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

Category: Media

  • Rob Diamond; another HuffPo hack

    I wrote about Rob Diamond a few weeks back when he criticized Republicans daring to have troops in their audiences. Today he’s complaining that Glen Beck is stealing from military charities over at the Huffington Post;

    What is actually happening — and what is so obviously wrong — is that the rally is not actually raising money for SOWF [Special Operations Warrior Foundation]. SOWF is raising all the money to pay for the rally.

    Don’t believe me? Just read the plain-as-day, italicized font on the SOWF website:

    All contributions made to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation (SOWF) will first be applied to the costs of the Restoring Honor Rally taking place on August 28, 2010. All contributions in excess of these costs will then be retained by the SOWF.

    That’s weird, I thought. I give $100 to SOWF and it goes to Glenn Beck first, college scholarships for children of deceased special operators (maybe) second? Why would Glenn Beck be using a charitable organization, whose mission it is to provide college scholarships to the children of deceased special operators, as the financing arm of his “non-political, non-partisan” rally?

    Is that really what it says, Rob? Is that how they taught you to read at Annapolis? Do you think that they meant ALL of the costs of the rally, or did they mean that they were going to recover the costs of their representatives going to rally and sleeping in hotels, paying for gas and actually eating – or do you expect them to sleep on sewer grates for their stay?

    Permits in DC cost everybody money, whether they’re a charity or not. How do you expect them to pay for it? The rally is billed as a non-partisan, non-political event and Beck is just one of the speakers who will draw the donation money.

    Do you really think that greedy-ass Beck, who you admit makes $18 million a year, is going to sit by the pot and count out his share of donations. “One for me, one for them”.

    Rob claims that he’s a fellow of the Truman National Security Project. The mission statement of the Truman National Security Project says;

    The Truman National Security Project is a national security leadership institute, the nation’s only organization that recruits, trains, and positions a new generation of progressives across America to lead on national security.

    I guess if Diamond is the type of whiney, whitebread, illiterate crybaby that Truman National Security Project is producing, they can’t be spending much time on national security policy.

    The Special Operations Warrior Foundation is now serving as a financial front man for the right-wing, Fox News demagogue that is Glenn Beck. This so-called “rally” has nothing to do with SOWF’s stated (and noble) mission of giving college scholarships to children of deceased servicemembers.

    Really? Why would you want to sabotage a worthy charity with your hyperbole, Diamond?

    Actually, The Special Operations Warrior Foundation is one of the most efficiently managed charities;

    We are proud to announce that the Special Operations Warrior Foundation has earned its fourth consecutive 4-star rating for its ability to efficiently manage and grow its finances from the nation’s leading charity watchdog group, Charity Navigator. Only 7% of the charities rated by Charity Navigator have received at least 4 consecutive 4-star evaluations, indicating that Special Operations Warrior Foundation consistently executes its mission in a fiscally responsible way, and outperforms most other charities in America.

    To date, the Special Operations Warrior Foundation has provided over $900,000 to wounded special operations personnel.

    Those scum bags.

    I’ve only read two posts written by Diamond at Huffington Post – he comes off as a petty little creep. And a hack.

  • J Patrick Bedell is really a tea partier, despite the best evidence available

    While I was reading my newest favorite non-milblog, Legal Insurrection, I ruminated about the lengths the Left will go to misrepresent these clearly Leftist suicide nutters. Early this morning, I’d read DrewM at Ace of Spades who pointed readers to Patterico’s dumpster diving in regards to Bedell.

    I actually Googled “John Patrick Bedell” “Tea Party” and you’ll find some gibberish that someone wrote this morning – but it’s real gibberish. Seriously – it wasn’t coherent in the least – that’s not hyperbole.

    But I went to read my email and OldTrooper and NHSparky had both emailed the same article from the Christian Science Monitor;

    John Patrick Bedell, whom authorities identified as the gunman in the Pentagon shooting on Thursday, appears to have been a right-wing extremist with virulent antigovernment feelings.

    If so, that would make the Pentagon shooting the second violent extremist attack on a federal building within the past month. On Feb. 18, Joseph Stack flew a small aircraft into an IRS building in Austin, Texas. Mr. Stack left behind a disjointed screed in which, among other things, he expressed his hatred of the government.

    Details of Mr. Bedell’s case are still emerging. But writings by someone with his same name and birth date, posted on the Internet, express ill will toward the government and the armed forces and question whether Washington itself might have been behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

    Of course, if someone had done this in, say 2005, “ill will towards the government and the armed forces and questioned whether Washington itself might have been behind the September 11th terrorist attacks” would have described 98% of Democrats. But now because there’s a Democrat in the White House and Democrats control Congress, anyone who opposes the government these days must be a Right Wing nut.

    And how did Joseph Stack become a right wing nut when he clearly espoused communism? I mean, he quoted Marx right in the last line in bold in his screed.

    Peckerwood Peter Grier’s (the journalist for the CSM) evidence that Bedell seems airtight; he drove his car across the country, dressed in a business suit for the shooting and owned two guns. Case closed – who else but a conservative would do that?

    Of course, Peckerwood Grier couldn’t help but throw up SPLC’s specious reporting;

    The Pentagon attack and the destruction at the IRS building in Austin, Texas, come at a time of explosive growth in extremist-group activism across the United States, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks such organizations.

    The number of US extremist paramilitary militias grew from 42 in 2008 to 127 in 2009, according to a just-released SPLC annual report.

