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

Category: Phony soldiers

  • IVAW; the peace movement’s stalking horse

    All week we’ve been running a series about the prospective Board of Directors of the IVAW. As we documented, the IVAW is more interested in being a band of peace activists than a veterans’ organization like Vote Vets worries more about Democrat legislative priorities than veterans’ issue. Well, here’s something I found last night in my usual perusal of the lunatic Left;

    call-for-action

    Notice were it says “Endorsers (list in formation)”? IVAW is the first organization listed – that means they’ll be in the front of the protest march. Why? What does the G-20 conference have to do with veterans? Are they withholding some benefits? Closing veterans facilities? The IVAW refugees who hang out here have told us that the third plank of their platform (Full benefits, adequate healthcare (including mental health), and other support for returning servicemen and women) was more of an after thought than a real goal.

    In an interview last year, Medea Benjamin said that IVAW gives the peace movement it’s “street creds”, that’s why whenever you see Medea in DC, her poodle Geoffrey [Stolen Valor] Millard is near. That’s all that matters to the peace movement, using the IVAW for a stalking horse.

  • When I’m wrong, I admit it

    Yesterday, I put up a post about a phony soldier by the name of Andrew Pogany. It turns out his real name is Georgandreas Pogany – Andrew is just the name he goes by. It would have helped to know that. As soon as I discovered it, I verified it and then wrote this to y’all.

    Anyway, this is the first apology I’ve written because this is the first time I’ve been wrong about a phony.

  • World Can’t Wait protests NAACP

    It seems that the World Can’t Wait and their attendant affiliates got angry at the NAACP “Diversity Career Fair” at their annual convention earlier this month. In the post-racial era, the Left decided that people of color shouldn’t be allowed the opportunity to serve their country and reap the benefits of the service. And who is surprised that Matthis Chiroux was on hand;

    The demonstration was a follow up to a press conference held on Saturday July 11th, the opening day of the convention where Benjamin Jealous, CEO and President of the NAACP, was asked by a high school student and a military mother why military recruiters were invited to recruit, given that the NAACP had come out against the Iraq war. Benjamin Jealous refused to disinvite the Army Strong Recruitment Tour and said that the recruiters would not be recruiting.

    At the press conference this afternoon Debra Sweet, representatives of the Ya Ya Youth Network, revolution youth, war resister Mathis Chiroux, and Barbara Harris all spoke very eloquently as to why the NAACP should not allow military recruiters into its convention. The main points driven home were that the wars/occupations decided to go inside the convention to see what the Army Strong Tour was doing. What we found was appalling. Over 60% over the Diversity Career Fair was military.

    That’s horrible – unless you factor in that the military is the most color-blind facet of our society and has been for decades. In fact, one Black recruiter got a first hand look of the racist attitude of the writer of this piece;

    The recruiter tried to defend recruitment by going into what the navy had done for her. My activist friend began to tell her she understood that this recruiter felt that the navy had done a lot for her but … This was when the conversation was cut short by another Black male recruiter approaching us and demanding to know what we were doing there. He demanded that we leave and that if we didn’t we would be escorted out. My friend asked why. We were told we were being loud and disruptive.

    The Black female was obviously so stupid that she didn’t realize that the Navy had abused her somehow and it took a white loudmouthed Leftist to tell her how her life wasn’t really better.

    All WCW and the others will accomplish is convince more impoverished Blacks to be left out of the economy. According to the Stars and Stripes this morning, the basic training stations are jam-packed with new recruits;

    A sagging economy, declining casualty rate in Iraq and a resurgence in the U.S. military’s popularity appear to have contributed to a strong recruiting year, Army leaders said.

    And the steady training schedule at Fort Jackson is likely to continue into next year as recruits find themselves on a waiting list to report for duty.

    “Shipping dates are anywhere from six weeks to two to three months out,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jay Jenkins, who works at the Army’s downtown Columbia recruiting station.

    So instead of helping minorities out their poverty, WCW and Matthis Chiroux are content to leave them mired in their unfortunate circumstances. Oh, and here’s a little bit about World Can’t Wait from Discover the Networks;

    Founded in June 2005 by Charles Clark Kissinger, a longtime leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party, World Can’t Wait (WCW) is a direct action movement seeking to organize “people living in the United States to take responsibility to stop the whole disastrous course led by the Bush administration.”

