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

Category: Media

  • “Well, who was the a**hole that did this?”

    With the recent 40th anniversary of Nixon’s resignation in 1974 about a week ago, there have been a number of articles about Watergate in the media.  That’s to be expected.

    Predictably, there have also been more “hit piece” articles about Nixon in the media recently – like this one from MSNBC.  That’s also to be expected. Nixon and the mainstream media hated each other.  The media and the left still hate him with a passion even today, though he’s been dead over 20 years.

    One of the typical allegations made by some in the media (and many leftists) is that Nixon ordered the Watergate break-in.  It’s strongly implied – but not stated outright – in the MSNBC hit piece linked above.

    That allegation has been known to be false for over 40 years.  Indeed, proof of that fact is on the famous “smoking gun” tape that sealed Nixon’s fate when it became public on 5 August 1974.

    Still, some on the left (like the author of the MSNBC hit piece above) still today refuse to admit the truth about that.  They keep trotting out the old canard.

    Don’t believe me?  Well, decide for yourself.  Here’s a link to a transcript of part of that 23 June 1972 conversation between Haldeman and Nixon – from the famous “smoking gun” tape itself.

    That conversation clearly shows that Nixon had no clue who ordered the Watergate break-in.  Indeed, the title of this article is a direct quote of Nixon’s question to Haldeman asking who had ordered the Watergate break-in.  (Other sources give the quotation as “Who was the a**hole who ordered it?”, but after listening to audio from the tape personally I think this source seems more accurate.)

    Still don’t believe me? Hell, here’s a link to the audio; listen for yourself. Pay particular attention to the tone of voice in Nixon’s question.  It occurs around 4:14 or so in the linked audio.

    It seems quite clear to me that the man was incredulous that someone had been so stupid.  It also seems clear that he had no prior knowledge of the break-in.  YMMV.  (It likewise is manifestly obvious that Nixon approved the Watergate cover-up – but for 40+ years that has never been in dispute.  It’s also a very different thing than ordering the break-in.)

    Nixon had many faults.  IMO, he was an unscrupulous bastard and a shameless liar.  He clearly conspired with others to obstruct justice.  He deserved his fate for attempting to be above the law, and for trying to use the machinery of the Federal government to pervert justice and cover up the Watergate break-in.  He was damned lucky to escape prison.

    But whatever Nixon’s faults, he was no one’s fool.  He certainly wasn’t stupid enough to have ordered Watergate personally – and hard evidence indicates he didn’t.  Yet there are some in the media who keep making that false claim.

    Sheesh.  You’d think that the press could quit lying about the man more than 20 years after his death.  The simple truth about Watergate is damning enough.

  • Fanning the Flames in Ferguson

    Fanning the Flames in Ferguson

    ferguson-missouri-riots

    Chief Tango sends us a link from USAToday entitled “Pentagon fueled Ferguson confrontation” an opinion piece by David Mastio and Kelsey Rupp. It’s subtitled “Department of Defense provided surplus military vehicles to local PD” the gist of the article is that the police in Ferguson have been armed by the Pentagon for their confrontation with looters and rioters there.

    Michelle McCaskill, media relations chief at the Defense Logistics Agency, confirms that the Ferguson Police Department is part of a federal program called 1033 that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars of surplus military equipment to civilian police forces across the United States. The materials range from small items, such as pistols and automatic rifles, to heavy armored vehicles such as the MRAPs used in Afghanistan and Iraq.

    “In 2013 alone, $449,309,003.71 worth of property was transferred to law enforcement,” the agency’s website states.

    According to McCaskill, the most recent transfer of military equipment from the Department of Defense to small Ferguson was in November and included two vehicles as well as a trailer and a generator. Details on the vehicles and their intended uses have not been released by the Pentagon. Information on any prior transfers is also unavailable.

    So, it sounds like the police are waging a war on rioters, doesn’t it? You’d expect photos of tanks rolling through the streets crushing dissent. Well, this vacuous piece of journalism, if you bother to read the whole thing, says;

    There is no evidence that any such equipment has yet been used in the Brown case and its aftermath. But such “police militarization” is just one element of an often toxic relationship between minority communities and local police.

    The whole story revolves around the fact that police department HAS the equipment, not that they’re USING the equipment. Now, I’m one of the first to question why the civil police need this equipment – it’s needless expenditures purchased only for county fair displays and so the police can appear “tacti-cool”. But it’s irresponsible of journalists to write these kinds of articles which are clearly written for low-information readers who wave the article like a bloody shirt in social media and fan the flames of the civil war in Ferguson.

    It’s the media that is “fueling the confrontation” in this case, not the Pentagon.

