Saturday, September 29, 2007

Limbaugh on Solid Ground on 'Phony Soldiers'

House Democrats are apparently considering a resolution to castigate Rush Limbaugh for having the nerve to allege that there are 'phony soldiers' bragging about their exploits in Iraq. As long as they're at it, perhaps they'll actually denounce the phony soldiers. Fact is, there are thousands of 'phony soldiers' nationwide; the problem is so great that Congress passed legislation to crack down on the epidemic. Jesse MacBeth is just the tip of the iceberg.

Publications like the Army Times and Navy Times have written about phony veterans many times. A sample:

Justice Department officials in Washington state detailed Porter’s story, along with seven other people accused of — or already convicted of — being military frauds, during a news conference Friday on VA fakers.

“We take it seriously because this money is meant for veterans, not for fakers,” James O’Neill, assistant inspector general for the VA’s office of investigations, told Military Times.

“Every dollar that’s lost to a faker is one more dollar that can’t be spent on a veteran,” said O’Neill, whose office is responsible for rooting out those who defraud VA.

More from the same publication:

It’s not unheard of for Marines to embellish their service after leaving active duty or for civilians who’ve never served to pass themselves off as Marines. It’s happening all over the country this very minute...

Posers, in other words, are getting less ambitious. Among the dozen or so cases that have popped up so far this year — including five recent ones in this week’s issue — some are merely claiming to be a Marine, without all the battlefield exploits and mounds of chest candy. Those who do claim valor among their traits aren’t shooting for the Medal of Honor or service crosses. Fake Silver Star cases seem to be en vogue, as are phony Purple Hearts.

Want more? Here's a whole website devoted to the problem. Here's another website with numerous news stories about it.

How serious is the problem of 'phony soldiers?' Congress last year passed legislation to allow prosecution of people who claimed medals that they had not earned. It passed both the House and Senate unanimously. It was introduced by Congressman John Salazar (D-CO), whose press release on the measure lists several phony heroes -- Michael O'Brien, Lawrence Hammer, and Gilbert Velasquez. The stories above mentioned Larry Porter, Merrick Hersey, Michael Heit, Carlos Valle Rios (a registered sex offender, by the way), Preston Garris, Glenn Marshall, Tim DeBusk... the list goes on and on. According to NPR, there are 50 ongoing investigations by the FBI into violations of Salazar's legislation.

When Limbaugh referenced 'phony soldiers,' he specifically cited the case of Jesse MacBeth. Liberal critics have laughably complained that he cited only one case while using the plural. Fact is, there are dozens and dozens on the public record, and it seems highly likely that there are thousands nationwide.

Here's ABC News' recent report on phony heroes and Operation Stolen Valor:



If Congress intends to criticize Limbaugh for talking about people like Jesse MacBeth, what message does that about how seriously the offenses of MacBeth and others like him? It would directly oppose the message they send last December, when they passed the Stolen Valor Act.

79 comments:

Unknown said...

fix your layout. All those widgets means I won't even see you entries.

Anonymous said...

and while you're at, get a real fucking blog, like wordpress and dump the lame ass blogger... you can get free hosting from http://www.leveluphost.com/ so, ya ain't got no damn excuse, damn idiot chickenhawk...

Anonymous said...

The number of military imposters, these wannabees is in the thousands, perhaps in the tens of thousands and these slimeballs get the credit, the honor, the benefits--including sometimes veteran’s benefits--that rightfully belong to those who did serve. Some fakers have even gotten onto military bases, onto warships and into very sensitive military installations using fake uniforms and decorations—not a good thing post 9/11.

Unfortunately, military medals, insignia and uniforms are widely available at surplus stores, on the internet—you can get a Congressional Medal of Honor if you try and, in fact, a few years back the sole military contractor that makes medals for DOD was found to have run off a few hundred off the books mil spec medals that found there way into all sorts of places. Until recently, wearing a uniform or decorations/medals you weren’t entitled to was virtually penalty free and a very low priority of law enforcement to boot. Penalties have been stiffened a little by recent law but this is still real low priority and those in the private sector who do investigate and expose such imposters are often hampered by threats that their targets will sue.

Several years ago when I first researched this subject there were several websites devoted to tracking down, investigating and exposing such wannabees and imposters but now, it appears, many of these sites no longer exist. Here is one that explains why it is no longer in business

http://authentiseal.cyberseals.org/

A few sites exposing phony veterans I found active now include:

http://www.pownetwork.org/phonies/phonies.htm

http://www.specsec.org/

http://www.nightscribe.com/Military/SEALs/wannabe_seals.htm

http://members.aol.com/viperash50/wannabe/wannabe.html

Anonymous said...

First a note to tc and anonymous: "Get a life".

Second, it becomes increasingly obvious how the MSM is doing PR work for the Democrat Party.

Rush Limbaugh drives the left wing nutroots "over the edge" and it is actually very amusing to see the left wing Democrats in Congress take the bait from the MSM misreporting of what Rush says.

Unknown said...

