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

Category: Usual Suspects

  • Elaine Brower; a new standard for crackpots

    I’m working on a story about the protest that happened in Philadelphia the other day, and waiting on a report from our eye witness snoop who was there. While doing some research on it and the background of the 30 organizations who took up the protest, I bumped into Elaine Brower. I’ve seen her name before, but we’ve always been more interested in IVAW. Anyhow, meet Elaine Brower.

    Elaine Brower

    She braggs about the fact that she’s a member of World Can’t Wait. Now, WCW was founded in 2005 to drive George Bush from office. It was founded by Charles Clark Kissinger – you can google Kissinger and nearly every link refers to his affiliation with the Revolutionary Communist Party. That’s the kind of people who wanted George Bush out of office and weren’t happy with the democratic process.

    Brower is also a member of Military Families Speak Out – an affiliate of United for Peace and Justice which was founded by Leslie Cagan, a big supporter of Castro. So why does Brower belong to MFSO? Because she has a son, USMC Sergeant James Brower, who has been deployed three times to the GWOT.

    In 2005, she did an interview with Newsday about her son’s deployments;

    “Tell me, please,” his mother said, sitting across the street from her office in lower Manhattan. “What can I do to make sure he comes back alive?”

    She’s already done the practical things.

    She’s tried to talk him out of going. She bought him $2,000 worth of body armor and high-tech goggles, life-or-death gear the Marine Corps still does not provide.

    When James transferred to another Marine unit, making his war-zone call-up all but certain – “I screamed and I cried for 24 hours and beat up on him the way only a mother can.”

    None of it worked, of course. He’s shipping out five weeks from now for the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif. From there, it’s straight to Iraq.

    His mother still remembers the 3 a.m. calls from Afghanistan. “He’d say, ‘Yeah, Mom, I was carrying ammo. I stepped into a hole and broke my ankle. But I kept running. They needed the ammo.’ Then, I’d get up in the morning and go to work, where people were talking about things like what was on TV last night.”

    Her son, she said, shares her skepticism about the war in Iraq. Lots of his fellow Marines do. Support for some broader policy is not what motivates them.

    “Really, they don’t train these guys to protect their country,” Elaine Brower said. “They train them to protect each other. I asked James, ‘Why are you going back?’ He said, ‘My buddies are over there, and I need to protect them.’”

    So, she doesn’t understand that thing that only soldiers (and Marines) understand. My mother was the same way for twenty years – but my mother wasn’t bat shit crazy. You can almost smell the crazy in Brower’s voice when she tells the Newsday reporter how great it would be to lose her son like Cindy Sheehan did so she can be an even greater activist and get her some of that absolute moral authority;

    “God forbid he goes over there and something happens to him,” she was saying yesterday as more grim news arrived from Iraq. “I’ll go off. I will. The way I’ll react, they’ll think Cindy Sheehan is a butterfly.”

    I could hear the drool on her chin.

    She’s upset that her son won’t listen to her insane rantings, so she expects the government to stop all wars because her son won’t stop going to war. Well, even though he’s survived three tours to the war, two tours of Iraq and one to Afghanistan, she’s still being a pain in the ass getting arrested at the Philly protest and still waving her LIVE son’s non-bloody shirt;

    Elaine Brower, 53, who sits on the board of Peace Action of Staten Island, was one of those taken to jail. She has been organizing against the AEC because she is the mother of a Marine who just returned from his third tour of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    I’m sure her son is proud of his Mom who hangs out with communists and airs familial laundry in public.

    Bush is gone, her son is home safe, why’s she still getting arrested?

  • Specter slips into incoherency

    The Washington Times reports this afternoon that Arlen Specter has made the final leap into total lunacy. While on ABC’s Face the Nation, Specter responded to a question by Bob Schaeffer whether or not Specter felt he let down Pensylvanians who voted for Republican representation in the Senate, Specter yammered something about how he was let down by the Republican Party, then the cheese slid off his cracker right there on national TV when he accused Republicans of killing Jack Kemp;

    Mr. Specter continued: “If we had pursued what President Nixon declared in 1970 as the war on cancer, we would have cured many strains. I think Jack Kemp would be alive today. And that research has saved or prolonged many lives, including mine.”

