Saturday, August 14, 2010

The gentleman over

here takes note of the denizens of some military posts:
Of course, being an Army post, there's a few other things to watch out for: fire ants, black widows, brown recluses, cottonmouths, rattlesnakes, and coral snakes. All of which we are told the post has an abundance of. Oh, and skunks that will actually chase you if they feel you are between them and their preferred dumpster.

Which reminded me: when son was in CAP, one summer went to an encampment at Fort Sill. On fire watch one night he heard one hell of a fight outside and peeked around the corner to find a big raccoon arguing with a momma skunk- and the five kiddies- about who had the rights to the trash cans at this barracks.

He left them to settle things amongst themselves.

The people responsible for this should be fired.

Immediately.
Sheriff Larry Dever of Cochise County, Ariz., one of four Arizona counties contiguous with the U.S-Mexico border, said Friday that the U.S. Border Patrol has pulled back from parts of the border in his and neighboring counties because manning those areas has become too dangerous.
...
Dever stressed that the Border Patrolmen are ready and willing to perform their mission of securing the border, but that Border Patrol managers had determined that in “some places” the danger was too great and they wanted to avoid the risk of an international incident such as a cross-border firefight.
If the bastards are crossing our border, and shoot at our guys, the action needed is to do something about it, you morons, NOT GIVE THEM FREE REIN IN THE AREA! And if Mexico doesn't like it that a bad guy gets shot while shooting into the US, screw Mexico; tell them to do something about the bad guys on their side so our guys don't HAVE to worry about shooting back over the effing border.

By the way, have you noticed

the utter bullshit of the disclaimer at the start of movie trailers lately?
The following preview has been approved for appropriate audiences
What the hell?

Remember the Socialist Party of America announcing 70 democrats

belong to them? Well, guess what Codrea found?
And lest you think I'm overly alarmist, I'd like to offer a final bit of cheer from the good folks over at the DSA and their Progressive Caucus executors.

Do you like songs? So does the DSA, so much that they have devoted a page on their website to hymns glorifying their "struggle" (i.e., what Hitler called Mein Kampf ). The following in particular should be of special interest, since the people they're talking about, the "bourgeoisie," are you and me! And they really explain (better than anything I could say) why the socialists need to take away our guns. Ready? All together now:

Are You Sleeping, Bourgeoisie
Traditional American song, sung in rounds to the tune of "Frere Jacques".

Are you sleeping, Are you sleeping,
Bourgeoisie, Bourgeoisie,
And when the revolution comes,
We'll kill you all with knives and guns,
Bourgeoisie, Bourgeoisie

Bourgeoisie, Bourgeoisie, See How They Run
Usually sung in rounds after "Are You Sleeping, Bourgeoisie". Sung to the tune of "Three Blind Mice".

Bourgeoisie, Bourgeoisie,
See how they run,
See how they run
And when the revolution comes,
We'll kill them all with knives and guns,
Bourgeoisie, Bourgeoisie

Nice bunch, huh? Kinda makes you want to be a good citizen and register, better yet, turn in those guns?

Sure. Bullets first.

Yeah, we have SO much to learn at the Cordoba mosque


Found here

I just saw a bit more on Obama's "Islam is part of our heritage" bullcrap speech,

and found out that Ace beat me to something:
"The first Muslim ambassador to the United States, from Tunisia, was hosted by President Jefferson, who arranged a sunset dinner for his guest because it was Ramadan — making it the first known iftar at the White House, more than 200 years ago."
How very disingenuous. We have here a fact presented not merely out of context, but so deceitfully as to be a laughable fraud.

First of all, the term 'a part of America' needs some thoughtful defining. I think we can mostly agree that the implication is that the mere act of feting the Tunisian envoy during his diplomatic mission to the US is some sort of general inclusion of Islam into the American experience at that early date.

How? Merely through his temporary presence in our country? Even though we were in conflict with his state at the time?

What's that, you say? 'Conflict'?
Why yes:
That would be the same Treaty of Tripoli that was essentially a protection racket against the United States, requiring that tribute be paid to avoid being the victim of piracy.

That would be the same John Adams who reluctantly figured that bribing the pirates of Barbary was cheaper than military engagement (out of an understanding that the political will and money for creating the necessary naval force was out of reach for the time being).

And that would be the same Thomas Jefferson who, with his great knowledge and understanding of the Koran, reversed our course and decided that military engagement against the various Muslim states engaged in piracy was the only sensible way to proceed.
And then bombarded their coastline, invaded them, and persuaded them to find a new hobby.

This particular piece of history cannot be rewritten to suit current PC needs. The reasons for the envoy's visit cannot be recast into some pap about multicultural understanding.

But Obama & Co. will try, for all they're worth.

