Anger Management

Nothing Good Happens After Midnight

2012-02-08T02:54:00.000-06:00

I swear to you nothing good ever happens for me to be awake after 12 a.m. I'm either too drunk that I know tomorrow, or today as it will, will be horrible or I'm responding to something or doing something that is going to make my preceding days more painful than a Scotch hangover.

This morning is case and point. Had to drop Alissa off to deploy. Now, you may think you drive up to an airfield somewhere and soldiers immediately line up and board a high-performance military aircraft. First, stop watching "The Unit." Second, the Army has found a way to draw out this overtly and deeply painful event. We awoke at 12:30 a.m. knowing my wife had to be there at 1:10 a.m.

People put on happy faces it's hard to distinguish between bravery, callousness and numbed indifference of a decade of war as most of these soldiers and their families have been called into service of deployment before.

Refreshments are served for the family members willing to brave the early morning call.

After arriving at 110 on the dot...we wait in cars and open buildings while soldiers draw their weapons and final gear.

Now 3 a.m and sitting at the gym that has been opened up way early for this occasion, and still no sign of the soldiers that were left at their company.

False levity tries to be infused among the solemn and earnest somber occasion with upbeat music. The music does nothing to hide the fear and anguish on the faces of family members.

And so now we wait, the tears and facades held back by the hope afforded by the hour hands slow ticking which cant beat slow enough or fast enough.

The faces are tired. I don't know if it's the tired of the 3 a.m. or the weariness wrought after ten years of this. After all this will be Alissa's third deployment and I'm not far behind.

3:15 a.m. Soldiers arrive.

In a portion of military ceremony that is probably now known by the rest of the world. Soldier’s arrive in a gymnasium with their weapons and carry-on equipment for time with their families before they board the plane.

All of the sudden a familiar face arrives. The civilian movement control guy. I saw him on my last deployment in 2009. How many of these has he seen? Does it even have an affect anymore? This is the man who will take the soldiers from the gym, to the bus and into the plane.

4:45 a.m. We are warned that the time is coming to an end and that the soldier’s are going to form up to prepare to get on a bus to head to the air terminal to board a plane. This is the last moment families will have with their soldiers for nine months. Through tearful goodbyes the soldiers leave their families one by one to line up.

5:30 a.m. I arrive at home tired and exhausted and sleep for a few hours in the clothes I was wearing and notice that the empty space in the bed next to me will be empty temporarily but a long temporary.

Last time I saw her she was sitting on the bleachers with her gear where I left her, waiting to form up, as I walked out choking back tears.

It was 5 a.m. and that’s why nothing good happens after midnight, especially on this night.

Reaffirming "In god we trust," as the national motto

2011-11-01T06:19:00.000-05:00

Woke up this morning to see that Congress, finally, is doing the big work. Are they tackling the unemployment problem with a job’s bill? No. Are they going after the banks that robbed the economy of a trillion dollars and a created a mult-trillion dollar false derivatives market. Uhhh, no. They’ve moved onto something much more important, reaffirming that’s right RE-affirming “In God we trust,” as the national motto.

According to Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA), the founder of the Congressional Prayer Caucus…First, why is there even such a thing as a “prayer caucus?” So, you were sent there to collect a staggering $100k per year salary, not to solve the nation’s problems or debate legislation with facts and reason, but to create a group, inside the congress, whose sole purpose is to come together and talk to their imaginary friend. I wonder. Are Pagans invited to this prayer Caucus meeting? What about the only Muslim congressman? Is he allowed into the meetings with his prayer rug and incantations.

How about we start a motherfucking JOBS Caucus, or Infrastructure Caucus. Can’t be an atheist Caucus and there is only one in the House of Representatives, Pete Stark (D-CA)

Well, anyway, according to this guy Forbes who wants to waste money and time by talking to an imaginary friend and then waste more money and time by dragging his fellow zombie death cult with him, “As our nation faces challenging times, it is appropriate for Members of Congress and our nation—like our predecessors—to firmly declare our trust in God, believing that it will sustain us for generations to come.”

Just fuck it all. Not only are they damned-near pissing on the Constitution, which is probably more important than the motto established in 1956 as well at the same time they put “Under God” in the pledge, but it appears members of Congress have just thrown their hands up on issues facing our country and have just screamed “Jesus take the wheel!” Apparently, their imaginary friend and the zombie son are going to solve all of our problems. If faith alone will solve the problems then you don’t need to be an elected official to do it.

If you’re really concerned about the under God motto dumbfuck shit, you shouldn’t be re-elected. You can then spend more of your time talking to the wall instead of addressing real issues. I think concentrating on doing something as a ceremonial gesture that has already been done displays a problem with Republicans, they’re not problem solvers. They’ve run out of ideas for solving real problems and really, mostly, creating more problems, and when all else fails turn to the imaginary. The social issues are always a big hit with their retarded base (and that’s not a slur, their mental growth is obviously challenged in a few areas if they still believe in goblins and tooth fairies and the like.) They’re out of touch with the American electorate who could give two shits about the National motto and is more concerned about the economy and the fucking bridge they drive on everyday going to their minimum wage job falling down. Prayer won’t hold up a bridge dumbfuck, but luckily for you it will hold you up through the next election.

One Soldier's Opinion of the End of DADT

2011-09-19T20:14:00.000-05:00

        I guess I should be proud. The military and the Army have finally decided to live up to values they preach and the freedom they defend. I’m a little proud I guess. I’m more happy for all of my brothers and sisters in arms who are LGB who can finally put their ass on the line between good and evil defending freedom as themselves. Those jingoistic words seem relative when you are considered a second-class citizen, and your partner will not receive benefits like other military spouses. I guess small steps are required to appease small minds.

        This is my promise to you, my LGB Soldiers present and future, if you are in my unit I will train you with the same vigor and provide you the same opportunities I do any other soldier. I will give you just as many opportunities to succeed or fail and base all decisions objectively, on your ability to lead troops, take care of soldiers and complete the mission. I promise you no more and no less than your straight counterparts, and really I think that’s all you wanted anyways, while being allowed...permitted...to be yourself. Most honestly, because I don’t have the time or energy to care about who the fuck you’re sleeping with at night.

        I’m sure there will be “queer-panic,” but that, in time, will resolve itself as the bigots who can’t handle living in the 21st century expose themselves to the test of relevancy and sanity only to be found lacking both. This, therefore, makes them no-value added in an organization that prides itself on its values.
The seven values, that you remember we were taught in basic training: Loyalty, Duty, RESPECT, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity and Personal Courage. These values that we, as soldiers, are supposed to live, fight and die by, values that all soldiers were forced to violate daily since the implementation of DADT.

        “But Marcus, this doesn’t effect you? You’re a straight guy like us, just stay in the club.”

        Anytime any American is treated unfairly or unequally especially by a government institution, it effects all of us. It especially effects me when I am the enforcer of these unfair and archaic rules, laws and practices. You would change your mind if you would have seen the mental anguish caused in young men and women who have chosen to volunteer only to be unexpectedly caught between being themselves, living honorably, or living a life that was lie in order to serve their country. Men and woman who were unfortunately being offered the paradox of which honor do you want, the honor of openly being yourself or the honor of serving your country because we, for some odd reason, in the “home of the brave” couldn’t afford them both.

        We have a far many more domestic issues that you can help resolve that are more a threat to national security than who is sleeping with whom. You know how many soldiers I’ve seen leave the Army for homosexuality? None. You know how many good soldiers I’ve seen get kicked out because they had inherited bad lifestyle choices from their parents and society in the ways of food and exercise? Too many to even fucking count, a little fewer than 100 in 12 years in the Army.

        I did see one allegedly homosexual soldier get discharged but not because she was a lesbian, even though from all accounts and my own good circumstantial evidence she was and is. This soldier was kicked out because she had a mental and emotional breakdown. She broke down, I’m assuming, because she couldn’t live the lies in both worlds. How often does this happen? How can we force people to live like this? She was forced to hide who she was and could only do it for so long. But those were the rules at the time and we can only operate in the parameters set forth on us by Congress which is set by their constituents, you the American people.

        I think we Americans have finally taken a step in the right direction and have done the right thing. I know we in the Army can make it work because we can finally live by our values and apply them always and equally to all of our Soldiers.

Ayn Rand and her followers are sociopaths

2011-04-21T13:02:00.001-05:00

It's not that there would be a shortage of people to run those corporations but there would be a shortage of people with the sociopathic mentality to run the corporation as it would be wished to be run by the stock holders and Boards of Directors.

They need amoral people who have no problem putting money and profit ahead of people. These sociopaths are few and far between. There aren't very many people willing to actually sell out their fellow man for a few more dollars, people who will take the entire burden of the actions, allowing the boards and stock holders to place distance between themselves and the actions of their corporations.

The only thing they produce is the cover for the sociopathic, authoritarian dominator plutocrats and oligarchs to continue to consolidate power and money and through money consolidate more power.

Ayn Rand’s admiration of sociopaths extends beyond the captains of industry as her infatuation with murderer William Hickman is well documented. If this is the type of person she admired, the type of person upon which she wrote “Atlas Shrugged,” then what does that say about the people worshipping at the altar of objectivism? They are no better, at least mentally and morally, than the cultists that followed Manson to the Tate home. Although they may not realize it because the authoritarian followers will not allow this information to penetrate their bubble and if it does it will be dismissed as a lie because it is something that does not confirm their world view.

Sociopaths amongst us and they call themselves dirty names...

2011-03-25T07:15:00.000-05:00

Finishing up a book that you can get for free called “The Authoritarians” if you google it and had a few thoughts.

Fascists don't like democracy, it's mob rule after all. They don't like the mobs unless it's the mobs of dupes they have fooled to march for them, to anthropomorphize the corporation that's sucking the country dry. Corporations as people, fascists and Ted Bundy all have something in common, they're sociopaths.

So, for those of you true-believers who think the Koch Brothers, GE, Exxon, Goldman Sachs have the best intentions of the country at heart, best of luck to you as you are fed to the machine of your own making, just like the people of Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida. If you think you can appease your fascist masters to give you your jobs back with tax cuts and lowering wages and working conditions collectively to those of a third world nation I have no sympathy for you. You're a fool, a dupe, a follower and a coward and in the end the lowest level of fools pay the price.

You voted in the surrogate fools of fascism and they are bringing it in wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross. You will be left wondering where your country went and you’ll want it back and it will be too late. And it won’t be because of your inherent xenophobia or racism because your country will actually disappear as we become the United Corporatocracy of America with a ruling oligarchy. However, you will succumb to your master so long as he spouts the right language to appease you and gives you a “them” to hate and bomb. So, tell me Teabaggers, Republicans, Corporatists all followers of Randian objectivism who by any other names are fascists, are we at war with Eurasia or Eastasia?

Pat Sajak is a moron

2011-03-05T06:09:00.000-06:00

I saw this article from Pat Sajak posted on facebook and I found it laughable. I have not been able to confirm that it was actually written by Sajak since the right-wing likes to make up fake articles from celebrities and send them around the internet in spam style. It also wouldn’t be beyond Fox News to post it without verifying that it was, in fact, written by Pat Sajak. but I’m going to take a stab at responding too it after just waking up and pre-coffee.

At a dinner party in Washington the other night, I was asked a question I’m often asked. No, not, “Can I buy a vowel?” but, rather, “Why is Hollywood so uniformly made up of liberal Democrats?”
There are a lot of theories on the subject, and I have a few of my own. First, I would strongly argue with the premise. My industry is certainly made up predominantly of liberal Democrats, but there is a surprising number found on the other side of the political spectrum. Lots of writers, producers, directors and performers are quite conservative in their views, but you don’t hear from them as much or as noisily as you do from the left. Part of it, sadly, is the fear that they’ll suffer professionally if they’re “outed”, and a number of them have stories to tell about being confronted on the issue.

[So money is more important than the country. We get it you’re conservatives, of course it is.]

But another factor is they’re far less comfortable lecturing their fellow citizens on how to live their lives.

[We all know conservatives don’t like telling people how to live their lives. You know I’ve never been told by a conservative that I need to accept Jesus as my lord and savior or I’m going to hell. Isn’t it conservatives that want to legislate abortion out of existence so they can tell women what to do with their bodies. And it’s a favorite past time of conservatives to tell gays they’re living their lives all wrong.]

You’re much more likely to see a liberal singer interrupt his performance with a global warming diatribe than you are to see a conservative singer praising the free enterprise system between songs.

[Because over the last 4 years we have learned 1) there is no such thing as a free enterprise system which 2) allows white collar criminals to collapse the economy and get away scott-free. It’s not something that’s easy to defend in modernity without sounding like a sociopathic brainwashed Randian ideologue.]

