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

Category: Media

  • Post columnist: Obama’s not like me!

    Harold Meyerson, one of the columnists at the Washington Post writes today that Obama isn’t a socialist, and he should know, he claims, because Meyerson is a socialist. He begins his little instructive column by taking offense that anyone would even consider Obama a socialist;

    Well! Even as we all turn red, I’ve still encountered just two avowed democratic socialists in my daily rounds through the nation’s capital: Vermont’s Sen. Bernie Sanders . . . and the guy I see in the mirror when I shave. Bernie is quite capable of speaking for himself, so what follows is a report on the state of actual existing socialism from the other half of the D.C. Senators and Columnists Soviet.

    Yeah, “avowed” because there are very few people who wouldn’t admit it unless they have the protection that the Washington Post provides for their assembled crackpots and assorted lunatics.

    Meyerson continues that no one on the planet wants to nationalize industries anywhere in the world “not even Hugo Chávez” he says. No, not even Chávez…well except for the oil industry, the banking industry, the milk industry, the rice industry and the electricity and phone industries. Um, what else is left to nationalize – oh, yeah the media.

    Meyerson rambles on about “social justice”, national healthcare and all of the other blather about things he’ll never have to pay for as long as Conservatives stand firm against the socialist wave sweeping the country. After reading his lie about Chavez, I could hardly bring myself to read the rest.

  • White House targets citizens in attacks

    I’m feeling a bit nervous here. We were accused of stifling dissent during the last eight years. What’s-his-face-Mr.-Sarandon complained that there was a chill wind blowing that kept him silent – from the podium at the National Press Club. Those poor Dixie Chicks only made several million dollars on their tour because of the evil Republicans. But all the while, the White House was actually silent about the controversies that surrounded all of the cranks who claimed they were being persecuted by the Bush/Cheney cabal.

    But now we get a new administration, and they specifically target private citizens, attacking them in their public forum, from the White House bully pulpit. First, they went after Rick Santelli of CNBC a week or so ago. Last weekend, they decided to go after Rush Limbaugh. This morning Dave Poof (or whatever the hell his name is) Obama’s campaign manager, has an uncontested piece in the Washington Post singling out Limbaugh and stapling all kinds of false interpretations of Limbaugh’s speeches to Republicans and Conservatives.

    Today we read that the White House has decided to take on CNBC’s Jim Cramer, a lifelong Democrat for saying this (the best part begins at about 3 minutes into the video);

    Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

    So here comes Gibbs again (at about 2:50 into the video);

    Gibbs calls investors “a small audience” – 50% of Americans are invested in stocks or mutual funds. I’d hardly call that a small audience.

    This is unprecedented in our history – the president, through his staff, attacking private citizens for expressing their opinions. I feel a chill wind so where’s Mr. Sarandon now? Where’s my news conference at the National Press Club?

    Added: I guess Democrats are taking their cue from Hugo Chavez, who announced a media war this weekend.

  • The IRR Mom, USAToday and TAH

    Those of you who keep up with us on Facebook noticed that I did an interview with USAToday in regards to the “IRR Mom” who showed up at Fort Benning Monday with her two kids in tow for her IRR call up. It was a fifteen minute interview with Marisol Bello and they boiled it all down to a single sentence in the resulting article (it’s the last paragraph at this link). Here’s the screen capture in case they cut it out later;

    Apparently, This Ain’t Hell bloggers are the “go-to guys” for all of the military’s miscreants these days.

    What they left out was the same point I made on Sunday when I first wrote about it; both the Army and Mrs. Pagan had a year to rectify the problem before Monday and neither took advantage of it – the only party who is going to come out ahead is Associated Press (they first wrote about the situation).

    Pagan had a year to come up with a family care plan, and the Army had an opportunity to discharge her during her previous attempts to dodge her duties. If the Army wanted to take a stand, they’ve had other opportunities to take a stand with Matthis Chiroux and countless others who’ve dodged their responsibilities without the benefit of toddlers as props for the media.

    I also told her that if the Army lets her off with out at least a wrist-slap, they’re opening themselves up to millions of problems from millions of parents in the military.

  • Why I hate the local news

    Do you have to suffer through crap like this on your local news – the crap that assumes you’re an uneducated moron that has never had to scrape ice from you car, or put on gloves or anything until their broadcast?
    Check out these “9 tips to help you have a smooth commute” (I changed the video to this link because the damn thing comes on as soon as you arrive at the page and that drives me nuts);

    Wake up an hour early and you can save yourself from some back-breaking work. If you wake up to your car still buried under snow that’s turned into ice, you have two options. Either use a lot of muscle to scrape it off or “I’d rather wake up early and use the defrost,” says one man in Rockville. That way the ice will melt on it’s own. Why work hard if you don’t have to? That would be my number 2 tip.

    Coming in at number 3, it pays to spread the de-icer or ice-melt on side-walks. The pavement may look clear but keep in mind, “everything’s melted. so now there’s water. and it’s going to re-freeze overnight,” says Chuck Kelley, the manager of Strosniders Hardware in Bethesda.

    Tip number 4, before you head out, choose the appropriate footwear. Or create it yourself by attaching a set of YAXTRAX for extra traction. “I haven’t seen anything like it. They’re fascinating,” says Eileen Solomon of Bethesda, adding, “it looks like you got stuck in a bear trap.”

    Tip 5, if you want to avoid having to buy new wipers, make sure to leave them upright so they won’t freeze overnight, which leads us to tip number 6…don’t forget to refill the wiper fluid.

