Birthers use Ron Paulian tactics
You probably remember the big dust up we had this week with the “birthers” (or “nirthers” if you really want to piss them off) over Stefan Cook’s dismissed lawsuit this last week. TSO and I were reminded of the ordeal we suffered through last year as a result of the Paulian invasion of TAH. The comments were all the same; “learn your Comstitution”, “read a book”, “educate yourself” and all of the same old stupid general blather. An attempt to take over the comments by the intellectually shallow. And we always get the blowhards who think that quanitity equals quality.
Apparently, they’ve adopted the same blathering obnoxious approach across the internet. take a look at the comments Uncle Jimbo’s Ace of Spades post in the post below. Same techniques. I guess they didn’t recognize that Ron Paul’s biggest failing was having nutjobs as supporters who would cut and paste their comments on every Technorati search result of “Ron+Paul”.
The Columbus, Georgia Ledger-Enquirer discovered the same thing.
It became obvious Tuesday morning that the story, which was published on page A3 of that day’s newspaper, had taken on a life of its own.
Between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m., there were 62,140 unique yearly visitors to the newspaper’s Web site, said the ledger-enquirer.com’s top Web editor, Jeff Hendrickson. During the same time period a week earlier, ledger-enquirer.com had 864 unique yearly visitors — that is, users who had not clicked on the site in the previous 12 months.
By the end of the day, nearly a half million new readers came to the newspaper’s Web site. There were 712,251 page views — more than seven times a normal daily volume.
The same rush tactics that made Ron Paul such a successful presidential candidate and made the R3VOLution so attractive to most Americans.
Well, at Stefan Cook’s Facebook page, he promises more antics this coming week;
Yesterday, he promised what no real soldier in Afghanistan wants to read – that he’d be willing to serve in the war;
Cook acts like he’d be doing us a favor if he took his Blue Falcon ass to war. Here’s the text of the email i got from LTC Michelle Quon (sigh), the PAO officer in St Louis;
Sir,
Here is some information which I hope will be helpful to you. Please
feel free to call me.Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook is an Army Reserve Soldier who is assigned to
the U.S. Army Element of Headquarters, U.S. Southern Command in Miami,
Fla.On May 8, 2009, Maj. Cook submitted a formal request to volunteer for
one year of active duty in Afghanistan with Special Operations Command,
U.S. Army Central Command. U.S. Army Human Resources Command-St. Louis
(HRC-St. Louis) published orders June 9 with a report date of July 15,
which was the report date he requested.An Army Reserve Soldier who volunteers for a tour of active duty may
request that his orders be revoked up until such time as he actually
enters into active duty. He is not required to hire a lawyer or go to
court. He simply calls or emails HRC-St. Louis. Typically, the Army
grants such requests. Between June 9 and July 10, Maj. Cook did not ask
for his orders to be revoked.On July 10, Maj. Cook filed an application for a temporary restraining
order contesting his voluntary orders to Afghanistan, challenging the
authority of the President as the Commander-in-Chief. The U.S. District
Court for the Middle District of Georgia (Columbus, Ga. Division)
scheduled a hearing on that application for July 16.However, on July 14, the Commanding General, Special Operations Command,
U.S. Army Central Command, determined that he did not need the services
of Maj. Cook and requested HRC-St. Louis revoke Maj. Cook’s orders,
which was done.The government filed a motion to dismiss Maj. Cook’s application for a
temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, arguing that
because his orders were revoked his case was now moot and he no longer
had standing to pursue his claim. The court granted the government’s
motion and dismissed his case July 16.Sir, please feel free to call me if you have additional questions.
Thank you,
v/r,
Maria Quon
LTC, U.S. Army
Public Affairs Officer
U.S. Army Human Resources Command-St. Louis
1 Reserve Way
St. Louis, MO 63132-5200
And see, that’s complaint that TSO, COB6 and I have with Cook – he volunteered just to make a political statement – just like Eric Ehren Watada only became an officer so he could make a political statement when it was his time to go to war. If you can’t see how their behavior is similar, maybe you’re the one who needs to “read a book”.
And, oh, yeah, all of that crap about oath-taking and who takes oaths seriously and who doesn’t is going to earn you wantwits a punch in the throat.
Let’s say Cook gets his way – is that how you want to win, by politicizing military service? Do you really want a military that’s forced to one political side or the other on evrey issue? Is that really a victory for anyone?
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Military issues, Phony soldiers, Politics, Ron Paul, Usual Suspects
Jonn wrote: “…just like Eric Watada only became an officer so he could make a political statement when it was his time to go to war. If you can’t see how their behavior is similar…”
It’s Ehren Watada, not Eric, and no, he did NOT become an officer only so he could make a political statement when it was his time to go to war. That is so far off base, it’s not even in the ballpark. Please strive for a little more accuracy. If you don’t know the facts and don’t have time to find out what they are, then you shouldn’t say anything at all.
