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Bill O'Reilly must really being feeling guilty subconsciously over the death of Dr. Tiller. But he's also looking to blame somebody else for his behavior and that somebody is NBC news. He is one sick person. He has the audacity to use the murder of our military recruiter named Private Long to his own advantage -- as did Malkin -- to try and convince his audience that he did nothing wrong in his vile behavior towards the late Dr. Tiller. The old faux comparison if I ever saw one. Has he no shame?

Last night on The Factor, BillO took up half his show trying to defend himself and used his favorite conservative professor, Brian Russell, to do so, as well as his favorite stooge, Juan Williams.

In his talking points he was upset that NBC was blaming him for Tiller's death so now tried to fake out the audience by saying that since NBC covers torture and the debate over closing Gitmo, they helped drive Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad over the edge to commit this atrocity.

O'Reilly: ..so here's my question. Is NBC complicit in the murder of Private Long? After all, that network has relentlessly branded America a torture nation. A nation run by human rights's violators. Didn't NBC news incite Mr. Muhammad to kill the soldier? The answer is no. The killer is a loon. The media had nothing to do with it. That is the truth. However, Private Long's situation will not be heavily debated on NBC News Because they're not much interested in the truth. Brian Williams is a big problem here. Last night as managing editor of the Nightly News, he allowed a correspondent to highlight me as a villain in the Tiller situation. Williams takes his orders directly from NBC President Jeff Zucker, who is a committed liberal, who has completely ruined the news operation, turning it into the most far left outfit in the history of broadcasting....

Psych out. He didn't mean it. Hey, Bill. NBC, CBS, CNN, ABC, MSNBC and most every other legitimate news organizations never called America "Iraqi baby killers", and never called America mass murderers time and time again over the invasion of two Middle Eastern countries, but that's how you portrayed Dr. Tiller. The media in general did almost no reporting on the run-up to the war that was counter to any of the propaganda the Bush Administration put out. They've been covering the news, Bill, even if they've done it badly.

And by the way ... General Petraeus, your hero, believes that America made many, many mistakes, which includes torture, the breaking of the Geneva Convention, and creating an extralegal prison at Guantanamo Bay in his criticism of America's behavior after 9/11. So is he to blame for Mr. Mohammad's actions too?

Billie Boy continued on his anti-choice rant about Dr. Tiller and then said that the government has the goods that GE is doing business with Iran. And he's going to be looking into to it very, very closely. I feel bad for Pvt. Long's family, their grief must run deep, but now they also have to withstand Bill O'Reilly using his death in a crass, cheaply sensational way for his own self-serving justification for the inexcusable.

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President Obama made a surprise visit to Iraq to see the troops and tell them Iraq must stand up for itself.

Cheered wildly by U.S. troops, President Barack Obama flew unannounced into Iraq on Tuesday and promptly declared it is time for Iraqis "take responsibility for their country" after America's commitment of six years and thousands of lives. "You have given Iraq the opportunity to stand on its own as a democratic country," the president said as he made a brief inspection of a war he opposed as candidate and now vows to end as commander in chief. "That is an extraordinary achievement."

I'm sure the troops were glad to see a president that has the confidence of the American people and one who is looked on with great respect. They know he wants to get them out of the meat grinder and back to their families. The right wingnutosphere is very agitated that the troops responded so well to their new commander in chief. It's his duty to be there front and center to wind down the greatest folly George Bush perpetrated on the world.
Poor Malkin is doing her best to perfect the conservative whine. They should bottle it and sell it to themselves.

I can only imagine the scorn the Left would heap on President Bush if this had been his trip (drive-by visit! dog-and-pony show! holed up on a military base instead of getting out among the people! bad weather? b.s.!)

If he didn't visit the troops then they would be saying that he didn't respect them.
And Joe Gandleman reports that:

So far no news of shoe throwing.

What Donald Rumsfield failed to mention when he famously said that America had to "go to war with the army it has" in response to criticisms from soldiers about a lack of armor is that the US went to war with the army it couldn't be bothered upgrading.

The US Marine Corps asked the Pentagon's inspector general to perform the audit after coming under fire for setting aside an urgent request from field commanders in 2005 for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) armored vehicles.

