This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Jonn Lilyea

  • Beauchamps recants fables/Kos defends Solz

    Well, I guess Michael Goldfarb of National Review Online has received confirmation from the Army that Scott Thomas Beauchamps has recanted his fantabulous tales of war;

    Separately, we received this statement from Major Steven F. Lamb, the deputy Public Affairs Officer for Multi National Division-Baghdad:

    An investigation has been completed and the allegations made by PVT Beauchamp were found to be false. His platoon and company were interviewed and no one could substantiate the claims.

    According to the military source, Beauchamp’s recantation was volunteered on the first day of the military’s investigation. So as Beauchamp was in Iraq signing an affidavit denying the truth of his stories, the New Republic was publishing a statement from him on its website on July 26, in which Beauchamp said, “I’m willing to stand by the entirety of my articles for the New Republic using my real name.”

    So, I expect that any moment now, he’ll be labeled a Karl Rove plant. Probably The New Republic will be fingered in the conspiracy, as well.

    All the things I want to say about Beauchamps, but I’m too much of a gentleman (and my Dad reads this sometimes) can be found here at Absolute Moral Authority (h/t to Beth at My Vast Wing Conspiracy).

    An Army Lawyer speculates on the charges and punishments but he neglects my favorite; failure to repair. Everyone is guilty of that one no matter what they do.

    In other drivel, the Angry Rakkasan, ( at http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/5/3940/86488 sorry you’ll have to copy and paste the address into your browser, I’m not linking to that drivel) three days after the incident, more than two days after the internet had been running the video (um, we know what we saw Rakkie), tells the “real story” about Solz and the sergeant he mistreated for all of the world to see. Well after the obligatory “all of you right wingers should join the military if you love the war so much” chickenhawk crap, he explains that the young buck sergeant was at the convention the day before;

    The sergeant immediately zeroed in on General Clark and engaged him in a conversation.  Eventually, I noticed Clark pull the soldier aside and move away from the rest of the crowd.  I could see that the General was getting agitated.  I later learned that the soldier had been lecturing him, telling him that the U.S. military should stay in Iraq and that General Clark should support the President’s policies.

    Clark is said to have told the sergeant that, while he respected the sergeant’s opinion, political activism while in uniform was both inappropriate and illegal—and to do it at the much-publicized YearlyKos Convention would put the soldier in an unnecessary and precarious legal position.  He told the sergeant firmly but politely that it would be in the soldier’s best interest to leave.  And that was the end of it until the next day.

    Rakkie goes on to call the young sergeant a “troll” and ends with another “chickenhawk” rant against Michelle Malkin and Matt Drudge. Now see here’s my problem with the story; there’s nothing that says what, exactly Little Mac Clarke said to the young sergeant – only second-hand hearsay and Rakkasan’s interpretation of facial expressions.

    And I don’t give a tiny rat’s ass how Rakkasan, Clarke or any other number people interpret military directives on the subject, the sergeant said nothing political while in uniform, he didn’t say that he represented any official military policy or office, and the YearlyKoz, from it’s own website;

    US-based (but globally focused and inclusive) non-partisan grassroots political action community that uses the Internet and blogs as primary tools for: expressing viewpoints, building consensus, acting to change the status quo, mobilizing huge numbers of people and informing each other and the world about current events, grassroots actions, networks, meetings, policy and more.

    Get that? It’s a “nonpartisan, grassroots” convention. So what did the soldier do wrong?

    Solz on the other hand, was completely wrong. No military leader would degrade and threaten a subordinate in public like that. If the soldier had been more of an asshole like I’m an asshole, he’d have made Solz either file charges against him or show him in public what he’d done wrong. I’m sure dorkboy’s head would’ve exploded on camera if it’s been me. Except that I probably wouldn’t have worn my unifrom to the event.

    But what choice did the sergeant have? As you’ve read for yourselves, this pussy Rakkasan trotted out the chickenhawk meme twice in his piece. Once at the beginning and once at the end – as if he has some absolute moral authority over who is allowed to criticize the Left and who isn’t. (And suggesting Matt Drudge and Michelle Malkin join the military – c’mon. All Matt Drudge did was link to the story, and I’m not sure Michelle would do her unit much good – she’s barely the size of an ammo pouch) I’m sure the young sergeant wore his uniform as insulation against that intellectually vacant charge that I’ve had thrown at me whenever one of my posts get linked up to Kos or HuffPo.

