Also, if you want more concise thoughts on tonight or you just can’t get enough, Dick’s got his impressions up on his blog as well.
Make sure you submit questions at the BMG thread dedicated to the Health Care debate which takes places a week from this Saturday! The event is in Hudson and bloggers are taking over mooching the glory co-sponsoring the event!
Please share widely!
I was also at the debate last night as part of the Eldridge team of volunteers, but I have to correct you that Niki Tsongas specifically said that she supports “Senator” Jim McGovern’s plan.
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Miceli seemed insane, and I accidentally started laughing out loud at one point because he said something so ridiculous.
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I meant to talk to Jamie afterwards about, but as far as I could tell, NONE of the candidates answered the draft question. They all just referred to “if we want an all volunteer army” in various ways, none actually saying if a draft would be good or not, which was unfortunate.
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I thought Jamie did great, and Niki had some good moments on immigration and the war (though her approach to dealing with social and economic justice issues is far too hands-off). Eileen Donoghue had a good presence, she looks the part, but I didn’t hear much from her either way. If Jamie doesn’t win the nomination, I think either of them would serve the district well. However, Barry Finegold lost my hypothetical support completely with his anti-immigrant “secure the border first” statement.
I must have written it down wrong or didn’t write down that phrase from her specifically – it was hard keeping up with a pen. Me wanty laptop! I apologize.
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Part of my impression of her position is from the Sun article which says that Eldridge and Donoghue are for more immediate withdrawal and Tsongas is more cautious.
How many of these people have the feintest idea what they are talking about regarding ANY aspect of the military.
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I also further wonder how many folks here that comment on the miltary have ever served—–I’m talking combat arms not fueling planes at Elmendorf or pulling buoys out of Nantucket Sound for maintenance.
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It never ceases to amaze me that people opine on a subject that they have zero knowledge of. Do they just like the sound of their own voice?
I shall immediately cease to talk about anything military. In a similar vein, I shall push to ban all talk about history pre-1885, as none alive today ever experienced it. Similarly, the study of biology shall be strictly forbidden, as none of us here have every been a frog or a bird.
This was a forum held by Citizens for Civic Courage, a veterans group interested support services for veterans. I don’t know if any of the candidates had served in the millitary, though Tsongas and Donoghue’s fathers were in World War 2, and Miceli’s son is a recent veteran, but the audience was at least third veterans (if not close to a half), from Korea and Vietnam and the Gulf and a couple from recent wars, and many of the others had children that were recent veterans or still serving. They invited all the candidates there, primarily to see what they would do help make sure all veteran’s get the services they deserve, and how they would bring the troops home from Iraq, among other issues. The candidates need to have studied what their potential role in veterans’ affiars is, it’s part of leading and legislating, and if any of them had been talking nonsense and showing they really didn’t have any idea what they were talking about, you had a room full of very well-informed people that would have called them on it.
How many of these people have the feintest idea what they are talking about regarding ANY aspect of the military.
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Just when did it become a requirement for any US citizen to question the manner in which the US forces (including the mercenaries–er–“contractors”) are used, or the goals that they are supposed to achieve? It strikes me that the government should take into account the advice from the professional military in considering how the military should be used and whether the goals are realizable, but that does not preclude others from opining as to the manner and goals.
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War is politics carried out by other means –Clausewitz
…it’s faintist, not feintist. “Faint” and “feint” are both words, and are homonyms, but they mean very different things.
…Just when did it become a requirement for any US citizen to question the manner in which the US forces (including the mercenaries–er–“contractors”) are used, or the goals that they are supposed to achieve?
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should have been
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Just when did it become a requirement for any US citizen to question the manner in which the US forces (including the mercenaries–er–“contractors”) are used, or the goals that they are supposed to achieve, to have the feintist idea about the military, or to have served in the military? (emphasis added.