Let's put this into further perspective:

For today's left,

it's OK to accuse of TREASON one of our most respected and decorated soldiers on the front lines against the war on terror,

but its slander of the worst kind to draw attention to phonies who seek the credibility of real heros through lying and deciept rather than honour and valour.

It would be funny if it wasn't so horribly sad.

halojones-fan said...

I use Internet Explorer, and I can read the page just fine, with no confusion or mislayout at all. It's not the blogger's fault that Firefox is crap.

Anonymous said...

Its customary to test with both popular browsers.

J.R. Deluxe said...

good post, good links provided.

Peg C. said...

Rush's coverage of the Drive Bys' and MM's meltdowns over his correct and fully justified remarks was some of the best fun I've had listening to him lately. They can't touch Bush so try to hit Rush and cover themselves in feces every time. Love it!

wlpeak said...

Strange, I use firefox and the page looks fine. Could it be you TC?

Morgan said...

I can see everything just fine using Firefox. Never hurts to test, but don't sweat the toolbars leaving comments like that. If it wasn't one thing it'd be invalid XHTML or some other holy-standards-violation.

Anyway, nice work.

Anonymous said...

I tested the page layout in four different browsers. It was fine.

Anonymous said...

Great post.

I opened this site in FF Opera and IE and I see everything just fine too.

damn idiot trolls.

Anonymous said...

Ignore the wacko trolls. It was a unique way for them to attempt to smear you, though, Editor.

Great post.

Darren said...

Hitting CTRL-"minus sign" in Firefox reduces the size of text, including on widgets. I've found that solves all such problems I encounter on web sites.

Anonymous said...

Maybe he's a phoney troll. Maybe he's just posing as a troll to impress his troll friends and gain credibility points.

Anonymous said...

Love the post- hate the widgets.

Tried it using both Safari and Firefox, they overlap the text.

Anonymous said...

Opened using latest version of Firefox, IE 6 and 7 and Opera. Site looks fine in all of them. It's not the widgets--it's the end user. Fix your browser.

Tiny Bunch said...

No problem with Firefox here. Maybe the complainers should get a monitor bigger than 640x480.

John Clifford said...

Hmmm... the hypocrisy of Congress (passing a law criminalizing wannabee military heroes, then considering a resolution against a private citizen for pointing out the exact same problem) is easily explained.

Which party was running Congress in December, when the anti-faker law was passed? And, which party is running it now?

Just goes to show that the Democrats earned the symbol of their party, the jackass.

Anonymous said...

it's caused by

<http://downloads.thespringbox.com/web/wrapper.php?file=08%20Presidential%20Wire.sbw>

which may not appear for all users. So insulting those of us who DO see this is just a demonstration of your ignorance and lack of interpersonal skills.

I've found that Flash blockers work great to turn off these advertisers who screw up other people's pages.

For Macs, SafariBlock works great, and thanks to it, I'm never gonna see another thespringbox.com ad again.

As for "phony soldiers", I love to see the Left make fools of themselves, but these sorts of things have the lifespan of a plastic turkey.

Anonymous said...

Ever notice how so many lefty responses to blogposts drop F-bombs of one kind or another?

Why is that? It seems the nutroots just isn't comfortable unless they're talking like Bobby Knight.

Anonymous said...

Congrats

Rush has a link up to this post

AmPowerBlog said...

Thank you for this...your post really nails the issue.

The whole anti-Limbaugh deal's a scam, and I said so much in my morning post.

Burkean Reflections

Anonymous said...

What is a widget?

Eli Konorti said...

1. You liberals critisizing Rush for doing your dirty laundry should thank him for his patriotic position unlike you lefty communists whoi are a bunch of phony parasites. If a democrat came into the white house, than you would not have enough money to do laundry. But then, I guess dirt is part of your vocabulary.

2. Phony soldiers deserve to be executed.

Anonymous said...

I had no idea so many Democrats are in favor of Jesse McBeth's. Democrats treat the phony soldiers with more respect than our real warriors. Shame.

Anonymous said...

Here is was anti-war liberals sponsored:

Jesse MacBeth interviewed at peacefilms.org

In his 20-minute Internet video interview at peacefilms.org, which promises that watching the video "will change your life," MacBeth (who also claims to have served in Special Forces) says:

Superiors told him "our job over there is to strike fear in the hearts of the Iraqis . . . to be brutal and to not feel" and that "the Geneva Convention doesn't mean crap."
He would "do night raids, pull people out, on their knees and zip-tied," and if a man didn't answer the way he wanted him to, he "would shoot his youngest kid and keep going."
"By my hand alone . . . almost 200 people were taken out by me. That's just a rough estimate. A lot of them at close range . . . they would actually feel the hot muzzle of my rifle on their forehead . . . we'd do stuff that would scare them first . . . beat 'em up or kick 'em or hit the wife . . . slaughtering 30-40 people a night sometimes, women and children . . . I was trained, you know, in all the Ranger school, 18 months of that crap . . . I got disappointed in my country . . . but I didn't say anything because I would have been locked up."
"Other things they told us to do, man, we were ordered to go into a mosque. This really hurts me a lot. My nightmares come mostly from this . . . we infiltrated the mosque . . . a couple hundred of people of all ages were praying . . . we started slaughtering them, we started shooting them, started taking them out . . . we would burn their bodies, hang the bodies from the rafters . . . after a while, it's just sickening to think that I took part in that . . . "
"Kids threw rocks at us before and the guard command officer told us to take them out . . . Our job was just kill, kill, kill."
"I'm so disappointed in my country. I'm ashamed to have actually served in Iraq."

