Was Malloy just crying?

[NightTrain]

He was talking about an e-mail he got, to the effect that the #1 requested item from our soldiers in Iraq is telephone calling cards. By the time the network went to a break, Malloy's voice noticeably cracked--not once, but twice. And I don't think he was faking it!

So, the wealtheist 1% of Americans keep getting tax cuts, but our soldiers on the front lines can't afford to call home during the holiday season. Thanks, Bush Junta, for making me ashamed to be an American! :grr::nuke:

[ralps]

1. Hi Nighttrain

How are you tonight? Ever since I got home tonight and logged in I've been searching for the Mike Malloy thread. Is this it?
:hi:

[NightTrain]

2. We can make it the de facto Malloy thread if you like.

DU was down earlier tonight, so I guess whomever usually starts the Malloy thread gave up. :shrug:

[Ladyhawk]

3. Yeah, I think he was crying.

We should all be crying for the dead and wounded, American and Iraqi.

Any Soldier
Medical Family Assistance Center
Walter Reed Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue Northwest
Washington, DC 20307

[gumby]

4. well, i certainly am......... n/t

.

[flaminbats]

5. Why doesn't he take more calls?

I love hearing this, but after two hours it can leave anyone in the dumps...:cry:

[Donna Zen]

6. Trying to help

At the Clark blog we've collected over 20,000 minutes. With all the doom descending, something positive really helps.

One of the bloggers has all of the info posted on his blog. Just search "Best of Blogs."

Yeah...sure...one would thing the junta might actually give a shit about the soldiers, but you know it ain't gonna happen til BFEE is skating in hell.

If anyone calls Malloy, please let him know.

[hangemhigh]

11. What about the MCI/Worldcom GSA contract?

Oh yeah, that just benefits the guvmint.

[AP]

20. Please spend your time shaming the telecoms into providing the cards

themselves. There's not reason any more wealth should be shifted from the middle and working class to the pockets of huge corporatioins over this war than has already been shifted.

[NightOwwl]

29. I'm a dummy...can't find the link.

I'd like to donate, can you post the link, please?

[hangemhigh]

7. Missed this....

is there somewhere we can send a phone card to "any soldier in Iraq"????

[Ladyhawk]

8. See my post above. n/t

I'm getting tapped out, trying to help the recount, DU, etc. Someone please help the soldiers. :( :( :(

[AP]

19. Don't be a tool. You'd make a bigger impact writing a letter to your local

paper asking why the public is being manipulated by the cable companis to underwrite the profitability of the telecoms using sentimental patriotic BS like this about the troops.

[feistydem]

9. Maybe I am being naive, but can't the American phone companies give out

calling cards to our soldiers?

I mean really? I have no problem with sending the troops cards, but it seems that AT&T, Sprint and MCI should be on this one --evn if its just for good PR.

[hangemhigh]

12. Think again, friend.....

it's the grassroots that help the troops, the corporations could give a rat's ass.

[feistydem]

13. Agreed. But this would be self-serving for the big telecom companies

Imagine the commercials they could do on phone cards being delivered to our "brave men and women" fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

First one to do it would make their money back in a heartbeat.

[Ilsa]

14. I thought about this as well.

The soldiers sacrifice while AT&T, Sprint, etc clean up on calling cards. It pisses me off that they aren't contributing significantly to this if they truly believe the soldiers are there "for our freedom".

[AP]

17. It's all profit, not costs for the phone companies. They're probably...

...getting millions in cell phone network contracts for Iraq. And lord knows they don't pay much in taxes.

I can't believe they have the balls to try to rip off the public like this. I guess so long as you have a compliant "media" you don't have to worry about too many people putting 1 and 1 together to make 2.

[AP]

18. They're "on it" by getting the "media" to advertize phone cards this way.

Do you really believe that it's a coincidence that cable news runs a story which presents the "solution" to a problem as buying something that huge companies which advertise on their networks happen to sell?

[gumby]

10. Once again this reminds me

that since the very beginning of this "war," citizens of this country have rallied to provide the troops with the needs that Bush has refused or neglected to provide.

From air conditioners, to body armor to basic food stuffs, the citizens have been supplying these things. Now, we hear that the wounded can't even use the phones?

What the fuck is going on here??????????????????????

I am reminded of Nazi Germany when the Nazis would canvass the middle-lower class neighborhoods for "donations."

[knight_of_the_star]

15. What?

What a bunch of miserable lying sons of bitches! I THINK that being able to AT LEAST call home to your family would be worth MORE to such "patriots" as the GOP claims to be than more money for rich people!

Guess not.

What a bunch of miserable lying honourless scumsucking backstabbing hellspawned bastards!

[AP]

16. He's crying about the fat check he's going to get from ATT or Sprint when

people start buying those calling cards thanks to his commercial.

By the way, who is keeping track of what soldiers are asking for in their letters home? If someone is paying for a survey (and invading soldiers' privacy to see what they're asking for in their letters) they should just use that money to pay for the soldiers' damn long distance phone calls.

And we, DU'ers, should shame the phone companies into providing free phone calls. If we're sacrificing the lives of young Americans, they can sacrifice some of their damn profit.

Bastards.

[gumby]

21. This post is so far off "the reality-based community"

I don't know what to make of it.