    And why did it take three days for this to published? The Right had been tired of blogging about the incident by the time Rakkasan trotted out this defense. Seems to me that Kos would’ve defended itself Friday night instead of Sunday morning. That tells me that they had to recon the net to see what was being said and then manufacture a defense.

    A bad defense at that – full of gaping holes.

    Rick Moran at Right Wing Nut House and Pajamas Media has an interview with young man now known to be Sergeant David Aguina, age 25, US Army Reserves.

  • Undermining our allies in the War Against Terror

    We all heard Barack Obama flex his puny foreign policy muscles while threatening to attack Pakistan for not killing enough al Qaeda operatives to suit Obama, and, of course the Pakistanis criticized Obama for his indiscretion, and brave Obama stands by his comments. if only he could be that resolute over Iran and the support they give opposing forces in Iraq.

    Well, I was reading my favorite writer on Latin American politics, Mary Anastasia O’Grady of the Wall Street Journal, and I’m starting to see a pattern here. O’Grady writes in her The Real Uribe Record;

    Congressional Democrats out to quash the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement argue that the terror-torn South American country doesn’t adequately protect human rights and thus doesn’t deserve FTA status. In the Democrats’ book, the way to make Colombia more just is to deny it the chance to deepen its commercial relations with the U.S.

    This is curious thinking, and all the more so coming from a party that also argues that the U.S. ought to lift its trade embargo on the Cuban dictatorship as a way to help the Cuban people. Given Cuba’s dismal track record on human rights and the hard work Colombia has done over the past six years to defend human life, it is hard to square that circle.

    O’Grady goes on to recount that Uribe’s tactics in countering communist guerillas and terrorists in Columbia have driven their numbers down;

    Mr. Uribe’s government has demobilized 43,000 illegal armed combatants. Some 33,000 were paramilitary members and 10,000 were guerrillas. But the president notes that the country started with some 60,000 “terrorists,” so there is still work to be done.

    But Ms. O’Grady points out that Vermont Senator Pat Leahy is the major opponent of the the US-Columbia Free Trade Agreement;

     Funny enough, Mr. Leahy, like many of his colleagues — including New York Rep. Charles Rangel in the House — has no such qualms about trade with the despotic regime in Havana. The senator has said that the U.S. should seek engagement with Cuba by “lifting the embargo” and increasing “contact between Americans and Cubans — in other words, we should be tearing down the barriers between our countries not building them ever higher.”

    The Cuba Mr. Leahy wants to get closer to isn’t simply accused of failing to prosecute human-rights violators, as is the case of Colombia. It is a human-rights violator. It is regrettable that the senator apparently believes that the murder of thousands of Cubans, the torture and imprisonment of tens of thousands of others, the exile of millions and the denial of all human rights, including the right to organize unions, is irrelevant.

    So by these two examples, I see a pattern emerging – the Democrats are willing to throw our partners under the bus while rushing out to embrace the worst criminals the world has in it for purely political reasons. Sure Pakistan and Columbia aren’t paradise for the people living in them, but certainly those conditions were created by the criminals the governments have to deal with every day.

    And while Leahy and Rangel engage in the old political  shuck and jive, Chavez is reaching out to the terrorists – I wonder who’ll get to the Columbian people first. I think Uribe has been very tolerant seeings how his father was killed by narco-terrorists. O’Grady ends her article;

    Even if none of this progress had occurred, it would make little sense to reject the FTA. Colombia needs the free trade agreement, Mr. Uribe said in New York, because it’s how “we can generate more employment of a higher quality, send more of our products to the U.S. market and in this way we will have less illicit drugs, less terrorism, more peace, more security, more well-being for the Colombian people.” If only the government in Havana cared as much about the Cuban population.

    Indeed. And if only our government, the one in DC, cared about people as much as they like to tell us they care.

  • Chavez tightens grip on military

    Little Hugo Chavez has consolidated his grip on the military in Venezuela. Anyone who has spent a day studying current affairs in Latin America knows that political leaders serve at the pleasure of their military.

