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

Category: Dumbass Bullshit

  • Pentagon to Bissonnette: “See You In Court”

    Looks like the Pentagon is going to play hardball with former SEAL Matt Bissonnette (AKA “Mark Owen”) regarding his book.  The DoD General Counsel reportedly informed Bissonnette yesterday that the Pentagon is considering legal action against him and his publisher to force them to forfeit proceeds from Bissonnette’s upcoming book No Easy Day.

    Looks like Bissonnette should have actually read his Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement, especially paragraphs 3 and 5.  In paragraph 3, he specifically agreed to submit potentially classified manuscripts for prepublication classification review.  (He didn’t.)  And in paragraph 5, Bissonnette agreed in writing to forfeit all proceeds obtained through the unauthorized release of classified information.

    This isn’t any kind of government power grab, or “prior restraint” of any type.  Bissonnette screwed himself here.  He signed a formal, enforceable legal agreement with the government, and he later violated that agreement.  So now he gets the consequences – which were spelled out for him a priori.  He gets no sympathy from me.

  • Yes, PC Has Reached the Point of Blithering Idiocy

    Remember, folks: according to our very own State Department the expression “hold down the fort” – as well as many others – is now to be considered offensive.

    For instance, Robinson warned, “hold down the fort” is a potentially insulting reference to American Indian stereotypes.

    “How many times have you or a colleague asked if someone could ‘hold down the fort?’” he wrote. “You were likely asking someone to watch the office while you go and do something else, but the phrase’s historical connotation to some is negative and racially offensive.”

    Read the rest of the article for some more real “winners” in terms of absolutely inane thinking.

    Yes, many common terms have different meanings today than they did years ago.  For example:  the term “slave” was derived from the generic term for the Slavic peoples of eastern Europe – Slavs.  So . . .  is saying I’m “slaving away” cutting the grass or at work now offensive to eastern Europeans?

    This is sheer idiocy.  And someone got paid to come up with it.

  • Looks Like the Secret Service Has Some More ‘Splaining to Do

    I’m beginning to believe there must be something funny in the water at 950 H Street NW in DC.  Once again, the Secret Service is in the news – and not in a good way.

    A gun belonging to a member of Mitt Romney’s U.S. Secret Service detail was found unattended in the bathroom of the candidate’s charter plane Wednesday afternoon. The Republican nominee was traveling from Tampa, Fla., site of his party’s convention, to Indianapolis, Ind., for a speech.

    I’m not a law enforcement professional, so maybe I’m looking at this all wrong.  But it seems to me that any LEO leaving his/her weapon behind in a public restroom is not exactly a good thing.  Particularly not when that public restroom is on an aircraft carrying a Presidential candidate.

    And this time, I’m afraid the “these were junior folks doing advance work” excuse doesn’t cut it.  Agents accompanying Presidential candidates as part of their protection detail aren’t – or shouldn’t be – rookies.  They simply shouldn’t be making these kinds of mistakes.

    It will be interesting to see what results from this faux pas.  But this, coupled with recent past incidents, does seem to indicate that there’s a problem at the agency.  Perhaps some changes are needed.

  • If You Wanna Play a Practical Joke on Your Neighbors . . .

    . . . I’d recommend you don’t try this at home.

    Randy Lee Tenley, 44, was dressed in a “ghillie” — an outfit favored by military snipers and game hunters — and standing in the middle of southbound lanes on U.S. Highway 93 near Kalispell on Sunday when he was struck twice in quick succession, Montana Highway Patrol spokesman Sergeant Steve Lavin said.

    “From what I understand, at least one of his friends said that he was trying to induce a sasquatch sighting by using the suit along the highway,” Lavin said. “This is a first for me after 20 years on the highway patrol. It’s strange.”

    With all due respect for the deceased:  “strange” isn’t the term I’d use.  Apparently The Refreshments were right.

     

  • GEICO fires R Lee Ermy

    From the folks at TMZ, R. Lee Ermy tells the cameraman that the jackwagons at GEICO didn’t like R Lee Ermy’s politics;

    [I removed the video because it looks like it was causing a script error on the blog, so you can watch it at the TMZ link above.]

    Yeah, well, I quit using them when I got tossed into the general pool of drivers and they stopped being the Government Employees Insurance COmpany.

  • Overblown idiocy

    Yeah, just a quick glance through the subsequent reports on William Alemar shows the media is taking it’s cue from the prosecutor who is apparently racing to cover her tracks on this;

    Fox News loves a veteran with a gun story;

    The Charleston Daily Mail quotes the prosecutor;

    The Martinsburg Daily Journal quotes the prosecutor who says Alemar was “highly intoxicated”;

    Yeah, that sounds likely. I know I always got “highly intoxicated” and then threw on a ruck and body armor and ran my ass off. If he was so dedicated to attending Ranger School that he was actually training for it, I doubt he was getting sloshed.

