Right Attacks Obama For Marines Holding Umbrellas
On Thursday afternoon, President Obama held a press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. As is customary at this time of year, the joint appearance was set up to take place in the White House Rose Garden. Unfortunately, as the press conference went on, it started to rain and that’s where the source of the latest conservative outrage comes in:
Slogging through a drizzly Rose Garden news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Obama took a break to ask for some rain protection.
“I am going to go ahead and ask folks, why don’t we get a couple of Marines — they’re going to look good next to us — just because I’ve got a change of suits but I don’t know about our prime minister,” he said as two Marines appeared at the lecterns with umbrellas. “There we go. That’s good.” He gestured to the soggy press corps, adding, “You guys I’m sorry about.”
It was a lighthearted moment in the midst of a grim few days for the White House. But in a week of Benghazi e-mails, Justice Department subpoenas and Internal Revenue Service targeting, some of the administration’s critics saw another example of overreach.
“Obama breaches Marine umbrella protocol,” read the headline on one conservative blog.
Per Marine Corps uniform regulations, the men are not allowed to carry or use umbrellas while in uniform. Female Marines can carry “an all-black, plain standard, or collapsible umbrella at their option during inclement weather” but not with combat uniforms.
All of which means that when Marines stand sentry outside the White House, they often get wet.
“Marines are always out getting rained on. That’s sort of what we do,” said Capt. Eric Flanagan, a Marines spokesman. A request from the president to a Marine who serves at the White House, however, would be an “extenuating circumstance,” he said.
Flanagan also pointed to Title 10 of the U.S. Code, which states that members of the Marine Corps shall “perform such other duties as the President may direct.”
In this case, Obama had clearly directed the Marines to be ready with umbrellas if necessary.
(…)
Seeing a trained Marine holding the president’s umbrella just rubs some observers the wrong way.
“Obama expects our troops to hold damn umbrellas rather than go inside: It’s disrespectful, inconsiderate, classless,” tweeted Lou Dobbs.
“Mr. President, when it rains it pours, but most Americans hold their own umbrellas,” former Alaska governor Sarah Palin addedon Facebook.
The conservative Move America Forward PAC likened the umbrella-holding to what conservatives view as Obama’s weak response to September’s attack in Benghazi, Libya. A fundraising e-mail from the group read, “Rain: ‘Hold My Umbrella.’ Benghazi: ‘Stand Down.’ ”
Apparently, this constitutes a huge controversy among conservatives.
Yep Sarah, because nobody ever held an umbrella for you!
https://twitter.com/Arianna8927/status/335216844162076672/photo/1
Oh…
Dear God in heaven, is there nothing that these stupid right wingers will not take umbridge with?
Oh, silly me what am I saying? President Obama had the nerve as president to have a Marine hold an umbrella over him. Well, that must call for another investigation surely! Get to it Mr Issa, not a moment to lose! Half term governor Palin the dimmest bulb on the tree was out there tweeting away like the idiot she is. Yet, there’s a photo of her stepping off a plane with someone holding an umbrella over her. In her case though I think it was to keep that one last brain cell dry. The rest have all gone bye bye!!
No Republican President would ever allow a member of the military to hold an umbrella for them!
http://i.imgur.com/8FSvGGg.jpg
As we all know, white people should never hold umbrellas for black people or Muslims.
Ok, I wrote this on Thursday: “Obama Critics: Stick to the mountains, ignore the molehills.”
Doug, if you want to get a huge laugh from James Joyner, just tell him what the Daily Caller posted:
As I found this link at a FB posty, I responded there, thus:
And still I was challenged by others, so I expanded:
How interesting that the the Right, which generally claims to hold the US Constitution in such high regard, doesn;t understand what “commander in chief of the armed forces” means. The president has to ask the Commandant’s permission on this (or anything)? When the president can dismiss any officer from active duty for any reason he wants? And all service chiefs are appointed by the president to begin with?
This is moonbattery at its best, or maybe worst, I dunno.
This is beyond moronic. If this were a solo press conference where a random Marine were asked to hold the umbrella, perhaps there would be a reason to question the decision, just on its optics. However, it was an official state visit by the Prime Minister of Turkey. The Marines are there as honor guards for the purposes of standard presidential protocol. Opening doors, ceremonial duties, saluting and generally participating in the pomp and circumstance afforded foreign dignitaries is what they are assigned to do on a day to day basis. It’s their job. I understand there is some tension between our American ideal of a humble president and the trappings of the office. Nevertheless, I am quite certain those who hackle about events such as this would be the first to complain of “disrespect” or “the decline of American power” if our president we not to receive similar treatment on a official state visit abroad. Here’s a photo for context: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/static/img/upload/2013/05/16/AP8912010561.jpg
Is there no end to the scandals?