    Coming from the military, and himself having been involved in a coup attempt, Chavez fired his defense minister, General Raul Baduel and replaced him with General Gustavo Rangel – former head of Chavez personal protection force and palace guard.

    Baduel left with these parting words, according to Martin Arostegui of the Washington Times;

    “A socialist regime is not incompatible with a democratic system of checks and balances and division of powers. We must separate ourselves from Marxist orthodoxy.”

    This move will more firmly entrench Chavez in his palace as he becomes more isolated from the people – the supposed beneficiaries of this socialist revolution. Retired Venezuelan general Muller Rojas warns that this move against Baduel signals a purge of the ranks;

    Another recently retired general, Muller Rojas, believes Gen. Baduel’s resignation signals a purge of the high command, which he says has become “highly politicized and partisan.”

    The new defense chief, Gen. Rangel, underwent military instruction in Cuba and is expected to merge the regular army with politically directed militias armed with new AK-103 rifles purchased from Russia.

    “By naming Rangel, Chavez imposes his military thesis on the high command. The president conceives of a tactical doctrine combining professional armed forces and militias, which are the basis of the asymmetrical warfare strategy of the people in arms,” said Venezuelan defense analyst Alberto Garrido.

    Of course we now know why Chavez was warning Venezuelans the George Bush was coming to get him – so he could tighten the security around himself. The next move after purging the ranks is the quelling of the “White Hands” student movement.

    I suspect that some national emergency will emerge soon after the purge of military officers that would require tossing “suspects” in prison, much like the Iranians are doing to their student movements. Think Chavez and Ahmadinejad were talking about sports jackets in Tehran last month?

    In fact, Chavez is cranking up his anti-US chatter this week. He blames the US for blocking Venezuela’s entry into the Mercosur trade bloc and he has put out feelers to Columbian communist rebels and terrorists.

    Miguel at The Devil’s Excrement (celebratin five years of bloggin in English from Venezuela this weekend) reports money woes in Venezuela;

    Because the country is a basket case and only oil prices going higher all the time will be able to sustain the madness.

    For example…It went unnoticed that in the last three weeks, bolivar denominated Government bonds, mostly in the hands of the banking system, dropped 20-30% in value.

    Or that Venezuela’s Global 27 bond fell 30% since March and gyrated 8% on a single day last Friday.

    And that Fonden’s indiscriminate sale of its Venezuelan and Argentinean bonds, destroyed the market for some of them and increased spreads by 300% due to the amateurish way in which this was done.

    And this all spells trouble in the economic front at a time when oil prices are at an all time high…imagine if they happened to go down.

    Daniel at Venezuela News and Views begins a series on Chavez proposed constitutional changes to further ensconce him in office;

    Here in Venezuela we are not fooled: chavista and anti chavista alike know perfectly well that the objective is to make Chavez president for life. The only difference is that the formers have no problem with that and the later will resist it. The bottom line will come from a not insignificant fraction of chavistas who are having increasingly second thoughts about giving Chavez a final blank check that this time will wipe their democratic account once and for all.

    So what will it take to get the world involved in the subjegation of the Venezuelan people to the whims of a maniacal diminutive despot like Chavez? Will the world wait for the public executions to begin – it hasn’t woke up the world to the terror being inflicted on Iranians (graphic pictures from Kamangir at August the 5th here and here) Do we wait twelve years like we did for Hussein’s reign of terror on the Shi’ites in Iraq? Or an indeterminate amount of time like we have for the Christians in the Sudan?

    The US is not the world’s police force, but it’s time the rest of the world woke up to the evil and stop waiting for the US to solve the world’s problem for them.

  • Who’s afraid of the big, fat terrorist?

    Big, fat goofball, Adam Gadahn, the so-called American al Qaeda, is threatening us again for the umpteenth time, according to CBS News;

    American al Qaeda leader Adam Gadahn says al Qaeda will continue to target the United States at home and overseas, singling out U.S. embassies as a target, in a new Internet video released by as Sahab, the propaganda wing of al Qaeda.

    “We shall continue to target you at home and abroad, just as you target us at home and abroad, and these spy dens and military command and control centers from which you plotted your aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq, and which still provide vital moral, military, material and logistical support to the Crusade, shall continue to be legitimate targets for brave Muslims,” says Gadahn, who hails from Orange County, Calif. “Stop the Crusade,and leave the Muslims alone.”

