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

Category: Antiwar crowd

  • GWU reacts to Kokesh’s latest theater

    The George Washington University newspaper “The Hatchet“, less than an hour ago has posted their reaction to the Adam Kokesh-led “free speech exercise” on GWU campus last Monday. Anyone hoping that a bit of outrage from students was warranted will be sorely disappointed;

    While the sponsors of the poster said they wanted to help the Islamic community by exposing the extremism of YAF, their actions ultimately defeated their well-intentioned goal. The central issues both sides want to debate – hate, racism and the threat terrorism poses to America today – were lost in a blame game.

    So it was the reaction of people opposed to Kokesh and his merry band of haters who muddied the message not that the message was muddied from the start. Hyperbole is never a good tool for communication.

    Many critics are calling for the expulsion of these students but the only technical offenses they are guilty of is the improper use of the University logo and of not obtaining permission to post the materials. Such an extreme act as expulsion would be inappropriate and only further exacerbate the situation.

    I wonder what the “editorial staff” of the The Hatchet would think if the message had actually been from an extemist Conservative student group – as most of the world thought from Monday morning until the culprits admitted their guilt that evening – in an email. Â

    The Hatchet also published some background on Kokesh little band of pseudo-illectual weinies;

    Freshmen Yong Kwon and Ned Goodwin and graduate student Amal Rammah were not available for comment Wednesday. Group members would not comment on when the group was founded, or why it was founded. It is not registered with the University.

    Though many students said they missed the satirical message, the group said the responses their fliers received are what they had hoped for.

    “I think we are pleased by how the students reacted to it,” Masri said. “The main point was to raise awareness and that is exactly what we’ve done,”

    Graduate student Adam Kokesh is the de-facto leader of the group. A veteran of the Iraq War and a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Kokesh was arrested by U.S. Park Police in September for hanging fliers advertising an anti-war protest.

    Kokesh said he and other members of Students for Conservativo-Facism Awareness said the misunderstanding about the intent of their fliers arose because many people heard rumors of the flyers but did not read them.

    “The intent was to raise awareness of (Isamo-Facism Awareness) Week,” Kokesh said. “We understood that at first glance, the flier would be offensive.”

    So they’re pleased that their false depiction of YAF caused such a furor. I wonder what their reaction would be if I started passing out fliers depicting them as child abusers – just to make a point, of course.

    GWU students saved their real anger for Horowitz’ Islamo-Facism Awareness Week;

    “We’re only asking for dialogue and awareness,” Kokesh said.

    “I feel like it is plain human decency to be anti-racist, anti-bigotry,” said Maxine Nwigwe, a graduate student. “As soon as I heard about this week, I was outraged.”

    Senior Brian Tierney said, “We don’t believe that this kind of racist hate speech should come to campus unopposed.”

    I’ll bet Little Brian Tierney hasn’t even heard David Horowitz speak or read his writings – yet automatically it’s “racist hate speech”.

    The Hatchet also posted letters from students;

    While University officials are investigating the situation, there was no serious crime committed. These posters are not a hate crime or an expression of hate because all they do is bringing attention to the appalling campaign by the ultra-right youth. The only offense committed by the author(s) of the materials is impersonation and possible violation of the University’s postering regulations. Thus, University officials should concentrate their efforts on investigating “Terrorism Awareness Week” sponsored by YAF, which openly and loudly calls to fight Muslims.

    Denis Baranov, Junior

    And;

    Authors of posters still guaranteed free speech

    The “anti-Muslim” posters around campus Monday were ignorant, hateful and offensive. They were also free speech. The seven students responsible for the posters should be reprimanded for illegal posting on private property and using the University logo without permission. However, they should not be punished for the constitutionally protected content of their message.

    If anyone has a right to free speecxh, certainly a combat veteran like Adam Kokesh does. Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, “Rather than stifle ‘bad’ or unpopular speech, the remedy is more speech, and the result will be an informed citizenry and a vibrant democratic society.” The GW Peace Forum, Tuesday night’s SA resolution and the plethora of student organization statements condemning the posters are appropriate responses to this “bad” speech. These satirical posters did exactly what free speech is supposed to do: encourage debate.

    Ironically, if posters such as these satirized a more-or-less government position in an “Islamo-fascist” state like Iran, the individuals responsible would likely be imprisoned, beaten or worse. GW should lead by example by not punishing people for free speech, no matter how ignorant that speech may be.

