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

Category: Iraq Veterans Against the War

  • Escaped Mental Patient stars in IVAW/VoteVets


    Greatest VIDEO EVEH. You’ll notice one of the Lieutenant Colonel’s supporters has a banner across his chest that says “Three Tours – Iraq” – that man is an escaped mental patient and, until yesterday, a powerhouse in the IVAW and Vote Vets, yet he’s never served a day in the Marines, as he has claimed:

    How many of you remember this post

    So, it came as no surprise today that I found one of the recommended diaries is by a guy named Rick Duncan, a wounded Marine Captain who served in Iraq. Now, I salute his service, as we all do, but this guy has been on my radar for quite a while for his deft (?) acrobatics on issues. For starters, it should come as no surprise that in addition to being a VoteVets guy, he’s also a member of IVAW…

    Well, I hereby take back that salute, and to my IVAW and VOTEVETS friends I once again ask, tell me how my ass tastes.

    The leader of a statewide veterans group who fought for homeless veterans in Colorado Springs is in jail in Denver today, unmasked as a former mental patient who posed as a wounded Marine officer and 9/11 survivor.

    The man who called himself Rick Duncan – purportedly a former Marine captain and 1997 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy – is in fact 31-year-old Richard Glen Strandlof, a former mental patient who never served in the military and falsely claimed that he was in the Pentagon during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to David Walsh of the Colorado Veterans Alliance (CVA), which Duncan founded.

    Walsh, who joined the board of CVA at Duncan’s request last year, said his colleagues in the organization grew suspicious of Duncan after discovering “significant inconsistencies” in his personal story.

    In a search of the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office records, for example, they found that the name Colorado Veterans Alliance had been reserved by “Rick Strandlof,” whom they had never met, Walsh said.

    While probing Duncan’s past, Walsh said, the group found evidence that he was a patient in a mental hospital in Washoe County, Nev., at the time of the roadside bombing in Fallujah, Iraq, that Duncan claimed left him severely wounded.

    The group contacted the FBI field office in Denver, which began investigating in early May and arrested Duncan Tuesday night in downtown Denver on a traffic warrant originating in El Paso County.

    I will be standing in the corner of my bedroom for a while doing the happy dance that YET ANOTHER phony of VoteVets and IVAW has gone down.

    Oh, and I have a call in to the guy responsible for the takedown, who as happenstance would have it, I know pretty well. Actually, my best friend is very close to him. Funny how small a world it is.

    This is Mr. Duncan/Strandlof’s biography at IVAW;

    UPDATE: “Rick Duncan” goes down the memory hole at IVAW. With no notice whatsoever. Well, good thing I have the screen shots, eh guys? The page above now looks like this in 4 hours;

    And here is an article he wrote at VoteVets blaming Bush and Cheney for the death of six of his Marines;

    Jesse MacBeth 2.0; A former mental patient rises to prominence in the Colorado anti-war movement. And notice that it’s in Denver so I’m pretty sure he had plenty to do with the IVAW theater there last summer at the DNC convention.

    How about Congressman Jared Polis cavorting with a mental patient/phony veteran;

    And Polis scores the escaped mental patient/phony veteran endorsement;

    He may have been crazy, but he knew how to play the press. In fact we’ve been in contact with KKTV out in Colorado who called us about digging more dirt up on him because they have miles of footage of interviews with Duncan and they want to hang him by the balls. He did interviews like this one in the Colorado Springs Gazette;

    At this point, I don’t even know where to put updates. So I am putting them here, and will try to make sense of this nonsense tomorrow. But I was just thinking to myself, what this post needs is a connection to Michael Moore and MoveOn.org. OK, check and check.