    And there’s the money quote; stop the crusade and leave Muslims alone. Think he’s talking to our troops? Nope, they’ll fight anyone anywhere to defend the nation – from all enemies foreign and domestic. Think he’s talking to the President? Nope, the President isn’t afraid of threats from some pudgy halfwit from California. And, apparently neither are the Iraqis nor the Afghans who are killing al Qaeda operatives in droves, too.

    Nope he’s talking to Democrats – they’re the ones cringing from the outcome of this war against goat herders like Gadahn. They’re the ones who think that we can’t win this war. Democrats even invented a useless term like asymetrical warfare to project their cowardice and sense of hopelessness on the American people.

    Mostly, the Democrats are afraid that Americans might just win this war. You’ve got their candidates attacking our allies in the war against terror like Pakistan and Columbia, while they visit our enemies like Syria and Venezuela. And folks like over-fed, small-penised Adam Gadahn give them hope.

    Um, if you think that “war is not the answer”, you didn’t understand the question.

  • The can’t-do John McQuaid

    John McQuaid, some guy selling a useless book, wrote a typical Leftist blame-game finger-pointing opinion piece in the Washington Post this morning that’s right out of Jimmy Carter’s malaise speech. Using the collapsed bridge in Minneapolis as a catalyst for his rant, he claims that the problem with America is Americans in The Can’t-Do Nation;

    But the bridge disaster also reflects a broader and more troubling problem. The United States seems to have become the superpower that can’t tie its own shoelaces. America is a nation of vast ingenuity and technological capabilities. Its bridges shouldn’t fall down.

    And it’s not just bridges. Has there ever been a period in our history when so many American plans and projects have, literally or figuratively, collapsed? In both grand and humble endeavors, the United States can no longer be relied upon to succeed or even muddle through. We can’t remake the Middle East. We can’t protect one of our own cities from a natural disaster or, it seems, rebuild after one. We can’t rescue our citizens when they’re on TV begging for help. We can’t even give our wounded veterans decent medical care.

    Now, I’m no fricken rocket scientist, like McQuaid apparently thinks he is, but to me it seems there’s more blame in the fact that the Federal government has failed, not Americans. Maybe Americans are partially to blame because we swallowed the drivel of Frankie Roosevelt, Lyndie Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Billie Clinton. The more government expands, the less efficient it becomes – which is why the Soviet Union failed for 70 years and North Korea and Cuba…need I go on?

    Why does anyone think the Federal bridge guy with an office in Washington, DC knows anything about a bridge he’s never seen? Yeah, he gets reports from other Federal bridge guys, but only the local bridge guys can look at that bridge every week or month – they have to drive over, their families have to drive over it. Doesn’t it make more sense that the local bridge would care more about that bridge than some doofus in Washington? Sure, it shouldn’t be that way, but with thousands of bridges across the country, how can the federal bridge guy track all of them as often as he should?

    When the levees in New Orleans broke, there were fingers flying through the air across the country. Everyone blamed the Feds – the Federal levee guys in Washington who had probably never seen the levees in New Orleans – instead of the goofballs who saw the levee every day. When the President told the mayor and governor to evacuate the city, and they didn’t and everyone blamed the President instead of local officials (who were waiting for Greyhound buses to move the lazy criminals in New Orleans who were waiting for the evacuation so they could loot their former-neighbors’ homes).

    Why couldn’t the locals blame their local leaders? Because the local leaders didn’t have the deep pockets to hand out $10,000 debit cards. They knew they could count on the Liberal Northeast guilt to pay off big time. They’d seen the Feds pay off the World Trade Center victims, and they wanted their cut.

    Now in fairness, McQuaid gives Newt Gingrich a paragraph to blame the feds buried deep within McQuaid’s idiot ramblings – but that’s hardly enough to point out to McQuaid how he is so wrong on so many counts. This country does just fine, it’s just that this neo-liberal system of government has robbed us of our soul. The system is not broke – it’s morally and intellectually bankrupt.

    McQuaid holds out hope for the next President to fix the system (which in Leftist gibberish means raise taxes and expand the failing government). It’s not going to be the next President, or the one after that.

