SMELLS LIKE BULLSHIT

I stole that from joe It cracks me up too.

I also have part 3 of the guest Blogger Tis...and I quote;

" I've refined and expanded my thoughts on John McCain. I would like to let this go, but he keeps bringing it up. I didn't intend this for posting, but I suppose I can't stop you. If you need me I'll be over there on the Group W bench.

Let me first comment on Senator McCain's military service. I did not serve in the military. I am humbled by young people who join the military today, knowing full well that they are likely to be put in harms way. (Solid props to Prince Harry.) I respect Senator McCain for his service. I can’t imagine what he had to endure at the hands of the North Vietnamese. I will stipulate that his time in North Vietnam was the polar opposite of Club Med. Nor do I question Senator McCain's love for his country. However, that by itself in no way guarantees he will be a good president.

However, the frequent mentions of his service and time in Vietnam bother me. Sometimes I get the feeling that he is trying to tell us his being a POW is a necessary attribute that no other candidate has. I half expect him to say "if Al Qaeda shoots down Air Force One and captures the President alive, I am the only candidate who has the experience to handle the situation." We get it John. You were a Navy pilot. You were shot down. You were beaten regularly for five years, and dang it you missed Woodstock. But how does that make you qualified to be president?

In addition, I am a little uncomfortable with this whole hero thing. Lieutenant Commander McCain destroyed his plane, was captured by enemy forces and taken to a prisoner of war camp. For this he is a hero? Unless he intended to fall from the sky and be captured, his mission was a failure. (A general rule of thumb for pilots is to make sure your number of landings is equal to your number of take-offs.)

Where does the hero part come from? For surviving five years of beatings? Somehow I always considered heroism a conscious act. I suppose struggling to stay alive through his imprisonment is a conscious act, but generally he was far from in control of the situation. I tend to view heroism as having an active element, and being a POW is a more passive. (If we examine the sentence “The North Vietnamese guard beat the prisoner,” we see that “guard” is the noun, “beat” is the verb, and “prisoner” is the object of the verb.) McCain had a state of the art fighting machine shot from beneath him, he didn’t charge into the enemy line with his bayonet fixed. That would be heroic!

Then there is the way Senator McCain uses his imprisonment to promote himself. Prior to the Kansas and Missouri caucus/primary the only McCain advertisement I heard on the radio was one relating a story from McCain’s imprisonment, and the story wasn’t really about McCain, it was about another soldier. (At least McCain did the voice work himself, eliminating the need for the annoying “I’m Dumbass O’Candidate, and I approved this message.”) I read that McCain’s first national ad for the general election was released last week, and go figure, it talks about his time as a POW. Why is it he always leads with the POW angle? I am not sure where that even fits in. He wasn’t Ambassador to North Vietnam, or Special Envoy, or even a top negotiator. He was a POW. How is that relevant to being elected president?

So, how is John McCain a hero, and why do we have to hear about it constantly? I’m serious here people, help me understand."

Peace out yo! ( 9 days and counting until Bouby and I are married)