Another fact that might surprise you is that most of Hollywood—like most of America—isn’t really all that interested in politics except near election time.
Most of the men and women who make their living in the entertainment field are much more focused on finding jobs and reading scripts and getting awards and going to events than they are on the intricacies of American politics. If you ask them about their views, they’re likely to spout a few liberal talking points because they’ve heard them so often, and it’s the safer position to take.

[It’s a safer position to take because unlike conservative positions you don’t sound like a sociopathic, Darwinist asshole. So being polite, people will take the position of caring about the plight of the less fortunate and the working class, a liberal position, over whether or not oil corporations get to make a few billion dollars more per year in profit.]

And that point leads me to my primary theory on why one side dominates the other. Putting aside the true believers and usual suspects (you know who they are on both sides), the liberal position provides the path of least resistance, especially for high-profile members of the Hollywood community. It’s hard to describe the bubble in which these folks live, but I’ll try.
They are financially successful in ways most people can scarcely imagine

[as a conservative I can’t believe that you are begrudging them for making money in a capitalist, “free-enterprise system.];

their whims are treated as commands; outrageous or boorish behavior is condoned

[You mean outrageous or boorish behavior like: leaving your wife on her cancer bed for your third wife you’re having an affair with, or picking up men in an airport bathroom, or paying for hookers while on the House floor, or sending sexual explicit texts to teenage boys, or ordering a same sex hooker and meth, or escaping to Venezuela to see your mistress, or having a mistress and then paying her husband hush money, or is that not boorish just par for the course for conservatives as they lecture us on how to live.];

they travel in limos and fly (often privately) between their multiple homes

[much like McCain and his seven homes, or Sarah Palin and her private jet];

they hobnob with politicians who come to them for advice and input (and money); the glamour of their business rubs off on them and gives them access and a sense of importance and wisdom

[Isn’t that the same reason you’re writing this article? Seems a bit ironic.].

So how should one speak from such a lofty perch? Well, many have concluded that the smartest way to handle it is to claim to be “one of the people.” So, no matter how rarified the air, liberalism is a smart career move.
Is it hypocritical to ask people to drive electric cars while you’re flying in a Gulfstream? Or to tell them to conserve energy while the cumulative square-footage of your homes is measured in the tens of thousands of square feet? Or to ask them to pay more taxes while your high-priced accounting firms are protecting your money

[Much like the corpoations, Wall Street Execs, and tycoons that the conservatives flock to for advice. Except they don’t care about people, they are sociopaths]?

Of course it is, but hypocrisy cannot penetrate the bubble

[Oh we know it can’t Pat, you’ve just proven it in your previous paragraphs about conservatives and yourself.].

They care. Not like the greedy businessmen (from whom they collect their salaries and perks), but like the genuine people they really are.
However, the truth is that most celebrity political talk is just noise. It’s fodder for the entertainment shows and publications. People listen, not because they particularly care about what these folks have to say, or to get advice about how to vote or how to live, but simply because it’s a celebrity speaking

[No I don’t care what a celebrity says about politics because I’m not a Fox News watcher I base my political beliefs on rational logical facts that I believe will lead the country in a better direction. You’re on the wrong network if you care about reasoned political debate sans celebrity sensationalism. Again ironic seeing you are a celebrity.]

Personally, I try not to mix my political side with my entertainment side

[FAIL!].

And, frankly, I would be appalled if anyone made an important political or lifestyle decision based on the advice of a TV game show host

[WIN! So this was just mental masturbation].

Maybe that’s the best news about the bubble: it not only protects us, but it protects you from us.

[Look if you’re dumb enough to believe something just because a celebrity says it you’re more than likely old or a Fox News watcher or more than likely both because one begets the other. Much the same reason they have Wilford Brimley do the diabetes commericals because old people don’t like to be challenged and like familiarity, the reason they watch Fox News.]

Labor Should Fight

2011-02-18T08:21:00.000-06:00

It is time for the new labor movement. Young people don’t remember what it was like before Reagan started busting the unions. Maybe membership is dwindling because the new generation doesn’t understand the power and might of working class people united in ensuring that all workers are given fair compensation for their labor. A generation that grew up with Wal-Mart being the largest employer of underpaid, undercompensated workers wouldn’t understand that they have the right and ability to demand what is fair and they can bring about change through the power of collective bargaining. The young people today are just happy to get any job and are satisfied with the status quo. That was all planned by the corporatists. They shouldn’t be. They should do what our grandfathers did and not settle. If we become satisfied with earning an existence wage then we will soon become a country of forced labor like China. You see right wingers, workers get to vote with their feet. They get to walk out and they can conspire and collude to strike just as you can conspire and collude to create wars to send their children to fight, create fake markets to crash the US economy, and you collude and conspire to force them to give up their rights.

The Koch-Tea Party-front groups are now in the mix in Wisconsin, ensuring the voices of the billionaires are heard. Union reps have agreed to cut pensions and salaries but the Governor is not willing to negotiate. He wants everything and will give on nothing. This should be a total walkout across the country of all union workers. This is the continuation of a generational battle to take away the rights of workers that started with Reagan and will only end when workers are subjugated or workers fight back. IBEW, AFSCME, UAW, AFL-CIO, SEIU the whole lot should strike.

This is all because the collapse of the economy. You want a low down of what happened and why we can’t afford the pensions we promised to pay people. The pensions were invested in Wall Street, you know, like the plan to privatize Social Security would have done. Well, when the last bubble burst, thanks to Alan Greenspan,“The Biggest Asshole in the Universe,” as called by Matt Taibbi in “Griftopia,” this left the pensions depleted. The pensions were laden with the junk AAA-rated investments that at best were D-rated because the revolving door and deregulation left speculators and Wall Street tycoons to do whatever they wanted and get off scott-free with golden parachutes when the rigged bubble burst. This was the only outcome possible. This wasn’t an accident. This was so purposefully planned that these people should be lined up on death row for premeditated murder of the economy. So, now these pensions are coming due, the pensions people paid into over years of work. When unions negotiate they usually give up pay in order to gain benefits like pensions and healthcare. In a real free-market the pension holders would be required to pay what they owe or go to prison but in our kleptocratic oligarchy that will never happen. Wisconsin isn’t the end every state, 401k and nearly every pension program was invested in these junk securitized mortgage packages.

Because the people that owe the money have ensured that they can fix the rules by pumping billions into elections, thanks Citizens United and Supreme Court, that they will never have to pay what they owe or be held accountable. If you create a Ponzi scheme and dupe people out of thousands of dollars you’ll go to jail, but if you dupe people out of billions by creating a false economy that almost collapses an entire country then you get to go work for presidential administration or move to K Street and begin lobbying to ensure that rules are never put into place that would hold you or your future “yous” accountable for international grand larceny. So, who gets to pay for their greed? The working-class schlep who will never see a pension, lost their 401k and can’t afford to buy legislation to hold the scammers accountable.

Fascists don’t like unions because people are much easier to control individually. The autocratic personalities, like Republicans, conservatives and Tea Baggers like having one strong man in charge. The “every man for himself” mentality fits very well into their Social-Darwinist outlook. This is why they have obligatory masturbation whenever the word Ayn Rand is mention. One man’s “objectivism” is another man’s social Darwinism. Divide and conquer. Pit individual against individual and the objectivists can’t lose. That’s the Tea Party way, the conservative way, the Fascist way. Darwinism. Survival of the fittest. Doesn’t much fit their persona of good Christian American, because we all know as told to us in Matthew that Jesus asked for a co-pay before healing the lepers and welcomed the capitalists into the church.

As much as the right wing preaches about democracy, they don’t really like it. As much as they preach about being heard by their representatives they don’t really like that. Their adoration and worship of money and corporations puts their priorities on profits, prophets and corporations as holy institutions. Private industry and corporations can do everything better. CEOs are the latter-day Saints. This makes them Fascists, by definition. They would be much happier if we put the Koch Industries, Inc. in the White House and disbanded the legislature and the judiciary.

The only problem is that, as mentioned above, and as has been proven corporations are sociopaths. If you’ve watched the documentary “The Corporation” you know what I mean. If a real person, not a corporate person, did what a corporation does they would be put in a mental institution or locked away on death row as a danger to society. Operating with reckless and wanton abandon for the quality of human life with the only goal being “profit” does not leave very much respect for the working person or the human race. Doesn’t leave much room for rights.

So, who should be allowed to determine their destiny? The people themselves, en masse, as prescribed by democracy having their grievances heard? Or the unaccountable, megalomaniacal, corporations that have bought legislation to ensure subjugation? I think in a democracy the choice is clear and workers get to vote with their feet.

Fuck the Mormons, tax the churches

2011-01-02T08:38:00.000-06:00

Tax the churches. Is there any doubt that churches are thrusting themselves into the political? A proposition that should go over well with the TeaBaggers. They don’t like lots of words, nuance or anything too complex. This would simplify the tax code a little for them. Churches should pay taxes on everything they do, like any other business. You know, like Joe the Plumber that wasn’t named Joe nor a plumber. If they don’t like it they can station themselves in a nice tax shelter in the Caribbean. Another reason the teabaggers should get on board is because they believe everyone should do their fair share and everyone should contribute equally. This should include all businesses that use the commons we all pay for to conduct their transactions. Think of how much property tax you could save if all of those churches had to pay property tax just like your business. I ask, why shouldn’t they be taxed? Out of some antiquated false and undeserved deference to a business hocking invisible wares?

They should also be taxed to pay for the government that they are involved in. Part of the deal of no taxation is that they can’t be involved in politics. Recent political and court battles have shown that churches are actively and defiantly involved in influencing politics to suit their theocratic agenda. This should not be taken lightly. If churches as an organization want a say, well, they have to pay.

This has been no more apparent than in the fight in California over Proposition 8 to legalize gay marriage. This fight was completely bankrolled and organized by none other than the flying batshit crazy Mormons which are only a step removed from Scientology and Jedi as a religion. They knew what they were doing was as wrong in California as it was in Hawaii years before, which is why they tried to keep it such a secret by creating front organizations like the National Organization for Marriage. I’m sure all the evangelicals that jumped on that train would be sickened to know that it was all created and funded by that dirty, crazy Mormon money. California didn’t speak on Prop 8, the Mormon Church did. How does it feel to have your state run by whackjob loons California? Well, not the usual California ones but the nutso religious ones.

When the church was first called on providing support to the Prop 8 fight they said they spent about $2,000 of in kind support. Then that went to 190,000, turns out it was well over $22,000,000. They either have a shitty accountant or they lied. I’m going to bet the holy Mormon church lied. Do the ends justify the means so long as it’s in the name of Jesus? Isn’t lying a sin? Did Jesus tell the President of the church to lie? Did he get one of those Monopoly get out of Celestial Heaven free cards? I bet it was on a gold plate.

So, the churches that should be spending that tax exempt money to follow the teachings of Jesus to help the poor, the needy, the sick, the challenged are instead using that money to manipulate politics, to push a Christian Taliban agenda where the end result is theocracy. That is their dream result. They are no better than the Taliban. There are 6000 references in the bible to helping and giving to the poor and a couple handful of mentions of homosexuality and Christ never even mentioned it. However, Christ did have a secret visit with the Lamanites or Nephites in the US after his death in his zombie phase, so he may have mentioned it then. It may have been in those secret golden plates of Joseph Smiths. The abuse and misuse of this special tax status is all the more reason to revoke it. If you think Taliban is too harsh read the story of Bruce Barton and what the leaders of the Mormon BYU campus did to him as a suspected homosexual. There is very little separation from them, most American evangelical leaders and the Taliban. They both have the same goal, the same endgame in mind: theocratic despot utopia. The leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Bullshit has created an environment in that state that has led to a higher per capita suicide rate amongst teens than all states and some countries. The great Christian leader said it was better to be dead than be gay. Ohhhh, I love those great Christian/Mormon morals and values. That’s straight from the prophet, the man that’s on Jesus’ speed dial. Isn’t suicide an unforgivable sin as well? I guess even Jesus gets confused by all of his father’s rules too.

The Mormon church is a organization of bigotry, racism, xenophoia and prejudice. Fuck them. Let their tax exempt status fall and make them pay taxes on all of those temples, churches and magic underwear.

And for the Evangelicals that think they are off of the hook now, your voodoo is just as much bullshit and made up as the Mormon’s. Your “religion” is being used as it always has been. It’s mind control. It makes you the “us” and gives you a “them” to hate and fight against. A common enemy to unite you and cement you in your beliefs. Moors, Moslems, witches, Communists and now homosexuals.

So, if I start selling some fake invisible bullshit; create an “us” and find a “them” to hate, If I just start spouting off about how much I hate everyone with blue eyes or something like that, can I be tax-exempt as well? I think it’s worth a shot and religion seems to be a pretty good racket right now. It provides a great protective umbrella from social and personal responsibility and always has the great out that the Almighty Spaghetti monster, or whatever, will forgive you no matter what you do. You can create rules for the society and push your agenda without having to contribute anything but your dogma based on zombie worship or some sort hatred of people that are different.

