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

Author: Operator Dan

  • What Happens When The Government Tries to Make The Rich “Less Rich”

    I am sure some of you have seen this article about how overall household income in the United States has continued to fall, despite the technical end of the recession. Here is a summary:

    US household incomes fell more in the two years following the end of the recession than during the downturn itself, according to a New York Times report published on its website.

    A study by two former Census Bureau officials said inflation-adjusted income fell 6.7 percent, to $49,909, between June 2009 — when the recession ended — and June 2011, the newspaper said.

    During the recession — from December 2007 to June 2009 — household incomes fell less than half of that, 3.2 percent, according to the report.

    Make no mistake about it, the continued fall in household income is the result of Obama’s economic policies, which many of his supporters and even Obama himself have admitted are intended to redistribute wealth. Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, and many other smaller pieces of legislation were designed (either as a secondary or primary objective) to limit the ability of the richest Americans to accumulate more wealth. The result has been that it has become more expensive to purchase healthcare, maintain a checking account, and buy a tank of gas. Additionally, it has become more difficult for the companies that provide the aforementioned products to hire new workers (or maintain the current ones) and provide better benefits and wages.

    But don’t take my word for it. The Iron Lady summed up the left’s economic fraud back in 1990:

  • Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome

    This picture popped on my FB newsfeed today:

     

    Genius.

  • Priorities

    Most of you know that last year Congress passed and Obama signed an IAVA-crafted  bill that in effect cut GI Bill benefits for most active duty veterans. The bill was one of the few times that the Democrats applied PAYGO rules during the first two years of the Obama administration and some Dems even praised the fact it might save a couple million of dollars.

    Now fast forward to today. Part of the new debt deal is an increase in funding for Pell Grants for civilians who are looking to go college or a vocational school. Wait, I thought this whole debt deal was about cutting spending? Well, gee I guess Pell Grants must be incredibly fucking awesome if they are dumping more money into the program. Wrong. Lets look at some of the things that are fucked up about Pell Grants:

    1. There is evidence the Pell Grants and other forms of federal aid to higher education may actually be contributing to the rising cost of higher education.

    2. Recipients of Pell Grants have on average lower graduation rates than non-recipients (nearly half of all Pell Grant recipients do not receive a degree in six years).

    3. Pell Grants help prop-up worthless for-profit schools that would otherwise be devoured by the market.

    4. Pell Grants put more money in the pockets of corrupt college presidents that have chosen to invest heavily in the administrative aspects of their universities as opposed to the educational aspects.

    5. There is no incentive for a Pell Grant recipient to succeed considering it is a grant and not a loan. There is no requirement to pay back the money with a Pell Grant.

    So, to sum it up, President Obama without hesitation signed into law a bill that weakened the most successful college aid program in the history of the United States but aggressively fought for a massive increase in funding for arguably the worst college aid program in the history of United States.

    Priorities people. Priorities.

  • Some New Advice On How To Play The College Game

    Last year I made a post giving out some advice on how newly-discharged veterans should play the college game. A lot of our readers added their own advice and it turned out to be a pretty helpful post for some people.

    However, some things have changed over the last year that make some of the advice I doled out invalid. Accordingly, I thought it would be productive to create a new post that gives out new advice based on experiences I have had and of course changes to veterans benefits. As with the last post, if you have anything to add please do so.

    1. The GI Bill is undergoing some major changes in August and they probably won’t be good for many student veterans. Accordingly, make sure you know how the changes effect you.  Both Jonn and I have discussed the problems with the new-new GI Bill and hopefully those of you who are going to school now have at least heard about those changes. The biggest changes are for active duty veterans who go year-round. This group of veterans will no longer have break pay and along with other groups of veterans will face new compensation caps on tuition for private universities (both non-profit and for-profit).  They are complicated and I can’t comment on each individual veterans’ situation so the best thing to do is to talk to your university’s veterans services office to find out how your school and your degree plan is effected.

    2. Stay away from for-profit schools…for now. I am sure most everyone here has seen an veteran-oriented advertisement from a for-profit university like University of Phoenix or Kaplan attempting to lure you into applying to that school so that you can use your GI Bill benefits. Some of you have maybe even talked to a military recruiter from one of these universities. However, I highly recommend you stay away from these universities for the time being for the simple fact that at this time most employers don’t view degrees from these institutions as equal to ones from public universities. Additionally, some corporations won’t even consider you for a position if you have a degree from one of these institutions.  I am not going to get into whether or not this is right or wrong. I believe some employers have been influenced by propaganda from the public education propaganda complex. I also think public universities have many of the same problems as for-profit universities right now, its just a matter of severity. To me, hearing supporters of public universities criticizing for-profit universities is like hearing a car thief call a rapist a criminal.

