An Update about the USO Kerfluffle.
UPDATE: See the latest, its all Kumbaya and love arrows. Once I finally got the right person talking to me, it got resolved in 30 minutes.
____________
Not only is it back on, as Penny from Big Bang Theory would say, “It’s junior rodeo on.”
I’ll have more tomorrow, but if I post right now, well meaning people would have me committed to an asylum.
Since none of you got my reference, it’s from the Panty Piñata episode where Penny fights with Sheldon.
Leonard Hofstadter: Penny, you don’t want to get into it with Sheldon. The guy is one lab accident away from being a supervillain.
Penny: I don’t care. I was in Junior Rodeo. I can hogtie and castrate him in sixty seconds.
Howard Wolowitz: No need to neuter the nerd, I can get you back online.Penny: Leonard, remember when I said it was on? Well now it’s Junior Rodeo on.
Leonard Hofstadter: [softly, in a worried tone] No, not Junior Rodeo.
Category: Politics
I will admit to loving that show, but I don’t know if it’s because I actually understand half the jokes or if it’s because Penny is so so hot….
Uh….what???
I thought I saw on the other thread that the USO was fixing it?
#35: “Hi everyone! We’ve looked into the matter, have discovered the source of the misunderstanding and are remedying the confusion now!”
@3, yeah, that sounded like a good thing didn’t it.
Turns out the misunderstanding was that we were reading the threat wrong (you know, the one I quoted) and that the confusion was remedied by telling “sorry you didn’t understand us.” Which would be believable, in Narnia. But since I sent five further emails for clarification and they didn’t respond to any of them, then told me they would have legal talk to me, and then said, well no, Legal won’t talk to you etc etc etc.
It was unbelievably idiotic, and managed to fan air into the fire.
Yeah, don’t lie–you’d like to be hogtied by Penny.
Okay, well, TSO, don’t get your shorts in a bunch, just send them a letter by registered, certified mail with a signature requested return card, and quote a lot of profoundly deep clauses while you’re at it.
@1 It’s both 🙂
Hmmph-big talk by Penny.
I mean she ended up having to call Sheldon’s mom to get the best of him and Leonard’s mom made her cry.
@5- I don’t know about you, but the image of Gunny Driveway’s girlfriend all bound up and gagged forever tainted anything to do with ropes in my mind. I can’t even handle a block and tackle rig without getting the dry heaves now.
TSO- so… the source of the misunderstanding was that you were able to read? And the remedy they were working on was a half-assed verbal shell game?
If USO continues to give you a hard time, and you feel they are infringing your 1st Amendment rights, you might want to reach out to Ken at Popehat.com
He can steer you to some resources.
teddy–how you’d ever get on a liberty boat then?
But yeah, I can see where that mental imagery would create that sort of reaction.
Then again, airedales and deck apes pretty much regard ANY nuke as Sheldon, which given the evolutionary comparison and DNA matchup, would be unfair. To the nukes.
Sheldon reminds me more of the Tool Control guys.
@8
She didn’t “have to” call Sheldon’s mom, Leonard gave her the number because it would shorten the war by five years and save millions of lives.
Penny can be pretty ruthless, she’s punched both Howard and Leonard in the nose and kicked Todd Zarnecki in the crotch.
Please let us know how we can help. I’ll hit tip jars but I also have a modest little blog and I’m happy to post something, even if it’s just a link.
FOD is evil, Tim!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unXNdrtf2_g
Forward to about 2:03.
The twit you are dealing with has not briefed bosses yet and wants it to go away, quietly.
That’s why you have not heard from legal.
They don’t know yet.
And the quitely option goes away once counter battery fire begins.
For those of us who are having a week ripped straight from Satan’s nightmares, is there a primer about what is going on here? I mean about the USO and not Penny being hog tied by Gunny Driveway’s girlfriend.
I managed to miss the initial post and the only thing my google-fu turns up is an old post containing a mind scaring photoshop of Nick’s SRS results.
@18 – ‘straight from Satan’s nightmares’? And I thought it was just me.
TSO, just line up and load the cannons. Thumbs up!
