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

Category: Code Pink

  • Celebrate the last day of BDS

    As we all know, January 19th is President Bush’s last full day in office. It’s also the last day that those poor souls who’ve been suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome since before the President took office to blame him for their ills (well, that’s not true, is it?). So taking full chronological advantage, they organized a “Shoe Bush” (or “Boot Bush“, depending upon which website you land) event that forms about eight blocks from the White House in DuPont Circle (a place TSO knows well) and plans to get near the White House. I doubt that very much, judging from the construction activity I saw there yesterday in preparation for the Inauguration.

    But anyway, the whole idea is to toss shoes at President Bush;

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  • Pro-Hamas theater meets Free Republic [Jonn]

    Lafayette Gaza 079

    This afternoon in DC, at Lafayette Park, across from the White House amidst preparations for the Inauguaration, several thousand protesters gathered ostensibly to show their support for Gazans, but as you can see by the flag above, it was more an Israel Hate Fest than support for anyone.

    About three blocks from Lafayette Park, in Farragut Park, I ran into a prayer session;

    Lafayette Gaza 010

    Lafayette Gaza 009

    Inside Lafayette Park, it was interesting to see who was behind the protest;

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  • The shoe toss saga continues (Updated w/videos)

    Videos below the fold

    Today Code Pink took their shoe-toss road show to the Iraqi Consulate on P Street, in Washington DC to “demand” the release of Muntadhar Al-Zeidi, the journalist who threw his shoe at George Bush a few weeks ago. Code Pink has grasped this thing around the throat like grim death and refuses to let it go. The clowns were demanding that Muntadhar Al-Zeidi be compensated. I guess we should buy him some better shoes and pay for lessons so he won’t throw little a little girl any more.

    Needless to say, just like the protest TSO covered the other week, attendance was poor, even by the media;
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  • Medea, Millard and Uranus [by TSO]

    On 13 March 1781, Sir William Herschel announced to the world that he had discovered the heretofore unknown seventh planet in our Solar System.  Now, all of the planets up to this point were named after Roman deities.  This was not an idea which much appealed to Mr. Herschel who believed that such a discovery should be tied with the current King of England.  Thus, he decreed, the plant should be named “George.”

    Now, this would have ruined school children everywhere who would have been required in their yut to memorize the sentence “My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Geraldo Seven Pizzas” which doesn’t quite role off the tongue.  Luckily for 3rd graders and bloggers with a sophomoric sense of humor everywhere, the planet was instead named “Uranus” which my science has proven produces snickers like no other planet name EVER.  Unless planet X should be named “Booger.”

    Nonetheless, I tell this story because it segues nicely with the Jovian sized asshattery I just witnessed down at the White House.  Deciding to scrap a bad idea (George) with a potentially even stupider one (Uranus) always makes me melancholy about Code Pink.  But fear not, intrepid astronomer, because Code Pink has come through again.

    Here’s the short story:

    Peace Activists Take Shoes to White House in Solidarity with Shoe-Throwing Iraqi Journalist
    Call for his release and tribute to Iraqis who have suffered under US occupation

    WHAT: Peace activists to gather with shoes in solidarity to Iraqi journalist
    WHEN: 11 a.m., Weds. Dec. 17
    WHERE:  In front of White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

    And what release would be complete without a quote from a phony CIB wearing PowerPoint Slide Clicker:

    “Having one shoe thrown at George Bush pales in comparison to the suffering that veterans and Iraqis go through everyday,” says Geoffrey Milliard of Iraq Veterans Against the War. “Perhaps if Bush can see some more of these shoes before he leaves office, he will feel some of our pain.”

    So, I braved the elements with my intrepid photographer, and down Ye Olde Whyte House.  Here are some pics, and here you are kids.

    You remember Geoff Millard from Jonn’s post the other day;

    A giant Bush decapitated head – BDS reigns supreme;

    And this guy was in another of Jonn’s posts last month; Jim Goodnow who defended the Impeachment Bus from a gang of wingnut facists (in his dreams);

    The press out numbered the protesters by about 3:1.

