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

Category: Usual Suspects

  • 9-12 candidate Kokesh

    I got simultaneous emails from Coby Dillard and Chris Hill this morning about one of the newest “9-12 candidates”. 9/12.org was apparently founded to highlight the candidacy of potential politicians who share their values and principles. Why they let this guy in is beyond me;

    kokesh-9-12

    If you go to the page wherein this organization endorses Kokesh, it gives a brief biography – but somehow, between his honorable discharge in 2006 and his candidacy for Congress, the details get a little thin. Details like his General Dischage, arrests for trespassing, arrest for failing to obey a police officer, arrest for illegally putting up posters on Federal property, putting up bogus fliers trying to frame a conservative student group around the GWU campus. Little things like that. It’s all summed up in these lines;

    Driven by a deep intolerance for injustice, Adam has also done extensive work to alleviate, minimize, and prevent the human suffering that inevitably arises from forceful government intervention.

    In addition to addressing the kind of suffering he experienced first-hand in Fallujah, he has organized to help veterans struggling with PTSD, railed against 4th Amendment violations, and stood up against the Federal Reserve.

    Yeah, he helped veterans struggling with PTSD – with his prescription of xanax and gin. And storing his urine in the fridge at the IVAW Treehouse. Oh, it doesn’t mention Kokesh’s membership in IVAW at all. I wonder why?

    Apparently, this 9-12 organization doesn’t screen the candidates they support very well. I’d find it hard to support any of their candidates based on this one endorsement. Two minutes of searching this blog with Kokesh’s name would turn up enough evidence to drop him from their rolls.

  • Christians for Peace march in Killeen

    kdh-code-pink

    An article in the Killeen Daily Herald reports that a bunch of hippies from Austin and Waco descended upon Fort Hood and Killeen Texas this weekend. Of course, they began their silent march at the IVAW “Under the Hood” cafe. I don’t believe that a more naive bunch of people exist. It sounds to me like they think we’re the only people fighting this war;

    “Our goal is to establish peace and end this war,” [Ray Johnson, retired chaplain] said. “The Creator has better things in store for this nation.”

    The article doesn’t mention what this Ray Johnson was chaplain of, but they sure make it sound like he was in the military don’t they?

    “Our silent march and vigil is not about ‘We,’ the good people, against ‘Them,’ the bad people. On the contrary, those of us here today must have a deep awareness that the soldiers at Fort Hood are people caught in the same trap of war making that we are. They want to earn money to care for their families. They work for their own dignity and self-respect. They work because they love their fellow human beings, their country, their God. The unspeakable tragedy is that their hard work is used to kill the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan.”

    Throwing in the class warfare card is almost un-Christian, ain’t it?

    Of course, it was a star studded event;

    Victor Agosto, currently facing charges for refusal to go to Afghanistan, joined the group to march for peace. Agosto’s summary court-martial is scheduled for next week. After serving his sentence, he said he would probably be chaptered out of service. He has been in the Army for four years.

    So we’ll be looking for accounts of Victor’s court martial this week.

    But these “Christians for Peace” are new to me, so I had to look them up on the internet. There’s not much about them, really. No information on who supports them (although in the KDH article it mentioned some of them were also members of Code Pink) and their “About” page is pretty sparse. But here’s one little naive nugget to take with you;

    Despite our exorbitant defense budget, we still feel insecure and threatened by a poor and improvised al-Qaida, so we build more systems, even a missile defense system which repeatedly fails.

    I’m pretty sure the missile defense system isn’t intended to defend against al Qaeda, but there are a few countries that we do need to defend against. And calling al Qaeda “poor and impoverished” doesn’t make them any less dangerous or any more endearing.

    Jesus teaches us to love our enemies (Matt 5:43-44), to forgive those who sin against us (Matt 18:21-22), and to deny ourselves, carry our cross, and follow him.

    We believe that war is immoral. The idea that we can kill, we can choose who will live and who will die, to protect our way of life is not in accordance with Jesus’ teachings and life example. The powers of this world use war today, but as Christians our battle is not against flesh and blood, (not against other people) but against these powers (Eph 6:12). As Christians, we do not wage war as the world does (2 Cor 10:3-4).