    Joshua Sacks, Sophomore

    So, like I said, anyone hoping for a little outrage from these minds of mush will be disappointed. It seems some of us are more equal than others. The writers and editors are obviously giving the Kokesh Klowns a pass because they’re well-credentialed Leftists – that’s a little sad, but not surprising. Before the leftists admitted their guilt, evey news program, every interviewee was calling for the heads of the conservatives that wrote the posters.

    I’d remind these very forgiving students at GWU that every writer of satire believes a portion of what they write to be true to some degree – that’s what makes it satire and not fiction. Â

    Kokesh is a criminal – a sociopathic, spoiled rich child with too much time on his hands. Chickenhawk Express ferrets out his background and digs up his father;

    Charles Kokesh, a Santa Fe venture capitalist, founder of a firm called Technology Funding and owner of the Santa Fe Horse Park….

    Typical of the 60s rich kids who protested that war. In fact, while his son is playing at being a hippie protester, Daddy is trying to organize a polo tournament at poloblogs.com.

    Michele Malkin has the letter from YAF to the GWU administration. The Sniper takes a few well-placed and well-deserved shots at Kokesh. Hot Air has the audio of his defense of his actions. Johnny Dollar’s Place has the video. Liberal D.C. Universe even sees the hypocrisy.

    Chickenhawk Express emailed me last night and told me that Kokesh is due for trial on his previous poster offense. (WTOP Radio)

    Adam Kokesh, Tina Richards and Ian Thompson appeared in court Thursday. The antiwar ANSWER Coalition says they could face up to six months in jail if convicted of the charge.

    The D.C. Department of Public Works fined the group for pasting hundreds of signs with an adhesive that city officials say makes them difficult to remove. Protesters have said the adhesive was water-soluble.

    The ANSWER Coalition has responded by suing the city, alleging their constitutional rights were violated.

    Their constitutional right to litter DC with garish yellow posters – as I said yesterday, those posters still litter the city, as well as some posters I saw in Bethesda from the March protest. For the story of his arrest, go to this previous post.

    Kokesh is a nuisance that no one holds responsible for his actions. In fact, he still calls himself Sergeant Kokesh at his blog – even though he was busted from the rank three years ago for smuggling an Iraqi pistol back to the States – I think that qualifies him as a phony soldier. Wonkette can barely control her drooling as she reports another Kokesh arrest at the Capitol back in April, while Kokesh himself admits to an arrest at Fort Benning in July.

    Since apparently someone else is paying for his misbehavior, I think it’s time GWU and the DC district courts teach his little punk-ass a lesson. GWU should suspend him for anti-social behavior (that’s three arrests on Federal property since he became a GWU student) and the District should toss him in cell for 6-months until he learns that when a cop tells him not to do something, he won’t just go ahead and do it anyway.

    Kokesh is double-dog daring – someone should take him up on it.

  • So who hung those posters at GWU?

    Monday morning while the rest of America was sleeping in enjoying their Columbus Day, nefarious forces were afoot on the George Washington University. The Washington Post article “Poster Was Aimed At Racism Authors Say” this morning explains the event;

    Fliers that appeared on the George Washington University campus carrying an apparently anti-Islamic message were produced by students who were attempting to mock those they thought were trying to stir fear of Muslims, a campus newspaper was told.

    The GW Hatchet, an independent campus paper, posted a story on its Web site late last night saying it had heard from those behind the fliers, who said they had been misunderstood. According to the Hatchet, an e-mail that it received from the students said the flier was not an attack on Islam but an effort “at exposing Islamophobic racism.”

    Yep, but who did people who were outraged about this attack initially? The Young Americans Foundation conservative group on campus. As if any serious political organization would use hate as a tool to recruit in this day and age – well except radical Leftists and Islamists.

    So who were the people behind it? Well, the Post declines to name them, but the GW Hatchet has no problem naming names;

    The students – Adam Kokesh, freshman Yong Kwon, senior Brian Tierney, freshman Ned Goodwin, Maxine Nwigwe, Lara Masri and Amal Rammah – said their motives were misinterpreted.

    Yep, Adam Kokesh – the little weasel to whom I’ve dedicated a whole category on this blog. And what was their intent? Squelching the free speech of conservatives, of course;

    Students for Conservativo-Facism Awareness hung the posters in opposition to Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, an event being held beginning Oct. 22.

    Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week is a David Horowitz event. Just like the KKK leaflets in Manasas were intended to paint the anti-immigration movement there as a racist movement, this Kokesh-led abortion was meant to fan the flames of  hate against conservatives and those of us who are wary of Islamofacism. And it worked initially (from the WaPo, yesterday);

    “I was just really shocked that this sort of hatred exists on our campus,” said Najah El Bash, a sophomore from New York who is one of the leaders of the GWU Muslim Students Association. “You never think this would come so close to home, from people you’re in classes with. . . . It’s scary.” It had to be well-planned, she said, for so many posters to go up so quickly.