NHSparky: FOD is even worse during take-off:
Ex-PH2 you know its a bad week when the high point of your week is when the airline you are flying from Sacramento to Boston not only changes “equipment” in Sacramento resulting in you being crammed into a puddle jumper next to a “portly prototyipical California Hippie Chick with a garlic fetish” to Phoenix but then reroutes your connecting flight from Boston to Philly where you end up stuck for nine hours due to a storm. Then just to be cute I think, they sent a bunch of us from Philly to Chicago, to Boston and to keep this relevent to this thread, they gave me directions to the Chicago USO that was outside security, which means I had to be rescreened after catching a couple of hours of shut eye.
Did I mention that this was the best part of my week so far right? And its only Thursday.
What happened with the USO in Dallas? I’m a volunteer and desperately wanting to know what occurred in my hometown. I’m trying to think of anything negative that could have occurred, and the only thing that comes to mind is a veteran being denied entrance (only occurs if no ID or expired). The USO of Dallas is an AMAZING organization and was pivotal in creating the “Welcome Home A Hero” at DFW which made sure a million troops were welcomed home in the most amazing way. I could go on and on, but I’d like to know what occurred in case I should focus my volunteer efforts elsewhere. Thank you!
Anonymous: stay tuned – so to speak. Per TSO, he’ll be posting more about this fairly soon.
@21 – You have my sympathies for ALL of it.
Wait until the air controllers are reduced in numbers. Some local smaller airports will lose theirs, but stay open for private traffic. I can just imagine what a colossal mess that is going to create, all due to — what WAS that word? Oh, yeah – sequestration!!!
Shout out to the USO in Atlanta. They have been wonderful in moving the R&R guys throguh their facilities, and I appreciated them very much. Sorry if there is current drama.
SFC Holland: mind if I drop you a note? I think I might have some info that’s pertinent (and might be useful) regarding a comment you made here elsewhere.
@18 SGT Kane
TSO has taken down the original post because he doesn’t want to malign the whole USO for what might only be one screw up….I’m sure there’s more to come….
Please do. You see the e-mail address or need a contact info?
SFC Holland: as an occasional contributor of articles at TAH, I can see the e-mail addresses folks use when they comment. I’ll send you e-mail at that address within the hour.
Old Tanker, I know the original post was taken down, I was hoping there was a emotionaly netural cliff notes version around, because I missed the original post. So other than TSO being pissed off at the USO, I don’t know anything else about it.
If it is about the Dallas USO specifically, I admit to being suprised at the very thought. I’ve flown a lot lately and I have had nothing but good experiences with them. When I came home on leave from iraq in 2009, they greeted had greeters there at the gate with directions and escorts to get me to my connecting flight. When the company came home, even though we weren’t out of Texas and it was 3 freak’n AM they still had a group of people there to welcome us back with hugs and pillows.
The facilities have always been clean, well stocked, and comfortable. The staff has never shown any of the harried impatience I’ve experienced at other USO’s (Atlanta and Chicago leap to mind here). I’m hoping this is a “corporate USO” issue and not a “local USO” problem.
MY SPEAKERS ARE BROKEN AND I DON’T SPEAK ITALIAN!!
From what my buddy told me, the basic story seems to be that someone from the USO reached out and asked The Sniper blog to take down some pictures of some USO Dallas volunteers that are pasted on the heads of scantily-clad women. Unfortunately it sounds like they didn’t come at it with the right kind of diplomacy or know their blog lingo very well when they said “please take down your blog” instead of “please delete the post,” thus starting a the legal battle that never was.
Sounds like a pretty silly thing just got blown out of proportion. The USO has always been great. I’m sure it was just a misunderstanding.
Andy, all *fairly* true.
The problem comes that they said it was at the request of the volunteer, it wasn’t. The fall back position was that the National Org told her to do it, they deny that. Then she refused to respond to five emails. She initially also sent verbal messages through the volunteer, the one she later said she was trying to protect. (That itself makes no sense.) When she said she wanted Sniper to take the whole blog down, I responded and asked if she meant just the specific posts, just the references, etc. She refused to respond. From there, it has only gotten worse. I’m still holding back on the whole story to give the USO a chance to regroup and come up with something, but they are starting to try my patience.