HughYoda said...

Fine to me the blog looks.

Anonymous said...

Blog looks good in IE and Apple Safari... guess TC doesn't know how to use a web browser.

Phony soldiers have been around forever. I seem to remember a story ten or twenty years ago about some Vietnam vet who debunked a lot of the sob stories put forth by the fatigue-wearing-protestor set. Seems that a lot of those guys never set foot outside the country.

But with the libs, truth matters not.

byrdman said...

Maybe people are mad because Rush got'em again!!

michilines said...

When Limbaugh referenced 'phony soldiers,' he specifically cited the case of Jesse MacBeth.

Not until later, just to CYA. He accused a caller of not being a republican and not being a vet. The following caller piled on with Limbaugh to bash the previous caller and label him as one of those 'phony soldiers' that doesn't want to stay in Iraq. Remember, real soldiers want to stay until the job is done -- no matter how long it takes -- which was exactly the question the first caller asked of Limbaugh and that Limbaugh only answered with 'as long as it takes.'

Why couldn't Limbaugh simply apologize for saying something stupid? That would have settled it. End of story.

Instead he edits his tape and and points an accusatory finger. He's responsible for this even being noticed. He brought it on himself.

Anonymous said...

Apparently, some people can't pull their head out far enough to clear their ears...much less listen to what was actually said.

Rush was talking SPECIFICALLY about the phonies like Jesse MacBeth. The caller you cite claimed to be a Republican, but then, there are any number of people on the payroll of the MoveOn.org types who have paid people to call talk-show hosts. They are called "seminar callers", and lie to get on these shows to spout the talking points of their Democrat masters.

Rush never said anything about the caller's veteran status.

As to "as long as it takes", it is a definitive answer to a stupid question. If you are fighting a war, you don't say, "I'm only going to fight until June 3, and if I haven't won, I'm getting out."

Some of these morons just sicken me...

michilines said...

Anony, I have a name. Use it.

After the the caller said that he had served, Limbaugh said, "And I walked on the moon." How is that not saying something about the caller's veteran's status?

Hiding behind a conspiracy theory is rather weak. If that's what Limbaught thought, why didn't he say so at the time? Why didn't he say the guy was a fake caller instead of a phoney soldier? That's who Limbaugh was talking about. Not the long forgotten whateverhisname is.

You and Limbaugh ar grasping at straws.

Apologize and be done with it.

Anonymous said...

give um hell Rush!!! i`m lovin it!
if these demos spent all this energy trying to LOOSE the war ON Winning it, we`d been gone 2 years ago!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Limbaugh gets backlash for his inflammatory comments. I'm lovin' it!! And he's caught lying, too. The pendulum does swing, Limbaugh -- and you're out.

michilines said...

Anony @11:35 is typical of someone who is ill-informed.

Anony, how has Rush given anyone hell? He's currently only covered his own comments by editing tape. How is that constructive?

Bill, agreed, Limbaugh is getting a backlash, but it was one of his own choosing. He did this to himself.

michilines said...

"LOOSE the war"

I don't think you meant it that way, same as Limbaugh.

Anonymous said...

"Not until later, just to CYA."

And before in a Morning Update. So he "CYA'ed" himself before he ever said anything. A devious guy, that Rush. <./sarcasm>

travis said...

First, great post & congrats on the link. Second, Anonymous@4:54 wrote he/she wouldn't be at all surprised to see the GOP "take it all in 2008". Um... have you been paying any attention over the last few years? "Our guys" have squandered every bit of high ground we had in the political arena. When did the GOP give up on fiscal responsibility and jump into competition with the libs for the "Most Likely to Tax & Spend" title?

Jesse MacBeth is either a LIAR, or a WAR CRIMINAL. If he is seeking attention, turn him into Le Havre for his War Crimes Tribunal. He'll probably decide at that point that he "just wanted to raise awareness about the US involvement with...(insert random ridiculous charge here)"

In 2004, there was a rather well known example of someone making outlandish claims regarding his military service. My Father served in Viet Nam, worked avionics systems on F-4's. I am proud of what he did then, just as proud as I am of my service in Iraq. I would never tell anyone that I took my squad into Iran or Syria, and my Pop would never think he needed to build up what he had done, either. We did our part, and we're proud of it, enough said. I guess being a Swift Boat skipper in Viet Nam wasn't enough for John Kerry, wasn't "special" enough, even though thousands of others were fine with it. So, was Sen. Kerry driving the boat and manning the guns all by himself on these forays into super secret Cambodia? What a turd...