    Yeah, scary. It’s scary that people who who were cautious about blaming radical Islam for the 9-11 attacks is quick to point fingers at conservatives for this kind of childish rhetoric. I would hope that the George Washington University faculty will give Kokesh exactly what they would have intended for YAF if they’d found them responsible. But, fat chance. In fact, the local TV stations, after their initial reports of facists on the loose in the city, have dropped the story. Here’s a Fox 5 report that hasn’t been updated to reflect the solved crime since yesterday at noon. The local Telemundo news broadcast hasn’t changed either. I guess it’s too good a story when it’s sheet-wearing racists instead of non-sheet-wearing racists.

    By the way, those posters that Kokesh and his bunch got arrested for posting nearly a month ago that they claimed were an expression of their free speech? Well, they’re still all over the city – no one has taken them down. In fact, I saw a poster the other day from the March 17th protest. I wonder if the city has collected on their $20,000 fine yet.

    Hat tip to Kate for the early morning email on a slow news day. Michele Malkin has more, and Little Green Footballs was on it here and here. David Horowitz calls it a hate crime. LGF and Gateway Pundit write that YAF is being asked by the assistant director of student activities to apologize for the fake posters from YAF’s fake members.

    Samantha Sault of The Weekly Standard Blogs says colleges hate conservatives – I say colleges hate everyone equally. Why else would colleges so readily fill skulls of mush with inacurate and incomplete information?

  • The rush to press

    I read and watched incredulously the CNN broadcast of the “Reliable Sources” bit on why the media isn’t reporting lower casualties and successes in Iraq. Noel Sheppard from Newsbusters transcribes;

    After introducing the subject, Kurtz asked, “Robin Wright, should that decline in Iraq casualties have gotten more media attention?”

    This was Wright’s amazing answer:

    Not necessarily. The fact is we’re at the beginning of a trend — and it’s not even sure that it is a trend yet. There is also an enormous dispute over how to count the numbers. There are different kinds of deaths in Iraq.

    That’s funny because two days into the invasion of Saddam’s Iraq, our troops ran headlong into a sandstorm – immediately the media called Iraq a quagmire and wondered if we’d ever remove the Hussein regime from power because of one little sand storm.

    The media had no problem trotting out the Hadditha story before the facts were known in order to smear the American soldiers, and now according to Little Green Footballs, Gateway Pundit and Michele Malkin, it might have been an al Qaeda plot – because they knew the media would pounce all over it without any real investigation.

    al Qaeda used the treacherous media against our struggle for national security with articles entitled “The Shame of Kilo Company” and “Did Marines Kill In Cold Blood?”. The New York Times even ferreted out a law professor who allowed them to quote that even though there isn’t enough evidence to prosecute the Marines, it doesn’t mean they’re innocent. Despite the fact that our Bill of Rights guarantees us the right of being innocent until the government proves otherwise; 

    “We can’t say those guys didn’t commit a crime,” said Michael F. Noone Jr., a retired Air Force lawyer and law professor at Catholic University of America. “We can only say that after an investigation, there was not sufficient evidence to prosecute.” 

    And still there’s no apparent shame from the media.

    Here’s another example; Abdul Sattar Abu Risha met with President Bush after he led the Sunni effort to run al Qaeda out of his little fiefdom – nary a word about the meeting in the press. Two weeks later the sheik was killed and it was in headlines across every newspaper as proof that al Qaeda was unbeatable in Iraq. Then we saw the pictures of the sheik and Bush. Apparently the media was wrong – it only reinforced efforts in Iraq against al Qaeda among the Sunnis – that’s not being reported either.

    Need more? The Washington Post has avoided reporting on increased security and the lessening lethality of terrorists in Iraq by running a four part series on the front page last week on IEDs – typical act of avoidance. Today the Washington Post runs the headline that “Top Iraqis Pull Back From Key US Goal“;

    For much of this year, the U.S. military strategy in Iraq has sought to reduce violence so that politicians could bring about national reconciliation, but several top Iraqi leaders say they have lost faith in that broad goal.

    Iraqi leaders argue that sectarian animosity is entrenched in the structure of their government. Instead of reconciliation, they now stress alternative and perhaps more attainable goals: streamlining the government bureaucracy, placing experienced technocrats in positions of authority and improving the dismal record of providing basic services.