    And for Tip number 7, take that extra time to clear the snow on top of your car. Otherwise, once you hit the road, you could be a real danger to the driver behind you. “If you’re driving at least even 30 miles an hour and suddenly you can’t see anything, it’s very unsafe. I highly urge people to clear the tops of their cars, says driver Suzette Tanen.

    And tip number 8, if you’re a student who is still up late because you’re counting on being out of school Tuesday…you better hit the sack because chances are you’ll be in class. To find out the latest information, we encourage you to heed tip number 9…watch 9 News Now beginning at 4:30am and log onto our website wusa9.com.

    Yeah, where do they find these producers that come up with these brilliant programming ideas?

  • Joshua Casteel; Another IVAW rocket surgeon

    Meet Joshua Casteel, just another disingenuous IVAW member. Here’s his profile at IVAW;

    He’s also been to the Vatican to convince the Pope to urge soldiers to become conscientious objectors;

    In his profile at IVAW, he tries to make you think he’s an officer with this line;

    Joshua Casteel first enlisted in the US Army Reserves at the age of 17, received an appointment to the US Military Academy at West Point at 18, but at 25 was honorably discharged from Active Duty as a conscientious objector.

    (more…)

  • Paul Harvey Aurandt: Another bit of America is gone

    Paul Harvey was part of the soundtrack of my young life. I remember my grandfather, in his 60s shutting down his one-man operation saw mill just before noon and walking back to his wood shop behind the house to meet my grandmother who brought him a sandwich (usually his favorite liverwurst and limburger cheese – typical Scandi, he always loved food that stinks) and a glass of milk in the weather-worn shed so he could listen to Paul Harvey read the news to him. In his seventies, of course he couldn’t run the saw mill anymore, but his daily Paul Harvey routine continued.

    I remember staying at my Great-aunt Edith’s farm with her and Uncle Barney. At noon, Barney would stop doing chores and head back to the house for lunch with Paul Harvey and Edith.

    My other grandfather would stop doing chores on his dairy farm in time to hear the Paul Harvey-delivered news of the day wit hall of his pregnant pauses and strange inflections.

    It was reasonable that when I got to a point in my life when I had the opportunity to listen to Harvey on a regular basis, the sound of his voice brought back the smells of farms and saw mills and Grandma’s kitchen, liverwurst and limburger sandwiches.

    When Harvey’s son started doing the news a few years back, I lost interest because it just wasn’t the same. But today, Mr. Harvey is with his greatest fans.

  • Army Mom and AP battle Army

    Military.com is headlining this Associated Press story;

    Ya know, I commiserate with this woman somewhat – however, calling Associated Press, a well-known hater of the US military, isn’t really a solution. They gloss over details like the fact that she’s not really “honorably discharged” as they claim since she’s in the IRR. Part of the responsibility of a military parent is to have a family care plan. In my unit during our Desert Storm, two Staff Sergeants who were married had to send their kids from Germany to their parents back in the US during their joint deployment to the battle.

    Pagan, in the article admits that she knew that she could be called for deployment;

    She always knew there was a chance she could be recalled, so she buried the thought in the back of her mind.

    “When I enlisted, they said almost nobody gets called back when you’re in the IRR,” she said.

    Those damn “they” lied again. But since she enlisted, all of this hoopla about IRR call ups happening should have spurred her into action, especially since it’s been over a year since she was notified to be recalled. Did the Army do a dumb thing? Yes, they did, since they’ve had a few chances to shed themselves of this particular problem and didn’t. But that doesn’t justify Pagan contacting the Associated Press to battle this out in a public forum.

    I commend her for reporting for duty as she’s been ordered (since so many other cowards *cough*Chiroux*cough* won’t even do that much), but bringing AP into the discussion is just the wrong answer. Odds are that the Army would have done something about the problem when she showed up without the AP’s involvement, but there’s no good possible outcome for either party at this point.

  • Stroking the unicorn herder

    This Associated Press story about Obama and his budget agenda is probably the most dreadful piece of literature ever written;

    “Breathtaking in its scope and ambition….”
    “Perhaps the only things as high as Obama’s goals are the hurdles they must clear.”
    “…a sprawling road map that will require several hard-fought pieces of legislation.”
    “We’re struck with how bold and courageous a budget it is….”
    “Washington veterans say that if anyone can overcome the hurdles, it is Obama.”
    “The country wants it, the economy needs it, businesses large and small know that they can’t afford not to have it…”
    “The president’s agenda is vast and ambitious….”

    They don’t mention that the president’s agenda is built on a foundation of clay. In order to afford these changes, everyone has to continue making the exact same amount of money they earn now. In order to increase taxes on the top 5% of wage earners, Obama will ahve to raise taxes on families making more than $160,000 – the group in the $250,000 plus range only make up the top 1.5% of wage earners. Now, how many people are goingto continue making the same amount of money, if it means more will go to taxes – even at the $160k level.

    In my own case, I figured out that although my wife’s income was about a 1/3 of our total income, it was responsible for more than half of our taxes – so she quit. How many others will discover that they’re working for the government?

    It also depends on the stimulus bill which he just signed in making gains on the recovery – that is impossible. The market has fallen since Obama’s election because no one with an interest in investing in America thinks it will work. Obama thinks he can “will” a healthy economy – he’s learning like Bill Clinton did in 1993 that’s not possible. Those of us with our money on the line aren’t going to toss it in the pot without good reason. He hasn’t given us a good reason yet.

    “We’re struck with how bold and courageous a budget it is,” said James Horney of the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which supports the president. “There are a whole lot of things that are going to be extremely difficult because there are very powerful vested interests out there that will fight them.”

    Powerful and vested interests like the American people. Is it any wonder that newspapers are folding across the country when they all draw their content from sources like the Associated Press?