Simple Equation: You got shrapnel? Then you came close to dying.

[Sparkly]

Thus, you get a purple heart.

Shrapnel says you were close to an explosion, risking your life for your country. It says you came close to being killed, blinded, deafened, or maimed. THAT is why you get a purple heart.

WHY don't rightwingers understand that?!!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. What's The Difference Between Being Grazed And Being Dead?

nt

[Sparkly]

6. Being dead means Republicans can't come back and accuse you

of making things up, "applying" for purple hearts, "scratching" yourself on purpose and not bleeding, etc.

Being grazed means you got lucky. If you live to run for office against Republicans, however, your luck runs out.

[gollygee]

8. A few inches to the right or left.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

9. Thanks To Shrapnel From The North African Camapign

my dad was blind in one eye...


May he rest in the peace of the brave and the decent...

[teach1st]

2. Shrapnel? Pshaw!

Shrapnel is for Liberal wimps. How about nosebleeds from too much coke? What about massive three-day hangovers? You haven't served your country unless you've came down with a case of the clap from close manuevers in the Alabama red-light zone.

[arewenotdemo]

25. Bwahahah!

I'm sure he could tell Bama war stories all night long, but they're all probably too gory for the faint of heart and only another veteran would understand anyways...

[Liberal Veteran]

3. But it was MAGICAL SHRAPNEL!

That doesn't cause pain, bleeding, wounds, and is completely safe!

I'd like everyone over at our undistinguished opposition to experience having shrapnel flying at them and then tell us how unimportant or undangerous it is.

[Morning Dew]

27. Oh yes!

And after that, they can volunteer to be recipients of an Abu Ghraib style frat hazing.


They're insane!

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. WHY don't rightwingers understand that?!!<<

Mebbe cuz they don't get shrapnel from the lies they are telling.. as they blow up in their faces.... maybe that is their point of view... if the fallout from the lies of their slander machine don't harm them in some way as they one by one blow up in their faces... (I mean.. look at the Plame thing) then how bad could a little bit of metal be??

Who knows how they think... sometimes it hard to fact the facts when the only thing you care about is winning, either by hook or by crook. In these times it would seem that both methods are working equally well.... but thankfully not well enough. To assume people are as stupid as you would like them to be... or would have been without the net... is to assume wrongly. Information is power... use it well.

[HEFFA]

5. Interesting analogy, but

I don't think that the numerous and frequent lies that are perpetuated by the media ever really blow up in their faces. Who is holding them accountable? Who is taking them to task for their failures (intentional or otherwise)?

The time for more active regulation of media content (I'm really speaking about news media here) is LONG overdue in this country.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

11. Totally

true... but who is going to be able to purchase the media back from the corporations that own it now....

During a time of repub admin... you can expect that to not get done anytime soon... regulation that is.... how ill our political system has become... the founding fathers would have a cow... maybe even a mad cow over what is going down.

As to who is holding them to task..... WE ARE. An estimated 30 million people read blogs every day... and this is one of the biggest on the web.... so... we are helping to shape their coverage to a degree... what we bring up in here MUST be answered to in primetime in one way or another... if not the web will take over what it is that they are supposed to be doing, if it hasn't at least partially done it already.

[HEFFA]

15. I'm not talking about government ownership of news, but stricter

oversight and regulation of its content. If news outlets and the corporations that own them are not operating in the public interest (and what is a more important public interest than effectively and objectively covering the issues in a presidential election?), then they should have their licenses yanked. Networks, PBS, cable, satellite, whatever...just get the lying bastards off the air. When the corporations start losing ad dollars in the millions, they will be more apt to follow the rules and do what they are supposed to do.

We share the view that dollars drive the system. Hit 'em where it hurts most -- right in the wallet.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

21. But you have to determine who is lying

and with guys like O'leilly on the air... that is sort of hard to do. It's hard to accuse a person of lying when they themselves believe their own diatribe and innuendo. It would be a daunting task. I am sure shrub could appoint someone to determine who is and who isn't telling the truth... in much the same way that he has denounced the Swift Bloat detractors.... not.

[HEFFA]

23. Yeah, the O'Leilly point was an interesting one raised in "Outfoxed"

I realize that it's a subtle game, and any rules can be skirted. My point, however, is that there are glaring falsehoods (Bush's military record, the Swifties, etc.) that are played, replayed, and given legitimacy where no factual basis exists. This is not journalism. For the media whores to present it as they have is a complete violation of the principles of journalism. They are violating the public trust. When that happens, I say that there should be a mechanism for pulling the plug on the fuckers and flushing them down the drain.

I'm so tired of the idea that we should hold everybody accountable, and yet these people, corporations, etc. have enormous power and influence and effectively answer to NO ONE! Something must be done.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

29. Who can make

war against the beast?? No one.... or so I've heard.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

30. What I mean by the beast

is not "America" not our military, not anyone in particular... but rather the push behind all things political, now securely bound up in corporate shenanigans (sp).... the pursuit of profit at any cost. Not the "need" for money... but rather the need to have more and more of it ad infinitum, ill gotten or not.

Not that it is anyone's fault that a corporations only duty in this world is to produce more and more profit at ANY expense.... it is what it is.... a beast that drives business forward... and causes it to do what we have seen in Iraq and elsewhere.