    Nevermind that broad leaps have been made in the last few weeks towards Iraqi unity – nevermind that Iraqis rejected Joe Biden’s plan to divide their nation into pieces nearly unanimously.

    Sister Toldjah writes that Omar from Iraq the Model – an Iraqi on the ground in Baghdad – has written a piece for the Wall Street Journal detailing the signs that al Qaeda is losing in Iraq. Wonder why it’s not in the Washington Post. Oh, because today, they’re predicting political defeat for the Iraqis. That would be inconvenient to provide competing opinions, wouldn’t it?

    Who does the Washington Post, Robin Wright and the rest of the ignoramouses that claim to be the guardians of our freedoms think we are? They deride the blogs, just like they derided talk radio – but the mainstream press created the alternate news sources – by pompously deciding what we need to know and when we need to know it.

    Curt of Flopping Aces sums up;

    They struggle to explain why this news isn’t being reported but we all know why.  If it doesn’t fit their narrative, that being the “we’re losing in Iraq” storyline, then they want nothing to do with it.  If they were true reporters they would report this stuff because it IS news.

    Well, given that CNN never reported Hussein’s atrocities and continues to ignore atrocities in Cuba to save their precious access to propaganda, who can be surprised that they’ll continue to focus on the US shortcomings since Constitutionally we can’t restrict their access. CNN is just taking the route of least resistance. I don’t what is eating the Washington Post, besides a bad case of the dumbass – playing to these goofballs.

  • Sorry state of the Left; the politics of bad taste

    I’m tired of the “phony soldiers” story and that seems all that’s on the blogs this weekend. Even EJ Dionne at the Washington Post blogs that (surprise!) he’d take the word of Media Matters over that of the cacophonous opposition of those of us who’ve listened to Rush for decades.

    Wes Clark (h/t Hot Air) has decided that Rush shouldn’t be on Armed Forces Radio – but it was because of the popular demand of the troops that Rush was added to AFRTS broadcasts back in 1994 (when they were abandoned by the then-current administration). Shouldn’t it be by popular demand that Rush is removed by the line-up or is Wes Clarke the sole arbiter of what the troops should have for entertainment?

    But regardless, Kos diarist dlawbailey has taken Rush’s “phony soldier” controversy as a signal that the Left can bash troops at will now (h/t to LGF, Uncle Jimbo and Sparta. dlawbailey even takes potshots at Pete Hegseth’s wife’s appearance in an attempt to undermine the good works of Vets for Freedom. And spouting off about stuff he doesn’t understand (like ROTC training and military service) including the one glaring point that Uncle Jimbo caught the weasel on – the 101st hasn’t been a parachute unit since the early 70s. When I was stationed in Panama, they used to show up for the unit training at Jungle Operations Training Center in their blue berets instead of the maroon berets of every parachute unit in the Army. I was stationed there 1976-1978, so it’s been that long that the 101st has been “dopes on a rope” (a derisive phrase used only by paratroopers when referring to the 101st and their special training requiring them to slide down a rope to arrive at the cutting of battle by air. I’ll add that it’s not acceptable for non-airborne personnel to use the term and my use of the phrase is not a signal for Leftist diarists to begin referring to the noble troopers of the 101st Airborne Division as “dopes”).

    Since I also spent a few years teaching ROTC (at the University of Vermont), I can also add that not every cadet gets to go to Airborne School – the detachment is assigned a number of slots and there aren’t ever enough slots for everyone. Participation in political organizations while in an ROTC detachment isn’t limited by Army regulations – so cadets can join any organization to which they are drawn just like any other college student. Cadets aren’t confined by the UCMJ – dlawbailey should do a little research before wrapping himself/herself in minutae he/she doesn’t understand.

    Peckerwood dlawbailey complains about Hogseth’s lack of training – anyone who has spent a month in a TO&E unit knows that a bright and shiney new El-Tee has already had a few years of training at whatever college they attended, six weeks at Advanced Camp (if they’re ROTC), six months of their Basic Officers’ Course and ancillary training (Ranger School, Airborne, etc.).

    It’s not unusual for someone in a National Guard unit (like Hegseth) to not be Airborne or Ranger because of the rare times those particular officers get a slot at school. Unlike the idiots at Kos, the Army puts more stock in experience than schooling. The Basic Airborne Course – although it’s a great honor to be among the finest soldiers in the history of the world – isn’t a leadership school. Aside from being physically and mentally rigorous, the main prerequisite for the course is the student’s ability to obey the Law of Gravity at varying heights – nothing about leading troops in combat. I’ve even had leg Ranger LTs; they’d graduated from Ranger School, but not the Basic Airborne Course. Just the luck of getting school slots – that’s all.

