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

Category: Society

  • Bloggers’ Union? Wha…?

    The first I heard of this bloggers’ union thing going around was at Fausta’s Blog and I thought she handled it pretty well, so I had no comments to make. I’ll admit that the reason I missed the whole discussion was because I’ve been frittering away my time at this job-thing I’ve got going here. Apparently, I missed alot – but back to the blog union thing.

    So, there’s nothing really going on today, suddenly and I went back to see what the Hell this union thing is all about (not that I want to join a union – but because it’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard…well, since Sean Penn went for a ride with Hugo Chavez and peed along the road for the cameras). But anyway, I come across this thing from Machinist entitled “The Bloggers Union That Isn’t“;

    Susie Madrak, proprietor of the blog Suburban Guerrilla and the AP’s main source for its story, is not calling for a labor union for bloggers…..What Madrak is organizing, instead, is very different: a kind of grass-roots insurance pool to pay for health emergencies of progressive bloggers — people without whom, she says, Democrats would not enjoy the political success they’re now seeing.

    Well, that makes sense. Being “Progressive” means you expect someone else to do all of the things you don’t want to do, and pay your way, too. But the article takes an odd turn;

    Madrak’s fight was inspired by the death last month of Jim Capozzola, one of the founders of lefty blog the Rittenhouse Review. Madrak, who calls Capozzola her “fairy blogfather,” argues that if he’d been a Republican, Capozzola would be alive today. “He would have been in a well-paid think tank job, living the high life (He did, after all, have a masters degree in foreign policy,)” she wrote recently in the Huffington Post. “Most importantly, he would have had health insurance for the past six years.”

    Hey!

    Where’s my high-paying think-tank job? Are all Republican bloggers supposed to get one first…or do we get it later? Is someone else going to pick up the whopping $12/month I spend on this blog? How come no one told me about this  – I went to the MilBloggers’ Conference and no one told me about it there.

    Am I being treated like this because of my wishy-washy stand on immigration?

    Maybe it’s because I oppose the death penalty. Look, guys, I’ll sell my principles down the river for one of those think tank jobs. Who do I contact?

    But, look, I’m not joining a union – I already talk to too many people I don’t like.

    Fausta had the best advice for these “Progressive” bloggers, though;

    If you want medical insurance, talk to a lawyer, incorporate as a small business, talk to an insurance agent, and pay your own premiums, you wuss. If you’re not making enough money as a blogger to do this, get a job that does.

    You can always join the Army, too – but it may cut into your blogging time. Ask Scott Beauchamps.

  • Beauchamps recants fables/Kos defends Solz

    Well, I guess Michael Goldfarb of National Review Online has received confirmation from the Army that Scott Thomas Beauchamps has recanted his fantabulous tales of war;

    Separately, we received this statement from Major Steven F. Lamb, the deputy Public Affairs Officer for Multi National Division-Baghdad:

    An investigation has been completed and the allegations made by PVT Beauchamp were found to be false. His platoon and company were interviewed and no one could substantiate the claims.

    According to the military source, Beauchamp’s recantation was volunteered on the first day of the military’s investigation. So as Beauchamp was in Iraq signing an affidavit denying the truth of his stories, the New Republic was publishing a statement from him on its website on July 26, in which Beauchamp said, “I’m willing to stand by the entirety of my articles for the New Republic using my real name.”

    So, I expect that any moment now, he’ll be labeled a Karl Rove plant. Probably The New Republic will be fingered in the conspiracy, as well.

    All the things I want to say about Beauchamps, but I’m too much of a gentleman (and my Dad reads this sometimes) can be found here at Absolute Moral Authority (h/t to Beth at My Vast Wing Conspiracy).

    An Army Lawyer speculates on the charges and punishments but he neglects my favorite; failure to repair. Everyone is guilty of that one no matter what they do.