    We need to change the American culture – instead of demanding that government shoulder more of the burden of our everyday lives, we should have learned lessons that government is useless when it comes to taking care of our neighbors and families and we need to take things away from the government and reclaim it for ourselves, and for our local governments.

    Americans have built the world – in less than a century, the world went from the Industrial Age to the Atomic Age. Largely due to American ingenuity – what we lost was the gumption to continue working because of government interference in every aspect of our lives.

    Until we take it upon ourselves to elect competent community leaders in place of the slick politicians we’ve been inflicted with lately, we’ll just be throwing more money down a deep dark hole, hoping against hope someone will save us – that someone will never come.

    That someone is YOU!

    Some bloggers, so steeped in their own victimhood, will never understand that.

  • Window to the future; Democrats raise taxes on Big Oil

    Completly ignoring the basic laws of economics, Congressional Democrats voted yesterday to increase tax on oil companies by $16 billion. Of course this move comes at a time when oil prices reached an all time high price of $75.48 per barrel at Friday’s market close. So who can expect to pay this tax increase? Who else?

    The Washington Examiner writes about the House vote ;

    Declaring a new direction in energy policy, the House on Saturday approved $16 billion in taxes on oil companies, while providing billions of dollars in tax breaks and incentives for renewable energy and conservation efforts.

    Republican opponents said the legislation ignored the need to produce more domestic oil, natural gas and coal. One GOP lawmaker bemoaned “the pure venom … against the oil and gas industry.”

    The House passed the tax provisions by a vote of 221-189. Earlier it had approved, 241-172, a companion energy package aimed at boosting energy efficiency and expanding use of biofuels, wind power and other renewable energy sources.

    But the money quote from Nancy Pelosi is this one;

    “We are turning to the future,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

    Turning to the future, huh? By using the failed policies of the past. That’s our future, readers, more taxes and more punishment for consumer by a populist Congress who operates on one-line sound bites that sound good in your ear but bite you in the pocket.

    The Washington Times writes;

    Democrats said the energy package is a step toward weaning the nation off fossil fuels and their emissions, which many scientists blame for global warming. They also say the proposal will create jobs in the growing renewable energy industry.

    “Energy independence is a national security issue, an environmental and health issue, an economic issue and a moral issue,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat. “We must strengthen our national security by reducing our dependence on foreign oil.”

    But isn’t it odd that the legislation doesn’t address our own reserves – seems drilling our own oil sources in Alaska would wean us off of foreign oil, too. Or drilling the same areas in the Gulf of Mexico that China and Cuba are drilling right off our shores.

    But, no, it’s easier to raise taxes and punish consumers than to actually create an effective energy policy. It sounds better on the evening news to those Prius-driving hippies who are still watching the evening news.

    Can anyone explain to me and my readers why forcing a windfall tax on oil companies helps the American people? Without making government into some grand charitable organization, I mean. And what does government do to justify it getting $16 billion dollars from oil companies? Those resources belong to the American people – not our government – yet no one among us, the American people, are going to see even a penny of the money. Because Democrats think all money is the government’s money.

    Seems to me that those hypocrits who are always complaining about Republicans who try to legislate-away bad behavior would criticise the Democrats for legislating behavior, too.

  • YearlyKos loves Edwards

    Democrats had better hope that the Kos Kids and those other “progressive” bloggers don’t get to choose their candidate in 2008. According to two Washington Post bloggers, John Edwards, the prettiest girl in presidential field, is their choice – well, this week.

    From Jose Vargas;

    But it was Edwards that shined in the forum. The former North Carolina senator received two standing ovations, his voice drowned out by applause as he derided special interests in Washington. When the candidates were asked if they’d have a presidential blogger, Edwards said he would – and her name would be Elizabeth Edwards. Edwards’s wife was an early adopter in blogging, and she’s been a crucial, encouraging voice in her husband’s campaign on the Internet.

    A trial lawyer deriding special interests. Am I the only one sensing some irony (or hypocrisy) here?

    Next is Chris Cillizza;

    John Edwards — High point: It’s hard to choose just one, as Edwards — in the angry/outraged mode he flashed at the CNN/YouTube debate — was hitting on all cylinders. But, if we must….Edwards’ riff on not “trading our insiders for theirs.” Devastatingly effective as a populist pitch, Edwards nuanced it by calling on all of the candidates to pledge not to accept any money from any Washington lobbyists. By the time he was finished, the crowd was roaring.