    3. Don’t join a fraternity/sorority. I debated whether or not to put this one and I am sure there are people here that will be pissed off by my feelings here. The simple fact is that today fraternities aren’t anything like how they were portrayed in the movie Animal House or even the movie Old School. They are worse. First of all, they usually cost a lot of money to join, upwards of a couple of thousand dollars a year in many cases.  Some may have scholarships to join or maybe even waive the fee because your a veteran but that is not usually a case. On campus, fraternities usually have high incidences of drug use, alcohol abuse, and, most disturbingly, sexual assault (both male and female my friends). Accordingly, many colleges have been pushing back against the excesses of Greek life. For years, a fraternity used to be a good networking tool but with the recent public problems with Greek life in addition to the quality of people that Greek life attracts on many campuses these days it probably isn’t as great a tool as it was years ago. Additionally, I know many veterans want to eventually work for law enforcement, especially at the federal level. The backgrounds checks for those organizations are pretty intense so do you think its going to help or hurt your employment opportunities if you are identified as a member of an organization whose members have a history of drug abuse and sexual assault? If you want to be part of something, join a professional society, veterans club, political club, or hell even a recreational club.

    4. There will be people on campus who are terrified of you because you are veteran. Even if you were a food service specialist who spent your entire deployment in a DFAC on a big FOB and who never heard a shot fired in anger the minute certain people hear you went to Iraq or Afghanistan they will assume you killed more men than cancer. Its stupid, silly, and stereotypical (hey alliteration) but it is a reality. This will change the dynamic in regards to how you interact with your professors and certain students. There isn’t much you can do about it but you still need to be aware and conscious of it.

    5. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. There are resources available for veterans who might be behind in math or writing skills. Don’t be too prideful to use them. I almost made that mistake myself.

    6. Internships. Do them. It doesn’t matter if you are a political science or an organic chemistry major, internships give you professional experience and in some cases job opportunities when you graduate. Additionally, you can usually get credit for doing internships which means you can still get your BAH through the GI Bill.

    7. Go to job fairs and don’t look like a bum. I went to a job fair this last semester and I was worried about the fact that I wasn’t wearing a full suit and only a shirt and tie. However, I wasn’t too concerned after I saw many people in pajamas or gym clothes….after they had gone to the gym and smelled like shit.

    8. For the sake of all the other veterans on campus, don’t act like an ass and give one hundred percent to your education. The more veterans succeed in college the more respect we will earn on campus and in society. We already kick ass in terms of GPAs and graduation rates but we can also do better.

  • If You Want To Win Elections, Adam Kokesh Isn’t Going to Help You

    The Pima County Sheriff Office’s handling of the Jose Guerena killing could have been something that Pima County Republicans could have used against the despicable Sheriff Clarence Dupnik in the 2012 election. I say “could have” because  the incident has instead sparked infighting among Pima County Republicans and has devolved into what one local news outlet has dubbed “Facebook drama“. I originally defended Brian Miller, the Pima County GOP Chairman, who came under fire for penning a letter condemning the Pima County Sheriff Office’s handling of the Guerena killing. This was in despite of the fact that Miller was a Paultard and who in the past had done Paultarded things. However, the more I learned, the more uncomfortable I became with how Miller was acting and I have come to believe that he is basically trying to turn the Pima County Republican Party into a Ron Paul cult. Then I stumbled across this little gem:

    First of all, I still can’t get over the fact that Adam Kokesh can say with a straight face that he is a libertarian when he is a paid host on a network that is subsidized by the Kremlin. Yeah I know Uncle Jimbo appears on RT a lot but UJ isn’t a Paultard who ran for Congress on a platform of abolishing most (or all) of the government. Anyways, Brian Miller, an air force officer and OEF veteran,  should be smarter than to associate with a shitbird Marine who has consistently lied about the character of his service and who generally acts like a horse’s ass. Instead of attempting to unite the party he was elected to lead, Miller is digging in and appealing to the lunatic fringe for support.

    So good luck with that Chairman Miller and good luck with winning any elections in Pima County in the future because luck is the only way the Republicans are going to win in Pima County with a Paultard like you in charge.

  • The Pima County Republican Party Makes Itself Look Just As Stupid As Sheriff Dupnik

    This is un-fucking-believable:

    The controversial case involving Jose Guerena led to some controversial comments by the Pima County GOP chair.  Those comments have Brian Miller under fire.

    Republican Brian Miller is in the hot seat for comments he made after Guerena was shot more than 70 times by SWAT members.

    “I think it was inappropriate to go out and make a policy statement on GOP letterhead,” said Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik.

    This is what Brian Miller (who I must point out is a Paultard) said:

    On May 5th, Jose Guerena, an American Marine, Iraq War veteran and fellow Tucsonan was killed in his home by armed government agents sworn to uphold the Constitution and whose declared mission is to protect and to serve the people of Pima County.

    While an investigation is still underway to determine the facts immediately surrounding the killing, it is my hope that this tragic event will lead to a renewed discussion of the policies that routinely lead to heavily armed and militarized local police invading private homes and a renewed interest in the civil liberties codified in our Bill of Rights    .

    This is basically what we here at TAH have been saying since the beginning of this story and what many in the conservative blogosphere  have been saying for the last month or so since the shooting. You would think that Republicans in Pima County would get on board, especially considering that the department involved in the shooting is led by Sheriff Dupnik, who libeled conservatives in Pima County after the Giffords shooting. But instead, they have chose to start a petty little fight among themselves and are now calling for Miller’s resignation over the comments. Wow, way to totally blow an opportunity to go after Dupnik and unite the party behind an important issue you fucking idiots.