    I guess that’s where the money is, huh, Matthis? Did it suddenly dry up in Alabama?

    Thanks to Navy Brat for the link.

  • IVAW’s mixed message

    The IVAW board has decided to take action against Carl Webb, but not how you might think. Webb has advocated for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan to sabotage equipment and hinder our efforts there, putting the troops in more danger. But the IVAW says that’s not against it’s rules. The Board has warned Webb against trying to drive IVAW membership away, instead. This is from a letter the Board sent to several members who complained about Webb;
    (more…)

  • OK, who let this dog out?

    Bohica22 sent us this from another place he haunts (who knows why);

    GySgt Ableman was keen enough to spot this douche-bag walking through the Reno Airport in full dress blues with gloves and cover on. He stopped him near the baggage claim and running into three Drill Instructors wasn’t something this guy had anticipated.

    If any of you know Gy Ableman, this kid was lucky to leave with all his teeth intact.From the get go, it was obvious this kid was not a Marine. He claimed to be a PFC (wearing LCpl chevrons) and could not explain what a PFC chevron looked like and then couldn’t explain the NCO stripe on his trousers. He had a collar emblem in the middle of his barracks cover and his belt was sticking out. No ribbons or badges, his trousers were way too long, not to mention he had on Sketcher boots instead of dress shoes and a civilian belt.

    We found this out after we demanded that he take off the blouse and cover.Turns out he bought the uniform from a surplus store and his dad is a retired Navy Chief. Reno is a super-pro military area and this guy was soaking in the atta-boys. Lot of posers out there, watch out!

    Know any recruiters in the San Diego and Reno areas, send them a warning to
    watch out for this turd.

    Yeah, here’s the picture – it looks like it came from a cell phone. Those Sketchers boots look cool.
    (more…)

  • The IVAW Board Series; Michael Kindlinger

    In our continuing series of the prospective members of the IVAW Board of Directors, I’d like you to meet Michael “Trey” Kindlinger. For military service, Kindlinger says he spent nine years in the Navy. Then, suddenly, in 2003 (after said nine years) he discovered he’s a conscientious objector – he claims it’s because of his faith. I can accept that.

    Kindinger gets out of the Navy – but his wife is still on active duty. So, he can’t serve because of his faith, but he doesn’t mind living off the money that comes from his wife’s service. I don’t know, to me that seems a bit hypocritical.

    In the bio, he lists other organizations to which he belongs;

    9. Other organizations in which you have membership: VFP, MFSO, ISO,

    Geezers for Sitting on our Hands, that Military Families Speak Out organization which was founded by Charley Richardson and Nancy Lessen, both former members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, and the International Socialist Organization. According to Discover the Network, this is the ISO, which we’ve mentioned often in regards to IVAW;

    Evoking the Communist tradition of Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin, the Chicago-based International Socialist Organization (ISO) aspires to “organize activists in workplaces and communities and on campuses in order to mobilize opposition to all forms of oppression and exploitation.” The chief source of this oppression and exploitation, in ISO’s view, is capitalism — whose inevitable by-products are poverty, environmental degradation, war, famine, and most other ills that plague humanity. ISO places the blame for international strife largely on the United States, and more specifically the Republican Party….

    Oh, not coincidently, the VFP and MFSO are also planning assemblies in College Park, MD the same weekend as the IVAW Convention.

    But back to Kindlinger, here’s his vision of the organization;

    We are an effective organization in organizing the antiwar community; I feel that we’ve been afraid to seize that mantle and should now take that burden and help reinvigorate the antiwar movement.

    We MUST help end the illegal and immoral occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. If necessary, we then must take up the issues of Iran, Palestine, and Pakistan. These, I believe, are all inter-connected and must be dealt with if we have any hope of effecting change we can ALL believe in.

    I went through his entire application, and that pretty much sums up the whole thing. Nothing about outreach to help veterans of the wars, nothing about helping members – it’s all about organizing and fund raising. Another member of the IVAW, candidate for the board who never saw Iraq or Afghanistan who is a member of the ISO and is more worried about the “Against the War” part more than the “Iraq Veterans” part.

  • The IVAW Board series; TJ Buonomo

    As TSO wrote last night, we’ve come into possession of the actual applications for the eight folks who endeavor to occupy those seats around the IVAW Board of Directors table. And a stellar group they are. Since there’s eight of them, we’ve decided to split them up between us and hit you with one every day for the next week or so.