  • New leaker in government

    CNN reports that there is a new leaker out there revealing classified material to Glenn Greenwald at his “Intercept” news site. Greenwald was the fellow who sponsored Ed Snowden’s stolen secrets last year and apparently, on his website, Greenwald is referencing documents created after Snowden left;

    The Intercept article focuses on the growth in U.S. government databases of known or suspected terrorist names during the Obama administration.

    The article cites documents prepared by the National Counterterrorism Center dated August 2013, which is after Snowden flew to Russia to avoid U.S. criminal charges.

    Greenwald has suggested there was another leaker. In July, he said on Twitter “it seems clear at this point” that there was another. Government officials have been investigating to find out who.

    So, I guess we’ll find out who he is soon, because, like Snowden, he’s doing it for the fame and a sweet Russian girlfriend.

    Speaking of Snowden, Ron Paul seems to be pressuring the White House for clemency for Eddie, says the Washington Times.

    Former Rep. Ron Paul has taken his push for clemency for Edward Snowden to a new level, announcing he’s collected more than 37,000 signatures in the past five months — about a third of what he says he needs to get a White House response.

    Mr. Paul wrote on his blog of Mr. Snowden’s “sacrifices” to reveal “the disturbing scope of the National Security Agency[‘s] … mass surveillance and data collection efforts,” and said the U.S. government ought to award him clemency and let him return home.

    Who needs secrets anymore, anyway?

  • About That Recent CIA Station Chief Outing . . .

    The CIA Station Chief for Afghanistan was recently “outed”, apparently accidentally, during the POTUS’ recent visit to Afghanistan. So let’s do a comparison with another recent outing of a “clandestine” operative, shall we?

    I’ve looked at both. The results are . . . interesting.

    Remember all the brouhaha over the Valerie Plame “outing”? How the left – and the media – was all up in arms over Carl Rove’s supposed “outing” of that “clandestine CIA operative”?

    Here’s a refresher on the facts of the Plame case:

    • The fact that Plame worked for the CIA was apparently common knowledge in DC.
    • Plame was not working in a clandestine capacity at the time she was “outed”; she was working openly as an analyst at CIA HQ at the time (such positions are generally not clandestine and are thus not covered by the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act [IIPA]). She may or may not have been covered by IIPA the due to past overseas clandestine work, as the IIPA provides 5 years of identity protection under such circumstances (50 USC 426). (That claim has been asserted and is likely true, but to my knowledge was never definitively proven.)
    • Rove didn’t “out” Plame to journalist Robert Novak.  He confirmed, apparently in an offhand reply to a remark made by Novak himself, information Novak already had obtained.
    • Robert Novak already had learned Plame’s name and CIA connection prior to approaching his first confirmatory source, Richard Armitage.
    • The CIA confirmed Plame’s CIA connection to Novak, and requested he not use her name.  However, the CIA never explicitly indicated to Novak that she was a current or previous clandestine operative.  In fact, they indicated she would likely never work for the CIA in such a capacity in the future.
    • Scooter Libby went to jail for perjury/lying to investigators, not for outing Plame.
    • No one was ever prosecuted for “outing” Plame.
    • Finally, the investigative reporting regarding Plame’s alleged “outing” was legitimate journalism, not political payback. The reporter, Robert Novak, was exploring legitimate questions raised by the assignment of Joe Wilson – who had zero experience in either nuclear proliferation issues or with the country of Niger, and who was a former senior Clinton Administration official – to investigate processed uranium ore (yellowcake) provided by Niger to Iraq prior to 2003. Novak was following up on a lead; he’d heard Wilson’s wife (Plame) was the reason he’d gotten the special assignment.

    We all know that the alleged Plame “outing” received intense media attention, was thoroughly investigated, and that one prosecution resulted – Libby, for essentially being stupid and lying to investigators. But what was the actual impact of Plame’s supposed “outing”?

    Well, frankly, not much. At the time Plame was working openly at CIA HQ, apparently as an analyst – and had been for a number of years. She was rated as unlikely to ever receive another clandestine assignment.  Claiming her current assignment working openly at CIA HQ was “clandestine” is, bluntly, nonsensical.  As noted previously, she was almost certainly covered under the IIPA for work she’d done in the past – and was likely nearly outside the five year “window” of IIPA coverage.  So the practical effect of her alleged “outing” was small if not effectively nada.

    Now:  contrast the Plame brouhaha with the current screw-up in Afghanistan, where the identity of the current CIA Station Chief for Afghanistan was disclosed.  In contrast to the Plame case, to paraphrase a currently-famous politician this disclosure is indeed a “big (freaking) deal”. Common sense tells anyone that disclosing a CIA Station Chief’s identity dramatically reduces his/her effectiveness, if not destroys it completely.  It also leads to other problems I won’t discuss here.