    It seems that the “phony soldier” phony signal has turned loose the moonbats everywhere. Newsbusters reports that one-in-five Democrats thinks it’s a good thing if the US loses the war in Iraq. Wha??? Unless one-in-five Democrats are al Qaeda sleeper operatives, that should make the DNC think whether they want the votes of that constituency or not.

    Newsbusters also reports that members of the mis-named “Think Progress” have taken to praying – that the President and Vice-President die. In the words of a member named ‘Uncle Ho’ (clearly a misinformed person just for chosing that nom de plum); “I pray for Bush, and Cheney too. I pray that both die suddenly to free us from their neo-Nazi rule”. Yep, neo-nazi rule. Even after viewing the repression of the monks in Burma, the Left still thinks we’re ruled by nazis here.

    Speaking of which, Kate took pics of the latest Buddist protests in DC at the Myanmar, Chinese and Indian embassies yesterday. Why aren’t more of the Left getting involved against REAL injustice instead of this manufactured phony soldiers crap?

    But that’s not it. Crotchety Old Bastard (who tells us his son is still kickin’ ass in Iraq as a member of the Red Falcons – best wishes to him from this old trooper, too) writes that Medea Benjamin, the head shriveled up, barren old bag of Code Pink has made the brave decision to forego the protections she recieves from the Constitution. Who does she think she’s kidding? Does she think we’re going to put her on a raft in the Pacific Ocean and tie it off with a 12-mile rope on the Santa Monica pier? Dumbass.

    And Code Pink has taken to bravely assaulting recruiters who, generally can’t defend themselves the way they’ve been trained according to Marooned in Marin. And those goofballs in front of Walter Reed every Friday night protesting the war? Well, it turns out that because we’re winning the war in Iraq, their voluntary participation has waned and according to Chickenhawk Express, Michele Malkin and the Free Republic, protesters are being drafted by the unions and forced to participate – even though they’re not exactly sure why they’re there.

    As I predicted three months ago, the Left and their anti-war politics are failing and they’ve succumbed to the same tactics of al Qaeda – attacking innocent people who can’t defend themselves (apparently, according to Crotchety Old Bastard, al Qaeda is even adopting the tactics of Democrats and attacking the dead, too). Just like the tactic isn’t working for al Qaeda, it’ll bring a ugly end to the anti-war screwballs, too, but not before there are a bunch more casualties – on both sides.

    UPDATED: It seems Uncle Jimbo, a retired special warfare operator of some reknown, started a diary on Kos and has been banned for – get this – being a pedophile. All he did was bust on the Koskommies for the aforementioned diarist’s post busting on an honest-to-goodness bronze star awardee’s career (and wife, by the way). The comments on Jimbo’s diary post are really beyond the pale. The closest comment to anything supporting the troops is when one commenter called Markos a “a f*king veteran”. Like I said – the politics of bad taste.

  • Obey: War tax to end the war

    David Obey, the chair of the House Appropriations Committee has decided since the Democrats can’t get a draft started, they’ll charge Americans a tax to fan anti-war flames (Washington Times);

    Rep. David R. Obey, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, yesterday threatened unilaterally to block President Bush’s $189 billion emergency war-funding bill to force a U.S. pullout from Iraq and called for levying a surtax to cover the war’s costs.

    Mr. Obey, breaking with the Democratic leadership that has failed repeatedly to end the Iraq war, said unless Mr. Bush establishes a goal to abort combat operations in Iraq by January, he would act alone to cut off war spending.

    “Future generations should not be saddled with paying for an ill-advised war in Iraq that seems to be never-ending,” said the Wisconsin Democrat, who could use his powerful post to lock up the funding bill in committee. “If this war is important enough to fight, then it ought to be important enough to pay for.”

    The proposed income-tax surcharge — a progressive tax ranging from 2 percent to about 15 percent — would net $150 billion a year to cover the cost of the war in Iraq, said Mr. Obey.

    That’s the solution to every problem, I suppose – tax stuff you disagree with.

    Mr. Obey’s proposals did not target the war in Afghanistan, which he said was a justifiable war because the Taliban supported al Qaeda before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack.

    “It is to draw a meaningful line in the sand,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, Massachusetts Democrat and an outspoken war critic. Mr. McGovern and Rep. John P. Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat, were at Mr. Obey’s side when he announced the surtax plan.