    I’m pretty sure than Jesus didn’t want us to march like lambs to the slaughter, though. But, like I said, some of these folks are in with Code Pink, and we know their agenda is just to make more money and be obnoxious. These Christians for Peace are cut from the same cloth. Clearly, their message if you look at their website, is based in the class warfare message – we’re all victims of greed and materialism. The US spends money on defense when it could be spent on unicorn farms, rainbow development and Skittles gardens.

    If I were a church-going Christian, I’d be angry, for the same reason I’m angry at Veterans for Peace. Their group’s name insinuates that unless you belong to the group you are “for War”. We all want peace – it’s just that some of us have our feet on the ground. I wonder how much worshiping of Christ and spreading his teachings will get done if the Islamists get their way with us.

  • Zelaya gives talks until midnight

    Things are heating up in central America over former President Zelaya’s ouster. The deposed politico, from the safety of Nicaragua, has declared that at midnight he’ll steal into Honduras to continue his fight against the Constitutional government in Honduras. This from Fausta’s Blog;

    Sounds to me he’s saying he’ll be leading a battle… mañana. We’ll see what the weekend brings. The negotiations are scheduled to resume today.

    From Alberto de la Cruz at Babalu Blog, it seems that the referendum Zelaya was booted for inciting had the fix in;
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  • Birthers use Ron Paulian tactics

    stefan-cook

    You probably remember the big dust up we had this week with the “birthers” (or “nirthers” if you really want to piss them off) over Stefan Cook’s dismissed lawsuit this last week. TSO and I were reminded of the ordeal we suffered through last year as a result of the Paulian invasion of TAH. The comments were all the same; “learn your Comstitution”, “read a book”, “educate yourself” and all of the same old stupid general blather. An attempt to take over the comments by the intellectually shallow. And we always get the blowhards who think that quanitity equals quality.

    Apparently, they’ve adopted the same blathering obnoxious approach across the internet. take a look at the comments Uncle Jimbo’s Ace of Spades post in the post below. Same techniques. I guess they didn’t recognize that Ron Paul’s biggest failing was having nutjobs as supporters who would cut and paste their comments on every Technorati search result of “Ron+Paul”.

    The Columbus, Georgia Ledger-Enquirer discovered the same thing.

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  • Sheehan to America “You suck,too”

    With George Bush gone, Cindy Sheehan has turned her sights on the rest of us with her new book “Myth America: 10 Greatest Myths of the Robber Class and the Case for Revolution!”. I haven’t read the book because it’s not in Kindle.

    Apparently Sheehan self-published the book because it’s only available at her website and I don’t think I want to put money in her pocket. I’d rather she starve to death, actually. I don’t mean to be cruel, but apparently, from what I heard a few years ago, starving to death is the most humane way to be euthanized. And I’d like Sheehan to be out of her misery.

    But you really don’t need to read the whole book when she makes the 10 myths available without context;
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  • Bacon resigns as IVAW ED

    We got word today that Alex Bacon, the Executive Director of the IVAW, resigned his position today due to health reasons.

    Dear members of IVAW,

    We regret to inform you that our Executive Director, Alex Bacon, resigned early yesterday due to personal health issues. We wish him a full recovery and look forward to him once again becoming active with IVAW.

    The Board of Directors had a call last night where we discussed this issue (among other issues facing the organization) and the following decisions were made:

    1- Aaron Hughes (the Organizing Team Leader) will act as the point of contact between the Board and the staff while there is no ED in the office.

    2- Wes Davey (the Board Treasurer) will be going to Philadelphia, on Monday 20 July 09, to act as the interim ED until a new ED is hired.

    3- The Board will hire a full time ED to replace Alex. At this point we are inclined to hire the “runner up” for the job as we had an exhaustive process a mere 3 months ago. That being said, we will be negotiating with this person over the next week or so and will update you accordingly.

    4- This new ED will work with Wes (on site) and Alex (via phone and email) to transition into the position full time.

    The Board, staff, and members are working very hard on the convention and we are still planing on a successful convention that once again brings together members of IVAW to collectively move forward as an organization and a movement.

    We will update you as soon as we are ready to take our next step. Please feel free to send questions to Board@ivaw.org.

    In Solidarity

    Board of Directors
    Iraq Veterans Against the war

    Here at TAH, we hope that Alex has a speedy and complete recovery.

