Lincoln Chafee quietly leaves the GOP

Wish Linc could have made a bit more noise on his way out though. Lots more behind him I would guess.

Lets see NONCOM not educated enough to write an intelligent Op-ed.

Wasn't Pat Tillman and his brother college graduates AND NONCOM's?

I am sure there are thousands of college educated NONCOM's but a college education is not the total mark of an person who can write a well written piece. It is too bad that Dave Rye is judging others thinking that NONCOM's are the dregs of the population AND shows how little he knows about the military and how members move up in the ranks.

But that Petraeus guy went to Princeton, that automatically means he's a bona fide genius. So big degrees = you're always right. But WTF do I know, I was an SSG too, and I never said "recalcitrant" either, but I gotta wonder if Dave Rye could write an entire oporder from scratch without his RH if he's so damn smart.

This Republican Rep., Rye, PROVES how insensitive, condescending, villainous, and hypocrital members of the MINORITY PARTY can be when the White House and national Republican leaders treat dissenters THE SAME WAY.

Senator McCain: "... they ought to be kicked out of the country!" (paraphrasing on his response to "MOVE-ON's BETRAY-US ad."

They are pathetic, petty, and narrow-minded.

You know, I hate Republicans like the rest of you, and I hate what Rey said, but you guys make it sound like he made this statement on television, radio or an op-ed in a newspaper. He made the stupid statement in a comment, not the main post, on a blog! Furthermore, are you sure this is the same Dave Rey?

We have better things to do with our time, people.

'Accident?' Riiiiiiiiiiight.

pol @ 10:

You know, I hate Republicans like the rest of you, and I hate what Rey said, but you guys make it sound like he made this statement on television, radio or an op-ed in a newspaper. He made the stupid statement in a comment, not the main post, on a blog! Furthermore, are you sure this is the same Dave Rey?

We have better things to do with our time, people.

as far as where the comment was made is beside the point. but, you bring up an excellent point: was the comment really made by montana state senator david rye? or just someone using the name 'dave rye'? follow the links and, as pol indicated, this comment is from a blog post by a poster named "david rye"....

suggestion: contact the office of rye and see if he made those comments. if he did, and was willing to write it on a blog using his name, he should have no problem fessing up to it...maybe...

Did I mention God's a Republican?

miss_kitty @ 12:

'Accident?' Riiiiiiiiiiight.

These accidents happen all the time because our troops have to fly down the road to avoid being hit by a roadside bomb.

The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness

If this was a crime show ... Columbo would have definitively ruled out a 911 conspiracy and caught Osama ... Or Colonel Mustard in the kitchen. Gotta get a Clue!

Numinous @ 9:

Does anyone think it's strange that nearly half the people who wrote that editorial criticizing the war died within days of writing it?

This reminds me of what happened to Pat Tillman, except that it's even more blatantly suspicious.

If this was a crime show, I would be calling for Colombo to hunt down the murderers.

Its not in the interests of the Media to cover such mundane things as yesterdays war protests. It disrupts the status quo.

miss_kitty @ 23:

xoites defends Constitution @ 18:

miss_kitty @ 12:

'Accident?' Riiiiiiiiiiight.

These accidents happen all the time because our troops have to fly down the road to avoid being hit by a roadside bomb.

The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness

Well, how convenient for the freshly criticised US Military. The organisation is a pussy.

I think the danger of being in Iraq as a US soldier or anyone else has been clearly demonstrated.

3,781 US dead so far.

So Conservatives believe that our soldiers are dumb? Of course they do. They think the smart guys are the draft dodgers in the Whitehouse who send the dumb guys off to war to get killed.

Dave Rye can go to Hell. The war lets him feel "butch". There isn't enough room in Hell for all these repub chickenhawks

If you think about it their deaths have just placed more attention on what they said in the op-ed piece. I am unwilling to look for a conspiracy under each and every rock in the quarry.

Me either. my first comments were sarcasm; my last, i think distills the situation perfectly-It was no accident. none of the Iraq deaths are accidents.

miss_kitty @ 30:

If you think about it their deaths have just placed more attention on what they said in the op-ed piece. I am unwilling to look for a conspiracy under each and every rock in the quarry.

Me either. my first comments were sarcasm; my last, i think distills the situation perfectly-It was no accident. none of the Iraq deaths are accidents.

Oh, ok. My bad.

I totally agree with Pol. What was the point of posting this? Some random guy (maybe a broadcaster, but not, so far as I could tell, a politician) made a dumb comment. Why does this deserve a spot on this site?

