Why do so many of my posts end up with the “foul” tag (denoted by the ‘raised middle finger’ graphic)? Maybe it’s because things like this just make me want to say something… anything… to help people (you) see some of the screwed up things going on in the world.
Ok, if you don’t lift your head and look around once in awhile, you likely know nothing about Susan Paynter, SSgt Marquez, and Axel Cobb. Here’s the brief:
– Axel Cobb, as a high school senior and then college freshman, spoke to Marine Recruiter SSgt Marquez over the course of two years; Axel demonstrated interested in becoming a US Marine, and SSgt Marquez did his job… he worked to enlist Axel.
– Axel Cobb’s mother is an anti-military, overly protective mother hen.
– Axel is a cowardly little punk with lips still firmly attached to mom’s tit.
– Susan Paynter is a leftwing communist (err, columnist) for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Ms. Paynter wrote an http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/paynter/227497_paynter08.html article on June 8th regarding the “aggressive” tactics of Marine recruiters, and outlined a rather horrific scenario regarding the (attempted) recruitment of Axel Cobb. The article is written almost entirely from the mother’s point of view – which immediately sends up the “bullshit” flag – and does nothing to tell the recruiter’s side.
Discussion of this article was broad and wide… the hardleft “Kos” (no link provided, intentionally) took it and ran – all too happy to point out what the evil Marines will do in support of their evil Commander in Chief’s evil efforts to rule the world. The military bloggers saw the article for what it was… just so much bullshit spewing from the communist left.
Since SSgt Marquez is hampered by public-relations rules (god forbid the left get to hear what we really think of them), his wife has taken it upon herself to speak about http://www.grunt.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=50720 what really happened. Still, there hasn’t been much said “officially” to defend the SSgt, and that in itself is somewhat disappointing.
Yesterday, it was announced that SSgt Marquez would be interviewed on the NPR program “American Weekend” – to be aired today. I checked the website last night, and indeed there was a brief blurb regarding the interview. I left the page open as a reminder to catch the interview today.
This morning I refreshed the page, planning to find the “listen now” button and get a link to the broadcast – but lo and behold… the blurb regarding the interview was gone! No explanation, nothing; as if it were never there. Sad.
Hopefully SSgt Marquez will yet get his side of the story told. His wife http://www.grunt.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=51016 confirmed the interview has taken place, so with luck we’ll still get to hear it, just maybe not on NPR.
Here’s some linkage if you’re interested in following up on this story:
http://www.blackfive.net/main/2005/06/marine_recruite.html#comments Blackfive: Marine Recruiter and the MSM Part Two
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/spruiell200506141217.asp Stephen Spuriel (NRO): Recruiting Facts
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/paynter/227879_paynter10.html Susan Paynter’s followup article
http://www.google.com/custom?domains=jonathanmurray.com&q=susan+paynter+marine+recruiter&sa=Search&sitesearch=&client=pub-6616424773924529&forid=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&cof=GALT%3A%23CC0000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23808080%3BVLC%3AFFFFFF%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3A111111%3BLBGC%3A000000%3BALC%3ACC0000%3BLC%3ACC0000%3BT%3AEEEEEE%3BGFNT%3AAAAAAA%3BGIMP%3AAAAAAA%3BLH%3A50%3BLW%3A500%3BL%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fjonathanmurray.com%2Flogos%2Fbglogo-black.jpg%3BS%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fjonathanmurray.com%3BFORID%3A1%3B&hl=en Google Search: Susan Paynter Marine Recruiter
Followup: This article appeared on the front page of one of the local (to the event) papers.
http://www.skagitvalleyherald.com/articles/2005/06/19/news/news01.txt
Does a better job of telling the story from both (all three?) sides, not just the mother’s.