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

Category: Usual Suspects

  • Veterans lobbying Congress today

    While the dithererer-in-chief contemplates his inaction, veterans groups are stalking Congress in their offices this morning. Vets for Freedom are meeting as I type this to plan out their day in the halls of Congress in conjunction with Michelle Bachman’s troops.

    Meanwhile, VoteVets’ Executive Director focuses on the really important issues, according to Politico;

    In 2007, Veterans for Freedom supported the surge of U.S. forces in Iraq, and VoteVets.org opposed it, advocating a drawdown from Iraq instead. But for now, the organization is still debating its position on the war in Afghanistan, said VoteVets Chairman Jon Soltz, and it is concentrating its efforts on climate change.

    Don’t forget Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. While Obama fiddles over the war in Afghanistan, Jon Soltz prefers to focus his energies on social issues because whenever he shoots his big mouth off over actual military and veterans’ issues, somehow he always turns out to be wrong. It’s hard to believe that someone who has over three months experience in a combat motor pool could be wrong about military issues, but apparently it happens.

    How many things can you find wrong in this paragraph;

    The [VFF]’s founder, David Bellavia, who in 2008 ran unsuccessfully for Congress in New York, attacked Kerry and the late Sen. Ted Kennedy in 2005 for supporting statements that Iraqis wanted the United States to leave their country, claiming in an article on FrontPageMag.com that the comments were “a political attack on the troops, an attack that is aiding our enemy.” The publication is run by Holocaust denier David Horowitz.

    Bellavia was ONE of the founders of VFF, he didn’t unsuccessfully run for Congress (the party machine asked his to withdraw in favor of a candidate who could fund his own campaign) and I have no idea where the article’s author, Jen deMascio, got the idea that David Horowitz is a Holocaust denier – but I’ve got an email into her to get her source on that specious charge.

    Of course, deMascio, has found a group she likes out of the three she discusses – the new one that I introduced to you the other day “Veterans for Rethinking Afghanistan” and our new friend Jake Giliberto, who just happened to email me after the last piece I did on his. But DeMascio writes;

    “Listen, you’ve got to stop falling in love with the military solution; it’s not feasible,” said Jake Diliberto, one of the group’s founders. “This is a war of poverty and cultural misunderstanding, and it’s an Afghan problem that we don’t have the means or the wisdom to figure out.”

    So what’s Jake’s solution? Just let Afghanistan go back to being a stone age shit hole like we did in 1988. That worked out well for us the first time, didn’t it? Well, the “Rethinking Afghanistan” was started by a filmmaker and we know how much more intelligent filmmakers think they are than the rest of us – so let’s ask Hollywood to formulate our foreign and defense policy instead of generals.

    I like Jake, he’s real friendly and fairly bright, but he’s being used by the peace movement, just like all of those IVAW clowns. The peace movement doesn’t care about them or their opinions beyond the fact that they can wear T-shirts proclaiming the proper message.

  • The paranoia of Mark Potok

    TSO sent me this article last night from Reason entitled “The Paranoid Center” by Jesse Walker. It’s a fairly devastating piece about the use of paranoia that extremists like the Southern Poverty Law Center use to quell dissent in the current political debate. I found one part of the lengthy article particularly interesting. It’s in reference to the Department of Homeland Security report released earlier this year (on the third web page of the article);

    Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security issued a report on the threat of “rightwing extremism.” Depending on whose interpretation you prefer, the paper either defined extremism far too broadly or failed to define it at all. “Rightwing extremism in the United States,” the department said, “can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.”

    The charitable reading of this passage is that it’s a sloppily phrased attempt to list the ideas that drive different right-wing extremists, not a declaration that anyone opposed to abortion or prone to “rejecting federal authority” is a threat. But even under that interpretation, the report is inexcusably vague. It focuses on extremism itself, not on violence, and there’s no reason to believe its definition of extremist is limited to people with violent inclinations. (The department’s report on left-wing extremism cites such nonviolent groups as Crimethinc and the Ruckus Society.) As Michael German, a policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote after the document surfaced, the bulletin focuses “on ideas rather than crime.”