Sometimes I think DU is just a CIA front to "identify" us stupidoes.

BTW, AP, there are many groups who have specifics of what the troops have been asking for.

You have used a device.

You have specifically denounced Malloy and accused him of sleazy profiteering. Then you claim solidarity (after sliming Malloy) with his listeners and with DU members by spouting outrage against the phone profiteers. "Bastards," you say?

Well, I call you a "Front." So there!

[AP]

22. You're fooling yourself if you think this is anything but an advertisement

for something either the gov't or the telecoms should be providing for free (or for a huge discount).

[AP]

23. Name one group that is keeping track of what soldiers are asking for.

I don't doubt that soldiers want phone cards by the way. I'm sure the gov't has done a big favor for the telecoms by not providing them with cheap phone service. But I think that what the media is doing is helping out the telecoms.

If Maloy is a liberal and did this, he's a fool or a tool. Hannity and all the RW'ers have already made this plea for the telecoms, and I guarantee you that the RW'ers appreciated whose bottom line they were padding.

[Winamericaback]

26. Want to help the troops?

Here you go:

www.anysoldier.com

[AP]

27. Want to help them? Write your congresspeople and local papers and ask

them to stop letting Bush use this war to make corporations wealthier. And tell them you think it's ridiculous that people are buying things at retail prices that troops need when the government should be using their buying power to buy at wholesale prices the stuff they need to stay comfortable and safe.

When the soldiers are no longer a captive audience off of which Sprint and ATT make big profits, they'll probably come home sooner.

[ConsAreLiars]

24. That is despicable.

Give a bottle of water to the thirsty or a bag of foodstuffs to a shelter and you're just profiting the food industry! ???? and WTF?. And expecting a kickback? I nominate this as the most vile post on DU this week.

[AP]

25. Give me a break. Fox and CNN and the telecoms have been begging

people to buy phone cards for soldiers for months. Why is the solution for this problem to buy something from huge, wealthy corporations. Shouldn't the corporations which are profiting hugely from the republicans be required to give some free minutes to the soldiers?

Sorry if Maloy is a sacred cow. If he's a liberal, then he did this inadvertantly. But when O'Reilly, Hannity, AOL and the rest do it, they know what they're doing.

[ConsAreLiars]

28. Sure, the swine "should" pay for the suffering they cause.

But they won't. BushCo and the neocons "should" be stripped of every penny to pay compensation and have their fingernails pulled out as a reminder or the pain they have made. But they won't, In the meantime, bandaids are needed, even if the multinational corps own all the bandaids and won't give them out unless paid to do so.

[AP]

30. The more "consumption" because the solution to problems for the soldiers

the longer they're going to be there.

Who's going to want to stop a war that is creating profits from the retail sale of a lot of stuff that the government should be buying for the troops at lower profit margins directly from the manufacturers?

[ConsAreLiars]

32. OK, first you stop buying things like phone service or internet.

Then you can advocate that the wounded soldiers at Water Reed should be equally deprived of these services. Until you "log off" of capitalism, it is sort of silly to demand that these poor bastards or those who wish to help them do so first. And "silly" is the polite term.

[AP]

33. OK OK Malloy is a good guy. I'm complaining about Fox and CNN telling

people to buy long distance cards for people in Iraq.

As for me -- I'm not a captive audience. I canceled the cable incidentally. The US has put these soldiers in Iraq and is refusing to use its purchasing power or its own telecom system to let this captive audience stay in touch with their familes.

For comparison, I believe soldiers are not required to have postage on their mail. (Could be wrong.) Why can't they do the same with phone calls.

I also think it's outrageous that a soldier in Walter Reed who has lost a limb has to make anyone pay for his phone call besides the US government, and I think the gov't should get the money to make that call from taxes on the tremendous profits earned by huge corporations including telecom corporations.

[ConsAreLiars]

35. You've got that right

You say "it's outrageous that a soldier in Walter Reed who has lost a limb has to make anyone pay for his phone call besides the US government..." and I agree. But in the meantime there is the simple matter of giving those who suffer a bit of comfort.

[AP]

36. But if we keep this up, we're just going to perpetuate the war and the

suffering. Somody has got to start treating this like it's a political problem and not a problem where buying things is going to help. Buying phone cards is probably hurting more than it's helping.

Write your congressperson instead.

[ConsAreLiars]

37. Yes it is a palliative,

Only that. No more than that. But it does not preclude any other action like letters or direct action. I don't expect any of us think that "only" a phone card or a letter is the most perfect or only possible action. Act on every front possible.

[AP]

34. One more thing: I'm sick of the media telling me that political problems

have commerical solutions that require me to consume more.

If soldiers in Walter Reed or Iraq can't call home, I think that's a politcal problem and not a commercial problem. Give them some bandwidth on the gov't infrastructure. Tell huge, profitable corporations they're going to have to sacrifice some of their bandwith. Don't tell me I have to buy somethign to solve the problem.

[Carl Brennan]

38. What the hell are you talking about????

Are you saying that Malloy is in it for the money?

[TrustingDog]

31. send them armour that Bush won't, now dig in your pockets

to send them some sort of communication.

support bush's oops.

sad beyond words.