone knows a cheap site to purchase grphic novels (for my nephew), a link would be appreciated.

[When I got into Iraq, I was told that a big problem they'd been having was POIs (pissed off Iraqis). It goes like this, an American does something to humiliate, harm or even kill an Iraqi. He or his family then retaliates, but randomly.

So it is entirely possible (if not likely) that the contractors who were mutilated were innocent of wrongdoing. I seriously doubt the GI who was with them had been engaging in any kind of dishonorable behavior. I doubt the hajis would have gone to such extremes unless something awful had been done to their kin, they are not wild animals. So it was probably revenge, Iraqi style.]

 I have tried to find and could only come up with these examples...

Private Security Guards in Iraq Operate With Little Supervision

From this we learn:

"A Times survey of nearly 200 "serious incident" reports filed by private security firms since November 2004 shows that 11% of the incidents involved contractors firing toward civilian vehicles believed to be a threat.

The reports do not indicate whether the shootings were deemed to be justified, and contain limited information about the fate of the vehicle occupants. The reports, filed voluntarily with the Pentagon, say that the contractors received no fire from the vehicles, but shot at them because they were believed to be potential suicide bombers.

About 20% of the reports involved contractors who said they were fired on by U.S. forces in apparent cases of mistaken identity. Contractors in Iraq frequently travel in unmarked vehicles and do not have reliable communications with military units.

Most of the remaining reports are harrowing accounts of insurgent attacks on contractors that involve roadside bombs, ambushes, rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and machine-gun fire."

U.S. contractors in Iraq allege abuses

From this we learn it is poorly trained Kurds that seem to be to be core of the problem:

"They claim heavily armed security operators on Custer Battles' missions -- among them poorly trained young Kurds, who have historical resentments against other Iraqis -- terrorized civilians, shooting indiscriminately as they ran for cover, smashing into and shooting up cars."

"On a mission on Nov. 8, escorting ammunition and equipment for the Iraqi army, they claim a Kurd guarding the convoy allegedly shot into a passenger car to clear a traffic jam".

Private security contractors in Iraq face little accountability if they shoot

Here we find a rehash of the LATimes story above but also note that compensation is not always forth coming:

"Hattab said it was the third time since the U.S. invasion that he has been fired on by Americans. On the first two occasions, U.S. troops mistakenly fired at him but later apologized, he said.  This time, he said, he has drifted in an endless legal fight for compensation, bouncing between Iraqi courts and U.S. officials. Hattab, an Oil Ministry employee now on disability leave, has seen his pay cut in half to $51 a month."

All considered I am not sure why you think what happened to those four contractors has nay relation to what you say "Americans" were doing wrong.  There are far more accounts of contractor billing abuses than articles on physical abuses.

as I am new to commenting and cannot get the hang of posting.  If any one has a copy of "Blog Commenting for dummies" I would appreciate it if I could borrow it.

$3 trillion in tax increases so they can say they're reducing the deficit.

There is always tension between active-duty troops and the better paid mercenaries.  Each have different missions, and different compensations.  When the going gets tough, and life and death hang in the balance, American GI's hang together, while the mercenaries handle their own business.

Kos is bitter in this way, because he served in the military, and active military guys are always bitching and griping about better paid mercenaries.  It goes with the territory, but Kos needs to realize that in the media world you can't say stuff that is commonly said amongst the troops.  One wonders how many who comment here even realize what active duty guys are bitching and joking about while on duty, including in war zones, like Iraq, as opposed to the caricatures we get that all the guys are totally happy about being there and supportive of the civilian leadership.

(laughing)

Come hang out with the Marines sometime kids...

On where you were at in Iraq.  The people who spent much of their time in the more stable areas reported a much better reception from the Iraqis.  Plenty of individuals who don't much care for Bush and who don't know that we should have been there in the first place report that the Iraqi people were welcoming and that they had a great deal of respect for their bravery and their desire to see their situation improve.  While I give prima facie respect to you for your service and will (and have) speak up against those that do not, that does not mean that your comments should be presumed representative.  

Excision

Main Entry: ex·ci·sion

Pronunciation: ik-'si-zh&n

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English excysion, from Middle French excision, from Latin excision-, excisio, from excidere

: the act or procedure of removing by or as if by cutting out; especially : surgical removal or resection

I usually try to have a reason to pick the specific words that I use.  Admittedly, it's not always the best reason, but that's life.  :)

from our brief sojour in oblivion?

While I give prima facie respect to you for your service and will (and have) speak up against those that do not, that does not mean that your comments should be presumed representative.

Just a friendly reminder that "speaking up against those who do not", given there is no obligation on the part of anyone to serve and our citizenship is determined by the Constitution and not a Robert Heinlein novel, is a one-way ticket out of here.

