A Few Items

- No where in the world last night were there more cowards in one building.

Senior Bush adviser Karl Rove planned to address a Concordia College gathering Tuesday night. It was organized by the Concordia Conservatives and College Republicans. He was expected to fill a 700-seat auditorium on the Moorhead campus.

- When you use words like "hip" or "cool", you are neither.

“Republicans have the stereotype of being old pudgy men who sit around. That’s just not true. Look at all the young people at the Tea Parties. The Democrats have the young and sexy image, but as a whole, Americans are pretty conservative. My focus is to make being a Republican hip and cool again.”

- Another GOP candidate jumps into the race in Ethan Hastert's district. Poor Ethan thought running on his daddy's name would scare others away.

State Sen. Randall Hultgren, R-Wheaton, will add his candidacy to the already-crowded Republican field seeking to reclaim its 14th Congressional District from Democrats next year.

- Marco Rubio, the man who won't give an opinion about the wars Our Country is in, seems to be polling well within the GOP.

Though he's trailed Crist by double figures in polls of Florida Republicans, when it comes to the people active in the Florida Party, Rubio, a former speaker of the Florida House, has wowed them with speeches full of values such as fiscal restraint, social conservatism, strength abroad, and opposition to massive government intrusions into the economy such as cap and trade, which Crist fancies. In straw votes among eight county Republican executive committees, Rubio has swamped Crist 358 to 32. In Hernando County, just one county away from Crist's home county of Pinellas, Rubio pitched a 46-0 shutout.

The nonsense that continues.

What a goddamn joke. As though the Air Force would be better off if he got the boot.

Fehrenbach faced anti-aircraft fire, surface-to-air missiles and a mechanical problem on his wingman's plane. Still, the weapons systems officer aboard the plane helped destroy the enemy position and helped clear the way for the Army to take the airport that night. For his heroism, the Notre Dame grad won an Air Medal with a valor device, one of his nine Air Medals.

Five years later, Fehrenbach confronted a crisis in a very different setting. A Boise police detective sat across a conference table questioning him about an alleged crime.

Fehrenbach, stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base, was in a Catch-22. To clear himself of the claim he'd raped a man, Fehrenbach could tell police his side of the story. But admitting he'd had consensual sex could get him kicked out of the Air Force he loved after 18 years.

Credible Leaders. All of them.

NOTE TO ETHAN HASTERT: You can serve our country in uniform AND hold office.

As mortar fire and rockets bombarded 1st Lt. Jonathan Paton's Iraq camp, he got an urgent call on his cell phone: He had won re-election.

"There's all this drama going on outside, and this stupid thing started ringing right by me. It was the chair of our county party, and she said, 'You won, you won!'" said Paton, a Republican Arizona state senator who has since been promoted to captain. "I had to pretend everything was fine. I didn't want to sound like I was going to die."

Paton, a 38-year-old intelligence officer in the Army Reserves, is one of 65 state legislators nationwide who pull double duty by serving in the United States military at the same time as they hold elected office, according to a survey obtained by The Associated Press and to be released this week.

This will be Matt Continetti's future (and present)

OYE has well documented the cowardice of Matt Continetti, the Weekly Standard writer who was famously called out on CNBC. He's not going to surprise us by finally stepping up and enlisting, we know this since the guy is encapable of defending himself from a mosquito, much less defending Our Country.

So after reading Glenn Greenwald's post destroying the chickenhawk, David Brooks, we couldn't help but think this type of well-deserved mockery will be in Continetti's future as a pundit.

In today's New York Times, the grizzled warrior David Brooks performs a chest-beating war dance over Afghanistan of the type he and his tough guy comrades perfected in the run-up to the Iraq War. It's filled with self-glorifying "war-is-hell" neocon platitudes that make the speaker feel tough and strong. No more hiding like cowards in our bases. It's time to send "small groups of American men and women outside the wire to dangerous places." Those opposing escalation are succumbing to the "illusion of the easy path." Chomping on a cigar in his war room, he roars: "all out or all in." The central question: will we "surrender the place to the Taliban?," etc. etc

Credit where due

At OYE we're used to pouncing on a dumbazz College Republican when they make a statement like....

"It's important to remember September 11 and the war in Afghanistan," said Ryan Alban, co-founder of the College Republicans. "If a student or faculty member stopped just for a moment, we'll feel like we're doing our job."

But not in this case. We'd like to thank Mr. Alban for his commitment to ROTC.

See. Only about 99 out of 100 College Republicans suck.

Father and Daughter Deploy Together

A true Patriotic family. Unlike the pizza-inhaling Kagan's.

It was a few months after 9/11, and I just felt my calling,” the 24-year-old specialist said.

Now, Heather and her father, Sgt. Major Alvin Zimmerman, both of West Fargo, are embarking on their first military deployment together – as part of the 650 North Dakota National Guard soldiers going to Kosovo this fall for a yearlong peacekeeping mission.

Retro Republican

Remember this guy, Shawn Fago, maybe the most thin-skinned person we ever featured? President of the Orange County YR's?

