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NY Magazine: Top Black General Worthless
Rush Limbaugh .com ^ | 3/27/03 | El Rushbo

Posted on 03/27/2003 5:05:37 PM PST by Libloather

NY Magazine: Top Black General Worthless
March 27, 2003

Brigadier General Vincent Brooks faces some outrageous and stupid questions at his daily Central Command briefings. Some of them deserve to be answered dead on, but because of political correctness and diplomacy and all that, CENTCOM can't always do that. I can, which is why I sometimes answer these questions in a mock briefing. On Thursday, I focused on a question by New York magazine's Michael Wolff.

Wolff said: "I mean no disrespect by this question, but I want to ask about the value proposition of these briefings. We're no longer being briefed by senior-most officers." The press pool applauded the question, which drew a rapier-quick response from Brooks who said, "I've gotten applause already. That's wonderful. I appreciate that."

Can you believe the audacity of complaining that Brigadier General Brooks isn't good enough for the press? If this had been a reporter from a conservative news source, the press would point out the fact that Brooks just happens to be the only African-American general on the scene. Charges of racism would be made, because this question's underlying meaning is clearly that Brooks can't possibly know anything.

This war is not about Michael Wolff's stupid stories in New York magazine. It's about saving lives, including his. This is not a criticism of General Schwarzkopf, but the leader of this Gulf War, General Tommy Franks, isn't going to be out there talking to these people every day. He's busy picking out targets and protecting our soldiers. By the way, Donald Rumsfeld nominated Brooks for appointment to the rank of brigadier general in June 2002. Just another example - like Colin Powell, Clarence Thomas and Condoleezza Rice - of African-Americans advancing more under GOP administrations than Democratic ones.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: black; general; magazine; ny; vincentbrooks; worthless
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To: Petronski
If you saw the exchange between the reporter and the Brigadier General you would not be saying Rush's charge was weak. If anything, the implication of the reporter was despicable and totally undeserved.
81 posted on 03/27/2003 5:54:19 PM PST by OldFriend
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To: Libloather
I had thought exactly the same thing before Rush put his voice to it.

I agree: If this were a Democrat administration, and Gen. Brooks were in Kosovo doing this, heads would roll.
82 posted on 03/27/2003 5:54:50 PM PST by Illbay (Don't believe every tagline you read - including this one)
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To: John Valentine
Not "Brooks."

He's GENERAL Brooks.
83 posted on 03/27/2003 5:55:22 PM PST by Illbay (Don't believe every tagline you read - including this one)
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To: Mister Baredog
Brooks said........IT'S YOUR CHOICE
84 posted on 03/27/2003 5:55:53 PM PST by OldFriend
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To: sf4dubya
You're thinking of Michael whats-his-name (used to do Crossfire), who ran Salon.

This wasn't him.

85 posted on 03/27/2003 5:56:33 PM PST by Illbay (Don't believe every tagline you read - including this one)
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To: OldFriend
I saw the exchange, and the reporter was an ass. But he was complaining that the briefings were useless, NOT that the Brigadier General was worthless.
86 posted on 03/27/2003 5:56:42 PM PST by Petronski (I'm not always cranky.)
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To: OldFriend
I agree with you. General Brooks is fabulous.
87 posted on 03/27/2003 5:56:59 PM PST by Illbay (Don't believe every tagline you read - including this one)
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To: Petronski
I heard the exchange myself, before Rush's take on it, and I thought the same thing as Rush.

This Wolff guy was rude, and had he been anyone other than one of the Leftist elite, he'd have been called a "racist."
88 posted on 03/27/2003 5:58:18 PM PST by Illbay (Don't believe every tagline you read - including this one)
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To: Petronski
His point was that the briefings were worthless because they got the Brig. General and not General Franks.
89 posted on 03/27/2003 5:58:20 PM PST by OldFriend
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To: Libloather
I mean no disrespect by this question, but I want to ask about the value proposition of these briefings.

I spent some time amongst the dot com crowd, and I can tell you that 'value proposition' is consultant speak

The purpose of 'consultant speak' is to lead the other person to believe that you are more knowledgeable than them, to intimidate with language that has no meaning, and ultimately to bamboozle them out of something valuable.

Know this: if you ever encounter someone identified as a consultant, particularly if they mention 'the Big Five' or McKinsey**, or PWC, put your hand on your wallet, turn heel and RUN!

**Chelsea Clinton's new employer

90 posted on 03/27/2003 5:58:35 PM PST by IncPen (Get 'em, boys!)
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To: Illbay
Michael Kinsley....Slate.com

A major league pinhead liberal prick....
91 posted on 03/27/2003 5:58:40 PM PST by wardaddy (G-d speed our fighters!)
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92 posted on 03/27/2003 5:58:58 PM PST by AnnaZ
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To: pgkdan
To bad they can't give Mr. Wollf wall to wall counseling. War reporter's qualifications should require military service and at lest to the 0-3 or E-6 level.

Good going, General.

93 posted on 03/27/2003 5:59:11 PM PST by oyez (This country is too good for some people.....)
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To: OldFriend
I disagree. I didn't hear it that way at all.
94 posted on 03/27/2003 5:59:35 PM PST by Petronski (I'm not always cranky.)
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To: Black Agnes
Perhaps they can trade places with one of the embedded journalists. That way, they'll get to see it all for themselves.
95 posted on 03/27/2003 5:59:45 PM PST by Illbay (Don't believe every tagline you read - including this one)
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To: Libloather
Brooks is a sharp guy. He was commandant of cadets at West Point a couple of years ago.
96 posted on 03/27/2003 6:00:04 PM PST by Welsh Rabbit
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To: Libloather
I emailed the guy and showed off my new favorite word "gobsmacked" (an informal British term for "utterly astonished - as in the BBC embedded reporter was gobsmacked by the BBC distorting the facts of the war)

I wrote Wolff telling him I was gobsmacked by his racial bias. What a weasel.
97 posted on 03/27/2003 6:00:32 PM PST by Republican Red
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To: Illbay
Brit also suggested that. If they wanted more current news they should volunteer for embedded status. LOL. Michael might not be able to drink his Perrier in the desert...awwwww.
98 posted on 03/27/2003 6:01:05 PM PST by Black Agnes
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To: Libloather
My husband met Brigadier General Brooks when he was a sophmore in High School. At that time, Brooks was the top cadet at West Point and he came to a dinner sponsored by the ROTC! Brigadier General Brooks brother graduated a year earlier as the second top cadet at West Point.

His father was also a graduate of West Point back in the fifty's....before the civil rights protests. I can't even imagine what his father must have gone through being an African American West Point cadet.
99 posted on 03/27/2003 6:02:07 PM PST by Arpege92
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To: Libloather
The press is showing it's slip again. Besides being an obvious leader, General Brooks is very, very handsome. I hope they bring him on everyday.
100 posted on 03/27/2003 6:02:35 PM PST by freekitty
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