The Salute to Heroes dust up [Jonn]
For those of you who are still interested, the post I wrote the other day about the President skipping out on the historical Salute to Heroes Inaugural Banquet & Ball took on a life of it’s own. We got linked to more than 50 other blogs because of the single link I put on Little Green Football’s Link Viewer. Those 50 blogs were little ones and HUGE ones.
The first guy to pick up on the post was Mr Wolf at Blackfive who also wrote about it at Pajama Media from there it took on a life of it’s own (about 300,000 hits here in two days). On a story I sat on for 18 hours while I decided whether to post it or not.
Before I posted it, we were actually getting hits from search engines that were asking if President Obama had attended the Ball based on TSO’s first post of that day about his stalking of MOH recipients – so folks were wondering. Finally I decided to run with it.
Immediately, the first wave of believers applauded, the second wave was the unbelievers. They fanned out across the internet and attacked the story wherever it popped up. Some leftist bloggers accused us of deleting comments (not realizing that I don’t sit here 24 hours every day monitoring the spam and spam-like comments) then the doubters did their superficial Google searches and determined 1) the ball was canceled so we were lying, or 2) the ball was merged with another one so we were lying, or 3) Obama did come to the ball so we were lying, or 4) so what?
First thing Thursday morning, the American Legion put up an article about another ball. The VFW took down their article about the Ball. This only confounded me because I was trying to prove it actually happened the way I reported it. So my only alternative was to point people to the hotel to prove it had indeed happened. Unfortunately there are two hotels with the same name a few blocks apart and I pointed people to the wrong one – further confounding the process.
In the interim, other bloggers were dealing with the unbelieving trolls. Finally, I got a frustrated email from Mr Wolf this morning. Eventually, he called the American Legion and he’s now updated his post at both Blackfive and Pajamas Media with what he gleaned from the good folks in the PR office at the Legion.
Here on this blog, I finally got the right hotel and the right phone number at about the same time as a reader David Bell posted his own email from the Legion. The thread at Little Green Footballs grew to over a 1000 comments, and our thread is over 300 comments long. At PJM, someone even called us the “Scott Thomas Beauchamp of the Right”. Well, I don’t see any apologies from the doubters, so I won’t apologize for my missteps. In fact, the doubters have all fled.
My regular readers know the extent I will go to for the truth, and newer visitors might not, so I forgive them for doubting me this time. There’s a real interesting story behind all of this confusion that I can’t relate right now. Maybe if you get me drunk at the April get-together.
But, it demonstrates what we’re in for every time we post something that makes Obama look bad, even if it’s true. And as big a story as this was on the internet, the MSM still hasn’t picked it up. So we have the responsibility to post nothing but the truth and to have a defense lined up before we hit that “send” button.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Bloggers, Liberals suck, Media, Politics
I particularly liked the alleged military supporting Ginnypub’s blog that accused me of lying and putting Conservatives in a bad light. With friends like that….
Not one person doubting me could pick up the phone and call the hotel and/or failing that call the American Legion PR office in DC? Not one of you? And I get called a liar? What about the pictures at flicker? What about other people who piped in claiming to be there, including a MOH recipient? Were they lying? Or was I engaging in Glenn Greenwaldian sock-puppetry?
Very pissed. Actually shaking mad. My PTSD right now is OFF THE CHARTS. Last night I woke up vomitting twice and I have screeching abdomen pains, so I probably gave myself a ulcer. And why? Not the liberal trolls. It’s the so called friends like Ginny that were too God Damned lazy to pick up the phone.
Since there are SO many more of ‘them’ than ‘us’ it’s always going to be an uphill battle.
But, I so love a good challenge…
And Jonn- don’t worry about the ‘missteps’. Made a few of my own today trying to update all of this with, as you point out, the truth.
It is sad, tho, that so many are fearful of it…
Mr Wolf
“My PTSD right now is OFF THE CHARTS….”
Aha…an obvious explanation of the hallucinations you’ve had regarding the so-called Salute to Heroes Ball you “attended” with your imaginary friend, Barney!
Jonn wrote: Careful. I know who you are, but some of our readers might think you’re serious. Thanks, by the way.
For the record — I was being sarcastic — or is it sardonic?
Jonn wrote: You’d better tell TSO – he’s headed to your office right now.
But, it demonstrates what we’re in for every time we post something that makes Obama look bad, even if it’s true.