Well guess what? A SoCal radio station has given him a time slot every Sunday during an hour no one listens too. Congrats, Shawn. We feel proud when one of our featured fools gets all grown up.

Feel free to give him a buzz between 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM Pacific Time and encourage him to BE A MAN! ENLIST! And Shawn, if you ever need a guest don't hesitate to contact OYE.

Radio Station # (877) 883-0830

Zach gets 'big time' on us

We've been wondering where CRNC Chairman, Zach Howell, has been. We haven't seen an email from him in weeks and he hasn't engaged in sophomoric theatre like the former OYE punching bag, Charlie Smith.

Whelp, we caught up with Zach on the teevee having been put in a position of defending Congressman Joe Wilson.



Nice spin, Zach. Now use your newfound C-List celebrity status and send us a motivational email or two.

GI Bill Problems

Some major issues with the new GI Bill (HT: LT Nixon). The Obama administration had better address this nonsense immediately, if not sooner.

From fobbits need ice cream too:

The post 9/11 GI Bill is fantastic if you are coming off Active Duty or have been a reservist long enough to earn 36 months of active duty time through deployments or other activations. For me, I only have 18 months of active duty time and the REAP (CH. 1607) is more money for me. If I could get it. Previously, I had CH 1606 which is the non-combat veteran GI Bill that was right around $500 with my kicker ($506 exactly if I'm not mistaken). With 12+ months of deployment time, I became eligible for the 1607 benefits which is about $800 with my kicker. To get this, you simply (SIMPLY) re-apply for GI Bill benefits through the VA for the CH. 1607. You relinquish your 1606 benefits and receive 1607 benefits, supposedly.

I say supposedly because I applied the day after we got back stateside for de-mob. I received a letter about three months later telling me I would be getting 1606 benefits. I re-applied again. I heard nothing for 5 more months. I got a letter telling me I would be getting 1606 benefits deposited in a bank account that was not mine. I called the VA number on the letter for issues and waited on hold for 39 minutes. The dude on the phone told me that I needed to apply for 1607 benefits on the website. A frustrated sigh and then I try to tell him that the GI Bill money will be going into a bank account that isn't mine. He asks me for my new information. Again, I insist that this isn't new information, it is MY information, as the # on this letter isn't my bank account number. He takes my SSN, name, new bank account information, and then asks me to verify the bank account number and routing number. I tell him this is impossible because this isn't my bank account, it's a bunch of asterisks and the last 4 of a bank account number that I don't know. He asks if I need time to find the information in my files. Privately, I wonder if this guy is a fucking retard or something. Possibly some sort of robot programmed to treat anyone that calls like an asshole until they hang up or maybe even just a brick wall. He gives me 30 seconds; literally, he says he has to terminate the call in 30 seconds to help other veterans if I cannot find the information. I tell him I guess I'll have to call back. I wait on hold for 39 minutes and spend less than one minute talking to this guy, and solve neither issue. 5 minutes later, I had updated all this information on the GI Bill website with no verification needed at all. The VA rep at my school had some "bypass all the stupid assholes and red tape" button on his fax machine that got my GI Bill upgraded in under one minute, hopefully. Attendance verification is at the end of the month so we'll see then. I'll assume I'll be stuck with my pockets turned inside out like all the folks that took a crap shoot on the post 9/11 GI Bill and got boned.

Army of Dude experienced similar difficulty.

Many student veterans are still dealing with issues that are systemic of a large bureaucracy where answers to common questions are lost in the shuffle. The first and last contact for veterans is the school certifying official on their campus. As evidenced in my previous post, the professionalism and tenacity of these officials vary greatly from campus to campus. Some give wise advice, some go the extra mile for the veterans they assist. Some, like mine, laugh at legitimate questions and wait until the last minute to certify enrollment. As this generation of veterans is painfully realizing, you roll the dice any time you interact with the VA system.Last week I had another opportunity to speak with Keith Wilson, the Veterans Benefits Administration Director of Education Service at the VA. I compiled a list of questions for him to answer, some from me, some from other veterans that have similar problems but haven't received satisfying answers.

No "Dear John" Letter for this guy

Even a cardboard cutout is more man than Ethan Hastert or Anthony Mantova.

Staff Sgt. Patrick Thomas' girlfriend is cheating on him, well, with him.

A cardboard version of the war vet stationed in Iraq, that is.

Anne Schollard, who lives in Jacksonville, carries her new cardboard man everywhere she goes - the beach, movies or on a plane. As you can expect, she gets all kinds of crazy looks from people who think she has truly lost it.

OYE Comment: Staff Sgt. Thomas is a VERY lucky dude.

Hollow Words

Marco Rubio, Republican candidate for Senator, offers his thoughts on protecting the United States. Too bad he's not offering to put his ass where his mouth is.

The world remains a dangerous place amidst the persistent threat of violent jihadists. As we remember 9/11, we should find a renewed and reinvigorated sense of purpose for the greatest of all causes – protecting America and our way of life.