This article does really raise an important point about Kos:  The right blogosphere still doesn't really have an answer for him and that community.  I don't mean in terms of debating points or intelligence -- we do that all the time, and most of the time it is like engaging in a battle of wits with an unarmed person.  And I don't suggest we should put someone in charge with that much bile.

Rather, there's no one that really matches him over here in terms of a high-volume, one-stop fundraising, consciousness-raising, and rabble-raising machine.  RedState is really the first conservative attempt at creating the online community that Kos has, but it only has a fraction of the readership.  When you think about what the guy is capable of -- raising $500K for a bunch of candidates who have little-to-no chance of winning -- its pretty impressive (if misguided).  He gets around 1 million hits a day, again, that's about 1 in every 250 Americans stopping by.

Now just imagine what someone who isn't insane could do with that, and who wouldn't send their money to a bunch of also-rans.  Its something the right-wing blogosphere still lacks, and something that if they got, would further entrench the GOP majority.

...that he has his own little "Chappaquiddick" moment to follow him through his career.  He has no choice but to defiantly embrace his soiled diaper when it is proffered to him on a long, pointy stick.

I have no idea what it is really like.  My draft number in the Vietnam era was 276 (final year of draft), so I don't even know how I would react under similar circumstances.  I recently read a book called 'The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell : An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in Iraq' by John Crawford.  It was very interesting and I couldn't put it down.  The ending kind of left me with a knot in my stomach, but I guess it wasn't meant to be just an entertaining read.

I was just wondering if anyone who has been to Iraq has also read the book and could comment on it.

It seems odd to me to excuse reprehensible behaviour by attributing it wanting to "get a rise" out of people or shocking people.

Terrorism is (simply put) the technique of getting a rise out of people to get one's own way.  Or how about some serial killers, who want to taunt the police or the community?

Your logic seems to be "He's doing a bad thing, but hey, it's a bad thing is all".

And as for Howard Stern:  Where to begin?  Some people don't have the cognizant ability to process humour at an advanced stage.  This is why third graders use "bathroom humour" because of the inability to grasp certain concepts in humour (IE exageration, understatement, irony, etc).  Howard appeals to the a great number of people varying from ignorant to even intelligent professionals who have been unable to develop a "taste" for finer humour.  This isn't insulting to Howard fans unless you choose to read it that way.  I prefer steak and lobster, but have been know to eat a convenience store hamburger in a hurry.  That many people might prefer a burger to lobster is fine.  Just don't try telling me that Stern is a lobster when what he is doing is peddling burgers to the masses who want it (and can have it).

Howard is not an unintelligent man.  He plays to those underdeveloped masses for profit.  But by that standard so do prostitutes.

this a bit.

Kos is bitter in this way, because he served in the military, and active military guys are always bitching and griping about better paid mercenaries.

Now I wasn't a private in an MLRS battalion, so his experience may differ from mine. I commanded two rifle companies and served a tour in 2-75 Rangers and as one of my first sergeants would say, I've spent as much time under an MC1-1B canopy as he did in the chow line. I've never, ever, ever heard anyone complain about 'mercenaries'.

And not to be pedantic, but under any reasonable definition of the word there are no mercenaries in Iraq.

Since you don't know anyone on the list, knock off the "kids" comment until you earn a tad bit of crediblity.

But if the Dems actually get Kommerad Klinton into the White House, or really, just any democrat the Redstate "base" will grow exponentally.  The party in power rarely has their base rallied "in the streets."

Couple that with the querky outcome of the 2000 election (bush winning the majority of the electoral college, while not garnering the majority of the popular vote), and the radical dems really felt mobilized.  I'm a bit amazed that even with a clear majority of the popular vote for Bush in '04 that rather than acknoledge any shifts one way or the other, we get presented with the "Diebold" myth.

Red Staters really don't feel a compelling reason to circle the wagons, ala Kos, and probably won't until the winds of political change blow the Dems back into the White House.

I spent five years in Cav units and I don't recall ever "bitching and griping about better paid mercenaries".  

Every person I dealt with were either military, national law enforcement, government employees or consultants from companies that manufactured the equipment we used.

Back for more so soon?

Let's get started shredding your leftist garbage again.  Pray that an editor bans you before I rough you up too much (again).

1. The idea that KOS does hateful things because the right must be doing it too.  Excellent use of third grade logic.  (I'm talking in class because I bet other people do it too).  Oh your a brilliant one.
   
2. Undying respect for vets in Iraq but not you.  So people must grovel and snivel to you because you are a vet (who happens to trash the mission your vets are fighting for).  I have respect for vets that don't trash their leaders in time of war dumbass.  Have you noticed people from last week questioned if you are even a vet because you claimed to speak for a majority of servicemen in Iraq despite polling data to the contrary?
   