I think it’s time for a Congressional investigation…
And there are conservatives who just can’t understand why democrats and independent voters just don’t buy their narrative about how serious a scandal Benghazi/AP phones/IRS Target/Joe Slestak is. The funny thing is, they have nobody to blame but themselves.
When every waking moment of Obama’s life is an outrage, nothing is an outrage.
If Obama had gone inside, he would have been attacked for using a bit of rain to refuse to answer questions about Benghazi/IRS/whatever.
@ Donald Sensing
Except the “mountains” look more and more like molehills on close examination…
Perspective can be everything, and the right lost theirs a long time ago.
Headesk. You would think they would learn by now that it will take about 10 seconds for the interent to dig up pictures of Republican politicians with marines holding umbrellas for them. Do they still not know how the internet works?
I posted this in a previous thread, but I think it applies even more in this one.
@anjin-san: I believe Father Ted can help here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh5kZ4uIUC0
(If only any of these dinguses were half as entertaining as Ardal O’Hanlon.)
@Donald Sensing:
Curiously, their understanding of that comes and goes depending on the party of the officeholder.
@Donald Sensing:
Indeed. Why this is not glaringly obvious, I don’t understand.
And moreover, bingo:
A friend and I were discussing this yesterday and he is conservative and former military, and he correctly noted: if you are in the military the CINC asks you to hold an umbrella, you hold an umbrella. This should be rather obvious.
@Travis Mason-Bushman:
Sure doesn’t look like a marine to me
This is almost as bad as tie gate from a couple years ago.
@Travis Mason-Bushman: That is not a marine holding an umbrella for Governor Palin.
@ Tom Hilton
Yes, I seem to remember that Fox referred to Bush as “the Commander in Chief” on a pretty much nonstop basis, even in regards to stories that had nothing to do with the military. Heck, they are still doing it:
http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/04/25/tear-filled-tribute-dana-perino-interviews-her-former-boss-president-george-w-bush#ixzz2RZoXvfSD
@anjin-san:
No, and that’s the point
Having military personnel hold the umbrella for the President is hardly unprecedented, yet somehow it’s different when Obama does (fill in the blank) … and the rationale is a matter of some complexion.
@labman57:
For example: http://i.imgur.com/8FSvGGg.jpg
@Steven L. Taylor:
At another site, a commenter said that telling a Marine to hold an umbrella was “unmilitary.” To which I said, Not as much as refusing an order of the commander in chief.
Another commented that “The Marines were there as honor guards. The President treated them like servants.”
Well, ask your retired-military friend just what “personal staff” means. When I was at Fort Bragg, the commanding general had military kitchen staff assigned to his quarters. Servants, in other words.
So I replied,
But it’s like baling water with a fork.
@Donald Sensing:
That sounds about right.
1) I wish I knew where I saw it, but one commentator predicted that the Obama administration wouldn’t have done it if they didn’t have a set of pictures of Republican presidents under umbrellas. Whoever it was totally called it.
2) I’ve long thought that Obama didn’t have the sense to come in out of the rain. Now I have literal proof.
3) There wasn’t a Plan B for this joint appearance in case of inclement weather? No one considered a canopy or an awning?
@Donald Sensing: @Donald Sensing:
if someone else arranged for a Marine to hold an umbrella that’s completely different than Obama crying about getting wet himself. I doubt that Bush Senior stopped everything to ask for that umbrella.
is it a huge issue for Obama? No.
he has already been caught lying about dozens of things.
he promised the most transparent presidency and he is giving us the most secretive. no one can deny that he is a liar of all liars. defend him all you want, even Democrats and the liberal media are distancing themselves from him now
@AlexArmstrong:
I should hope it wasn’t a marine holding an umbrella over Sarah Palin! She should be so lucky! President Palin! My God the very thought of that brings me out in hives!!!
@Jenos Idanian #13:
So, you actually think they looked this up first before doing it? Seriously?
One of my rabid anti-abortion borderline nut friends from grade school made a post about this on facebook so I knew it was going to hit here soon…
The Marines’ job is to dress like a target and jump in front of a bullet. It takes a certain kind of idiot to be willing to sign up for that. The fact is that the Marines know they’re there to look pretty as well. They also know that if they can pull it off in just the right way, they look intimidating as hell. You can’t do that holding someone’s umbrella.
The point is, never disrespect those whose job it is to guard you. It’s bad leadership. Obama has consistently shown that he doesn’t understand the military. After 4 years, he still manages an amateur hour mistake like this.
It’s the White House. There were hundreds of people there more appropriate for holding his umbrella than an honor guard.
@ James
Holding an umbrella for someone is a courtesy, and a classy move in most cases. It is hardly oppression. It’s difficult to see how anyone who gets out of the house more than twice a month could not understand this.
@Steven L. Taylor:
Actually, I don’t mind that – I think it’s good to be over prepared – and if someone on the staff said “what if it rains – is it good for the Marine detachment to hold the umbrellas?”