    Of course, that’s why our side got all upset about it – instead of mentioning dangerous extremist organization, the report, which was lifted almost verbatim from a Southern Poverty Law Center report published a year earlier attacked ideology. So the first thing TSO and I thought of, was to ask Mark Potok, who has been to TAH on occasion, about the SPLC’s reasons for perpetrating an attack on our ideas, rather than the real culprits.

    Well, instead of enlightening us, Potok instead answered that he wouldn’t honor us with his opinion because we haven’t been that charitable to him and his organization – something about me calling them “greasy lawyers” or something. So we’ve been frozen out of the the SPLC loop. I feel a little like Fox News. Maybe Rupert Murdoch will buy me out.

  • Biden in Watertown

    Joe Biden, one of the Democrat leadership who had a hand in tossing Joe Lieberman from the Democrat Party, chastized Republicans for running Dede Scozzafava out of the race for Congress in New York’s 23rd District this morning, as told by the Washington Times;

    “They may not have any room for moderate views in the Republican Party upstate anymore, but let me assure you: We have room,” said Mr. Biden, said at a pre-Election Day rally for Democrat Bill Owens.

    Yeah, as long as you conform to the daily positions the Democrats adopt. Remember Jane Harmon who Nancy Pelosi denied a chairmanship because Harmon supported President Bush’s war against terrorists? Yeah, they have room.

    Mr. Biden cited the withdrawal of Ms. Scozzafava, a moderate, as proof that Republicans won’t tolerate dissent, describing Mr. Hoffman’s supporters as right-wing extremists. “This has never been a place that has embraced extremism on the left or the right,” he said.

    And how would Joe know that? How many trips has he made over the years to Jefferson and Franklin Counties, NY?

    [Dede Scozzafava’s name] sparked tremendous applause among Owens supporters on Monday here at the North Side Improvement League.

    Duh! She was more liberal than the Democrat, and then endorsed the Democrat, Bill Owens, instead of the conservative candidate, Mark Hoffman. Since it was a rally for Owens, why wouldn’t they applaud?

    Democrats at the rally on Monday decried outside involvement in the election. […] [June O’Neill, vice chair of the New York Democratic Party] added: “Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck — they don’t live here.”

    Um, neither does Joe Biden.

  • Scozzafava to NY23: Vote for the establishment

    Yeah, I kinda figured that Dede would be that sort of prick who is vindictive rather than the bigger person. Apparently, her decision to drop out of the New York’s 23rd District race was selfish – if she couldn’t win, she didn’t want to lose – so she decided to throw her voters to Bill Owens the Democrat candidate. That demonstrates to me that she wasn’t fit to represent conservatives of the district in the first place.

    Frank Rich wrote in the New York Times yesterday that “The GOP Stalinists invade New York“;

    Last week it turned out that Hoffman’s prime attribute to the radical right — as a take-no-prisoners fiscal conservative — was bogus. In fact he’s on the finance committee of a hospital that happily helped itself to a $479,000 federal earmark. Then again, without the federal government largess that the tea party crowd so deplores, New York’s 23rd would be a Siberia of joblessness. The biggest local employer is the pork-dependent military base, Fort Drum.

    Yup, Jefferson County’s largest employer is Fort Drum – no dispute here. In fact, John McHugh stayed in office for decades because he preserved the sprawling military base’s presence in the North Country. Before Mario Cuomo decimated the business climate in Upstate New York, it was home to sprawling family farms and now-dormant factories. In fact, most of Upstate New York still remembers what it was like to not depend on the whims of government largess for their future – that’s why they’re Republicans.