3. Contractors guilty of criminal behaviour.
   

   A) Sources please.  Oh, I forgot you don't provide those.

   B) Some cops have engaged in criminal behaviour.   Do we ban the police?  Some teachers break the law, do we fire all the teachers?

4. Then you again and again bring up your service as if we should be in awe.  Are you just trying to brag, or trying to convince us you are correct because you went to Iraq?  Again, I have two combat tours (Panama and Somolia), purple heart and some other shiny things.  Do I have license to criticize you?  By the way, anyone here does vet or not.  Each of your detractors is a taxpaying American that you are supposed to be serving.  They have that right.
   
5. You then go on to impicity imply that the contractors did something to deserve this (likely in your view).  !!!!!!!!!SOURCE PLEASE!!!!!!  For your information the contractors were members of Blackwater, a government contracted team of personel which consist largely of former special operations personel.  Have you read the bios on the individuals involved?  They make you (and me) look weak in comparison.  I'll wait all freaking week for you to source that these wonderful men did anything wrong.
   
6. Then you go on to blame KOS for doing exactly what you did (saying now that he shouldn't assume the contractors did something wrong).  You are just amazingly ignorant.
   
7. How you spent last Christmas.  You pathetic, whining, sniveling fraud.  Every unit has at least one.  That's what you get paid to do.  Incidently, it's usually the whining idiot that screws things up for everyone else who gets Christmas duty.  Your attitude reflect poorly on you and your unit.  But of course that's your goal isn't it?  Undermining morale?

Hey Ranger.  Can I call in an airstrike (Puff the Magic Editor) on grid square Big Red One?  I don't know how many posts of this guy you have read past to present, but he's a tango if there ever was one.

Under the RS documentation I have read the site is for likeminded individuals to share thoughts and thoughtful disagreements.

The implication that the members of Blackwater who were killed and mutilated were somehow involved in criminal behaviour is revolting.  To tightrope between these men deserving it or not is revolting.  It is comparable to calling 9/11 victims "little Eichmans".

I hope a Blackwater family member doesn't read Big Red One's post on this site and associate his comments with ANY of us.  Not just the editors or the site on its own.

Does this nutjob's history merit banning?  I respect your call.

in him.

Col. Beckwith would be proud.

23 years now and one thing I can tell you is that 'mercenaries' is a very dirty word. I have NEVER heard it uttered in regard to American contractors.

I don't know which Marine Corps you served in but it wasn't mine.

And as far as the 'kid' comment goes, well, in the words of the immortal Gunny Highway....

I've drank more beer, pissed more blood, banged more qu*ff and kicked more ass than all you numbnuts put together!

Not really a quote, but it's what I could remember  :)

I never met him but I worked with a guy, an original member of Delta Force, who was one of Beckwith's drinking buddies.

That was, of course,  back when field grade officers could get snot-slinging drunk and get dumped on your own front porch at sunrise and still keep your job.

"implicitly" was what I was trying to type.  Too much anger to type straight.  I'm sure the Blackwater families understand.

A steady trigger finger on the range doesn't seem to transfer to the art of typing does it?

were replying to me, were you?

But that reminds me of an all-nighter I pulled when I was a PFC in HI......

Got in from the bars about 6AM, just in time to Sh*, Shower and Shave and get to Roll Call STILL plastered. I was so drunk I don't have a clue how I got to there. I made it through Roll Call and sat down. My Top came over (Master Sargeant) put his hand on my shoulder and asked "Rough night?" I had my head cradeled in both hands (to keep the room from spinning I guess) and just nodded. He then told me to get back to the barracks and sleep it off and never do something that F***ing stupid ever again or I'd be standing tall in front of the Old Man.

Those were the days!!!

I never met him either.

I do know that more than a few Blackwaters had more than a passing knowledge of this man and his team.

Thanks again.

 

Nope. That should have been a reply to Hank....Sorry bout that

abviously some HTML oddities I'm unaware of  LOL

most of my tour as a platoon leader in Germany revolved around leaving work (around 7pm) going out drinking. Rolling back into the BOQ around 3am. Get an hour's sleep. Be in PT formation at 4:30. Then work a full day. Spend most of Saturday and Sunday in the rack. I used to look forward to going to Grafenwoehr, Hohenfels, and Wildflecken because it gave me a chance to catch up on sleep.

The first Clinton years created Rush and the talk radio network, so I'm guessing a second Clinton Administration (shudder) would do the same for the netroots.

two Administrations. He went on the air in August 1988.

get to Europe in my Marine days. We stay in Asia for the most part. But I do remember (some of the) time I spent in the Phillipines before the bases got shut down (I cried when they shut down subbi). Spent a couple weeks there doing nothing but getting drunk everyday and chasing women.