And then did the research to make sure it was … is called being prepared.
So, it’s doubly stupid for those who are trying to make a pint about this – If anything it shows competence and forethought.
But that’s not not good enough, for the Jenos’ of the world, nothing ever will be.
Instead it’s another sign that conspiracy abounds. Or something.
And i could not stand how that darn Ronald Reagan <a href=disrespected the military!
@aj:
Me? Defend Obama? You sure don’t know me very well.
But see this comment, above.
@James:
That’s just incredibly dumb… and can only make sense if you just hate anything the guy does.
The point is, it’s not disrespect. It’s duty. They are there as an honor guard. They do what is necessary — and you are flat out wrong to imply that it is disrespectful.
Besides the tone and the lightness in which the help Obama requested was very respectful.
So the guy will always be wrong. I get it.
Isn’t it time to admit that this country would be better off if the Obama Administration would deport these right wing morons to the MarianaTrench?
@Jenos Idanian #13: “I wish I knew where I saw it, but one commentator predicted that the Obama administration wouldn’t have done it if they didn’t have a set of pictures of Republican presidents under umbrellas. Whoever it was totally called it.”
Goodness, this is the perfect Jenos Tea post. First, he cites some source he can’t remember but really admires. Then he takes something that the right is phonily outraged about and, seeing that everyone has already called it for the idiocy is it, say that Obama was right to do what he did, but his motivations and reasoning were absolutely wrong, so he deserves all the criticism. Despite the fact that the only way to come to such a judgment is through mind reading.
Then when he’s called on this stupidity, he’ll say “I didn’t say it — I was just mentioning something I saw somewhere.”
@James: “Obama has consistently shown that he doesn’t understand the military. After 4 years, he still manages an amateur hour mistake like this. ”
It’s true. After four years, he’s still black. I guess he’ll never learn.
If we’re reduced to talking about umbrellas, does this mean the conservatives have secretly realized that all three “scandals” from last week have fizzled?
@doubter4444: I agree that preparation is good. Jenos’ claim, however, didn’t strike me as “they did a good job researching protocol.”
I think Peter Griffin sums up most Americans response to this “controversy”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d4DHgVBSL8
@Steven L. Taylor: To be honest, in re-reading the claim, I am not entirely sure what the claim is.
@Steven L. Taylor: 1) It was a bit of hyperbole to demonstrate the instinctive tu quoque response of the Obama administration and its apologists. And quite well done, I thought.
2) The nose for news used around here is remarkable. In a week that Kermit Gosnell was convicted and the former head of the IRS division at the heart of the current mess was discovered to be in charge of enforcing ObamaCare, this story gets the attention.
@Jenos Idanian #13: You do know it’s free to start your own blog, right? You can have all the commentary on any event that you want and no commentary on events that you don’t.
@ MM
But ruining someone else’s blog is so much more fun than doing the actual work of trying to create a blog of your own that another human being might actually be interested in…
THAT D***, MILITARY HATING GERALD FORD!
I just want to second every single thing Donald Sensing has written here.
@James:
Actually, the real point is, the Right cannot help itself when it comes to asinine criticism of this president.
@Travis Mason-Bushman: weird.
Who changed your link? Where’d Daddy Bush go and how did Palin weasel in?
I don’t want to get anybody’s hopes up, I think maybe, possibly, finally the GOP may be approaching the event horizon of peak-wingnuttery.
i think it’s funny, that he wouldn’t call in the marines to protect our embassy isn’t. just my $.02.
@bill:
As long as we’re on the subject of marines and protection, would it be appropriate no bring up the subject of protection of the Marine Barracks in Beirut back in 1983? (also, as I recall, about 240 marines died and no one suggested impeachment of the then Republican president.)
About all I can think of when I see someone from Turkey is the 1.5 million Armenians that were slaughtered by the “Young Turks” and Erdogan or obama does not want to acknowledge the genocide. And it is still going on today in Turkey: Just a few incidents:
And these two are concerned about rain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQlTjrJKEU0
Attackers in Turkey have murdered three employees of a Christian publishing company including one German. The victims had their throats cut. Christian priests have been attacked on several occasions in Turkey over the past year.
Senior Turkish military officers had made extensive plans to terrorize non-Muslims in Turkey. In the large Ergenekon[1] scandal recently a well-planned terrorist operation was revealed. The operation which is called “Kafes Operasyonu Eylem Planı”, in English meaning “the execution of the cage – operation” was to eliminate the remaining small group of Christians living in Turkey today.
,
In Turkey
Christians were attacked across the country. To implement the strategic attacks, the country’s Christian population was mapped out and 939 key persons from different parts of the country were identified as potential targets.
The fully detailed operation consists of four phases: preparation, spreading propaganda, shape opinion and execute.
@ AnnS
There are thousands of murders committed in the US every year, are we horrible and awful as a group?