    EJ Dionne, in the Washington Post, tries to dispute the grassroots aspect of Hoffman’s success thus far;

    But the truth is that it was national money (notably from the conservative Club for Growth) and national muscle (from former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and Sarah Palin, among others) that prevented Scozzafava from ever having a chance.

    Yeah, except neither Armey nor Palin are elected officials anymore – like Joe Biden who is in Watertown tomorrow to campaign for Owens tomorrow. They oppose the party machine – that makes them grassroots. And I suppose that Rich wouldn’t see anything wrong with “Organizing for America” trying to convince a resident of Maryland to influence a local race in Virginia. How is that different?

    Gingrich was being the true conservative here, arguing that local party people ought to be able to choose candidates in their own jurisdictions, even if national conservatives don’t like how the locals choose. This is at least as much a victory for the inside-the-Beltway conservative machine as for grass roots conservatives.

    I guess Dionne thinks that to be a “true conservative” we have to follow the party’s instructions and vote for their choice, no matter how contrary to our views they intend to vote. Party machines in Upstate New York are the folks who inflicted Eric Massa on them. Eric Massa is the Democrat who told his voters that “I will vote adamantly against the interests of my district if I actually think what I am doing is going to be helpful. I will vote against their opinion if I actually believe it will help them.”

    That’s the type of pompous, elitist representation New York’s 23rd District would’ve had from Scozzafava. So because she’s petty prick, she throws her voters to Owens – in favor of the establishment and the political machine. That’s the way the Inside-the-Beltway folks like ’em.

    Added: Gateway Pundit says she took the advice of Chuckie Schumer. Any more speculation on why she was forced out?

  • James Branum; incompetent boob

    I spent some time on the phone with one of the IVAW refugees last night and he verified some of the stories I’d heard from other places about our favorite lawyer, James Branum (more Branum background at this link). The person I talked to last night isn’t a lawyer, but he advocates for soldiers – free of charge. He’s also an actual combat veteran who left the IVAW because of the International Socialist Organization’s insurgency into IVAW.

    Well, anyway, this guy took up the cause of Fort Bragg’s Echo Platoon, which TSO and I have written about before. It’s a confinement facility for deserters and various malcontents. According to my source, the place was in deplorable condition – not that it concerns me very much how they’re treated – and he decided to help the knuckleheads. With Branum as their lawyer, the Army decided they’d try the members of Echo Platoon this coming April.

    When my source got involved, he was able to convince the Army leadership to give them all Chapter 10s (a dishonorable discharge in lieu of a court martial) which will probably save the tax payers a lot of money. Within minutes of the announcement of the Army’s decision, Branum put a “We won!” message on his Facebook page – as if he had a hand in the process.

    The other story my source told confirmed a story I’d heard some where else – Branum is living with his clients in Killeen, Texas. Apparently he drifts from apartment to apartment and stays rent free. Now, I’m no lawyer, but it seems to me that’s kind of unethical. He even borrowed $800 from one client and when that client got tossed from his apartment for not being able to pay the rent, Branum moved to another client’s apartment in Copperas Cove, TX – down the road from Fort Hood.

    Now, I don’t have much love for the malcontents Branum represents, but it seems to me that no one deserves this kind of treatment. We all know how stupid and easily manipulated privates stationed far from home can be – and Branum, like all of the other camp followers who suck soldiers dry, takes advantage of that and probably influence more misbehavior than there might be otherwise.

    The good news is that the Army is on the verge of banning Branum from military bases, with very limited access. The bad news is that he’s trying to get military members on Fort Hood to protest his banning. I hope that those soldiers realize soon that Branum is using them for his own personal gain. As I said, I don’t have much sympathy for these guys, but they certainly don’t deserve James Branum.

  • Obama’s MoveOn proxies target Toyota

    Since Obama can’t bring himself to attack a large employer like Toyota for belonging to the Chamber of Commerce, he’s turned his pawns at MoveOn.org loose on them. On their website, they proclaim;

    Toyota claims to be “green” but supports anti-climate lobbying by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Companies like Apple have quit the Chamber in protest. Now, Toyota owners are urging Toyota to stop opposing clean energy and quit the Chamber of Commerce.