OH!! To be young again and abuse my body like that and suffer no ill (or at least lasting) effects from it.......

 has no problem with homicide.  As with other crimes it is purely situational.  But it would be at least interesting to hear his case for self preservation should the grim reaper come knocking at his door.

True dat.

It's Called the Club for Growth:

www.clubforgrowth.org

He gets around 1 million hits a day, again, that's about 1 in every 250 Americans stopping by.

That is not at all what 1 million hits means. He gets a lot of readers but nowhere near 1M per day.

. . .it is now fair play to bring up the "screw them" issue from now until the end of time, since he's repudiated his apology.  Let that despicable comment and his even more despicable re-affirmation of it be his epitaph.

That won't stop his apologists, but it will allow us to slap them across the face with this with impunity.

before 1993-94?  

He was on WABC in NY, not a small station, and he was syndicated.

Of course, I'd heard of him.

of the scumball loonies. Why would you expect anymore of him than that?

If you post with the "Auto Format" option, anything between asterisks(*) gets bolded.

Looks like that's what happened to you. If you want to use asterisks in your post, choose a different option when posting.

Kos is bitter in this way, because he served in the military, and active military guys are always bitching and griping about better paid mercenaries.

Actually, he's mostly bitter about mercenaries in El Salvador, where he lived for a while as a kid during their civil war.  The money only enters into it in his point that the contractors volunteer to accept big bucks for big risk, so getting killed is just part of the job, more or less.

I shouldn't have said "kids", consider a stupid late night mistake.  And I was using "mercenary" in my own terminology, but don't let anyone tell you there is not tension between the public troops and the private contractors, or some element of mistrust and/or bitterness.

I was using "mercenary" in my own terminology, and I'm aware it's not a term used on the ground.  Still, you cannot deny there is tension between public troops and private contractors, especially in Iraq where the pay structure is so disparate and mistrust and bitterness result therefrom.  If not for the separate missions, which is a source of tension itself in a fire zone (or in a zone where you can get killed by an IUD when least suspecting), human nature comes to the fore in this case, with the radically different compensations, and in the case of Iraq much more so than in most past conflicts (that the US has been involved in).

...that if you take a picture of Kos, make the hair salt-and-pepper and add a scraggly beard and some crow's feet, you get... Paul Krugman?

Maybe there's a human phenotype called "unhinged lunatic."

extent it is anything more than garden variety bitching, yeah, I deny it.

Very few troops can make the cut to join a topshelf security consultancy like Blackwater so it isn't like they are a) doing the same job or b) qualified to do the higher paying job.

How does one get killed by an IUD?

How does one get killed by an IUD?

I thought maybe I was just getting old, but maybe the troops are literally getting younger and younger.

"While I give prima facie respect to you for your service and will (and have) speak up against those that do not, that does not mean that your comments should be presumed representative."

Unless I'm missing something here, this comment refers to speaking up against those that do not give respect to those who serve, and not to the "chicken-hawk" meme.

As you might have gathered from the post we've had this discussion previously. That's why the (and have) apppears.

make me spit my Killian's all over my screen.

Now I have to make the long walk to the kitchen for a paper towel.  I blame YOU.

SINCE YOU'VE BEEN GONE!!!

...this type of thinking does not even remotely track with reality.

Not when, within 6 weeks or so of each other, your claimed party is passing 1) $70B tax cut packages for the wealthiest individuals in our nation, and 2) $40B cuts into Medicaid and Medicare.  We know how the voting broke down along party lines...

A Merry Christmas indeed, for those "rulers" you cite.

In short, the Democratic Party does most assuredly NOT reflect the philosophy put forth in your post.  

Definition of "Liberalism", from Wikipedia:

"Liberalism is an ideology, or current of political thought, which strives to maximize liberty. Liberalism seeks a society characterized by freedom of thought for individuals, limitations on the power of government and religion, the rule of law, the free exchange of ideas, a free market economy that supports private enterprise, and a system of government that is transparent, a liberal democracy with open and fair elections, where all citizens have by law equal rights and an equal opportunity.

Liberalism rejected many foundational assumptions which dominated most earlier theories of government, such as the divine right of kings, hereditary status, and established religion. Fundamental human rights that all liberals support include the right to life, liberty, and property."

The top 50% of wage earners pay 96.54% of all Income Taxes. The top 25% pay nearly 84% of all income taxes paid. The top 1% pay more than a third. You think this is insufficient. Now, if you like outsourcing, raise taxes and watch more employers flee the country. The Bush tax cuts have stimulated economic growth and reduced the deficit by over 100 billion dollars.

If you want to view the laboratory for your ideas, you need look no farther than France and Germany. Double digit unemployment. Universal, but substandard health care. 0.4% economic growth, coupled with very limited upward mobility.