Category: Dumbass Bullshit

So, this fellow, Jon Ritzheimer, who claims to be a Marine veteran, for some reason thinks that organizing a “Draw the Prophet” contest on the door step of a Phoenix mosque will prove something we don’t know, because a month after the Garland, Texas shooting, I guess we already forgot that Islam gets upset when someone draws Muhammad.

“I let them know we’re coming to their doorstep and we’re going to be there utilizing our First Amendment; we’ll be ready to protect it with our Second Amendment,” contest organizer Jon Ritzheimer said.

The cartoon drawing contest is similar to one in Garland, TX, at which two men from Phoenix tried to ambush participants, shooting a security guard before they were shot and killed by police.

“I’m just a blatant, blunt, outspoken Marine,” Ritzheimer said.

I understand completely – it’s offensive to me that, in my country, people think that they can limit our rights simply by showing up here. However, I don’t feel a pressing need to draw Muhammad. There are many more important things for me to get upset about than the threat of violence against me if I do something that I have no intention of doing anyway.

The place where he intends to hold his contest, the Phoenix Islamic Center, condemned the two Garland gunmen (who worshipped at the Center), they also condemned ISIS, so I don’t get why Mister Ritzheimer thinks that he “has to” hold his contest there. I’m all for freedom of expression and speech, but not when it’s intended to incite violence. I’ll grant that an innocuous act like drawing a cartoon shouldn’t incite violence, especially when no one will actually be drawing an accurate picture of Muhammad anyway, since no one has seen the dude for almost 1400 years.

In that spirit, here’s my submission – Muhammad as seen from an airplane after a snowfall;

FOX5 Vegas – KVVU

I’d like to see Ritzheimer gets this exercised over veteran suicides.

Chief Tango sends us a link to the Daily Caller which reports that Marie Harf, that tactical genius from the State Department, disputes Defense Secretary Ashton Carter’s bleak assessment of the Iraq Army – that they have no will to fight.

Appearing on “The Situation Room” with host Wolf Blitzer, Harf argued that Iraqi forces do indeed “have the will to fight” even though they are facing ISIS, an army she described as “incredibly well-equipped” and “well-trained.”

They s#!t. We’ve all seen the propaganda videos from ISIS that highlights their “well-trained” troops hopping around like crack-addled bunnies. And the horizontal ladder! Don’t forget how well they negotiate that contraption. Fox News helpfully put together of some of Harf’s past statements that seem void of any logic or truth.

How she can think that the Defense Secretary’s blunt assessment of the Iraq Army could be anything but truth, is beyond me. The Iraq Army actually, physically ran away from ISIS in Fallujah, Ramadi and Mosul leaving valuable functioning weapons and vehicles in their dusty wake. They did the same thing in front of us in 1991. How a rational person could jump out of his vehicle and run from Kuwait City to Basra is beyond me, but that’s what happened.

According to the Fox article, Harf is leaving the State Department’s briefing room to be John Kerry’s senior adviser for strategic communications, because that’s how it works in this administration – when you’re an incompetent boob, you get promoted.

Lieutenant Colonel Jason Amerine, a special forces officer who specializes in hostage negotiations helped Congressmen write an amendment that would address hostage recovery, according to Chris Lamonthe at the Washington Post;

It would require President Obama to appoint a specific existing federal official to oversee hostage tracking and recovery. Hunter credited Amerine with assisting his office in developing the legislation, which has since passed in the House.

“To get something like this done, it takes people within the Department of Defense, within the system, who … actually know what needs to get done,” Hunter said. “Lieutenant Colonel Jason Amerine has worked with my office now for about two years on this amendment, and he is someone that really cares. He’s been working hostage stuff with about every government agency that there is, and he played a big role in getting this to where it’s at now.”

You may have read about LTC Amerine’s exploits in the opening days of the war in Afghanistan in the book “The Only Thing Worth Dying For” by Eric Blehm. Anyway, he’s nearing his retirement, and the Army has launched an investigation into how he helped Congress write their amendment and what information he may have passed to them.

Amerine, who is involved in Defense Department hostage recovery efforts, said in his Facebook commentary that the FBI “formally complained to the Army about me reporting to Congress about their failed efforts” to recover Warren Weinstein, an aid worker who was accidentally killed in a U.S. drone strike near the Pakistani border earlier this year, and Caitlan Coleman, an American who was traveling in Afghanistan while pregnant when she was kidnapped in 2012.

[…]

Amerine declined an interview request, but his comments on Facebook provide a new wrinkle in his case. CNN reported in April that he was under investigation “over a purported unauthorized disclosure” to Hunter, but the officer had not addressed it himself.

The FBI did not respond to several requests for comment for this story.

Because that’s what important. Congress wants to write an amendment and they get their information from experts, not the politicians who want to control their sliver of power in Washington. So let’s threaten the experts’ careers over petty territorial issues. That’s how we got 9-11.

You may remember David Masciotra from last year when he tried to make the point that the military doesn’t protect him. Well now, at Salon, he’s upset that the Pentagon is paying some NFL sporting teams to advertise patriotism for them. For the record, I don’t like it either; the money the Department of Defense spent should have been used for weapons, equipment and training. But I’m sure that Masciotra would disagree with that, too.

