above and beyond the call of duty

Phil • Jan 6, 2007 1:44 pm
you'd think they'd fuckin check this out before causing even more heartache.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6237607.stm

The US Army is to apologise to the families of officers killed or wounded in action who were sent letters urging them to return to active duty.
orthodoc • Jan 6, 2007 1:59 pm
Phil;304852 wrote:
you'd think they'd fuckin check this out before causing even more heartache.


If you read the article, they did 'check it out'. They reviewed and edited a database, and then some clerk used the wrong list for the letters in December.

It was an error, not policy.
Phil • Jan 6, 2007 2:17 pm
orthodoc;304856 wrote:
If you read the article, they did 'check it out'. They reviewed and edited a database, and then some clerk used the wrong list for the letters in December.

It was an error, not policy.


and that makes it ok? and i did read it.
yesman065 • Jan 6, 2007 2:45 pm
Uh, oops. Sorry. Whats the big deal? There was a clerical error made. Maybe it was because all the "W's" were missing from their keyboards.
tw • Jan 6, 2007 8:36 pm
yesman065;304873 wrote:
Maybe it was because all the "W's" were missing from their keyboards.
Missing W's was another lie to mask a destructive and intentionally hateful act. Bad example if you are trying to justify a clerical error so significant.
richlevy • Jan 6, 2007 11:07 pm
What they're saying is that it's too difficult to keep up with the number of people being killed and wounded, which is astounding because in WWI the allied losses in the Battle of the Marne were about 250,000.
xoxoxoBruce • Jan 6, 2007 11:33 pm
No, they were keeping up. I wonder why the old list hadn't been destroyed? Back up, maybe? Or maybe the guy that was supposed to do that, is off fighting in Iraq? ;)
yesman065 • Jan 7, 2007 12:31 am
tw;304923 wrote:
Missing W's was another lie to mask a destructive and intentionally hateful act. Bad example if you are trying to justify a clerical error so significant.

Someone made a gross error and I was making a joke - sorry you missed it.

What was the "destructive and intentionally hateful act" you are referring to?
rkzenrage • Jan 7, 2007 12:37 am
If we did the right thing and left this would not happen. Not by Americans... then they could continue killing each other instead of us.
Urbane Guerrilla • Jan 8, 2007 3:37 am
I guess tw only gets the jokes when he's making them. I got it.

If I liked that man, I'd worry about him...
Phil • Jan 8, 2007 6:41 am
yesman065;304873 wrote:
Uh, oops. Sorry. Whats the big deal? There was a clerical error made. Maybe it was because all the "W's" were missing from their keyboards.



if you had a family member who was killed out there, then received another call up, would you consider it just "a clerical error"?
yesman065 • Jan 8, 2007 4:55 pm
Of course not Phil, but I wouldn't make a thread out of it either. Some poor lowly person made a mistake and you are all going off about it and so on. Gimme a break. Its pathetic really.
tw • Jan 8, 2007 6:49 pm
yesman065;304978 wrote:
Someone made a gross error and I was making a joke - sorry you missed it.

What was the "destructive and intentionally hateful act" you are referring to?
I got the joke and moved on to the bigger joke - that so many never understood involving those missing W's on White House keyboards in Jan 2001. Do you remember that the 'joke' was also a joke public's grasp of the news? It was done so that Democrats could not find jobs in private industry. I was done intentionally - and then spun so that the public was also a victim of the joke.
yesman065 • Jan 8, 2007 8:35 pm
tw, you are just full of valuable info! I looked into it and the story was overblown by the press.
Urbane Guerrilla • Jan 9, 2007 4:26 am
tw;305469 wrote:
It was done so that Democrats could not find jobs in private industry. I[t] was done intentionally - and then spun so that the public was also a victim of the joke.


Spinning conspiracy theory again, I see, and still needing copy editing. Who do you think buys that stuff, tw? Pasty-faced basement-dwellers who never heard of the Backspace key like yourself? You should do like I do and get out under God's sun a little more.
Phil • Jan 9, 2007 2:34 pm
yesman065;305442 wrote:
Of course not Phil, but I wouldn't make a thread out of it either. Some poor lowly person made a mistake and you are all going off about it and so on. Gimme a break. Its pathetic really.


its not about the dozy official who made a mistake, its about the relatives of dead soldiers.
yesman065 • Jan 9, 2007 2:50 pm
Phil;305747 wrote:
its not about the dozy official who made a mistake, its about the relatives of dead soldiers.

I'm sorry Phil I thought your original post was. . .wait a sec. . .

Phil;304852 wrote:
you'd think they'd fuckin check this out before causing even more heartache. \

Yup, looks like you took a shot at the admin. Sorry if I misread it.
Phil • Jan 9, 2007 3:28 pm
yesman065;305761 wrote:
I'm sorry Phil I thought your original post was. . .wait a sec. . .


Yup, looks like you took a shot at the admin. Sorry if I misread it.


now youre being pedantic. :p
yesman065 • Jan 9, 2007 10:54 pm
what it is.
tw • Jan 10, 2007 1:03 am
yesman065;305494 wrote:
I looked into it and the story was overblown by the press.
How does the press 'overblow' when only reporting potential crimes (misdemeanors) by Democrats. If the story was overblown, the new White House press office was repeatedly making the accusations.