    I spoke with this young lady briefly.  She is from a Russian news station, and she is in quite a quandary.  She wants to come to the inauguration, but she has been unable to secure a place to stay.  I don’t want to give out her name, but if you know of anywhere, just email her at youmustbekiddingme@hotchicks.com

    She likes conservative men, bubble baths, frolicking naked, and drinking profligate amounts of alcohol.  Sometimes when she gets really drunk she likes to give massages, make out with other girls, and make samwiches.  If you can find it in your heart to help her out, won’t you please email now?  Because if not you, then who?  If not now, then when?

  • Geoff Millard; the latest IVAW phony soldier (Updated)

    The anti-war movement loves the Iraq Veterans Against the War. In an interview, Head Hag of Code Pink bragged that IVAW gives the anti-war movement credibility;

    “The vet groups are our street cred,” a California-based anti-war activist tells me at the group’s barbecue. Medea Benjamin, co-founder of feminist anti-war group Code Pink, says the veterans’ group appeals to the American glorification of the military, even within the anti-war movement. “People who have been part of a war that I consider immoral and illegal still have more legitimacy than people who were against the war from the very beginning and refused to fight in it,” she explains, sitting in the vets’ living room while her college-age cohorts chat with the veterans and eat hamburgers and sausages. “They command more of a sense of authority and more of a sense of understanding of what’s actually happening on the ground.”

    Let’s take a look at the credibility that Medea values so much, shall we?

    The president of the Washington, DC Chapter, Geoff Millard, for example, is a real gadfly on the Washington, DC Leftist scene. I saw him going into the William Ayers book signing last month. Here’s a picture of him sitting behind then-candidate Barack Obama at a speech leading up to the election in Pennsylvania;

    This is his profile on the IVAW website;

    In his profile, Millard brags “Along with a peace delegation Geoff became the first Iraq war veteran to meet with members of the Iraqi parliament about their 26-point peace plan. Also Geoff has traveled Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iran meeting with Iraqi refugees at every chance.”

    But he’s being modest. He’s also addressed the Socialist World Forum in Venezuela and fawned over such luminaries as Hugo Chavez and Cindy Sheehan. Here’s a picture of him marching with Medea Benjamin and Cindy Sheehan a few years back exercising his “street cred” for the anti-war movement;

    My buddy/alter ego Robin at Chickenhawk Express did some extensive research on Millard a few years back when he first started making the IVAW scene while he was AWOL. Robin includes his history as a malingerer complaining constantly about his bouts of pain from a old wrestling injury  – he claimed an Iraqi doctor said he should go back to the States, but Army doctors disagreed.

    After he finished his tour of Iraq and the Army wouldn’t give him a medical discharge, he became a conscientious objector and went AWOL for nine months. Familiar story, isn’t it? It’s always some sort malfeasance on the part of IVAW members that preceeded their “conscientious objectors” or “resisters” status.

    Notice, like most of the other folks in IVAW, he lists himself as a Sergeant. In addition, he claims he served in Germany, Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq. It sounds more like a flight path than a career path.

    I got a hold of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on Geoffrey a few weeks back and it was a little light on information;

    It said that he is a specialist and not a sergeant as he claimed, and his awards were only two medals and ribbon – quite a bit different than what he sports in public;

    That’s a lot more than what’s in records, no? Need a closer look?

    That’s three awards of the Meritorious Service Medal (MSM) on top – but none of them are in the FOIA.

    Well, see, I’m a fair guy, so I decided before I posted anything, I wanted to give Geoffrey a chance to respond – actually, TSO and Uncle Jimbo advised me to proceed cautiously.

    Thanks to some prodding from  Army Sergeant, I’m sure, he responded the same day, and sent me one of his three DD214s – of course, he sent the best one of the three, the one that says he earned all of those medals and that he’s a sergeant. The only thing I’ve altered is his Social Security Number, his mother’s name and address and his home address;

    Now that would seem to settle it, right? Well, not quite. I sent the DD214 to my new friends at POW Net and, eagle eyes that they are, they noticed right off that even though he has awards for foreign service in block 13, there’s no foreign service time in block 12f.