Anybody wonder what real Marines think about this? Here is one example. My Iraq-combat veteran, former Marine son, sent me the link, saying he seconds everything in it.
Caution: the writer uses Marine vocabulary!
A retired Marine field grade infantry officer, also an Iraq combat vet, called this me afternoon. He saw the event live and said his first reaction was, “What great PR for the Marine Corps! Those two Marines were studs!”
@bill
I assume you are referring to Benghazi. It’s not very funny that you dance on the graves of the Americans who died there without even bothering to become informed about what happend. For one thing, there is no embassy in Benghazi. Embassies reside in capital cities. Benghazi is not the capital of Libya.
Ignorance is a fertile breeding ground for conservative propaganda. Seriously dude, spend some time on the Googles.
@ becca
That shark may never be jumped.
Lou Dobbs … now there’s someone that somebody listens to somewhere.
/And yes, I literally mean a singular somebody.
@Steven L. Taylor:
LOL.
And yes, Jenos’ comment really makes no sense, other than it’s actually really about hate.
I was just saying that even being prepared and trying to actually think ahead is now, to these guys, evidence of… something.
I don’t know what, nor do they, either, but it’s bad.
I have to say it took a long time, to me, finally, but the relentless calls of “classlessness (Lou Dobbs), and “amateur hour (some guy on this thread) has lead me to think that it really is about him and the fact that he’s black… I did not really want to believe it – it’s an easy and sloppy way to abstain from dealing with real issues in this administration but I just have to think those who called it early were right.
He doesn’t belong there, he’s been given a pass, the birther mess, all the small little digs – I guess you could say Clinton took those hits too, maybe. But it just seems to add up, and it never stops.
Idiots. All presidents do this:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/971109_603604982983817_1868702761_n.jpg
@anjin-san: @anjin-san:
Well don’t you know the difference between a political system like islam wiping Jews and Christians off the face of the earth and murders? You know that murdering people is illegal in civilized countries.
@ AnnS
Most of the territory the US sits on was taken in a series of genocidal wars against the people who inhabited it. The Mexican American war, while not genocide, was pure conquest/land grab. Quite recently, we attacked Iraq, a nation that neither attacked nor threatened us. Over a hundred thousand Muslims died as a result. Women and children were “wiped off the face of the earth” – in large numbers.
I don’t think the moral high ground you think you occupy is nearly as solid as it apparently feels to you.
& just for the record, I know more than a handful of seasoned world travelers who say Turkey is quite civilized, and their #1 favorite country to visit. Have you ever even been there?
@Caj: The reality is that by asking the marines to hold umbrellas, Obama broke protocol and in fact, it goes DIRECTLY against Marine code.
“The Marine Corp Manual, which is the bible for all soldiers serving, specifically states that a soldier’s uniform dress code does not allow the carrying of an umbrella and ‘no officer or official shall issue instructions which conflict with, alter, or amend any provision without the approval of the Commandant of the Marine Corps.”
It goes onto add, “male Marines are informed never to carry an umbrella from the earliest phases of training. Regulation MCO P1020.34F of the Marine Corps Uniform Regulations chapter 3, rules out any use or carrying of an umbrella while a Marine is in uniform.”
Obama is the Commander-in-Chief, but he is NOT the Marine Commandant.
It has nothing to do with being a “right-winger” and everything to do with the rule of law. That’s something the left seems to have no clue about at all.
When Reagan stood in the rain with wife, Nancy, he didn’t use an umbrella – only his wife did and there were plenty of military people around who could have been an umbrella stand for him. Apparently, Reagan was afraid of some rain.
@wr: “He’s still black”
Funny, but I know black people who are still asking “When are we going to have a black president?”
Obama is half-white and Arab…do some research.
@ Fred
How do mixed race folks know they are black?
When people call them ni**er…
BTW, Obama’s father was a black man, hence Obama’s lineage on that side is black African. Some people are confused because Obama Sr. was born into a Muslim family, and they think that equates to Arab.
@Fred:
CIC ranks the MC Commandant.
@becca:
Yeah I’ve heard that before. But next thing you know there’s an announcement that we’ve figured out how to make wingnuts from shale rock and next thing you know the GOP is producing wingnuts at three times the rate they were in the past!
So the same crew who were laughing at the idea that waterboarding was illegal are now whipping out the rule book and wagging their fingers when the president asks a marine to hold an umbrella to shelter a foreign head of state?
During the Bush years republican bloggers invented a phrase called “Bush derangement syndrome” to describe liberals who disagreed with them. “Deranged” doesn’t even begin to describe the current crybaby right.
@Steve V: “.. During the Bush years republican bloggers invented a phrase called “Bush derangement syndrome””
Funny, when the retired Marine infantry officer I talked with the other night (see a previous comment) were discussing this, “Obama Derangement Syndrome” were exactly the words we used.
