Welcome To The Left Wing Echo Chamber

Steve Benen of The Carpetbagger Report and formerly of Salon admits his error on the McHenry "US soldier was a two-bit security guard story" but digs himself deeper anyway:

Update: With regard to McHenry and the “two-bit security guard,” I referenced the guard as a member of the U.S. military based on the reports of multiple sources.

"Multiple sources"?  Follow his links and you will find:

(a) the Sigmon for Congress website offering a copy of the Sigmon press release attacking McHenry, as well as the YouTube link to the McHenry dinner speech video; let's note that this press release refers to "a sentry protecting U.S.  personnel in Iraq", not a US soldier, and that nothing in the dinner speech suggest the guard was a US soldier.

(b) Carolina Politics Online, which uses the word soldier in their headline (McHenry Refers to Soldier as “Two Bit Security Guard”) and offers as support... a link to the Sigmon press release and the YouTube video available at the Sigmond site.  New evidence?  None.

(c) ThinkProgress, which uses the word soldier and offers as evidence... a link to Carolina Politics Online.  New evidence?  None.

Multiple sources indeed.  Hellooo, Steve... Steve... Steve... Can you hear me... hear me... hear me... three sites linking to one bit of evidence still means you have only one bit of evidence... evidence.. evidence...

I doubt I am getting through.  Hmm - we are sidling up to the point where we wonder whether Steve is kidding himself, or trying to kid his readers.  Well, maybe he is kidding his readers - I know I am laughing pretty hard.

And what about Amanda at ThinkProgress?  She ducks responsibility as follows:

Update Michael Goldfarb reports that the "two-bit security guard" was a foreign contractor, not a member of the military, as both Carolina Politics and Lance Simon (sic) originally reported.

Stop, please - Carolina Politics echoed the Sigmon site.  And where did the Sigmon site say the guard was a US soldier?  I don't see it, nor do I hear it in the video, to which Amanda was free to listen.

From the Sigmon site that started it all, with possibly helpful emphasis added:

LINCOLNTON- In a moment eerily akin to a Hillary Clinton "misspeak," 10th District Rep. Patrick McHenry called a sentry protecting U.S. personnel in Iraq a "two-bit security guard" in a brief appearance Saturday night at a Lincoln County Republican Party event.

McHenry's gaffe occurred in his telling of a story about his recent two-day visit to Iraq.  He said he was stopped by a military guard in the area known as the Green Zone, when he was going "to the gym" in the early morning hours on Easter after being unable to sleep.

The congressman belittled  the sentry- referring to him as a "two-bit security guard"- for following his orders by not allowing him to enter the gym without "proper credentials," according to McHenry's own telling of the story to an audience of some 160 Republicans.

Even after demanding to see the guard's superiors, by McHenry's own account, he still was refused entry into the gym and was told he had to return to his room, in a pool house at one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces in the Baghdad area.

..."Besides his obvious contempt for a guard's assigned duties, his belief that being a congressman makes him immune to the rules and his exaggerated claim of exposure to hostile fire, what really bothers me is the Iraq trip itself," Sigmon added.

The Sigmon team was pretty careful in their press release, unlike their heralds. [But See YOUTUBE CHICANERY, below]

Look, Amanda and Steve wanted to believe something and didn't want to bother to check it.  A little honor and accountability after the fact might help.  Or not.

As to the Sigmond people, this is pretty close to a lie:

McHenry's tale at the Lincoln County GOP's annual Lincoln Day Dinner also included a death that supposedly occurred during insurgent rocket attacks, which did occur in the Green Zone shortly after he returned to his quarters.

However, official U.S. Embassy spokesman Philip T. Reeker said the facts were somewhat different, emphasizing that there were no fatalities from that rocket attack.

Well, so what?  There were multiple rocket attacks that week; McHenry said that he was fortunate, and that one individual lost his life in the rocket attacks (understated but true) - presumably his point was that these attacks were quite serious, and whether anyone died in the specific attack he described is hardly the point.

Finally, let me note again the hypothesis that the Sigmond people have edited the YouTube video in order to distort its meaning.  It may well be that McHenry's speech was building towards a dramatic finish with the self-deprecating point that the "two-bit security guard" had saved his life by doing his job.  That is how he described it on the radio, apparently - he admits it was a poor word choice, says the guard was a foreign contractor, and says the speech concluded with a tribute to the brave men and women defending us in Iraq.

Karl at Team Protein is concise and brutal.

And Praise Allah:

  Still a jerky thing to say of a foreign contractor, as McHenry’s office acknowledges, but if he’s telling the truth, what he was trying to do is describe the ironic flash of pique he felt when the guard denied him access to the gym. Why ironic? Because the building was hit by a mortar minutes later. (Watch this video of McHenry, shot on the scene as the gym burns in the background.) Your call, then. Either he was speaking semi-facetiously about a guy who ended up saving his life by doing his job or else he’s still pissed after the fact that he wasn’t allowed in to use the treadmill and get blown to pieces.

We make these tough calls every day.