    It also makes the individual working in such a position a high-value target for terrorists. Don’t believe me?  Just ask the next of kin of the late Richard Welch and LTC William Buckley.  Indeed, Welch’s murder by terrorists after being outed as CIA Station Chief in Greece is one of the primary reasons that the IIPA was passed.

    In this recent case, there was thus serious damage – even if inadvertent.  Ditto a violation of the IIPA.  Even if the media is generally being cooperative and not releasing the individual’s name, it’s a virtual certainty that foreign intelligence services and terrorist organizations have that info today.

    So, the White House is going to hammer someone, right?  I mean, even if by accident, this one gets someone fired – right?

    Well, no.  Other than a couple of procedural changes, the White House doesn’t plan to do squat in the way of disciplining anyone.  Apparently they don’t see it as any big deal.

    The media also apparently doesn’t think it’s worth raising Cain about, either. Best I can tell, there have been precious few stories about the screw-up.  The Plame case, on the other hand, was front-page news for literally years.

    I’ll leave it to you to decide for yourself why the media is treating this case differently than they did Plame’s.

  • Finally a shooter with military connections

    Pinto Nag sends us a link to an NBC News article about a 15-year-old in Oregon who shot a classmate the other day, then he engaged in a shootout with police before he shot himself. Another indisputable tragedy. But, the media of course is obsessed with explaining his behavior – in this case they’re doing a jig. The shooter, whatever his name was, belonged to his High School’s JROTC program. And, oh, his brother was in the Army and in Afghanistan.

    [What’s-his-name] arrived on the school bus on Tuesday, carrying a guitar case and a large duffel bag, Troutdale Police Chief Scott Anderson said at a press conference. One of those held an AR-15 rifle that the teen brought from home, the sheriff said.

    “The weapons had been secured, but he defeated the security measures,” Anderson said.

    [..]

    Students who knew [what’s-his-name] told NBC News that the young man was in the JROTC and had an “unhealthy obsession with the military,” often wearing Army fatigues.

    What’s an “unhealthy obsession with the military”? Do you mean like enlisting, would that be an obsession? From Heavy;

    [What’s-his-name]’s brother, [What’s-his-name the elder], is an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, according to his Facebook page.

    Lucas Padgett attended Special Forces school at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center in Fort Bragg, his Facebook school said. The 24-year-old now works as a sales agent for Farmers Insurance.

    Yeah, I know, I’m checking on it. But I think it was his brother’s job with Farmer’s Insurance that pushed him over the edge;

    Makes as much sense as blaming his brother’s military service. But, you know, like I know, that 15-year-olds can not legally purchase guns – from the police statement that he defeated the security measure, I’m assuming they meant that what’s-his-name’s parents had secured their guns, but junior got to them anyway. How did he get a long gun into the school? The last thing they should be worrying about is his fashion sense, his membership in the JROTC program and his brother’s service.

    Didn’t Oregon pass laws that were supposed to end these problems? They even closed the deadly “gun show loop holes”. Well, that didn’t stop the irrational hags at Moms Demand Action from releasing this statement;

    We hear our representatives calling for prayers, but today, we call on responsible gun owners, mothers, fathers, and all concerned citizens to call on our elected officials to pass reasonable reforms that will prevent gun violence.

    What “reasonable reforms” would have prevented this particular shooting? Everything that what’s-his-name did was already illegal.

  • Morons at the Hartford Courant

    I’ve seen some real dumbasses in my time, but the Editorial Board at the Hartford Courant must be the dumbassiest.

    Whatever the circumstances of his capture, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was the last American prisoner of war. Now that he is free, might it be time to rethink the POW-MIA flags that have flown over some public buildings for 40 years?

    The black and white flag, with an image of a downcast prisoner, is a relic of the Vietnam War. It was developed by POW wives, who formed a group called the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia in the early 1970s to direct attention at the treatment of POWs in Vietnam.

    President Richard Nixon co-opted the POW-MIA issue, with the flag, groups and bracelets, as a way of generating emotional support for the war, said Rutgers University historian H. Bruce Franklin. The flag was a rallying point for those who felt there were living POWs left behind in Vietnam after the prisoner release in 1973.

    […]

    There are no more living prisoners in Vietnam; there almost assuredly were none after 1973. The military continues to work at finding and identifying the remains of solders listed as missing, now about 1,600. The flag has outlived the purpose for which it was created.

    I guess the stank-ass hippies in Connecticut don’t like being reminded that they really don’t give a shit about American fighting men and women. POW/MIA or otherwise. That big black and white flag flapping away in the breeze reminds them of the fact that they just don’t care no matter how hard they try.