    So-called “Patriot” groups, steeped in antigovernment conspiracy theories, grew from 149 in 2008 to 512 in 2009 – an increase that the SPLC report judges as “astonishing.”

    See how easy it is to be a shit-mouthed, fucking liar without caring?

  • Getting the Kokesh story right

    I’m beginning to believe that Judge Napolitano is a useless hack. In the following video, he introduces IVAW’s Kokesh as a captain in the Marine Corps. To his credit, Kokesh corrects Napolitano and tells Napolitano he was a sergeant in Iraq – but he neglects to explain he left the Marine Corps Reserves as a corporal. It reflects poorly on Napolitano’s research, however that he introduced Kokesh as a captain. If he knew the correct Kokesh story, would he even have Kokesh on his show?

    I’ve tried to contact Napolitano on countless occasions to tell him whi he’s interviewing, but I’ve had no response so I tend to believe that Napolitano is ignoring the truth about Kokesh.

    Just so you know Kokesh, here’s a link to a brand new post at 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America which pulls together a bunch of my posts about Kokesh along with information from across the blogosphere.

  • Think they’d do this to Murtha or Kennedy

    An ABC news crew tried to corner Jim Bunning on his decision to block a bill which included extending unemployment benefits;

    Bunning later explained;

    “I support extending unemployment benefits, cobra benefits, flood insurance, highway bill fix, doc fix, small business loans, distant network television for satellite viewers. If we can’t find $10 billion to pay for something that we all support, we will never pay for anything on the floor of this U.S. Senate,” he said.

    I don’t remember an ABC crew cornering John Murtha on his many corruption inquiries, or i don’t see ABC crews cornering Charlie Rangel about his ethics violations. No ABC crew camped outside Harry Reid’s office waiting for answers on his land deals, or Nancy Pelosi’s payoffs to the tuna special interests.

    But Bunning merely wants the Senate to pay for the stuff it wants – that warrants a news crew treating him like a criminal doing a perp walk to the prison bus.

    And McClatchy predicts the fall of civilization because of Bunning. Highway projects stopped – really? Anyone in DC or Virginia see any construction projects last week? In the dead of winter, under a foot of snow? Who do these bozos think they’re kidding?

  • Iranian Influence in Iraq: Getting the Facts Straight

    A frequent argument against American policies in Iraq is that we have in essence made Iraq a proxy state of Iran by removing the Baathist regime and allowing the Shia majority to take control of a majority of the new government. This argument has become more frequently used to the attack the war in Iraq, especially in the wake of the Surge and declining violence in Iraq. With the parliamentary elections next week, some in the media have said that these elections will in effect enable Iran to dominate Iraq. However, to say that Iran currently wields or will eventually gain complete control over the current Iraqi government or Shia majority is to ignore many facts about the complexities of Iraq’s cultural and politics. There is no doubt that Iran has influence over certain Shia political groups and armed militias. However, there are ethnic, political, and foreign factors that prevent Iran from completely dominating Iraq.

    (more…)

  • TAH in TAT

    Here’s the link for the General Ballduster McSoulpatch at The Army Times.

    Schantag learned of McManus when a friend’s brother sent her photos he took of McManus at the Dec. 12 inauguration for Houston Mayor Annise Parker.

    Schantag posted photos of the man to the P.O.W. Network site and sent them to This Ain’t Hell, where the photo was posted at the center of a mock “wanted” poster.

    Seavey’s day job is new media manager for the American Legion, but he blogs about stolen-valor cases and other military topics in his spare time for This Ain’t Hell.

    For Seavey, whose blog dubbed McManus “Gen. Ballduster McSoulpatch,” the first big break was an anonymous tip saying the man’s name is Michael P. McManus. From there, readers pointed Seavey toward references to McManus across the Internet.

    Personally, I’m proud of the way the story turned out – there will never be another like this one, though. It was a one in a million shot. I’d like thank Mary Schantag at POW Net for including us in her hunt. She’s sent me another couple phonies that I’ll roll out in the next few days.

  • Pre-blue jeans George Will

    Back in 2001, I had the pleasure of a few minutes conversation with George Will at the University Club in DC. Since then, he’s gone off on weird tangents and I’ve pretty much ignored anything he’s said.

    But, this video from CPAC is the George Will with whom I talked that winter evening. It’s 25 minutes long, but worth every second.

    For those of you who think you know Conservatism and found it lacking, this will set you straight in plain language – if you just stick out until the end.

    Thanks to Rurik for the link.

  • So? What’s your point?

    Headlines at the Washington Post this morning scream 75% back letting gays serve openly. The article goes on to describe the results of an ABC/Washington Post poll;

    Three-quarters of Americans say that they support openly gay people serving in the U.S. military, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, a finding that could lend momentum to the Obama administration’s effort to dismantle the policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

    The level of public support for allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly far outpaces that in the spring of 1993, when Congress and the Clinton administration established the policy.

    Well, ya know what? I took a poll last night in which 95% of respondents agreed that Washington Post and ABC employees should all stand outside their respective offices naked in a snow bank through the upcoming weekend. All of the respondents were not employees of ABC or the Washington Post and admitted that their position on the issue wouldn’t affect them personally so why should they care? I’ll be anxiously awaiting ABC and Washington Post’s compliance with the results of my poll beginning tomorrow morning.

    I fully expect dicksmith to have an anuerism from glee as he posts this story on VoteVets this morning while disregarding any mention that 75% of Americans also approve of keeping Guantanamo open.