By the way, who were the Tripoli bastards? From Wikipedia:
The Barbary Corsairs, sometimes called Ottoman Corsairs or Barbary Pirates, were an alliance of Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa from the time of the Crusades (11th century) until the early 19th century. Based in North African ports such as Tunis, Tripoli, Algiers, Salé, and other ports in Morocco, they sailed mainly along the stretch of northern Africa known as the Barbary Coast.[1] Their predation extended throughout the Mediterranean, south along West Africa's Atlantic seaboard and even South America,[2] and into the North Atlantic as far north as Iceland, and they primarily commandeered western European ships in the western Mediterranean Sea. In addition, they engaged in Razzias, raids on European coastal towns, to capture Christian slaves to sell at slave markets in places such as Algeria and Morocco.
And why might Jefferson have had a problem with the bastards? And islam in general?
In 1786, Thomas Jefferson, then the ambassador to France, and John Adams, ambassador to Britain, met in London with Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, a visiting ambassador from Tripoli. The Americans asked Adja why his government was hostile to American ships, even though there had been no provocation. They reported to the Continental Congress that the ambassador had told them "it was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave," but he also told them that for what they considered outrageous sums of money they could make peace.(also from Wikipedia)
"You vile unbelievers, allah says we can use you any way we choose! And if you pay us off, we'll stop enslaving you, for a while."

So our first big contacts with islam were due to muslims pirating our ships and enslaving and killing our people; sounds just like nowadays in some ways, doesn't it?

Added: a little different wording from Sondra:

...In 1786 Thomas Jefferson, then US ambassador to France, and John Adams, then US Ambassador to Britain, met in London with Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the Dey’s ambassador to Britain, in an attempt to negotiate a peace treaty with the Barbary Pirates based on Congress’ vote of funding. To the US Congress these two future Presidents later reported the reasons for the Muslims’ hostility towards America, a nation with which they had no previous contacts.

”...that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman (Muslim) who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.”

And here's yet another case of theft by government

under cover of "It's for teh CHILDREN, and your own good!"
Have you heard of the “Great Outdoors Initiative”? Chances are, you haven’t. But across the country, White House officials have been meeting quietly with environmental groups to map out government plans for acquiring untold millions of acres of both public and private land. It’s another stealthy power grab through executive order that promises to radically transform the American way of life.
...
The federal government, as the memo boasted, is the nation’s “largest land manager.” It already owns roughly one of every three acres in the United States. This is apparently not enough. At a “listening session” in New Hampshire last week, government bureaucrats trained their sights on millions of private forest land throughout the New England region. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack crusaded for “the need for additional attention to the Land and Water Conservation Fund — and the need to promptly support full funding of that fund.”

The REAL Gulf disaster

Info here

The new project

Feeling better, but still not up to full, so since I'm stuck inside, decided to get started on something I've been thinking of: semi-restoration of my Martini Model 6*.

This old rifle, from the stock markings, was used for years in a British school for a training rifle, and it shows the marks of hard use and sweaty hands. The bore was relined at some point, and is just about perfect(shoots like it, too), and the interior works are very good; but the exterior is really bad in places. The worst is on the barrel along the edge of the forend where those sweaty hands made a lot of contact with it(and no cleaning, apparently:
Doesn't look bad from a distance, but you get up close,
you can see the pitting. The action's not nearly as bad, here's the left side(I got started on it before I thought to take pictures)
and here's the right
This is one of the takedown versions, which makes this a bit easier; pull a pin and the barrel unscrews, so I can do it separately from the receiver.

I said 'semi-restoration' because the depth of the pitting is such that to actually remove it all would take a huge amount off the barrel, more than I want to off the receiver and destroy all the trademarks and proof marks. So I'll clean up the surface very thoroughly, do enough sanding on the receiver to give a better surface, the barrel enough to even out the color of the unpitted area and then rust-blue them, also the lever and inner receiver. Should look pretty good. I thoroughly degreased and cleaned the wood and gave it a few coats of oil after I bought it, so that can be set aside.

Here's the receiver after about a half hour with first 120-grit and then 220-grit wet/dry paper, left side
and right
by the simple method of putting the paper on a flat, waterproof surface and working the receiver back & forth. On the left side- which is worse- it's easy to see now that removing all the pitting would remove the trademark, too.

So I've got a lot of work to do to prep the surfaces. The inner receiver, lever and trigger will be easy, somehow they wound up with worn, dark finish but no visible pitting. The Parker-Hale rear sight will get the treatment- the body, not the eyecup with the adjustable aperture- and then I'll shine the back surface so the numbers show well. Screws will be easy too, except for the forend screw, the head's pretty ratty there: it'll require some sanding and cleaning to get it ready.

So this is started. I've got all the small parts in an egg carton(a very good way to keep them in order and together, I highly recommend it), the receiver is oiled and I'll get more done on it over the next few days.

Oh, I decided on rust bluing because I can do it myself, and it's FAR more durable than chemical cold blue, any I've used at least. I'll have to rig something for boiling the barrel, the other parts that won't be a problem.


*Yes, if you've been around a while you know I originally posted on it as an 8; looking around since has convinced me it's a 6, so I updated the original post with that number.


