Yesterday, in Part 3: "When Soldiers Speak Out" it clearly was stated the issue isn't Steele County Republican Party Co-Chair Dave Thul's right to speak out; the issue is following established military rules, regulations, and protocol while doing so. And Department of Defense Directive 1344.10 was mentioned.
Today, we're going to take a specific look at that Directive, and it's applicability to Steele County Republican Party Co-Chair Dave Thul's use of his official @us.army.mil email account.
There is no doubt that Steele County Republican Party Co-Chair Dave Thul used his official @us.army.mil account for partisan political purposes; Political Muse first noticed this use back in April. Also, a quick google search (just enter "Dave Thul") of blogs results in two hits on the very first page - this one:
They can't ignore you if you show up in person
17 Jul 2009 by (redacted)@us.army.mil (Dave Thul)
Written by Dave Thul. Friday, 17 July 2009 09:17. Since I have yet to receive a phone call or email back from Congressman Walz's office about the still unexplained photo of him claiming to be an Afghanistan veteran, I decided to visit ...
True North - Pointing Minnesota in the... - http://looktruenorth.com/compo... [ More results from True North - Pointing Minnesota in the... ]
and this one:
Minnesota's own phony soldier
12 Jul 2009 by (redacted)@us.army.mil (Dave Thul)
Everyone who follows politics must remember the political uproar over Rush Limbaugh's 'phony soldier' comment in 2007, referring to the media's fondness for quoting 'soldiers' against the war in Iraq whose service and military records ...
True North - http://www.looktruenorth.com/c... - References
[ More results from True North ]
Yes, gentle readers, that's Steele County Republican Party Co-Chair Dave Thul calling Congressman Tim Walz a "phony soldier." And that BS about the photograph? COMPLETE BS. Of course, would anyone expect anything else from the party of Tony Sutton and Michael Brodkorb? But, that's a tangent, albeit a tangent we'll get to later. For now, back to Steele County Republican Party Co-Chair Dave Thul and his use of his official @us.army.mil email account.
Steele County Republican Party Co-Chair Dave Thul has been discussed in the blogosphere quite a bit lately, concerning his use (mis-use?) of his @us.army.mil email account. Political Muse began writing about this back in early April. Steele County Republican Party Co-Chair Dave Thul recently exacerbated the issue by launching an ambush on Congressman Tim Walz - as discussed yesterday in Part 2 of this series.
"When Soldiers Speak Out" was published in the August 2007 issue of Parameters while the national debate about the war in Iraq was intense. This debate was beginning to include active duty soldiers, as Major Kiel explains:
Remarks against the President (Bush) have become more prevalent among service members because they communicate through a host of mediums unfathomable to yesterday's generation of fighting men and women. Soldiers frequently post digital journals, cell phone photos, and music videos on popular Internet sites such as YouTube and MySpace. A few techno-savvy troops even manage their own milblogs, or online personal diaries where they can communicate in cyberspace about virtually anything to virtually anyone.
That sure sounds like Major Kiel could be directly referring to Dave Thul, his personal blog, and his comments about President Obama and Congressman Walz, doesn't it?
Major Kiel goes on to describe in his 14 page article specific cases and specific rules, regulations, and protocols involving troops speaking out while on active duty.
In his article, Major Kiel discusses but doesn't link to Department of Defense Directive 1344.10, Political Activities by Members of the Armed Forces. That Directive can be linked to, here.
In Dave Thul's case, while on active duty is key. Clearly, according to this article published at the US Army's War College, Dave Thul would be in some serious hot water over his actions --- were he on active duty. Were he on active duty, Dave Thul could potentially face Courts Martial for his actions. The question is how these rules, regulations, and protocols affect members of the National Guard NOT on active duty - such as National Guard member and Steele County Republican Party Co-Chair Dave Thul.
So far, I have been unable to find rules, regulations, or articles about these questions.
Therefore, the questions raised have been brought to the attention of the Minnesota National Guard's Public Affairs Office for clarification.
Earnest but decidedly Brodkorbian "blogger" Ryan Flynn is at it again on MDE: assigning idiotic pejoratives without citation to work done in the progressive blogosphere.
Read for yourself -- personally, I'm of the opinion that the only people making disgusting attacks are Flynn and the folks in his comment section against TwoPuttTommy's post -- which, if you hadn't read it already, brings up some good points about Dave Thul's background, lack of transparency, and oh yeah -- continued misuse of a .mil email address.
As several others have written, however, good luck to the Republican Party and its anti-Walz talking points. That really worked well for you guys in the pasttwo election cycles, didn't it?
One final thought: if the great minds behind MDE were interested in showing you just how disgusting TwoPutt's attacks were, you'd think they'd provide a link, wouldn't you?
Last Friday, we reviewed an investigation into the dirty politics of John Kline, R=GreedOverPrinciples. The story focused on "transparency" - more specifically, lack thereof - and "accessibility" - and again, lack thereof - and John Kline.
And as disgusting as John Kline and his paid staff's actions were, Steele County Republican Party Co-Chair Dave Thul actually acts worse. Yes indeed, Steele County Republican Party Co-Chair Dave Thul set a new low in the dirty tricks department last week.
For the very first time (that I'm aware of), an elected Republican official - Steele County Republican Party Co-Chair Dave Thul - actually did the dirty deed himself. And not only did Steele County Republican Party Co-Chair Dave Thul stage the ambush attack himself, he did it inside the office of his target.
As pathetic and disgusting as it was for someone on the John Kline gravy train to stand outside a Coleen Rowley campaign event and yell racial slurs - Mike Osskopp - or crash a Steve Sarvi campaign event and badger the candidate - Diana Bratlie - at least John Kline could maintain some kind of plausible (cough, cough) deniability: "Hey, it was just some staffers."
Steele County Republican Party Co-Chair Dave Thul went lower than that: he did the deed himself, and he did it in Congressman Tim Walz' offices.
Let's look at the YouTube Steele County Republican Party Co-Chair Dave Thul shot, and then analyze exactly how UNtransparent Steele County Republican Party Co-Chair Dave Thul was.
The recent election of FEC Tony and MudSlingerMike to Republican Party of Minnesota Chair and Deputy Chair was a clear signal that the GOP was going to keep playing down and dirty - or worse. And apparently, Steele County Republican Party Co-Chair Dave Thul got the message - LOUD AND CLEAR. Before we get into how down and dirty Dave Thul is willing to play, let's go into the archives and review how down dirty republiCon GOPer John Kline plays:
