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

Category: Antiwar crowd

  • Agosto is just like Ali – only completely different

    I know it’s rough for a journalist to write something that everyone else has written about and give it a new twist – I try to do that every day here – but this is just poor research. Todd Wright at the NBC bureau in Miami wrote this yesterday; Miami Soldier Headed to Jail for Ali Stance;

    Spc. Victor Agosto might not be the greatest but he appears to have the same views as Muhammad Ali when it comes to war. And now he will serve jail time just like the former heavyweight champ.

    That was his whole point – Agosto is like Muhammed Ali. Yeah, well that’s not exactly true – in fact it’s not even broadly true. For starters, Agosto isn’t a famous 6’3″ black boxer.

    Muhammad Ali was sentenced to five years in prison, but he never served a day. On the other hand, Victor Agosto will do his whole thirty days in prison. Muhammad Ali didn’t refuse to go to war – he refused to be drafted. He probably would not have gone to Vietnam if he’d joined because of his fame and ability to draw a crowd. He would have been more valuable as a recruiting tool than a fighting soldier in the jungle.

    Muhammad Ali declared himself a conscientious objector, Victor Agosto has declared that he’s NOT a conscientious objector. Muhammad Ali refused the draft because of his religious beliefs, Victor Agosto refused to be sent to war because he thinks somehow the war in Afghanistan is illegal.

    So how is Victor Agosto like Muhammed Ali? Well, they both went to court once – so he’s just exactly like Muhammed Ali – only completely different.

    Below the fold is a screenshot of the article in case it gets yanked.
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  • Victor Agosto update

    According to preliminary reports, Victor Agosto, the Fort Hood soldier who refused to deploy to Afghanistan, was sentenced to 30 days confinement at his Special Court Martial today (Connect.Amarillo.com link);

    Spc. Victor Agosto of Miami was sentenced in an hour-long military-court hearing Wednesday at the Central Texas Army post. It was the maximum penalty specified under his plea agreement under his military prosecutors.

    The judge also reduced his rank to private, the lowest rank in the Army hierarchy.

    Agosto served in Iraq, but somehow linked that war to Afghanistan and decided he’d rather do jail time than deploy again after he was stop-lossed (he was scheduled to leave the service in August, I believe)

    Before he was sentenced Wednesday, Agosto told the judge he believes the war violates international law. He said, however, that courts haven’t recognized soldiers’ rights to refuse an order they deem illegal.

    I wonder if he bothered to tell the judge with international law the war violated.

    Actually, I’d hoped he would get a year or more – just because he had an idiot for a lawyer. His lawyer, the guy who until recently lived in his grand parents’ basement, called the owner of the IVAW/VFP/VVAW-connected Under the Hood Cafe operator Cynthia Thomas to testify for some reason.

    Before the trial, he was quoted by the Bryan College Station Eagle;

    Agosto said he was never mistreated by his fellow soldiers or superiors. Many troops have said they support him and flash him the peace sign, and even those who disagree with him still say they respect him, he said.

    “This whole experience has been pretty liberating,” Agosto said. And while he has been nervous at times, “it’s better than going to Afghanistan and serving in a war I don’t believe in.”

    Yup, being a criminal is always better than doing what you promised to do in the first place.

  • Chester Co. Peace Movement: You’re Nazis

    I got this in my email this morning forwarded from someone who decided to send it to the White House to investigate as “fishy”. It’s from Karen Porter, the nutjob who organizes the Chester County Peace Movement in Pennsylvania – the same group that physically attacked our buddy Skye;

    These people [folks protesting the President’s impending policies] are (1) not going to surrender power to a black man and (2) fanatics who will stop at nothing. I mean nothing. Got that?

    Nothing.

    It’s time that all of you understand that if you didn’t before. Some of you probably still don’t have the ability to understand how dark certain forces can be – if you can’t understand it, please go back and read some pre-World War II German history. Then maybe you’ll understand the gravity of this situation we face. Hard economic times. Scapegoating. Racial and ethnic hatred. Violence. Paranoia. Anti-intellectualism. Religious fanatacism. Sexism. Powerful money interests pulling so-called “populist” strings. What I see happening right now in this country has happened before – about 70 years ago in Germany, friends.

    Yes, you folks out there exercising your rights to freely assemble and speak your minds are nothing but a bunch of racist Nazis. besides being a poor student of history, Karen Porter has all the earmarks of a serious drama queen.

    Added: I just figured out who sent me this email. I’m not used to seeing Skye’s real name.