    In other drivel, the Angry Rakkasan, ( at http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/5/3940/86488 sorry you’ll have to copy and paste the address into your browser, I’m not linking to that drivel) three days after the incident, more than two days after the internet had been running the video (um, we know what we saw Rakkie), tells the “real story” about Solz and the sergeant he mistreated for all of the world to see. Well after the obligatory “all of you right wingers should join the military if you love the war so much” chickenhawk crap, he explains that the young buck sergeant was at the convention the day before;

    The sergeant immediately zeroed in on General Clark and engaged him in a conversation.  Eventually, I noticed Clark pull the soldier aside and move away from the rest of the crowd.  I could see that the General was getting agitated.  I later learned that the soldier had been lecturing him, telling him that the U.S. military should stay in Iraq and that General Clark should support the President’s policies.

    Clark is said to have told the sergeant that, while he respected the sergeant’s opinion, political activism while in uniform was both inappropriate and illegal—and to do it at the much-publicized YearlyKos Convention would put the soldier in an unnecessary and precarious legal position.  He told the sergeant firmly but politely that it would be in the soldier’s best interest to leave.  And that was the end of it until the next day.

    Rakkie goes on to call the young sergeant a “troll” and ends with another “chickenhawk” rant against Michelle Malkin and Matt Drudge. Now see here’s my problem with the story; there’s nothing that says what, exactly Little Mac Clarke said to the young sergeant – only second-hand hearsay and Rakkasan’s interpretation of facial expressions.

    And I don’t give a tiny rat’s ass how Rakkasan, Clarke or any other number people interpret military directives on the subject, the sergeant said nothing political while in uniform, he didn’t say that he represented any official military policy or office, and the YearlyKoz, from it’s own website;

    US-based (but globally focused and inclusive) non-partisan grassroots political action community that uses the Internet and blogs as primary tools for: expressing viewpoints, building consensus, acting to change the status quo, mobilizing huge numbers of people and informing each other and the world about current events, grassroots actions, networks, meetings, policy and more.

    Get that? It’s a “nonpartisan, grassroots” convention. So what did the soldier do wrong?

    Solz on the other hand, was completely wrong. No military leader would degrade and threaten a subordinate in public like that. If the soldier had been more of an asshole like I’m an asshole, he’d have made Solz either file charges against him or show him in public what he’d done wrong. I’m sure dorkboy’s head would’ve exploded on camera if it’s been me. Except that I probably wouldn’t have worn my unifrom to the event.

    But what choice did the sergeant have? As you’ve read for yourselves, this pussy Rakkasan trotted out the chickenhawk meme twice in his piece. Once at the beginning and once at the end – as if he has some absolute moral authority over who is allowed to criticize the Left and who isn’t. (And suggesting Matt Drudge and Michelle Malkin join the military – c’mon. All Matt Drudge did was link to the story, and I’m not sure Michelle would do her unit much good – she’s barely the size of an ammo pouch) I’m sure the young sergeant wore his uniform as insulation against that intellectually vacant charge that I’ve had thrown at me whenever one of my posts get linked up to Kos or HuffPo.

    And why did it take three days for this to published? The Right had been tired of blogging about the incident by the time Rakkasan trotted out this defense. Seems to me that Kos would’ve defended itself Friday night instead of Sunday morning. That tells me that they had to recon the net to see what was being said and then manufacture a defense.

    A bad defense at that – full of gaping holes.

    Rick Moran at Right Wing Nut House and Pajamas Media has an interview with young man now known to be Sergeant David Aguina, age 25, US Army Reserves.

  • The can’t-do John McQuaid

    John McQuaid, some guy selling a useless book, wrote a typical Leftist blame-game finger-pointing opinion piece in the Washington Post this morning that’s right out of Jimmy Carter’s malaise speech. Using the collapsed bridge in Minneapolis as a catalyst for his rant, he claims that the problem with America is Americans in The Can’t-Do Nation;

    But the bridge disaster also reflects a broader and more troubling problem. The United States seems to have become the superpower that can’t tie its own shoelaces. America is a nation of vast ingenuity and technological capabilities. Its bridges shouldn’t fall down.

    And it’s not just bridges. Has there ever been a period in our history when so many American plans and projects have, literally or figuratively, collapsed? In both grand and humble endeavors, the United States can no longer be relied upon to succeed or even muddle through. We can’t remake the Middle East. We can’t protect one of our own cities from a natural disaster or, it seems, rebuild after one. We can’t rescue our citizens when they’re on TV begging for help. We can’t even give our wounded veterans decent medical care.