    The folks at POW NET sent the FOIA request back through St Louis with the DD214 Millard sent me.

    Guess what? The Army sent the same FOIA information back even though they had his DD214. His form 2-1 doesn’t mention any service in Iraq.

    The folks at POW NET are forwarding the FOIA and the DD214 Millard sent me to the FBI for further investigation.

    1stCAVRVN11B emailed this picture of Millard wearing a CIB, which also isn’t in the DD214 or the FOIA report;

    He explained in his email to me;

    [The DD214] will not show a CIB that is a longer story of my being pined [sic] in Iraq but not having it on paper back home because of Army FUBAR.  I was unsure about wearing it and I admit I did once but never felt comfortable with it on.

    Well, the real reason he should have felt uncomfortable about wearing a CIB is because he never earned one no matter who “pinned” him – it wasn’t an Army FUBAR. To earn a CIB, a soldier has to be a qualified infantryman in the 11 or 18 series MOS and be serving in an infantry unit lower than brigade level. Millard was a 12B combat engineer not an 11 or 18 series, and he worked for a general – there are no generals below brigade level. I told him all of that in an email, but he didn’t see fit to respond.

    Millard wants the honors accorded an infantryman who served in combat without having to put up with the shit of actually being an infantryman. Stolen valor.

    So let’s recap the “street cred” of the anti-war movement; Millard claims to be a sergeant, the Army says he’s a specialist. He claims to have a chest full of medals, the Army says he has two and a ribbon. Millard claims to have been awarded the Combat Infantry Badge, even though he was never a combat infantryman and the Army disagrees with him. Millard claims to have served on the Mexican border, Germany, Qatar, Kuwait and in Iraq and the Army has no record of him ever leaving New York State except for basic training and advanced individual training.

    Oh, and the FBI will be investigating him for falsifying his military records.

    At least he’s got experience doing a perp walk – he may need that skill.

    Now, I’ll admit that I have a hard-on for Millard since he tried to intimidate TSO and me at Winter Soldier by asking us for our blog URLs so they could monitor what we were writing about them from the inside. I’m pretty sure he didn’t ask any of the friendlier bloggers for that same consideration.

    Later, he threatened to throw TSO, Rurik and me out of Winter Soldier because TSO talked to a Washington Post reporter. Oh, and he made one of his minions remove me from the Congressional hearing room for Winter Soldier after I filmed him playing general’s aide before the hearings checking mikes and shuffling paper.

    So this post is my pay back – and that’s why it’s languished for three weeks in my draft folder waiting to get the facts just right. It’s been rewritten countless times and a number of people have contributed to it and they’re all credited.

    I’ve got several other records requests being processed, so you may see a spate of “phony soldier” posts in the next few months. Ya’all phony soldiers had better adjust your narratives.

    UPDATED: For all of you sharpshooters, someone sent me a clearer picture of his medals;

  • Mugged by reality

    A few weeks ago, the barren hags of Code Pink were celebrating the win of their candidate, Barack Obama, as the end of all war. Today, they’re not so sure;

    While Obama is busy trying to convince us that a cabinet made up of the Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush administrations is really change, the anti-US crowd is beginning to wonder if they’ll really have a voice. The Boston Globe‘s Joan Vennochi  wrote yesterday that in order to be a FOO (Friend of Obama), you had to have been an enemy first;

    John Kerry’s fate illustrates the new political order under President-elect Barack Obama: Reward your enemies, not necessarily your friends.

    Hillary Clinton, Obama’s tough primary opponent, became Obama’s choice for secretary of state; Kerry, an avid Obama ally, was passed over. Obama’s vice president, Joe Biden, is also a former rival. Yesterday, Obama named Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, another primary challenger, as his pick for commerce secretary.

    What’s next, Dennis Kucinich as secretary of labor?

