I am call 'em out - those paper tiger elitists that get all pouty when us rabble do not feel about an issue as so duly directed. At first I noticed the Conservative elitists. They rant day after day, there are national talking heads as well a cadre of state-wide talking heads. They fill media and political ranks. Few if any have served in the military. Most have not ventured to Iraq in a journalistic capacity, yet they spew fire and brimstone about Iraq nearly every day. I do not have to mention their names, you already have a couple names in your head by now. They hold the airwaves like Tokyo Rose, Hanoi Hanna, and Berlin Betty. They use the same inane communication techniques that tin horn fascists have used for a hundred years. And if you do not buy into their lectures, you are "surely" with the imaginary enemy of the week. 

   Conservatives will say, "not fair Bob, my opinion counts too, just because I never served, and you know I am not the kind of journalist that goes over seas." Maybe so, but remember if you believe that, after all there is a sucker born every day. 

   But what of the elitist Left? They blather on about the evil Right. They want me to ride a bicycle and stop using foam cups. They make excuses about their lack of military service and as with the conservative media and politicians, most of them have not been to Iraq either. The Left says they will fight when there is a good war to fight. Maybe so, but remember if you believe that, after all there is a sucker born every day. And they say they will not go to be journalists in Iraq because they do not believe in the war and insist they want no ownership of it. Excuse my rabble-calloused hands, but not believing in a war does not preclude investigating its dynamics from in-county. 

   What we have here is a grand case of the "false alternative." If you are not on one side of idiots, then you must be on the other idiots' side. The operative word here is of course, "idiots." Nitwits come together, buffoons unit, come home brother and sister elitist frauds. 

   I have bad news for you all, and you know who you are. I walk amongst the rabble. I am a former member of the rabble but I went to college to learn the difference between a colon and a semi colon. I went back to get a degree to get out from the rabble, but I still walk amongst them. To my surprise the rabble still takes me in their world. And the worse the "real economy" gets in the new elitist global economy, the more rabble there are. 

   Here Righties and Lefties is where you have missed the boat. You are so caught up in your elitist positions in media and government that you never bother to check in with the rabble. In reality, and in general, they despise you both. The reason you do not know this is that you do not ask them but rather you preach to them. If you do bother to ask them they lie to you. Most of us can't seem to tell the difference between a Conservative and a Liberal. The problem is you both want to take what little money and dignity we have left and shove it toward your pet agendas and lord over our personal lives to-boot. You both want to criminalize a puff on a cigarette during break time from a miserable under-employed, new-global economy job. You both make excuses for high gas prices, to the Conservatives it is good for business to grind the rabble in the dirt as they try to drive to their two-bit jobs. To the Left we will all have an epiphany and quit driving our evil cars. One problem, then us rabble can't get to our new-global economy, under-employed, part-time, no-benefit jobs that both the Right and Left make excuses for.  The only thing that counts to us rabble is you elitists are the facilitators of the undermining of our simple freedoms. 

   We would be a better society without you both. Right wingers tell me, "Bob, your observations from when you were in Iraq are interesting, but let me tell you what you 'probably' saw." Left wingers tell me, "Bob, your observations from when you where in Iraq are interesting, but let me tell you what you 'really' saw." After I researched Vietnam and our long war there from in-country, I noticed Conservatives get mad at me because my observations validated that we did indeed lose the war. Liberals get mad at me about my Vietnam research in the midst of the Iraq War because they had promised a new generation there would be no more Vietnams. But the two-party paradigm does this in almost every facet of life. You feed off each other, it is a virtual "play house," for you both. Soldiers die in the outposts of your play-house paradise while you comfortably bicker.

   But here is the caveat. While your two miserable sides play patty cake, us rabble dies. We die in your wars and we die due to your economic schemes. And our hearts and lives are broken by your lame blame games and apologist rants. Be advised then again from an informant to you - I as one who walks amongst the under class unimpeded, am telling you that both political sides are despised and loathed by your rabble. 

   It is quit plain really, if you would ever stop to talk to a peon or two. But I suspect you mostly talk amongst your selves and the real growing rabble is just a construct of hypotheticals in your two-party-paradigm, "false alternative," play-house world. 

   This week's Wisconsin soldier to remember is Army Major Christopher J. Splinter, 43, from Platteville. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel stated Splinter believed Iraq would one day be a model state in the Middle East. Major Splinter died the day before Christmas December 24, 2003, when his vehicle struck a bomb on Highway 1 near the city of Samarra, which lies north of Baghdad, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. Splinter was assigned to Headquarters Company, the 5th Engineer Battalion, 1st Engineer Brigade, based at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. Splinter graduated from Platteville High School in 1979. He later attended and earned a degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and also joined the ROTC program. According to the Journal Sentinel, Splinter graduated and earned his commission in 1990 and had been on active duty in the Army since then. Major Splinter had shipped out to Iraq in July 2003. Splinter had been married to his high school sweetheart, Penny (Barton) Splinter, for 18 years. The couple have two children: a son, Mitchell, 13, and a daughter, Rachel, 10. Major Splinter was the ninth Wisconsin soldier to die in the Iraq war since Spring 2003. 

   3,473 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

   25,549 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring 2003.

   75 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

   105 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

Soldier of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; and, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.