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I would love to know why Anderson Cooper and his producers at CNN thought anyone in their audience would benefit from hearing what wingnut former Rep. Allen West had to say about the recent announcement that the Pentagon is removing military's ban on women serving in combat, given his background.

I don't know about anyone else, but someone who bragged about torturing Iraqi policemen is not the person I want to hear from when it comes to any matters involving our military, but here he was, on CNN, being treated like he's someone who's sane and credible, which he's not.

Allen West Slams Women In Combat ‘Social Experiment,’ Suggests They Should Also Join NHL And NBA:

Former Republican Congressman and Army veteran Allen West made his views about the recent decision to allow women to serve in combat roles known this morning on Twitter and Facebook. And tonight, he brought those views to CNN.

Appearing on Anderson Cooper 360 along with retired General Rick Hillier of the Canadian Forces, West laid out his opposition to the new rule, saying that with all of the budget issues the military is having right now, the focus shouldn’t be on “this foray into an inequality trip.”

West then went off into an extended sports metaphor that seemed to have both Anderson Cooper and General Hillier baffled:

“I have to tell you, if this is the case, then why do we have separate hockey leagues? Women should be out there playing ice hockey with the guys in the NHL. We should not have a WNBA. I can’t shoot a three-pointer, but there are ladies who could certainly take me to the hoop. Maybe they should be competing with Kobe Bryant.”

Cooper quickly steered the conversation back to the more practical concerns surrounding women in combat, asking Hillier if he had seen any advantages in his career working with women in combat. Read on...

I'm guessing there are a whole lot of people out there that would rather have a woman serving next to them in combat than a loose cannon like West. He's no longer in the Congress but it seems our corporate media isn't done allowing him to pollute our airways.

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Liz Trotta apparently doesn't have any remorse about her statements that John wrote about last week, where she said that women in the military should expect to be raped, and rather than apologize, she decided to double down and blame the liberals and feminists for her woes.

Via Raw Story -- In labored clarification, Fox contributor castigates military’s ‘fake heroism’:

Appearing on the Fox News show America’s News HQ, contributor Liz Trotta attempted to clarify remarks she made earlier this month that became fodder for The Daily Show, during which host Jon Stewart summarized that she did not want the military helping women who’ve been “raped too much.”

Unfortunately for the former Washington Times editor, what she actually said isn’t going to make the controversy go away — but then, that may have been the point.

After suggesting that the issue of women in military roles has “never gotten a fair and open hearing,” Trotta went on to say: “The political correctness infecting the Pentagon has resulted in silly and dishonest fairy tales about female heroism,” she said. “Has anyone forgotten the Jessica Lynch story?”

“There are countless other stories of fake heroism or exaggerated prowess in which women are the stars, many of them tailored for The New York Times and its agenda to promote militant feminism, no matter what the truth,” Trotta added.

And here's more via Mediaite -- Fox’s Liz Trotta Clarifies Remarks About Women In The Military:

Later in her appearance, Trotta noted that:

The military is not a social services operation, or a testing ground for gender wars. It is a fighting machine. Women are not as strong as men. Their instincts and reactions in crises are markedly different. There’s a reality the left will not face: biology is not destiny.

“I certainly did not say all military men are rapists,” she added. “I believe that the environment of combat, by definition, sets up the situation where basic instincts rule. Any scientist will tell you that testosterone rules.”

Good grief. Looks like wingnut Louie "Terror Babies" Gohmert is at it again with the conspiracy theories.

Rep. Gohmert: Libya Goal Is To "Deplete The Military" So Obama Can Call Up Private Army:

Last night on the House floor, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) offered a bizarre new theory about President Obama's decision to intervene in the Libyan crisis. In the midst of a rant about health care reform, Gohmert nonsensically suggested that Obama might be trying to "deplete the military" in Libya, so he can call up the Commission Corps established in the Affordable Care Act:

GOHMERT: It's a bad bill. And then when you find out that the prior Congress not only passed that 2,800 page bill with all kinds of things in it, including a new president's commissioned officer corps and non-commissioned officer corps. Do we really need that? I wondered when I read that in the bill. But then when you find out we're being sent to Libya to use our treasure and American lives there, maybe there's intention to so deplete the military that we're going to need that presidential reserve officer commissioned corps and non-commissioned corps that the president can call up on a moment's notice involuntarily, according to the Obamacare bill.

Despite the claims in right-wing chain emails, the health care law did not give Obama some sort of "private army." The legislation did create the Ready Reserve Corps, a new component of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, but there was nothing nefarious about it. The purpose of the Ready Reserve Corps is simply to make the Public Health Service — which previously "did not have a reserve component to call upon" in times of crisis — better prepared to respond to emergencies.

Repealing "don't ask, don't tell" is one more popular bill Congress somehow manages to snatch from the jaws of victory.

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Karl Rove goes after President Obama for spending Memorial Day in Chicago instead of at Arlington and tells everyone how much the military loves our former warmonger and chickenhawk-in-chief with this fable.