    Even if he was drunk, how is that “terroristic”? Berkeley County Prosecuting Attorney Pamela Games-Neely says in the Journal article;

    “First of all, it is the correct charge. We are aware of it and it is the correct charge under the circumstances. That is not to say that there are not other issues going on with this young man. We are coordinating that between multiple agencies at this point. He was highly intoxicated at the time in addition to this and that gives everybody great cause for concern, especially around children,” Games-Neely said.

    Yeah, bring up “the children” – must be an election year. Since when is being around children with a toy gun a “great cause for concern”. Ditz. If the Martinsburg Police is going to start locking everyone up who gets near kids while they’re drunk, there won’t be anyone left in the State.

    Commenters to The Journal are already blaming PTSD for his runs and reported state of intoxication. Idjits. Hollywood has made us all practicing mental health professionals, apparently.

    And having empty “clips” isn’t a crime, no matter how many he had even in the bluer states. Especially empty “clips” for a toy gun. Never mind that the word is “magazines”, media dumbasses.

  • More nutty veteran BS

    Pat sends us a link to the story of a veteran, William Everett Alemar, 23, who was arrested for running near a school in his ballistic armor and “committing a terroristic act” in Martinsburg, WV on Monday, the first day of school there.

    Martinsburg Patrol Officers Michael Jones, Craig Richmond and Erik Herb encountered the man in the area of Silver Lane and South Raleigh Street “in full military desert camouflage and ballistic vest and with what appeared to be an assault rifle across his chest,” Swartwood said in the news release.

    After engaging him at gunpoint, the officers ordered the man to his knees and then to the prone position before seizing an AR-15 (M-4) training rifle from him, according to the news release.

    Swartwood said Monday night that the rifle has the look and feel of one that shoots bullets, but it shoots pellets. Two knives and several unloaded magazines also were found in the man’s possession, according to the news release.

    So he’s being held on a $50,000 bond. The real story, we got from his First Sergeant, is that Billy is training for Ranger School, and was out running with an Airsoft rifle, and for that they toss his ass is jail.

    “The primary concern for the police department was that subject’s proximity to the area schools — Martinsburg High School, South Middle — when he was first located off Bulldog Boulevard,” Swartwood said.

    No explosives were found in a search of the man’s apartment Monday afternoon, but additional military equipment and a training pistol, similar to the rifle in its function, were found and seized as evidence, police said.

    So basically, they really have nothing on him. And they knew that as soon as they saw that he had a fake rifle, yet they still arrested him. I completely understand that they confronted him at gun point and cuffed him, but as soon as they discovered there was no threat to the community, they should have let him go.

    I’ve attempted to contact Billy on Facebook to get his side of the story, since the media isn’t being a help with their headline “Armed man wearing military camo, ballistic vest arrested near Martinsburg schools”. Technically, it’s correct since he was carrying two knives, but they make it sound as if he had a firearm.

    Alemar is assigned to the Woodstock, Va.-based Company B, 3rd Battalion, 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Virginia National Guard, West Virginia National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. David P. Lester said Monday night.

    Alemar deployed to Iraq from July 1 to Dec. 6, 2011, with Company D, 3-116th, and was assigned to Task Force 183 for convoy security duty, according to Lester.

    His First sergeant spoke highly of Billy, and TSO (who knows Billy’s 1SG, adds that the 1SG usually hates everyone. So I guess that’s a pretty good testimony as to his character.

    I’ve contacted the police department, but Barney Fife misplaced his bullet and the whole department is out looking for it now.

    ADDED: The only thing I can find in the Martinsburg City ordinances that is even remotely related to this is their prohibition of having weapons ON THE PREMISES of an educational facility;

    545.09 POSSESSING DEADLY WEAPONS ON PREMISES OF EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES.
    (EDITOR’S NOTE: Former Section 545.09 which was derived from West Virginia Code 61-7-11a is no longer included in the Codified Ordinances. By Acts 1995 Chapter 90, the West Virginia Legislature reclassified such offense as a felony. Charges for possessing deadly weapons on premises of educational facilities should now be filed under state law.)

    Nothing about having a gun NEAR THE PREMISES of schools.

    And that “military gear” they seized from his apartment; I guess they couldn’t add one and one to figure out that he’s in the National Guard and would probably have “military gear” stashed in his home, could they?

  • Not the Sharpest Tool in the Shed

    Psst!  Wanna make some easy money?  Here – just change the numbers on this voucher, collect the higher amount, pay out the lower, and pocket the difference!

    Yeah – someone actually tried that one.  And it was someone who really should have known better.

    Former Army CPT Abuzuike O. Ukabam, to be precise.  He deployed to Iraq in 2006.  While deployed he was a pay agent for local contractors.

    According to a recently-unsealed indictment Ukabam made a few dollars on the side while he was deployed.   If you consider around $110,000 a few dollars, that is.

    Seems Ukabam was paying contractors, upping the numbers on the invoice submitted to DFAS, and pocketing the difference.  I guess he never heard of a contract close-out – or an audit.  Or maybe he figured he’d be long gone before anyone figured things out and that no one would be able to find him when they did.

    He figured wrong.  Ukabam was arrested in Los Angeles and is expected to be returned to Houston, TX, for trial.

    Dumbass.