    Army Sergeant claims that when the current board is gone everything will change. Although that would be nice, given the candidates, I don’t think so. To wit;

    This is Thomas J Buonomo;

    tj-buonomo

    That’s from a picture I took of him when I met him last March. In fact, I talked to him for about an hour during my long lunch. The first thing he remembered about me was the post I did earlier in the month entitled “Safe enough for ya now, TJ?” in which I chided him for avoiding duty in Iraq when there was a war, but venturing to Iraq now that the surge worked. He didn’t like the post much, I guess.

    TSO wrote about TJ in April of last year, while he was still at The Sniper, so I won’t rehash that whole thing about him going to the Air Force Academy and then getting booted from the Army for advocating then-VP Cheney’s impeachment. But it is germane to this application. In his qualifications, Buonomo writes;

    35D All Source Military Intelligence Officer, U.S. Army; 2LT; 14 Months Active Duty Army; 5 Years, 14 Months Total Time In Service

    How many officers include their service academy or ROTC time in computing their military service? Yeah, TJ, you have 14 months of service time. Most of that was in your Officer Basic Course (18 weeks, I think).

    When asked how he would improve the IVAW, his answer was;

    Nuance, in the way we express ourselves through public statements and through action in the street, is the key to credibility and relevance. We have to keep up with what’s happening in Iraq and Afghanistan and tailor our messaging accordingly.

    But, in his “Candidate’s Statement” his views were a bit less “nuanced”;

    …my proposed mission objectives would include the prosecution of Bush administration officials for war crimes, starting with former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

    In fact, I can’t think of anything more old-anced. He left out the “no war for oil” line. Oh, wait;

    …my proposed mission objectives would include pressuring the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress to exercise rigorous oversight over U.S. oil companies in order to safeguard against a long term economic occupation of Iraq.

    Congress does such a good job with “oversight”, I’m sure they could drive Iraq’s oil industry into the ground in no time. Especially, with unicorn poop as a cleaner, more abundant fuel source right around the next corner.

    Gotta get in a plug for the ISO;

    …my third proposed objective would be to pressure the Obama administration’s State Department to unequivocally champion workers’ rights in Iraq in accordance with standards established by the International Labor Organization.

    So we’re not supposed to interfere with foreign nations’ internal issues – unless it’s in support of organizing them into a cool socialist organization. I get it now.

    And since Buonomo isn’t a combat veteran, he’s all for letting other non-veterans into the IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR;

    I am in support of expanding IVAW’s membership to include Foreign Service and Intelligence Community veterans who have served since September 11, 2001 because I believe that it is essential for us to have an integrated understanding of the military, economic, and political facets of the occupation.

    So much for being legitimate Veteran Service Organization. They’ve had a hard enough time verifying their membership’s qualifications. Can you imagine how many “former CIA agents” who were “black ops” with “classified records” they’d have lined up to join?

    He does reveal one tasty tidbit – out of the 1700 members of IVAW, only 1300 of them have been verified. That means I have to root out 400 prospective phonies.

    What I remember most about my conversation with Buonomo is that he talks so slow and he really has no point. At the time I wrote; “I tried to have a discussion with him, but he talks so slow that’s it’s just irritating. He kept saying “Let me finish” but he never does.”

    So, do you folks at IVAW want yet another deep thinker who hasn’t served in the military outside of the United States representing your interests even though he doesn’t have a clue what you’ve experienced? One who counts his college time as military service? One who thinks that prosecuting what he defines as “war criminals” is more important that reaching out to veterans and helping them?

    Clearly, Buonomo is more interested in being involved in activist activities than helping the membership. At what point do you get past the “Against the War” part and start focusing on the “Iraq Veterans” part? And which part do you think is most important to TJ Buonomo?

  • Everyone comes to TAH; the Andre Shepherd version

    Yes, everyone comes to This Ain’t Hell sooner or later. Everyone we’ve written about has eventually had someone who knew them “back when” come forward and tell us their back story. Today we feature a tale about Andre Shepherd, the soldier who went AWOL in Europe and is applying for refugee status to avoid doing his jail time. In fact, we expected the Germans to arrive at decision last month about him.

