Fact-checking the wrong people
Chief Tango sent us a link to an article by Jason Noble at the Des Moines Register entitled “Explainer: A closer look at Joni Ernst’s military credentials” which of course, looks into the Iowa Senator’s military claims. It’s obvious to me, from reading the article that Noble was looking for an excuse to question Ms. Ernst’s military service, but that he was unable to do that without looking like a moron.
This comes a week after reading boneheaded fact checking articles in the New York Times about how Tim Scott Walker can’t be the President because he’s allergic to dogs. Also, the media spent their time fact-checking whether Walker really did buy a sweater at Kohl’s for $1.
Seriously? We’ve just suffered through the Presidency of a man whose only qualification for the job was that he would be the first not-completely White-skinned president. The media spent not a moment looking into President Obama’s background, not his education records, not his legislative background, or even a moment’s discussion of his leadership potential. But, we’re going to get wrapped around a candidates allergies and bargain-hunting capabilities. And we’re going to dissect a candidate’s military records. Civilians with absolutely no military experience think they can use military service against a rare veteran who is a politician.
Since Noble couldn’t find anything in her service to use against her, he questions whether or not she can concurrently serve in Congress and the National Guard. Funny, but I don’t remember that discussion about Tammy Duckworth, the Democrat Congresswoman who served concurrently in Congress and the Illinois National Guard as a Lieutenant Colonel.
But, hey, you folks in the media keep trying to convince us that you don’t have any political biases.
The only thing that I learned from the Register article is that Senator Ernst is so tiny. I never knew that.
Category: Media
Well, there’s precedent that seems to say Members of Congress can indeed serve in the Reserve Components. As I recall, a guy named Goldwater retired as either an ARNG or USAR Major General.
Steve Buyer is another more recent example.
Lindsey Graham is, or at least was, a USAF Reserve JAG at one time.
Sen. Scott Brown of MA is another recent example, serving as USAR JAG while a sitting US Senator as well as while he was a State Senator. Recently retired as a LCol.
Brown was a member of the Army National Guard, fist in Massachusetts, then Maryland. He left the Massachusetts ARNG for Maryland after winning the MA Senatorial seat. The at the time left wing Adjutant General of Massachusetts, working for the left wing Governor, started playing all kinds of games with Brown’s board records and personnel actions in hopes that he wouldn’t be selected for colonel and get the boot. He transferred to Maryland to put an end to the Massachusetts National Guard political machine’s screwing with him. He was promoted to colonel before his retirement.
LBJ served in the reserves and Congress during WWII until Roosevelt recalled all the Congress serving overseas because the work of the government had to get done.
Maybe this is the guy who will finally get us some answers about sKerry’s military service. (No, I will not be holding my breath anticipating such a silly thing from a media hypcrite.)
Lindsey Graham is still a Colonel in the Air Force Reserves. There is nothing wrong with it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsey_Graham
Maybe they should spend their time fact checking company’s like All-Points logistics to help curb government waste and abuse and the expense of fraud and misrepresentation.
No shit!
Who is this Tim Walker you speak of?
Tiny Tim? You know the guy. Shows up around Christmas every year, walks with a limp?
I know a lot of posers that fit that profile.
There is a long list of NG officers who are serving in the NG while in Congress. A quick search shows: COL Scott Brown, R-Mass.; CPT Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii; BG Scott Perry, R-Pa.; Maj. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.; SGT Steven M. Palazzo, R-Miss.; COL Steve Stivers, R-Ohio.
Good luck with trying to find the law that prevents it, asshat.
It’s Scott Walker. Of course not having read the source material, they probably fu@Ked up his name along with everything else.
Who is actually waging a war on women?
The left seems quite prepared to be the insulting, idiotic little pricks they actually are when it comes to belittling any female they can’t stand, but are quite offended when anyone makes fun of a known liar like Lizzie Warren.
So questioning Ernst’s service is an acceptable form of behavior for a non-military douche with zero military experience, but questioning Obama’s lack of experience as a freshman senator with zero executive ability, zero foreign policy experience and a whopping four pieces of sole authorship of legislation of the “John Smith Recognition Day” is inherently racist…news flash dickheads I think Cruz is unqualified for the very same reasons, zero fucking experience as a freshman senator…
It’s a corollary to the engagement plan that they perform on non-Caucasian males who run for office as Republicans.
Look at how they treated Steele, Herman Cain, Colonel West, and most recently, Dr. Ben Carson.
What do you expect from them, VOV?
Fairness? Lack of bias? Judging someone by her abilities?
You are such a daydreamer.
Why do you think they went after Michelle Bachman the way they did? It wasn’t because she said or did anything wrong. It was because she was (dare I say it) a GOPer.