Start out feeling bad, and then read this about the gun bigots in DC

The U.S. government opposed South Korea’s bid to sell hundreds of thousands of aging U.S. combat rifles to American gun collectors, a senior government official said Thursday.

The ministry announced the plan last September as part of efforts to boost its defense budget, saying the export of the M1 Garand and carbine rifles would start by the end of 2009.

The U.S. administration put the brakes on the plan, citing “problems” that could be caused by the importation of the rifles.

The problems the U.S. government cited were somewhat ambiguous, said an official at the Ministry of National Defense on condition of anonymity.

“The U.S. insisted that imports of the aging rifles could cause problems such as firearm accidents. It was also worried the weapons could be smuggled to terrorists, gangs or other people with bad intentions,” the official told The Korea Times
.
Absolute effing bullshit; this is Obama & Co. showing their anti-gun-owner colors. They can't openly work to ban guns or restrict them the way they'd like to, but they can do this.

Bastards. What a damned waste.

I want you to learn from my mistake,

and NEVER let yourself be in a position where you invite someone to victimize you. There are things and situations we can’t control, but if you do everything in your power to avoid coming across as a victim (either externally or internally – the power of thought is not to be under-rated), then you are not only less likely to actually become a victim, but you’re less likely to FEEL like a victim if something happens.
Go read. Now. And pass it along.

I hate a morning that starts like this

Wake up feeling horribly hungry, that shortly turns to queasy, that turns to barfing when you don't have anything to barf. Finally settled down a bit so made a few biscuits and they seem to have settled things down quite a bit more. No idea why things started off this way.

Son called the other day, the unit's settling in pretty well. And it's still cooler there by 5-10 degrees than here. Spent the evening helping daughter with some stuff at her house, then watched an episode of Warehouse 13, which I'd never seen before. Interesting show.


And, just to keep Dick's spirits up, thought I'd post a bit of pretty for the day

Friday, August 13, 2010

Just so your sleep will be as screwed as mine,

The Socialist Party of America announced in their October 2009 newsletter that 70 Congressional democrats currently belong to their caucus.

This admission was recently posted on Scribd.com:

American Socialist Voter–
Q: How many members of the U.S. Congress are also members of the DSA?
A: Seventy

Q: How many of the DSA members sit on the Judiciary Committee?
A: Eleven: John Conyers [Chairman of the Judiciary Committee], Tammy Baldwin, Jerrold Nadler, Luis Gutierrez, Melvin Watt, Maxine Waters, Hank Johnson, Steve Cohen, Barbara Lee, Robert Wexler, Linda Sanchez [there are 23 Democrats on the Judiciary Committee of which eleven, almost half, are now members of the DSA].

Q: Who are these members of 111th Congress?
A: See the listing below


They've got the full list at Gateway; I'll just pick out a few names:
Sheila Jackson-Lee
Dennis Kucinich
Henry Nostrilitis Waxman
Charles Rangel
I've come to the conclusion that before any one of these bastards in the House is referred to as 'Honorable', they should have to PROVE they have any honor.

It seems many if not most would fail.

Well well, such nice people in the NAACP

Reverend Gatewood is the 2nd vice president of the North Carolina NAACP Conference of Branches. He is currently serving his forth term. Prior to 2005, he was the president of the Durham (NC) chapter.

November 2009 – Gatewood Co-Organizes an Anti-Semitic “Hate Fest” Under the Banner of His Position with the NAACP

In 2009, Gatewood helped form the “Black is Back Coalition,” with the intent of holding a massive rally in Washington D.C. on November 7th. Gatewood served as the event’s official North Carolina organizer. Among Gatewood’s partners in this coalition were Abdul Alim Musa, the notorious anti-Semite and terrorism supporter who has applauded the murder of Jewish civilians (see background info here and here), and Omali Yeshitela, the longtime black separatist and self-proclaimed foe of the NAACP (whose many racist and radical statements are catalogued here).

In the over one-hundred and forty online references to the Black is Back Coalition, in every instance Gatewood uses his NAACP credentials to describe himself as a member of the coalition
.
And what happened at this rally?
Rapper Head-Roc referred to President Obama as a “nigger” and a “coon” in a rap he performed for the crowd. In reference to Obama inviting the police officer who arrested Professor Henry Gates to the White House ”beer summit” (the rapper mistakenly calls Henry Gates “Bill Gates”), Head-Roc says of “the Prez:” “Man, I tuned out when that nigger went the ‘coon’ route.” Longtime radical activist Pam Africa, president of the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal (she had also been part of the MOVE black power cult) repeatedly called Obama a “nigger” as well, to the applause and cheers of the audience (she also exhorts the crowd to “whup his ass”).