Marines are proud to serve their country and its president. Today’s Republicans cannot understand that concept.
@Fred: “Obama is the Commander-in-Chief, but he is NOT the Marine Commandant. It has nothing to do with being a “right-winger” and everything to do with the rule of law.”
1. The commander in chief outranks the commandant. Hugely.
2. Every USMC regulation (“Marine Corps Order” as they call them) requires the permission of the commandant for variance. The commandant is the issuer of the MCOs. This is the principle if effect at every level of the chain of command right down to platoon commander. A military officer’s order can always be overridden by a higher rank in the chain of command. When I was a battery commander, variance from policies and orders I issued required my advance approval. But my battalion commander didn’t need my approval to countermand them if he wanted. That’s just how the military works.
3. Rule of law is (a) Article 2, Section 2 of the US Constitution that makes the president commander in chief of the armed forces and (b) Title 10 of the U.S. Code, which states that members of the US military shall “perform such other duties as the President may direct.”
jenos:
This stupid misunderstanding of tu quoque comes up a lot, so it should be addressed. Link:
In other words, the point of pointing out a similar umbrella move by, say, GWB is not to prove that Obama’s umbrella move is appropriate. (There is other evidence proving that Obama’s umbrella move is appropriate.) It’s to prove that you (collectively) are brazen hypocrites.
This is also why it’s appropriate, when you folks mention alleged lies by Obama, to mention the long history of lies told by people like Mitt and GWB. The lies of the latter do not prove that Obama didn’t lie. They just prove that Republicans are hypocrites.
Oh, and in honor of Rodney Dill, everyone is invited to enter my Umbrellagate caption contest.
bill:
As anjin-san has already explained, the embassy is not in Benghazi. You have also failed to understand that “protect our embassy” is exactly what we were doing. It seems that certain forces were kept in Tripoli, instead of being sent to Benghazi, because there had been a separate threat against the embassy.
As Gates said, you have “a cartoonish impression of military capabilities and military forces.”
wr:
Let’s remember the famous example of this coming up before: Bush’s famous 16 words about yellowcake embodied the same technique. A typical defense of him went like this: he wasn’t really saying that Saddam sought yellowcake, he was only saying that UK said that Saddam sought yellowcake. Therefore his statement was literally true. Never mind that he was endorsing and promoting the UK claim, even though CIA had already determined that the UK claim wasn’t “very credible.”
Hey Obama, turn in your man-card to that Marine. He will know what to do with it. Lucky Michelle wasn’t around.
Palin was correct. American men carry hold their own umbrellas, nless they are sharing it with a woman.
@Shooster:
Sarah Palin is transgender, and it explains why she’s somewhat confused about the rules of umbrella engagement.
@Alex Knapp: Wrong. You should check your nonsense on google before posting: https://www.google.com/search?q=other+presidents+umbrellas&safe=off&rlz=1C1CHKZ_enUS441US441&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=HuqYUfuACaq60QHQ24DgCg&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=1440&bih=787#safe=off&rlz=1C1CHKZ_enUS441US441&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=other+presidentsmilitary+umbrellas&oq=other+presidentsmilitary+umbrellas&gs_l=img.3…10244.12161.0.12817.8.8.0.0.0.0.87.602.8.8.0…0.0…1c.1.14.img.fDSPQ091doo&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.46751780,d.dmQ&fp=cf990a237c7a70c3&biw=1440&bih=787&imgrc=Q-Id3zQNNX9eTM%3A%3BUo5_CTo5bxh5pM%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fsphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net%252Fhphotos-ash4%252F260310_655879864438664_1632343214_n.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fmnprogressiveproject.com%252F%3B840%3B840
@Donald Sensing: He controls the entire military. He can order a unit to hold an umbrella. It’s called an order. You’re sitting rules and regulations. Really? Do you do that with every president, every military command, yourself? Ridiculous. Aren’t there important things happening in the world?
@Caj: have you no respect for discipline and order? The Marine Corps does not allow male Marines to carry umbrellas in uniform . . . . period. Only the Commandant of the Marine Corps can change that. You obviously have never served in the US military. Orders are to be followed, no questions asked. I am sure if there are special circumstances allowed for the Marines of 8th and I, we will hear about it in the coming days. Without that, what the president participated in is against current Marine Corps Orders. I don’t know that the president “ordered it” or someone else, either way, it was wrong. If the president did not order it, the best thing he could do is set the record straight during the next opportunity of a press conference. If he did order it, he needs to apologize to those Marines and to the Commandant.
@Matthew: @Donald Sensing: You didn’tknow the difference between civilians, US Army and US Marine Corps uniforms? The Marine Corps does not allow male Marines to carry umbrellas in uniform. So, before you resort to name calling, check your facts! Each branch of the service has their own orders and regulations pertaining to uniform regulations, maybe the Army allows it, but the Marine Corps does not.