"DoD (Department of Defense) was aware of the threat posed by mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in low-intensity conflicts and of the availability of mine-resistant vehicles years before insurgent actions began in Iraq in 2003," the audit found.

"Yet DoD did not develop requirements for, fund, or acquire MRAP-type vehicles for low-intensity conflicts that involved mines and IEDs," a summary of the report said.

"As a result, the department entered into operations in Iraq without having taken available steps to acquire technology to mitigate the known mine and IED risk to soldiers and Marines," it said.

Heads should roll for this, even now, including those in charge of Marine Corps procurement, the Corps itself and Rummie as top man at the DoD at the time (and we all know where the buck eventually stops). Their inertia and lack of action even long after it was obvious what was needed led to hundreds of unnecessary deaths and tens of thousands of wounded, ruined lives. We're talking about at least half the entire butcher's bill from Bush's military adventures. This isn't a matter of history to the crippled, the dead and their families and justice demands accountability.

Can servicemen even bring a class action suit? I'm thinking about if the powers-that-be won't respond appropriately, which I highly doubt they will.

During the recent debate with Barack Obama, John McCain stated that "I know the veterans, I know them well, and I know that they know that I'll take care of them". Obama let it slide, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Our good friend Brandon Freidman of VetVoice has done some excellent work researching and compiling the Master List of how little McCain cares for troops and veterans. It's a must-read post that's too detailled to excerpt but it comprehensively lists all the times McCain: refused to support veterans by refusing to vote for veteran benefits, healthcare and support; refused to support the troops in combat by voting against extra armor for them; refused to  support the troops by first cheerleading for and then voting for enmiring America in Bush's war of choice in Iraq; refused to support the real front in Afghanistan by continually voting against any withdrawal from Iraq. It also lists a whole slew of McCain's foreign policy gaffes, pointing to systemic ignorance and bad judgement rather than a few accidental mis-speakings. Brandon has included sources for his list and YouTube videos to back many of the items.

Seriously, you'll want to read and cite this list often. His support for veterans and troops is a big part of McCain's pitch but in reality it's simply mythology created out of whole cloth.

And so is McCain's "judgement" on Iraq.

McCain: "We're going to win this victory. Tragically, we will lose American lives. But it will be brief.  We're going to find massive evidence of weapons of mass destruction . . . It's going to send the message throughout the Middle East that democracy can take hold in the Middle East." (Fox News, Hannity & Colmes, 2/21/03)

The Obama campaign has released a whole bunch of videos by "Next Generation" veterans - those who served and fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Here's the first:

 And here's one from partial-amputee Jon Kuniholm, who talks about his experiences, addresses the "phony troops" meme and directly asks John McCain how long he'll support a "mission" that amounts to puting up figurative "accomplished" banners at regular intervals.

There's also one from veterans and military family members in Virginia and another from Bobby Wise, who served in Iraq and is veterans field director for the Obama campaign. All good, powerful stuff and these veterans and military family members really do make the best spokespeople for why Barack Obama is stronger and smarter on national security and veterans issues.

Brandon Friedman at VetVoice notes that for its "Pledge of Allegiance video" on Tuesday night, the Republican National Convention used stock footage of a staged military funeral, along with actors - fake soldiers and a staged military funeral instead of the real thing.

Brandon writes:

The issue here isn't that the RNC used actors in what might have been a haste.  Rather, the underlying problem is that Bush and McCain supporters don't like to deal with the messy reality of warfare that genuine troops bring to the table.  That is, they feel compelled to stage a funeral with actors.  Because to show a real military funeral--with the heaving chests of a broken family clutching a flag-draped coffin containing the pieces of their dead soldier--might just make the funny hat-clad, stupid button-wearing audience blanch.  And that doesn't make for good TV.  Plus, people just wouldn't go for it.  So they use sanitized actors.   

But this is an insult to the military.  The use of actors shows an unwillingness to face up to what they've done--to the military and to the nation.  And it shows that the only way to keep up support for the war is to hide its reality from the American people.   

If I said that something like this surprised me, though, I'd be lying.  But then, this is also why troops overseas are donating to Obama at a six to one rate over McCain.  They're tired of being treated like this.