    Yeah, we’ve had three Democrat Presidents since Richard Nixon left the White House. The Democrats controlled both houses of Congress with the exception of two years for twenty years after Nixon left office – so what the hell is this nincompoop trying to say?

    I guess it’s true that when you join the Democrat party, they suck whatever is left of your brains out.

    Added: I just remember that when Jocelyn Elders, Clinton’s first shot at Surgeon General, was asked why the Clinton Administration was shifting money from Heart and Cancer Research into AIDS research, her answer was “Everyone has to die from something”.

  • Front Toward Enemy

    To those who don’t know me, I’ve been messing around on political forums for the better part of 10 years now, including 5-or-so years as a moderator/admin on one very popular forum owned by some skinny blonde chick…Ann something or other, but I digress.

    During that time, I made a practice of lurking on opposing forums, mostly for material, but also for the sheer sake of trying to decipher what these people were thinking…and I use that term loosely. One of my favorite, most target rich environments for my recons was The Democratic Underground, profoundly referred to as DU, earning it’s denizens the title of DU’ers. In many cases, what was posted on DU could hardly be held out as fiction, much less categorized as an argument (last time I checked “fuck you” wasn’t exactly considered thoughtful debate), so I would package up these little nuggets and post them on Ann Whatsherface’s forum and we’d all get a pretty good chuckle out of them. Nice. Whatever.

    The bulk of these DU crossposts were harmless, amounting to a significant number of echo chamber rants, lithium fueled diatribes, endless bitching about Bush and Cheney (to which they had all manner of interesting nicknames) and some of the lamest attempts at humor seen this side of a Kathy Griffin “show”. On occasion, however, there were some rare gems, like the one from a particular DU poster named Magic Rat, who according to him, had his “girlfriend” up in his bedroom, her clothes half-off, when he suddenly decides that taking the tube-bus to Tuna Town wasn’t in the cards that evening…his bewilderment on why she suddenly left was comedy gold.

    Then there was the “guy” who got mad because all the chicks in his office would run out for lunch on Friday to his favorite pizza joint and wouldn’t invite him…or the epic “Liberal Historian & Nighttrain” hook-up, where DU’ers actually pledged gas and motel money via PayPal, only to have good ol’ Nighttrain bail when he figured out that his Dodge Omni probably couldn’t handle Jabba The Historian’s considerable girth. These were some of the better threads, chiseled into the internets for all time.

    But with the coronation of the Teleprompter-in-Chief, these outlets have changed a little…or have they? A quick DUmpster dive this morning revealed a significant number of threads dedicated to prosecution of Bush administration officials related to the “torture” memos. There were a few posts about the flu (and the magnificent way St. Barry is handling the crisis), but there was one that stood out:

    formercia (1000+ posts) http://journals.democraticunderground.com/formercia
    Tue Apr-28-09 07:40 AM
    Original message

    I was threatened again yesterday. They did it by threatening my 8 year old son. They’re such cowards that they sent a boy almost twice his age to do it. he’s still a minor, thus pretty much untouchable.They were sending me a message that they may not be able to get to me directly but my son is fair game.
    We’ve turned into a Third World country where the inmates are in charge of the asylum.

    I had to keep him home from school today because he’s suffering from anxiety. He’s borderline autistic and has enough trouble functioning at school as is, but this just pushes him over the edge. I complained before but nothing gets done.

    Ok…at face value, it’s a fairly reasonable response to someone having their kid bullied, but then again, this is DU…the thread continues:

    HarukaTheTrophyWife (1000+ posts)
    Tue Apr-28-09 07:42 AM
    Response to Original message

    1. Since you know who did it, just call the fucking cops

    formercia (1000+ posts)
    Tue Apr-28-09 07:46 AM
    Response to Reply #1

    3. They won’t do anything. I even complained to the FBI a couple of years ago.

    They’re a bunch of Bush Gang connected Dominionist, Joel’s Army types. Their local gur-preacher is a State Senator who likes to push his weight around.