I’m also pretty certain that this particular article was published to take advantage of the hype it would receive from the stank-ass hipster doofus readership at Salon on Memorial Day in order to boost their own egos because they’re pretty much left out on a day that celebrates sacrifice and service.

Masciotra begins his little tantrum with the proclamation that “The American empire is dying, and the economy is declining.” I guess he hasn’t notice what ideology has presided over this decline – the ideology, not the political party. Both major parties are racing to the Left as fast as they can go – that’s why America is in such bad shape.

The United States military, with its garish parades and idolatrous rituals of uniform and flag consecration, functions as the final and fading echo of its country’s creed: “We are better than the rest.”

The real religion of America is America….

Yeah, that’s the problem. maybe if we all went out and stomped on a flag occasionally without being molested by popular opinion, the country would be in better shape. We should just dump our war dead in a massive hole like a landfill and then we’d have more money to buy flat screen TVs for the country’s poor.

Just as he did in his previous rant, Masciotra, for some obscure reason, veers into the sexual assault discussion;

The Pentagon is obstinate in its refusal to deal with the sexual assault epidemic in the military, where some reports suggest one-third of servicewomen are raped, and most of them are too frightened of the consequences to their careers to report the crime.

Masciotra should talk to some of the troops because I’m pretty sure that those in my audience who are still serving could tell him that the Pentagon is dealing with the sexual assault issue with a fervor that makes me wish that they’d pursue our enemies in the same way. Of course, statist Masciotra thinks that the only solution to sexual assault is placing it in the hands of the legislators instead of the commanders. I don’t see him recommending that authority for investigating and prosecuting sexual assault on campus be taken out of universities, though. A college student is much more likely to assaulted than any member of the military.

As a fairly regular viewer of football, it now strikes me that rarely have I seen any opening or halftime ceremony include veterans in wheelchairs or vets struggling to stand on prosthetic limbs. Living and breathing human beings who come to represent the cold and callous consequences of war are not convenient symbols for American greatness or military adoration.

Seriously? Then you haven’t been paying attention. Maybe you looked away when they appeared to protect your fragile ego from being confronted with the visage of someone who is better than you in every regard. Do the names of Marine Corporal Kyle Carpenter or Army Ranger Michael Schlitz ring a bell with you, Dave? No? Well, then you haven’t been paying attention.

Many Americans believed that the military existed in the world of valor and sacrifice beyond the tawdry traps of greed and con artistry.

Now, while I agree with you that the Pentagon misspent millions of dollars, I’d hardly call them con artists. Advertising only works on people who are shopping for a product and that applies here, too. Americans are proud of their military members and they want to be proud. If they weren’t in the market for it, they wouldn’t be buying it. Try paying the NFL to stage a tribute to stank-ass hippies.

When the Pentagon enlists the NFL in a propaganda campaign to transform America into Sparta, it equivocates war with football. Football is a testosterone fueled battle where warriors in uniform heroically overcome the odds to impress and excite millions of viewers with their feats of courage, speed, and strength.

Yeah, that’s what we want – a New Sparta. You’d be one of the first that we’d banish from the warrior kingdom, in that case.

There is an insidious connection between the State, major corporations, and the creation of a country where the vast majority of the people subsist on crumbs falling from the feast of the banquet table overhead.

Yeah, crumbs that they can use to buy flat screen TVs and luxury automobiles. Love them crumbs.

America is no longer a republic in political procedure nor is it truly democratic in cultural practice. It is a militarized economy and a garrison state. Fifty five percent of discretionary spending from the federal government goes to the military.

The key word in that phrase is “discretionary” – defense is one of the things that government is supposed to be doing, according to the Constitution, as opposed to the spending that goes for welfare, education, shrimp on a treadmill, turtle roadway crossings, etc….

The imperial theater of military glorification in football stadiums is a small part of the large, and largely successful, effort to intellectually paralyze the public with propaganda. The ruling class, and their loyal court of jesters in Washington, are not likely to explain how American tax money goes to nothing that is actually useful and helpful to the public.

I guess Dave would be in favor of a massive tax cut then to strangle the government spending on irrelevant stuff. Well, probably not.

Thanks, Dave. Can you end your rant with a useless, tired and worn cliche?

The fun is over for the NFL now, and it will soon end for the entire country. That is until and unless America reaches a day when schools and hospitals have all the money they need, and the Pentagon has to host a bake sale to fund its new bomber.

Thanks, Dave, you’re a real tool.

Yeah, he tried to throw cold water on the whole Memorial Day thing so the hipster community can feel better about themselves when confronted with something they don’t understand – sacrifice and service. They’re too busy thinking that they’re having a real impact on American lives because they write books about John Mellencamp. His only real accomplishment is gluing that rat to his face.

Chief Tango sends us a link to NBC Philadelphia in regards to this Pendarvis Williams fellow who served as a 9-1-1 operator when he wasn’t a National Guardsman. He deployed to Afghanistan and returned in 2003 during which time he took advantage of a special fund for Philadelphia city employees who deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom which paid a benefit of $500/month.