    Before that, Obama stood behind Senator Joseph Lieberman, a Democrat turned Independent who campaigned hard for Republican John McCain. With Obama’s blessing, Lieberman retained a prestigious committee chairmanship.

    If you’re Kerry, you’ve got to be feeling a bit like the Rev. Jeremiah Wright – thrown under the Obama bus, while ex-rivals climb merrily aboard.

    Apparently, there’s room under that bus for all of those gullible jackasses on the Left who thought that Obama was serious about change.

  • Anti-war clowns feel cold slap of reality

    Obama was their hope, he was their change. The far Left tossed Hillary Clinton aside and stalked Nancy Pelosi because they weren’t quite as anti-war as the moonbats had hoped. Obama was the hope – but now, not so much.

    The World Socialist Web Site laments the appointment of Robert Gates to another year at the helm of the Pentagon as the absolute betrayal of the Left by Obama;

    Obama won the Democratic presidential nomination over Senator Hillary Clinton in large measure because he appealed to the same antiwar sentiments that had propelled the Democrats to their victory in the 2006 congressional elections. His mantra throughout the primary campaign—a rebuke to Clinton and other rival Democratic candidates who had voted for war in the Senate—was that he would end the war in Iraq, “a war that should never have been authorized and never been fought.”

    Now, with the retention of Gates at the Pentagon, and the widely reported offer of the State Department to Clinton—as well as the selection of a slew of pro-war figures for lesser national security positions—Obama is reassuring the military, the intelligence agencies and the ruling elite as a whole that he will be firmly committed to the defense of US imperialism, including clinging to every inch of territory and every drop of oil secured by the Bush administration’s criminal aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    I’ll tell them right now, that no honorable person can take the oath of office and do what the Left expects of him. Before they got their cold slap of reality, Obama got one, too. That anti-war stuff worked on the BDS sufferers in the Democrat Party, but it didn’t work in the general election. Obama hardly mentioned the war after he won the primaries. He knows what the Left won’t accept – Americans don’t want to suffer another post-defeat period like we did after Vietnam.

    So, in a related piece, someone named Dee Knight writes that the key to ending the war is veterans and currently-serving military personnel;

    Whether President Obama plans to live up to the promise or not is beside the point, especially for the GIs: they want to go home and they don’t want to wait. We should look closely at this. We need to assess the mood of the GIs and their families. We should not expect it to be uniform, but we can be sure there will be a surging mood to get out of Iraq . And a lot of GIs will want to get out of Afghanistan – or stay out of it – at least as strongly. This mood could take many forms: petitions, sit-downs, AWOLs, etc.

    The vets’ and resistance movements should encourage the idea that the GIs can and will end the war NOW. And we should demand that the new president not only bring the troops home, but also:

    Make a serious effort to heal the wounds of the vets who were forced to fight there;
    Help vets get jobs and education;
    Grant unconditional amnesty to those vets and resisters who are either in exile or jail/brig/stockade, or suffering the long-term effects of less than honorable discharges.

    Granting amnesty to the criminals isn’t going to help the folks who’ve done their job. It won’t “heal their wounds” or help them get jobs and education. If one single event turned veterans against Jimmy Carter and the Democrats it was when Carter gave amnesty to draft dodgers. Many haven’t forgiven the Democrats since (it was what turned me away from Democrats). But the anti-war crowd has found their voice and rebuilt the momentum they lost after Vietnam. They’ve learned that they need a continuity of their movement beyond their political goals.

    The Left’s refusal to turn loose of their anti-war blather at this point only reinforces our continued need to support the legitimate and proven VSOs as well as the new arrivals like Gathering of Eagles, Move America Forward and Eagles Up. Our side used to condemn them for not speaking up against the Clinton Wars, we’d be just as hypocritical if we didn’t continue to support the troops during an Obama Administration. The anti-war clowns are planning anti-war activities in the Spring and we need to continue to show up, to be seen and to be heard supporting the US war against terror.

    This blog will continue in that endeavor – and we’ll continue to point out the idiots and ass clowns who try to undermine the morale and good order and discipline in the military.