    Hm. Ok, so we’ve gone from our kid being bullied to the FBI and a state senator being involved. Interesting. But there’s more:

    HarukaTheTrophyWife (1000+ posts)
    Tue Apr-28-09 08:08 AM
    Response to Reply #3

    9. Wait, so this has been going on for years? Why are they doing this to you?

    formercia (1000+ posts)
    Tue Apr-28-09 08:11 AM
    Response to Reply #9

    10. It’s Bush Gang revenge. I screwed with one of Poppy’s operations when I worked at CIA. This has been going on for decades.They can’t attack me directly, so they attack my son.

    Yeah…totally worth the wait, wasn’t it? To recap for those in the cheap seats, what we have here is an anonymous poster on a leftwing whack-job forum who is complaining that their kid is being threatened by teenaged FBI agents, and their state senator (who is also a pastor…gotta get that anti-Christian bias in there too you know), due to some clandestine operation they thwarted during Bush 41’s presidency while they were working for the CIA. To their credit, some of the DUmbasses have the audacity to question our intrepid hero’s veracity, which doesn’t go over too well:

    formercia (1000+ posts)
    Tue Apr-28-09 08:28 AM
    Response to Reply #12

    18. What is the ‘kool-aide’ reference? Are you trying to insinuate that I’m under-medicated? They already tried that attack. The shrinks say I’m ok.
    I do have severe PTSD as a result.

    Looks like IVAW could have a potential spokesperson here! But wait, it gets even more intense:

    formercia (1000+ posts)
    Tue Apr-28-09 08:20 AM
    Response to Reply #15

    16. They have been ‘messing’ with me for decades. I’ve been shot at, poisoned, electrocuted, assaulted. I spent a year and a half in rehab recovering from one of their ‘pranks.’

    Sounds like he’s been to Gitmo. I kid…I’m a kidder. No seriously:

    formercia (1000+ posts)
    Tue Apr-28-09 08:44 AM
    Response to Reply #19

    27. It’s not paranoia. I’ve heard your meme many times. I would have taken offense to it at one time, but I’ve heard it so often, that I just write off such statements as ignorance. This has been going on for decades. It began when Poppy was VP and in charge of the Central America Program.

    I was one of the CIA Officers that worked on the mining of the harbors in Nicaragua program. In January of 1982, I notified my superiors that I felt the program was illegal. Apparently, Poppy took great offense to this.

    My quote:
    “You people are out of your fucking minds.” “When Congress finds out about this, they are going to cut our balls off.”

    This is what I said to my Division Chief, in front of his whole Division. (OTS/SAD)

    Rebubula (481 posts)
    Tue Apr-28-09 08:55 AM
    Response to Reply #27

    39. So…for 27 years the CIA (an organization that routinely kills people in manners that seem natural or simply disappears them) has been pissed at you for transgressions against them?

    Sorry…if this is true (and honestly I doubt it), this (Democratic Underground) is NOT the forum. You should (as another poster mentioned) contact Leon Pannetta’s office (he seems an honorable man) and some of your old CIA friends (you should still have at least one friendly contact there) to get everything on the table.

    If this is true, I apologize and wish you the best at getting out from under these assholes.

    If only Jack Bauer were here…he’d know how to handle this…or Chuck Norris, but since he’s a fundie Repuke, maybe Ward Churchill? I hear Bill Maher is pretty tough as long as he can use his mouth:

    14. Can you move far away? Not worth risking your, or your son’s health.

    formercia (1000+ posts)
    Tue Apr-28-09 08:23 AM
    Response to Reply #14

    17. I’m safest in plain sight. They have too many tentacles to hide from.

    Google ‘hentai’ for more on these wayward tentacles…on second thought, don’t do that.

    And so this is how it goes. These are the folks that can nullify your well informed vote. These are the people who parade around in pink attire demanding peace at all cost. These are the morons who think that the preamble to the Constitution says “generally promote Welfare” instead of “promote the general welfare”. These are the idiots who join the military for “college” and then shit themselves when the Army has the audacity to actually deploy them into harm’s way. They are the ones who would be more than happy to sell out your grandkid’s future as long as they can sit in a women’s studies program for 10 years on your dime…and they all think you’re the one who is the problem. And hey, thanks to Janet Napolitano they have Federal justification for that opinion.