Cutting VA funding is not an option

2010-11-13T07:30:00.000-06:00

If you were wounded in Vietnam you had a 70% chance of surviving. Due to advances and improvements in battlefield medicine, if you are wounded in OIF/OEF you have a +90% chance of surviving. When you come back and you complete your service and you separate from the military you may have wounds, physical or mental, that still need treatment or care. Some may even get a 100% disability rating for wounds they received in combat that were never physical at all. That’s the problem with war it’s messy. The war for the warrior doesn’t end on a date set by politicians and world leaders. The war will always be with them and me. It will be with us until the day we die. You called us to duty and we answered. Some of us answered the call multiple times and are suffering compounding injuries. The VA was created to take care of these injuries. It angers me to hear, as we are bogged down in two wars supposedly fighting for the American sheeple, that they want to cut VA funding as a solution to the deficit “crisis.” As a matter of fact it’s two wars I didn’t even hear mentioned by any, not one, of the fucking candidates for office. None of them that gained national attention even had the audacity to mention it. They don’t care about the wars because 1) these candidates, like Christine O’Donnell don’t know very much about them and 2) it’s longer than an episode of Dancing with the Stars so the wars have passed the attention span of the American people. But you would think in an election that was supposedly about deficits we would discuss the occupation-nation-building operations in two foreign countries costing the American taxpayers $200 million per day. Nah, they were more worried about raising the marginal tax rate on millionaires 3%.

The hypocrisy of the flag-waving patriots who speak out of both sides of their mouths is astounding and angering. Supporting the troops is more than a yellow ribbon magnet on your SUV. Partriotism requires more than lip service. It’s more than waving the flag and screaming about some imaginary Marxist boogeyman. You might want to discuss that at your next tea party. If the VA is underfunded, raise taxes to fund it. If you don’t want to pay for us to fight these wars then don’t fucking send us to fight these wars. True patriotism is about selfless service and sacrifice. Why don’t you just ask us, the veterans?

“Don’t tread on me,” is their battle cry. Well, don’t tread on us. Don’t wipe us veterans under your boot and think we’ll stay there. We’re fighters, we got these scars fighting and we won’t stay there long. Don’t brush us under the rug in chasing some imaginary white rabbit of deficit reduction. Don’t again make us casualties of a war of ideology. I’m tired of being in the shitty end of the stick in right wing delusional thrash cycle.

The VA is important. This is not a debt that is owed to me, this is a covenant from America to be kept. How can we fight for our country with the thought in our heads that we are expendable, that we are consumed in use overseas. That when we come home our sacrifice means nothing because the billionaires that benefit most from our fighting have decided they don’t want to pay 3% more in taxes. I’m sorry their patriotism doesn’t extend past their checkbook and can only be found in hackneyed platitudes of press statements from right wing think tanks that work for them and on the misspelled, offensive posters of supposed Tea Party “Patriots.”

Fund the VA every penny it needs. Tax every American that reaps the benefits of the security gained from the sacrifice of veterans to pay for it. Tax defense contractors that have reaped a whirlwind of profits from these two wars enough to make the war unprofitable to them just like we did in WWII. Take away the loopholes and shelters for corporations like GE, largest defense contractor in the US, and BP, largest US defense oil contracts, that paid $0 in taxes last year. Tax them until it hurts and it’s paid for.

Grow a spine, man up, put on some man pants and let’s be the country we once were. One that respected and appreciated the sacrifice of the warrior enough to ensure the wounds they received in defense of their country were treated, cared for and healed. Let’s be the patriots our grandparents were and not the faux-patriots the right-wing prides itself on being as guise to dupe people into voting against their best interests.

Let’s be the country we were under FDR. I for one don’t understand the brand of patriotism exhibited by people like Sewell Avery, CEO of Montgomery Ward in the 1940s. Mr. Avery didn’t want to pay his fair share of taxes to pay for WWII. The difference is that when he didn’t pay, FDR sent the national guard down to his office to arrest him and made an example of him and his faux-patriotism that puts profits before country. He was required to pay $30,000 and to put it in perspective in the 1950s he retired with a fortune worth more than $300 million, much of that from war profiteering. Don’t you think he owed a little back to the country that gave him the security, opportunity, roads to make that fortune possible?

So don’t wave your flag and yell about supporting the troops until you’re ready to put your money where your mouth is, or to make hold your corporate overlords accountable and have them do the same.

2010-09-08T17:59:00.001-05:00

Anger Management, that's me, has been added to The Atheist Blogroll. You can see the blogroll in my sidebar. The Atheist blogroll is a community building service provided free of charge to Atheist bloggers from around the world. If you would like to join, visit Mojoey at Deep Thoughts for more information.

No Mosque Senor

2010-08-21T07:12:00.000-05:00

No mosques near ground zero.

Then no Christian churches near Native American reservations that have been terrorized for 600 years by Christians. Christians killed 90% of the Native population of the Americas between 1492 and 1892 using the same convert or die strategy as the Muslims use today. Christopher Columbus was the first religious terrorist in the Americas.

Nor near the Oklahoma City bombing, nor anyplace where the Ku Klux Klan has terrorized people (pretty much takes out the south and Indiana).

No churches in Wichita, Kan. or anyplace an abortion clinic has been bombed, no churches in Atlanta, Ga. (1996 bombing by Christian "Patriot" Group).

You see how ridiculous your petty your war over which imaginary friend can beat up which imaginary friend can get. We are more moral than this fictional character called god created by stone-age man. All of your beliefs are archaic and retard mental, emotional and social growth. So I have a simple call no mosques, churches or places of worship anywhere. Let’s turn them all into buildings of science, thought and reason.

A thousand high fives a day quota

2010-08-14T08:17:00.000-05:00

One of the great things about attending the Jamboree was being surrounded by the young men and women that find patriotism not to be passe or a trend, but inherent in their everyday lives. Their support, admiration and affection of the military was inspiring and humbling. As I was walking down the hot paved road against the wall of Scouts and leaders pushing the other way I would be awakened from my heat-induced, walking slumber with the near cry, “high five,” only to get my hand up, most times, just in time to slap the sweaty hand of a young Scout.

If you attended any of the Arena Shows it would be apparent from the beginning what their stance was on the military. A speaker didn’t get up without first thanking the military for their support of the Jamboree or sacrifice to our country in this time of war. The fact that these young people are raised to support and respect the military with unfettered infatuation, honestly, puts pressure on me to act appropriately as we walk the grounds of the Jamboree taking photos of the military supporting this great event.

We are demi-gods in our own right to them because we are the end personification of the goal of the Boy Scouts. We, in flesh and uniform, are the the commitment of service to one’s community and country that is the keystone of scouting. “On my honor, I will do my best, to do my duty, to God and my Country,” is the beginning of the Scout Oath.

“I want to be an Army Ranger,” said many of the young men. “I’m going to join the [insert branch here],” was heard many times over the course of two weeks. While the admiration and support is great, the innocence of it disturbed me until I saw something at the opening Arena Show. I can’t remember the speaker but the man at the front of the 50,000 Scouts and leaders asked them all to give a hand in support of the military supporting the Jamboree and protecting them overseas. Then, as if that wasn’t touching enough, he asked that all of those who have a relative currently serving in the Armed Forces please stand, and with that nearly 3/5ths of the audience rose.

That’s when I realized most of these young people not only get it but they live it. They live the sacrifice of missing a parent for a year or more at a time. They live the sacrifice of a parent missing life’s minor and major events. Some are even living the pain of dealing with a family member returning from war scarred physically or mentally. Their admiration is unfettered and made stronger not out of a lack of consciousness of those sacrifices but because of them. Their is no innocence in that admiration. They aren’t just drinking the Kool-Aid their parents gave them. At the end of the day, if I count them all up, I gave maybe a hundred or more high fives to kids who need it or deserve it more than me, and accepted them on behalf of my brothers and sisters in the Armed Forces, many of whom, certainly, need or deserve one more than me, then so be it, sore hand and all. “High five!” Smack!

Boy Scouts and supporting the National Scout Jamboree Part I

2010-07-29T08:48:00.000-05:00

An informal AAR of the event that my unit, the 14th PAD and it’s seven Soldiers attended. This is not the official opinion of the JTF-NSJ, the U.S. Army, or the DOD. Unlicensed reproduction or distribution without the express written consent of the NFL is strictly prohibited.

So, I got to spend two weeks at Fort A.P. Hill, Va. from July 20th to August 5th supporting the National Scout Jamboree. It may come as a surprise to most people that there is actually a military Joint Task Force with a Brigadier General as commander, assigned to support the BSA with this event every 4 years since it has been held on a military installation. The JTF is about 2,000 service members comprising of everything from firemen, military police, logistics, medics, entomologists and yes, of course, public affairs.

It’s a large event with more than 50,000 scouts and leaders in attendance and 20,000 visitors expected. This year is the Centennial Celebration of the founding of the Boy Scouts of America in 1910, so it only compounds the issue with the number of people that would be interested in attending this event. The Jamboree which is usually held every four years was delayed one year to allow for it to take place on the centennial.
The military support to the event is a joint operation. All services and all components were represented from the active duty Marines and Army to the Air Force Reserve and Coast Guard Auxiliary. Much like Captain Planet these forces only combine when rings are held together and magical words are incanted.

So, basically one week before the event there is an exercise to ensure that everyone is on the same page concerning consequence management, reaction drills and most importantly powerpoint slide format. Heaven knows that the military would stop operating without Outlook and Powerpoint. If Powerpoint stops then we essentially stand up walk out of our offices and don’t return. It’s in the contracts, read it sometime.

Exercises are great when done with realism and when designed to test the limits of the system. The JTF exercise was pretty impressive with every thing from moulage, fake damaged body parts and blood, to on-post shooting incident exercise, to protests, and the introduction of a certain pushy, hard-nosed, NBC affiliate reporter, Chip Chipperson. Let me tell you, Chip Chipperson is a real asshole. His slogan, “Chip Chipperson doesn’t report the news he makes the news.” Chip is my newsman alter-ego with the quick-wit of Keith Olbermann and the paranoia and delusion of Glenn Beck and Alex Jones.

Here’s the deal though, when you bring 2,000 people together from 5 services, 4 components of those services, and about a hundrity bajillion different units no one really knows what they are supposed to do or what the other guy isn’t supposed to do for the first couple of days. Cue Yakety Sax. That’s what should be playing for the first few days. Because really it’s just people running in and out of doors being chased by a half-naked, middle-aged man.

But with the help of a good, realistic exercise those kinks are worked out and create at least a functional unit and eliminates the need for Yakety Sax or Benny Hill.

So, the first two days we were there we both documented and participated in the exercise. Plane crashes, media engagements, on-post shooter incident, out of control protestors, out of control fire. I think at the end of the two days of the exercise the JTF could say they were prepared for anything short of the alien abduction of a Boy Scout and even then I’m sure NORTHCOM and NORAD have some sort of contingency plan they fall to for that sort of thing.

...More to follow...

Up Next...
“A thousand high-fives a day quota.”

Fucktards II: A rant...

2010-07-14T11:30:00.001-05:00

The Tea Party is the largest group of near-sighted assholes I have ever had the privledge of witnessing. Fueled ideologically by the idiotic rants of failed shock-jock, opportunist, and moron-cult leader Glenn Beck, founded by a man who lobbied for terrorist organizations in the US, Dick Armey, and funded at the grass-tip, not roots, by ... See Morecorporations.I was at the 9-12 protest in D.C. and they have nothing but hate. It was a bunch of angry, spoiled almost all white people bitching about something they knew absolutely nothing about based on conspiracy theories and Fox News propaganda. They are sheep. I say give them what they want. Put their leaders in office and let them burn the country down around them.

Their platform is full of holes and contradictions. If you're against spending where were you when Reagan TRIPLED the national debt and Bush doubled it? If you're worried about jobs where were you when Bush lost 1.5 million jobs over the course of two terms? If you're concerned about oil spills where where you when the MMS was literally in bed with the oil lobby doing cocaine in a Denver hotel room with the same lobbyists and when Dick Cheney held actual SECRET meetings to establish US energy strategy with the oil companies? That's the exact definition of Fascism. Confronting these morons did no good then and does no good now. They would just go back to their retarded talking points about birth certificates and Saul Alinsky. They are stupid, ignorant, paranoid and delusional...all of them. If it's not about race, if it's not about party affiliation then where were they for the 8 years of Bush violating their supposed "platform" 100 times worse than Obama? None of them, and none that I've confronted, talked to, argued with can answer that simple question.

