Thursday, July 31, 2008

While John McCain is running ads about Brittany Spears and Paris Hilton....

There are still two wars going on. Sgt. Ryan John Baum, a 27-year-old Army Ranger and combat medic, died from wounds he suffered during a battle near Karmah, Iraq, last May 18. His wife Amber Baum couldn't attend the funeral because she was due with daughter Leia any day.

A photograph of his daughter, Leia Ryan Baum, was placed inside the uniform of Sgt. Ryan John Baum during visitation at a funeral home in June 2007. "That's all he wanted to do, is come home and put her on his chest," said Dana Baum, Sgt. Baum's mother.


http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/mar/19/ryan-missed-out-on-something-spectacular/

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is a disgusting but not surprising attack Deb...you should be ashamed. We know people die from wars, not political ads...you really showed your colors there. If that had been either of my daughters lying there and you make a irrelevant comparison I would outraged.

The fact that this soldier, (whom volunteered...remember) died without seeing his lovely newborn is a tragedy, but for you to tie it to something McCain did yesterday...not back in June when this soldier died, is immoral. Disgusting!

I hope your candidate approved this message, it wouldn't surprise me...

You make me sick.

Deb SF said...

I attacked no one, Mr. Witt.

I think you missed my point.

Senator McCain, instead of using purchased television time to talk about issues of importance such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is running ads comparing Obama to Ms. Hilton and Ms. Spears.

And while they are running, with the talking heads in pundit-land distracted and occupied for yet another set of endless days squawking about elitism and celebrity and other such nonsense, there are wars are going on.

As you well know.

My stepson is about to enter the Air Force, and I know that members of your family are serving our country as well. For me, this is more personal every day.

I'd much rather talk about ways to prevent this kind of tragedy -and it is a tragedy, whether a soldier dies in May or in July or 2003- happening to your family or mine than about inane ads displaying immoral and disgusting starlet celebrities known more for not wearing underwear in public that anything remotely approaching what your family has done for this country.

Apparently John McCain feels otherwise. Even some Republicans are watching McCain with concern:

From http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/07/mccains_ad_risk.html

Marc Ambinder over at the Atlantic got former McCain confidante John Weaver on the phone and Weaver unloaded on the ad. "There is legitimate mockery of a political campaign now, and it isn't at Obama's," said Weaver -- among other things. "For McCain's sake, this tomfoolery needs to stop."

Anonymous said...

I don't care who is running what stupid ad...both side suck.. The people that have found the front of this next election are both jokes.

What you did, I believe, is gross and inappropriate...that is all I will say.

Do yourself a favor as well and do not attempt to pander to me by addressing me as Mr. Witt.

I wish your son well and hope he finds what he is looking for in the military, too bad not enough great kids are doing it.

Deb SF said...

Geez, now simple politeness in pandering? Being respectful to someone you don't actually know is now deemed offensive?

As I noted in my "polite" response to your comment, my stepson is entering the military. My son is a rising 3rd year at UVA.

Anonymous said...

Okay, FRANK, I won't "pander" to you by being polite. You're obviously a dolt. You whine that "not enough kids" are willing to put their lives on the line for a stupid, immoral war? How about if you just pick up your personal weapons stockpile and head on over there yourself, if you think it's so important? If we had a president with a rational foreign policy, who didn't use the lives of our military men and women to further his on maniacal objectives, more "kids" might sign up.

You deliberately miss Deb's point. Obama is a fine leader with a message, while McCain is too old or too demented to make a rational case for himself and so has to resort to childish ads like the Hilton/Spears nonsense. Get your head out of ass, Frank.

There, you happy now? No pandering.

Anonymous said...

Useless words from a useless Democrat group.

Leader...HA HA HA HA!!!!

Yeah, leaders close up shop without helping Americans out with a plan for change. Close Congress and go play hide and seek...just what America needs...WRONG AGAIN !

TYPICAL B/S from an inexperienced group of people touting things without explanations or plans for such change. Way to brush your own voters off your shoulders...

Bubby said...

Hey Frank, we're you always such a thin-skinned irrational person or did the stress of life send you into your recent angry state?

Are we supposed to just talk about the servicemembers that make it back alive and uninjured and forget about the lives and families that were cut short? War is hell son, sorry.

Deb SF said...

Well, to be fair, the photo made me angry, too, but likely for different reasons that it got Frank upset.

All I did was place two things side by side; the now famous "celebrity" ad put out by the McCain campaign, and a picture that brings into sharp, almost unbearable focus all the pain and loss associated with the war in Iraq.

Frank calls this disgusting and immoral, and has some other choice words for me over on Republitarian.

That's OK, really, it is. I don't know Frank, never met him, and won't engage in armchair analysis to try to explain why this hit him as hard as it did, and why he's transferring all this anger onto me.

I just think that given the pain the war is causing to so many families, it should be front and center in the national conversation. Compared to earlier times, the images from Iraq have been scrubbed clean. We know people die, but seeing it is different. Journalists say it is now harder to accompany troops in Iraq on combat missions. Even memorial services for killed soldiers, once routinely open, are increasingly off limits. Detainees were widely photographed in the early years of the war, but the U.S. Defense Department, citing prisoners' rights, has recently stopped that practice as well.


Why is the McCain campaign trivializing the national political discussion by putting out ads like the Celebrity ad? I know why, of course; he thinks it's a winning strategy. He may be right.