    Which brings us to the point of this rambling mass of whatever…battlefields are no longer limited to far flung shores, or wind swept sand dunes…they’re in your face. They’re in your neighborhoods. They’re in your kid’s school, and more importantly, they’re embedded in the collective psyche of those who command the reins of power. Think of that next time you see our Fearless Leader, his flawlessly vetted speech scrolling on his best pal, the teleprompter and think of this; on a claymore mine, it has printed in large text ‘Front Toward Enemy’. The question is, who has the clacker.

  • A thought or two…

    Romper, bomper, stomper boo. Tell me, tell me, tell me, do. Magic mirror, tell me today. Will all my friends be good while Jonn’s at play? 

    I see Raoul, Airborne, Claymore, Bohica-22, Sporkmaster, UpNorth, Ray, Kate, COB6 in a lovely suit and hat…Uh-oh, who’s missing? Gitta life and roommate, Southern Dem.  They’ll come out and play as soon as they finish reading my guest blog…unless it’s over their heads, of course.

    You know we keep hearing what a state the economy is in. And, natch, I have to agree. But one thing I will never fall for is the fact that we, the United States of America are going down, currency, republic and all. Really, think about it. The WORLD runs on our currency. Take that, Euro-weenies for The COWboy!!

    We can take our money ANY F-ING place and pay our way. Can the Chinese spend dong here….ah,nope. Will the Euro be accepted at O’Sullivan’s? I think not.  But can I go to die “HaxnStube” and whip out a few Ben’s? Yeah, baby! Show me teh MONEY!

    Let’s ponder this a bit further….

    SHEISSE! 2100 hours…. Just saw a report about an Iraqi soldier killing our men. SOB!! You know the media is going to have a freaking field day…groan…

    Back to thinking…Britain has fought changing over to the Euro. It seems they were wise, as the currency was kicking ass as far as remaining stable. The euro never quite got there. And, of course as US money goes, our dollar value was low, low, low.  On the bright side, it meant more Euroweenie nations were coming here and buying our goods, spending on tourism, etc…And they’re still coming.  

    If the Tea Party was any indication of what a taxpayer will stand up against, I dare Soreass, Paulson, Bernanke, et al to push this agenda with all the other leftists including the COWboy President for a global currency. Everything is tied to the US dollar. Period, end of story. If China wants is going to lend to the boy President, then there is certainly a vested interest in our prosperity as a nation, don’t you think?

    UDATE: In no way, shape or form am I saying the dollar cannot collapse as hyperinflation will occur with nothing backing the printing of money, willy-nilly. No. I am well aware that it could happen. I AM saying I would hope that China’s vested interest might prevent the ultimate collapse. Weimar, Germany and Zimbabwe are perfect examples of too few goods chasing the mega money the COW wants to print. Scary stuff.

    Okay, is anyone else mad as hell about the ABC news reporters outing the folks who were involved in conducting the interrogations that led to the WB of 3 peeps who wanted to blow people up? (You know, those people that the left claims just need to talk it out, get a little love and then it will be all better?) Uh, yeah, about that, you morons at ABC. You have effectively endangered the lives of these people forever. It’s nice that you get to sit on your thrones night after night while the “others” keep your sorry behinds safe, no matter how much you protest and take the high road. If this is all about the truth, I’d buy it. But, alas, it was nothing more than shilling for the COWboy President and keeping the BDS alive. They have to hate something or someone to be able to get up and face the world as only their realities allow.  

    Lessee, what else?

    COWboy still pres-check.

    Economy sucks,check. No job,yet, check.

    If you believe in supporting and defending the Constitution you are a RWE,check.

    Joe Biden still a weenie, check.

    This Ain’t Hell Rocks, check.

    If you have not donated to Concrete Bob, get to it! check.

    Chirroux still a dumbass, SFB, BFer.