Fucktards

2010-05-26T12:09:00.002-05:00

I mean is there a better word to summarize a movement of fat, self-righteous, racist, nearly all white, Chrisitan people, naming their political movment after an act of sodomy all the while sucking the government tit for medicare and social security complaining about big government. God, I hate these people I wish they would just go away.
The reason America even recognizes them is because we always feel bad for retarded or slow people. It's kind of like saying, "Awww ain't that precious. Look at the flop and flail around out there." That' s all their doing is flailing and saying, "Nuh-uh" to everything Obama does and says between their Socialism-Tourettes where they just spew words they don't know the meaning for and string them into a diatribe of insults. "Commie-Social-Facsist-Muslim lover." What the hell does that even mean? Most of them attended the Sarah Palin School of Debate for Tourettes Syndrome. That's it. Sarah Palin doesn't make sense because she has Tourettes Syndrome. When she's speaking it's just a epileptical Tourettes Syndrome tick.

I feel much better now that I have that out of my system.
That's just some of it. It's been piling up for awhile.

Theses

2010-05-26T11:42:00.003-05:00

Well, looks like taking command of an 8-person unit is not nearly as easy as you think. Thanks to all the support functions company-level units have to perform having more people is actually better. Fortunately, the PA soldiers are just as capable as artillery soldiers when it comes to working outside your MOS and just getting the job done because really that's all we can do at this point. HAHA!
We just did the change of command a little over a week ago and I feel like I've been here for months.
Got a lot to do in very little time for upcoming missions but my procratination is getting the best of me because really who wants to practice going to MOPP 4 when it's 100 outside. Not me. Blah.

Baggers in the Sky with Diamonds

2010-04-14T15:06:00.001-05:00

Tea Baggers to Arms, to arms, they want to end a NASA program. First, I doubt that a majority of Americans can tell you what NASA means. There are just a few problems with the Tea Party outraged for the continued funding of the space program. First of all, the Tea Party doesn’t like science and space travel is all science. A majority of the Tea Partiers are Christian and a majority of those are young-earther’s which is the modern equivalent of flat-earthers. People who believe, like Sarah Palin, that the Earth/universe is 6,000 years old and dinosaur fossils were planted by Satan to trick us. I only say that they are mostly Christian because as stated by Palin the real America isn't east-coast secualrists. I can only assume that means mid-western atheists by association. I find it hilarious that these mostly scientifically-ignorant people, who don’t believe in science are so aghast at the end-run of a space program that was defunded under the Bush administration. Their best guess is that the spaceship is powered by magic Jesus dust and astronauts pass God and angels sitting on clouds as they shoot into space. Space, which was created 6,000 years ago by their almighty God, you remember, is the final frontier. Now it’s about the technology and the jobs. But, do you really want a government agency to be a jobs program? So, if they don’t want the science, since all scientists are liars beholden to their god Darwin, and they don’t want government creating jobs what do they want from NASA? I guess really when it comes down to it they just appreciate a good memory-foam mattress to kneel next to as they talk under their breath to the omnipotent, imaginary father-figure-in-the-sky.

Republican'ts

2010-04-09T19:02:00.001-05:00

May I present the monarchy of anarchy...

First, they are the party of no government and self-proclaimed party of “no.” So, why vote for them to have a government job if they don’t like the government? Go get one of those private industry jobs that are so easy to find nowadays. I mean, afterall, you are just inflating the unemployment numbers by being employed by the government. They would rather shut everything down than have a debate about what is actually going on and what needs to be done. So, when they lose instead of becoming the reasonable minority adding to the debate, they close down debate and offer nothing but their backs; throwing fits like my four-year-old. Yelling out obscenities, not able to wait their turn to speak, not respecting the decorum and comity of the Congress or Senate. And I’m not talking about the protestors, they can do whatever the hell they want, I’m talking about the ‘leaders,’ the elected representatives.

These are the same people who whined,“Reagan [-Christ] never even took his jacket off in the oval office.” Then their elected representatives, not once, but twice have breached common etiquette and protocol in the Chamber. They are like an uncontrollable four-year-old throwing fits and tantrums, who can’t wait their turn in line or to speak. They can’t follow simple rules we learn in Kindergarten.

Next, the party is full of nepotism. It’s passed from one dynasty to the next. First the Bush’s now the Cheneys. There is always an heir apparent and it seems to always be in the bloodline of one of the former party leaders. Republicans are the party of monarchies and dynasties. Not to mentions Struass and the Kristols the fathers of neo-conservativism, more properly called neo-liberalism, but that is for another day.

Next, they defend the undefendable and sell America out at any cost. Liz Cheney has decided to defend her father’s oil cartel buddy Karzai after he made comments saying that he might join the Taliban. If anything they should be calling for his head not defending him. But oil is worth more than the American soldier putting his ass on the line to prop up that puppet regime so Halliburton can put their pipeline in Black Sea. They are essentially selling the American soldier down the road out of their loyalty to a drug-oil cartel. What do you know? Their foreign policy is exactly the same as their domestic policy. Prop up the drug-oil cartels at any and all costs. Drill, baby, drill. Kill, baby, kill.

I guess you have to ask yourself, do you want to be a member of the party of crying four-year-olds who didn’t get their way so they’re taking their ball and going home? Well, do you?

The whole debate from liberal to conservative, dove to hawk, pro-choice to pro-life, isolationist to neo-con (neo-lib) can be had in the Democratic Party. What use do we have for a bunch of whining crybabies who just take their toys and go home when we have some serious ‘playing’ to do?

Atheist Ireland fights blasphemy law with publication of 25 blasphemous quotes

2009-12-31T20:15:00.001-06:00

"From today, 1 January 2010, the new Irish blasphemy law becomes operational, and we begin our campaign to have it repealed. Blasphemy is now a crime punishable by a €25,000 fine. The new law defines blasphemy as publishing or uttering matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion, with some defences permitted."

Fort Hood Nov 5th

2009-11-15T08:01:00.000-06:00

As someone who is at Fort Hood, and was there that day, and has had to work very hard cleaning up the aftermath, I appreciate President Obama's thoughtfulness in this matter. I was at Fort Hood, in lockdown when the shooting was going on. I proceeded to work for nearly two days straight with little rest. My job as a public affairs officer is to answer media requests, do interviews, and set interviews up. Believe me there was no time for rest in the first day.

I was there when everyone from Pres. Obama to the CJCS visited. My wife was at the hospital when former President G.W. Bush made an unannounced and low-profile trip to visit the wounded simply out of care, respect, and concern. I was there answering phone calls, emails and letters from people all across the world sending their condolences to our military community. The calls came from Germany, California, Nebraska, Indiana and New York. I was there as I watched Senator John McCain, a hero himself, and Senator Al Franken sit next to each other at a ceremony to honor our fallen. But most importantly I was there as an American to watch as politics and parties were cast away to show respect for the fallen and support for the families and comrades left behind to deal with the aftermath. I’ve heard the amazing life stories of the Soldiers we lost and saw the respect given to those left behind. I have watched as those morals, values and laws that service members have defended with their life are put to the test as we allow the law enforcement officials and courts, not the court of public opinion, to determine guilt or innocence of the accused in such a heinous crime. That is what America is, that is what makes America great. I watched as hands were reached from inside our protected compound to the Islamic community outside our gates to share in our grief. I watched as a battle-hardened Sergeant and combat medic cried as he tried to come to grips with why a religion that gives him peace and the solace to deal with combat was being perverted to justify and laud the actions of the accused killer.

Let’s remember the fallen but let’s not forgot those left behind. The units those soldiers came from will still deploy to combat environments and will return. Ironically and hopefully, never having to encounter any situation of this magnitude on their deployment. Let us not forget the peaceful part of the Islamic community that wishes for justice the same as everyone else and considers this actions deplorable by any human being. My hope is that we will be able to move through this event while showing those great American values of equality, justice, compassion and fairness. My hope is that America’s true colors shine through the clouds of this tragic storm.

Would the Cheneys please go away

2009-10-31T08:50:00.006-05:00

The Cheney cabal always seems to surprise me with their hypocrisy and cynicism.

Liz Cheney says that she thinks Obama used his landing and Dover and honoring the fallen from a pretty significant week of casualties in Afghanistan was a political stunt. This visit to the remains of the fallen foreshadows a pretty significant coming fortnight where the President will decide whether or not to up the ante in Afghanistan, and possibly increase the number of flag-draped coffins that would be in-transit to loved ones across the United States from that Dover airfield.

This assumption is based on the cynicism that everyone is like the Cheneys. That every move is to our own personal gain and not for the benefit of others. That's because 5-time-deferment-vice-coward-in-chief Dick Cheney and spawn would not know selfless service if it flew out of the sky and shot them in the face with bird shot. At every turn in their "public" service career they have used it for private gain, as Dick Cheney also used his lack of service in Vietnam, a war he cheered, for his own personal gain. Any time they have been put in a position of leadership or power they have used it to benefit them or their oligarchy.

So, no, they probably wouldn't believe or understand that someone could do something like President Obama did in visiting those remains and families as they flew in from a combat zone, as he makes the decision that will have to fix the mess left behind by them. The current administration is the cleaning crew that has been hired to clean up the mess left behind when Cheney and their closest friends threw a drunken frat party gone awry in administration of a country putting in collapse and two wars on the brink of loss. They disappeared like teenagers who knew they parents were coming home and knew they didn't want to be around to suffer the consequences of their power-orgy.

VP Cheney and kin, the parents are home now, and they are cleaning up your mess, you would be best to keep your mouth shut pretend you were never at the party. Everytime you open your mouth all you do is implicate yourself in the most failed administration of the Presidency in history.

You can see the pictures of the flag-draped coffins, or the dying Marine but it's completely different to experience it first-hand. It's completely different to hear the cries of agony come out of a woman who has just been told that she is a widow. President Obama showing up to see what the consequence of his future actions could be first-hand, shows me he understands the gravity of what he may or may not do in committing more forces to Afghanistan. You see, the President never served in the military and he realizes that there are experiences he has never had, he is not arrogant enough to assume that he could know what emotion those flag-draped coffins convey in person. This only makes more confident in the decision he may make, because he is taking it all in and computing all the costs his decisions could tally.

PG-13 Version of My Mind on Sunday at Starbucks waiting for my updates to download

2009-09-20T10:11:00.001-05:00

Sunday is dress up day for the crazies. Here they go, in and out of the Starbucks to get the caffeine they’ll need to stay awake while some person stands in front of them and talks about Aesop’s fables and good standards of conduct. They have to do it. They have believe. They have to be good under punishment under eternal torture. Let us not be good for decencies sake but only if I get something out of it in the end.

The more they dress-up the more they are telling the people around them how devoted they are to the idea of an imaginary man in the sky, that had an imaginary son, that died for the things the people in charge of talking to the imaginary man call sins. So, the more dressed up the more crazy. I mean, I just saw a guy with a suit and bow-tie. Bow-tie, really. Is that necessary. probably not, but I have to admit it did look sharp.

That’s another thing. I’m intimidated by stores. I went into J. Crew yesterday. They had some pretty snazzy looking outfits on mannequins. I’m trying to branch out of cargo pants and jeans. After all, I get to wear cargo pants everyday why wear them in my off time.

Yesterday I went to get my uniform fixed. We get to put stripes on our right arm for overseas service. I asked for 5 and the Privates in line behind me looked at me like I was a God. And that’s good because I am. Not really, just kidding. But I did have to explain what they were and why you get them. You have to admire they young kids. And they’re young too. Think about it. People born in 1991 are now joining the military. They don’t even know who Nirvana is. They’ve been raised on computers, Britney Spears and pop-junk culture of brain-dead reality television.

I have to admit television is making a come-back. House, Bones, Mad Men, alot of good shows and not enough time to watch them.

I wonder if Alissa will make me watch Bones when I get home? Oh, Curb starts today I need to remind Alissa to record it.

Yeah Curb and Seinfeld will be on it. I can’t wait.

Pink Nikes really. that’s a bold statement. An untied tie hung around the neck, I don’t know what’s going on with that. I think he’s waiting to tie it, but it looks cool like that.

Sipping coffee through a straw everyone knows real men drink coffee hot, with whipped cream.

Boy or girl? Boy or girl? Boy or girl? Shit!! Uhhhhh, BOY! Yesssss, initial instinct was correct.

Hat.

Brushguard on a Yukon. In Texas, OK. But I don’t think you need it between Baltimore and D.C.

That guy is tall. He plays basketball. Lady just laughed at how tall he is. He must be 6’7“.

I must look angry because people look at me an turn around. These people are hilarious. Uh, bow-tie. I wish I could wear a bow-tie. White people and bow-ties don’t work though. You better be going to a wedding, debutante ball or Presidential Gala. Black guy with bow-tie some reason works.

Mocha is getting cold, must drink it. PAUSE>>>

Almost choked on aforementioned mocha.