Don't Tread On Him

[photo removed at subject's request]

Let me introduce you to [Firstname Lastname], a man that has possibly eaten his weight in boogers over his lifetime. He likes to talk tough into a webcam while giving it a hard look. But like a lot of 'tough guys' [Firstname] has comment moderation on his website and never posted my question about him serving Our Country in uniform.

Here's an example of [Lastname]'s manliness:



Check out this poser's YouTube page and, if you have a YouTube account, feel free to leave him a comment. Maybe you can even become his friend on Facebook?

Update: We have deleted the name and photo at the request of the subject, who appears to recognize that we had a point.

Unknown Tough Guy College Republican

You'll shoot your eye out, kid.

OYE Hall of Famer - Jason Mattera

Jaybird has a website! How'd we not know this before? Especially after all we've written about him. Sadly, he hasn't created a post in a long time, so we're assuming he's in bootcamp (wink-wink). We tried to leave a comment, but it's waiting his moderation. Maybe you might have better luck?

Patriot Axiom

Late last week a mostly nonsensical comment was left by someone called "Patriot Axiom". Since I'm a sucker for tracking down the stupidity of our Youthy Republicans I checked out their blog. Turned out to be just another College Republican site with lots of YouTubes and Facebook friends, blah-blah-blah.

Although one thing I found amusing was how many times they used longtime time OYE troll, Leigh Wolf, as a label. Out of all the posts they created Leigh came up 2nd most often. It's like they're Leigh Wolf historians.

If you're not familiar with Leigh here's a quick rundown: he mostly has a sense of humor, but in a prick kind-of-way. He said he's a US Marine Reservist and we believe him since all of his gutless college buds tend to hide behind him. Leigh's biggest achievement was harassing Sean Penn at some lame speaking engagement (see below), but apparently this was enough to garner Patriot Axiom's admiration.

Credible White House Aide

Hopefully a future leader in Our Country.

Matt Flavin oversaw a 450-person intelligence unit in Bosnia, deployed overseas with the Navy SEALs and survived combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. But the challenge now facing the 29-year-old is in Washington, where he is charged with helping President Obama make good on his pledge to expand veterans' benefits.

If this gig doesn't work out daddy will find something for Ethan

(Eatin' Hastert? Check out the belly hanging over the belt.)

Evidently the people in Illinois' 14th Congressional District are not impressed with Ethan Hastert. It's nice to know nepotism will get someone only so far.


From the Daily Herald comment section:

Cant this guy find a real job and not get dragged on daddys coat tails. Republicans in this district need to find qualified candidates and forget about some family dynasty for the Hasterts. Other than his last name I cant see why anyone thinks he is in the running.

Cant daddy find him a nice lobbying job like the overpaid lobbyist in DuPage county?

Most of the 70+ comments within the Daily Chronicle article featuring Ethan aren't too kind, either.

We should vote the new generation in? How about someone w/out family ties first.

Not a good start, Ethan. Perhaps had he carved his own path, doing something his old man never did, like enlisting, Ethan would have the credibility to ask the constituents for their votes.

FL-Sen Candidate Marco Rubio Dodging the Issues

Former Speaker of the Florida State House, Marco Rubio, is a go on running for the United States Senate. OYE perused Marco's positions on the issues to treat ourselves to the same Republican talking points the last 5 generations have endured- provide the wealthy tax shelters, pave the Gulf of Mexico, drill a polar bear's head if it contains oil, et cetera-et cetera.

There is one glaring omission from the issues Mr. Rubio chose to give a position on- absolutely no mention of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If Mr. Rubio wishes to represent a state with a large population of Veterans and active duty servicemen you'd think he'd have formed some thoughts on The Wars being important enough to mention as "an issue" on his campaign site? Oh well, we suppose it's unsurprising at this point after all those we've documented here on OYE. Although it's possible that since Marco never served Our Country in uniform he may believe holding that mini-American Flag is a strong showing of Patriotism.

Feel welcome to contact Marco and ask him why The Wars do not merit being listed as an issue.

UPDATE: Neglected to mention that Mr. Rubio is just 38 years old. He still has 3 years to Be a Man! Enlist! if he so chooses.

RIP Sgt. Bill Cahir

A bit off topic, but certainly worth noting the life and sacrifice of Bill Cahir. Too bad he didn't win his primary for the 5th Congressional District in PA. His type of credible leadership is needed in Washington, DC.

You almost have to read Bill's story to believe it. The son of two civic-minded parents from outside State College, Bill went to Washington right out of college. When the partisanship and shallowness became too much to bear, he took a job as a reporter covering his home region of Pennsylvania from D.C. But after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he did not feel right sitting on the sidelines. His country had been attacked, as one friend told me, and he felt the overriding need to do something about it.

So after a long internal struggle over how to heed this calling, and fairly soon after meeting the woman he would marry, Bill Cahir, at age 34, joined the Marine Corps Reserves.

"We all thought he was crazy," said another friend. So did the Corps commanders. They made him take a psychological test to prove he was of sound mind. His suspicious drill instructors at Parris Island punished him with special fervor, trying to break him. But they misjudged Bill.