I’ve had similar events occur on RochesterConservative with posts that criticized Zero, although not the volume that you got! Obama truly has a cult of personality built around him and his followers are like the brown shirts (actually, they are digital brown shirts) in Hitler’s era. You know what though, I don’t care what Obama’s brown shirts try to do. We need to stand up to their thuggery. The lesson my Dad taught me about bullies is to stand up to them.
Those who know the truth, know!! Facts don’t matter to them.
Jonn, noted wight wing website is still running the lie that there was a ball. You know, since our liberals (and some conservatives) are claiming it didn’t. Can you do an update and cite to this warmonger:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/obamablogger/gGxHPx
Yeah, you guys created a huge storm in the blogosphere :o)
The good thing, like the actual aqua storms, the waves pulled up all that floatsome and other brown substances that do not sink, so we know who they are and how they operate :o)
Jonn, you have such great patience, I admire you for that.
TSO, please feel better soon
Dunno about any missteps, but I’ll accept that they happened.
They appear to have had little to do with the basic facts, but it’s good to air them anyway. Others don’t trouble themselves with such trivialities.
Jonn: Well done so far as the hit counter thing. The number of comments doesn’t interest me much. After one attempt at sarcasm the number of trolls ran me off. There was room for just a bit of confusion as it turns out, but a troll is a troll.
TSO: Not for a second did I doubt the veracity of your post. Had this been about other things, well… I did wonder if you own that tux or if it was a rental? And isn’t there a formal kilt get-up hidden in your closet?
Congrats to TSO and Jonn. What distinguishes this story from the vast majority of articles we read on blogs is that this one was reporting and not re-reporting.
You guys do a good job.
Okay break is over, get back to work!
ponsdorf,
As I understand it, TSO’s tux wasn’t exactly a “rental”, so to speak. Word was that he had to have it cleaned and returned to the funeral home before the next viewing 🙂 snark snark snark..
Seriously, though, the moonbats are like maggots on a dead cat. They just crawl around eating long-dead crap, and then turn into flies before buzzing off. They’re certainly known best for refusing to allow facts to get in the way of their storyline.
Respects,
“Not one person doubting me could pick up the phone and call the hotel and/or failing that call the American Legion PR office in DC?”
————————————–
Which points up the fact that you could have easily done both these things before posting your piece, or at least upon realizing there was some controversy.
Instead you blame those who asked you to back up your claim.
Jonn wrote: Please. For one thing, you don’t know the back story. We had all of our bases covered until we got thrown under the bus. And, since we presented the story, and some of you had doubts, you should have checked them out for yourselves instead of demanding we do your work for you. It wasn’t a “claim” it was the truth. So prove us wrong instead of sitting there running your mouth waiting to be spoon fed. You have the same resources we have. Have you even called the hotel yet? Nope, you waited for someone to drop some pre-chewed worm in your mouth.
I wish the Goddammned American Legion would confirm this, so it isnt accused of being a Hoax.
A Simple blurb on their website would save a lot of ageda for people.
AW1 Tim said: Word was that he had to have it cleaned and returned to the funeral home before the next viewing.
Damn… wish I’d said that!
Accusing TSO & Jonn to be liars just because the story didn’t show up in a google search is both irresponsible and shameful. I guess the world isn’t as “wired” as some people seem to think it is.
It gives me pause to think a gathering of our Medal of Honor recipients attended by the Vice President isn’t considered to be even worth a mention in the MSM.
As a matter of fact Jonn, I did the obvious thing and called the American Legion this morning. Then I logged on and saw that the various websites were posting the Legion’s response.
I understand that you didn’t anticipate the response or the questions that came up. But once they came up, it would have been an easy matter to provide verification yourself rather than insult those who asked the questions.
Jonn wrote: And how could I provide verification? By copying an email to the comments? And then be accused of writing it myself? The only way it could be verified was by individuals checking for themselves. I didn’t get insulting until it became clear to me that you all wanted to be spoon fed individually – that no one was going to take the baby step required. It was much easier to call me a liar than it was to make a simple phone call.
I’m a guy like you with a real job that pays the bills – and I pay for this bandwidth that ya’all used to insult me and TSO for the last three days. When you guys start hitting the tip jar when you want me to hold your hand, maybe I won’t be such an asshole. (But I wouldn’t count on it)
Skylark- NO CHANCE that would have done anything, we would have been accused of faking the email.
Christ, they didn’t believe my picture from there, why would they buy anything?
Whether you consider it a snub or not is up to you, but after all is said and done, the fact that President Obama skipped the ball is now “out there” thanks to the efforts of TSO.