    Yep, the war in Afghanistan is justifiable as long as you look at the war as pure revenge (an emotional response, not a rational response) instead of considering the fact that those 19,000 jihadists we’ve killed in Iraq could’ve been running all over the planet blowing themselves up along with innocent people. But the Democrats can’t just get past the fact that war is not a legal action – it’s a defensive action. All war has a preemptive nature.

    The Wall Street Journal’s David Rogers writes;

    House rules permit Republicans and prowar Democrats to try to go around Mr. Obey and force action on spending. But the chairman’s stand, blessed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), represents a significant escalation of the conflict with the administration.

    It came as moderates in the war debate enjoyed a rare triumph on the House floor. By 377-46, members approved requiring the Pentagon to report regularly to Congress on the status of planning for the redeployment of troops from Iraq.

    Supporters argued it was a first step to end partisan sniping, but many House Democrats remain frustrated by the pace of change in Iraq policy.

    In the past, they have approved Iraq funding with restrictions, only to see these amendments watered down in the Senate because of White House veto threats and Republican filibusters. Ms. Pelosi doesn’t hide her impatience: “We can’t go as slow as that ship” she said of the Senate last week.

    Mr. Obey gives her more leverage. Choosing not to move legislation is “our strongest card at this point,” he said.

    So, not surprisingly, Murtha (Mr. Pink Badge of Courage) and Pelosi are behind this latest end run around the Administration’s honest attempts at winning this war in our favor – as opposed to the Democrats who want to lose this war so they can win the presidency next year. All of this despite the fact that the war in Iraq is being won (as reported by Gateway Pundit and Bill Roggio and Bill Roggio again)

    So why would Democrats try these end runs around the administration? Because it’s their last chance to make splash – it’s their last chance to look like they’ve done something in this war against terror – even though it helps the terrorists. Just to stroke their critics on the extreme left wing.

    Democrats’ spinlessness gives hope to every jihadist in the world – especially those arrayed against our troops in Iraq. I’m sure Pelosi, et al. hope to spark courage in the Mahdi Army again so Democrats can point and call it a civil war – since it hasn’t been a civil war for months and the Iraqis are helping US forces to drive al Qaeda out.

  • Phony soldiers

    Yeah, I heard the story about Rush Limbaugh calling people “phony soldiers”, I’ve watched the video, I’ve read the blogs – I know what he said, I don’t need it explained to me. He was talking about Jesse Macbeth – the best known fake veteran of this war, so far. Prairie Pundit is waiting for a Macbeth phony soldier squad to embrace him. Who thought this scrawney twirp was a Ranger?

    And who thought this was the career of an E-fricken-four?

    Limbaugh was talking about Scott Thomas Beauchamp who told phony stories about impossible events that happened to him before he set foot in Iraq. You’d think The New Republic would be smart enough to steer clear of the Limbaugh controversy, but, nope.

    Limbaugh was talking about Tom Harkin, the Senator who likes to tell war stories about a war he was never in. He’s talking about Harry Reid, who suddenly feels like the troops have been slighted (not when he called them losers and suggested they quit fighting, though). They can’t condemn Iran for killing our troops, but they can summon the guts to condemn Limbaugh (Hot Air) – how fricken brave.

    Limbaugh is talking about John Kerry who took a movie camera to Viet Nam (at a time when even most really rich people didn’t have movie cameras) and “re-enacted” his battles – and threw someone’s medals over some fence. And made up stories about what he’d wished he done in Viet Nam. Then makes a “botched joke” about how stupid the troops are. More on the original phony soldier, John Kerry from Sweetness and Light.

    Limbaugh was talking about John Murtha who hides behind his fake 30 years of service (half of which he spent in Congress, and all except one year, he spent defending Johnstown, PA from being awash in beer in his “special infantry” unit) while taking pot shots at the folks who are actually doing the heavylifting he couldn’t summon the testicular fortitude to accomplish. Need I mention his “pink badge of courage“?

    Here’s another phony soldier, Al Gore who had a body guard either because he was an E-4 journalist or a Senator’s son. I spent a year in Panama as an Army journalist and I never had a body guard. My friend, Gary, spent a few years as a journalist in Germany and didn’t get a body guard – so you tell me;

    Apparently his bodyguard was to protect Gore from himself.

    Limbaugh is talking about Jon Solz, who flew off the handle at a soldier in uniform at the Yearly Koz, yet a picture of Solz in his uniform is on his website (which is now closed because Solz has apparently foresaken his own band of phony soldiers) – doing nothing more than the young buck sergeant at the Yearly Koz.