    Now, I’m no fricken rocket scientist, like McQuaid apparently thinks he is, but to me it seems there’s more blame in the fact that the Federal government has failed, not Americans. Maybe Americans are partially to blame because we swallowed the drivel of Frankie Roosevelt, Lyndie Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Billie Clinton. The more government expands, the less efficient it becomes – which is why the Soviet Union failed for 70 years and North Korea and Cuba…need I go on?

    Why does anyone think the Federal bridge guy with an office in Washington, DC knows anything about a bridge he’s never seen? Yeah, he gets reports from other Federal bridge guys, but only the local bridge guys can look at that bridge every week or month – they have to drive over, their families have to drive over it. Doesn’t it make more sense that the local bridge would care more about that bridge than some doofus in Washington? Sure, it shouldn’t be that way, but with thousands of bridges across the country, how can the federal bridge guy track all of them as often as he should?

    When the levees in New Orleans broke, there were fingers flying through the air across the country. Everyone blamed the Feds – the Federal levee guys in Washington who had probably never seen the levees in New Orleans – instead of the goofballs who saw the levee every day. When the President told the mayor and governor to evacuate the city, and they didn’t and everyone blamed the President instead of local officials (who were waiting for Greyhound buses to move the lazy criminals in New Orleans who were waiting for the evacuation so they could loot their former-neighbors’ homes).

    Why couldn’t the locals blame their local leaders? Because the local leaders didn’t have the deep pockets to hand out $10,000 debit cards. They knew they could count on the Liberal Northeast guilt to pay off big time. They’d seen the Feds pay off the World Trade Center victims, and they wanted their cut.

    Now in fairness, McQuaid gives Newt Gingrich a paragraph to blame the feds buried deep within McQuaid’s idiot ramblings – but that’s hardly enough to point out to McQuaid how he is so wrong on so many counts. This country does just fine, it’s just that this neo-liberal system of government has robbed us of our soul. The system is not broke – it’s morally and intellectually bankrupt.

    McQuaid holds out hope for the next President to fix the system (which in Leftist gibberish means raise taxes and expand the failing government). It’s not going to be the next President, or the one after that.

    We need to change the American culture – instead of demanding that government shoulder more of the burden of our everyday lives, we should have learned lessons that government is useless when it comes to taking care of our neighbors and families and we need to take things away from the government and reclaim it for ourselves, and for our local governments.

    Americans have built the world – in less than a century, the world went from the Industrial Age to the Atomic Age. Largely due to American ingenuity – what we lost was the gumption to continue working because of government interference in every aspect of our lives.

    Until we take it upon ourselves to elect competent community leaders in place of the slick politicians we’ve been inflicted with lately, we’ll just be throwing more money down a deep dark hole, hoping against hope someone will save us – that someone will never come.

    That someone is YOU!

    Some bloggers, so steeped in their own victimhood, will never understand that.

  • Window to the future; Democrats raise taxes on Big Oil

    Completly ignoring the basic laws of economics, Congressional Democrats voted yesterday to increase tax on oil companies by $16 billion. Of course this move comes at a time when oil prices reached an all time high price of $75.48 per barrel at Friday’s market close. So who can expect to pay this tax increase? Who else?

    The Washington Examiner writes about the House vote ;

    Declaring a new direction in energy policy, the House on Saturday approved $16 billion in taxes on oil companies, while providing billions of dollars in tax breaks and incentives for renewable energy and conservation efforts.

    Republican opponents said the legislation ignored the need to produce more domestic oil, natural gas and coal. One GOP lawmaker bemoaned “the pure venom … against the oil and gas industry.”

    The House passed the tax provisions by a vote of 221-189. Earlier it had approved, 241-172, a companion energy package aimed at boosting energy efficiency and expanding use of biofuels, wind power and other renewable energy sources.

    But the money quote from Nancy Pelosi is this one;

    “We are turning to the future,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

    Turning to the future, huh? By using the failed policies of the past. That’s our future, readers, more taxes and more punishment for consumer by a populist Congress who operates on one-line sound bites that sound good in your ear but bite you in the pocket.

    The Washington Times writes;

    Democrats said the energy package is a step toward weaning the nation off fossil fuels and their emissions, which many scientists blame for global warming. They also say the proposal will create jobs in the growing renewable energy industry.