  • Paranoid hippies find spy in their midst

    The hippies are chattering on the intertubes, especially on the West Coast in the Tacoma and Olympia, Washington areas. Apparently they found a member of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency spying on them.

    Brendan Maslauskas Dunn asked the city of Olympia for documents or e-mails about communications between the Olympia police and the military relating to anarchists, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) or the Industrial Workers of the World (Dunn’s union). Dunn received hundreds of documents. One e-mail contained reference to a “John J. Towery II,” who activists discovered was the same person as their fellow activist “John Jacob.”

    Dunn told me: “John Jacob was actually a close friend of mine, so this week has been pretty difficult for me. He said he was an anarchist. He was really interested in SDS. He got involved with Port Militarization Resistance (PMR), with Iraq Vets Against the War. He was a kind person. He was a generous person. So it was really just a shock for me.”

    “Jacob” told the activists he was a civilian employed at Fort Lewis Army Base and would share information about base activities that could help the PMR organize rallies and protests against public ports being used for troop and Stryker military vehicle deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. Since 2006, PMR activists have occasionally engaged in civil disobedience, blocking access to the port.

    The premiere hippie journalist, Amy Goodman has an hour long video of the report, if you really have that much time to waste;

    Of course, the hippies are outraged. They’re screaming “posse comitatus” but the Pentagon Force Protection Agency is a civilian agency;

    Since its creation, PFPA has expanded its mission and provides force protection against a full spectrum of potential threats. While law enforcement is still a major portion of its mission, the agency also handles operations security, building surveillance, crisis prevention, consequence management, counterintelligence, antiterrorism, Hazmat and explosives, protection of high ranking DoD officials, information technology and administrative issues. PFPA continues to evolve making it one of the Nation’s premiere Federal law enforcement organizations; defending the Pentagon’s personnel, facilities, and infrastructure against numerous, mounting threats.

    Goodman’s reporting at Truthdig blames President Bush primarily, but also makes the Obama culpable in their perceived slight;

    But the spying in Olympia occurred well into the Obama administration (and may continue today). President Barack Obama supports retroactive immunity for telecom companies involved in the wiretapping, and has maintained Bush-era reliance on the state secrets privilege. Lee and Holt should take the information uncovered by Brendan Dunn and the Olympia activists and get the investigations started now.

    So, I guess they’re upset that it’s true that no one likes hippies. The New York Times quotes the Army;

    The Army would not disclose the nature of the investigation or address the claim that Mr. Towery had shared information about civilians. It said Mr. Towery was not available for an interview.

    “Mr. John Towery performs sensitive work within the installation law enforcement community, and it would not be appropriate for him to discuss his duties with the media,” the Army said in written statement. “Fort Lewis is aware of the claim with regard to Mr. Towery. To ensure all regulatory guidelines were followed, the command has decided that an inquiry is prudent, and an officer is being appointed to conduct the inquiry.”

    Honestly, I’m glad someone was watching these doofuses.

  • Code Pink’s lunchtime antics

    Are you in DC, trying to lose weight and need an appetite suppressant? You’re in luck. Be at DuPont Circle at lunchtime today and you’ll definitely lose your appetite;
    code-pink-bikini
    The thought of a crowd of post-menopausal hags in two-piece bikinis is enough to make me skip breakfast. If you’re not in DC, here’s something to help you get the same results below the fold.
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  • IVAW; the peace movement’s stalking horse

    All week we’ve been running a series about the prospective Board of Directors of the IVAW. As we documented, the IVAW is more interested in being a band of peace activists than a veterans’ organization like Vote Vets worries more about Democrat legislative priorities than veterans’ issue. Well, here’s something I found last night in my usual perusal of the lunatic Left;

    call-for-action

    Notice were it says “Endorsers (list in formation)”? IVAW is the first organization listed – that means they’ll be in the front of the protest march. Why? What does the G-20 conference have to do with veterans? Are they withholding some benefits? Closing veterans facilities? The IVAW refugees who hang out here have told us that the third plank of their platform (Full benefits, adequate healthcare (including mental health), and other support for returning servicemen and women) was more of an after thought than a real goal.

    In an interview last year, Medea Benjamin said that IVAW gives the peace movement it’s “street creds”, that’s why whenever you see Medea in DC, her poodle Geoffrey [Stolen Valor] Millard is near. That’s all that matters to the peace movement, using the IVAW for a stalking horse.

  • The IVAW Board Series: S. Brian Reinhold

    This is the final installment of the seven part series on the prospective IVAW Board of Directors – unless TSO decides to do an installment on Selena Coppa. We’ve seen four members of six who are more concerned with fund raising and being an activist anti-war organization than they are with being a veterans organization. Mr. Reinhold, however is so squishy that it’s difficult to tell what he thinks.

