I have to hope though there is indeed some. I don’t disagree with “all” conservative views or agree with “all” liberal ones (I’m pro death penalty for one).

I’m not fluent enough in economics to know how much water Fred’s statement about taxing business having exactly the same effect (because this is what hes is saying with that statement) as taxing people, so I won’t say much there.

I will say that, from all the Obama tax stuff I have looked through, he looks to be planning on giving great breaks to small businesses. Maybe nothing to big ones – but in my opinion they’ve gotten a little out of hand lately, and could do with a little more policing and possibly taxation.

I’m a pisser to argue with, as my wife would surely tell you, because I like to go through each point a person says and analyze it. In the case of Fred’s statement, I’d like to see what exactly he is referring to – documentation from the Obama camp on how they’ll tax business for one thing, then an economic analysis or three that looks at if the taxation from both sides really has the same effect. Without seeing those things, he’s just kind of talking out of his ass IMHO and trying to rile people up (which is, admittedly what politics is all about – sadly).

I’m on vacation in Maui at the moment, but maybe when I get home I’ll see what I can find about this issue.

Sometimes I wonder if we READ a speech not knowing who presented it, would we have a totally different view???

I too have a blog and I’m looking for “the other view”, but many times the other view comes with a real attitude and I cannot post them. I don’t get that feeling from your blog. I try to read the huffington post and daily coz, but I just cannot get past the hatred of the right.

If you have time, please take a minute to read my post on Thompson: http://www.keithjennison.com/2008/09/fred-thompsons-best-line/

I have a little different approach to my posts… short and sweet (and I must admit, conservative).

Note: Feel free to edit or nofollow the link above.

Your comment didn’t add anything to the conversation, but it seems like your site may be legit and you aren’t a spam bot, so I’ll allow it.

We may not agree, but I deeply appreciate your ability to debate my points without resorting to insult and mud slinging.

Yes, I clearly lack a military background and therefore cannot speak with authority on those issues. Does that mean I should ignore them? Trust in my elected “betters” and blindly follow their decisions? I hope not.

I realize my questioning of McCains label as a “hero” will offend some and frankly, I’m not real excited to talk about it BUT he’s gone and made in a (if not “the”) freaking central “issue” (big quote-y hands here) of the campaign, like it somehow qualifies him for president.

What he did took a lot of guts, and it something that probably the majority of people wouldn’t have made it through (although I do actually have a high degree of faith in the human spirit, and believe that almost anyone can achieve greatness when they are truly tested as long as they believe in something, be it a vision of America, or dreams of seeing a family again, or a god or whatever). I’m not denying that.

I’m specifically questioning the much thrown about term “war hero”. There are other, much farther fringe folks who go even farther. I’m not going there, but I’m willing to at least ask the questions.

Speaking of there, what do you as a military man say about the site in question? Is it all just a bunch of BS, or do they bring up some valid questions? MSM and even most bloggers are staying far away from this topic, so I have little to go on.

As for the code of conduct, I apologize if my reading is too literal (Maybe I’ve been brainwashed into ‘literalism’ by all this creation vs. evolution stuff in the media lately! Sorry, too easy to pass up ;p). As a military outsider, all I have to go on are the bylaws.

In particular what I’ve been looking for is how people have been punished (or if they were punished at all) for breaking any of these bylaws or, if they are merely suggestions. I’m also curious if he recieved different treatment than his fellow soldiers because of his father’s rank.

I know torture is horrible, you don’t have to be a military person to know that – but I have to think that you sign up for the military willing to defend your country with your life – if you’re not willing to do this then your excuses are limited. That includes being tortured. I mean, if I were to enlist in this day in age, I would kind of expect Muslim Fundamentalists to torture me if I was captured – they don’t seem to hold human life in the same high regard we, as a country, generally do.

Feel free to debate my positions as you have time, and I’ll try to respond. Unlike like many modern Americans, I enjoy a good discussion, and don’t have a problem with disagreeing with me. I’m also relatively new to the political arena, this being the first race I’ve seriously watched with this kind of scrutiny.

Also, as to being tortured for the entire the five and a half years – there is some debate as to whether he was tortured the entire time. There are two fellow PoWs on the record as saying they don’t believe that he was tortured when in one of the camps, which they were in with him….ahh here’s the quote:

March 25, 1999, The Phoenix New Times: Ted Guy and Gordon “Swede” Larson, two former POWs, who were McCain’s senior ranking officers (SRO’s), at the time McCain says he was tortured in solitary confinement, told the New Times that while they could not guarantee that McCain was not physically harmed, they doubted it.
“Between the two of us, it’s our belief, and to the best of our knowledge, that no prisoner was beaten or harmed physically in that camp [known as "The Plantation"],” Larson says. “. . . My only contention with the McCain deal is that while he was at The Plantation, to the best of my knowledge and Ted’s knowledge, he was not physically abused in any way. No one was in that camp. It was the camp that people were released from.”

Sorry to be picking nits, but politicians can do wondrous with a simple distortion, and I’m trying to be factual here.

I’m trying to track down more info on the whole “songbird” nickname, as the few bits I’ve found about it say that he had given out enough info to have been given that nickname by his peers (??). I’ll see what I can find.

All that being said, though, I couldn’t — just couldn’t leave without assailing your idea of the “Military Code” and what it means to be a “hero,” and (most blasphemous of all) your concept of “caving.”

I am a 15-year member of the active-duty military. I have served (repeatedly) in both theaters of war — Iraq and Afghanistan — in addition to other, special backwater hellholes in which people reside whose only driving force in life is to deprive me and you of ours. I have attended and graduated from all number of survival courses and schools in which I was taught how to resist interrogation and torture. Consequently, brother: I speak with authority on this topic, whereas you most brilliantly did not.

You quoted Article 5 of the Code of Conduct. To wit: When questioned, should I become a prisoner of war, I am required to give name, rank, service number, and date of birth. I will evade answering further questions to the utmost of my ability.

Please note the “to the utmost of my ability” part. It is cogent to my argument. We in the uniformed service of our Nation are enjoined to resist questioning as much as we can, but we must also — in a solitude you absolutely cannot imagine — determine for ourselves how beneficial absolute refusal would be for ourselves, our fellow prisoners, our unit and service, and our Nation. There is both art and skill in “stringing it along,” and reluctantly refusing to give information that would otherwise — in the real sense — be benign. Such information may include the name of a parent unit, etc., as you question McCain for divulging.

Consider: you are a prisoner and being tortured for information. You are being forced to proffer information; refusing to do so will result not only in YOUR torture, but also the torture or killing of Joey in the cell next to you, or perhaps even the entire complement of fellow prisoners. Would you just clam up? It is not “caving” as you so blithely suggest to buy one’s self and one’s fellow countrymen time. Especially when you place the conduct in a band of over FIVE YEARS.

Questioning McCain’s “heroism” and instead malevolently reducing it to just “survival” is insulting. For FIVE AND ONE HALF YEARS, for every single moment of his life, he was imprisoned, tortured, beaten, separated. Perhaps your concept of five years is just taking a little too long to earn your Bachelors. Consider how many memories you have of that time. Consider how many parties you attended, how many conversations you had, how many dates you enjoyed, how many steak dinners you ate, how many newspapers you read… and replace ALL of them with but a cell barely large enough to contain your shattered body.

And that he refused early release somehow never made it into your well-considered analysis of McCain’s heroism.

Apart from all politics, I will defend John McCain’s status as a “hero” until my dying breath. Just as I would a serviceman that “caved”. Just as I would you, despite proffering an opinion inexcusably ignorant of what service to the country in the face of unimaginably horrifying adversity really, truly means.