    All of the videos have been removed so we moved them below the fold;
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  • Kris Goldsmith leaves IVAW


    Another of the big guns,one of the real veterans of the Iraq War has resigned from the Iraq Veterans Against the War citing many of the same reasons as others who have resigned before. Below is his resignation letter (Any emphasis is mine);
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  • Leftist Hyperbole

    Sometimes, I just can’t get past some of the crap I have to read. Today is one of those days. Last night, I ran across a missive in the Albany Times Union written by some guy named Matt Funiciello who has a pretty high opinion of himself for some indiscernible reason. Which is fine, in itself, but he’s unable to recognize the truth when it’s in front of his face because his big, fat ego gets in the way. But, he speaks from experience because, in the typical Leftist mold;

    …I come from a family of vets and I am very pro-soldier….

    Which means his neighbor’s nephew met a veteran once. That’s the Leftist response to every accusation that they don’tknow what they’re talking about because they don’t have the gumption to raise their hand and be part of something bigger than them. Oh, did I mention he’s also a truther?

    He’s writing about the “bravery” of “a warrior” – that brave warrior being IVAW’s Matthis Chiroux. Funiciello, reading from Matthis Chiroux’s press release, claims that Chiroux was facing a possible death penalty conviction or jail time but that the Army backed off because Chiroux faced off with them, the “military-industrial complex” – whatever that means.

    The truth is; Chiroux faced a general discharge under honorable conditions – the worst discharge that board could recommend. I knew that the day before the board when I talked to Army Public Affairs Officer LTC Maria Quon who works in St Louis. And that’s exactly what he got – the harshest penalty that particular board could issue. In fact, that’s the same discharge Chiroux would have received if he’d just sat in his plush, IVAW-subsidized apartment in New York City and not set foot in the hearing.

    But somehow, Chiroux, and therefore, Funiciello, who accepts press releases from Matthis Chiroux as gospel, claims it’s some sort of victory. In order to arrive at that conclusion, Chiroux and Funiciello ignore all of the facts, Funiciello also ignores all of the testimony I’ve recorded here from eye witnesses to the Chiroux legacy as hearsay. I guess that means everything he reads in his daily paper is hearsay, too. Or maybe it means that Funiciello is just tone deaf to everything that rattles his facade that he’s tenuously propped up to appear as some sort of journalist. In truth, Funiciello is just another of Chiroux’s tools.

    And the print media can’t understand why no one reads them anymore.

    In another glaring example of Leftist hyperbole, the blog, “History In The Making” writes a post “Big Protest Shuts Down Army Experience“. Notice the URL is hippiecommiemarine.blogspot.

    The “big protest” shut down the Army Experience in Franklin Mills Mall for nine minutes, all nine minutes are the YouTube video at my report on the event. So it wasn’t shut down for a month, a day, or even an hour. And since the reports of participation on the Left claim between 120 and 300 participants, it wasn’t even a “big” protest. Especially when you consider that participants included this clown who should be fired;

    A middle school teacher brought 4 of his students to the protest.

    I hope the parents of those middleschool students’ parents punch that stickboy in his nads.

    This isn’t hyperbole, but there’s this announcement;

    Please join your fellow Constitution Supporters on May 15th, 2009, for an up-close-and-personal evening with a charismatic, motivated candidate for Congress in New Mexico, Adam Kokesh, a former Marine whose participation with Iraq Veterans Against the War and at the RNC has landed him on numerous “lists.”

    Date: Friday, May 15, 2009
    Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm
    Location: Home of Nick and Ericka D’Arcy
    Street: 416 Allison Drive
    City/Town: Dallas, TX

    Food and beverages will be served. Donation of $40 goes to TOPIC PAC.
    You may donate at the event, but donations in advance are appreciated. (Simply enter 40.00 into the amount field.)

    Paid for by Texans Organized to Protect the Integrity of the Constitution Political Committee (TOPIC PAC).

    Anyone is Dallas want to pay $40 for some Saltines, orange Kool Aid and conversation with “charismatic” Adam Kokesh? Sheesh, for 2 bucks I’ll let you look at all of my videos of him, but you have to bring your own drinks.

  • More on the Kokesh for Congress run

    The other day I offered interviews to the Santa Fe media for background on their newest aspiring congressman, Adam Kokesh. They didn’t take me up on it, but they wasted no time interviewing Kokesh;

    Adam Kokesh of Santa Fe, a registered Republican who backed Libertarian candidate Ron Paul in last year’s GOP presidential primaries, said Friday that he’s not sure what party banner he might run under — Republican, Democrat, third party or independent.