    “Energy independence is a national security issue, an environmental and health issue, an economic issue and a moral issue,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat. “We must strengthen our national security by reducing our dependence on foreign oil.”

    But isn’t it odd that the legislation doesn’t address our own reserves – seems drilling our own oil sources in Alaska would wean us off of foreign oil, too. Or drilling the same areas in the Gulf of Mexico that China and Cuba are drilling right off our shores.

    But, no, it’s easier to raise taxes and punish consumers than to actually create an effective energy policy. It sounds better on the evening news to those Prius-driving hippies who are still watching the evening news.

    Can anyone explain to me and my readers why forcing a windfall tax on oil companies helps the American people? Without making government into some grand charitable organization, I mean. And what does government do to justify it getting $16 billion dollars from oil companies? Those resources belong to the American people – not our government – yet no one among us, the American people, are going to see even a penny of the money. Because Democrats think all money is the government’s money.

    Seems to me that those hypocrits who are always complaining about Republicans who try to legislate-away bad behavior would criticise the Democrats for legislating behavior, too.

  • End the war; raise the taxes

    A bridge collapses in Minnesota and everyone automatically assumes the only answer is to raise Federal taxes. Well, except Barney Frank – he has a two-point plan. End the war in Iraq (he’s careful to say Iraq specifically, otherwise someone might think he’s a crackpot who wants to end the war against Pakistan) and raise taxes.

    LibertyPost records some of the mooniest/battiest internet posts from the Democrat Underground while Bob Parks, of Black and Right, ventures into the Daily Kos. 

    Can someone tell me why a taxpayer in Arizona should pay money out of his earnings so someone in Minnesota doesn’t have to drive around a body of water? Why should we abandon our worldwide struggle for national security to repair potholes in South Dakota?

    Well, of course, the real answer is that any straw the Democrats can grasp they use. They blamed the Republicans for two hurricanes, I guess they blame them for bridge collapses, too. Just so long as the people who vote remember that Federal government isn’t the answer to every-fricken-question-ever-asked.

    I remember in 1992, the Democrats blamed the President’s father for Hurricane Andrew and when he expanded the capabilities of FEMA (which was little more than a phone bank), the Democrats accused him of “growing government” in the election.

    Any group of people who thought that Al Gore and John Kerry were the best choices for the last two presidential races certainly don’t have the answer to two difficult questions – especially if the only answer they can come up with is “end the war and raise taxes”. A two-year-old could have think that one up.

  • Hypocrisy round-up

    The word hypocrisy gets thrown around alot recently, but there are several new examples that jumped out of the internet pages at me this morning. For example, John Edwards who recently condemned Fox News, a subsidiary of News Corp. and declared he’d not appear at a debate hosted by the successful cable news channel. Well, the New York Post discovered that the former senator, shyster lawyer who channels dead babies on command, hedgefund advisor who learned about poverty by stealing from his investors, and charity manager who funnels off tax-free donations to secretly fund his campaign expenses, took $800,000 from HarperCollins, another News Corp. subsidiary;

    John Edwards, who yesterday demanded Democratic candidates return any campaign donations from Rupert Murdoch and News Corp., himself earned at least $800,000 for a book published by one of the media mogul’s companies.

    The Edwards campaign said the multimillionaire trial lawyer would not return the hefty payout from Murdoch for the book titled “Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives.”

    The campaign didn’t respond to a question from The Post about whether it was hypocritical for Edwards to take money from News Corp. while calling for other candidates not to.

    In addition to a $500,000 advance from HarperCollins, which is owned by News Corp., Edwards also was cut a check for $300,000 for expenses.

    Edwards claimed $333,334 in royalties from last year’s release of the book, according to media accounts. The campaign said last night that those funds were part of the advance.

    Of course he claims he gave the money to charity, but he refuses to offer proof of his benevolence.

    The other day, I wrote about Barack Obama’s naive threat to Pakistan to invade with US troops unless Pakistan passes his test of an acceptable level of violence against al Qaeda in Pakistan. With all of the evidence we have that Iran is involved in war against us, why isn’t Obama beinging just as intolerant of Iran’s sheltering of terrorists, al Qaeda or otherwise?  Well, probably because admitting that Iran is a threat justifies our involvement in Iraq and the naive and inexperienced Obama doesn’t want to piss off the anti-war-at-any-cost whackos at Daily Kos.

