Why so many Yellow Elephants?

A Yellow Elephant is essentially a conservative republican that advocates military action yet has not or will not enlist themselves.

I came across this list, and it says much (any emphases mine):


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Democrats
David Bonior: Staff Sgt., Air Force 1968-72
Leonard Boswell: Lt. Col., Army 1956-76; Vietnam, DFCs, etc
Jimmy Carter: Lt. Commander in the Navy 1946-53
Wesley Clark: Army 1966-2000, Vietnam, Silver star, purple heart
Max Cleland: Captain, Army 1965-68; Silver/Bronze stars, Vietnam
Bill Clinton: Did not serve
Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72
Gray Davis: Army Captain in Vietnam, Bronze star
Michael Dukakis: Army 1955-57
John Edwards: Did not serve
Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71
John Glenn: WWII and Korea; six DFCs; Air Medal w/18 Clusters
Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam as journalist
Tom Harkin: Lt., Navy, 1962-67; Naval Reserve, 1968-74
Howell Heflin: Silver star
Fritz Hollings: Army officer in WWII; Bronze star
Daniel Inouye: Army 1943-47; Medal of Honor, WWII
Ted Kennedy: Army, 1951-53
Bob Kerrey: Lt. j.g. Navy 1966-69; Medal of Honor, Vietnam
John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966-70; Silver/Bronze stars, purple hearts
Tom Lantos: Served in Hungarian underground in WWII
Jim McDermott: Navy 1968-70
George McGovern: Silver star & DFC during WWII
Zell Miller: Marine Corps, 1953-56
Walter Mondale: Army 1951-53
Pete Peterson: Air Force Captain, POW. Purple Heart, Silver star, etc
Charles Rangel: Staff Sgt., Army 1948-52; Bronze star, Korea
Jack Reed: Army Ranger, 1971-79; Captain, Army Reserve 1979-91
Chuck Robb: U.S. Marine Corps, 1961-70, Vietnam
Pete Stark: Air Force 1955-57
Mike Thompson: Staff sergeant, 173rd Airborne, Purple Heart

Republicans
Spencer Abraham: Did not serve
Eliot Abrams: Did not serve
Richard Armitage: Navy, three tours in Vietnam
John Ashcroft: Did not serve
Roy Blunt: Did not serve
Michael Bloomberg: Did not serve
George H.W. Bush: Youngest Navy pilot in WW II; awarded DFC
George W. Bush: Texas Air Nat. Guard; didn't take physical; suspended from flying
Jeb Bush: Did not serve
Saxby Chambliss: Did not serve. Attacked Cleland's patriotism
Dick Cheney: Did not serve
Christopher Cox: Did not serve
Tom DeLay: Did not serve
Bob Dole: Army in WWII, Bronze star, two purple hearts
Bob Dornan: Enlisted after fighting was over in Korea
John Engler: Did not serve
Douglas Feith: Did not serve
Gerald Ford: Lt. Commander, Navy in WWII
Bill Frist: Did not serve
Newt Gingrich: Did not serve
Rudy Giuliani: Did not serve
Lindsey Graham: National Guard lawyer
Phil Gramm: Did not serve
Chuck Hagel: Served in Vietnam, two Bronze stars and purple heart
Dennis Hastert: Did not serve
Tim Hutchison: Did not serve
Jack Kemp: Did not serve. "Knee problem," continued in NFL for 8 years
Jon Kyl: Did not serve
Trent Lott: Did not serve
Richard Lugar: Intelligence officer in Navy 1957-60
John McCain: POW in Vietnam, Legion of Merit, Silver star, DFC, many more
Mitch McConnell: Did not serve
John McHugh: Did not serve
George Pataki: Did not serve
Richard Perle: Did not serve
Colin Powell: 35 years in Army, 4-star general
Dan Quayle: Journalism unit of the Indiana National Guard
Ronald Reagan: Served in WWII making movies
Tom Ridge: Army in Vietnam, Bronze star
Dana Rohrabacher: Did not serve
Karl Rove: Did not serve
Don Rumsfeld: served in Navy (1954-57) as flight instructor
Rick Santorum: Did not serve
Arnold Schwarzenegger: AWOL from Austrian army base
Richard Shelby: Did not serve
JC Watts: Did not serve
Vin Weber: Did not serve
Paul Wolfowitz: Did not serve