    “I represent a wide range of people from parties who are clearly disappointed with the current Democratic Party line,” Kokesh said in an interview.

    While he supported Paul, Kokesh, who served in Iraq, also praised U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a liberal Ohio Democrat who, like Paul, was a critic of U.S. military actions during last year’s presidential campaign.

    A wide range of people, indeed. From Ron Paul to Dennis Kucinich – actually probably the same people. The people who don’t have a clue. I’m not familiar at all with the demographics of New Mexico, but I’m sure there’s a large number of sane people. But Kokesh knows how to work the media;

    Asked for comment about the potential challenge and Kokesh’s statement that Luján just wants to be “part of the club,” Mark Nicastre, a Luján spokesman said in a prepared statement, “Rep. Luján is focused on his work in Congress and throughout New Mexico’s 3rd district. Since January, Rep. Luján has worked with his congressional colleagues to pass legislation that cuts taxes for 95 percent of American workers and puts us on a path to economic recovery, provides health care for millions of children, protects valuable and treasured lands in New Mexico, and moves us toward a clean-energy economy.”

    His opponent, Lujan, appears to be a moron – why defend the charge that he’s a “part of the club” by regurgitating the Obama State of the Union Address? But, Adam has a few things to overcome, too.

    Kokesh said he doesn’t have a full-time job. Though he said he does graphic design “on the side,” he described himself as a full-time activist.

    That’s not a real relatable resume` among working Americans. But, then there’s always Daddy;

    Kokesh is the son of venture capitalist Charles Kokesh, a co-owner of the Santa Fe Horse Park southwest of the city, which earlier this year defaulted on its $2.25 million mortgage.

    Ooops. Maybe Dad can get a bailout from the feds before Adam pisses off his Congressman.

  • The anti-recruiter war

    Last year, the anti-war movement discovered that they can’t stop the war through Congress – mainly because Congress doesn’t want solutions to problems, they only want issues. So the anti-war crowd decided they would attack the troops who are detailed as recruiters. At about the same time, the Army decided to build a $12 million pilot facility called the Army Experience Center at Franklin Mills Mall near Philadelphia which has a variety of video games designed to give potential recruits a taste of the Army. I can’t wait to visit and try the shoe-shining and the latrine-scrubbing video games.

    Since it opened last year, the AEC has stuck in the anti-war crowd’s craw. They’ve protested it at least once before that I know on February 16th – it kind of fizzled out, of course. So this past Saturday, they decided to make a concerted effort towards shutting the AEC down.

    Our own Raoul was on the scene, of course, and he phoned in a report last night. He met them in the church parking lot where they assembled at St. Luke’s United Church of Christ. In short order, Raoul was able to get the church’s secretary to call him a mother f@#%er twice.

    All of the Leftist reports say they had over 300 people to protest, Raoul tells us it wasn’t even 200 – which is surprising since the Left also says that over 30 groups participated. Even if it was 300, with 30 groups, that’s piss-poor attendance.

    But the whole thing is comical. Here’s 200-300 people protesting video games. They had slogans like “If you’re not old enough to drink, you’re not old enough to kill”. So I guess, like me, they think the drinking age should be lowered, too.

    IVAW Winter Soldier, Jesse Hamilton was there. His deep intellectual contribution to the discussion was; “You can’t simulate the heat. You can’t you know the cries of people who are getting killed. You can’t simulate the noise when things are exploding around you.” Well, ya know what Jesse, they get an idea of what it’s like during training, don’t they? It’s not like they load the kids on buses outside the AEC and take them straight to Iraq, do they?

    Here’s a local TV report;

    One blogger from the Left, who certainly thought highly of himself and his actions that Saturday afternoon at the mall wrote;

    The complaint was read out loud, which had a profound effect on everyone who was there shopping, and visiting the various eateries.