Also, I really don’t see the connection between the nirthers, as you call them, and the Ron Paul supporters, as you allege. I also don’t see the so-called “ordeal” of the “Paulian invasion of TAH.”
Ya’ll a bunch of drama queens here. 🙂
Jonn wrote: Watada’s father was an anti-war activist of the Vietnam Era. Watada joined the Army after the Iraq War began and served when he was sent to Korea and didn’t protest until he was ordered to Iraq. Now, you tell me he didn’t join just so he could protest the war.
Most of the Ron Paulian posts were deleted last year because my skin wasn’t as thick then as it is now. you had to be here. I good example still exists at the YouTube video on that post though.
I remember it. It was hysterical. Ah, Paulites.
That Bob Watada was an anti-war activist during the Vietnam era is not proof that his son Ehren joined the Army for political purposes. At the time Ehren Watada joined, he SUPPORTED the Iraq war and fully expected – and wanted – to go. He began seriously researching it for the first time AFTER he was already in the Army. He’s a very bright guy and was a top student in school; please give him a little credit. (Also, as an aside, the Army did NOT pay for Ehren Watada’s college, as has been commonly alleged by his critics. He went to OCS and was never in ROTC with the Army footing the bill, nor did he go to a service academy.) To be true to his conscience and intellect, Ehren Watada was forced to change his view on the war as a result of his personal research into the matter. Yes, he had his father as his support, as well as his mother, and stepmother, but they supported him before that as well. It is not logical reasoning to conclude that because the son or daughter of an antiwar activist goes into the military, that they did so for political reasons. Apparently you’re unaware that the children of many antiwar activists are or were serving in the military, both enlisted and officers, with parents both veterans and non-veterans. Just right off the top of my head, I know of at least three people in Atlanta (not an all-inclusive list) who had at least some involvement in the antiwar movement with sons who are (or were, as one is now deceased) commissioned officers, two of them captains and one a major. Four counting myself as an in-law. NONE of these youngsters went into the military in support of their parents’ (or in-law’s, as the case may be) political views. These are only people I have personally known and can think of off the top of my head in just one city and isn’t even counting the parents of enlisted. I hope you see my point and stop drawing overly broad… Read more »
Watada is another member of IVAW who never served in Iraq. He holds IVAW membersip. The Iraq Vet Against The War who was never even fkn there. A total joke !!
Here it is:
http://www.delvalvets4america.org/Lt_Watada_rally070205_1.html
Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhahahahahaha, Ehren Watada lovers.
A coward is a coward is a coward…………
Put that in your smoke an pipe it, hippies.
nuf sed
The point IS, Jonn, that there are LOTS of servicemembers who have a parent who is or was involved in the antiwar movement to one extent or another. Some of them, possibly, do not even know what their parents have been doing. So what I’m most concerned about here is your SWEEPING statement, which can not logically apply across the board in the manner that you are applying it. Your reasoning is faulty. The overwhelming VAST MAJORITY of the children of antiwar activists who go into the military DO NOT follow suit with their parents. Some do, but in my observation, those are the exceptions. While families may draw their circles around themselves, every individual stands on his or her own feet.
In the specific case of the Watada family, let’s try this again. Certainly Ehren’s father was influential in his life; I’m not denying that. But Ehren did NOT join the military to fight against the war or make a political statement against the war; he joined the military to protect his country. He had every intention of supporting the war. That was before he did extensive research on the matter and was forced by his intellectual honesty to a different conclusion.
Jonn, please try a little harder. If you can’t think this through logically, then at least repeat after me until you get it: Watada did NOT join the military to make a political statement.
OnNow, I’m pretty sure you don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m trying not to write such long posts. And I could write quite a bit about this subject. I’m restraining myself.
Frankly Opinionated, you’re nothing but a hippie yourself, if that’s you on that website. Hahaha. I like that sticker on your website, “Certified Nut – PTSD – VA Approved.” Takes one to know one.
the well known ronulan invasions on various internet site started sometime in 2007. Although I am not aware of any coordinated effort (although the ron_paul site did give detailed advice) to co-opt various conservative web-sites, all the ronulans spoke with the same talking points, in the same order, with the same cut and paste efficiency of a 13 years old crack whore.
Conservative underground was infiltrated and overrun as one of the moderators finally went off the deep end after his brain was rotted with his hatred of all things jewish and fellunder the ronulan mind control beams.
The site destroyed itself and remains only a hollow libertarian shell of conservatism.
Dutch508, ROFL…that is hilarious. Actually, I do kind of feel your pain here. I’ve been a libertarian for so many years, I can’t even remember for sure when it started. Before I was even out of the military, I think, and it fully crystalized in my thought-processes when I was a full-time mom at home. But it was mostly philosophical; my political involvement has been scanty.