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gbase/Community/Postmarks?StartTime=2004-07-02
>>DOESN'T RECALL PROTESTS AGAINST VIETNAM (READ THE LAST SENTENCE: THE DUMBEST COMPARISON I'VE EVER SEEN)
Dear Editor,
A stolen election, the U.S. going to war under false pretenses, and government officials making millions off defense contracts – that "documentary" about George W. Bush? Hardly! In 1960 the presidential election had several instances of voter fraud; the Texas Republican Party sent over 10,000 registered letters to voters in South Texas, using the "poll-tax" rolls (in those days you had to pay a fee to vote – a leftover from Reconstruction). Over 4,000 of the letters were returned, marked "addressee unknown," "dead," "moved," etc. – but virtually every one of them voted Democratic in the election!<<

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2004/02/27/halliburton_whistleblower/index_np.html


Halliburton's Iraq gravy train
A former procurement specialist for the giant, White House-connected company charges that it failed to seek out competitive bids -- enriching itself and costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars extra.

[klook]

7. Lying Liars

I heard that jerk O'Neill on George Stephanapoulos's show this morning saying Kerry got a tiny piece of shrapnel from a grenade he exploded himself. He made it sound like he was just horsing around and lied about getting injured in combat (and of course it took a conspiracy of several to get him his medals). Same lame "argument" Ann Coulter and others used against Max Cleland.

That's why it's so important to fight back. Whether Kerry wins or loses the election, these schmucks have to learn that when they stir up a hornets' nest with a bunch of lies, they're the ones who're going to get stung.


John Kerry (left) and William Rood on a barracks barge with a rocket launcher and an automatic rifle seized in a raid on Feb. 28, 1969, in southern Vietnam in which swift boats charged ambush sites.
(Photo courtesy of William B. Rood)

[Sparkly]

12. That's right, and didn't Ann Coulter call Max "lucky?"

They are disgusting. And the O'Neill accusation you mention-- that Kerry's injury was from his own grenade -- is so easily disproven. If you go to Kerry's site, an after-action report includes the incident O'Neill is talking about. About five guys were injured when they blew up a rice supply. But those are not the injuries cited for his purple star -- separate incident.

Why doesn't the media do a little reading?

[HEFFA]

16. Yeah, but Ann's just jealous that she wasn't lucky. I mean, she's

obviously the victim of a botched sex change operation.

No offense intended to the trans-gendered in general.

[Toots]

10. Not only that but every scratch was considered life threatening

Vietnam was a very dirty place and Staff was everywhere. Open wounds were very probably going to get infected. All wounds were serious matters.

[Sparkly]

13. Good point

Thank you.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

14. I Heard Bush Got Staph During The Viet Nam War...

He cut his finger opening up a can of beer in Alabama and it got infected after he stuck it up his ass....

[HEFFA]

18. LMAO. eom

[Sparkly]

19. Maybe that's what got him grounded.

Not the staph, the beer. ;)

[klook]

20. Great deficit graphic

Also good point about the hygiene(or lack thereof) in Nam.

[catbert836]

17. Hmmm..

I think it has something to do with lying or distortion. Yeah.

[Sparkly]

26. Then they either haven't read the records,

or they're "yes-men" who believe in lies and distortions.

[roguevalley]

22. my uncle caught shrapnel on a tug boat in the pacific from a kamekaze

and my other uncle caught shrapnel from a grenade in the pacific with the first marine taking bouganville. Still has it, both of them. I
loathe the repugs.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

24. My Dad Was Blind In One Eye From Shrapnel...

He also contacted malaria in WW2...


He spent six months at Walter Reed .... They could cosmetically save the eye but not his sight....

[DeepModem Mom]

28. kick

[rasputin1952]

31. Couple of things here...

First off, no one here was on that boat, that day; so I will go w/the official record and say he got that PH legitimately.

2. No one can "apply" for a PH.

3. No one can "apply" for a medal, especially a medal for valor.

3. Even if this was a mistake on the part or the Navy Dept., because of "friendly Fire", that still has nothing to do w/the other TWO PH's Kerry received.

This is all garbage, tossed out by Rove in an attempt to divert people from discussing issues, because the admin KNOWS, they would get their butts licked on issues.

Just because some bunch of pinheads THAT WERE NOT WITH KERRY on that day say something is true, or make an allegation, does NOT mean there is any substance to it.

thank you for allowing me to rant on this...:)

[JohnKleeb]

32. Well Ras you summed it up very good

Thats what Ive been telling people, you dont go to command and say I made a boom boom, can I get a purple heart, same with the metal, hey sir I killed a vietcong guy with a rocket launcher gimme a medal. He was awarded the purple heart for injuries substained, even if Kerry didnt receive any injuries and receive a purple heart, all veterans have psychological wounds and I know for a fact Kerry still does. BTW you see that thing on the history channel last night, "from D-Day to Berlin", really showed why Monty was an arrogant sob.

[leetrisck]

33. Today's "Joplin Globe" - young soldier home

from Iraq with a Purple Heart - was hit in the face by a sliver of metal shrpnel from a rocket propelled grenade. Wound was minor, he continued to fight several more hours - his commanding officer & another soldier not so lucky - more serious injuries. "Not a big piece of metal that hit me, more like a skinny sliver." My thoughts: Now let the slimy little deserter occupying his ranch in Texas tell this soldier he wasn't wounded enough for his Purple Heart.