Finally, listen up all of you NASCAR NeoCons. Learn to use your doggone spell check, and at least make an attempt at something approaching intelligent conversation. "Get R Done" and "Give 'em hell" are NOT, say again NOT, noteworthy conversation. Up to this point, the Vocal Minority has been ultra left greenpeace weirdos like Janeane Garofalo, Dennis Kucinich, Tom Daschle, and the rest of their ilk, largely available on NPR. Apparently, there was a shift to the vocal minority not being representative of ANY large group, and only indicative of the further failings of the larger public education network. You DO NOT represent the rest of us. You extolling your ignorance is NOT endearing. Not to people like me, and especially not to people like Michilines. She (?) clearly doesn't think much of your rants or your points. She has, at least, been accepting of the fact that your point is important to you. Try to show a little consideration...

Michilines, I have been a Ditto-Head since 1989, which was the first time I ever heard Rush's program on a affiliate in Reno, NV. I have been a 24/7 Member for over two years now. Rush doesn't have a problem inserting foot, nor will he apologize! Any press is good press when your livelihood depends on listener numbers... I won't apologize for him, or for the myriad anonymous posters too hurried and harried to even complete a login. It's not my place.
Please be advised, though: honest men and women, who happen to be true conservatives, are on their way to the political forefront. We believe the there are three fundamentals, guaranteed by the Almighty and published in the Declaration of Independence: Life, Liberty, and the PURSUIT of Happiness. The government has NO place trying to regulate any further than that.

Just a heads up...

Sam Freedom said...

Oh dear lord, it's going to be disgustingly fun to watch the Democrats make absolute idiotic fools of themselves for the (i've lost count) time.

The nutjobs running for president won't condemn MoveOn.Whoreg for their utterly unfounded, slanderous accusations, YET, they'll try to condemn Rush for speaking coherently on something that has merit... and which he can, and will, gladly debate.

If it weren't so sad, it would be funny... it's sad watching them flapping around like a flounder because they've got a political virus called "far left liberalism" in their body politic.

Get well soon, Democrats!
Sam Freedom
Come Get You Some, Dems!

Anonymous said...

Wow, some of you are spending WAY too much time posting stuff--why don't you just keep your wacko thoughts to yourself and just listen to Rush?

-cm

Anonymous said...

The brazen, bald faced nature of the lies the left tells is astounding. But because they have no morals or principles, and know the MSM will never call them out on it, they will continue to lie like crazy.

I'll bet both Bill Adkins and michilines are also Troofers.

Anonymous said...

Democratas piensan que tienen a todos los hispanos con ellos cuando la realidad es que uno como hispano les dice que si somos democratas pero a la hora de votar votamos con integridad por los republicanos y no a las mentiras que todo los dias dicen los democratas.

Anonymous said...

ha, ha, ha...

Anonymous said...

The post is on the mark, but the widgets don't display correctly in either Safari or Firefox. Increasing or decreasing the font size has no effect on the widgets.

Anonymous said...

The problem for some with the widgets on the left hand side is that the sidebar scales percentage-wise with page width. In your style definitions, you declared the left side bar to be just 15% of the screen width. If you are looking at the page with a small screen (like the compact laptop I'm on right now), some of the widgets which have fixed width flow over into the main body text, obscuring it's readability.

The cure is to use a fixed width left sidebars, spec'd in pixels or similar. Make sure the fixed width is wider than your widest widget. That way they are always wide enought to accomodate your fixed width widgets without overflowing into the main body text.

Before anyone starts a "viewers should get some real hardware" rant, it's not just losers on yesterday's VGA'ish resolution. Sometimes its a small display for other reasons related to portability. (ie. small laptops, so-called "smart phones", etc.)

Oh yeah, and thanks for the writeup. ;-)

(from a 24/7 subscriber...)

Anonymous said...

AP WIRE -- In response to Media Matters' documentation of his recent description of service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq as "phony soldiers," Rush Limbaugh claimed that he had not been talking "about the anti-war movement generally," but rather "about one soldier ... Jesse MacBeth." Limbaugh then purported to air the "entire" segment in question. In fact, the clip he aired omitted a full 1 minute and 35 seconds of discussion that occurred between Limbaugh's original "phony soldiers" comment and his subsequent reference to MacBeth.


--He should have just apologized instead of poorly covering his tracks. It's a move right out of Bill Clinton's playbook and I hope he gets away with it like Bill would have.

Anonymous said...

Rush never even mentioned Jesse MacBeth on the 27th. I don't buy his excuse and neither do these guys. Decent ad here - http://www.votevets.org/

Thompson 08!

Anonymous said...

Rush is getting desperate if he has a link to this blog of this poor quality. Someone else needs to host this story that has an actual blog, not this widget-infested mess.

Anonymous said...