@Jenos Idanian #13: “: 1) It was a bit of hyperbole to demonstrate the instinctive tu quoque response of the Obama administration and its apologists. And quite well done, I thought.”
Even better — when little Jenos was posting one of the single stupidest things ever put on the internet, he was actually actually demonstrating that it’s liberals who are stupid.
Another winner from the party of personal responsibility!
@Hrntphxr:
I think that the president needs to order the incarceration and immediate deportation to North Korea, of all of those people who think that this “incident” represents another example of the president’s disrespect for this country.
@Hrntphxr: “If he did order it, he needs to apologize to those Marines and to the Commandant. ”
Does it ever occur to you to stop and think “If this is the worst I can come up with against Obama, he must be a pretty good president”?
@Hrntphxr:
Yes, for their personal use. Why is this so difficult to understand?
In what universe is POTUS subordinate to the Commandant?
And if the newcomers to the thread haven’t read Donald Sensing’s post above, they should. The presence of the Prime Minister of Turkey, head of government of a NATO ally, is rather important to the overall story.
Some people seem to think that Obama decided to go out into the rain on a whim.
My uncle was a Marine. I’ve known him for over half a century. In that entire time, he has done less whining that some of the commenters here have done in a single thread.
@Hrntphxr: “You didn’t know the difference between civilians, US Army and US Marine Corps uniforms?”
As I am a retired Army officer with service on both the Army staff and a joint staff, I am guessing that I know volumes more about this subject than you. But that’s only a guess.
“The Marine Corps does not allow male Marines to carry umbrellas in uniform.” Neither could I when I was on active duty. It does not matter! This is what seems opaque to critics who (apparently) have no knowledge or understanding about this phony scandal: Article 2, Section 2 of the Constitution specifies that the president is the commander in chief of the armed forces.
So seriously, what part of “commander in chief” seems so hard to understand? There is NO mere regulation in any of the armed services that the president cannot overturn with a snap of his fingers. But perhaps you don’t know just what a regulation (or, as the USMC calls it, Marine Corps Order) is? Not trying to be snarky, just asking. Please see my earlier comment.
So it is the commandant’s policy that Marines in uniform may not carry umbrellas. On that day and that occasion, it was the president’s policy that these two corporals would. Guess who wins that power contest.
I believe the most outrageous outrage has been outrageously missed here. Those Marines, outrageously, have no sidearms. This can only mean one thing: This outrageous President doesn’t trust Marines! And where’s the outrage about that, I ask??. The very lack of outrage on this is itself nothing less than outrageous.
@Fred:
So, Obama’s “Kenyan” ethnicity is the “white” part?
Or is the “half-white: the “black” part?
Or is “Arab” the “black” part, or the “white” part?
I think the answers are in Area 51 … vaya con mitad blanco Dios, y con mitad negro Dios, y con mitad Arab Dios, y mitad Kenyan Dios.
@Fred:
Actually no. I’d love to know where you get your info, but for some reason I think I already know.
The Marine Code of Conduct states that Marines shall only hold umbrellas for a woman. I have no idea why the “right” is complaining about this. The activity under discussion is obviously within the code of conduct.
@al-Ameda: he’s a kenyan, muslim, socialist, fascist, atheistic, islamicist, black liberation christian, communist, marxist, racist, homosexual, ex-cia, illuminati, new world order antichrist — what’s not to get?
@anjin-san:
I don’t think I have ever brought up what islam is doing to this world without the left bringing up something America did, or the Crusades, or the savage American indians, yada yada yada. You can not respond the question is the only conclusion that I come to, because you know the truth and you don’t give a rat’s butt. I am sure you are sleeping soundly at night knowing that TODAY, not history, that Christians all over the Islamic world are slaughtered, burned aive, their Churches destroyed, that unarmed israeli villages are being bombarded by rockets from the Gaza Strip, the threat of being exterminated is the rhetoric hate filled speeches of the day.
So just find another accusations to justify the 250+- million people that have been murdered by musiln jihadist islamist-looks like it is working for you, as the likes and dislikes on the threads. Just proves my suspicions as to what kind of monsters walking the streets.
Well, at least YOU are a bit more creative; haven’t heard the one about the Mexican War yet.
@anjin-san: @anjin-san: No I haven’t been to Turkey. I don’t spend my money in countries that want to exterminate Christians and Jews.
I don’t think I have ever brought up what islam is doing to this world without the left bringing up something America did, or the Crusades, or the savage American indians, yada yada yada. You can not respond the question is the only conclusion that I come to, because you know the truth and you don’t give a rat’s butt. I am sure you are sleeping soundly at night knowing that TODAY, not history, that Christians all over the Islamic world are slaughtered, burned aive, their Churches destroyed, that unarmed israeli villages are being bombarded by rockets from the Gaza Strip, the threat of being exterminated is the rhetoric hate filled speeches of the day.