Pundits, Preachers, and Judges
Bill Bennett: Did not serve
Wolf Blitzer: Did not serve
Pat Buchanan: Did not serve
William Buckley: Army in WWII
Charlie Daniels: Did not serve
Lou Dobbs: Did not serve
Paul Gigot: Did not serve
Sean Hannity: Did not serve
Bill Kristol: Did not serve
Jim Lehrer: U.S. Marine Corps
Rush Limbaugh: Did not serve
Chris Matthews: Did not serve
Michael Medved: Did not serve
Ted Nugent: Did not serve
Bill O'Reilly: Did not serve
Dan Rather: Army Reserve
Ralph Reed: Did not serve
Michael Savage: Did not serve
Antonin Scalia: Did not serve
Kenneth Starr: Did not serve
Clarence Thomas: Did not serve
John Wayne: Did not serve
George Will: Did not serve
=================================


See a trend?

Clearly, this list is not exhaustive and not all-inclusive. But the names on it are chosen wisely.

Sean Hannity - blowhard, coward

On a whim, I signed up for the Sean Hannity Discussion forum today.

I went to the 'America at War' board, and made the following post:

title:

Did Hannity serve in the military?

body:

I was just curious as to whether his uber-patriotism has teeth.

A mere 6 minutes later, I went back to the forum to see if anyone had replied.

As I logged in, I got the follwong message:

You have been banned for the following reason:Troll / Contempt of Host
Date the ban will be lifted: Never

Imagine that....

Well, it is true that I have nothing but contempt for phony-patriot Hannity and his moronic fans, but it seemed to me that my question was pretty tame.

Of course, this is how conservatives maintain their facades - by controlling and quashing dissent. Even if such 'dissent' is little more than asking a relevant question, the answer to which may not act to add to the sheen on the Hero's Halo...

Must be a touchy subject for the fragile-ego'd Hannity.

He is a coward, no two ways about it.

John McCain has no Honor

There was a time, many many years ago, when I would have actually considered voting for McCain. That was when I, like os manh people, actually believed the claimed 'maverick' status for him. Had I been better informed back then, I would have seen the he did not deserve the label - going against your party on one or two issues does not make you a maverick.

Being in Congress for 26 years does not make you a maverick. Voting with Bush 90% of the time does not make you a maverick. Calling Bush's tax cuts something he could not support in "good conscience" one year, then a few years later, while still at war, claiming that he would try to make them permanent, does not make you a maverick.
I could go on.

But for me, as a veteran, what I find perhaps the most deplorable - not the flip flops, not the lying, not the pandering - is the constant harping on his POW history.

It is as if they want us to think that because he was a POW, he is superhuman. He is the most qualified to be president (nevermind that the folks who are telling us this today, were telling us that this made him unstable and perhaps made him a traitor when he ran against Bush). He is excused for being such an out of touch millionaire elitist that he doesn't know how many mansions he owns.

This is disgusting.

This is pathetic.

This is disgraceful.

It seems every time he makes an ass out of himself, he pulls out the POW card. 'What's that? I flip flopped on issue X? Well you see, when I was a POW, I didn't even HAVE X!'

Give me a break, McCain.

Using your history as a POW to score political points, in my book, removes your cloak of Honorable service.
You are a disgrace and an embarrassment to the men who sacrificed for their country and are NOT using that sacrifice as a means of securing cheap political points and to cloud issues and to sway the ignorant rubes for whom bumpersticker patriotism is REAL patriotism.

These are the acts not of an American Hero, but an American Idiot.

For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee...

Sarah Palin - Right Wing Lying Loony

While Palin's indiscretions and embellished personal history have not been secret for some time, the New York Times finally had the guts to print, on page 1, an expose of Palin and her antics. The caption for a picture reads, in part:

Throughout her career, Ms. Palin has pursued vendettas, fired officials who
crossed her and blurred the line between government and personal grievance.

Which means she is a lot like George Bush:

Interviews show that Ms. Palin runs an administration that puts a premium on
loyalty and secrecy. The governor and her top officials sometimes use personal
e-mail accounts for state business; dozens of e-mail messages obtained by The
New York Times show that her staff members studied whether that could allow them to circumvent subpoenas seeking public records.

Nice. More Star Chamber sleaze.

Add to her description 'ignorant' (she thinks the Founding Fathers wrote the Pledge of Allegiance); religious nut (thinks God wanted the war in Iraq and is a Young Earth Creationist); and lying sack of stool (she STILL claims to have opposed the 'bridge to nowhere'), and she is W with a skirt.