I would strongly suggest you go over to Yes, But, However! and read the whole post up there. These people are some real winners: they wanted the Duke lacrosse players jailed despite their innocence, they hate Israel and Jews, they don't really seem to think much of Obama. Here's an excerpt:
Finally, Omali Yeshitela closed the proceedings with a speech that started with an explanation of how Obama was a servant of the Jews:

“He crawled on his belly down to Miami and made a speech before the Zionists where he promised that he would give Israel the entire city of Jerusalem for their capitol. Obama did that.”

He called Obama “the negro in the Whites’ House,” and he slammed Israel and pledged to unite with the forces fighting the U.S. in Afghanistan:

“Barrack Hussein Obama wants an imperialist peace. We say, it’s not good enough to be for peace. We say, we have a responsibility to take sides in this struggle. We say, we UNITE with the struggling people of Afghanistan against U.S. military occupation. We UNITE with the resistance. We UNITE with the Palestinian people against that imperialist settler state racist reactionary white nationalist minority settler state that’s nothing but a military outpost for U.S. imperialism.”

Praising terrorists and mass-murderers, touting “Zionist plots,” and calling the president a “nigger.” And remember, while organizing and promoting this event, Reverend Gatewood used his NAACP credentials in the advertising materials (if Gatewood spoke at the event as planned, the audio has yet to be put online. That’s why I’m focusing on what I do know – his role as a planner and organizer of the event, and his partnership with hate groups in the “coalition”).

One interesting side-note: The only major mainstream news organization to cover the hate-fest was the AFP. Predictably, the extremist speakers and statements were not mentioned. Not predictably, some conservative sites reposted the AFP article unquestioningly.

Nice people, aren't they?

How arrogant and self-centered are they?

But Islamic scholars hope the clock’s influence will stretch far further than the sands of Saudi Arabia, as part of a plan for Mecca to eclipse the Greenwich Observatory as the “true centre of the earth”.
...
As Mohammed al-Arkubi, manager of one of the hotels in the complex, put it: “Putting Mecca time in the face of Greenwich Mean Time. This is the goal.”

Ok, that part's bad enough.

But wait! There's MORE!! (with commentary)
According to Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian cleric known around the Muslim world for his popular television show “Sharia and Life”, Mecca has a greater claim to being the prime meridian because it is “in perfect alignment with the magnetic north.”

Yusuf al-Qaradai - that name seems familiar - oh yes, got it now - a prime Islamist bastardo of the first water.

This claim that the holy city is a “zero magnetism zone” has won support from some Arab scientists like Abdel-Baset al-Sayyed of the Egyptian National Research Centre who says that there is no magnetic force in Mecca.


Oh, for fuck’s sake! If I still had my little under-graduate “jam-jar” magnetometer (measured down to nanoteslas it did) and wasn’t going to be executed for even entering Mecca (yes, it is a capital offence for the kufr though I doubt somehow it would eclipse Prague for stag-does) I could refute these loons quite easily on that score. Egyptian National Research Centre! Dear sweet Jesus meek and mild what are these fuckwits on?
...
“That’s why if someone travels to Mecca or lives there, he lives longer, is healthier and is less affected by the earth’s gravity,” he said. “You get charged with energy.”

*Frankly from what I’ve heard of Mecca - the unfun capital of the planet (perhaps I’m being unfair to Pyongyang here) it probably only feels like you live longer. I will only dignify the “science” there with a technical Latinate term: bolloxio profundus.
Western scientists have challenged such assertions, noting that the Magnetic North Pole is in actual fact on a line of longitude that passes through Canada, the United States, Mexico and Antarctica.

Challenged? Dear sweet Jesus meek and mild. Challenged! “Western scientists”? Oh give me strength! I think that’s just “scientists” really. What a load of old cobblers! Because you see it does actually pass through those four territories and not Mecca - a city the size of Manchester (or Atlanta) without a battle-cruiser - fuck me rigid because it must be a bastarding hilarity! Now I am sorry if the sweet smell of truth offends the sensitive nasal passageways of Islamists but if geophysics and astrophysics doesn’t bend to what they perceive as the will of Allah then Allah can go fuck himself with an electrified fuckulating machine (difficult without a magnetic field, mind) but Allah’s hand (sorry your High Beardienesses but it is so) is fettered (Qu’ran 5:64) and James Maxwell tied the knots. Ye Gods! What a complete load of utter Iggle Piggle’s wank. They truly tossed off the purple one here.

The man does have a way with words, does he not?

Oh, and speaking of the Cordoba mosque project...

The Ground Zero mosque website just removed a photo of Mohammad Javad Larijani: secretary-general of Iran's High Council for Human Rights, brother of Ali Larijani, top negotiator for Iran's nuke program.