I'd add that its another example of the glorification of war - something that can only be done by sanitizing it - that McCain says he hates but that Republicans indulge in at every turn. Even some on the Right have previously noted McCain's love for warmongering.

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The right wingers have been trying to find something to attack Obama with since his trip has been so successful. Once again they look foolish.

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama dropped a plan to visit wounded U.S. troops in Germany on Friday amid concerns the stop would be viewed as a political event.

Planning for a stop at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center had been in the works for three weeks. But an Obama adviser said he was told in recent days by the Pentagon that the military would consider it a campaign event.

"Senator Obama had hoped to and had every intention of visiting our troops to express his appreciation and gratitude for their service to our country," said retired Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, who advises Obama on national security matters.

"Senator Obama did not want to have a trip to see our wounded warriors perceived as a campaign event when his visit was to show his appreciation for our troops and decided instead not to go," Gration said.

The Pentagon, in a statement, cited longstanding Defense Department policy that prohibits military personnel or facilities from association with partisan political campaigns and elections. 

Any candidate would go out of his way to make a trip like this. Hey, guess what? The same thing happened to McCain:

From CNN:

With Department of Defense rules prohibiting political campaigning on military bases, it was determined that in some cases McCain could visit the installations as a senator but could not engage in any political activity or have news media present. McCain campaign officials said Thursday they intentionally did not campaign on military property.

"We follow the rules," said senior McCain adviser Steve Schmidt.

Red State's Erick Erickson looks really foolish with his graphic contest, but it's Red State. RedState Graphic Design Contest 3: Obama Ditches Wounded Troops For Shopping in Berlin.

There was also another smear against Obama that has been debunked too.

Army officials refute claim of Barack Obama snub in Afghanistan.

My good pal Ed really can't back this overwrought statement up over at Hot Air.

This makes the decision track very clear. Obama and his team set up the visits to military installations before going overseas. After seeing how the media got excluded in Iraq and Afghanistan, they decided it wasn't worth traveling to Ramstein and Landstuhl to visit the severely wounded troops because they couldn't bring the campaign and get the photo ops they wanted. Instead, Obama went shopping in Berlin.

I do admit that he would know a lot about photo ops being a Bush supporter and all. Greg Sargent confirmed with the Pentagon that: Pentagon Confirms That It Told Obama He Couldn't Visit Army Base With Campaign Staff

I've just gotten clarification from the Pentagon on what really happened with regard to Barack Obama's canceled visit to an Army base in Germany, something the McCain campaign has been using to hit Obama since yesterday.

A Pentagon spokesperson confirms to me that because of longstanding Department of Defense regulations, Pentagon officials told Obama aides that he couldn't visit the base with campaign staff. This left Obama with little choice but to cancel the trip, since the plan to visit with campaign aides had been in the works for weeks.

Late Update: In fairness, the Obama campaign's first statement should have been clearer about what happened, but the larger point is that the McCain campaign criticism appears unfounded. 

That was Rumsfeld's answer to a worried soldier's question:"Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up armor our vehicles?"

Can you imagine being told that?"

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Disgruntled Troops Complain to Rumsfeld

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer

CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait - Disgrunted U.S. soldiers complained to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Wednesday about the lack of armor for their vehicles and long deployments, drawing a blunt retort from the Pentagon  chief. "You go to war with the Army you have," he said in a rare public airing of rank-and-file concerns among the troops....

Army Spc. Thomas Wilson, for example, of the 278th Regimental Combat Team that is comprised mainly of citizen soldiers of the Tennessee Army National Guard, asked Rumsfeld in a question-and-answer session why vehicle armor is still in short supply, nearly two years after the start of the war that ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).

"Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles?" Wilson asked. A big cheer arose from the approximately 2,300 soldiers in the cavernous hangar who assembled to see and hear the secretary of defense.

Rumsfeld hesitated and asked Wilson to repeat his question.

"We do not have proper armored vehicles to carry with us north," Wilson said after asking again.

Rumsfeld replied that troops should make the best of the conditions they face and said the Army was pushing manufacturers of vehicle armor to produce it as fast as humanly possible.

"You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and it can (still) be blown up," Rumsfeld said.