This place is odd. The racial mix seems to be about 50/50. Very unlike Texas and Indiana. Indiana they try though.

Redskins Hats are big here. For the longest time I thought the redskins were in Washington not D.C. I hate sports. ESPN is the largest waste of electromagnetic spectrum. People could do so much more if they didn’t spend their time memorizing completely fucking useless sports trivia. Or maybe it’s good people don’t do more. I am a cynic after all. People should do less, way less. Or more. Maybe smart people that I agree with should do more and the people I disagree with should do less. So, it’s settled then. Less is more. Exactly. Time to go to Barnes and Noble to find a book about Afghanistan an it’s history.

Very interested in their past. That’s what connected it for me and Iraq. Of course, I had visited places the book talked about so it was very tangible. Be careful what you wish for. Looks like there is no limit on the amount of lives, blood and treasure we will soak into propping up a puppet government there. Ergo, I will probably be there before too long.

Did you know that when you write lists example: ”The dog is black, white and brown.” You don’t put a comma before the conjunction. I was taught just the opposite in school. Have I been alive long enough that the English language has evolved an evolution or was I taught wrong.

I will be fucking surprised if anyone reads this whole thing.

Sacrifice. What Sacrifice?

2009-09-13T18:56:00.001-05:00

I was participating in a project to streamline logistics systems in the Iraq theater when the group of us working on the project were visited by the general in charge of the project. He looked at us very sternly and said, “This war is bankrupting our country and we can’t plan on fighting it the same way we have in the past.” I use quotes because it struck me so hard that I remembered exactly what he said. I have to be honest, until that moment I thought we had an unlimited amount of money to fight and win these wars.

It was very sobering to hear someone that high up the chain say those words. Essentially, he wanted to focus on getting the most bang for our bucks because the bucks are running out.

That leads me to this.

The CBO is looking for ways to cut money from the military budget. They’ve made suggestions ranging from cutting pay increases to increasing taxes.

I would like to point out a few things I have noticed. First, when dealing with logistics I am appalled and never surprised by the amount of money that we spend hiring a single contractor to do the job of one soldier in theater. The cost per capita for a contractor is way more than a soldier. We need to use fewer contractors. We can do this two ways: 1) allowing soldiers to do the job we pay them to do. This is an unpopular option, especially with the current OPTEMPO already faced by Soldiers. This would lead to making soldiers deploy without proper dwell time. The thought is not appealing to me either, after having done 2 extended deployments. 2) Begin cutting contractor provided services in theater. This would mean that Soldiers would have to do without certain amenities currently afforded. Those amenities would be clean water, electricity, billeting, warm food, vehicle repair and parts etc. Again not appealing to me either. This would mean once again asking the service member to sacrifice. This would mean an overall drawdown of the infrastructure we have spent so long building.

Other than asking more sacrifice from those already risking life and limb, we could ask the American people to actually pay for the wars that we are fighting for them. That is code for raising taxes by the way. We have actually done the opposite of what every country in recorded history has done, lowered taxes in a time of war. Considering no more has been asked of the American public than that they continue shopping since the beginning of these campaigns. If the American people actually consider not paying for the war then we withdrawal. We are the American Army this is supposedly a war to protect them, if they don’t want to pay then we can’t play.

This especially struck as I watched the Teabaggers yesterday in D.C. Their messages were inconsistent. I would see a sign that said, “Don’t Raise My Taxes,” next to a sign that said, “Support the Troops.” These people, the anti-tax advocates, seem to be oblivious that China is paying for the troops to fight these wars because they can’t be bothered to pay more taxes, and asking people of any political persuasion to pay more taxes is unpopular and a death-knell for a politicians career. If the American people and our Representatives are serious about supporting the troops, I think it’s time they prove it by not asking us, ‘the troops,’ to sacrifice anymore than we already do daily. It’s time for us to be realistic that fighting wars isn’t cheap and we can’t put it on the credit card without destroying our country. We have already spent enough money to pay for healthcare for all Americans ten-fold. I would also like to see these people with the Chinese-made yellow-ribbon magnets put their money where their magnet is.

The military should, of course, be good stewards of the equipment and supplies under our purview. Even with 100% efficient systems there will be waste. Not to mention, nation-building is not cheap and doing it in two countries also raises the cost significantly. One of those countries not having any great infrastructure compounds an already significantly expensive operation.

The bottom line is that this war is bankrupting our country, and it seems the country, our representatives and civilian leaders have no problem asking us, the service member, to sacrifice, more and more and more. If America as a whole wants to continue these wars they should be forced to pay for them. They should be forced to feel the sting of sacrifice for these things that are, supposedly, so important to them. Once that sting hits them we’ll see how important these exercises in nation-building are to them as bridges collapse in Minnesota, aging, out-dated power grids fail in California and state governments shut down because they no longer have the capital to provide services to their citizens. Really where should their sacrifice be going?

Freedom is on the march and it gets shot by the Taliban

2009-09-10T17:50:00.003-05:00

First of all my condolences to the family and all those affected and effected by the loss of someone close to them in these wars.

The AP editor’s recent decision to show a dying Marine on the front page may be morally reprehensible to some but to me I find it refreshing. It’s about time someone shows the unvarnished truth of sacrifice from this war on terror, or global contingency operations, or overseas contingency operations or whatever the new term is today. It is strange that in the age of media we are getting less information like this from the press due to America’s willingness and ignorance to sop up fluff peddled by Generals, Presidents, and Representatives. I guess it’s OK to say that 4 soldiers died so long as Americans don’t have to actually witness it. Don’t impugn their ivory castles of flat screen TVs and big, gas-guzzling SUV’s to show the actual sacrifice being made on their behalf. I think the outrage from the general public is not one of horror that something like this could be shown to them, but that it was, and this picture reminds them of what they too often forget. It reminds them of what is actually meant in those crushed seconds between the GM and Bank Of America commericals when the anchorperson says that X number of service members died today in some far-off land that most of them and their children can’t point to on a map. Do you not want to know how they die? Is all that matters to you is that we sacrifice? Would you rather wash the gory details from your conscience with your yellow ribbon magnet on the back of your SUV?

Let’s not even get into the hypocrisy of the Marine dying for ‘freedom’ as we would like to censor the press for doing it’s job. If I die in the combat zone, which is likely as my luck runs out from two extended deployments, I want the picture of how I died on the front page of every paper. But unfortunately the deaths of service members aren’t big news. We’ve been dying for eight years and we’ll die for eight years more, and after. I think the biggest bone of contention here is that we don’t know for what that Marine died. Maybe, that is finally permeating the conscience of America. That we have citizens dying overseas and we don’t know for what end, especially if we Americans, out of a sense of false outrage to protect us from our own ignorance, are going to usurp the jingoistic and Orwellian reasons of freedom and the spreading of Jeffersonian democracy that we use to send combat forces to these exotic lands at the drop of a hat. A little inward introspection of our own outrage may be in order.

My Generation's Korean Conflict: The Forgotten War

2009-09-04T08:12:00.004-05:00

Having done two extended deployments myself I understand the hardship that those soldiers from the 82nd Division HQ Battalion will face over that extra 52 days. It's 52 more chances to die or get injured essentially 52 more hands of poker with death and injury as the ante.

Why now does Afghanistan matter? Why after 8 fucking years is this war now registering with the leadership and the American public?

First, it's not about OBL. OBL is dead. Get over it. If we kill him he's a martyr if we capture him he becomes a target. So, now after 8 years people want to win the hearts and minds. We can win their hearts and minds. It's not our job our right our duty to protect and defend the constitution of Afghanistan. They now teach in Army strategic doctrine that one of our main purposes is to "protect American interests." Yeah, surprised the shit out of me too. GEN Smedley Butler and "War is a Racket" ring a bell. I don't know what Afghanistan is about now. But anything...anything we do is too little way, way, way the FUCK TOO LATE.

Really, you think after killing these people and occupying them for eight years we are now going to change their minds about western culture and democracy. That would be great if that's what they wanted. We're talking about a band of roving gypsies that settled down in the valleys a thousand years ago that have been invaded multiple times and lived the invasions out. They are not going to leave, but we are. We might as well leave without wasting more lives and treasure. Some wars are winnable, we have 3,000 years of evidence that a land war in Asia is not winnable.

I appreciate the leadership shown by our senior Generals and civilian leadership. It seems after EIGHT YEARS that the war in Afghanistan is getting another, more realistic look. The message I'm getting is that we are going to give it one more college try with realistic objectives and have a short span of time to do it. I don't know if that's because they think it's 'unwinnable' by whatever metrics you can win this war by, or if that's because public opinion is turning in tide against this war and they don't want to repeat Vietnam from 1969-1975. It is nearly impossible to fight a war without public support. However, you can still start one with 60 percent of the public against it. And you know public opinion is slipping for wars when the chickenhawks are squawking about getting out. Those who will rush into war on a 'pack of lies' but never serve themselves. Those who will fight any war anywhere at the drop of a hat so long as their deferments are upheld for polinoidal cysts and 'other priorities.' George Will, neo-con extraordinaire, is now saying we are through in Afghanistan and should have started the withdrawal yesterday. I find it convenient that now, with a Democratic president the conservatives are ready and willing to accept defeat and pin it on the Democratic commander-in-chief. This will keep their supposed 'security' credentials intact with the American public because the withdrawal wasn't done under a Republican just the lying into war and the mismanagement of two campaigns that led to this catch-22 position. Everything that led to this is their fault but will quickly be forgotten by the 24 hour news cycle public.

I think, generally, morale in the military is improving because we don't feel like we have brain-dead yes-men making decisions and it's people taking an honest look with realistic assessments of both Campaigns in the Theater. It's about fucking time. If we're going to sweat, bleed, and lose buddies can't it be for a tangible objective and not some ethereal jingoistic bullshit. Objectives such as 'spread freedom and democracy' vice 'clear, hold and build' X area for example. Which do you think is more realistic and obtainable for an 11B humping 100 pounds through mountains in 120 degree heat?

I know, I know, ours is not to ask why but to do or die.

When you're asked to do or die you should have a reality based and attainable objective for which to die, at the fucking least. Jingoism and propaganda only take you so far up that mountain.

People who bring guns to debates are PUSSIES

2009-08-18T18:18:00.003-05:00

Let me start this rant by saying that I am one of the few self -described liberals you'll find that is a member of the NRA and has a CHL in two states.

People who bring guns to meetings bring them for one reason: Passive-aggressive intimidation. They may not even realize why they are doing but that is why. It is their way of intimidating people who are pro-healthcare. The want to make people fearful, and stifle all debate, but because they have nothing to add but "Nuh-uh" they carry weapons.

They are saying, "Look, if you do something or say something that I don't like, I have the power to take your life." But instead of saying it outright like a real revolutionary they parade around in their mopey passive aggressive nature. These people are mental midgets. They have no way of arguing so they let the threat of force and violence argue for them. They have a very authoritarian, fascistic, if you will, mindset.

You don't intimidate me assholes and no one else should be intimidated by these dumbasses either. They are moronic, passive-aggressive, nimwits who should have their CHLs, if they are mentally stable enough to have one, revoked for public endangerment, especially if they are walking around in t public with a round chambered, as I saw on the news, in a semi-automatic rifle.

There's a way to pick the dumbest ones out ... they'll have the most and biggest guns strapped to them in the most prominent manner. A smart gun-owner knows that surprise is the biggest advantage you have and concealing is the best policy for protection; hence my CHLs. Hence the reason I know that they are not carrying them for the purpose of self-protection. The only reason you would display it publicly is for INTIMIDATION!

It is just a matter of common decency that you don't display your weapons in public. And going to a large public area where the President is going to be with a loaded gun is disrespectful to the Law Enforcement Officers that have to protect him, the people in the crowd, and the President himself. I would never go to a large venue like that strapped, open-carry or concealed. Again the only reason to display it is to intimidate people.

The reason this pisses me off more than anything is that I hate this passive-aggresive bullshit. Really, that's what's making me angry.

My Political Party Assessment

2009-08-16T10:08:00.003-05:00

Libertarians and Ron-heads

Are selfish and mentally lazy. It’s just easier to say leave each to their own. The work that would go into fixing society’s problems is just easier to ignore and leave to each individual hiding behind the patriotic veil of individual liberty. These problems are a result of living in a modern world of which they are a part. If you don’t like the modern world then please go to the woods and live in your bunker. Please don’t use the clean water that society with its evil taxes and collectivism provides you. But even then you can’t own land because ownership is a function of government bureaucracy and if you fall into using that part of the bureaucracy the next thing you know the President will be knocking on the door to take your guns, euthanize your mother, and give your wife an abortion.

