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

Category: Media

  • The drug problem at the Washington Post

    This is the headline of EJ Dionne’s column yesterday, and I’ve read three times and can’t see wtf he’s talking about

    As near as I can tell, this is EJ’s “stop me before I write again” plea;

    Obama will thus be the conservative in 2012, in the truest sense of that word. He is the candidate defending the modestly redistributive and regulatory government the country has relied on since the New Deal, and that neither Ronald Reagan nor George W. Bush dismantled. The rhetoric of the 2012 Republicans suggests they want to go far beyond where Reagan or Bush ever went. And here’s the irony: By raising the stakes of 2012 so high, Republicans will be playing into Obama’s hands. The GOP might well win a referendum on the state of the economy.

    Yeah, the only way Obama becomes the conservative is if you completely redefine what conservatism is, as Dionne has done with that last paragraph.

  • The difference a party makes

    Somehow, I thought when I read this from the Washington Post, this wouldn’t have been characterized as “caves” if the roles had been reversed;

    And then I remembered when the Democrats “caved” last year to Republicans in the battle to extend the Bush tax cuts (and/or prevent the Obama tax hike) the Washington Post called it a “Landmark Tax Bill”.

    Funny how much difference a year makes, huh?

  • That Phony POW General

    We wrote about Fermijon Marrero, who was the honored guest at a New Rochelle, NY event celebrating Veterans’ Day last month and his records disputed his rank and his personal narrative of being a POW in Vietnam.

    The New Rochelle Main Street Connect has finally corrected their story which appeared last month celebrating Marrero’s decision to move to their town.

    Veterans groups are accusing Fermijon Marrero, who was honored by the City of New Rochelle and United Veterans Memorial and Patriotic Association during Veterans Day services last month, of lying about his rank and status as a prisoner of war.

    And of course, Marrero is still clinging to his poorly crafted narrative;

    Pentagon officials with the Department of Defense confirmed that no one with the last name Marrero was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, nor was the 12th Cavalry ever in Laos during that conflict. A Department of Defense website, which lists all those missing in action or taken prisoner in the Vietnam War, does not show anyone with the last name Marrero.

    Asked about the absence of his name from the list, Marrero declined comment but added that “the facts will come out.”

    He did, however, address the general accusations against him.

    “My response is they better get their facts straight,” Marrero said. “My name is not Fermin Ernesto Marrero. It’s Fermijon.”

    Marrero said he has never had a middle name.

    Marrero said he will take steps to defend himself and would gather facts and paperwork to discredit his accusers. He offered to fax his DD 214 to The Daily New Rochelle on Wednesday morning but had not sent it as of 3 p.m.

    Yeah, well, it’s not his middle name that is in question, is it? If there’s no one named Marrero on the DoD list of POWs, his middle name is irrelevant.

    Robert Cox of “Talk of the Sound” believes in giving credit where credit is due;

    John Lilyea (SFC, US Army Retired), author of the This Ain’t Hell But You Can See It From Here blog is reporting that the man claiming to be Brig. General Fermijon Marrero is actually Private Ferman Ernesto Marrero.

    Messages left for Marrero were not returned.

    According to Lilyea, records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from the National Personnel Records Center in St Louis, Missouri show that Marrero served in the Army reserves for two months, from December 23rd, 1975 to February 8, 1976 and on active duty for seven months from February 9, 1976 to November 22, 1976. He is listed as a private at the time of discharge.

    I’m glad that New Rochelle Main Street Connect finally correced the story, but it shouldn’t take a pitchfork brigade to get the truth printed.

  • Shedrick Burgess the homeless SEAL (UPDATED)

    AverageNCO sent a link yesterday about this poor homeless family headed by former Navy SEAL Shedrick Burgess;

    Desiree Burgess, 38, has just finished removing a pan of bubbling lasagna from the oven on a recent Thursday afternoon. Her infant son, Desmond, is sleeping peacefully in his playpen while her husband, Shedrick, a veteran and former Navy Seal, greets guests with a smile when they come to the door.

    This scene of domestic tranquility could easily be found in any town across the United States, as families gather to share dinner in the comfort of their warm homes.

    But Ms. Burgess and her family are homeless.

    As you’ve probably guessed by now, Shedrick isn’t a Navy SEAL, according to Captain Larry Bailey. So at this point I’m wondering if he’s even a veteran.

    UPDATE: Amy writes to tell us that she contacted the folks at 27 East (dot com) and at her urging, they checked with poor Shedrick and he blamed his wife for the SEAL claim. He admits that he was in the Navy but not a SEAL. The “journalists” (and I use “journalists” in it’s loosest interpretation of the term) said they’ll be correcting the article.

  • On Dakota Meyer

    Beretverde sent us a link from the McClatchy news group which questions the veracity of the narrative for Medal of Honor awardee, Dakota Myer.

    But an exhaustive assessment by a McClatchy correspondent who was embedded with the unit and survived the ambush found that the Marines’ official accounts of Meyer’s deeds — retold in a book, countless news reports and on U.S. military websites — were embellished. They’re marred by errors and inconsistencies, ascribe actions to Meyer that are unverified or didn’t happen and create precise, almost novelistic detail out of the jumbled and contradictory recollections of the Marines, soldiers and pilots engaged in battle.

    Earlier in the article, they admit that with or without what they call “embellishment” Myer would have been awarded the medal regardless. So, it makes you wonder “What’s their point, then?”

    It’s just the media answering questions that no one asked.

  • Time’s Person of the year: The Protester

    So Time magazine has named it’s Person of the Year and it’s “The Protester”. The accompanying article starts out pretty good, chronicling the rise of the protests in the Middle East, but then they go off their rockers and include the filthy hippie scum which have been begging for a good old fashioned ass kicking the last few months.

    Time actually says that “they changed the world”. The only thing they’ve changed is the wway many Americans look at the spoiled rich brats who would rather whine than look for jobs and improve their lot in life.

    The nonleader leaders of Occupy are using the winter to build an organization and enlist new protesters for the next phase. They have shifted the national conversation.

    Yeah, they’ve shifted the conversation from one of hope for future to one of head-shaking disdain for the spoiled brats we’ve raised.

  • Aye, Captain the spit shields can’t take much more of this abuse

    Is anyone besides conservative bloggers watching Chris Matthews anymore?

    This came from our buddy, Gateway Pundit and the Media Research Center.

    Matthews description of what he thinks conservatives are thinking sounds more like the Democrats in 2004;

    They want the President’s head. And they’ve cut a deal with Mephistopheles to get it. What they’re doing isn’t good. They know it as well as we know it. Deep down, it is wrong to run someone who is so different from what you value. They know it’s wrong and they’re doing it still. They’re willing to give up all the values and hopes and claims to goodness they’ve ever professed. They’re willing to strike this deal with the devil because they want to hurt Obama, because the most enticing prospect of this entire campaign is the chance to bring down this President. And in the prospect and act of doing so, they imagine how damn good it will feel.

    A bit of projection, I’d wager.

  • GQ’s “Least Influential people” list

    According to TVNewser, GQ magazine has released their list of the twenty-five least influential people alive;

    Also on the list: Tia and Tamera Mowry (#4). (Tamera married Fox News correspondent Adam Housley over the summer); also Tina Brown (#17), John Boehner (#24) and Pres. Obama (#25). Topping the list former GOP candidate Tim Pawlenty.

    You know what that means, right? That means I’m more influential than the President…so are you. Seems to me that the President being on the list should lead the story, though, not Ed Schultz. And I wonder where Joe Biden falls on the list – he should be the number one, the retard.

    I wonder how the White House is going to spin this story.

    Thanks to ROS for the link.