BTW- The volunteers in question were my wife, and the Maid of Honor at my wedding.
Give ’em a break TSO. Most of the USO folks are sweet old ladies. I’m sure you guys probably just gave the poor ‘ol gal a coronary by calling her out on her b/s.
I served 10 years and I never ever had any issues with the USO. I can understand where they are coming from, so try and be gentle … they are good peeps.
Again, it’s not the USO folks, it’s folk, singular.
In fact, when I proposed to my wife (there at the DFW USO) the two kissing grandmas (I love those ladies) are the ones who met me at my flight coming in and walked me over.
But you are right, I am trying SO very hard to be nice and gentle. But I also have to solve this, because the guy they were going after wanted me to represent him (in my capacity as a lawyer.) Which is why I am still holding back.
Wait a second, this is about the Nick SRS photoshop post? The individual in question does know that post is over a year old, and while everything on the internet is forever you have to be pretty specific in your search to even find that post right?
And that the only thing they’ve done by making a request like this at such a late date is just to draw attention to the post in question, which makes it easier to find?
Or are you dealing with someone who just got their first computer after spending twenty years living in a cave in Douchbagistan?
Who knows. Sounds like a non-issue. Next! Bigger fish!
Non issue? Someone requests to take an entire military blog down over a picture? Sounds like a big fucking deal to me. What if the request was to take down the this ain’t hell blog? Non issue? Fuck that. This needs to be resolved now.
That’s what I don’t get. My source says that nobody ever requested anyone take a whole blog down. That’s the miscommunication. The person who made the request apparently had zero cooth and didn’t even know the difference between a “post” and a “blog.”
I could be wrong, but that’s what I was told, and I respect my boy who told me that. I’m part of an online forum with him.
It was probably one of those sweet old ladies who doesn’t even know how to use a computer, trying to protect her herd.
Andy, I have the email from the lady, here are direct quotes from it:
“I/we are asking that you delete the blog and any materials that reference the USO…” Further “We are asking that you delete this blog and then there will be no further action/contact with you on this matter.”
I responded, asking if she meant the links, the references, or the entire blog. I responded 4 separate times. The lady never once responded to any of the emails.
Andy: No one is arguing about how generally and historically the USO has done a lot of good over the years and that as far as anyone knows there well could have been only one individual involved at first. That is the issue. Your information supports the idea (assuming it is accurate) that what happened initially does not represent the entire organization but certainly makes it sound as if the powers that be are either lying or choosing to believe a lie. Either way, they look bad, very bad.
The USO needs to respond to TSO’s inquiries. Now. I am heartily sick of large organizations that ignore people who confront them over (what appears to be) bad behavior.
If you replace the word “blog” for “post” it doesn’t sound as bad. Sounds like the person was just asking for the pics or the logo or whatever to be taken down. You’re a pretty powerful communicator TSO, – I bet when she got a letter from you, she was pretty intimidated or had to consult higher headquarters or something. According to what my boy tells me, half his department at the USO is former military and read The Sniper and this blog too. I bet they’ll apologize, if it was indeed a misunderstanding.
Gentlemen,
For every 9 sweet old ladies … there is at least 1 that is for sure bat shit crazy and needs some calabration.
Now having said that, lets keep our eye on the ball.
The USO is a top shelf, tier 1, class act organization … PERIOD!
TSO … Carry out the Plan of the Day!
Any questions?
Again, I agree, which is why I wrote for clarification. Seemed fairly clear cut to me.
The only problem, the one thing that alters it somewhat, is the response to the original lady was (I believe) 3 weeks ago yesterday. So I think she got worried and just responded by not responding. So I followed it up 3 more times.
I am talking to them in about an hour apparently. Believe me, I’m an easy dude on stuff, so it will be a light conversation, unless for some inexplicable reason they want to get nuts. But I expect I’ll have something positive to report tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed anyway.
Good luck man! I bet you’ll get killed with kindness and old ladies pinching your cheeks. You’ll leave with both arms full of cookies and snacks, wondering why you ever walked in there in the first place. lol.
Plus, what other kind of news could possibly be delivered on Good Friday. 😉