  • Anti-war groups fear pro-war Obama cabinet

    I picked this up from some people I don’t normally agree with over at The Common Ills. Well, I do agree with them on may things concerning IVAW, but their post today pointed me towards a Paul Richter piece in the LA Times entitled “Antiwar goups fear Barack Obama may create hawkish cabinet“. The anti-war clubs think they put Obama in office and they seem disturbed that Obama is moving away from them;

    The activists are uneasy not only about signs that both Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates could be in the Obama Cabinet, but at reports suggesting that several other short-list candidates for top security posts backed the decision to go to war.

    “Obama ran his campaign around the idea the war was not legitimate, but it sends a very different message when you bring in people who supported the war from the beginning,” said Kelly Dougherty, executive director of the 54-chapter Iraq Veterans Against the War.

    The activists — key members of the coalition that propelled Obama to the White House — fear he is drifting from the antiwar moorings of his once-longshot presidential candidacy. Obama has eased the rigid timetable he had set for withdrawing troops from Iraq, and he appears to be leaning toward the center in his candidates to fill key national security posts.

    The Common Ills thinks they were foolish to believe him in the first place and foolish to make the war their central case against Hillary Clinton;

    …an IVAW contingent already embarrassed themselves publicly in Denver. They staged a protest at the Democratic Party convention. They were getting press attention inside the convention because — as the press gas bagged — wasn’t Barack the alleged ‘anti-war’ candidate and here was IVAW protesting him. Phones were buzzing, it was going to be the big story. And Team Obama was being asked to comment. So Team Obama sent Tall Tales from Texas out to the protest to make a lot of meaningless remarks that sounded like promises but were nothing more than standard ‘rap session’ b.s. (“I know where you’re coming from,” said Barnes.) They bought into that crap hook, line and sinker. And gave interviews where they were excited about Barack (the War Hawk!) and he was going to do this or that and maybe they’d be onstage tonight during his big speech and . . . . It was all so thrilling people might pee their pants!

    Reality check, they were punked and everyone knew it right away (including the press — not always notorious for grasping reality immediately) except IVAW.

    They stopped their protest and there was no story (certainly nothing that would embarrass Barack). Barack turned them into props for the 2008 election.

    I said the same thing and several times since. While Code Pink declares that they ended the war in Iraq by electing Obama, while IVAW chirps about meetings with Obama’s staff, they still don’t realized they’re just being strung along. They threw Hillary Clinton under the bus for her vote in 2002, so now they get her for Secretary of State. And they’re also getting the Senate Majority Leader who wrangled the vote for the war in Iraq and the airline bailout for his wife’s industry in 2001 – Tom Daschle – in the Obama cabinet. Even King of the Dolts, John Kerry, is being considered for a posting. From the Richter LA Times piece;

    “It’s astonishing that not one of the 23 senators or 133 House members who voted against the war is in the mix,” said Sam Husseini of the liberal group Institute for Public Accuracy.

    Not really astonishing – I’ve been saying all along that they were being played by Obama. I remember that Jon DeWald, the IVAW’s new intellectual spokesman, came here and explained how this was a genuine gesture on the part of the Obama campaign. So who gets the last laugh?

    Would they be better off with Hillary? Not as far as the war is concerned, but at least they knew where she stands on a issue, she wouldn’t necessarily intentionally lie as Obama apparently has done.

    Kevin Martin, executive director of the group Peace Action, said that although Obama had campaigned as an agent of change, the president-elect is “a fairly centrist guy” who appears to be choosing from the Democratic foreign policy establishment — “and nobody from outside it.”

    “So, in the short term, we’re going to be disappointed,” he said. “They may turn out to be all pro-war, or at least people who were pro-war in the beginning.”

    So, all that Hope and Change stuff is out the window. So Code Pink and IVAW get tossed under the bus – not that it’s a bad thing. I also get word that ANSWER and United for Peace and Justice applied six months ago for protest permits in DC for March 21st and the protest is still on. From a blogging standpoint, an Obama presidency is looking like good for business.