Was Kos Questioner a Military Plant? Posted by Lorelei Kelly

I was just informed that the guy in uniform this morning.....the one who posed a question to the panel about Progressives and the Military..... was a plant from the Right Wing....one Michelle Malkin to be specific, who has a blog called hot airbags or something self-referential like that.

More on this later. If this is true, it represents the most egregious, ugly, shameful and anti-American tactic I've ever witnessed in my own experience of studying and trying to improve US civil-military relations.
I'm not going to link to her blog, which I just checked out...and indeed, she's accusing the conference of stifling dissent. QED Malkin, you are an idiot.

Comments

[Moira]

He is a plant and kudos to Jon Soltz for reminding everyone that this dude can get in a lot of trouble for expressing ANY political opinion while in uniform. Perhaps Malkin should have thought about how she puts our troops up to violating the UCMJ.

[Don Bacon]

Here's the video.

[Captain Crunchy]

Jon Soltz is a coward and a liar.
That soldier was not a plant and was asking a legitimate question that flew in the face of current Democrat orthodoxy and Jon Soltz had him silenced.
Shame on all of you!

What Wesley Clark was referring to was DoD Directive 1334.01 which states;

It is DoD policy that:

3.1. The wearing of the uniform by members of the Armed Forces (including retired members and members of Reserve components) is prohibited under any of the following circumstances:

3.1.1. At any meeting or demonstration that is a function of, or sponsored by an organization, association, movement, group, or combination of persons that the Attorney General of the United States has designated, under Executive Order 10450 as amended (reference (c)), as totalitarian, fascist, communist, or subversive, or as having adopted a policy of advocating or approving the commission of acts of force or violence to deny others their rights under the Constitution of the United States, or as seeking to alter the form of Government of the United States by unconstitutional means.

3.1.2. During or in connection with furthering political activities, private employment or commercial interests, when an inference of official sponsorship for the activity or interest may be drawn.

3.1.3. Except when authorized by the approval authorities in subparagraph 4.1.1., when participating in activities such as unofficial public speeches, interviews, picket lines, marches, rallies or any public demonstration, which may imply Service sanction of the cause for which the demonstration or activity is conducted.

3.1.4. When wearing of the uniform may tend to bring discredit upon the Armed Forces.

Now unless Kos admits that it’s a totalitarian, fascist, communist, or subversive organization, the guy was within his rights to be there and in uniform. It’s just a lame excuse to keep people from hearing that current operations have improved life in Iraq, while hiding behind a DoD policy that the Left doesn’t agree with when it suits them.

[Don Bacon]

Captain Crunchy, back in your box for a reading lesson. Your own post belies your baseless charges. The sergeant was violating regs by participating in a political activity while in uniform. Improved life in Iraq? Not for the 1,652 civilians who were killed in Iraq last month, 33 percent more than in the previous month.

[robertdfeinman]

As the popular left becomes more active people should expect to see some of the traditional tactics used against people-power being revived.

The two that have been most popular in recent US history have been infiltrating organizations with police agents (usually the FBI) and the use of agents provocateurs.

Groups have to act as if both these activities are present at all times. The motives of the infiltrators are usually stated in terms of preventing violence, but history has shown that in many cases the violence is promoted by the police. Those in the left present a threat to the establishment because of their support for individual rights and actions that promote grass roots organizing. Those who join the police and military usually have a strong belief in a hierarchal society and find the liberal decentralization unsettling. This gives them the psychological justifications for inciting trouble. It's a version of the ends justify the means.

I'm not commenting on this particular incident since I don't know the facts. Just remember that when someone acts disruptive it is best to consider that the action is motivated by something beyond strong feelings. Then moderate the situation as quickly as possible and marginalize any provacative suggestions.

[Pig Dog Infidel]

"Improved life in Iraq? Not for the 1,652 civilians who were killed in Iraq last month, 33 percent more than in the previous month."

Seeing that the absolute vast majority of "civilian deaths" in Iraq these days are caused by terrorists (working for various Islamic groups) and not the US military, you would STILL rather support Saddam Hussein or Al-Qaeda as long as you felt you could get some anti-Republican mileage out of the situation.
You Kos-Kiddies are disgusting.

Oh well, this story has now made it to the front page of Drudge.
How many million of votes do you think that is going to cost the Dems?
Plenty.

:)

[southbay]

Kos is a hate group on the same ranking as the Ku Klux Klan or neo-Nazi groups.

[Darryl]

What is amazing is that soldiers have spoken up previously at Dittohead gatherings and then been immediately arrested and then court-marshalled for daring to speak out against Bush policy. Now, suddenly we have a soldier wishing to speak out in a politically pro-war fashion and the right-wingers have flip-flopped 180deg. What a joke.

[myra langerhas]

"So they'll prosecute me if I wear my Army uniforms to an anti-war protest? Really?

But that's not the point. As we've seen time and time again, we see military personnel, in uniform, all the freakin' time as backdrops to Republican pro-war events -- including with Mr. 28% -- and there haven't been any prosecutions of those folks.

Marine Cpl. Adam Kokesh has already been discharged. He has every right enshrined under the Constitution, including those of free speech and peaceful assembly.

And anyone that thinks otherwise, quite frankly, is legitimately and objectively un-American."

-Kos

Do you know if this soldier had been discharged or not? Please tell. Soltz was, so who was he to bark out orders?

We support the troops..... by telling them to shut up before they open their mouth.

Don, Crunchy specifically cites regs which belie your claim. Your response? "The sergeant was violating regs by participating in a political activity...". Nice work.

And someone please show me some vid of anyone on the left telling someone in the military to remove their uniform at a march.

We support the troops. Liars.

[James]

Re: Captain Crunchy

If you do some research, as opposed to repeating talking points, you'll see that there is no DODD 1334.01 - it doesn't exist. What does exist, however, is DODD 1334.10, issued 2 Aug 2004, available at http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/134410p.pdf.

This DODD is designed to "...update DoD policies on political activities of members of the Armed Forces on active duty..." Section 4 provides the policy itself, but if you look at the examples given in the third enclosure (under "Examples of Prohibited Political Activities"), you'll see that it's impermissible to "Participate in partisan political management, campaigns, or conventions (except as a spectator when not in uniform), or make public speeches in the course thereof," and I think most can agree that YearlyKos is a partisan political convention.