I think reasoned political debate is incredibly important to a functioning Democracy, and I generally enjoy this site because it catches things that are missed by other sources of news and talks about them. Yes, it occasionally plays to my anger and frustration at the current administration and the talking heads of network news, but that seems healthy. This article, on the other hand, seems straight out of the FOX News playbook; pick an example of some guy shooting his mouth off, get all worked up about it, and then talk about how it represents all people with similar political beliefs everywhere.

Trying to stir up hatred of the other side for their supposedly unpatriotic beliefs based on someone who does not represent that side is completely antithetical to reasoned debate and will NOT help to bring about the type of changes to our current political climate that I, or presumably others who are reading this blog, want. Let's cut it out. In fact, I think hatred of the side is - in general - counter-productive. Hatred of the ideas and hatred of the actions, I can understand, but hating people - that's not something I think we should ever do*.

I don't know who Dave Rye really is, and I think he shouldn't underestimate the intelligence of staff sergeants from Montana, but I don't hate him. Nor do I think that makes him unpatriotic or not supporting our troops to write that. It just makes him a guy who wrote something that wasn't well considered, was insensitive to the context that a soldier had just been killed, and was kinda dumb thing to write. Let's acknowledge that, but cut him some slack so that others might cut us some slack when a random liberal says something dumb (not that that would ever happen).

Charlie

P.S. Post #2.
P.P.S. *Karl Rove and Jerry Falwell may get a pass here. I may add others at any time.

Quote from the Northern Broadcasting Systems website

A consummate news professional, Dave Rye will go to any length to get both sides of a story, and his balanced presentation of the facts has been his hallmark. As evidence of this, Dave twice won the Montana Broadcasters Association award as “TV Broadcaster of the Year,” and has also won the MBA “Radio Program of the Year” award." Don't see him doing the other side of the story about a "President who can't be bothered to finish his tour in the Texas Air National Guard."

I have been told by a SOLDIER that when any soldier speaks out against BUSH'S WAR; he gets sent back and fragged.

F R A G G E D

I think this happened to these soldiers.

May their families find healing and know that a greatful liberal nation mourns their deaths as well as the republicans do.

Loving your people and appreciating those that are doing their best is NOT a partisan activity. Neither is religious belief.

My condolences to the friends and families.

When I have time, I'd like to sit down and figure out the probability that those 3 all died in that timeframe given the number of soldiers dying per day in each area of the country, etc. That would be an interesting number.

QUOTE: Pardon my skepticism, and certainly no disrespect for the dead Montana soldier, but in my time in the Army I never heard such a word as “recalcitrant” escape the lips of any Staff Sergeant.

That's because your NCO's knew you couldn't understand big words.

There is no doubt Pat Tillman was executed. These troops need to stick together to repeal stop loss and let the die heart republican send thier kids to dye for thier precious minerals.

Just what is with these Republicans that keep the hoof in mouth all the time.
T. Snow - fallen soldiers "they are only a number".
"Small sacrifice by John Boehner about killed soldiers.
Soldier must have had help writing article, ie too dumb to write it himself. Good Grief !!!

obviously, this is the bush/cheney and the gop guelle discent in the war arena. they can get away with killing. here with bush's phoney patriot act, he just makes the discenters disappear as enemy combattants. bush and the entire gop administration are a blithe and disgrace to the U S citizens, our Constitution and to Humanity.

they treat the men/troops they send over for an illegal war as fodder. if in fact these brave troops are not as intelligent as bush and the gop imply, then they should not have been sent/used to iraq or any war theatre. the abject incompetence of bush and the gop is reducing the United States to less than a third world country.

I posted last week on Nicole's open thread about these tragic deaths. I defined the odds of any individual dying in Iraq in a month based on 165,000 soldiers facing 60 deaths a month. 60/165,000x100=.036%. or about 300:1. Although the two NCOs died in the same incident a third contributor to the NYT op-ed was the victim of a sniper prior to this incident. His head wound was said to be life threatening and I can confidently say our sincerest hopes for a full recovery comes from all of us.
Is there a statistical analysis we could apply to these two incidents resullting in two deaths? 165,000 soldiers, 7 guys, 2 incidents, resulting in 2 deaths in a month?
Provacateurs need not reply.

Disrespect taken and understood! @ 42:

QUOTE: Pardon my skepticism, and certainly no disrespect for the dead Montana soldier, but in my time in the Army I never heard such a word as “recalcitrant” escape the lips of any Staff Sergeant.

That's because your NCO's knew you couldn't understand big words.

News flash, sometimes when people submit a piece of literature that may be read by tens of thousands of people they may ask for editorial help. I am some of you has at some point had an essay proof read, or checked by an editor or friend who is a better writter.