    For those of you who don’t know Alex Bacon, he went AWOL from the Coast Guard while he was stationed in Honolulu, HI. In his own words from his IVAW profile;

    I grew up in the Unitarian Church and had some illusion that I was going to make the military more humane by joining. What I didn’t realize was that you don’t change the military, the military changes you. I was disappointed in our mission, which was really focused on protecting American fisheries and seemed to have very little to do with lifesaving. I was also surprised by the dehumanization of other people, including fellow shipmates that I saw. I realized fairly quickly that I had made a mistake, and as impulsively as I joined the Coast Guard I went AWOL.

    No, really, that’s what it says. I don’t think I could make the story any funnier.

    So who is going to be the next person to take over IVAW? Well, I’m waiting on the answer to that one from one of my countless moles, but one person told me that the only two others who applied for the position were Matthis Chiroux and Adrienne Kinne. Kinne’s profile says she “served stateside in direct support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as a voice interceptor.”

    Kinne is touted as a “whistleblower” because she told the press (Amy Goodman from Democracy Now) that the Palestine Hotel, which housed journalists, was on the target list for the initial bombing of Baghdad in 2003. We didn’t strike the Palestine Hotel, it was merely on a target list but somehow it’s important. it’s another of those stories that go no where.

    According to my source in IVAW, Kinne is a hardcore member of the International Socialist Organization. My source also tells me that Chiroux and Kinne both withdrew their applications to be ED so we’ll have to wait to find out whether the Board decides to perpetuate it’s image as an anti-war organization or a veterans’ organization.

    Oh yeah, Carl Webb wrote yesterday that he’s to blame for the slim pickin’s for a new ED who might actually be a veteran of the Iraq War;
    webb-cheeks

  • Honduras teeters on violence

    Yesterday, de facto Honduran President Roberto Micheletti offered to step down to keep the peace there (according to New America Media);

    President Roberto Micheletti said Wednesday for the first time that he is prepared to step down if it will return peace to Honduras, but on the condition that ousted President Manuel Zelaya does not return to office, reports La Opinión. Meanwhile, the government Wednesday night re-instituted a curfew that it had lifted over the weekend in an attempt to quell national unrest.

    Compare that to Manuel Zelaya’s threat to conduct “the final battle” for his return to power in the Central American nation;

    Patricia Rodas, foreign minister of Zelaya’s toppled government, says Zelaya is en route to Honduras but she did not provide details as to where he plans to set up the alternative seat of government. Zelaya himself will announce it when he deems appropriate.

    One is willing to resolve the situation while the other side is willing to spill Honduran blood. Nicaraguans are against Daniel Ortega‘s attempts to interfere in their neighbor’s politics.

    Fidel Castro demands that the US withdraw their troops from Honduras;

    “The only correct decision at this moment is to demand the U.S. authorities stop interfering and providing military assistance to coup leaders and withdraw their troops from Honduras,” Cuban media reported citing Castro as saying in his article.

    He added that “the civil coup in Honduras has created a really complicated situation in Latin America, which cannot be resolved by traps, cunning and lies.”

    “New details of U.S. involvement [in the coup] emerge daily and it [the coup] will result in a broad resonance across the whole Latin America,” the 82-year-old former Cuban leader said.

    US involvement in the coup was to prevent it for over a week, until Hondurans decided to stop listening. Zelaya admitted as much the first week. The only “new details” are coming from motor-mouth dictator Hugo Chavez (who also admits to daily cocaine use). You’d think Castro would know better since there have been thousands of American troops stationed at Guantanamo,Cuba for nearly a century with no adverse effect on Cuba’s government.

  • Boxer accused of being racist

    “Call Me Senator” Barbara Boxer tried to get Harry C. Alford the President and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce back on the plantation by telling him he’s out of step with other Black organizations. Mr Alford took offense and told Boxer that she was being condescending and racist. Somehow, Boxer thinks the fact that her husband is a veteran is germane to the discussion. It’s a six minute video, but worth every minute.

    That’s Boxer’s problem, along with the rest of Left. She thinks of “groups” as homogeneous voting blocs. After she uses a resolution by the NAACP to convince Alford he needs to get on board with Black people, she mentions her husband’s veteran status as proof that Alford should agree with her.

    Good on Mr. Alford. Piss on Boxer.