Earlier today Insty linked to a piece by a lady named Shikha Dalmia on the project; I'd recommend it as a fine piece of excuse-making crap for the project and the people running it. Including this:
None of this is preventing some opponents from bizarrely suggesting that the center represents a surreptitious attempt to glorify Islamic victory on American soil. But a victory statement communicated through esoteric means negates itself because such means signal weakness, not strength. What's more, it is one odd victory statement when its alleged authors are not claiming any moral high ground for their putative side. To the contrary, the couple, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his wife Daisy Khan, who are spearheading the center, have "refudiated" the 9/11 attacks in particular and Islamic terrorism in general.
A: When you see people in favor of the project saying things like
Joan Brown Campbell, director of the Department of Religion at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York and former general secretary of the National Council of Churches, admitted that a mosque at Ground Zero could anger infidels. But it was worth it, she said: “Building so close is owning the tragedy.”
it doesn't come across as 'negating the signal of victory'; it comes across as "We will win, and building here is a sign of it."
B: When the imam in charge 1: won't say if Hamas is a terrorist organization, 2: basically says the US caused the 9/11 attacks by our evil actions around the world and so forth that doesn't exactly count as repudiating islamic terrorism.
C: Madam, speaking down to us as a bunch of unsophisticated, uneducated hillbillies who just don't understand anything isn't going to change anyone's mind.
D:It is possible that the center is really an elaborate ruse for some sinister anti-American agenda--just as it is possible that America's next president could be a Manchurian candidate installed by the Chinese. But to suspect such an agenda in the face of massive evidence to the contrary testifies to just how deep-seated the suspicion against Muslims is in this country.
Well, considering the number of terrorist attacks committed against the US by muslims, including the 9/11 attacks, including the murders of troops at Fort Hood, including a whole bunch of terror attacks around the world by muslims(that so many 'moderate' muslims make excuses for), you might consider the slight possibility that we've got some damned good reasons to have suspicions toward a lot of muslims. So take your attitude and shove it, lady.

Then came Ruhollah Khomeini,

and the slow descent into barbarism began.

To see what Shi’ite technocrats have done to Iran is tragic. I do not speak only of the violent clown Mahmoud Ahmadenijad, who can look an Ivy-League audience in the eye and say there are no homosexuals in Iran. Rather, I speak of a country so riddled with hate that it thinks nothing of producing cartoons, available on a website promoted by the semi-official Fars news agency, denying the Holocaust and portraying Jews as hook-nosed vermin. Have the Iranians been taught to hate Jews so much that they can caricaturize the gassing of one million children? When I visited Poland I walked into a clearing near Tarnow where 800 Jewish orphans had been murdered, mostly by having their brains dashed against trees. The Iranians would make fun of this as well? What level of humanity must be compromised before one feels that wholesale slaughter is a matter of comic relief? I forced myself to watch all of The Stoning of Soriah M by Iranian director Cyrus Nowrasteh. Based on a true story, it’s final scene – depicting an innocent woman buried up to her neck and having her skull slowly crushed by average men including her own father, husband and son throwing stones large enough to injure but not to immediately kill – is easily one of the most brutal events ever depicted on film.

If only it were an exaggeration.

The world is currently focused on the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old woman awaiting death by stoning in the Iranian town of Tabriz after a sham conviction for adultery
.
I'd argue with some of his points, but overall a good article.

In the latest from the people running where Great Britain used to be,

Joao Vale de Almeida was this week formally installed as the EU's ambassador to the US, and suggested that American officials should regard him as their first point of contact for transatlantic discussions.

He is the first EU ambassador to be appointed after the controversial Lisbon Treaty gave the EU sweeping new powers.
Remember? The one that got rammed through whether people wanted it or not? "We will keep voting until we get the result we wish"?

The Earl of Dartmouth, a UK Independence Party MEP, said the ambassador's comments where proof that the EU diplomatic service is usurping the powers of nation states.

He said: "All the other parties have supported or accept the domination of the EU through the Lisbon Treaty. And this is the result. The British Government will be left discussing how British actors are portrayed in Hollywood at best." He added: "Of course Britain will continue to pay for the privilege.

This is only the start, as the existence of Britain's permanent seat on the UN Security Council is already in the EU sights"
.
No doubt.

Found at Theo's place.

Having the male offspring back over here brings to mind Calumet Park, Illinois Mayor Joseph DuPar

Because while lots of people in uniform are out there doing the work and not bragging, DuPar is a slimeball who lied about his record to try to push his election bid forward. And when someone called him on the lies, he sued.

Think about that. A guy had the temerity to actually call this sorry politician on his lie, so the politician and his equally slimy lawyer sue.
In a filing in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Ill., DuPar claims that his suit rests on Wilson’s duty “to refrain from intentionally and with actual malice publishing and distributing statements with knowledge that they were false and/or with reckless disregard of whether they were false or not.” As evidence of Mr. Wilson’s nefariousness, DuPar cites to a flyer that Wilson’s campaign published and distributed that read in part:
“Did MAYOR JOSEPH DuPar Really earn a Medal of Honor and Four Bronze Stars???? He has misled us in so many other areas, maybe he is misleading us again. His medals cannot be found on the Internet and the Department of Defense’s National Personnel Records Office is still looking for those medals.”