The Des Moines Register is a far left rag that couldn’t say enough good things about ex-Senator Harkin and his derring-do in Vietnam. There aren’t enough bad words in the English dictionary to describe that “newspaper”.
Senator Ernst is strongly opposed by the Left in Iowa. In the interest of disclosure, my daughter lives in Des Moines and she doesn’t like Joni Ernst at all. When she turned 13, she didn’t listen to anything I said. That hasn’t changed much in the last 20 years or so. The article’s author cites a 2009 legal note written by a fellow named Shaw. Here is a link to it. http://georgetown.lawreviewnetwork.com/files/pdf/97-6/ShawFinal.PDF It is interesting reading. I think that Mr. Shaw does a good job arguing that the Constitution of the United States says that it is incompatible for Congressmen and Senators to also be reserve or active duty military officers. At any one time you may be one or the other, but not both. I am not taking the position that Mr. Shaw is right only that he does a decent job of making the case. If you decide to read the document, be sure to read the footnote about precedents, he uses the word in a colloquial way instead of a technical way – sort of cute in that setting. Senator Lindsey Graham is mentioned in the Note. “In United States v. Lane, the Armed Forces Court of Appeals concluded that Senator Lindsay Graham’s appointment to the Air Force Court of Appeals violated the Incompatibility Clause. The court concluded that a judge on the Air Force Court of Appeals was an “officer under the United States” because of the significant authority he possesses. The court specifically reserved the question of whether the Incompatibility Clause was also violated by Senator Graham’s status as a reserve officer.” While we are all pounding our chest and proclaiming that military officers are above corruption, I started to think about Douglas MacArthur. I recall that he lost his way and then faded away. It is important to note that no court has ever ruled on exactly that question so this is all a lot of talk. And for what its worth I agree with Jonn. The author of the article has an obvious bias. Aside from the obvious stuff he says that Shaw… Read more »
But it’s OK for lawyers (officers of the court) to serve in Congress, essentially making business for themselves by writing laws they are not only exempt from, but will make money explaining to and defending their clients. A big hole in the intention to have separation of powers.
Not to mention a conflict of interest
In Shaw’s Note, he talks about that, I found this quote:
“This reasoning above applies with equal force to Bork’s point that reservists
on congressional committees with oversight of the military pose no more threat than lawyers on committees with oversight of the judiciary. He may be
right, but there is no law that limits congressmen from also being lawyers.
There is a law that limits congressmen from being military officers. The law is
what matters.”
Again, I prefer our Senators to have military service but there is this annoying Constitutional question. If we want to avoid surprises, we should probably address it. BTW, Senator Ernst can avoid the issue by resigning her commission. There is no case law and the Supreme Court avoided ruling on the question. An adverse ruling would not make Ernst a criminal and she could address the concern with a letter. I think that it is still waters and some jerk is throwing rocks.
I think the work around for National Guard officers (not sure about Reserve officers) is that they are officers appointed by the state/governor who’s commissions are ‘recognized’ by the federal government.
Hence, waiting for federal recognition before promotions are legal.
The “workaround” seems to be that Reserve and NG officers who are not on active duty are not officers of the United States. The courts and congress both seem to be perfectly happy with the current situation. Barry Goldwater tried to get Congress to address this, no good. When the Lindsay Graham case came up, the court could have ruled on this point (I think, I’m no lawyer) but did not.
In my opinion bringing it up is pot-stirring – this is not a legitimate problem that needs to be fixed. If Joni Ernst is not in uniform and not speaking on behalf of the military or the government, she is good. Pot-stirring is what newspapers do so they are right in their sweet spot.
If you read the Shaw article, you can see that, from constitutional perspective, this is not simple.
Richard,
Considering that you are posting here, and what you say about your daughter, I’m thinking that a reading of your will (after you die, natch) should prove VERY interesting.
The only things that I have that she might want relate to making beer and wine. Last week I bribed her with 3 glass carboys, three Cornys, two CO2 bottles and hardware, and six cases of wine bottles. I hope that I am safe.
If additional insurance is required, I have more wine bottles and carboys.
I don’t know how she turned out like this. I’m thinking “unfortunate mutation”. She agrees but she thinks that I was the unfortunate one. We mostly get along but we avoid talking about politics which is great because she is a complete moron about politics. She feels the same (that I am a complete moron about politics) so we’re good.
Well, I’m biased and opinionated myself.
Scott Walker is allergic to dogs? How did they get that piece of info and what the hell does it have to do with his being governor of Wisconsin? I’m allergic to idiots who do these things, y’know.