So just find another accusations to justify the 250+- million people that have been murdered by musiln jihadist islamist-looks like it is working for you, as the likes and dislikes on the threads. Just proves my suspicions as to what kind of monsters walking the streets.
Well, at least YOU are a bit more creative; haven’t heard the one about the Mexican War yet.
@Tucker:
I got JUST the umbrella for you …
http://www.firebox.com/product/5412/Up-Yours-Umbrella
Wow; pirates never change; these two pirates standing in the Whitehouse: No doubt obama is going to stick millions of dollars in erdogan’s pockets (at the taxpayers expense, of course) Gotta have more weapons in Turkey to kill Christians:
“Christians were attacked across the country. To implement the strategic attacks, the country’s Christian population was mapped out and 939 key persons from different parts of the country were identified as potential targets.
The fully detailed operation consists of four phases: preparation, spreading propaganda, shape opinion and execute”
Third Reich revisited:
The Marines were created not long after America’s founding to take out the Muslim pirates who were taking over our ships in the African seas. Maybe Barack Benghazi Obama knew that when he asked/ordered two Marines to “protect” himself and a Muslim from rain, a Muslim who wants to turn Turkey into Islamic hell
I miss Jan.
@Steven L. Taylor: No outrage here:
Senior Turkish military officers had made extensive plans to terrorize non-Muslims in Turkey. In the large Ergenekon[1] scandal recently a well-planned terrorist operation was revealed. The operation which is called “Kafes Operasyonu Eylem Planı”, in English meaning “the execution of the cage – operation” was to eliminate the remaining small group of Christians living in Turkey today.
Attackers in Turkey have murdered three employees of a Christian publishing company including one German. The victims had their throats cut. Christian priests have been attacked on several occasions in Turkey over the past year.
Christians were attacked across the country. To implement the strategic attacks, the country’s Christian population was mapped out and 939 key persons from different parts of the country were identified as potential targets.
The fully detailed operation consists of four phases: preparation, spreading propaganda, shape opinion and execute
The Marines were created not long after America’s founding to take out the Muslim pirates who were taking over our ships in the African seas. Maybe Barack Benghazi Obama knew that when he asked/ordered two Marines to “protect” himself and a Muslim from rain, a Muslim who wants to turn Turkey into Islamic hell.
@AnnS: “Well, at least YOU are a bit more creative; haven’t heard the one about the Mexican War yet. ”
Given the ranting on your posts, I’m not surprised. I expect you know about nothing you didn’t learn from Glen Beck.
In all fairness, if this umbrella thing was the worst thing Obama has done, then I’d have to say he’s not a bad president. BUT, there is so much more that he has done… Fast and Furious, ObamaCare, Bengazi, IRS targeting political enemies, wire tapping the press, NDAA 2012, War in Libya, Sales of Weapons to Egypt, Sending our tax dollars to countrys that burn our flag…Face it the unbrella thing is only a distraction.
The DOJ/AP story is not about “wire tapping.”
Above all else, nothing points toward intellectual vacuity like checklists. When the checklists come out, you’re just reciting what youve been told.
@ AnnS
Really? They cover it in high school, though they are not as honest about it as Ulysses S. Grant was in his autobiography, which gives an interesting look into the war, in which Grant was a young officer. He was quite clear that it was a blatant land grab.
I am curious, why are you so fixated on the violence done by Muslims? Human beings are inherently violent, they have been slaughtering each other since the dawn of history, and I imagine, well before.
knowing that TODAY, not history, that Christians all over the Islamic world are slaughtered
Our war in Iraq was quite recent, and people are certainly dying right here in 2013 in the aftermath of what we started.
BTW, my references to horrific acts of violence that took place years or centuries ago in no way “justifies” violence taking place today, nor is it intended to. I am simply placing what is happening today in a historic context, IE: “People are violent, nations are violent. Always have been.”
You are making Muslims out at uniquely violent. That’s crap. You are upset because they (or more precisely, some of them) are in conflict with groups that you belong to/identify with.
@Alex Knapp: @Alex Knapp: That’s army, you idiot. Different regulations.
@Marines not Army: Before you go around calling people an idiot, you might want to ensure that you’re correct on the facts.
According to Army regulations, male officers cannot carry an umbrella. See AR 670-1, Rule 27-27.
http://www.apd.army.mil/jw2/xmldemo/r670_1/head.asp
Of course, the order of the Commander In Chief (aka the President) would overrule this regulation.
Riiiiiiiiight….
Oh, if only we had Sarah Palin as Vice President rather than the idiot we have in the White House now! What other president would say we had 58 states?????? Perhaps if you paid more attention to the numerous scandals this president has going on at one time, you wouldn’t still be obsessed with Sarah Palin, as to what she’s tweeting or if anyone other than a Marine holds an umbrella for her over four years after the first election!!!! Silly you, alright!!! Get a life, already!