    Limbaugh is talking about Adam Kokesh – the dimwitted bubblehead who claimed he’d been discharged when he hadn’t, who made false claims about the war all because he’d been busted smuggling an Iraqi pistol back from the war and the Marines wouldn’t extend him the honor of returning to the war. And then makes false claims about the recruiter that recruited him. Kokesh still calls himself “Sergeant Kokesh” even though he was busted to private years ago. All the while he’s using his GI Bill to get an education.

    I meet phony soldiers nearly everyday – they’re everywhere. Just the other day I saw some homeless bum walking around with a cammie jacket and a ton of patches sewn on it – none of which had anything to do with another. But the Left loves them – the Left defends them. The Left protects them. And this how they treat the troops with whom they disagree;

    So this Clinton-funded Media Matters gaggle with admitted liar David Brock at the helm doesn’t need to tell me what to think about Limbaugh – nothing Limbaugh says can compare to those phony warriors on Capitol Hill – and the ones the Left seems to attract.

    Michele Malkin is all over Tom Harkin and Crotchety Old Bastard is mopping up Harry Reid. Gateway Pundit is dragging out phony soldiers from every closet – here, here and here. Melanie Morgan at Move America Forward mentions a few more phony soldiers that I’ve forgotten,

  • The Nation; Neocons provoke Iran

    I reall don’t think Leftists are much paying attention to the world and it’s dung like this from The Nation’s blogs that reinforce that notion of mine;

    Listen up. Can you hear the drums beating for a third war?

    The neocons are in a bubbling rage over Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Columbia University. The pro-surge propagandists at Freedom Watch labeled the Iranian leader a “terrorist” in–of all places–a New York Times ad. Neocon godfather, Giuliani advisor and “World War IV” author Norman Podharetz went to the White House recently to urge President Bush to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities.

    The title of the piece is in the title of this post – NeoCons provoke Iran. Um, I think Iran has been provoked well before George W. Bush ever became President, in fact before you pinheaded leftists ever thought of using the name “neocon” to describe everyone who thinks that the US is at war. Lemme see – the Iranian government is disregarding international protocols and steaming ahead with a nuclear weapon program. They’re arming their own enemies with weapons to fight against our troops in Iraq, when we’ve done nothing to provoke the Iranians up to this point. They’ve abducted British Marines in international water, for pete’s sake – the British.

    This particular Nation writer, Ari Berman, is upset because of the Senate vote the other day (Wall Street Journal);

    …a symbolic amendment offered by Connecticut maverick Joe Lieberman and Republicans Jon Kyl and Norm Coleman. After marshaling the evidence of Iran’s terrorist activities in Iraq, the amendment stated that “it is a critical national interest of the United States to prevent [Iran] from turning Shi’a militia into a Hezbollah-like force that could serve its interests inside Iraq.” Twenty-one Democrats, including Joe Biden and John Kerry, apparently found this too shocking to support and voted nay, as did Republicans Chuck Hagel and Dick Lugar.

    In fact according to the Wall Street Journal, the sponsors had to change the language to get Democrats on board;

    …Democrats only agreed to the amendment after demanding that its language be edited to remove a statement that “it should be the policy of the United States to stop inside Iraq the violent activities and destabilizing influence” of Iran. Also left on the cutting-room floor, under Democratic duress, was a call “to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq” with respect to Iran and its proxies.

    Amazing. We can’t provoke the Iranians, can we?

    The Left has learned nothing from the Viet Nam War. When the North Vietnamese were supplying the Viet Cong and it’s regulars in the south by moving arms and food down the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia, Congress forbade both Presidents Johnson and nixon from attacking that supply line because that would be “expanding the war”. The North Vietnamese “expanded the war” when they began moving supplies through Cambodia to further their war efforts.

    Now, without provocation, Iran is supplying their own ideological enemies to fight our troops, and the Democrats want to tie our hands – again.

    I’ll defer to the WSJ editorial board for the final word;

    These are men who seem to fear the Netroots more than the mullahs.

  • The Nuanced Left and Ahmadinejad

    I may have been wrong early in the week when I said that no one on the Left could possibly think that Ahmadinejad had anything of value to offer the public in his scheduled speeches. I wasn’t wrong that he had nothing of value, I was wrong for giving the Left credit for having a bit of common sense. Apparently, they have none.

    While Congress got to work yesterday expanding sanctions against Iran and punishing the corporations that continue to support the 12th Century government, a small crowd of protesters vied for attention in front of the White House calling for a halt to our “planned invasion” of Iran (Washington Post);

    The 25 protesters, most of them from the Troops Out Now Coalition, walked in a circle on the sidewalk north of the White House, chanting “Get out of Iraq! Stay out of Iran!” and holding signs that read: “Don’t Terrorize Iran” and “Don’t Appease Israel.”