If someone wants to go the extra mile and fact check the entire history of this event to confirm that every other President did attend, good luck. I’ll take his word for it.
Thanks again for posting!
Jonn and TSO, sorry but I think that saying people wouldn’t believe a posted e-mail is a pretty flimsy defense.
Yes, it must be difficult to see people talk to you this way on bandwidth you’re paying for, but you ARE the ones who brought up the topic.
Jonn wrote: fknrkhd
THEY DIDN’T BELIEVE PICTURES, A MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT AND 4 OTHER PEOPLE PRESENT THAT COMMENTED HERE, WHY WOULD THEY BELIEVE AN EMAIL?
Especially given that anyone could have called at any time?
Its not a defense. What I said happened. People accused me of lying. I have been vindicated, and they have disappeared (except you, who is blaming the victim here, to wit, ME.)
Uhm, you notice the questions pretty much stopped (also known as people “disappearing”) when the Legion e-mail got posted?
skylark,
I can’t find any evidence on Google that you’ve not buggering puppies…again?
Skylark, they only dried up because WE didn’t post it.
I get the feeling that this is the tip of the iceberg for milbloggers in the next 4 years.
TAH has documented about a dozen phony soldiers in just the few months I have been reading them, all of whom have made outrageous claims against President Bush. How many of them have been officially reprimanded or disciplined for doing so?
Keep your eyes and ears open in the next few years to see how many milbloggers are disciplined or shut down for being critical of President Obama.
Gauging by the response to John and TSO’s posts, I’d say it will be a long four years.
Skylark is the perfect example of someone who will argue a point far beyond its logical conclusion. Jonn, TSO and others have presented solid defenses, and yet it’s not enough.
Skylark is the new Melvin Frohicke.
My compliments on your blog Jonn and TSO. I have posted links to your posts as must reads on my blog on my Saturday Open Thread and have added you my blogroll and favorites. You cover things well, and do a great job, so don’t let a bunch of liberal freaks who have not logic comprehension get under your skin. Thanks for the wonderful posts and the great blogging.
Adult beverages for Jonn by a pool somewhere WAY south of DC and adult beverages for TSO in a pub somewhere WAY TOO CLOSE to DC. Yep, I see that happening in the near future and know they are WELL DESERVED for both after all of this horse poop the crazies have dragged them through.
Love you guys and SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO appreciate this blog.
I’m planning on attending this years conference (crossing fingers) so I expect to hear the behind the scenes story!
Skylark appears to be another of the idiots in the village. Was it any more clear, or am I John F-in Carry stoopid? Nope, didn’t think it was me.
Jonn and TSO,
FWIW, I called the second you posted it, because I was at the ready. None of it mattered, however, because you are right. The trolls would not have believed it. C’est la vie, there will be more of this sheisse in the future.
So, take it one freak at a time and smack down PRN.
I posted this story at 9:10 AM Friday after discovering around 6 AM a Newsvine seed to your original blog post “Obama Blows Off Medal of Honor Recipients.” I did not believe that he would “blow them off” so I went straight to the people that should know, the American Legion, and posted their official response in its entirety.
As for you bemoaning the negative response you received, titling the piece “Obama Blows Off Medal Of Honor Recipients” sent military members, veterans or family members of families that have served for generations into a rage (if they did not like Obama already) or disbelief (if they were Obama supporters like I am). It also sent non-military Obama supporters into a rage. So, because of your title, military people that did not like Obama attacked him as viciously as Obama supporters that are not military people attacked you. It comes with the territory of choosing an inflammatory title that gets people’s attention.
Jonn wrote: Yeah, like I said, you know nothing about this. When I wrote “blows off” it’s exactly like I meant it. The backstory to this whole episode is a bigger story than the President skipping a Ball.
[…] The Salute to Heroes dust up – This ain’t Hell […]
Keep up the great work Jonn.
Dave Thul posted:
Keep your eyes and ears open in the next few years to see how many milbloggers are disciplined or shut down for being critical of President Obama.
Gauging by the response to John and TSO’s posts, I’d say it will be a long four years.
We need to keep the pressure on the “One” and report on his hypocrisy. I plan on doing on my blog and I know Jonn, TSO and COB6 will do the same.
We all know that Jonn hit a raw nerve with this report. Obama loathes the military and veterans, people. He’s a radical socialist that never worked a real job in his entire life. He never served and I bet he never even fired a gun in his life because he’s scared of guns…