Rove: I know that there's some concern in the military that they don't feel that he sort of gets it. There's an emotional bond between any Commander in Chief and the military. There is a professional bond, there's a Constitutional bond, but there's also an emotional bond and this President sometimes I think that relationship is strained. I'm struck by how many people I see when I go through airports in military uniforms that come up to me and say "Please tell my former Commander in Chief I miss him". And I appreciate the kind sentiments towards President Bush but it also disturbs me a little bit, but I get a sense that they don't feel as they have a close relationship with the Commander in Chief as they used to have.

Gee Karl, maybe if he decided to play dress up and pretended to land an aircraft on a flight carrier that would all change. I believe military personnel are approaching Karl Rove in airports and telling him they miss Bush about as much as I believe he didn't help out Valerie Plame.

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Media Matters asks the right question about Tony Perkins and his buddy Peter Sprigg from the Family Research Council -- Why are the media hosting anti-gay bigots to comment on DADT?:

Media have turned to conservatives with histories of making bigoted, anti-gay remarks to comment on Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mike Mullen's February 2 testimony on repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT). Those commentators include Family Research Council (FRC) president Tony Perkins, who had claimed that the "real issue" regarding the scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley's (R-FL) interactions with congressional pages is the purported "link between homosexuality and child sexual abuse," and FRC senior fellow Peter Sprigg, who once said that he preferred to "export homosexuals" rather than "import them."

[...]

Perkins repeatedly cites unit cohesion canard on CNN. In a February 2 appearances on CNN Newsroom and CNN's Larry King Live, Perkins repeated the talking point that repealing DADT would undermine unit cohesion.

Studies indicate that decisions to lift gay bans in other countries and allow open service have not undermined "morale or unit cohesion." In an award-winning essay published in the fourth quarter 2009 issue of Joint Force Quarterly -- which is "published for the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, by the Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University" -- Col. Om Prakash writes of DADT that "the stated premise of the law -- to protect unit cohesion and combat effectiveness -- is not supported by any scientific studies." Indeed, as Media Matters for America has documented, at least 25 nations - including more than a dozen North America Treaty Organization member countries - allow openly gay people to serve in their armed forced. Multiple studies of the impact of the decisions to lift bans on gays and lesbians serving openly in those countries have indicated that, in the words of one General Accounting Office report, "the inclusion of homosexuals in their militaries has not adversely affected unit readiness, effectiveness, cohesion, or morale." Read on...

Transcript below the fold via CNN.

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Rachel Maddow talks to Jeremy Scahill about the latest revelations that private military contractors are being used for security services in Haiti and will likely end up getting contracts for reconstruction as well.

MADDOW: A CIA-linked private security contractor called Evergreen Defense and Security Services E-mailed Oregon County elections director offering to provide private for-profit security at every county election office on voting day tomorrow.

Quote, “EDSS proposes to post sentries at each voting center on November 4th to assure that disputes among citizens do not get out of control. All guards will be unarmed but capable of stopping any violence that may occur and detaining troublemakers until law enforcement arrives.”

Do you guys know that Oregon‘s the only vote-by-mail state, right?

You‘re going to post a guard at every mailbox?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

That was last election eve. Today, that same company, Evergreen, is making news again. “Aviation Week” reporting that they are flying a surveillance drone over Haiti. “Wired.com” followed up on that. They were told by the company that it did not, in fact, have any drones in Haiti.

So then, we followed up with the company and they split the difference telling us that the drone was on its way there today and that the drone‘s battery is expected to arrive tomorrow. These are not armed drones or anything. There‘s nothing wrong with this type of equipment being used in surveying and planning relief efforts.

But since Evergreen rang the cookie contractor bell big time with its offer to detain troublemakers on Election Day in a state where people vote by mail, it got us wondering, who else in the contracting world is in Haiti.

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Good Christian Mike Huckabee had himself a nice little laugh over the idea of torturing the Christmas underwear bomber. Via News Hounds--Former Pastor Mike Huckabee Jokes About Torturing The Christmas Underwear Bomber:

In a discussion about whether or not the Christmas underwear bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, should have been held by the military instead of a civilian prison, Mike Huckabee sounded more like Jack Bauer than a former pastor. First, Huckabee argued that the suspect should be held by the military in order to get him to “sing like a canary.” He continued, “Frankly, I’d rather the military or the CIA take him and do whatever they need to do, including fill his underpants back up with whatever explosive and put him in a field and let a U.S. Marine detonate it if they have to, get this guy to talk." Huckabee allowed as how "I'm being a little facetious about that… but my point being, we want him to talk.” Not only did neither of the two Democratic guests object, at least one of them laughed. With video.

Huckabee added, “It’s not that we don’t want to give him some (my emphasis) civil treatment, because we are a country that does that, but I do think that that’s our problem (meaning that if he’s not held by the military and, presumably, treated harshly, he won’t “sing like a canary.”

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So just who would Jesus "detonate" Huck? Man of god my ass. Fox News... all pro-torture all the time with the rest of the networks running right behind them to keep up. Gotta' keep that fear ratcheted up don't you know.

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October 28, 2009 FOX News

From The Daily Show Oct. 6, 2009. Jon Stewart whacks President Obama for saying he's got too much on his plate to revoke "don't ask, don't tell".