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

Category: Shitbags

  • Police too “occupied” to respond; man murdered

    CBS San Francisco reports that police were getting ready for hippies crossing into Berkeley from Oakland when a 9-1-1 call about a trespasser came into the station so they didn’t give it a priority.

    Peter Cukor, 67, had been beaten to death with a flower pot. The suspect, 23-year-old Daniel Dewitt, was taken into custody and will be arraigned on Wednesday.

    His mother Candy said it’s a tragedy.

    “Our hearts go out to the other family. It breaks my heart. We’ve all lost in this,” she said.

    Beaten with a flowerpot after 67 years of law abiding life on the planet. I don’t necessarily blame the police, but I do blame the Occupy protesters who made the police lose focus on their community while the filthy hippie invaders came with their vacuous intellect and intent to disrupt that community.

    And Candy DeWitt, the perp’s mother…what did you lose? The guy was beaten to death with a flower pot and you compare your loss to that of Mr. Cukor? Seriously?

    Thanks to Old Trooper for the link.

  • Congresswoman sticking her nose in the business of military justice

    Marine_7002 sends us the story of one Marine’s exoneration is the hazing case that led to the suicide death of Lance Cpl. Harry Lew. The Marine is Sgt. Benjamin Johns who apparently caught Lew sleeping while on guard duty in Afghanistan and made Lew dig a foxhole to keep him awake. According to Johns, Lew had been caught sleeping on guard duty 4 times in the past (Marine Corps Times link);

    The night of April 2, Lew was assigned to watch duty. Johns talked to him beforehand about sleeping, because Lew had already dozed four times in the 10 days since he was assigned to the squad.

    Lew fell asleep again, despite assuring Johns he would stay awake.

    Capt. Jesse Schweig, the lead prosecutor on the case, argued that Johns ordered Lew to dig the foxhole out of anger. Schweig said Johns took Lew’s sleeping as a personal slight, and berated the lance corporal, contrasting Lew’s actions to the behavior of other Marines.

    “The implication is Lew is different — he is no longer a Marine,” Schweig said.

    Schweig argued Johns was so angry he didn’t want to wait for Lew to go through the military disciplinary process — called non-judicial punishment — for sleeping because it would take too long.

    Speaking as an experienced NCO; it’s called an “on-the-spot-correction”. NCOs do that every minute of every day the world over, in every country…it’s kind of their job. Not everything needs to go to the commander for an Article 15 or Captain’s Mast. It’s not hazing, the UCMJ allows NCOs the authority to make corrections like that.

    But, Lew’s aunt who happens to be a congresswoman, Judy Chu, D-CA, says the verdict, which the court arrived at by hearing the evidence and based on the jury’s experience (that’s why we’re tried by a jury of our peers), is “outrageous and a travesty of justice.”

    “The not guilty verdict in Sgt. John’s trial twists the knife even further into the wounds that were caused by Harry’s hazing death,” Chu said in a written statement. “This verdict shows that hazing in the military is not only accepted but in fact, imbedded very deeply into its culture, including the jury, which was comprised entirely of fellow Marines.”

    Like I said, Johns was tried by a jury of his peers who understood the position in which the young sergeant found himself and he took corrective action, properly. The congresswoman should sit down and STFU, unless she wants me to start making comparisons between her and John Murtha who did pretty much the same thing in regards to the Haditha Marines.

  • Veterans’ share of the budget not being balanced on our backs; $13B

    The Military Officers Association of America reports that military retirees will absorb over $13 billion in the Defense Department budget through increases in our healthcare costs which will be passed on to all ranks at every age, including those over 65 years old;

    TRICARE Prime annual enrollment fees for retired families (currently $520) would rise as high as $820 starting October 1, 2012, and rise to as much as $2,048 within five years, with fees based on military retired pay amount.

    TRICARE Standard beneficiaries would start paying a $140 annual family enrollment fee and a slightly increased deductible ($320) starting Oct 1, with the enrollment fee and deductible rising to $250 and $580, respectively within 5 years. These would be flat fees for all Standard beneficiaries.

    Retirees and family members age 65 and older would start paying an annual TRICARE For Life (TFL) enrollment fee of up to $135 per person starting this Oct. 1. This fee also would be graduated based on retired pay amount, and would rise to as much as $475 per year within 5 years.

    Pharmacy copays for retail and mail-order brand-name medications would more than double (from $12 to $26) starting Oct 1. Copays for non-formulary medications that currently cost $25 would also more than double, to $51, and availability would be mostly restricted to the mail-order venue, with only limited retail access. The brand-name and non-formulary copays would rise to $34 and $66, respectively, within 5 years.

    See, that’s why Panetta took over the Defense Department…he’s a hitman who’ll take the blame for these massive hikes during the election season to deflect blame from the president. Panetta doesn’t need your vote to keep his job. Now where are those fuckers who told me four years ago that Obama would never do this? Where’s fucking VoteVets and IAVA? They put the President in office, so where are they with that blather about how Obama is the best thing that ever happened to veterans?

    I got in a pissing contest with IAVA’s Reickoff yesterday on Facebook over his pointless blather for a parade, but his lack of support for veterans’ healthcare. He pointed to some IAVA bullshit about “How the budget cuts will impact you“, not a word of condemnation of the current administration for their blatant screwing of veterans to the wall.

    Thanks to ROS for the link.

  • Private arrested for larceny

    Radar sends us a link to an article from KOMO News which reports that Private Nicholas A. Solt has been arrested for the theft of more than $600,000 worth of sensitive military equipment which resulted in an entire infantry company being locked down at Joint Base Lewis-McChord that NSOM mentioned last month.

