Off script, on truth

A favorite quote: “Don’t believe anything until it’s been officially denied.”

An amendment: “Don’t believe anything until it’s been randomly cited.”

The inspiration to revise comes from what U.S. Gen. Stanley McCrystal said Wednesday in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Instead of sticking to the talking points about the U.S. government finding funding for the Afghan surge, McCrystal said course correction is not about “making money.”

What, McCrystal? No one in the mainstream is saying that. Now, they should believe it.

From the estimated 100,000-plus private contractors in Afghanistan to the millions of U.S. workers making F-22s, MREs and ETC., all war is all about making USD – U.S. dollars.

Plain and simple.

An amendment to an amendment: “Don’t believe anything until it’s been originally filtered.”

G

Check out this hot Swine of the Week!

She’s hot, but her next reply to Oprah was going to be “ah shucks.”

She’s hot, but her Facebook wall said terrorists, err,  “hang ‘em high.”

She’s hot, but stopped labor of Willow to have a “patriotic baby.”

She’s hot, but she couldn’t rise above a boy and said Levi was involved in “porn.”

She’s hot, but she told Walters that Israel should have Gaza just “because.”

She’s hot, but the naive lady said the election loss was about the “economy.”

She’s hot, but she blamed weird answers to Couric on “working the rope line.”

She hot, but the dog-whistle-sounding Sarah Palin is “Swine of the Week!”

G

Humility found through lies

When the Tank was busy mocking Michele Bachmann, T-Paw and Palin (I smell an upcoming Swine!), seedier spinsters were successfully weaving a mystique around Ronald Reagan.

It turns out, all robot Republicans flock like morons to Reagan’s brand of fiscal conservatism and how trickle down economics and prosperity benefited everyone during his illustrious eight-year presidency.

Unbeknownst to this moron and, obviously, all robots Republicans, Reagan ran deficits throughout his presidency, the Star Tribune taught me Sunday. (Buy a newspaper or the terrorists win, so says Jim Souhan.)

Furthermore, so has every president since 1961, including Obama’s projections to near Reagan levels of two to four percent of GPD come 2012.

It – thankfully – awoke some skepticism in the Tank.

The gullibility was exposed again Wednesday with news of the major airlines peddling carbon offsets. It turns out the “offsets” are more like carbon ticks, carbon scratches or carbon bruises.

At prices of, say, $4 the airlines say you are offsetting the emission of your flight, but according to a New York Times source, it would have to be $200 or $300 for a flight from London to New York.

The lesson: Instead of looking at those claims with a keen eye, the Tank bought them as fact and caught a much-needed case of humility. (A humility that will last until it comes to the All-American moose hunter from Alaska. I’ll be back to cut her down shortly.)

G

Swine of the Week: T-Paw

With a fist full of mud and an arm cocked and ready to fire, Tim Pawlenty let er rip into Swine of the Week infamy!

On his not-so-veiled presidential campaign trip to Iowa last weekend, the Minnesota Governor was nothing but a lowly mud-slinging politician.

T-Paw, who didn’t have time for a special Legislative session to address health care in his own state, instead took pot shots at President Obama.

“My goodness, unless you’re a Guantanamo detainee they can’t even get us in a reasonable time a vaccine for the H1N1 virus,” Pawlenty said. ”How are they going to manage our health care?”

The utmost problem with T-Paw’s jab: It was incorrect. When he said it, detainees at Guantanamo Bay did not receive flu shots nor were they in line to, said Obama press secreatary Robert Gibbs in the week before T-Paw’s rant.

That somewhat changed Tuesday with the Petagon announcement of 300 vaccines destined for Cuba. However, they will not even cover the base’s soldiers and health care workers, much less its detainees, who are last in line.

Whatever. The point is that when Pawlenty ignores the facts, he looks like a further farce.

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From negative to noxious numbers: War deaths

55

The number of U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan in October marked the highest total in any month of the war.  The October tally raised the ever-growing total to more than 830 since the 2001 invasion.

That’s grim news indeed, but not as startling as what the Soviet Union encountered when they faced the same enemy during its 10-year war there.

13,000

The total of Soviet soldiers killed from 1979 to 1989. Sadly, the number of afflicted skyrocketed to more than 500,000 when the wounded and those addicted to Afghan’s vast supply of heroin were added.

The comparison of negative to noxious numbers is stressed now because of the pending decision from President Obama on whether to add more of America’s youth into combat zones.

Although this next quote from “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair is in reference to a war a century prior between Japan and Russia, the Tank thought of its timeless pertinence to current affairs.

“Realize it! Realize it! Realize that out upon the plains of Manchuria tonight two hostile armies are facing each other — that now, while we are seated here, a million human beings may be hurled at each other’s throats, striving with the fury of maniacs to tear each other to pieces! And this in the twentieth century, nineteen hundred years since the Prince of Peace preached as divine, and here two armies of men are rending and tearing each other like wild beasts of the forest! Philosophers have reasoned, prophets have denounced, poets have wept and pleaded — and still this hideous Monster roams at large! We have schools and colleges, newspapers and books; we have searched the heavens and the earth, we have weighed and probed and reasoned — and all to equip men to destroy each other! We call it War, and pass it by — but do not put me off with platitudes and conventions — come with me, come with me — realize it! See the bodies of men pierced by bullets, blown into pieces by bursting shells! Hear the crunching of the bayonet, plunged into human flesh; hear the groans and the shrieks of agony, see the faces of men crazed by pain of a man. This blood is still steaming — it was driven by a human heart! Almighty God! and this goes on — it is systematic, organized, premeditated! And we know it, and read of it, and take it for granted; our papers tell of it, and the presses are not stopped — our churches know of it, and do not close their doors — the people behold it, and do not rise up in horror and revolution!”

Last week, I had the privilege to listen to a first-hand account of war from a Vietnam veteran. The Tank watched as his eyes widened with intensity as he described his story about ”men pierced with bullets, blow into pieces by bursting shells.” Saw his face “crazed by pain of a man,” if you will.

The nearly 60-year-old man believes in service to country — either military or peace corp. – and he stressed the importance of Obama taking a thoughtful deliberation on whether to send more troops to theater.

During his ongoing deliberation, Obama took a rare trip Wednesday night to honor dead soldiers as they arrived in caskets from foreign countries. He called the rare trip a “sobering” reminder.

Let’s hope that reminder convinces him that the risk is higher than the rewards.

Keep the troops home so we don’t have to witness their “shrieks of agony.”

G