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WWII Vet Declines Private Meeting with Obama on D-Day Anniversary

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  • #46
    Originally posted by Spartacus View Post
    It's an old joke. Where do astroanuts hang out? At the space bar. As in, on the keyboard.

    [ATTACH=CONFIG]606[/ATTACH]

    https://dov5cor25da49.cloudfront.net...0design_01.jpg
    Guess there's no real excuse then.

    Comment


    • #47
      Originally posted by Sparko View Post
      I don't usually say stuff like this, but Jesse, you are acting like a complete asshole.
      Good morning, John,

      That could be. You know my situation, and if it hasn't changed, there is at least a light at the end of the tunnel now. In two weeks, the overload is done and summer break will begin. In two weeks, I can go back to having a normal life.

      Until then, it's ten classes, the equivalent of two and a half jobs, plus admin for six more while we're doing first term onboarding for the three adjuncts I hired when the layoffs came down. My schedule is so tight, there's no time to sleep on Wednesday nights. I finish my last class at 10 p.m., spend an hour commuting home, do the mid-week admin for the three part-time classes, finish my grading and prep for the 12 hours of lecture starting at 8 a.m. on Thursdays, and gee ... it's 5 a.m. again, and time to head in for my third 18-hour day in a row.

      That's what I meant by higher than sideways.

      And that's what it's been for the last two months.

      So yes, maybe I am acting like a complete asshole. And maybe I should have followed through on my intention to stick to the shoutbox.

      And maybe CP shouldn't have used D-Day as an opportunity to post a transparent bash piece on the Commander in Chief, citing the National Review.

      Here's what I'm looking at when I read that story.

      Look, a D-Day vet. Cool, so was my dad. Look, a quote ... but wait, it's not from the D-day vet. It' s just tacked onto the end. Criminy, you know the writer is hoping to associate the one with the other. And the source isn't even cited. Oh, that queers it entirely.

      That would never get past me. I edited my college rag, and spent some time doing investigative reporting at the same time. I know how hard it is to get a decent quote, and I know what it means when a writer finds one and won't say who said it. When it's from an unnamed source, you can bet the farm it was made up.

      Who ... what ... oh, the National Review. Yeah, I smirked.

      And maybe I should have kept my yap shut, or found a more gentle way to say what I was thinking, as I probably would have had I been caught up on my sleep. But I didn't. So there you are.

      I know you're a basically decent guy, and so is CP, and you both know I am, too. I don't care about the newbs' opinions, or the opinions of the kids I've spanked one too many times. But for you two, I am asking you to make allowances.

      It'll get better.

      As ever, Jesse

      Comment


      • #48
        Originally posted by lao tzu View Post
        And maybe CP shouldn't have used D-Day as an opportunity to post a transparent bash piece on the Commander in Chief, citing the National Review.
        Yeah, I should only post stuff that supports the party line, because the intolerant preachers of tolerance will be offended.

        My Dad was the one who alerted me to that story. He didn't find it in National Review, but that obviously was the linkback in the email he sent me, so I used it. He personally knows George Ciampa from a DC visit relative to Honor Flight. It was my Dad's feelings, as well, on D-Day, which is why he sent it.

        Perhaps he should run these things by you first, Jesse, to see they meet your approval.

        This was WAY beneath you, Jesse. My Dad has more than earned the right to express his opinions, and so have I.
        Last edited by Cow Poke; 06-07-2014, 08:53 AM.
        The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

        Comment


        • #49
          Average Liberal:



          Average Conservative:

          "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths." Isaiah 3:12

          There is no such thing as innocence, only degrees of guilt.

          Comment


          • #50
            Originally posted by lao tzu View Post
            National Review. Seriously. National Review.
            Internet snark is serious snarky....

            Comment


            • #51
              Originally posted by lao tzu View Post
              Good morning, John,

              That could be. You know my situation, and if it hasn't changed, there is at least a light at the end of the tunnel now. In two weeks, the overload is done and summer break will begin. In two weeks, I can go back to having a normal life.

              Until then, it's ten classes, the equivalent of two and a half jobs, plus admin for six more while we're doing first term onboarding for the three adjuncts I hired when the layoffs came down. My schedule is so tight, there's no time to sleep on Wednesday nights. I finish my last class at 10 p.m., spend an hour commuting home, do the mid-week admin for the three part-time classes, finish my grading and prep for the 12 hours of lecture starting at 8 a.m. on Thursdays, and gee ... it's 5 a.m. again, and time to head in for my third 18-hour day in a row.