    But here’s the real Andre Shepherd from someone who knew him. He came by here yesterday and left a comment. I contacted him last night and asked him if he could expand his thoughts and here they are;

    Wowwwww, I mean wowwww… ok I have to say a few words now…

    My name is Joe, I was born in Torrance California and moved to Kent Ohio in July of 1999. What you don’t know is Andre Shepherd was one of my first friends when I moved to Ohio met him in 2000 . He was my manager at McDonalds at Kent State University. The guy was pretty cool he was into video games, movies – he was a geek like myself.

    In 2000 Dres roomate was moving out of his place and I was living with my then girlfriend in a nice 1 bedroom apartment. He came to me and asked if we could move into his place. He didn’t want to leave his lease, So i talked my gf into doing it I trusted Dre as he was a good friend so my girlfriend did as well. We move in with him everything is going fine for about 6 months. One day Dre comes home and tells us he got fired from McDonalds. I;d get home from working a 8 hour day and he’s playing my Dreamcast.

    At first, whatever, he just lost his job but it kept going on and on I’d get home he’s always in the same spot im like man you need to go out and look for a job. He tells me I did look I just got back just running me lines of bullshit. He never wanted to go back to fast food but I told him I could see if I could get him into Burger King he had plenty of experience. Didn’t take very long and Burger king hired him on the spot as a shift manager, he trained for a few months and was a assistant manager making salary.

    Everything was fine till around October. He decided to quit the job he was done with fast food and all the drama. He left one day and never came back. Andre flat out left me and my girlfriend to pick up the slack 6 months he was gone. Daily I would get home and there would be 50 messages on the answering machine of people trying to reach Dre. The phone would ring off the hook and we would tell the bill collectors no we have not seen him, sometimes the bill collectors would tell us we were lying and that he was home and we were trying to hide them.

    We would get knocks at the door of people trying to find him so they could start repossessing things of his. My girlfriend maxed out 2 credit cards and we were 3500+ in the hole having to pay his half of the rent, we tried to get out of the lease but they said tough shit pay us. I was sitting there playing my Dreamcast and in walks Dre after 6 months no calls no one knows where the hell he was.

    I was livid I let out all I had on my mind. He apologized but that was not good enough. My then girlfriend told me how she lost respect for me and lost all trust cause it was my fault I told her we would be ok moving with Dre he had a job, well, wow, did that all hit me in the face.

    So after I cooled down he told me how he got this job selling these awesome Kirby vacuum cleaners. He tried to sell one of these Kirby vacuums they’re like 2 grand and I couldn’t believe it. He made this sales pitch, granted he did a good job showed us how this vacuumed could do all these things – it was impressive. We told him “hell no” we’re not gonna buy this and he got pissed at us for not doing so, how can we afford a vacuum cleaner at this point when were so far in the hole?

    The point I’m making here is the guy ran away from everything just as I’m finding out now he ran from the Army and is banned from the USA. WOW, really? I know more about the dude being his friend for 5 years. The dude was a Republican would never join the military unless he had to for financial obligations. Let me tell you when I sit and read all this stuff he makes him self out like some hero. Truth be told he’s doing what he always had run from everything, run from his job, run from his friends. He lived in his car the 6 months he was gone. His bills were piling up so high you couldn’t see half of his door to his room, the door is almost 7 feet tall.

    He owes me almost $3500 in bills we had to pay for his lease obligation , we were paying his half of his rent with credit cards till they maxed out. He owes another friend $2k for buying his Dodge Intrepid at the time he had a job at Burger King and thought he was gonna get paid back. Dre, as far as a person goes, is the nicest person and caring person you would ever meet. His obligations however are a mess and anytime something would come up the first thing he would do is run from them like he did to us. His bills got so bad, his life got so bad having to live in his car he didn’t have a choice.

    Joining the Army would pay his bills. Now I’m not saying he’s not fighting for a good cause, i believe he is doing something he strongly believes in, he thinks the Iraq war is pointless and, yes, I agree it is pointless and its a war that will never end. But when you sign up for the army or anything you are committed to do whatever is asked from his country.

    He swore an oath, and he ran. Not only did he run but he ran during a war which is the death penalty in the USA he is a traitor to our people. The problem is he always thinks about him self but there is gonna be more long term impact on what he’s doing with this thing in Germany. If they grant him amnesty you are gonna see thousands of people trying to do the same thing he’s doing and that is not right.