    He gives no definitive answers to any questions. For example when asked where he sees IVAW in 2,5 and 10 years, he writes;

    In two years the organization will still be pushing for an immediate withdraw from Iraq. Membership will grow based on this position.

    In five years the organization will be pushing for direct withdraw from Afghanistan. Membership will grow based on this position. The inclusion of Afghanistan veterans will have to be reflected in the organization or will need a branch off organization to meet this need.

    In ten years the IVAW will be large enough to support a possible merger with small organizations that will help us meet our collective goals without compromising our moral and just positions.

    Huh? That’s pretty vacuous. But then he’s a teacher, what would you expect? Without the answer key, I’m sure he has difficulty with any questions. To his credit, he actually served in the military and served in Iraq;

    My service time in OIF III consisted of Apache maintenance and logistic support without, thankfully, direct engagement. My civilian background is in the visual arts and education.

    He mentions outreach, but I suspect he means to build the number of activists and not to help veterans with their problems;

    The most pressing issues facing the organization are:
    1) Membership: more outreach on bases, pr to active duty and reserves.
    2) Creating a national bond between locals and members: time and action.
    3) Political action: whether it be working with or deposing of politicians, IVAW should lead the way as an organization made up of people with national ties as strong as the military.

    He lists membership in countless unions along with VFP and ANSWER (yep, that ought to make the parents of his students feel better) so we can only guess at his intentions on the IVAW Board.

  • World Can’t Wait protests NAACP

    It seems that the World Can’t Wait and their attendant affiliates got angry at the NAACP “Diversity Career Fair” at their annual convention earlier this month. In the post-racial era, the Left decided that people of color shouldn’t be allowed the opportunity to serve their country and reap the benefits of the service. And who is surprised that Matthis Chiroux was on hand;

    The demonstration was a follow up to a press conference held on Saturday July 11th, the opening day of the convention where Benjamin Jealous, CEO and President of the NAACP, was asked by a high school student and a military mother why military recruiters were invited to recruit, given that the NAACP had come out against the Iraq war. Benjamin Jealous refused to disinvite the Army Strong Recruitment Tour and said that the recruiters would not be recruiting.

    At the press conference this afternoon Debra Sweet, representatives of the Ya Ya Youth Network, revolution youth, war resister Mathis Chiroux, and Barbara Harris all spoke very eloquently as to why the NAACP should not allow military recruiters into its convention. The main points driven home were that the wars/occupations decided to go inside the convention to see what the Army Strong Tour was doing. What we found was appalling. Over 60% over the Diversity Career Fair was military.

    That’s horrible – unless you factor in that the military is the most color-blind facet of our society and has been for decades. In fact, one Black recruiter got a first hand look of the racist attitude of the writer of this piece;

    The recruiter tried to defend recruitment by going into what the navy had done for her. My activist friend began to tell her she understood that this recruiter felt that the navy had done a lot for her but … This was when the conversation was cut short by another Black male recruiter approaching us and demanding to know what we were doing there. He demanded that we leave and that if we didn’t we would be escorted out. My friend asked why. We were told we were being loud and disruptive.

    The Black female was obviously so stupid that she didn’t realize that the Navy had abused her somehow and it took a white loudmouthed Leftist to tell her how her life wasn’t really better.

    All WCW and the others will accomplish is convince more impoverished Blacks to be left out of the economy. According to the Stars and Stripes this morning, the basic training stations are jam-packed with new recruits;

    A sagging economy, declining casualty rate in Iraq and a resurgence in the U.S. military’s popularity appear to have contributed to a strong recruiting year, Army leaders said.

    And the steady training schedule at Fort Jackson is likely to continue into next year as recruits find themselves on a waiting list to report for duty.

    “Shipping dates are anywhere from six weeks to two to three months out,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jay Jenkins, who works at the Army’s downtown Columbia recruiting station.

    So instead of helping minorities out their poverty, WCW and Matthis Chiroux are content to leave them mired in their unfortunate circumstances. Oh, and here’s a little bit about World Can’t Wait from Discover the Networks;

    Founded in June 2005 by Charles Clark Kissinger, a longtime leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party, World Can’t Wait (WCW) is a direct action movement seeking to organize “people living in the United States to take responsibility to stop the whole disastrous course led by the Bush administration.”

    I guess that’s where the money is, huh, Matthis? Did it suddenly dry up in Alabama?

    Thanks to Navy Brat for the link.