Duckworth is running for Senate again, now that she’s had her baby, just in case anyone wanted to know.
As for short people, it is hardly fair to pair a petite person with two people who are obviously suffering from raging bouts with growth hormones. I have lots of short jokes I could offer here.
So basically, the write of the article can’t really find anything wrong but spent all that time looking and wanted to get paid for what he did. What a maroon!
Damn…she is tiny. Seriously…the Army’s minimum height limits for females is 4′ 10″. Since she is an Officer I’m sure she got a waiver. I’m wondering by how much.
On the other hand size is all about perspective. Anyone consider the guy on the left is maybe 74″ and the guy on the right is a moose? I’m 71″ and my last S-3 made me look like a Munchkin.
True story. In ’78 when I was in the former FRG we got a new guy who was so short when he carried his duffle bag using the shoulder straps it just looked like a duffle with feet from the back. We told him he could pull maintenance under the track because he could just walk under instead of low crawling. Sorry, dude. We were so insensitive back then…
Quick internet search shows nothing on her height. One of my platoon members at Ft. Bliss was almost 6’5″, and next to him I suspect I looked as short or shorter than Ms. Ernst. I would add salaciously that she looks to be just the right size, but I read that her husband is a retired Ranger CSM… don’t need to be insulting married ladies now.
I think that instead of fact-checking the stories, we need to be fact checking the “reporters”, similar to what the WaPo does, one through four Pinocchios.
Joni Ernst’s husband and I talk regularly on Facebook. I am going to enlighten him to the existence of this post. Hopefully he will come here and explain her height and possibly have a word or two to say about the Paper and its writer.
Joni Ernst’s husband just commented to me that:
“Frankie, she is 5′ 2″ tall…and tough as woodpecker lips!”
Joni’s husband just added:
“He probably found that picture on the internet. Looks like it was taken while she was deployed.”
Yes, Libs, deployed. She has been downrange for the country, how about you?
I did a little arithmetic with the picture. If she is 62″ tall then it appears to me that the guy on the right is 79 or 80 inches tall – between 6′ 7″ to 6′ 8″ tall.
I measured both of them from the heel to the top of the helmet. In the picture I made, she is 5.25 inches tall. Her height of 62 inches divided by 5.25 picture height equals 11.8 inches. So one inch of picture height equals 11.8 inches of her real height. In the picture the guy on the right is 6.75 inches tall. 6.75 times 11.8 = 79.7 inches real height. I assumed that her helmet and his helmet were the same distance above the tops of their respective heads.
No disrespect intended but the guy is a giraffe. Is there enough room in a Hummer for that guy to sit down without having his head stick out the top? I’m thinking “Point and shoot”. Just mount the gun on his helmet and give him a cord with pulleys to fire the weapon.
I love the lib on the Facebook posting calling us the “racist” thingy !!!
You can tell how badly they are being swamped by listening to them squeal like hogs at a castration party !!!
To say that there is a conflict of interest with someone serving while on active NG or Reserve status is just plain bogus.
At least we know that when they go for their weekend duty they will be accountable to someone other than themselves.
With all of them, except Russ Feingold who filed for bankruptcy a few years ago, have become multimillionaires by using their positions when trading stocks, seeking employment following a loss at the ballot box or just plain old pay to play schemes.
That is a much larger problem than any military service…
Personally, I think Ann Coulter was on to something when she said all reporters who called people dumb, etc, should have to post their GPA, SAT scores, etc., in their bylines.
She looks to be about 5′ 4″, but it’s hard to say with Goliath on the right. He’s huge.
I remember the media feeding frenzy that happened against Rush Limbaugh when he accurately pointed folks like Jesse MacBeth out as a phony Soldiers. Jesse MacBeth, an OSUT/BCT washout, was someone that they could showcase… how dare others question him, or others like him… 🙄
Had googled her height when I saw Frankie Cee’s comment.
I did find something else which I thought y’all might enjoy: Joni Ernst: 21 Things You Didn’t Know About Her.
Among other goodies: “4. During her college years she also volunteered at a safehouse for battered and abused women and children in Ames….” But #WarOnWimmen and stuff, don’tcha know. Sheesh.
!. Joni Ernst is a Woman.
2. Joni Ernst is a War Veteran.
3. Joni Ernst has deployed in harm’s way.
4. Joni Ernst is a Conservative Republican.
In the eyes of toady’s sniveling liberal lackeys that infest today’s liberal media propaganda outlets, fact #4 automatically tags and labels her as an “Evil right-wing racist, homophobic, islamophobe, minority-hating…”
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is why we ALL need to HAVE ALL LIBERALS SPAYED OR NEUTERED!!