    The Pima County Republicans who instigated this fight need to grow the fuck up and stop covering for Dupnik, just like the hypocritical progressive blogs in the state.

  • Stating Speculation As Fact

    I’ve been negligent on following the Cpl. Guerena story the last couple of weeks due to some crises that have popped up in my life.  Jonn, as he always does, has been picking up the slack. There are however a couple of things I would like to discuss now that I have some time.

    First of all, I saw this article today on the KGUN website that makes this statement:

    Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik revealed to 9 On Your Side on Thursday that Jose Guerena was part of a violent drug ring.

    Notice there is no “possibly” or any other qualifier. They take Sheriff Dupnik’s word as fact, despite his office’s record of distorting the truth in this case. I guess whatever crackerjack journalism school that the reporter who wrote this article attended taught their students to write speculation as fact. The real facts are of course that there is no solid evidence definitively proving that Guerena was part of a violent drug ring. At the worst, it seems Cpl. Guerena was related to some shitty people who were possibly themselves involved in a violent drug ring, but even then those people haven’t been tried or convicted.  The rest of the article discusses how the Pima County GOP Chairman (Brian Miller, who is a Paultard I might add) is calling for SWAT to change its tactics and I am glad to see the Arizona Republican Party is starting to go after Dupnik in regards to this story.

    Secondly, I want to discuss the arrest of Cpl. Guerena in 2009. Sheriff Dupnik and his minions are using this arrest as definitive proof of Cpl. Guerena’s involvement with a drug ring. This is complete nonsense for obvious reasons and I suspect most TAH readers expect nothing less than grade-A bullshit from Dupnik’s office by this point. It is important to note he was ARRESTED but not CHARGED with any crime. He didn’t receive probation, he didn’t receive a reduced sentence, and he wasn’t sent to a diversion class because HE WAS NEVER CHARGED. I am sure we have readers who have been arrested or simply detained by cops. In 2008, I was detained, handcuffed, and searched by Scottsdale PD after I got out of my car to meet some friends at a bar. They held me for about fifteen minutes and then released. I found out later that they were searching for somebody who was suspected of selling drugs at a nearby nightclub (which I would never be caught dead at) and I matched the description of that individual (even though I wasn’t dressed like a douchebag who would go to said nightclub). Does that mean without a reasonable doubt that I am involved with some sort of criminal conspiracy because I was detained by police officer in 2008? In the eyes of some, I guess the answer is yes.

    Additionally, this arrest occurred in Pinal County, not Sheriff Dupnik’s Pima County. In 2008, Pinal County elected Paul Babeu as Sheriff and James Walsh as County Attorney. Both men ran on platforms of fighting human and drug smuggling, due to the fact that in recent years that Pinal County has become a major corridor for smugglers heading to Phoenix. Many of you have probably seen Sheriff Babeu on FOX News discussing his efforts to fight smuggling and he is constantly in the Arizona media discussing the problem. With these facts in mind, it is pretty reasonable to assume that if there was strong evidence that Guerena was involved with drug smuggling or the sale of illegal drugs that the Pima County attorney would vigorously prosecute him and Sheriff Babeu would have used the case as an example of the smuggling problem in Pinal County. However, the evidence was weak (a roll of plastic wrap, a gun, and some cash as Jonn pointed out) and he was released without even a trial.

    Finally, I want to address the large amounts of cash that were found on Guerena in 2009 and at some of the homes searched by Pima County SWAT. It is pretty common for immigrants (both legal and illegal) from Mexico, Latin, and South America, to keep large amounts of cash in their homes. This is due to their mistrust of banks which have a history of being corrupt or prone to failures in the aforementioned regions of the world.

    As I have continually said throughout my posts on this sad story is that even if Guerena was Tucson’s version of Scarface, there still needs to be an investigation into how the SWAT team performed the raid and their tactics and training need to be changed. Unfortunately, with Dupnik’s new effort to smear the victim I am pretty confident that neither will happen and the SWAT team will continue to bumble along, endangering themselves and others.

  • “No reason for anybody to be suspicious of what happened.”

    That is what Sheriff Dupnik said today in regards to the murder of Cpl. Guerena. I don’t think I need to tell anyone that this is complete nonsense.

    Also, the SWAT team is going to be investigated by a “shooting board” made up of the SWAT team’s fellow officers from their own departments. Gee, I wonder if they are going to be impartial. Recently, up here in Maricopa County, when it became clear that some of Sheriff Joe’s deputies weren’t on the up and up, an investigation was conducted by a neighboring Sheriff’s department (who, despite being politically very similar to Sheriff Joe, found the MCSO to be pretty rotten). The same thing needs to happen in Pima County. But of course, don’t expect the media in Arizona to call for this.

    OldSoldier54 went to a memorial for Cpl. Guerena in Tucson on memorial day. He sent some pictures and a firsthand account which I will post about later tonight or tomorrow.