  • The mild discomfort of torture

    Last night, our President let us know that the discomfort of waterboarding is now torture. And how does he know this? Because of his vast experience of being President an entire one hundred days. The Washington Times quotes;

    “I will do whatever is required to keep the American people safe, but I am absolutely convinced that the best way I can do that is to make sure we are not taking shortcuts that undermine who we are,” he said. “There have been no circumstances during the course of this first hundred days in which I have seen information that would make me second-guess the decision I have made.”

    In other words, he’s been president for a hundred days and you haven’t – so who is smarter? Certainly not you. And since you think you’re such a smarty-pants, he knows stuff you don’t;

    He said he has read the memos former Vice President Dick Cheney has asked be declassified and that the Republican says would show the tactics worked to get critical information that prevented attacks. But Mr. Obama said the memos don’t prove the information couldn’t have been gotten by other methods, and said even if America’s job is harder, it’s worth the trade-off.

    There. See? He’s read the Cheney memos and you haven’t. When you’ve read the Cheney memos, you can have an opinion – but until then, shut up. You.

    Let me show you how much torture is involved in waterboarding. The regular readers of this blog know that IVAW’s Matthis Chiroux is a big pussy, right? If waterboarding is torture, do you honestly think that Chiroux would allow World Can’t Wait to waterboard him in front of the UN? See for yourself;

    You’ll notice that Chiroux’s hands aren’t bound, yet when he is waterboarded, his hands stay behind his back, entirely voluntarily. If Chiroux truly thought he was in danger, and if waterboarding was really a fear-inducing practice, his arms would be flailing around involuntarily. besides, if it was as dangerous as the Left seems to think it is, do you honestly believe a sissy like Chiroux would allow himself to be involved in it? I mean seriously.

    Thanks for showing us that waterboarding isn’t torture, Chiroux. I owe you a cookie.

  • Cliff “Crybaby” Cornell gets a year (Updated)

    I’m still waiting on some answers to some of our questions from the Army, but I wanted to run this story before it gets too stale. I may update it later.

    Last night we discovered from our buddy, Just A Grunt that Cliff Cornell, the Arkansas deserter who broke into tears for a local news station wasting his time trying to take a few days off between the time Canada tossed his sorry ass out and he turned himself in to Fort Stewart, GA authorities, got off easy with a twelve month sentence yesterday. The other deserter who absconded to Canada, Robin Long got 15 months.

    I know it’s hard to keep these buffoons straight so in celebration of Cliff’s impending nuptials at the Graybar Hotel, here’s a recap;

    He deserted in January, 2005 and became quite a celebrity while he was there. His standard line was that recruiters suckered him in with the promise of money and a skill. I’m guessing that he got the cash and the training…still;

    On February 4th, the Canadians showed their good judgement by tossing the bozo out of their country. Immediately, never ones to pass up a fund raising opportunity, the Geezers For Peace started lobbying for a “sanctuary city” to hide deserters in the same comfort and conveniences that they refuse to protect.

    On February 10th, he arrived in Savannah, GA and laid up in a hotel room with an AP reporter who painted a portrait of a little sissy who was suddenly afraid to face the situation he’d created for himself;

    “I’m nervous, scared,” Cornell said, wiping puffy eyes beneath his sunglasses Monday at a Savannah hotel after a three-day bus ride from Seattle. “I’m just not a fighter. I know it sounds funny, but I have a really soft heart.”

    Yeah, the dragon and skull tattoos make that clear, Chrissy.

    So two months later he pleads guilty.

    Of course, Robin Long, the other absconder who held out in the comfort of Canada is angry that Cornell got off with three months less than Long. Long’s lawyer claims that the reason Long got a more severe sentence is because of his activism against the war on terror and Cornell’s more selfish motives. So what have we learned today, Robin?

    Updated: A statement from our new friend LTC Nathan Banks, hero, scholar, Literary Sumo Grand Champion and PAO;

    The Army does not agree with the statement of Long’s punishment being longer than Cornell because he spoke against the war. Each case was tried in front of a different judge with different outcomes.

    Cornell made the comment that he recieved a $9000 enlistment bonus, so I asked the good Lieutenant Colonel if Cornell was liable to the tax payers for that bonus;

    Yes, Cornell would be obligated to pay back any bonus he received. Not fulfilling his contractual obligation to the Army is clearly a breach of his contract.