I am sure the irony of it all must have escaped this GOP prick as he submitted a draft for his manuscript to be proof read and typed by the poor intern d'jour whose only use for his degree in English is to write other people's work.

What an unmitigated POS.

Oooooooops - that's a big word . . . but you can find it in the dictionary- do you want me to spell that for you?

Or are you too busy staking out the moral high ground by slandering dead soldiers?
*

Numinous @ 9:

Does anyone think it's strange that nearly half the people who wrote that editorial criticizing the war died within days of writing it?

This reminds me of what happened to Pat Tillman, except that it's even more blatantly suspicious.

If this was a crime show, I would be calling for Colombo to hunt down the murderers.

My thoughts exactly. By a show of hands, who thinks their deaths were just a coincidence?

Rye's statement kind of brings to mind Senator Kerry's gaff about the intelligence of the troops. I guess the Republicans actually believe the troops are dumb. I wonder if they will attack themselves with equal passion for that appalling statement.

This is another Pat Tillman incident.

I haven't read the comments above...just scrolled down...and posted my thoughts.

Is there any level below which Bush and his fucking killer morons won't sink?

If you click on David Rye's name at Think Progress he appears to be a broadcaster, not a Senator.

seth @ 40:

When I have time, I'd like to sit down and figure out the probability that those 3 all died in that timeframe given the number of soldiers dying per day in each area of the country, etc. That would be an interesting number.

Seth's comment is what I was thinking--I wonder how many of the 3000+ deaths were from overturned vehicles. And, why did the vehicle overturn? Was there a maintenance issue, such as a loose wheel, or was it reasonable to think that it would overturn given the conditions at the time? I nominate Chuck Hagel to investigate.

Sam @ 65:

gonzalez @ 61:

Speaking of intelligent - has anyone ever seen an intelligent conservative? I haven't.

William F. Buckley, James Burnham, George Will, Ben Stein, Bill Kristol, Irving Kristol, Edward Lutwack, L. Brent Bozell Jr., Edward Teller, Frank Meyer, Ludwig Von Mises, and several folks at AEI and Heritage, etc.

I don't agree with the politics of any of these guys, living or dead, but to equate political differences with lack of intelligence is not only foolish, but perilous.

The fact that you even consider Bill Kristol -- Quaile's brain-- as an example of an intelligence demonstrates that if someone is a fool here, that is you.

AEI and Heritage are cesspools of reactionary drivel that have been wrong on almost every issue their disingenuous studies (which for the most part can't stand peer review tests) have analyzed.

Frank Meyer was at some point a rich Jewish boy who after experimenting with Communism decided that he was more comfortable advocating for libertarian ideals of "I got mine, now fuck you!" He was the adviser to Buckley who thought it was a great idea to say publicly that Lincoln was the worst president in US history and that the GOP should disavow any relationship with anything the GOP stood for until past Roosevelt.

Ben Stein was an adviser to Nixon who basically said that the president was above the law so everyone should just shut the fuck up. He made a career out of saying "Bueller, Bueller..." and look like a total fucking nerd. I guess teaching some stupid subject at a 2end tier party school must be quite the academic accomplishment, eh?

So yeah, great group of luminaries you got there. Either total dumb asses or complete rotten individuals on that list.

At some point, there were some decent conservatives. Eisenhower for example, was such a smart guy that shaw where the GOP was going and ran for president as a republican because he was more afraid of the other GOP candidates (Nixon) reaching the presidency than any of the Democrats. So he decided that the best way of neutralizing the radicalization of the GOP --at least temporally-- was to leverage his fame and accomplishments and run as a Republican.

I wonder if they were bumped off by being "accidented"?

Pat Tillman anyone? This pretend administration does have a known track record of assassinating soldiers who don''t tote the GOP line.

It's more proof that totally ignornant and hateful Repuke party never did give a smelly shit for any of our troops who are fighting and losing their lives for their complete lies.

One could make the same claim of you 'Senator' David Rye.... I.E. that you are not competent enough to hold the political position you hold in that state... Given your callous attitude toward a fallen soldier of your state who had the guts to state a plain truth before he passed, one is left to wonder just how you managed to win election in Montana... Just how many loyal GOPer Craig types did you have to suck off mister, how many rich GOPer money people did you have to buy off? With those comments and statements, you have rendered yourself a disgrace to that state and its voters 'Senator' Rye..........JD

Republican thoughts on fallen soldiers:

1) Traitors seek to make the preznit look bad

2) Dead soldiers make the president look bad

Therefore....

3) Dead soldiers are traitors

Isn't being a wingnut fun?