              That's what I meant by higher than sideways.

              And that's what it's been for the last two months.

              So yes, maybe I am acting like a complete asshole. And maybe I should have followed through on my intention to stick to the shoutbox.

              And maybe CP shouldn't have used D-Day as an opportunity to post a transparent bash piece on the Commander in Chief, citing the National Review.

              Here's what I'm looking at when I read that story.

              Look, a D-Day vet. Cool, so was my dad. Look, a quote ... but wait, it's not from the D-day vet. It' s just tacked onto the end. Criminy, you know the writer is hoping to associate the one with the other. And the source isn't even cited. Oh, that queers it entirely.

              That would never get past me. I edited my college rag, and spent some time doing investigative reporting at the same time. I know how hard it is to get a decent quote, and I know what it means when a writer finds one and won't say who said it. When it's from an unnamed source, you can bet the farm it was made up.

              Who ... what ... oh, the National Review. Yeah, I smirked.

              And maybe I should have kept my yap shut, or found a more gentle way to say what I was thinking, as I probably would have had I been caught up on my sleep. But I didn't. So there you are.

              I know you're a basically decent guy, and so is CP, and you both know I am, too. I don't care about the newbs' opinions, or the opinions of the kids I've spanked one too many times. But for you two, I am asking you to make allowances.

              It'll get better.

              As ever, Jesse
              Jesse, it wasn't because of your comments about the article, but the way you responded to CP when he said his dad was a vet. You mocked him.

              Comment


              • #52
                Amen, Brother.

                Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
                Yeah, I should only post stuff that supports the party line, because the intolerant preachers of tolerance will be offended.

                My Dad was the one who alerted me to that story. He didn't find it in National Review, but that obviously was the linkback in the email he sent me, so I used it. He personally knows George Ciampa from a DC visit relative to Honor Flight. It was my Dad's feelings, as well, on D-Day, which is why he sent it.

                Perhaps he should run these things by you first, Jesse, to see they meet your approval.

                This was WAY beneath you, Jesse. My Dad has more than earned the right to express his opinions, and so have I.
                Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

                Comment


                • #53
                  Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
                  The last line of this article, which I have bolded, sums up what my own Dad, also a WWII Vet, feels about Obama:


                  Source: National Review Online

                  Brix, France — Some of the veterans attending the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings here in France have fascinating stories.

                  Take George Ciampa, the most vibrant and spry 89-year-old I have ever met. In 1944, he landed in Normandy as a soldier assigned to the 84th Graves Registration Unit. “I spent the next few years going from France to Germany helping to bury people,” he told me. He was involved in setting up the temporary military cemeteries in Normandy that have now become stirring memorials to our fallen dead.

                  The experience transformed George, and he eventually became a filmmaker celebrating America’s heroes. His website tells the story of the four documentaries he has done on military valor. He is still making films today.

                  This week, George received a call from the White House, who said they knew he would be over in France during D-Day, and wondered if he would attend a private meeting the White House was arranging for veterans with President Obama.

                  George thought about it for awhile and concluded he just couldn’t. “I have so many issues with the president’s policies, including the most recent ones,” he told me ruefully. “I just couldn’t convince myself to do it.”

                  He is not alone. The recent Bergdahl prisoner swap in which five hardened Taliban terrorists were released from prison is rubbing a lot of the military veterans attending D-Day events the wrong way. “It’s not that we don’t want to respect the commander-in-chief,” one told me sadly. “It’s just that he makes it so hard to do so.”

                  © Copyright Original Source

                  Vets are no different than the general population in that they all have their own opinions. Heres one for you: Irving Smolens, a veteran who fought at Normandy at the age of 19, stepped out from the crowd of veterans attending the D-Day events and took hold of Obamas hand and wouldn't let go until he said his peace. The conversation couldn't be heard over the crowd of course, so Smolens was tracked down by a reporter who asked him: "what did you say to Obama", Smolens reply was, "I thanked him for keeping us out of war." Well, I guess that says it all then, Obama as Commander and Chief, is beloved by all veterans!
                  Last edited by JimL; 06-07-2014, 06:46 PM.