    “There’s a hysteria in the media emanating from New York . . . against the president of Iran,” coalition spokesman Larry Holmes said. “We’re here in response to what’s been going on in New York: the Columbia debate, the front pages of the tabloids, the electronic media, demonizing the president. And we know what it’s about.

    “We know that the government is in very advanced stages of planning for a war in Iran. They’ve got a naval armada” in the Persian Gulf, he said. “The Pentagon’s got its plans. And now we see the psychological preparation.”

    Um, maybe there are preparations because Iran would be a very dangerous government if if owned weapons with which they could obliterate entire races of people by pushing a button. And the only hysteria I see runs the other way – hysterical defense of govenment bent on destroying its neighbors and the rest of the civilized world.

    And the only reason that Iran is the target of the world’s ire stems from the fact that they don’t want to follow international protocols (Washington Post);

    Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Tuesday not to give in to pressure by “arrogant powers” trying to force him to abandon his nation’s uranium-enrichment program and unilaterally declared that as far as he is concerned, “the nuclear issue of Iran is now closed.”

    In a fiery speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Ahmadinejad denounced what he called the “master-servant relationship of the Medieval Age” imposed by the United States and other leading nations through the Security Council. He expressed confidence that God would not allow the Bush administration to launch a military attack against his country and said Iran has “spared no effort to build confidence” that it wants only civilian energy, not nuclear weapons.

    Uh-uh, and that’s why they’re working on long-range missiles that reach Israel. Instead of working with the UN, Iran has sticking it’s finger in the eye of the UN and has so far disregarded no less than three deadlines established by the UN to prove to the world that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons – I wonder why they’d do – unless they’re building nuclear weapons, of course.

    Instead of working towards being a responsible nuclear power, Iran’s President sticks his finger in the eye of the UN, yet again, and makes unilateral declarations (Washington Times);

    “I officially announce that in our opinion the nuclear issue of Iran is now closed and has been turned into an ordinary [regulatory] matter,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said, speaking on the opening day of the U.N. General Assembly debate, hours after President Bush criticized the country’s human rights record.

    So let me guess who the Left is going to blame when Iran eventually becomes a nuclear power and starts firing off missiles at random.

    In an amazingly naive article in the Washington Post’s PostGlobal section, Ali Ettefagh writes “Wake Up, America” which turns out to be nothing but a footnote to Ahmadinejad’s three appearances this week in front of the US media. Claiming that we think Iran is still in the 1970’s, Ettefagh chastizes the US media for asking the Iranian president the same questions over-and-over;

    It was also amazing to see the American Rainman repeat the same questions over and over again. A reporter from CBS’ 60 Minutes asked tough questions in an interview in Tehran, which was broadcast on Sunday and subsequently reported in newspapers and more than 2000 websites. The very next day, the National Press Club members repeated the same questions, and later that day, an academic put the same questions to President Ahmedinejad a third time. Somehow, the CBS reporter, the National Press Club and the professor did not recall that it is their treasure and blood that funds Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and the death and destruction of Iraq. (They are probably too busy congratulating themselves on their massive foreign aid of US$20 per Palestinian!).

    Of course, Ahmadinejad’s apologist never bothers to mention that Ahmadinejad never answered any of the questions in a serious manner – and so the questions needed to be asked three times – to no result. But let’s change the subject of the unanswered questions and mention Abu Gahraib, Guantanamo and the fact that we only partially fund terrorist operations in the West Bank. Cuz it’s all the US’ fault – that’s thrown in for all of the guilt-ridden Leftists to get them slobbering and frothing about their sexual inadequacies and to get them raging at the Judeo-Christian neo-cons (and it works in this case).

    The truly amazing part of the piece, besides the fact that Ettefagh can apparently type while engaged in an air-tight lip-lock with Ahmadinejad, is the Washington Post’s readers comments which generally thank Ali for “thinking outside the box” as one writer, absolutely unafraid of worn cliches, puts it.

    I guess we should over look the fact that the “thinking” in this case, is pure propaganda mouthed by someone comfortably ensconced in Western culture while encouraging a blood-soaked tyrannt to bathe in even more blood while Ettefagh covers for him a half-a world away. And the “box” is nakedly-expressed aggressive intent to wipe out entire races of people so some wizard in a magic well can rise and rule the world. 

    I’m just simply amazed that the American Left can just chuck aside common sense in favor of pure politics, despite the risks to national security. Are universities just sucking the brains out of people these days?