    Speaking of Daily Kos, EJ Dionne of the Washington Post decided to defend the vulgar, hate-filled Daily Kos today. Comparing Marko’s internet playground for the mentally unstable to Rush Limbaugh, Dionne wrote;

    Personally, I dislike the use of obscenity on the Web, and many online posts are way too nasty. But the right wing, suddenly so concerned with the niceties of political discourse, did not worry much about what its militants said about Clinton, Al Gore or John Kerry. Limbaugh even blamed the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, on a president who had been out of office for eight months. I’m still waiting for his apology.

    George Bush and Dick Cheney have heaped praise on Limbaugh (“Well, Rush, you’ve got a great show, as always,” Cheney said during one of his many interviews) because he’s an effective organizer for the right — even if Limbaugh has, of late, become disenchanted with some of Bush’s policies. Limbaugh desperately needs a Democratic president. Another Clinton would be perfect.

    Um, EJ, Kos made obscenity on the internet an acceptable part of the debate. And resorting to obscenity on the internet makes the left look childish and immature, well, more childish and immature since most of the Left’s charges against president Bush are just ridiculous. So the Democrat candidates are aligning themselves with the extra-chromosone Left and you’re proud of it? And it hardly compares with Rush Limbaugh’s crowd at all.

    A Washington Times editorial alerts us to another impending CAIR lawsuit;

    Another week, another threat of lawsuit by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. This time, the group behind the Minneapolis “flying imams” lawsuit are targeting the Young America’s Foundation, the nonprofit that owns President Reagan’s Santa Barbara Ranch. YAF’s “offense”: Inviting author and terrorism analyst Robert Spencer to speak at a conference yesterday afternoon for a lecture titled “The Truth About the Council on American-Islamic Relations.” Among other things, the real CAIR story features less-than-flattering facts, such as the “unindicted co-conspirator” label CAIR earned in June in a Hamas terror-funding case, and the several people in the group’s orbit who have been indicted on terrorism-related charges. CAIR would rather try to frighten its critics than debate them.

    As CAIR’s lawyer warned YAF Wednesday: “Our clients have instructed us to pursue every available and appropriate legal remedy to redress any false and defamatory statements that are made at the session.” This comes from a group which claims to “encourage dialogue.”

    This is an outrageous bid at intimidation. A more normal advocacy organization would seek to debate its opponents. Sadly, this litigiousness is commonplace for CAIR, whose activities could be scarcely more different from its mission statement. CAIR claims to strive to “be a leading advocate for justice and mutual understanding” and to “enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.” It could scarcely do less of each. 

    It seems you can hardly mention hypocrisy these days without including CAIR in the discussion. I’ll let the Washington Times editorial stand on it’s own without my comments – they always do it so well.

  • Why Hillary shouldn’t be President

    This guy Ron Hilderacker is one of my minor heroes. He lives back in my old stomping grounds in Upstate New York in a depressed county called Wayne County, named after “Mad Anthony” Wayne of Revolutionary War fame on the southern shore of Lake Ontario.

    But let me tell you the little bit I know about Ron – he started a small weekly newspaper from scratch in a cash-strapped community a few years back. He does most of the research, photography and writing himself as well as personally driving the newspapers to the post office to be mailed to his subcribers.

    He’s a real force in the community because of his paper and he doesn’t hold back on local politicians who’ve been getting away with murder and spending taxpayer money with wild abandon.

    Ron also publishes the mug shots of nearly everyone arrested in the county – bringing shame back to crime. Sometimes he even makes fun of the more stupid criminals – like the mother/daughter team caught shoplifting in the Dollar Store.

    Holderacker brought real journalism back to Wayne County and he reminds me of why I wanted to be a journalist when I was younger.

    My mom turned me on to the paper’s website and I immediately became addicted – so much so that I subscribed. I guess it’s my small way of contributing to Ron’s passions and causes. When subscription price is $40/2 years it really is a “small” contribution.