I did often notice that on the rare occasion that I would show up at things, I really didn’t fit in all that well with the majority of folks and that was particularly the case with the Ron Paul folks. I’d been a libertarian all those years and have always loved Ron Paul and yet felt like a complete outsider at a local Ron Paul thing on election night – even in spite of the fact I also was friends with the guy who headed it up for the state of Georgia (knew each other from antiwar protesting). But it seemed like a very different crowd overall, not particularly friendly, and less educated, than what I typically saw in a Libertarian Party crowd, and certainly far less educated than what I would see in a more libertarian anarchist crowd of writer friends who eschew politics.
Of course, ignorance exists with all political persuasions; it was probably just more rampant here due to the passion of his supporters…which is a good thing, but public relations and marketing skills count for quite a bit, too, not to mention being well-informed and articulate. (Though that is not intended as a defense of my self-admitted over-prolific writing, which is a weakness of mine. I don’t know how to write short things. I’m trying to improve though.)
The point IS Jonn….that I wish like heck you could limit Mzzzzzzz Clark’s mini novels to 50 words. It’s not that I read what she rights anymore – I’ve read it all before. It’s that it takes me so dang long to scroll down to what I want to read.
Oh, you mean all the highly refined intelligent comments that are posted here on TAH? ROFL. But I can take a hint. I’ll be on my way. Adios.
DLTDHYWTGLSY!
Should have been “writes” and not “rights”. My bad.
that clark chick is f**kin crazy! where do you guys find people like her?
I’m just stating the facts. If you think that’s crazy, you should have seen some of the investigative reports I had to write when I was in the Army 25-30 years ago..
your argument is nuts, what would happen if every person in the military suddenly refused orders to deploy on the grounds that they didn’t feel that the prez was legetimate (for any reason). it is not his place to question deployment orders that he ASKED for. if he has a problem he can start a petition, lobby his congressmen, or any # of other things. The way he is going about this is dishonorable and not conductive to the good order and disiplin of the United States Military.
Sgt D in The Sandbox,
I apologize if I’ve confused you. I actually wasn’t supporting the major’s argument. What I was really doing was going off on a tangent, arguing a particular point that Jonn made in his original post that actually has nothing whatsover to do with the case of the major who refused to deploy based on the suspected illegitimacy of the president’s birth certificate.
Honestly, I can’t say as that I have a strong opinion about the birth certificate issue one way or the other, though I lean more toward Jonn’s view right now. It’s possible that I may eventually be persuaded more strongly in the other direction with the presentation of further evidence and argument. However, it is also the case that I lack a personally compelling interest in the matter right now, which is probably what led to my going off on a tangent in the first place.
In any event, I apologize for not having stuck to the subject matter of the original post, which seems rather mundane and unimportant to me…especially since my youngest daughter was born in Germany.
Debbie, why was Watada OK with serving in the “occupation” of South Korea, but totally not with Iraq? And, I find it sad that you will deprive us lowly, mush-filled skulls of your sparkling intellect. Please, say it isn’t so…. Sarc/off.
UpNorth,
I don’t know what Watada’s view on the occupation of South Korea is. I don’t know everything about him. I know that he wanted to serve in Afghanistan, but the Army wanted to send him to Iraq, and he didn’t feel he could do that after studying into the background of the Iraq war and relevant laws concerning war of aggression and so forth. He felt it would violate his oath of office as a commissioned officer.
I’m trying to be a little more thick-skinned. I like to be in communication here. It’s just a little bit hard for me sometimes. I do not actually think you’re lowly mush-filled skulls…nor, I’m sure, do you actually think I have sparkling intellect, but oh, well…
You guys are sometimes uproariously hilarious, and I do not mean that in a bad way.
OH, he decided A-stan was OK, but Iraq wasn’t? I always thought I should have been assigned to the occupation of the Virgin Islands, but the Army sent me to Germany. If only I’d known that I could have just said, “no way, I don’t like that occupation”. Anyway, I know you don’t mean it in a bad way, nor do I.
Hmm…I was just completing a response and then everything suddenly closed and disappeared. Anyway, suffice it say that things are obviously far more complex than just saying, “no way, I don’t like that occupation.” Which you already know, I’m sure.
Now I think I will turn my attention to this other matter.
Hey, I am with you all on how ignorant the birther folks are! However, I can tell you this….Stefan, or Sparky as we know him by was a VERY good man. He was my fishing buddy in Guantanamo Bay, for about 4 mos back in 2010. Every weekend me and Sparky and another one of our friends were on the water for 6 to 8 hours, catching fish and telling stories. Never once did he even mention anything about his stance on the Pres! I only found out about his stance after I left GTMO, thru research about the birther movement. Anyway, Sparky passed away last week from pancreatic cancer and will be missed by all of his friends at GTMO. RIP Sparky!