                  Comment


                  • #54
                    Originally posted by JimL View Post
                    Vets are no different than the general population in that they all have their own opinions. Heres one for you: Irving Smolens, a veteran who fought at Normandy at the age of 19, stepped out from the crowd of veterans attending the D-Day events and took hold of Obamas hand and wouldn't let go until he said his peace. The conversation couldn't be heard over the crowd of course, so Smolens was tracked down by a reporter who asked him: "what did you say to Obama", Smolens reply was, "I thanked him for keeping us out of war." Well, I guess that says it all then, Obama as Commander and Chief, is beloved by all veterans!
                    Rachel Madcow told you this?
                    The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                    Comment


                    • #55
                      Originally posted by JimL View Post
                      Vets are no different than the general population in that they all have their own opinions. Heres one for you: Irving Smolens, a veteran who fought at Normandy at the age of 19, stepped out from the crowd of veterans attending the D-Day events and took hold of Obamas hand and wouldn't let go until he said his peace. The conversation couldn't be heard over the crowd of course, so Smolens was tracked down by a reporter who asked him: "what did you say to Obama", Smolens reply was, "I thanked him for keeping us out of war."
                      I found this on the Daily Beast:
                      Source: Daily Beast

                      When the ceremony was over, I made my way through the arrays of marble crosses to the stage and to the man in the blue hat who had taken Obama’s hand.

                      His name, it turns out, is Irving Smolens, and he was only 19 when he took part in the Normandy landing. Afterward he spent much of his life as a buyer of women’s and children’s clothing in Massachusetts, leading a quiet, peaceful life with his family.

                      “What did you say to Obama?” I asked him.

                      “I thanked him for keeping us out of war,” said Smolens.

                      © Copyright Original Source



                      Well, I guess that says it all then, Obama as Commander and Chief, is beloved by all veterans!
                      Why does it not surprise me that your little pea brain would come to this conclusion just because a nice old WWII Veteran exercised his right to express his own opinion.

                      From his LinkedIn page:
                      Source: Irving Smolens | LinkedIn


                      I am a D-day veteran of the Fourth Infantry Division and fought as an Artillery soldier against the Nazi Germans for eleven months in all five major campaigns in Western Europe. I was spared from having to invade Japan an probably being killed by the use of Aromic bombs. I have invested conservatively and wisely and have no financial problems.At the 60th Anniversary D-day observances in Normandy I was given the honor of leading the 21 gun salutes on both Utah and Omaha beaches. I am hoping to live at least another two years so that I will be able to attend the 70th Anniversary ceremonies. I hope that Obama will still be President so that I can meet him in Normandy.

                      © Copyright Original Source


                      ([sic] as appropriate)

                      TWO THINGS, Jimmy ---
                      A) note that he credits the ATOM BOMB with saving him from having to invade Japan!
                      2) He is an Obama supporter (as is his right) who hoped he would live long enough to meet Obama at the 70th D-Day ceremony.

                      I'm glad he did.
                      Last edited by Cow Poke; 06-07-2014, 07:04 PM.
                      The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                      Comment


                      • #56
                        Originally posted by lao tzu
                        If Brooks isn't a conservative, then neither is Buckley.
                        Agreed.

                        Originally posted by Peter Brimelow
                        Losing Mum And Pup also makes clear the personal failings that made Buckley such a disaster for the American Conservative Movement and (particularly interesting to me) to the cause of patriotic immigration reform, which he encouraged some of us to champion in National Review before stabbing us in the back and handing the magazine over to hostile neoconservatives and GOP publicists.

                        By the 1980s, WFB was quite incapable of fulfilling the leadership role he still insisted upon. And it was the conservative movement, and America, that paid the truly cruel price. Like WFB himself, it turned out that the conservative movement was to have no “second act”, in Scott Fitzgerald`s famous phrase, after the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. WFB simply did not have the energy or the courage to adapt to the next generation of issues. And he was not prepared to tolerate those who did.
                        As to the veterans thing ... *snort*

                        Yes, I am. And so was my dad, who also served in WWII, and also landed on the beach on D-Day.

                        And so was my grand-dad, who served in WWI. I was with him at the Palmer House in Chicago when he handed over the Last Man's Cup from Ambulance Company 129 to the National Archives.
                        Given how you've been previously snorting about how you could be printing anything, I'm going to cheekily say that you're probably making that up.

                        I could keep on going, back through the Revolutionary War, because, as it so happens, I'm an American veteran from at least as long a line of American veterans as anyone here, and almost certainly longer.
                        Oh please. You're probably a goat herder or a cartoonist.