    Well, imagine how happy I was to see his politics are close to mine (many brilliant people share my ideology, though, so it’s not that rare). His editorial this week is a well-reasoned piece about why New Yorkers should not vote Hillary for President. Here’s a teaser but please go and read the rest for yourselves and even though you might not be from Wayne County, just sit back, relax, read the rest of the paper and remember what journalism used to be;

    Let’s forget for a moment that Hillary Clinton is a woman. Her gender should not be a reason for garnering any sane votes for the Nation’s top post. Let’s forget that Hilary Clinton was not even a real New Yorker since there has been a long history of opportunists who have moved into state to seek a public office as a stepping stone to higher ambitions.

    Hillary Clinton is a liar. She boldfaced stood in front of the news media after her husband, former President Bill Clinton lied to the American people about his marital indiscretions while in the White House. Hillary said she believed that her husband was telling the truth and that she trusted he did not have an affair.

    This flew in the face of years of philandering by Governor Bill Clinton that was not one of the best kept secrets in Arkansas . Hillary was either the dumbest wife on the planet Earth, or a woman who knew the truth would not benefit her own political career path.

  • Fake Veterans and fake stories; how to avoid an asswhoopin’

    This is what brought this piece to mind today; an article about a former soldier who posed as a former Marine captain;

    For pretending that he was a decorated U.S. military veteran, 59-year-old Reggie L. Buddle of Puyallup must tend to the graves of those who really were.

    U.S. Magistrate Kelly Arnold in U.S. District Court in Tacoma on Monday sentenced the counterfeit Vietnam vet to two years’ probation and 500 hours laboring at Tahoma National Cemetery for posing as a decorated U.S. Marine captain and military chaplain in 2005 and 2006.

    Buddle, who never was in the Marine Corps, pleaded guilty in April to unlawful wearing of U.S. military medals and decorations. That followed an investigation by the inspector general of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

    After the hearing, Buddle, who served two years as an Army enlisted man but never in combat and never earning any of the medals he wore, apologized in court Monday and said he was ashamed, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle.

    Now, that’s just silly – this fellow had apparently served in the Army, yet he wanted to pose as a Marine. Why didn’t he join the Marines, then? The judge probably thinks he dealt out an appropriate punishment, but I disagree – Buddle shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near our honored dead – because he tainted every veteran with his BS stories.

    There was a book by BK Burkett called “Stolen Valor” that was published a few years back that chronicled some of the more heinous veteran impersonators and their eventual “outing”. There are websites that specialize (or at least partly specialize) in busting fake veterans. SOCNET, ArmyRanger, and VeriSEAL are just a few (it seems that no one poses as an Army cook or a Navy postal clerk).

    The gamut of fake stories range from John Kerry’s secret squirrel mission into Cambodia with a CIA spook who had too many hats, apparently, to Jesse MacBeth (fake Ranger) who claims to have committed atrocities because George Bush told him to do it. Most recently, of course, we have Scott Thomas Beauchamps, who appears to have written at least parts of his war stories before he even arrived in theater.

    By the way, if John Kerry is reading this, you still haven’t signed your Form 180.

    Of course the media is willing to believe almost anything they’re told because most journalists haven’t served, many politicians haven’t served, and only a few bloggers have served (outside of the milblog community).

    But, see, what torques my chain is that many of these fake veterans actually did serve in the military – but they’re disappointed that they didn’t do anything they consider worthy of their potential. That’s just horseshit. Anyone who serves in the military is a better person than those chickenshit little turds who call us “chickenhawks”. The military can’t make everyone in uniform a Ranger or a SEAL or a Force Recon Marine – there aren’t enough slots. But all of those guys have to eat, they need new equipment in the field, they need water, they need medical care – that’s what the rest of us are for, ya see.

    Be proud of your military service, even if you did only “shovel shit in Louisiana” (to borrow a Patton quote) – you contributed at a time when the country needed someone to step up. If you feel guilty that you didn’t feel you contributed enough, go volunteer at the local VA facility and associate with and help this country’s heroes – listen to real war stories, and pass them on. Be a hero today to yesterday’s heroes.

    And keep the BS to a minimum – then I won’t have to take a baseball bat to your monkey ass.