    I’m sure glad I don’t have an Apple to tie me to this nonsense.

    As Joseph Perkins of the Washington Examiner points out, Toyota produces more energy efficient cars than any other car company, yet they find themselves in the sights of the geezers and anti-intellectuals of MoveOn.

    But that’s not good enough for MoveOn.org, which is playing the energy card against Toyota simply to further the political aims its shares with Mr. Obama.

    MoveOn has ordered their minions to photo themselves with the slick MoveOn-mass produced signs paid for with Soros money and they’ve responded like the good little sheep they are with a Flickr set of pictures nearly a thousand strong. I scrolled through the pictures to find a good looking person to grace my front page, but that foolish endeavor resulted in Hugh and his really bad hair piece.

    Of course, these are the same buffoons that were calling for $10/gallon gasoline last year to force a non-existent “clean energy” on the country.

  • Avoiding the rush to the exit

    While the President claims he won’t “rush” to a decision on Afghanistan, and John Kerry carries his water for him, others don’t see the need to put off the application of more force to the region. Senator Richard Burr of South Carolina talked to Patti Ann Brown today on Fox news Channel;Senator Burr was in Afghanistan and talked to the generals while John Kerry wined and dined with diplomats. Also opposed to delaying the deployment is Uncle Jimbo from Blackfive;

    Blackfive, himself, reminds us that many of the things Democrats are saying today are similar to what they said when they opposed the “surge” in 2007. the difference, of course, is that our President agrees with the blivet heads in Congress that surrender is our best option.

    Of course, the Taliban appreciates a man who is pragmatic and slow to act – it’s a quality that they truly admire in their enemies. In fact, they’ve self-imposed a moratorium on fighting our forces while the president thoughtfully considers all of his options – that’s why this month is becoming our deadliest month in Afghanistan, according to the Washington Times.

  • Feeling played, Oly?

    Earlier this month, Olympia Snowe, the pretend Republican from Maine caved to Democrat pressure on the healthcare bill while it was in committee because she got assurances from her fellow Democrats that there would be no single-payer (government-paid) option in that bill. She was heralded by the Democrats as a wonderful person – the only thing she really wanted anyway.

    Now, Harry Reid has decided that he won’t honor that pledge to Snowe, not that he ever intended to honor Max Baucus’ promise;

    But Reid and the leadership faced this basic math: There is only one Snowe and there are 60 members of the Democratic caucus. If just a few Democrats abandoned the bill, it would fall short even with Snowe’s support.

    “It’s a zero-sum situation,” said Durbin, who is in charge of counting votes in the Senate. “If we thought that just putting the trigger in meant that we’d end with 61 votes,” he explained, then that’s what leadership would have done.

    So basically, they played Snowe just to get the bill to the floor for a vote by the Democrat caucus. You’d think she’s learn. Of course her milk-toast response is that she’s disappointed. She ought to feel like she was gang-raped, and she ought to say so (Bloomberg link);

    Senator Olympia Snowe said she won’t support the immediate creation of a government-run insurance program and raised the possibility that legislation overhauling the health system won’t be completed this year.

    Yeah, well it doesn’t really matter what she’ll support or won’t now – the damage is done. And the Democrats are gloating;

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has insisted that the House of Representatives will pass a health care reform bill including a public option.

    President Obama is “pleased that the Senate has decided to include a public option for health coverage,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a written statement.

    “He supports the public option because it has the potential to play an essential role in holding insurance companies accountable through choice and competition,” Gibbs said.

    But, ya know what? I’ll bet dollars to donuts that she’ll cave and get screwed a couple of more times during this legislative session.

    I know someone who is probably counting his blessings that he didn’t get that job on Snowe’s staff.