Meanwhile, I am completely befuddled why you had to look up what was a well publicized story in 2001. Why look up what was commonly and widely reported - especially when it was later discovered to intentionally make future employment for Democratic White House employees difficult? Overblown? Then White House officials were ‘overblowing’ it. Why erroneously blame the press? Overblown would only be due to repeated accusations by lying White House officials. Press would only be guilty of reporting what White House officials say.

Lying by White House officials, it turns out, would be situation normal. Those missing W's prophesized presidential lying. We did not know George Jr officials lie often and repeatedly to harm others until many months later. And yet that prophesy was 'overblown'?
lumberjim • Jan 10, 2007 1:38 am
you can all overblow me
yesman065 • Jan 10, 2007 8:38 am
Blow me tw - You are wrong on several counts, but the reality is that there were "w's" missing just not the lines getting cut or any of the other BS. It was an immature reaction by the Dems and an exaggeration be the repubs that created all this - just like in high school. There was no massive conspiracy or anything like that.

Move along folks - nothing more to see here.
glatt • Jan 10, 2007 9:34 am
tw;305945 wrote:
I am completely befuddled why you had to look up what was a well publicized story in 2001. Why look up what was commonly and widely reported
I remember the news stories about it. It seemed at the time that it was much ado about nothing, but I was disappointed in the democrats that pulled the prank, because it was pretty juvenile
tw;305945 wrote:
- especially when it was later discovered to intentionally make future employment for Democratic White House employees difficult?
That part of the story is one that I never heard. Can you point to some references on this? Who discovered this? Or was it just conjecture at the time?
xoxoxoBruce • Jan 10, 2007 12:38 pm
I'd read, some time later, the total number of missing Ws was 2. No way to verify it though. Anybody got proof, or even written reference, of any numbers?

I too, thought it much ado about nothing. :confused:
Sundae • Jan 10, 2007 1:56 pm
I looked this afternoon (as I was only vaguely aware of the story at the time) and I couldn't find it documented.

62 keyboards were replaced in total, but the GAO declined to comment whether these were due to missing/ damaged Ws or simple wear and tear.
tw • Jan 10, 2007 2:47 pm
glatt;305998 wrote:
I remember the news stories about it. It seemed at the time that it was much ado about nothing, but I was disappointed in the democrats that pulled the prank, because it was pretty juvenile
Therefore the story was 'underblown' because the Democrats never pulled that prank. The story was so 'underhyped' that you never learned the truth? Missing W's on White House keyboards never happened. It was a neocon prank - intentional lying - so that potential employers would fear to hire Democrats from the Clinton administration. Why are you still 'disappointed' with the victims? The disappointment should have been with senior White House officials who lied about missing W's on keyboards. It did not happen. It was another example of what would be called Limbaugh lies.

I am totally shocked how many never learned the entire story - which means it was 'underblown' - not hyped enough.
yesman065 • Jan 10, 2007 4:39 pm
tw, you are wrong - it did happen - it just wasn't as big a story as it was originally made out to be. There wasn't widespread vandalism as was originally reported, no. But there were a number of keyboards damaged and some other "juvenile pranks." Thats all nothing else.
glatt • Jan 10, 2007 5:37 pm
glatt;305998 wrote:
I remember the news stories about it. It seemed at the time that it was much ado about nothing, but I was disappointed in the democrats that pulled the prank, because it was pretty juvenile That part of the story is one that I never heard. Can you point to some references on this? Who discovered this? Or was it just conjecture at the time?


tw;306113 wrote:
Therefore the story was 'underblown' because the Democrats never pulled that prank. The story was so 'underhyped' that you never learned the truth? Missing W's on White House keyboards never happened. It was a neocon prank - intentional lying - so that potential employers would fear to hire Democrats from the Clinton administration. Why are you still 'disappointed' with the victims? The disappointment should have been with senior White House officials who lied about missing W's on keyboards. It did not happen. It was another example of what would be called Limbaugh lies.

I am totally shocked how many never learned the entire story - which means it was 'underblown' - not hyped enough.


Are you going to give me a link or not?
yesman065 • Jan 10, 2007 8:56 pm
Google "White house keyboard scandal"
I tried to insert a link, but it didn't work, sorry.
glatt • Jan 11, 2007 9:31 am
Thanks. A Salon story covering this explains why I never knew about the second part. My paper is the Washington Post. It ran a long detailed front page story on the "vandalism" done to the White House, but never assigned a reporter to the story when the GAO report later cleared the Clinton admin of any serious wrongdoing. They did run a short AP story in deep within the paper. I remember that front page story (the Salon article has snipits from it that I almost remembered word for word) but I never saw a retraction.
xoxoxoBruce • Jan 12, 2007 9:16 pm
The people in power make history.....and write history. ;)
yesman065 • Jan 12, 2007 11:50 pm
xoxoxoBruce;306875 wrote:
The people in power make history.....and write history. ;)

They may make it, but not always write it. Unless you consider the press to be "in power."
Urbane Guerrilla • Jan 13, 2007 1:24 am
What's more, I don't think our resident conspiracy theorist could name any "Democrats who couldn't get work" that he keeps laying such stress on. Not that he will abandon his delusion...
Phil • Jan 13, 2007 1:39 pm
xoxoxoBruce;306875 wrote:
The people in power make history.....and write history. ;)



thatys why we never learn from it.