    People stopped to listen, and really couldn’t believe what was happening. I myself, was part of a group of protesters who donned death masks and the names of fallen soldiers and stood directly in front of the AEC, which was at that point surrounded by police.

    But that didn’t stop us from demanding that it be closed and they should cease and desist corrupting our youth. Those of us in death masks stood silently by and watched the rest of the group shouting at the recruiters. “Stop stealing our kids” “No wars for empire”, “SHAME ON YOU!” to the endless pounding of drums.

    It seemed to me that the recruiters were becoming a bit unnerved….

    Yeah, soldiers who had faced an armed enemy on foreign soil were unnerved by a bunch of smelly geezers. I’m sure. And as far as a “profound effect” it had on shoppers, I’m pretty sure they were real impressed by loud-mouthedclowns interrupting their day of shopping to scream intellectually vacant chants like kindergartners.

    Someone should probably point out the Army isn’t stealing anyone’s kids. Everyone who joins is an adult in their own right, making their own decisions and the fact that these pathetic cowards think that kids are stupid enough to think war is a video and need rescuing says more about the fantasy land these clowns occupy than it does about America’s youth.

    ShotgunDroid sent us this video from GamePolitics;

    Seven people were arrested, one was Elaine Brower, who I mentioned in the earlier post, the others bravely wore hoods and masks. The whole confrontation lasted 9 minutes. One of the arrestees wrote;

    After only one warning, the police decided to aggressively arrest seven of the protesters who were wearing death masks, peacefully standing in front of the AEC and not blocking the entrance. Taken to a distant precinct, the civil affairs Captain vowed vengeance by trying to charge the seven with a “misdemeanor in the third degree.” After 6 hours in the most deplorable conditions, they were released to return to court in June.

    Yeah, in the video, you can see how aggressive the police were. I saw where they even refused to arrest one little old bag who was begging for it. And the captain “vowed vengeance”, huh? Or, maybe he vowed to enforce the peace.

    Raoul reported that only people who were angry were the folks trying to get in the AEC. Fox reported that the anti-war protesters have to keep their lawyers employed;

    Anti-war protesters are suing. They claim the Army Experience Center is endangering the welfare of children.

    What children, you retards?

    Most of the pictures I see say “Courtesy of Bill Perry” so I guess I fixed his camera well enough. Hey, Bill, Raoul says he saw you standing safely off to the side.

    Raoul also reports that our buddy Pinhead was there and was showing anyone who would pay attention his VFP card to prove that he really is a veteran while Raoul pestered him for the month’s pay Pinhead owes Raoul on their wager. Yeah, we never said you aren’t a veteran, Dennen, we were wondering about the World War Two medals you wore at protests.

    I’m sure Raoul will have more to add in the comments.

    Raoul adds:

    It was a failure for them.

    1. They mobilized from NYC to DC, promised 700 people, delivered 200. That’s 29%.

    2. They got just one news story. The local Fox affiliate did a 333 word article for the website, no film. Another TV station showed, no story on the news that night.

    3. They got better than they gave. Three counter-demonstatrers owned their rally at St Luke’s. Our PA was louder than their’s and they had to listen to our “Teach In”.

    4. St Luke’s Church Secretary called me a “Mother F**ker” three times.

    5. They pissed off a lot of locals stuck in traffic as the geezers walked a mile in 30 minutes.

    6. You couldn’t tell there was a demo just 40 yards down the mall.

    7. People coming and going at the mall mainly ignored them

    8. They pissed off the teens who let the geezers know it.

    9. They were in the mall for less than an hour.

    10. The AEC opened 10 minutes after they left.

  • The mild discomfort of torture

    Last night, our President let us know that the discomfort of waterboarding is now torture. And how does he know this? Because of his vast experience of being President an entire one hundred days. The Washington Times quotes;

    “I will do whatever is required to keep the American people safe, but I am absolutely convinced that the best way I can do that is to make sure we are not taking shortcuts that undermine who we are,” he said. “There have been no circumstances during the course of this first hundred days in which I have seen information that would make me second-guess the decision I have made.”