Republicans

Republicans are great obstructionists. I mean great. They are able to obstruct while in the majority and the minority. Anytime there is an attempt to modernize, revolutionize, or fix any societal system they just stand up and say no. However, unlike their libertarian cousins they don’t hide behind a moral philosophy. They hide behind money. Everything is always too expensive, except for when the DOD wants to strap laser beams to sharks, we’ve always got money for that. Or when the Air Force wants to buy billions of dollars in jets and aircraft we don’t need, we always have money for that. Or corporate welfare combined with tax cuts for billionaires and corporations. Or invading and occupying a sovereign nation for years on end with no end in site, we’ve got unlimited money for that apparently. But we don’t have the money to provide US citizens protection from health insurance con-men who have no desire to provide the service people are paying for.

Republicans are saying, yes, we need healthcare reform. They had both houses of the legislature and the Presidency for eight years and did nothing about healthcare. The instant Democrats get a bill going all they can say is no. Where were you the past eight years with your great ideas? They obstruct with money. Wait a second is this the party under which deficit ballooned from a surplus to nearly $4 trillion in debt? Yes, yes it is. Then they obstruct with the libertarian argument of a growing government. Wait a second, is the same party under whose control the government bureaucracy grew exponentially? Yes, yes it is.

And if the government is a failure at everything it does why are they so afraid of it being so successful at providing a HEALTH INSURANCE OPTION and argue that it will be a burden on the corporations? Survival of the fittest, right.

I know, I know, if there was no collusion between the companies, which is ILLEGAL, and we actually enforced Sherman Antitrust laws, then insurance CEOs wouldn’t be able to make $105,000 per hour. Then people might actually be able to use their insurance, and here’s a novel idea, to actually receive health care. And if CEOs aren’t making $105,000 per hour they aren’t going to spend that money, and all the GOLD TOILET SEAT making factories and money-pool making factories will have to close and all of those workers will be laid off.

Republicans are people who like living in the good ol’ days. They reminisce of the days gone by and long for the 1950s and ‘60s. You know the good ol’ days when the US was great when we had Jim Crow Laws, McCartyism, prevalent societal sexism and racism. A great democracy that relegated blacks and women as second class citizens. I don’t know what was so great about that time.

I pick on the republicans because they have a certain level of xenophobia, paranoia, schizophrenia, and anti-social behavior that is usually only found in the mentally insane.

Democrats

My favorite bunch of spineless politicians. Usually, on the side of the majority of the United States but too afraid to voice the facts at the risk of looking partisan. They are so afraid of being called Socialist. My Advice: Democrats rename your party and beat them to the punch we are the Socialist Democratic Party. Go ugly early. You get that out of the way you can stop defending and start going on the offensive. You are on the side of the majority of the people, who cares what you call yourself. Part of the Democratic platform is, by fact, Socialist. Say, so what, and move on. Nearly every modern democracy has a Socialist Democratic party, there is nothing wrong with that. Most countries have communist members of their parliamentary bodies. So what, it adds to the debate.

Don’t get me wrong I am absolutely a Darwinist. If I were a politician my ticket would definitely be pro death. I am PRO death-penalty, pro abortion, pro necessary war, pro guns, and pro euthanasia. If you want to die, that should be your choice. If you want to kill a parasite that is living inside your body that is your choice. I would not like for my significant other to have an abortion but if that is the decision she comes to, which I doubt she would, I have no right to stop her. She is not my property and not a cow for producing young.

Pissed off Gun Owner...That Can't be Good.

2009-07-22T14:28:00.003-05:00

My career requires me to live great distances from my family. This career has put in the line of fire from enemy bullets and put me in combat situations where I have had to discharge my weapon. When traveling the supposed 'land of the free' in my vehicle when carrying a firearm is a giant pain in the ass thanks to hypersensitive, ignorant, whining, liberal assholes. That's right I said it, liberal assholes.

It would be great if we lived in a utopia with no crime but we don't. When I'm at home I have multiple firearms to use for defense of my person, family, and property. I am a law abiding citizen with no criminal record or intentions, why do I not have the right in the course of my travels to carry my firearm for protection? I have CHL from 2 states and I am about to get my 3rd from Texas. But even with the combat experience, classes, and training I am still not allowed to carry a weapon for defense in most of the East coast and a few midwestern states.

I am prevented from using my freedoms in defense of potential felon and criminal right to rob or kill me.

Good job Congress! Democrats should keep up the good work in preventing law abiding citizens from Constitutional rights and I will keep giving the money I could give to them to the NRA.

However, the NRA isn't innocent either as they stretch the 2nd Amendment to absurdity for people to carry everything from armor piercing ammo and fully automatic weapons to anything short of a rocket launcher. I just don't see what the logical argument is law abiding citizens from carrying firearms. Are they afraid I'm going to trip, fall, and drop my gun and accidentally kill someone. Their only arguments are absurd and contrary to all evidence.

5 years by the numbers Part I

2009-04-16T05:26:00.003-05:00

5 Years in the Army by the Numbers

As of June 2009 I will have been on Active Duty as an officer for 5 years here are a few of the stats.

5 years=60 months

______________

Deployed: 30 months (50%)

School: 11 months (18%)

Field: 7 months (12%) (preparing to deploy)

At home in garrison with unit: 12 months (20%) (preparing to deploy)

My career has been schoolhouse, prepare to deploy, deploy, schoolhouse, prepare to deploy, deploy, schoolhouse (July 2009)...

It's beginning to get monotonous.

I need to go home...

2009-03-12T11:29:00.003-05:00

You know what I don't need anymore of:

Shitting in a fucking coffin sized shitter with another guy less than 12 inches away from you.

Pissing in poorly designed Arab pisser that splashes the piss all over you.

Handsoap that smells no better than the latrine I just shit in.

Seeing contractor's making 2-3 times more money for doing less than I do and putting up with 1/3rd of the bullshit.

Rubbery chicken breast served everynight lukewarm for 455 days.

The TCNs with the shit-eating grins that don't understand when I say I don't want any fucking rotten ass tomatoes. I don't want any fucking rotten ass tomatoes.

Rotten fucking lettuce.

The same fucking food served every day like fucking clockwork, piss warm, with no flavor, and covered with an extra side misery as you think about the meals you could be having at home.

Desert. Sand. Sun. Heat. I don't want it anymore.

Spending 12 or more hours a day stuck in a cubicle, crammed in a fucking dusty, noisy, hot-ass tent staring at a computer screen not doing shit. Not accomplishing anything but making my bosses feel like they are actually important and have a critical mission, when they don't.

Taking on every stupid daunting task, that everyone has passed up by everyone before us, in an attempt by my bosses to get another bullet comment for their fucking evaluations.

Pretending like we are actually important, like we matter, because we don't.

The mental diarrhea that gives birth to the abortions of ideas and thought, and the lack of thinking that goes into all of them.

The hopeless feeling of marking another fucking day off the calendar to realize that the next day will be just as meaningless and empty as the one just finished.

To realize all of those black dashes across that calendar are days that I will never get back. Days, that have to turned to weeks, and months and now over a year that I have LOST and have disappeared, to me, my son, my wife, and my family. For What?!

And I've done it twice.

What the Fuck is there to Investigate?

2009-02-06T00:51:00.004-06:00

HEADLINE: Army says suicides likely jumped last month
The number could surpass January combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan

That's the headline from MSNBC. Really? We're going to investigate why people are committing suicide in record numbers? Do we need an investigation? The investigation sounds like a bunch of CYOA beauracratic bullshit to me. Do the senior leaders care? I'm sure they do, I mean afterall they are human.

Let me save you the time and money: We're spending 3/4 of our lives in COMBAT ZONES conducting dangerous operations. Even if you're not directly in the combat zone and you get deployed there is still separation hardships, troubles and problems back home, etc.

Why are suicides spiking now? Because the largest group of people are beginning to come back from their 2nd 15 month deployments, including me. I'm still in the shit for a few more months but my wife and I have both spent 30 of the last 42 months deployed.

The unfortunate thing is that the damage is already done and there is no problem to be solved. These things can't be fixed. The officer divorce rate is around 60 percent. Spousal abuse is at an all time high. More and more soldiers are having to enroll in substance abuse programs. This is your Army of empire people. Those that aren't doing illicit substances or abusing the legal ones are getting prescriptions for mood altering medications to combat depression and PTSD. Welcome to the Army. Is it all of us? No. But it's enough to have us wondering what the hell is going to happen to the Army in the next 3-5 years.

There is nothing you can do to get that soldier's wife to come back because their relationship fell apart while he spent 3/4 of the last 5 years in the combat zone. What are you going to do? You can't give them that time back. You can't give soldiers back the 3 or more years they've missed of their children(s') lives. That time is gone. They are already guilt-stricken for missing that. And what did they miss it for. To go liberate a country that didn't want to be liberated. To free a bunch of people that just want to kill us. To go watch their fellow Soldiers get blown out of their fucking trucks and then burn to death.

Fuck you and your beauracratic CYOA bullshit. There's nothing you can do. The damage is done and as more of us return from our second EXTENDED deployment therewill be more suicides, divorces, spoual abuse, spousal homicide. We don't know how to live in that world anymore. Home is here in theater where we spend 3/4 of our time. Home station is just a place where we go to fucking train for the next deployment. Some of us have a hard time adjusting to that life. We can't be in crowded rooms, noisy places, or around loud bangs because our reaction to those things back there is not normal. When I hit the ground here that's the norm that's what you are supposed to do. My behavior has been modified for the combat zone, and just as I start to adjust, guess what, I'm back on a plane bound for this shithole again.

We now have to deal with the conflict of not wanting to stay here but not wanting to be home. Sounds a bit crazy doesn't it. That's because it is. It's crazy to spend 3/4 of your life over the course of 4years in a combat zone.

My son is nearly 4 years old and my wife and I have spent 18 months of his life with him. How do you solve that problem? How do you give me that time back? Bottom line is, you can't.

Turning a Blind Eye

2009-01-17T02:20:00.003-06:00

How long will the US turn a blind eye to the Israeli holocaust of the indigenous people of Gaza?

So far, Israel has destroyed two UN buildings and two hospital, both of which are WAR CRIMES and prosecutable under the Geneva and Hague Conventions. The Jews have blockaded the Gaza area and have prevented all access to services and supplies. The Israelis, as the aggressor, again under international law have an OBLIGATION to ensure the safety of all non-combatants, and all civilian facilities to include mosques, schools, water treatment, and hospitals. When engaged from these structures there is an inherent responsibility to ensure that positive identification (PID) of aggressor is made and equal or limited force is used to only eliminate that immediate threat. In other words destroying a UN building because guys fired rockets from next to it, is an extreme use of force and would get commander's relieved from the US military in Iraq. I guess Israel doesnt hold its leaders and soldiers to the same proffessional standards and conduct.

Of course, why would we expect the Israelis to follow the rules now, when they have US looking over their shoulder? And what an example we set by constantly bombing the hell out of villages all over Afghanistan. So, I guess we, as the US, are out of tolerance of the same rules.

Two more soldiers killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan today.
It's time to finish that war once and for all. Afghanistan is the Korean War of my generation and I have no hope for it to end any differently.

Israel would be good to heed the warning of Edgar Watson Howe, "Abuse a man unjustly, and you will make friends for him."

The Shock Doctrine is in full Effect

2008-09-23T09:08:00.002-05:00

It seems with this corporate bailout we are heading towards a sort of national socialism. Hmm, that term sounds quite familiar. The Shock Doctrine as coined by Naomi Klein has passed all 10 steps for the institution of a Fascistic government. Congratulations, President Bush was able to do what his grandfather couldn't with a coup in 1938 with a bunch of his corporate buddies...install a fascist government in the United States.

It was brilliantly played with the Reichstag fire on 9-11-01 and the depressed economy right on its heels, there's no way people would feel comfortable enough to govern themselves. Let us give all of our rights and money to the government so they'll protect us from their friends, the assassins of Arabia and Wall Street.

We are a nation of men not laws

2008-09-20T06:08:00.001-05:00

Of course I use the term "men" metaphorically because I am talking about Sarah and Todd Palins' Chenian legal maneuver. Wherein they fell they are above the lawa and can usurp a subpoena because they can be judge of what is important and what isn't when it comes to the people's business. Let's reverse the tables, what holy hell would be raised if Obama or Biden ignored a government issued subpoena, because they didn't agree with the substance of the subpoena, or the politics behind it? I don't thin we would ever hear the end of it. This only goes to show that Palin/McCain=Cheney/Bush. An administration filled with people who assume themselves to be above the laws of the nation. People who look down on government and only enjoy government enough to run for political office, not follow the rules, get government earmarks, and socialize corporate losses.

Kill Switch Engaged

2008-09-20T00:50:00.001-05:00

Some call it PTSD I call it the kill switch and once it is engaged it's hard to flip off. It's becoming more apparent as we've had two cases of "fragging" in recent months in Iraq. One such case just took the lives of two NCOs in Iraq a few days ago. VETVOICE Has the Story and comments.