Included in the filing was a copy of DuPar’s DD214, which he seems to think proves his case regarding the “Bronze Stars;” he is silent regarding his claims of having earned the Medal of Honor. In the filing, DuPar claims that “Defendant’s statements are false as plaintiff did in fact earn four Bronze Star Medals.”

However, DuPar’s DD214 shows he did not earn any Bronze Star Medals, but rather “Vietnam Service Medal w/4 Bronze Service Stars.” A Bronze Star Medal is the “fourth-highest award for bravery, heroism or meritorious service,” awarded to those “engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States.” Those awarded for valorous acts also include a “V” insignia so designating them from ones awarded for merit or meritorious service. However, Bronze Service Stars are an attachment to another medal, denoting participation in certain campaigns or multiple receipt of the same medal. While the Bronze Star Medal is an individual decoration, Bronze Service Stars affixed to a medal are not.

I repeatedly contacted DuPar’s Attorney of Record, Felicia Frazier, who refused to discuss the issue with me at that time, although she promised to call me back. Needless to say, her number has never flashed on my caller ID.
DuPar, you served. From all indications honorably and well. And yet now you lie in such a way? What the hell is wrong with you?


Yes, I've posted on this before; it needs to be remembered.

And about damned time

I can now announce that the son IS back in the US and at his base.

While back I mentioned DOJ playing games with troops voting procedures;

it gets worse. Better to read it than me make a bunch of excerpts. However, I will put up two parts, the first to whet your interest:
Let the public judge how aggressively the DOJ is willing to protect military voters in their recommendations to the FVAP.

We have reason to worry. Unbelievably, the DOJ earlier this year proffered the outlandish argument that once a waiver was granted for 2010, it would continue to apply for future elections, including the 2012 Presidential election. This incorrect and equivocal reading of MOVE was conveyed to multiple people, including state election officials. It demonstrates a timid mindset dangerous to military voting rights.

The DOJ would never adopt such an equivocal approach to protecting the voting rights of a racial minority.

No wonder Senator John Cornyn made it clear to DOJ officials this won’t be tolerated anymore. After the Senator’s scolding, the DOJ jettisoned the permanent waiver argument.

But Senator Cornyn is still on guard. He has put a hold on the Senate nomination for the number two man at the DOJ, James Cole. Cornyn placed the hold on the Deputy Attorney General nominee after learning from meeting minutes that a Voting Section official made remarks to state election officials encouraging waivers, and telegraphing an aversion to suing states for violating MOVE.

The Washington Times interviewed state election officials who were present for the speech — they reported that the remarks by the Voting Section official were even worse than reported in the meeting minutes
.

And the contact information:
In the meantime, the public, particularly military families and veterans groups, have a right to petition their government and voice their opinion about the waivers. Citizens can reach FVAP and tell them to deny all waiver requests at 800-438-8683 or vote@fvap.gov. Citizens can petition the DOJ and tell them both to recommend against granting the waivers and to sue states who submitted them at (202) 307-2767 or rebecca.j.wertz@usdoj.gov.

I suspect Holder & Co. have had so much heat the past while they're more likely to pay attention, so pass it around and put the heat on.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Oh, bleep! Crashproof

my ass!


Found thanks to Denny

Sgt. David Schlosser of the Park Police

is a friggin' moron. And so are his minions.

Screw you, Schlosser.

It's really amazing to see how progressives and socialists tie themselves

in knots to try to make a massive terrorist attack and death toll seem 'not so bad'.

Yeah, no difference at all between people dying in accidents and people dead in a mass-murder terror attack. None at all.

If you're a miserable little piece of crap like Kos & Co.

A response to Sen. Harry Reid's(Corrupt Democrat-NV) latest

piece of racist bullshit:
Although I wasn’t born in Cuba, I witnessed for myself liberals governing the state of New Jersey. I saw the failed policies of former Governors Jim McGreevy and Jon Corzine. Unions ran the show, uncontrolled and limitless spending, massive corruption, and the highest property taxes in the nation. I, as a thinking, tax-paying citizen, can not fathom why I would support democrats that have ran this state to near bankruptcy. Heck, I see it in a larger scale in Washington, DC. Yes Harry Reid, I do think and watch the news.

Also Reid, in case you didn’t know, Latinos have a mind of their own. As much as I think you’re a bigoted, lazy thinker, you might have admitted what all democrats think of Hispanics who are on the right side of the aisle. You belittle us, think we need the nanny state to help us with our woes. Hispanics are actually a religious, pro-life, pro-business, and hard-working poeple. You know the stuff Americans are made of. I know many Latinos who work more than 12 hours a day, seven days a week, to earn their keep and give their children the life they couldn’t have in their native countries.
Go read it all, it's great

Take a look at this place

and see what you think. Guy sent me a link for Guns for Sale, and I wanted to look it over before maybe sticking it in the Gunny Stuff links.

Yeah, that's it Nanny, just keep blaming other places

for not having the kind of personal disarmament laws you want.

This is one seriously messed-up situation, and that's what he comes up with?