    Solt has been charged with:

    • Selling optical and targeting equipment of a value more then $500 without proper authority, a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice Article 108

    • Larceny of military property, of a value of more than $500, a violation of UCMJ Article 121

    • Unlawfully enter a government building with the intent to commit a criminal offense, a violation of UCMJ Article 130

    • Wrongfully communicate a threat to kill an individual, a violation of UCMJ Article 134

    • Violation of a general order wrongfully possessing drugs and drug paraphernalia, a violation of UCMJ Article 92

    • Wrongfully possess anabolic steroids, a violation of UCMJ Article 112a

    If convicted on all charges, Solt faces 59 years of confinement, total forfeiture of all pay and allowances and a dishonorable discharge.

    From the looks of his Facebook page, he needed the money to buy more tattoos. He’s safer in prison than he would be in the barracks, though (CNN link);

    After learning of the thefts, the Army decided on January 4 to put members of the Army’s 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division on lockdown, preventing soldiers from making phone calls or leaving the unit’s barracks or unit office.

    The unit has been home from Iraq since September 2010.

  • You’re disagreeable because of your military service

    The Huffington Post reports that “Military Service Does Number On Vets’ Minds, Study Suggests“. The upshot is that we’re all disagreeable;

    “Military recruits are a little less warm and friendly to begin with and the military experience seems to reinforce this–as after service, men score even lower on agreeableness when compared to individuals who did not go into the military,” lead author Dr. Joshua J. Jackson, an assistant professor of psychology at the university, said in a written statement. “Interestingly, this influence appears to linger long after the soldier has re-entered the workforce or returned to college.”

    Maybe we’re disagreeable because of the stupid, moron civilians we have to deal with who think that we’re all suffering from PTSD. Maybe it’s because we have had to face the realities of the world and then we have to come back to the plastic world which is more worried about millionaire crackheads who kill themselves and millionaires who have 30-day marriages. Maybe we’re disagreeable because most of the shit civilians worry about don’t amount to hill of crap.

    And while we’re trying to do our work, the gabby shitbag in the next cube is on the phone calling across the office to talk about American Idol…while I end up doing her work at the end of the day just to make a deadline.

    We have to listen to the whiners wonder how we’re going to get off our Middle East oil habit, but won’t allow us to drill for own. Or we get to listen to their false claims to “support the troops” while they raise our healthcare costs and slash our defense budget while pumping up welfare and social programs. Or meaningless debates over “payroll tax cuts” that benefit no one and we all know will have to paid back eventually.

    Maybe our service to the country gave us an intellectual clarity to know the answers, but no one is asking us.

    Thanks to Daniel for getting my blood pressure up.

  • Matthis update

    Matthis made a celebrity appearance at a recruiting station, somewhere. I’m guessing it’s in New York City since his squeeze Elaine Brower is there, and she doesn’t leave the city very often. But, apparently, he’s been busy eating up his VA benefits in college. Those benefits that he didn’t see a value in earning when he was called back to active duty.

    Yeah, the evil military and the evil US government that let him continue his education despite the fact that he answer the call. Ingrate.

    His Facebook page listed a mention of him in the Chicago Tribune. the author of the article, Robert Koehler, mistakenly described him as an Afghanistan veteran in an article about the subject we discussed last week about “war porn”;

    As Matthis Chiroux, an Afghan vet and war resister, pointed out recently in an excellent essay, the phenomenon of “war porn” — the photographic record of desecrated corpses — is widespread within the ranks and aggravated by our long, slow defeat in the war on terror: our inability to impose our will on a living enemy. “Historically, defeated or nearly defeated armies have been guilty of some of the most serious atrocities,” Matthis writes.

    I wrote the author yesterday to inform him that Matthis isn’t an Afghanistan veteran and have yet to get a response from him. I guess what Mathis writes is more important than who he is. But if the messenger is corrupt, the message is corrupt.

  • …And, the Mother of the Year is….

    This is why your drill sergeants wouldn’t let you give your Mom a power of attorney (Click Orlando link);

    An Ormond Beach woman was arrested Tuesday night on suspicion of stealing $4,000 from her son — a U.S. Marine — while he was deployed in Afghanistan.

    Paula Barker, 43, was arrested on charges of fraudulent use of personal identification information.

    According to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, Chadwick Barker, who was deployed for more than six months, discovered upon his return home in September that thousands of dollars had been taken from his bank account.

    Thanks to Old Trooper for the link.

  • Don’t want to be called a b###h? Don’t be one.

    Argentinians are suffering from a mass case of twisted panties because a Falkland Islands newspaper called Argentinian President Christina Kirchner a “bitch” yesterday according to The Guardian;

    “I receive threats and insults via our work email address and on Twitter. The threats I try not to take seriously, particularly as the individuals tend to sign their name and even offer ‘besos’ (kisses) after claiming they are coming to the Falklands and their first task will be to kill me. Mainly I am referred to as a prostitute, liar, thief and pirate, other words I really wouldn’t like to mention.”

    She did not keep such emails, she said. “I read and delete immediately because it’s not something you want to keep as a souvenir, but one said ‘Die you decadence whore’, others say things like ‘I am coming to the Malvinas so walk softly because I will find you.’”

    Yeah, Kirchner is only trying to distract Argentinians from their economic woes with the promise of a little macho-inducing battle with the Brits over the islands. But they’re mad at a newspaper. The loss in 1982 caused the downfall of the military government, so Kirchner had better resist putting her political eggs all in the one basket.

    Thanks to Old Trooper for the link.