Some call it PTSD I call it the kill switch and once it is engaged it's hard to flip off.
It's becoming more apparent as we've had two cases of "fragging" in recent months in Iraq. One such case just took the lives of two NCOs in Iraq a few days ago.

I don't know if you've ever been in a situation where your life is in someway in danger. Such as being held up outside the grocery store, or even in a car accident, when your heart races, and your adrenaline is pumping. Now, imagine having that feeling day in and day out for 15 months with a 12 month, or less break, then back for 15 months more. It's an act of self-preservation where everything is suspect, and capable of taking your life. Is there a bomb in that trash pile? That kid could be carrying a grenade. That rooftop looks like a good spot for a sniper. When you are transported to a world where danger lurks in every corner, trash pile, and person you have to engage your senses to the point of hypersensitivity. You have to be ready to raise your weapon and kill at a moments notice. Your kill-switch must be engaged. You can operate with this hypersensitivity and lack of sensitivity to killing for a period of time and then come back. These timelines vary depending upon the person and the amount of combat they are engaged in.

In urban warefare this timeline shrinks due to the danger that is everywhere in everything. It's a multiplied hypersesitivity or hyperalertness that grows to a point where it can't be turned off. Then there is the desensitization that develops due to having to shoot or kill on a daily basis. That is why we practice firing with our rifles so much. It's not to make you a better marksman, it's to desensitize you to pulling the trigger. How many times do you have to shoot a person before you become completely desensitized to killing anyone, at all, that poses a threat to you? Anyone, such as your squad leader, who threatens your military career by correcting your performance. What's the number 2,3, 10 times? It's different for every person.
When these two forces of hyperalertness and desensitization merge I call it the "kill-switch." You are in a state of mind where killing is the reaction to anything seen as any sort of threat to you. Where your immediate reaction to anything is to literally raise your weapon and shoot. You can engage the kill-switch for short periods of time then disengage. But there is so much power surging to the switch that if you keep it engaged for too long it will short out and the switch will be left in the permanent on position with no way of turning it off.

This accounts for the increased suicides, and homicides we are seeing in the Army. Last week a soldier shot and killed his commanding officer at Fort Hood then shot himself. This week a soldier killed his squad leader and another soldier in Iraq. Everyday soldiers are committing suicide and homicide, and sometimes in public and disturbing ways.

Keeping the killswitch engaged for 15 months at a time with 10-12 months off between, another 15 months might be the magic number we were looking for. That killswitch engaged without enough time to come back to sense of normalcy compounds the problem. You may see soldiers out in public. They may look normal. But alot of them are thinking about how they are going to position themselves so that their back isn't exposed at the restaurant. What's in the trashcan they are crossing at the mall? Swerving to avoid the empty box on the side of the highway.
Unfortuantely, some of these soldiers may be lost to us forever, and the problem is only getting worse, not better.

UPDATE: The Army will assign an investigating officer to perform a thorough check of the situation leading up to the incident. It will probably be a few weeks before anything official is released.
CNN has the story with details and the families wait on the investigation.

Weighing the choices

2008-09-17T02:19:00.002-05:00

So this presidential election boils down to a choice between
1. Another legacy scholashipped, silver spooner, Luddite, with PTSD and an uneven temperment who spent his younger years carousing and boozing and graduated from the bottom of his class at USNA, where he was made a pilot because he wanted it, and his daddy was an Admiral. With an uneducated, unscholarly, Chrisitan Zombie Brigade, Pentecostal, who thinks we are on a Crusade in Iraq, and has no clue about world events for the past 8 years because she has been too busy being a vindictive ex-beauty queen and working on seceeding from the union.

----OR----

2. A man who spent his life walking the color line in a still prejudiced United States. Worked his way to get a Bachelors in International Relations, and a law degree from Harvard graduating the top of his class then going to teach Constitutional Law at a fairly revered midwestern university. Then began his political career by helping people get jobs, training and get food and keep their lights on the southside of Chicago, forsaking the corporate jobs full of money that lay in wait for someone with a Harvard J.D. He then moved to the state Senate and US Senate. With his VP pick being a man who has been on the Foreign Relations committee in the US Senate, the only body that can approve treaties.

I'm a "phony" soldier...

2008-09-11T01:05:00.004-05:00

...And I apparently don't know what war is like.

Thank you Megan McCain. You know your father is not the only one who's been to war and back. While your home may have turned into a warzone after he returned from the POW camp due to his PTSD and obvious mental and emotional problems from being tortured for 5 plus years.
I've got news for you there are plenty of us that know firsthand what war is like. Let me give you a little example.
You're riding around in an uparmored HMMWV with all your gear on which adds about 20 degrees to the 110 plus inside your vehicle. You're trying to look at the road ahead of you to insure that you don't run over an IED, but you cant see very well with the sweat, now at a constant downpour stinging your eyes.
You're nearly lulled to sleep by the hum of the engine when the 7 ton vehicle in front of you is suddenly lifted 15 feet off the ground and displaced 25 feet off the road by an explosion that shook your insides and left your ears ringing so you can barely hear. Knowing that it could be a complex attack, but you wouldn't be able to hear if they did shoot at you, you rush to the vehicle, but that IED contained accelerant for catching the vehicle on fire. The passenger managed to fall out of the vehicle on fire and is now dead. The smell of burning human flesh, hair, rubber, and cordite is now in the air and you have to fight back the reflex to puke. As you move toward the vehicle the flames are too intense and you are forced back and you have to hold your people back as they try to rush in to save their buddies, who, hopefully are already dead as the vehicle is completely engulfed in flames and the ammo could start cooking off at any moment. So, you have to watch and smell as 3 people burn to death and are sent to Valhalla on a pyre created by 30 dollars worth of explosives and a couple of pieces of copper wire, which defeated 500,000 dollars of technology and armor plating.

But Megan, I've-never-served-a-day-in-the-armed-forces-but-my-old-ass-Vietnam-Vet-father-did, McCain knows more about war than I. A two 15 month tour veteran of the unneccessary invasion and occupation of the sovereign nation of Iraq where we stay even when the people and government of Iraq don't want us here.

OK another line of the day

2008-09-06T01:26:00.001-05:00

Crowd: Yeah.

Remember that kid? That’s what this is reminding me of. "Oh, I love your dress, was that your mother’s?"
You know what I’m talking about.
What do you talk about, when you have nothing to say?!
What do you talk about when you CANNOT EXPLAIN THE LAST EIGHT YEARS OF FAILURE?!

(Standing Ovation)

What do you talk about?! What do you talk about?!
You talk about the other guy.

Crowd: Giv’em Hell, Joe!

Biden: Remember what Harry Truman used to say. The crowd would yell, "giv’em hell, Harry." And he’d say, "I’m not gonna to giv’em hell, I’m gonna tell them the truth, and they’re gonna think it’s HELL."
(Standing Ovation)

Line of the day 5SEP08

2008-09-06T00:44:00.001-05:00

For all of the bible toting, braindead, neocon death cult, christian zombie brigade members for Palin:

“Mrs. Palin Needs to be reminded that Jesus Christ was a community organizer, and Pontius Pilate was a governor.” – published in this morning’s Washington Post

FactCheck.org 4SEP08

2008-09-04T01:44:00.002-05:00

From an independent fact checking organization:

From Joseph, I pledge allegiance to the state of Israel, Lieberman said Obama hadn't "reached across party lines" to accomplish "anything significant," though Obama has teamed with GOP Sens. Tom Coburn and Richard Lugar to pass laws enhancing government transparency and curtailing the proliferation of nuclear and conventional weapons.

Thompson repeated misleading claims about Obama's tax program, saying it would bring "one of the largest tax increases in American history." But as increases go, Obama's package is hardly a history-maker. It would raise taxes for families with incomes above $250,000. Most people would see a cut.

Lieberman also accused Obama of "voting to cut off funding for our American troops on the battlefield." But Obama's only vote against a war-funding bill came after Bush vetoed a version of the bill Obama had supported – and McCain urged the veto.

Truly Lame

2008-09-03T02:14:00.002-05:00

The RNC is truly the driest, lamest crap I've seen in a long while.

"Wait, look...we've got Charlie Daniels...and some other white trash country singer...and Robert Duvall did the voiceover for some piece of shit propaganda that looks like it was put together by the kid 5th from the bottom of his class at the Goebbels Institute of Information."
"And look there's this old white guy, and another old white guy, and we brought in an old Jew too. Look we're diverse."

They could have just played reruns of Matlock, Law and Order, and General Electric Theater on that huge screen and gotten the same effect.

"And Palin is too qualified, she lived next to Russia."

And that abstinence education seems to be working also.

Why family is not off limits

2008-09-02T04:55:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, Sen. Obama issued a message stating that family is off limits. While, I agree it should be Conservative politics seem to differ.

At the heart of the conversation is the politicians stance on Roe V. Wade, which has nothing to do with pregnancy, abortion, life, or even choice, but a person's right to privacy. Roe V. Wade was simply the machine that stated women had a right to privacy in matters concerning their own bodies and that right should not be infringed. The Chritian Taliban, which believes Roe should be overturned has been singing Palin's praises since she was announced as VP, in an almost deafening cacauphony that doesnt seem to stop because of her strong stance as being pro-life/anti-choice/anti-privacy.

Should we afford her daughter the same rights that she believes shouldn't exist. After all, she believes that everything a woman does with her body should be public business, concerning the life of the unborn...right. I guess we should look more closely into her endangering the life of her child by hopping on an airplane after he water broke. Making a layover then continuing onto Alaska. Seems a bit dangerous for the life of the child.

She doesn't believe sex education should be taught in school and this will lead to more pregnancies, so maybe it should be made very public as she sets the example on how you deal with unexpected teen pregnancies. Hopefully, she is much better example than the Spears'.

Is family off limits? Most certainly. Unless you believe those matters are best decided by the machine of state, which should have control over when you are allowed to reproduce or not reproduce.

Can you say desparate?

2008-09-02T01:30:00.003-05:00

Sara Pahlin
Desparation, hail Mary pick to energize the Christian Zombie Brigade.
Inexperienced...naive.
I mean really, we're going to put a former beauty queen and news anchor with 5 kids (and a future grandchild) as the next in line to be Commander In Chief for a 72 year old cancer survivor.

Well she's a Republican and a Christian so, why the hell not? Right. I had a neighbor that was a Republican, Chrisitian, ProLifer but I wouldnt want her to be next in line for the presidency.

Maverick My Ass

2008-08-31T07:42:00.002-05:00

John Kerry says one thing then allegedly changed his position and he was a flip flopper. John McCain does the something similar but worse and he's a Maverick. Ergo Maverick=Flip flopper.

1. Bush Tax Cuts
2. Religious Intolerance
3. Campaign Finance (a bill which has his name: McCain-Feingold)
4. Immigration (a bill which has his name: McCain-Something else)
5. Torture

I'm sure there are more but those are the only ones that occur to me right now.

Military Vote

2008-08-31T01:25:00.002-05:00

After the last 8 years it still seems, surprisingly, that the military vote is swinging Republican. You would think after Iraq, Afghanistan, Walter Reed, and the healthcare scandals the military would be looking for a change in leadership.The main argument seems to be that, "Bill Clinton cut the military in the '90s which is why we are short people today." But when I try to tell them the guy with the brilliant idea of drawing down the military was a SECDEF named Rumsfeld under his 1st tenure in the 80's I get nowhere.

It is engrained in the military mythology that the democrats cut the military in the 90's when we didnt need a large military and they are going to do it again. No mention of 2xSECDEF Rumsfelds smaller leaner force. Or his compadre Cheney's involvement either.The other issue seems to be this meme within the military that Republicans are better for National Security and the military. For instance, arguing with one of my cohorts the other day after John McCain announced his VP pick. He didn't even know that McCain had said he would keep us here (in Iraq) for "100, how about 1,000 years." After I told him that and someone else verified it for him his whole mood changed. Like I had just told him there was, indeed, no such thing as Santa Claus.
You used to find a disparity in the miiltary where the officers tend to be more conservative and the enlisted tend to be more liberal. This paradigm no longer pertains. Now there is no telling who is for what. You will find that the more time a person has spent deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, or the more that deployment has affected their life via injuries physical or mental that they tend to lean more Democrat in this election. I think it has more to do with the change agent than is has to do with party affiliation.

I dont think the false memes will ever be destroyed completely but I do feel that Obama and Biden could make significant headway in the military vote if they just keep forcing the message that they believe in a strong national defense. If they reiterate the plan to continue with increasing the size of the military and doubling the size of Special Operations Forces. I think a good show of faith would be considering keeping SECDEF Gates in place unless he wants to resign.