UPDATE: In a related piece, Bob Somerby picked Friday to wonder whether libs have become as stupid as conservatives; he deplores their research skills and eagerness to name-call.

YOUTUBE CHICANERY:  The Sigmond campaign posted the YouTube video of McHenry's speech; it is currently titled "Patrick McHenry calls guard "two bit", lies about death".

But either the Google cache is wrong and people miscopied it, or the original title was "Patrick McHenry calls soldier "two bit", lies about death". So the Sigmond people did get their hands dirty on this.

Comments

[centralcal]

Gateway Pundit has a post and graph showing a rather steep decline in Media Matter's readers. I think their only readers left are Olbermann and his relatives.

When W and Laura waltz off back to the ranch, I imagine quite a few liberal blogs will likewise tank. Pretty much they will probably go the way of no-talent Liberal talk radio.

[Topsecretk9]

Cecil

I don't know if it's necessary, but I archived and screen shotted the Goggle Video site.

[Lesley]

DebNC - thank you for finding the Reagan Foundation link.

Topsy - you could write Hillary explaining it takes a village to supply all your boys with track shoes. Heck, they'd probably use your "shoeless boys" in a campaign ad.

All kidding aside, I have one girl and two boys. I'd rather buy shoes for my daughter any day. The price of track shoes, football shoes, regular Nikes (or whatever they wear day to day), not to mention the cost of under armor, athletic fees, athletic camps, GAS (boys just drive to drive), car insurance etc etc. Boys are expensive.

Plus, I've discovered boys are genetically international men of mystery. The most they'll ever tell you about anything personal (going on in their lives) boils down to: name, rank and serial number. About the only quality time I spend with my eldest son is when he's linking me up to youtube and we're watching various videos of Mustang car owners revving their engines.

[clarice]

Dear Lesley,
You can track your sons' interest and luck with girls by watching the amount of time they spend in the bathroom. At first they are utter pigs..about 12 y.o. they start spending inordinate amount of time on their hair though the rest of their appearance seems the same, when they start getting interested in girls they smell less, and when they get lucky or hope to they begin showering. If by the time they are showering 2 or 3 times a day you have not taught them what they need to know about sexual responsiblity it's way too late.

(I have never known this intell system to fail.)

[Cecil Turner]

Hey, whaddya know, Sigmon has finally posted a fairly complete video (warning: 36.5 Mb .avi file). I'm not sure it supports a charge of "truncating" . . . though I'd say the focus on the "two bit" remark leaves an impression that is not supported by the whole. Here's the bit after the youtube video (hand transcript, undoubtedly with errors):

What that was called was indirect fire. They're firing rockets indiscriminately just for terror purposes. Well I realized, on Easter Sunday morning, when this happened, the power of prayer. The blessing it is to live in this country that we have, this level of security that we have, here. The families that we have, and everything else. It puts it all in perspective. They weren't trying to attack me. But those men and women that I met, that put on those kevlar vests, and those helmets every day, and go out, on patrol, that suit up . . . they are the brave ones. They're absolutely brave, because they make that choice every day, to go out, into harm's way, to make the security situation better. For our national security and the long term security of the world. And so those men and women, that I realized, how brave they were, when I was just close to a rocket attack. So, to see these men and women, to think about them, to keep them in your prayers, I'm ever mindful of, especially now, having been there on a battlefield. And I want to tell you something . . . we're doing the right thing . . . by making sure we achieve success. [emphasis added]

Looks to me like he rambles a bit, and switches between discussing guards and patrolling soldiers, and he certainly isn't any military expert, but it's also hard to characterize it as offensive.

I don't know if it's necessary, but I archived and screen shotted the Goggle Video site.

Thanks, TS.

[Topsecretk9]

Lesley

I should have been more clear - these 3 I speak of aren't my 3 boys in that I didn't give birth to them or parent them - I'm just track and field helper parent and I love them like they are mine and sure wish I could get just plan old running shoes for them.

you are right though, boys and sports are a bank account drain.

[Ralph L]

Thankfully, most mothers don't know what their teenage boy is up to when alone.

[hit and run]

Clarice:
Hit's making trouble again.
I thought Jane was babysitting him today

Thanks!!! I may not have seen it if you hadn't linked that.

(SSP lite it's now on my blog too)

mrs hit and run's mom has been in town for the past two weeks and left today to go home. So it's been crazy here.

BUT...and this is the most important thing to happen today -- I HAVE THE BEST IN LAWS IN THE WORLD!!!! They gave me a beer fridge for my birthday (my birthday was two months ago, don't bother with well wishes or whatnot, stay on task here -- their generosity and knowing exactly what would make me happiest).

Oh, I just want to, oh, man, I, uh, I, sorry, I promised myself I wouldn't cry, but I just I want to, I sniff, I love my in laws.

[Lesley]

Clarice: "when they start getting interested in girls they smell less." Oh Clarice that is so funny, I am wiping tears from the corners of my eyes. So funny because it is so true.

I am 56 years old. My youngest boy is barely 17. I am embarrassed to admit, I never even remotely began to understand men until I had boys. Perhaps that is as the good Lord intended it.