    Their remembrance of history is a little skewed, too, by the way. Although the flag was born during the Nixon Administration, it wasn’t flown over the White House until 1982 and for the first time over the Capitol for the 1989 National POW/MIA Recognition Day. The flag wasn’t recognized by Congress until 1990. That’s all according to the Defense Prisoners of War and Missing Personnel Office, but, hey the hippies at the Hartford Courant know more than them, don’t they? Or maybe they just hate Nixon that much.

    There are about 83,000 Americans who remain missing according to DPMO, the flag isn’t just about Vietnam – but I guess it’s hard to convince the stank-ass hippies who think that everything is about them – especially if it reminds them that they’re always on the wrong side of history.

  • Tom Philpott: Vets should be wary of CVA pitchforks and torches

    Tom Philpott: Vets should be wary of CVA pitchforks and torches

    tomphilpott

    Chief Tango sends us link from Stars & Stripes from some fellow by the name of Tom Philpott entitled “Vets should be wary of CVA pitchforks and torches”. It’s to warn us poor stupit vets that Concerned Veterans for America is *gasp* partisan.

    I can’t claim to have covered VA medical appointments and wait times with enough depth or regularity to know if there’s gross mismanagement and deceptive bookkeeping at some or many VA facilities. That will be verified, or not, by independent audits and criminal investigations now underway.

    […]

    But in my 37 years covering veterans’ issues, I have never seen veteran issues used more cynically or politicized more thoroughly than during the past several years. At times the intent seems to be to shake trust in government generally rather than to address veterans’ needs.

    In the thick of this is Concerned Veterans for America, posing as a vet advocacy group and being rewarded for it. CVA press releases usually are partisan attacks. Its spokesman, Pete Hegseth, an Iraq war vet and Republican who ran for a U.S. Senate in 2012, is quoted often by major news outlets without mention of press reports associating CVA with the Koch brothers, libertarian billionaires who create public interest groups to oppose big government. That’s fine. That’s protected speech. A CVA spokesman told me last year it don’t reveal donor information.

    So, basically, Philpot, whoever the Hell he is, says that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about in regards to veterans’ issues, but that we should listen to him anyway. According to his bio he was in the Coast Guard back in the ’70s and then went into journalism and worked at that cesspool at Military Times. And now, he’s sounding the warning about Pete Hegseth, who happens to be one of those evil Republicans who are calling for Shinseki’s resignation.

    Mr. Philpot, sir, when the Hell did you ever write a warning to veterans about VoteVets or Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America? They are both partisan organizations run by Democrats and espouse Democrat policies, sometimes in contradiction to the welfare of veterans. VoteVets doesn’t disclose their donors either.

    Paul Rieckoff of the IAVA was a Democrat before he founded IAVA, he rubbed elbows with the likes of Jesse Ventura and Code Pink and gave a Democrat address in response to a presidential weekly radio address during the Bush Administration. So where’s your warning about them and their partisan activities, Tom?

    Now, I’ll admit right up front that Pete Hegseth and I are friends, we email a couple of times every week. His staff emails me a few times a week. He once gave me a CVA bottle opener. With a magnet.

    Pete is a real patriot who cares about veterans, and his political views are much in line with mine and you know that I tear up whoever is wrong, regardless of their political party. Can you say the same about IAVA or VoteVets – one only cares about himself, the other is trying to cram green energy down our throats.

    So, Tom Philpot, cram green energy down your throat or words to that effect. You’re just another liberal partisan hack like Soltz and Rieckhoff.

  • Dear Breitbart; the VA is not DoD

    Dear Breitbart; the VA is not DoD

    Breitbart Manning headline

    Yeah, I get his point, but Breitbart author, Thomas Rose tries to draw a comparison between the Veterans’ Affairs Department allowing deserving veterans to languish on long lists awaiting care while Bradley Breanna Chelsea Manning jumps to the front of the line for his sexual reassignment treatment. First of all, I don’t believe that even Chuck Hagel would have anything to do with the Manning issue. All I’ve seen on the subject is partisan blogs and news agencies looking for red meat, so I have my doubts. But, you know, if I was going to write about military issues, first I’d know the difference between the Department of Defense and the VA and the function each has in health care.

    Since Manning still falls under the Department of Defense, he’s not jumping the line at the Veterans’ Affairs clusterf***, so it’s really an unfair comparison. the VA has nothing to do with Manning, since he doesn’t even qualify for any VA benefits to veterans. There is enough wrong at the VA that we don’t have to make shit up. Things like this give us less credibility in the whole discussion, so just stop trying to grab headlines with sensationalized bullshit.

    If you need advice, my inbox is always open for your questions relating to military healthcare.

    Thanks to John for the link.