Blog looks fine both on my large screen and portable.
Ignore the Liberals who have a problem with others using the software of their own choosing. It's their nature to complain rather than actually fix a problem, if it even exist, which is usually at their end anyway.

Plus, they're obsessed with Wordpress, Firefox, etc. They get a high out of thinking they are freedom fighters using open sore software, when they forget to think that the writers of most OpS work for software giants in the daytime (like me). Lol.

michilines said...

And before in a Morning Update. So he "CYA'ed" himself before he ever said anything. A devious guy, that Rush. <./sarcasm>

He only tied that in later. Why do you carry water for this fake?

Michilines, I have been a Ditto-Head since 1989

Though not a ditto-head, I have listened to Rush since he was on KSEV 700 in Houston. You are a very optimistic person.

He should have just apologized instead of poorly covering his tracks. It's a move right out of Bill Clinton's playbook and I hope he gets away with it like Bill would have.

Another anony, this time hiding behind Bill Clinton. Never gets old does it?

Typical liberal name caller. Brainwashed into believing you can only use Wordpress. What a waste of skin and eyeballs.

Anony number, what are we up to at this point?

While I don't like the whining about widgets any more than the next person, the idea here with blogs and websites in general is that they are accessible to the audience. Looks like The Editor didn't take that into account.

Plus, they're obsessed with Wordpress, Firefox, etc. They get a high out of thinking they are freedom fighters using open sore software, when they forget to think that the writers of most OpS work for software giants in the daytime (like me). Lol.

That last bit is a frightening thought.

Oh, and the fact that some network reported on fakes doesn't cover Rush's ass. But you knew that already, no?

Anonymous said...

Fake war heroes have been around a long time. My uncle was one of the biggest.

My father served in the Army from 1942 until 1966. He had tours through France and into Germany in WWII. He was in Korea and even Vietnam until I was born in 1963.

He was there. He experienced it.

My father's sister was married to a guy that never worked because of injuries sustained during WWII. This guy said his disability checks were going in the bank and that they would just live off my aunt's income until retirement. This was in the late 1950's as relayed to me by my father.

This guy was even the head of the local VFW Post. My father never liked the guy because of his outlandish war stories and the way he treated my mother (who is Japanese).

Anyway, to make a long story short, after my uncle died in the 1980's, my cousin tried to get the VA to cover the burial. They also tried to find the money he said he had been saving all those years. Turns out that he NEVER served in the military. EVERYTHING was a lie.

My dad had the last laugh. After all, his family treated he and my mother harshly (because of who he married). And they all but called my father a liar for questioning this guy's military service all those years ago.

Anonymous said...

Gracias a Dios que unos saben la verdad.

"mentiras que todo los dias dicen los democratas."

My translation....My fellow Americans of Hispanic decent recognize as I do exactly what the democrat party is.

A CRIMINAL PARTY OF PERPETUAL FRAUD

Anonymous said...

Mr. Limbaugh was clearly having a conversation about soldiers that do not support America's involvement in Iraq.

He and the guy he was talking to called them "phony soldiers".

I used to listen to short wave radio, what you are doing is like a Soviet style propaganda snow job.

The name Jesse Macbeth is getting pulled out as cover for Rush's neo-fascist comment.

Pretty spooky stuff this creeping American fascism now you're trying telling me what I "should" have heard.

Lone Ranger said...

I gotta tell ya, this Democrat Congress is impressive. Nine of the first 15 bills they passed renamed post offices or other federal buildings. They have given a 70 cent pay raise to two percent of the workforce. And now they're passing a resolution to condemn Rush for telling the truth. Yeah, the Democrats are SOOO concerned about protecting our soldiers' honor. Ted Kennedy, Jack Murtha, Harry Reid, John Kerry, etc. would CUT OUT THEIR TONGUE before saying anything bad about our military. Campaign promises? What campaign promises?

Anonymous said...

Isn't it amazing how closely Mcbeths comments sound like comments made before congress by the poster boy of the FAR left, John Kerry. It's what the anti-military types, like Kerry,want to hear.

Anonymous said...

Did some more digging on the "looks fine to me" comments with respect to the sidebar widgets. On some browsers the flash based widgets (the videos, the twitter updates, etc) and the graphics get clipped so that they won't overflow into the body text and some browsers do not clip them. Hence the responses: some of the complaints you got criticizing your story because of layout issues while some say it looks fine. I don't think you have anything in your style definitions which say how the browser should behave for an overflow condition, so it comes down to default actions within a browser.

Unknown said...

I'm using the most recent update to FireFox and I don't see any problems.

Back on topic, I'm glad to see more info on this subject. thank you for the links!

Anonymous said...

I have a solution... If you are caught fakeing service, You should be automaticlly deployed to Iraq or another HotZone so you get a real chance to earn the crap you wear or claim to have. Second Option the unit you fake serving with should get to have you for a deployment period to serve them in any way they like so you can know what a hero looks like.
Jason Stone
ythserver@aol.com

Anonymous said...

This is so sad, people trying to take credit for something they never did, or lying about the truth! Typically Liberal American!