    So we’ll never be broke as long as Cornell owes us that money.

  • The crisis falls apart

    I really hate to spend so much time on this flu thing, but I’ve got some stuff in the hopper that I’m waiting for confirmation on some small points, so in the meantime, this is all I have for now.

    Remember yesterday that the World Health Organization was blaming US citizens for spreading the flu? Well, it turns out that the one fatality we’ve had in the US was a Mexican child who was brought to Houston for treatment.

    The first reported death in the United States from the swine flu outbreak was that of a 23-month-old Mexican toddler who fell ill in Brownsville and was transported for treatment in Houston, where the child died Monday, city officials said.

    While Egypt is busy slaughtering all of their pigs to quell their fears, WHO announces that there have only been seven deaths worldwide not 152 like the media is blaring;

    “Unfortunately that [150-plus deaths] is incorrect information and it does happen, but that’s not information that’s come from the World Health Organisation,” Ms Allan told ABC Radio today.

    “That figure is not a figure that’s come from the World Health Organisation and, I repeat, the death toll is seven and they are all from Mexico.”

    All of these self-important pointy-headed bureaucrats and media types are still perpetuating the ignorance that’s fueling this exercise in fear mongering. AP’s headline still reads; Toddler in Texas becomes 1st swine flu death in US. And you have to read in the second paragraph that the “toddler” came from Mexico.

    Then to add to all of this bizarre shit, while President Obama was welcoming Arlen Specter to his fold, I heard him tell me to cover my mouth when I sneeze and to wash my hands. For f***’s sake.

  • The stupid season

    There’s just too much stupid stuff going on out there. You haven’t noticed?

    Arlen Specter left the Republican Party yesterday – well, actually, he left the party long ago. But now, Joe Biden, that softspoken, humble guy (who is also our Vice President in case you forgot) claims he’s the reason Specter switched parties;

    “I have been working on [Specter’s party switch] in earnest for the past four years and double time for the past 100 days [as vice president],” Biden told a Democratic fundraiser in Houston on Tuesday.

    Ya know, that just reinforces this good feeling I have about Specter leaving. I certainly don’t want anyone in my party that takes advice from the plagiarizer, braggart buffoon that is Joe Biden. This revelation from Biden just highlights Specter’s poor judgment.

    Drudge has been running a headline all night that the FAA knew they’d cause a panic in New York City with their photo-op overflight (which cost us nearly $400k, by the way), but went ahead without notifying the public.

    Federal officials knew that sending two fighter jets and Air Force One to buzz ground zero and Lady Liberty might set off nightmarish fears of a 9/11 replay, but they still ordered the photo-op kept secret from the public.

    So, we should be asking who was on board that flight that would have caused all of that secrecy at the expense of the public’s sense of well-being? How many people will die in the next REAL terrorist attack because of this false alarm?

    Here’s another bit of buffoonery from the administration – apparently calling it “swine flu” is unfair to pigs and pork producers.

    At a news briefing, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack took pains to repeatedly refer to the flu as the “H1N1 virus.”
    […]
    The Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health also objected to the name, saying the virus contains avian and human components and no pig so far has been found ill with the disease.

    A flu by any other name will make you just as sick. This flu comes from pigs, just like bird flu comes from birds…see how that works. Maybe if people think they can get the flu from eating pork, it’s because the administration isn’t doing a good job of getting the word out. They can get the word out about all of their political aspirations – why can’t they use their poltical machine to benefit the public?

    Maybe it’s because they WANT a panic – like the one in New York City.

    Finally, the media has found a single death in the US from swine flu (I’m still sayin’ it) in Texas. The number of confirmed cases has now “rocketed” (using language I learned from Fox News yesterday) from 64 to 65.

    I’m hiding in my basement until this stupid season blows over.

    Added: Wesley Pruden asks “Are We Dead Yet?”

    The medical researchers say it might mutate. Or it might not. If it does, it might, possibly, maybe, potentially be the worst killer since the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. Or it might not. Researchers are working on the vaccine, and the media is working on the panic. We may not get a vaccine, but soon there won’t be a dry pair of pants on six continents.