[clarice]

I remember taking my on and his friends on an outing to a nearby resort when they were twelve and they smelled so bad on the return two days later my husband and I had to keep putting out heads out the car windows to breathe without gagging. Shortly afterward I was asked every morning by my son how his hair looked. If I said"fine", I was yelled at for not paying attention. If I said "not too good", we had to hold up the procession out the door while he primped for another 10 or 15 minutes and then entered the car angry and unhappy because he couldn't get his hair to do what he wanted it to do.

In no time at all, only a hand grenade could get him out of the bathroom which was overflowing with grooming supplies.

(My husband grew up in a family of 4 boys and 1 bathroom. How they managed is beyond my comprehension.)

[clarice]

**taking my Son ***

My husband's oldest brother, now a doctor is BTW the author of the unpublished but nevertheless treasured in the family novel "Lust Dies Hard", an account of his late teenage years. His youngest brother "Whadda Ya Know"'s Michael Feldman has his version of those years and the submarine-like atmosphere of the boys' bedroom.

[clarice]

Congressional Quarterly says only 25% of the voters find Hillary credible. What I would pay for a mailing list of those people! (PUK, get on this!)

[DebinNC]

I have now exchanged 3 emails today with the Sigmon for Congress group, which seems to consist of Mrs. Sigmon. When I first emailed to ask why the video on their site stops at 3:03 mid-sentence with McHenry saying, "And the reason I tell you this story is..." she answered, "...the remaining parts of McHenry's speech are not on topic."

When I inquired why Sigmon claimed McHenry lied about another person dying in a rocket attack in the Green Zone while McHenry was there, and after I sent her an AP story about the death of an Oregon engineer in a rocket attack that same time, her answer was to send me a link to a NY Times article in which unnamed "officials" made that claim. She acknowledged this was news to her, but the Sigmon site still highlights McHenry "exaggerates story to include a death."

The Sigmon site still prominently features the misleadingly edited YouTube McHenry video, while putting at the very bottom of the page that the full speech is now available.

[Ralph L]

It's amazing the lefties would be so credulous about something from a Republican candidate's campaign. Don't they believe their own rhetoric about Rep lies, or do they actually know it's all projection?

[MaryW]

Topsecretk9

Re 3 boys and track

If the boys do not run on the ball of foot and wear a 10.5 (ASICS) I can arrange a shoe exchange. Our youngest son is a college distance runner and because of the type of runner he is gets a new pair every month. The rest of the shoe is in very good shape. The 2 diamonds under the ball of the foot are worn.

If you are interested let me know and I can arrange a shipment. We give some to a local highschool but there are more than enough to share.

[MaryW]

Topsecretk9

Re 3 boys and track

If the boys do not run on the ball of foot and wear a 10.5 (ASICS) I can arrange a shoe exchange. Our youngest son is a college distance runner and because of the type of runner he is gets a new pair every month. The rest of the shoe is in very good shape. The 2 diamonds under the ball of the foot are worn.

If you are interested let me know and I can arrange a shipment. We give some to a local highschool but there are more than enough to share.

[Topsecretk9]

Hi MaryW

That would be fabulous - only if you let me pay for shipping and supplies -- I'll send it to you or if you have paypal?

email me at my name link.

Thanks again - 1 or 2 10.5's would be great - one's a 10 and one is a 9.5 ( the 3rd has to be much smaller, but I'm not positive of the size) and I think it would be fine to double up socks - they are practicing in socks (yep, running in socks!) and in events wearing pretend like tennis shoes as it stands now.

I thought about combing even a few thrift stores but at that size they are usually pretty raunchy. Knowing they have a quality shoe worn a month would be great (or even 3 months for that matter!).

I did think of springing for some new ones myself, but that actually poses problems with other kids (it's a weird sitch - some parents have the funds and raced out and got spiked shoes for their slightly enthusiastic, mildly good runners kids. My son is slightly better than good and his PE track shoes are ahem fine (IOW - I'm not running out to get new or spiked shoes), and then you have a these few that have no PE shoes or running shoes and no hope for it who actually are excellent, innate talent and have the potential to be champions.

So a situation like this really works great. No one will question because they aren't "brand new" but they'll have dang shoes.

My son feels particularly bad and asked me if we could help them out. Thanks ever so much.

[MaryW]

Topsecretk9

I seem exceptionally stupid tonight. I couldn't find the link but here is a brand new email address: MaryW130_verizon.net Just substitute an apersand for the underline.

My son will be thrilled to know that the shoes are going to a runner.

[kim]

Good golly, Miss Molly, you two are making my day. Ampersand or 'at'?
==============================

[kim]

I mean '@'.
======

[MaryW]

Kim.
Thanks for catching the spelling error.

If I would learn to proofread it would have been an ampersand for the underscore. Or since it is basically a onetime email address I should have typed it out. But there would be 100 spam messages and I would not see what I was looking for.

[MaryW]

Sorry, I meant "at" symbol as @. Stupid is as stupid does.