    Out of the three Democrats leading the field of candidates, I predict that Edwards is the most easily defeatable candidate what with him being such a blatant and unashamed hypocrit and all. He might sucker in all of those Luanne Platter types, but his resume is a two-liner; one term Senator and failed Vice Presidential candidate.

    Although, I just learned the other day from the lawyer who counts the Electoral College ballots at the Office of the Federal Register that John Edwards is the only Vice Presidential candidate in history to receive an electoral college vote for President from an obviously confused delegate – so he’s got that going for him.

  • YearlyKos moderator enforces DoD policy (Updated 2x)

    I picked up this story from Little Green Footballs who got it from American Prospect that some moderator shouted down an audience member in uniform;

    [A] young man in uniform stood up to argue that the surge was working, and cutting down on Iraqi casualties. The moderator largely freaked out. When other members of the panel tried to answer his question, he demanded they “stand down.” He demanded the questioner give his name, the name of his commander, and the name of his unit. And then he closed the panel, no answer offered or allowed, and stalked off the stage….

    Well, apparently Wes Clark, this century’s “Little Mac” McClellan, explained that a member of the military can’t participate in polical meetings in uniform. Funny, that wasn’t the argument the Left used when Adam Kokesh was bothering people while in uniform on the National Mall during anti-war rallies.

    What Wesley Clark was referring to was DoD Directive 1334.01 which states;

    It is DoD policy that:

     3.1.  The wearing of the uniform by members of the Armed Forces (including retired members and members of Reserve components) is prohibited under any of the following circumstances:

      3.1.1.  At any meeting or demonstration that is a function of, or sponsored by an organization, association, movement, group, or combination of persons that the Attorney General of the United States has designated, under Executive Order 10450 as amended (reference (c)), as totalitarian, fascist, communist, or subversive, or as having adopted a policy of advocating or approving the commission of acts of force or violence to deny others their rights under the Constitution of the United States, or as seeking to alter the form of Government of the United States by unconstitutional means.

      3.1.2.  During or in connection with furthering political activities, private employment or commercial interests, when an inference of official sponsorship for the activity or interest may be drawn.

      3.1.3.  Except when authorized by the approval authorities in subparagraph 4.1.1., when participating in activities such as unofficial public speeches, interviews, picket lines, marches, rallies or any public demonstration, which may imply Service sanction of the cause for which the demonstration or activity is conducted.

      3.1.4.  When wearing of the uniform may tend to bring discredit upon the Armed Forces.

    Now unless Kos admits that it’s a totalitarian, fascist, communist, or subversive organization, the guy was within his rights to be there and in uniform. It’s just a lame excuse to keep people from hearing that current operations have improved life in Iraq, while hiding behind a DoD policy that the Left doesn’t agree with when it suits them.

    And in case this Jon Solz dude who dressed down the soldier is wondering – I don’t care what his rank is or was – I’d tear him a new aft-orifice if I ever caught him intimidating a soldier – especially like a lame little puss. “What’s your unit? Who’s your commander?” That’s stuff real leaders stop doing their first day.

    Its pretty disingeuous of Solz, representing himself as a veteran in everything he writes and says, representing an organization called VoteVets which masquerades as a  nonpartisan organization, but is clearly a tool of the Democrats, and then Solz silences a member of the military. 

    Solz didn’t seem to have a problem with the soldier sitting in the audience – until he had something to say. If there was something wrong with him being at the event, someone should have said something during the 44 minutes he sat there.

    More hypocrisy.

    Michele Malkin has more links and thoughts. mRed at Invincible Armor tracks Leftist reaction. Volunteer Opinion Journal faults global warming for their meltdown. Ace says it’s a good excuse to prosecute Beauchamps.

    Little Green Footballs now has the video.

    UPDATE: Pajamas Media‘s Andrew Marcus has an exclusive interview with the young buck sergeant (h/t Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive). 

    UPDATE II: It seems that Daily Kos is also censoring their diarists who question Solz’ treatment of the young buck sergeant at the center of the fury. One story remains, but LGF has a screenshot if it goes the way of it’s predecesor.