Why do I so despise Mayor Nanny Bloomberg of NYEffin'C?

Here's another way.

Speaking of how much a lot of Democrats fear Palin:

There’s only one way the tragic airplane crash in Alaska that ended the life of former-U.S. Senator Ted Stevens could have been better, according to New Hampshire Democratic activist and State Rep. candidate Keith Halloran: If Sarah Palin had been on it.

In a Facebook post, Halloran, who describes himself as “an active local citizen and supporter of NH Governor John Lynch,” said of the plane crash, “Just wish Sarah and Levy were on board.”
...
Natch Greyes, a staffer for Democratic Rep. and Senate hopeful Paul Hodes tweeted the following on July 21st: “I have to wonder if & or when @sarahpalinusa will learn the meaning of our state motto: “live free or die.”

Hey, Greyes, she understands that motto far better than you, you miserable little shit. And I'd bet that you're one of the corrupt people who wish they could make the charges against Corrupt Rangel and Friend of Angelo Dodd go away, that'd be fine, but Sarah Palin? You want her dead.

Sorry little bastards.

'What kind of President is this?'

Gov. Rick Perry’s meeting at the Austin airport with President Barack Obama on border security lasted a mere 34 seconds, and Perry had to hand a letter on the issue to presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett because Obama declined to personally accept it.
...
I guess it’s a president who believes he is a prince, not an executive, a president who thinks he is supposed to rule, rather than lead, and a president who dares not accept a letter from a Governor because then he won’t be able to say he never read it or hasn’t seen it.

And once again, one senses that Obama only wants to be the president of some of the nation, not all of it
.
"Yes, I saw the envelope, but I never actually saw the letter!"

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

You want to know how bad Sarah Palin scares them?

This bad.

Kind of amazing, really. She's living in their brains 24/7, rent-free.

I know, I'm eating, but this crap HAS to be spread around

Global warming data apparently cooked by U.S. government-funded body shows astounding temperature fraud with increases averaging 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit.

The tax-payer funded National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has become mired in fresh global warming data scandal involving numbers for the Great Lakes region that substantially ramp up averages.

A beleaguered federal agency appears to be implicated in the most blatant and extreme case of climate data fraud yet seen. Official records have been confirmed as evidence that a handful of temperature records for the Great Lakes region have been hiked up by literally hundreds of degrees to substantially inflate the average temperature range for the northeastern United States.

The web pages at the center of this latest climate storm were created by NOAA in partnership with Michigan State University.
Go read. And be sure to look through the comments. I'd also recommend going over to Watts Up and reading this:
Note to Readers: This is an important post, as Willis demonstrates that NASA GISS has taken a cooling trend and converted it into a warming trend for the one GHCN station in Nepal which covers the Himalayas. I offer NASA GISS, either via Jim Hansen or Gavin Schmidt, rebuttal opportunity to this issue on WUWT anytime. -Anthony

Having a short time before I have to drag into the kitchen

and make some dinner, and being in a proper mood, I'll now hit some news.

The striped-pants dirtbags at the State Department need to be added- if they weren't already there- to the list of 'bureaucrats that should be whipped alongside the politicians'.
State Department officials on Monday confirmed Feisal Abdul Rauf, the Imam of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque, will soon be going on a trip of the Middle East and the U.S. government will be picking up the tab.


Hey, Nanny Bloomberg, you might understand most of the people in NYEffin'C really don't like you talking down to them like you're lecturing a 2-year old. Matter of fact, I think a lot of them are getting damned sick of you.


I shall have to make sure I don't buy anything from General Electric if I can avoid it; screw 'em.
FOX Business Channel’s Charles Gasparino told Bill O’Reilly tonight that GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt gathered the CNBC reporters together in early 2009 and scolded them for reporting negatively on Barack Obama. GE owns 80% of NBC Universal.

We already knew that Jeffrey Immelt was pushing non-existent global warming so that his company could benefit from cap and trade legislation. Now we know that GE’s CEO was sitting at meetings in the White House and scolding his reporters for being hard on Obama
.


In other media malpractice,
WJLA-TV, a Washington, D.C. ABC affiliate, suspended reporter Doug McKelway following his alleged “partisan” comments at a liberal rally on Capitol Hill marking the three-month anniversary of the Gulf oil spill. Video of the broadcast tells a different story:
Video at the link.


Political idiocy leading toward national suicide:
Earlier this summer, a group of congressional Democrats sent a letter to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton urging her to begin the process of categorizing the Taliban as a terrorist group. In June, Sens. Charles Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand of New York and Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez of New Jersey proposed legislation that would immediately add the Taliban to the terrorist list.

Yet the State Department’s report (due on April 30 but released last week), did not include the Taliban with groups such as al-Qaida, Hamas and the Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA). To qualify, an organization must meet only three criteria: It must be foreign, it must engage in terrorist activity and its activity must threaten the security of the U.S. or its citizens.