Anonymous said...

Limbaugh challenged Senator Harry Reid to, instead of hiding within the walls of Congress safely under the skirt of the "Speech or Debate Clause", to 'be a man' and come on Rush's show to lie about Rush in person. I'm with Rush! DEMAND that these lying cowards come out into the open.

If you will not come out and accuse Rush DIRECTLY Senator Reid then YOU ARE A STINKING LYING COWARD!

We know little coward Reid won't be a man about this so I'll do everything I can to make this stick to him forever - "LIAR HARRY REID IS NOT A MAN!"

Anonymous said...

I am not a big Rush fan but this whole thing would be comical if it weren't coming from Reid. If you say he is an egomaniac who talks too much that would be one thing, but to say that he was disrespectful to our troops is a charge that is insane. And Reid can sit there and say how Murtha is being smeared after what that blow hard said about our Marines? I think someone needs to check his medication before the damage is permanent.

Anonymous said...

In fact, the clip he aired omitted a full 1 minute and 35 seconds of discussion that occurred between Limbaugh's original "phony soldiers" comment and his subsequent reference to MacBeth.

OMG! -- Rush actually spent 95 entire seconds being polite to a caller before ending the call and referring to MacBeth. How scandalous!

Here's how the conversation actually went:

CALLER: No, it's not. And what's really funny is they never talk to real soldiers. They pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and spout to the media.

RUSH: The phony soldiers.

CALLER: Phony soldiers. If you talk to any real soldier and they're proud to serve, they want to be over in Iraq, they understand their sacrifice and they're willing to sacrifice for the country.

RUSH: They joined to be in Iraq.

CALLER: A lot of people.

RUSH: You know where you're going these days, the last four years, if you sign up. The odds are you're going there or Afghanistan, or somewhere.

CALLER: Exactly, sir. My other comment, my original comment, was a retort to Jill about the fact we didn't find any weapons of mass destruction. Actually, we have found weapons of mass destruction in chemical agents that terrorists have been using against us for a while now. I've done two tours in Iraq, I just got back in June, and there are many instances of insurgents not knowing what they're using in their IEDs. They're using mustard artillery rounds, VX artillery rounds in their IEDs. Because they didn't know what they were using, they didn't do it right, and so it didn't really hurt anybody. But those munitions are over there. It's a huge desert. If they bury it somewhere, we're never going to find it.

RUSH: Well, that's a moot point for me right now.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: The weapons of mass destruction. We gotta get beyond that. We're there. We all know they were there, and Mahmoud even admitted it in one of his speeches here talking about Saddam using the poison mustard gas or whatever it is on his own people. But that's moot. What's more important is all this is taking place now in the midst of the surge working, and all of these anti-war Democrats are getting even more hell-bent on pulling out of there, which means that success on the part of you and your colleagues over there is a great threat to them. It's frustrating and maddening, and why they must be kept in the minority. I want to thank you, Mike, for calling. I appreciate it very much.

Here is a Morning Update that we did recently, talking about fake soldiers. This is a story of who the left props up as heroes. They have their celebrities and one of them was Army Ranger Jesse Macbeth. Now, he was a "corporal." I say in quotes. Twenty-three years old. What made Jesse Macbeth a hero to the anti-war crowd wasn't his Purple Heart; it wasn't his being affiliated with post-traumatic stress disorder from tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. No. What made Jesse Macbeth, Army Ranger, a hero to the left was his courage, in their view, off the battlefield, without regard to consequences. He told the world the abuses he had witnessed in Iraq, American soldiers killing unarmed civilians, hundreds of men, women, even children...

http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/2007/09/rush-limbaugh-troops-controversy-media.html

There are your 95 seconds.

Anonymous said...

Looks like the 95 seconds were pretty much meaningless to michilines' "argument." Context is everything people. Rush supplied it in this case and his defense stands up. Maybe michilines should write MSNBC and ask them why they cut out several minutes of the clip? Actually, I think we know why.

I'm perfectly willing to recognize that Rush has put his foot in it before (as have most people who do several hours of live radio a day) and I've cringed on a few of those moments, but this isn't one of those cases.

The longer Reid and co try to drag this out, the sillier they will look. Limbaugh's listeners are paying closer attention that the ones Reid and his MSM allies are playing to.

Anonymous said...

Who would be surprised that the "Winter Soldiers" would crawl out from under the rock after 46 years. For them, it is still 1971. I guess the liberals have to bring them out and dust them off, every once in awhile.
U.S. Army RVN 1969, 1970

Anonymous said...

I'm really wondering why the libs. are all over Rush about his comment but Randi Rhodes can call our soldiers murders & terrorists & not one lib. has anything to say but Rush calls phony soldiers phony & they have a coronary.

Anonymous said...

I suppose this is obvious, but the point rather is that we've not gotten to a point where it's patriotic to call our troops frauds and then excuse ourselves to those do "REAL" fighting or some such. That's a good way to run a society.