Eric Holder also had someone holding an umbrella for him along with another black person. Must be a “black” thing–insisting people hold umbrellas for you!
Huh??? Explain yourself. Only a dummy would think that callously allowing four people to die helplessly at the hands of terrorists, while doing nothing; illegally targeting certain people for IRS investigations, due to political beliefs; tapping phones; researching people based on their political beliefs and religious beliefs; violating the constitution at every turn; entertaining the Muslim Brotherhood secretly in the White House over 100 times; massive coverups of all scandals from A-Z, in order to get elected; bussing people over state lines to vote in more than one state, one person having admitted to illegally voting over 50 times; ignoring the courts when they’ve told that son of a… has violated the constitution, etc. etc. shall I go on?–Only a dummy would think all of this is nothing to sneeze at!
Bottom line,
If the president knew it might rain, why did he go to all the trouble of assembling two marines to hold umbrellas? Why not just hold your own damn umbrella?
The next time he walks his dog, maybe he should take a marine to clean up after it.
Or if he steps in some of the dogs doo doo, maybe the marine can bend down and lick his boot.
After all, he’s the president and they are just grunts trained and paid to defend the country.
Why not use them as decorations and lamp stands?
After all, the President gives you your rights.
Doesn’t he?
He is God after all, right?
I remember Bill Clinton in Air Force One on the runway of a major airport getting his haircut, holding up hundreds of flights because the airport shuts down when the president is on the plane. Same thing.
I also remember George Bush on the deck in a flight suit. Same thing.
This kind of disrespectful crap should be impeachable. Our military is our defense, our families, our children. How dare any elected official use them so disrespectfully!
@Donald Sensing:
I realize you are just trying to share your knowledge of the military, but as a retired military man I would think you might see this for what it is. An elitist cluster f… (although with the Presidents rank, perhaps its a elitist C in C f….).
I would not be surprised to see Obama ask a marine to walk his dog and pick up its poo or borrow a flag from a marine so he wipe his butt with it. The country will be much better off when Obama is gone.
@Tom Graham: it amazes me people like you are never worried about how presidents use the military for unnecessary wars. i know men who are post combat – i assure you they’d rather have held a f*cking umbrella
@Cassandra: Indeed.
“We’re Marines, if the President of the fucking United States asks you to hold a f****** umbrella, you hold a f****** umbrella. Honestly, holding an umbrella for the President is probably the least demeaning thing I could imagine doing as a Marine, as opposed to the other bullcrap we have to do every day. No one would think twice about asking a boot to police call cigarette butts across the entire base at 5am, but the minute this Marine has to hold an umbrella for the Commander in Chief, people get upset.”
He’s the President, he rates an umbrella.
Get over it.
You are not his personal servants. You are not bought and paid for by him, you are bought and paid for by civilians, he’s stepping out of bounds, honest to God man, what is the problem, follow me here, with holding his own umbrella? I know this is going to flip you out…but think man, use your head, why would any of us, in this whole world, have someone stand in the rain getting wet, hold our umbrella? No one does that, it’s not right, kind, thoughtful or even humane. He hates you soldiers, american soldiers, you don’t get it yet do you? Why did what happened in Benghazi happen? Why were the Americans brutally slaughtered, and he and his wife the very next day, off laughing and smiling and campaigning? They didn’t think twice about it, think man please think.
As a Marine we are required to follow all “lawful orders” not all “orders”. Laws for the Marines include regulations. Male Marines are not allowed to “use umbrellas”…the order doesn’t stipulate Marines cannot “hold umbrellas for the use of others”. So long as the Marine is getting rained on and not taking part in the comfort of the said umbrella it seems to be a lawful order IMO.
I did notice how they covered the belt Eagle Globe and Anchor while holding said umbrellas. If I had to do that I would cover it as well. Kind of borderline it seems.
All in all I think Obama was correct in requesting the Marines control the elements…I would hate to see the Army using both hands to hold the umbrellas…it would really make us look weak in the eyes of the Turks.
@rhonda: they (marines et al) are NOT bought and paid for by civilians – what a crass thing to say.
they agree to serve. our elected officials, acting as our representatives, decide in what capacity they should serve. our job as civilians is to monitor the actions of said officials and determine that they do not use the gift of service in a capricious manner. we have an obligation to those who serve because, unlike other federal employees, we can’t write a check large enough to cover what they provide.
now, you can argue holding an umbrella is capricious – maybe you’re right. but unless you have spoken up about where we send them, under what conditions, how many times, funding for after service care, pay, help for their families, the post service suicide rate etc etc . ..
and since you ask the question in a broader sense – why would anyone have anyone holding their umbrella – then i’m sure you spoke up when past presidents had this done for them, amirite?
this has not a thing to do with respect for them – as evidenced by your presumption that you, as a civilian, have bought and paid for them. you aren’t fooling anyone.