                        Folks wanting to play the veteran's card to score cheap political tricks need to get over the fact that it's not a partisan brickbat to use for bashing the Commander in Chief.

                        And it sure the hell shouldn't be used for doing so on D-Day.

                        Unless you're the National Review.

                        *smirk*
                        Lao tzu, you're a liberal. A slave to the government Fund Feed, a true believer in what the New York Times says, a man who thinks the Word of the University is the Word of God, and a respecter of Persons before a respecter of Truth. Everything you know, you acquired secondhand. And I'm actually inclined to cut certain teachers some slack, but only if they're honest about what they do and why they do it. Or willing to point to who's forcing them to lie. You're under a kind-of-pseudonym, dude, no reason to play dumb for us TWeb folks.

                        All in all, a noble effort to protect yourself, but next time come back with an apology, an "I was drunk," or a "My Republican boyfriend logged in on my account by mistake."

                        Comment


                        • #57
                          Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
                          I found this on the Daily Beast:
                          Source: Daily Beast

                          When the ceremony was over, I made my way through the arrays of marble crosses to the stage and to the man in the blue hat who had taken Obama’s hand.

                          His name, it turns out, is Irving Smolens, and he was only 19 when he took part in the Normandy landing. Afterward he spent much of his life as a buyer of women’s and children’s clothing in Massachusetts, leading a quiet, peaceful life with his family.

                          “What did you say to Obama?” I asked him.

                          “I thanked him for keeping us out of war,” said Smolens.

                          © Copyright Original Source





                          Why does it not surprise me that your little pea brain would come to this conclusion just because a nice old WWII Veteran exercised his right to express his own opinion.

                          From his LinkedIn page:
                          Source: Irving Smolens | LinkedIn


                          I am a D-day veteran of the Fourth Infantry Division and fought as an Artillery soldier against the Nazi Germans for eleven months in all five major campaigns in Western Europe. I was spared from having to invade Japan an probably being killed by the use of Aromic bombs. I have invested conservatively and wisely and have no financial problems.At the 60th Anniversary D-day observances in Normandy I was given the honor of leading the 21 gun salutes on both Utah and Omaha beaches. I am hoping to live at least another two years so that I will be able to attend the 70th Anniversary ceremonies. I hope that Obama will still be President so that I can meet him in Normandy.

                          © Copyright Original Source


                          ([sic] as appropriate)

                          TWO THINGS, Jimmy ---
                          A) note that he credits the ATOM BOMB with saving him from having to invade Japan!
                          2) He is an Obama supporter (as is his right) who hoped he would live long enough to meet Obama at the 70th D-Day ceremony.

                          I'm glad he did.
                          Apparently the point of my response to your OP went right over your head CP.

                          Comment


                          • #58
                            Originally posted by JimL View Post
                            Apparently the point of my response to your OP went right over your head CP.
                            You spewed forth ignorance! Nothing new there.
                            The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                            Comment


                            • #59
                              lao tzu (and others):

                              In your mind, is it possible for us lowly conservatives to offer any criticism of the current administration at all, without it being "bashing" (or racist, bigoted, etc.)?
                              I DENOUNCE DONALD J. TRUMP AND ALL HIS IMMORAL ACTS.

                              Comment


                              • #60
                                Originally posted by Zymologist View Post
                                lao tzu (and others):

                                In your mind, is it possible for us lowly conservatives to offer any criticism of the current administration at all, without it being "bashing" (or racist, bigoted, etc.)?
                                Dear Z,

                                Please note I do not consider conservatism a "low" position, excluding the Tea Party wing of course, assuming, perhaps without cause, that one considers the TP a conservative movement. I don't.

                                There are any number of meaningful criticisms of administration policy open to conservatives. A while back, I posted to CP my list of issues with the Obama administration, including, as best I recall, failures regarding:

                                Climate policy
                                ACA
                                Guantanamo
                                Immigration reform
                                Minimum wage revision

                                Well, I'm sure the first three were on there, but I can't fully vouch for the last two.

                                There's no real risk of "etc." in these given a few fairly conservative caveats:

                                Climate change is real
                                Health insurance saves lives
                                Guantanamo is an embarrassment
                                American means immigrant
                                Full-time work should pay for basic food and shelter

                                As ever, Jesse

                                Comment

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