It supposes that if we exclude this one Ex Army grafter that all the criticism of this war would magically disappear.

Sorry , calling the ball how you as a citizen see it is our constitutional right.

Excluding the obvious, atrocities still are committed, even the pretension of bringing stability to Iraq has been discarded, let along a better life, electricity, schools, freedom or democracy.

At this point we're reduced to clinging to such worth figures as Al Sistani and our good and dear friend Mr. Sadr to effectively help "stabilize" the situation.

What a difference a few years makes , at the end of the day, all the high-sounding justifications gone, just the steaming pile of so much mangled US and Iraqi meat an intractable military situation in a once functional state reduced to an Islamists wet-dream of carnage and superpower hubris.

There's something for Rush to chew on. Or just go for broke and try to re-conjure the "obvious" noblity of the delusional neoconservative foreign-policy aims to a veteran without an eye, an arm or no legs the next time you have a chance.

Rovin said...

First time here. Great site! Greater Post!


The "Betray Us" ad is providing sweet, delicious schadenfreude the likes of which a Karl Rove could have never envisioned. As the Democrats throw spaghetti at the fridge to try and rehabilitate themselves from their Soros-funded complicity, we observe the wonderful, and thankfully more transparent, theater that is politics.One would have to engage in the willing suspension of disbelief to think that Democrat wailing will tarnish Rush's known and undeniable support of the military. The Left's distraction can be seen for what it is and Rush has just been given more ammo to fire at his critics. It'll be a turkey-shoot." ......from
AnonymousDrivel (a CQ commenter)

I will be linking this site and this excellent post later today.

Thanks,
Rovin

Swampcracker said...

I am speaking on behalf of my daughter who is in Iraq right now (third time), who is a liberal democrat, who opposes the war, yet does her job regardless of hardships and hazards, who has earned two bronze stars and seven distinguished service citations for her performance. "Phoney soldier" indeed.

Since 9/11, my daughter has missed every family milestone - every holiday, every birth, and every death. I call it “Family Interrupted.” With each passing year, there is always the empty place at the family dinner table. I watch the evening news and note the losses of other families, hoping my daughter’s name will never appear on a casualty list. "Phoney soldier" indeed.

About that Jingo Limbo comment, it offends me to the point of wanting to hunt him down like a dog and push in his face and pluck out his eyes.

Anonymous said...

If the original "Insult" was levied on a non-phoney soldier, don't you think the MSM would have found him by now? He would be all over the media stating how Rush had insulted him and questioned his service and status.

Progger said...

Rush Limbo is a real American Hero. He is the hardest fighting desk jockey who never enlisted in the military. His anal warts and drug addiction give him a full-time battle. His great courage in covering for Republican closet homosexuals and other drug addicts are an inspiration to all Americans. He is talent on loan from God, after all.

Observer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Observer said...

I love seeing the Dems getting their panties all up in a bunch. I'm calling this one early. Guiliani takes it in 2008. The Dems are starting to get nervous already... Obama's inexperienced, and Clinton, with her high negatives, may turn out to be unelectable. I say Giuliani demolishes Hillary in the debates, and takes it in a close, bitterly fought election. I guess the Dems then will whine that he Republicans "stole the elections" again. Whatever.

Anonymous said...

Then, there's always this: It's called "Operation Stolen Valor" and can be found here:

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/waw/press/2007/sep/operationstolenvalor.html

And it says this, and please note the date:

September 21, 2007
NORTHWEST CRACKDOWN ON FAKE VETERANS IN “OPERATION STOLEN VALOR”
Phony Vets Scam more than $1.4 Million and Damage Image of Honorable Veterans

U.S. Attorney Jeffrey C. Sullivan today announced some of the results of “Operation Stolen Valor,” a year long effort to investigate and prosecute those who lie about their military service for financial gain or other reasons. Sullivan and Doug Carver, Special Agent in Charge of the Veteran’s Affairs Office of Inspector General detailed eight prosecutions in the Veteran’s Affairs Northwest Region in 2007.

“As a Vietnam Veteran, and the father of a decorated Army officer currently serving, I feel very keenly the damage done by Jesse Macbeth and these other fakes,” said Jeff Sullivan, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington. “Macbeth’s lies fueled hostility to our servicemen in Iraq and here at home. Those who falsely claim medals for heroism, cheapen the recognition of our true war heroes.”

“The ‘phony war hero phenomenon’ plagues the American landscape and tarnishes the service of thousands of veterans who have served honorably. It strangles VA resources from providing critical care and benefits to deserving veterans returning from war,” said Douglas J. Carver, Special Agent in Charge of the VA Office of Inspector General, Western Field Office. “It all boils downs to this: these phonies submit claims to the VA for compensation and medical benefits they are not entitled to, and it takes away valuable resources from those who are entitled.”