“It is hard to imagine this agency can see fit to issue a report that doesn’t include the Taliban groups,” Fred Gedrich, a foreign policy analyst and former State Department employee, told The Daily Caller. “They have killed more Americans and conducted more terror attacks on innocent civilians during the past 12 months than any other terror group.“
Yeah, it's hard to believe; except it's just the kind of stupidity we've come to expect from many Democrats in general and the Obama Administration in particular.


Just as Michelle Obama returned from her much-criticized luxury vacation to Spain, which cost the U.S. taxpayers an estimated $400,000, her husband cut $11.9 billion from the Food Stamp program, designed to help the poorest Americans.

The cut, along with tax increases to businesses is supposed to pay for an aid package to several states, mostly to prevent the layoff of about 160,000 public school teachers and administrators.

Of course, the teachers’ unions are tremendous contributors to the Democratic Party, and were instrumental in putting Obama in office. The move is seen by many as a payback for their support
.
You think maybe?


I have to note that when I went through the TSA checkpoint at El Paso, it was about as painless as that crap can be made. They made EVERYBODY take off their shoes, and belts, and anything else they could think of, but I didn't see anybody abusing their position in the few minutes I was there. I do have to say, for someone used to carrying a sidearm and pocketknife damn near everywhere, having to make sure you don't have a dangerous pair of fingernail clippers forgotten in your bag or shaving kit or whatever is a pain in the ass. And somewhat demeaning; I'm sick to death of having it demonstrated that our 'betters' don't trust us with arms or tools.

And on that cheery note, I need food.

Having had some sleep, I'm a bit better off

Still pissed, though; got a call this afternoon that son's unit has been delayed ANOTHER day. The whatever airline(and I want their name) with the effed-up plane has brought in another plane, so hopefully the bastards did their proper maintenance on this one.

From the trip, someday I'd like to go back to the Guadalupe Mountains and hike around. Flat beautiful area, which in this part of the world often translates as "Will still kill you if you don't watch it." As you head into each pass there's a sign 'Caution: high winds' with a windsock nearby. And lots of 'Falling Rock' signs, seeing as how the shoulder often ends in a near-vertical wall. I went through in hot, clear weather with light winds; no matter the season and no matter what kind, I would HATE to have to drive through the area in a storm. But I'd love to have time to load up and walk around, maybe do some climbing*.

And it's an area I'd damn well carry a sidearm whether the Park Service liked it or not.

And in El Paso found a little restaurant called El Chaparral on Montana a few blocks from the motel. Damn good food, they make their red and green picante sauce(and chips, and tortillas), and they know the difference between 'spicy and good flavor' and 'hot enough to burn your tongue off so you can't taste the stuff'.


*No, I do not mean like a bloody spider up a vertical wall

If you need primers

and don't mind paying Hazmat to order them, Widener's has a sale on Wolf brand.

No news rundown for you this morning

or generally commentary. I actually slept, which was very good, and now have some stuff to catch up on/take care of.

I'll say this, there were a couple of nice things about the trip and I'll go over them later.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Totally unrelated to the previous post, is Rosetta Stone

any good at helping learn a new language?

A short catchup on the last few @)**&#! days

Short version:
Son advised what date the unit was starting back to the US, asked me if I'd like to come.(hell YES)
A week later, after reservations made, informed me that the date had changed, so had to redo reservations*.
Turns out that the date had been changed at least a week ago, but the troops hadn't been advised; isn't that wonderful?
Get set up, find out day before was heading out that would be a day later.(Yes, you DO see a theme here)
At halfway point, found out arrival moved ANOTHER day(airplane trouble).
At destination, ANOTHER day.
And then, after having gotten to "late Monday night", on Monday I was informed that they now were in Germany with more plane trouble(whatever airline had been contracted with should be dealt with. I'd settle for mass defenestration). and it would be Wednesday before they got back.

So it went from having a couple of days together to a day to part of a day to a few hours to effing nothing. Same for every other family member of other troops who made the trip. The airline I've already mentioned; the command level of the unit apparently couldn't organize an outbreak of venereal disease in a whorehouse. And, just to back that up, there was a very nice lady on post who was trying to keep families informed of dates and so forth; the morons in charge weren't getting her the information. Twice son had a chance to call and advise me of the changes, I contacted her and she hadn't heard a word; both times it was the next day before she was given the word. Not effing good, is it?

So. I'm back, I'm tired, achy and pissed and have a headache from the flight home, and spent a bunch of money I couldn't really afford to almost no end.

Oh, and Bank of Oklahoma sucks even worse than I'd previously mentioned. They had promised they'd overnight the stuff to me so I could take it with me; not only did it not arrive overnight, it's now FIVE FREAKIN' DAYS LATER and they never arrived.

I can say, however, my hand/arm's better, thanks for asking.

*first time I've flown; do you know what airlines charge for having the temerity to cancel a reservation two weeks before the date?(No last minute stuff,this) By the time the 'cancellation charge' and so forth was added up...