The problem came when Mr. Williams filed paperwork that kept the benefit coming for 111 payments when he wasn’t deployed or supporting the operation;

“Pendarvis Williams used his position as a member of the armed forces to steal $55,500 from the citizens of Philadelphia which, as a guardsman myself, is deplorable,” said District Attorney Seth Williams. “As a civilian member of the Philadelphia Police Department he should be ashamed, as a soldier who fought in Operation Enduring Freedom he has dishonored his unit and as a thief he should be found guilty and be punished to the fullest extent of the law.”

Williams was also in a coveted full-time Guard slot while he helped himself to the money.

From KOMO comes the story of Army Specialist Jordan Olson who dressed to impress when he stepped off the plane, back from a deployment to Afghanistan, unfortunately, he hadn’t earned everything on his uniform;

When he returned home to Wisconsin, he got what every soldier expects – a family welcome – plus a little bit more that he did not expect.

There was a military honor guard. And that’s not all – the local newspaper was there, too – along with representatives from the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion.

“It was supposed to be my family there,” says Olson. “I didn’t know the news was going to be there.”

If he had known, he might not have worn what he was wearing – a sergeant’s stripes and a parachutist’s badge. And he might have canned that fake limp.

You see he wasn’t wounded in Afghanistan. He isn’t a sergeant, and he never went to jump school.

And he may be in trouble.

Major Mike Garcia at Joint Base Lewis McChord says, “I have no explanation … nor can I explain the rank and patches, badges he is wearing.”

He’s also wearing an 82d Airborne Division combat patch and a Combat Action Badge;

I’m thinking that he didn’t earn the CAB, either, because he’s wearing it wrong. And the young lady in the picture at the top of this post? That’s his fiance…the problem with that is he has a wife at Fort Lewis waiting for him to come home. Fort Lewis isn’t going to be a happy place for the specialist when he gets there, I’m guessing.

KOMO Pulled their article, so here’s a screen shot brought to you through the magic of the internet archive;

So, today the thing that we veterans are supposed to be outraged about is this hearse driver who stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts with a veteran in the passenger compartment.

Two employees were fired over the coffee break. I think that’s being just a little too sensitive. I’ve never been able to drive past a Dunkin’ Donuts myself, so I understand the stop. If the guy in the box was a real veteran, he’d have understood it, too. The military runs on caffeine – and Dunkin’ Donuts coffee is just soooooo good – not like that stuff that they used to bring us in the field that they called coffee.

I’m more outraged that the driver was fired. One does not simply drive past a Dunkin’ Donuts. Believe me, I’ve tried and it doesn’t work. The nearest DD to my home is 50 miles away, and I do make the trip.

Everyone has been sending me these links to articles about Seymour Hersh charging that Obama lied about the assassination of bin laden. Seriously, people? Seymour Hersh? Hersh is the fellow who charged that Darth Cheney had a secret assassination team that was taking out the Bush Administration’s political enemies. His sources? Well they were anonymous – in other words he was using the voices in his head.

The latest Hersh “scandal”?

The principal claims that Hersh’s article makes, which largely rely on the assertions of a single, unnamed, retired senior U.S. intelligence official [voices in his head], are:

• That the 2011 U.S. Navy SEAL raid on the Abbottabad compound where bin Laden was hiding in northern Pakistan was not a firefight in which SEALs went into a dangerous and unknown situation, but a setup in which Pakistan’s military had been holding bin Laden prisoner in Abbottabad for five years and simply made him available to the SEALs who flew in helicopters to the compound on the night of the raid.

• An officer from Pakistan’s powerful military intelligence agency ISI accompanied the SEALs on the raid and showed them around the Abbottabad compound, and the only shots fired that night were the ones that the SEALs fired to kill bin Laden.

• A “walk in” to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad tipped off the CIA that bin Laden was living in the Abbottabad compound, and it was not true — despite the statements of multiple U.S. officials after the raid — that the CIA had traced back one of bin Laden’s couriers to the Abbottabad compound and built a circumstantial case that bin Laden was living there.

• Saudi Arabia was financing bin Laden’s upkeep in his Abbottabad compound.

• A Pakistani army doctor obtained DNA from bin Laden that proved he was in Abbottabad, proof that was provided to the States so that all the supposed uncertainty — cited by Obama administration officials after the raid — about whether bin Laden was actually living in the compound was a lie.

• The “most blatant lie,” according to Hersh, was that “Pakistan’s two most senior military leaders — General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, chief of the army staff, and General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, director general of the ISI — were never informed” in advance of the U.S. raid on the bin Laden compound.

Yeah, well, if you thought that Hersh was the king of the black helicopter theorists during the Bush Administration, what would make you think that he has been rehabilitated? Yes, I want to believe all of the crazy shit in regards to Obama, but I’m not ready to climb aboard the Hersh Crazy-Train to Blackhelicoptertown. He wrote one decent expose` forty years ago and he thinks that it gives him the credibility to write whatever he wants these days.