In a dozen cases under investigation in the northwest, the fraud totals more than $1.4 million. Eight of the cases have been publicly filed and are in various stages of being adjudicated:

*Jesse Macbeth, 23, Tacoma, Washington, sentenced today in connection with his fraudulent claims of military service. Macbeth sought medical benefits claiming to suffer from PTSD related to service in Iraq and Afghanistan, in fact, Macbeth was discharged from the Army about a month after he joined. Macbeth never traveled outside the U.S. with the Army. Macbeth duped reporters, claiming to be a decorated Army Ranger who had witnessed war crimes.

*Reggie Buddle, 60, Puyallup, Washington, sentenced July 30, 2007, for Unlawful Wearing of United States Military Medals and Decorations. Buddle posed as a decorated Marine Corps Chaplin presiding over weddings, funerals and baptisms. Buddle was sentenced to 500 hours of community service and two years of probation.



*Larry Lewis Porter, 52, Seattle, Washington, sentenced April 19, 2007, for Mail Fraud in connection with a scheme to fraudulently obtain disability benefits from Veterans Affairs. Porter was sentenced to 37 months in prison. Porter claimed he suffered PTSD from experiences in the Navy, however investigation revealed the events were fabricated. Loss Amount: $134,000

*Roy J. Scott, 71, of Port Angeles, Washington pleaded guilty August 31, 2007, to Use of an Altered Military Discharge Certificate to obtain VA Compensation and Medical Benefits, and Unlawful Wearing of United States Military Medals and Decorations. Scott claimed he had served in the Marine Corps in Korea, that he was wounded in combat in Korea, and that he had been awarded the Korea Defense Medal, Korea Star Medal, and a Purple Heart (due to alleged gun shot wounds sustained during combat in Korea). Scott claimed to be honorably discharged, when in fact, he never earned those medals, never served in Korea or any foreign country and was Court-Martialed out of the Marine Corps. Loss Amount: $21,960.

*Merrick K. Hersey, 64, of Vancouver, Washington, Hersey was indicted August 1, 2007, for Use and Possession of Forged or Altered Military Discharge Certificate and False Statements. Hersey is a fugitive and is being sought by law enforcement. Hersey applied for benefits claiming he served in 1967-68, was awarded two Purple Hearts (for wounds sustained in active combat) and the Bronze Star (awarded for heroism). Hersey claimed he suffered from PTSD and sought benefits. In fact, Hersey never served in the Marine Corps at all. Loss Amount: $2,688.

*Michael D. Heit, 58, of Harrington, Washington, pleaded guilty yesterday (September 20, 2007) in U.S. District Court in Spokane, Washington to Use and Possession of a Forged or Altered Military Discharge Certificate and False Claims of Military Medals. Heit claimed he was a Vietnam vet who was held as a prisoner of war. He claimed to have been awarded three Purple Heart medals and the Silver Star. None of that is true. Loss Amount: $3,500

*Elvin J. Swisher, 70, of Idaho, is charged with Wearing Unauthorized Military Medals, False Statements, and Theft of Government Funds. Swisher falsely claimed he was wounded in Korea and that he had been awarded the Silver Star, Purple Heart and other medals for valor. Loss Amount: $95,000.

*Carlos Riosvalle, 83, of Portland, Oregon, was sentenced April 9, 2007, in Multnomah County for multiple counts of Theft by Deception. Riosvalle collected benefits claiming to have been “shot down while a pilot in World War II.” In fact Riosvalle never served in the armed forces. Loss Amount: $22,818.

These cases were all investigated by the Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General VA-OIG. The VA Office of the Inspector General operates a HOTLINE for the public to confidentially and safely report crimes like “Stolen Valor” involving VA or its programs. Call 800-488-8244, or fax to 202-565-7936, or e-mail to vaoighotline@va.gov, or write to VA OIG HOTLINE, PO Box 50410, Washington, DC 20091-0410.

The cases filed in the Western District of Washington are being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ronald J. Friedman. For additional information please contact Emily Langlie, Public Affairs Officer for the United States Attorney’s Office, at (206) 553-4110.

Anonymous said...

So, here's the question:

If you assume that Rush was actually asserting something intelligible then the only thing that seems likely is what he's now claiming he said. And, if not, what was he saying, then?

That's mainly for people who think Rush did some sort of big boo-boo. If Rush was not talking about the proven instances of people who oppose the war and falsely claim military service to bolster their positions, then what was he talking about?

Anonymous said...

Seems simple enough, take away the credibility of anyone who protests the war after serving in the military especially someone who makes a particularly loud statement.

Thats probably what he was doing if his aim was other than to attack fraudulent soldiers. I'm sure they exist and I'm sure rush would do either. His job is not to tell the truth his job is be a cheerleader to the right.

there are a lot of attacks on the MSM claiming they're too left, but they're really pretty right wing. Most cable news sources feature right wing pundits these days.

Attacks on the "left" as if the entire left is wrong is just bigotry and propaganda. calling a "Dem" a liberal is a joke anyway.

We're spending too much money and lives on a war when we shouldn't be isn't dem left or republican...its true conservatism and truely compassionate. You not even following the ten commandments if you support this war.

Chris Anton said...

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