    In other words, he’s been president for a hundred days and you haven’t – so who is smarter? Certainly not you. And since you think you’re such a smarty-pants, he knows stuff you don’t;

    He said he has read the memos former Vice President Dick Cheney has asked be declassified and that the Republican says would show the tactics worked to get critical information that prevented attacks. But Mr. Obama said the memos don’t prove the information couldn’t have been gotten by other methods, and said even if America’s job is harder, it’s worth the trade-off.

    There. See? He’s read the Cheney memos and you haven’t. When you’ve read the Cheney memos, you can have an opinion – but until then, shut up. You.

    Let me show you how much torture is involved in waterboarding. The regular readers of this blog know that IVAW’s Matthis Chiroux is a big pussy, right? If waterboarding is torture, do you honestly think that Chiroux would allow World Can’t Wait to waterboard him in front of the UN? See for yourself;

    You’ll notice that Chiroux’s hands aren’t bound, yet when he is waterboarded, his hands stay behind his back, entirely voluntarily. If Chiroux truly thought he was in danger, and if waterboarding was really a fear-inducing practice, his arms would be flailing around involuntarily. besides, if it was as dangerous as the Left seems to think it is, do you honestly believe a sissy like Chiroux would allow himself to be involved in it? I mean seriously.

    Thanks for showing us that waterboarding isn’t torture, Chiroux. I owe you a cookie.

  • SGT Casey J. Porter resigns from IVAW

    Casey J. Porter has been sending video reports from Iraq for the IVAW and has drawn the attention of the left’s bigwigs like Michael Moore and Democracy Now. Today Porter picked up his stuff and left the organization. The big reason he left? The organization’s protection of Matthis Chiroux.

    As some background, the IVAW has split into two sides – 1) the “resisters” who have basically done nothing for the country, and 2) the pro-America, pro-Constitution former service members who actually served in the war.

    The split began when Kelly Dougherty, an actual Iraq War veteran, resigned and she was replaced by Alex Bacon a guy who deserted from the fricken Coast Guard (while they were still part of the Transportation Department – that’s like deserting from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration).

    So under Bacon’s leadership, the resisters, who are mostly real honest-to-goodness communists, have made it known that they don’t much like the folks who actually served in the Iraq War (ya know, like in the name of the organization) because those members still believe in the Constitution and not some radical overthrow of the US system. That became glaringly clear during last week’s comedy show put on by Matthis Chiroux.

    The part of the organization that owes allegiance to the International Socialist Organization rushed to “resister” Chiroux’s defense when actual combat veterans called him to task for his outlandish behavior over the last year. Of course, their VVAW/VFP masters, like Ward Reilly, the Vietnam Veteran Against the War who never went to Vietnam, sided with the resisters. That’s not surprising because Reilly doesn’t see the value in serving the country in time of war – just like Chiroux and Bacon.

    Well, apparently, actual war veteran Porter decided he’d had enough today. Here’s the resignation letter he posted on Facebook;
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  • Sunday morning Chiroux drivel

    Well, the Milbog “conference” is over, so I guess I’ll show y’all the latest from Matthis. Someone told me that Chiroux doesn’t check who he’s friends with, so I tried to sneak in . But he busted me and took the opportunity to threaten me with legal repercussions;

    Of course, because he sent me a message, I was able to access his Home page. As long as I’m already in his lawyer sights, I might as well ask what kind of immature narcissistic doofus would make an avatar like this;

    Yeah, he’s a dork.

    Kris Goldsmith wrote me that Chiroux (a fake combat veteran) is trying to get Goldsmith (a real combet veteran) tossed out of IVAW;

    I’ve been warned off the record that Matthis wrote an email to the board requesting punitive action be taken against me by IVAW. Something like suspension of membership, a request for an apology, or something like that.

    We have one last shot at getting Chiroux’s benefits blocked. Write a letter to;
    MG Sean Byrne
    CG, HRC
    200 Stovall St.
    Alexandria, VA 20310-0300