Obama's plan and regard for the military just hasn't penetrated. The historical memes put in place. It is something that will have to be reiterated over and over again. And visiting a large post like Fort Hood and holding a town hall meeting would go a long way. Especially since half of the post, like me, is deployed right now.

It still surprises me how often people are convinced to vote against their own best interests.

The 4th Amendment Has left the building

2008-08-30T11:54:00.003-05:00

Amendment IV
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

You might notice that. It's the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. You know one of those 27 pesky additions to our governing document to ensure the rights of the people against the powers of the government.

Police executed a search warrant on an RNC protest group and now won't tell them why they did it or what probable cause they had to get the warrant to execute the search. All in the name of national security. And national security is important so we can be free right? Right? Oh wait there's the knock of jackboot thugs at my door. I've got to go.

Funny, didn't hear about any illegally execute searches at the DNC in Denver.

Holy Hell

2008-08-24T11:29:00.002-05:00

Joe Biden is going to eat whomever the Republicans choose as VP for lunch and finish McCain off for dinner.
He embodies the common sense progressive policies and the intelligent anger over the past 8 years.

Next Tatoo

2008-06-11T06:13:00.002-05:00

From the guy who designed the Obama posters. It's the cover of his new book and it will be on my shoulder blad in September. E Pluribus Venom!!!

Dave Rabbit

2008-02-26T07:57:00.003-06:00

A great quote from Radio First Termer with Dave Rabbit, a 21 program underground/pirate radio show in Vietnam. First heard about it in the documentary Sir! No Sir!.

"Fighting for someone else's freedom is like fucking for someone else's virginity."

I think he credits the quote to the shithouse bandit.
Oh, how true. Mr. Rabbit. If you can find his shows listen because most it still applies to Iraq just replace the names of the countries. He was recently on Opie and Anthony and now works on Above Top Secret.

Happy Birthday...

2008-01-28T19:53:00.000-06:00

...to Ameirca's orignial radical liberal. Without whom we would not have the US as we know it today.
Thomas Paine born January 29, 1737 in Thetford, England and being a general failure for most of his life he managed to publish the pamphlet that ingnited the fire of radical freedom. Common Sense and The American Crisis should be required reading for every American citizen so they might understand the idea of dynamic freedom that this country was founded upon. Where there are countries like China where there is no freedom American should be the antithesis, the place where there is unrestrained personal liberty. Unfortunately that great experiment has fizzled away and we are now in the leftover byproducts of the equation. The ingredients still remain all that lacks is their existence in great enough quantities to spur the reaction once again.

Huckabee

2008-01-19T08:08:00.000-06:00

Well, I don’t think that’s a radical view to say we’re going to affirm marriage.
I think the radical view is to say that we’re going to change the definition of
marriage so that it can mean two men, two women, a man and three women, a man
and a child, a man and animal.

I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution. But
I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to
change the word of the living God. And that’s what we need to do is amend the
Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than trying to change God’s
standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other
and how we treat the family.

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave, huh.

Brave enough only to consider attacking other nations out of xenophobia, and attacking people in our own country because they aren't exactly like us. These comments are not from a religious zealot in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, or some bearded fanatic in a cave, it's from the front runner of the "Republican" party running for president of the United States. Leader of the supposedly free world. We in the US that are not WASPs because of something as uncontrollable as the color of our skin, or the freedom of our mind to push aside rantings of primitive desert nomads, as just that, the rantings of primitive desert nomads. These books should not be taken seriously or literally.

What would Jefferson, Adams, Hancock, or god forbid, Thomas Paine think about such comments? Jefferson didnt even like the idea of a federally maintained and regulated militia much less a federally sponsored religion.

Who supports a candidate that is promising nothing except theocracy of hate and exclusion? Selfish, lazy people. People who don't care about the major tenet of freedom for all, freedom not just for Christians, this country was founded on, and are too lazy to defend it. Prosteltizers, who want to use the machinery of government to mill a safe haven for their intolerant archaic ideas, much as the Wahabbists in Saudi Arabia. A country where women can't drive and are stoned to death for adultery. We are not far from slipping into that same trap with a southern Baptist minister running for president. They are lazy in the respect it is easier for them to live the dogma of their faith in a land run by it than it is to live it with the temptation of evil. The same reason for prohibition of alcohol and the same reason there is a prohibition of harmless drugs.

It's aggrevating to me that the only Christians I see running for office follow the Old Testament to the letter and ignore the New Testament. Even after the man who bears their religion's name said to ignore those old laws and follow only one law it is a new commandment as I have loved you love one another. Help your fellow man because just as I, Christ the savior am your brother, so is he just as much a man and a brother to you. At least that's the way I understood the sermon on the mount when I believed in those sorts of things. Maybe I'm wrong. If I were a Christian I would be yelling at the top of my lungs what about the teachings of Christ, where is the mercy and compassion.

Christians are asking for a good Christian man in the White House. They think that man is Huckabee. What about Bush? As Dave Savage said on Maher last night, "What is Bush a Wiccan priest?" You've shown us how incompetent you can be and how much you can screw things up trying to intertwine the magesteria. It's time for real people with modern beliefs and ideas to run this country. Grown ups who don't believe in ghosts, goblins, ghouls, trolls, and unicorns. It's our turn to clean up the mess you made governing with your antitquated beliefs and rituals.

Jerusalem

2007-10-14T11:38:00.000-05:00

I wrote....ummm I mean I found a Bible that says the Holy Land of Jerusalem was promised by God to my family. I therefore now have a legitimate claim to land in the Holy Territory of Jerusalem.

The passge reads:

"...and this guy begat and so on and so forth. Daniel beget Marcus, Marcus beget Hunter and this land of promise shall hitherforth belong to those, whom I, God, demand are the descendants of Carl, Daniel, and Marcus Byrne."

So, you see because I wrote...I mean found a book of my religion, which I have just made up, I now have legitimate claim to anything this religious text says. Just as the Jews proclaim in their genocide and apartheid of the Palestinian people.

A Few Things I've learned...

2007-10-09T13:04:00.000-05:00

This is a short list of the things that have angered me since May:

First of all there are the usual: people who are slow, old, stupid, ignorant, and/or any combination of those things.

Closeted homosexual escapades of Republicans as they try to treat the LGBT community as second class citizens.

People who blame Clinton for anything that has happened after January 19th 2000. 9-11, the failed ventures in a Afghanistan and Iraq, the spiraling deficit, the busted economy, the bungling of the cleanup in NOLA after Katrina, and the squashing of civil liberties all happened on George W. Bush's watch. He's been in office for seven years. Get over it. Just because you say it's Clinton's fault, doesnt make it so. On the Clinton note, Bush is a far worse president than Bill Clinton could have ever thought about being. Anytime I bring up one of the thousand things that this administration has done to destroy our country the only retort I get is something to the effect of "Well, Clinton killed Vince Foster." First of all, no he didnt. Secondly if the only defense you have for your great and glorious leader is a dreamed up right wing conspiracy theory about how the president killed a guy, you might as well say he was the gunman on the grassy knoll because it would make just as much sense and you would sound just as sane.

Fucking Columbus Day. What the fuck for? All the Italians were out in full regalia. Guess what morons, Italy didn't fund his trip, Spain did. He was only Italian by birth. And he didn't "discover" anything. In case you didnt get it in your history class, here's a little secret for you: THERE WERE PEOPLE ALREADY HERE!!! Hello McFly! You cant discover something that's already been found. I'm sorry I forgot the major tenet of revisionist history, those people that were already there don't count because they were tannish brown.

Republicans have battered wife or Stockholm syndrome, I can't decide which it is.

There are still people with Bush/Cheney 04 stickers on their car and they display them proudly. It's a badge of honor for them. What honor? Who are these people? What the fuck are they proud of? What? Give me one goddamn thing these guys have done in 7 years of rule that has been good for America as a whole. Not the oligarchy. These people should be run off the road at every available opportunity. These people are dragging our collective IQ down and ruining our country. It's time to get rid of the caveman knuckle dragging, FAUX News watching shitheads who want to sell our civil liberties so they can live out their dream of all the tan people in the US being terrorized by law enforcement agencies in the name of Christ.

Fred Thompson is a MORON. The people with the Bush/Cheney bumper stickers are the people that are supporting this guy. Need I say more. Jesus Christ on a Crutch!!! WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!!

Democrats=Collapsocrats but they are all we've got.

If I ever run into Rush Limbaugh at any point in the rest of my life, I'm going to punch him in the face. I was so angry when I heard his recent comment about "phony soldiers," such as myself, that I was pacing in my living room. Punching him was in between ripping his heart out with my bare hands and doing nothing at all. I find it's a good compromise.

Getting punched repeatedly in the face hurts. No, I'm not getting into bar fights its part of my military martial arts qualification.

Remember this is just the short list, I'm sure there are more things to come that I wont remember until I try to go to sleep.

Letter to Sen. Bayh

2007-09-30T06:57:00.000-05:00

Senator Bayh,
In accordance with the follwing sense of the Senate, for which you voted, concerning subsection 2, I would wish for you to vote to condemn Rush Limbaugh for his disparaging remarks about soldiers currently serving and having served in Iraq. I am an officer in the United States Army about to go on my second 15 month tour, who disagrees with this war, and I feel Limbaugh attacked my honor and integrity.

(b) Sense of Senate.–It is the sense of the Senate–
(1) to reaffirm its support for all the men and women of the United States Armed Forces, including General David H. Petraeus, Commanding General, Multi-National Force-Iraq;
(2) to strongly condemn any effort to attack the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all the members of the United States Armed Forces; and
(3) to specifically repudiate the unwarranted personal attack on General Petraeus by the liberal activist group Moveon.org.

Sincerely,
Marcus D. Byrne

Good to Be Back

2007-09-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

I dont even know if anyone reads these things anymore. I havent posted since May but I would like to give an update.
My wife and I got back from Iraq March 2006. Left Germany for our new duty station in Virginia at the end of May. Have been going to a course here and we move to our next duty station in Texas come the end of November. Where my wife will be deployinging December and I might be deploying in March.
I havent posted much because this course keeps us pretty busy and between that and the child there is very little time left in the day.

Well, at least someone gets it.

2007-05-11T13:32:00.000-05:00

Sir, you might want to share that field manual with Attorney Generalissimo and VP thatseem to thinks it's OK and it works, and are it's biggest advocates.

I was concerned by the results of a recently released survey conducted last
fall in Irasq that revealed an apparent unwillingness on the part of some US
personnel to report illegal actions taken by fellow members of their units.
The
study also indicated that a small percentage of those surveyed may have
mistreated noncombatants. This survey should spur reflection on our conduct
in
combat. …Some may argue that we would be more effective if we sanctioned
torture
or other expedient methods to obtain information from the enemy.
They would be
wrong. Beyond the basic fact that such actions are illegal,
history shows that
they also are frequently neither useful nor necessary.

The Movers are coming...the movers are coming

2007-05-08T03:44:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow the movers come. And we are nowhere near ready. Holy Shit. So much to do so little time. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

It's a Plan

2007-04-30T02:42:00.000-05:00

Something that seems to be fundementally lacking for almost this half decade of war is a plan linked to a fundemental goal for termination of our involvement in Iraq. So, what does the president want before we leave Iraq? Does he want to waste another 37billion taxpayer dollars on recontruction projects that are inundated with sewage, waste, and looting? Does he want us to stay there another year, four years, or 10 years in order to make his "base" another large fortune credited by the blood of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines, and not to mention the countless number of Iraqis? The problem is getting so bad that recently a LT COL, a career officer on their way to a full bird, or even a star, just said he's had enough and wrote a scathing piece on the failure of generalship in the military. The failure of the Generals and the Secretaries of the forces to look forward to the threat we would be facing and not preparing the forces for it. The forces are too small and overburdened, as we and our families are the only ones paying the toll on this war. Literally. The only country in recorded history to give tax cuts in a time of war. It seems the Democrats are trying to give him a way out and take the punishment for the "failure" of the "mission," but that's just not good enough. I'm sorry the first lady and the President are so affected by seeing in pictures what my wife and I saw up close, and smelled for 14 months. Our deployments have already been extended to 15 months and there is talk in the Pentagon of extending our deployments to 18 months. If this is not enough cause to reinstate the draft, I dont know what is. Soldiers and young officer are getting out at alarmingly high rates, and the 1 billion dollars of incentives was just enough to cover the gaping wound. They have already lowered the standards for promotion in both the NCO and Officer ranks, we are already crumbling why not at least lessen the burden with a draft. If we are going to be an imperialist army then we need to star acting like it. An all volunteer force will not hold up for long under this kind of pressure and stress. People on their 3rd or 4th deployments for 15 months I'm sure would agree.

As of 29April2007 we had lost 99 military personnel in Iraq. That's 3 VA Tech massacres of just American servicemembers every month for four years. That doesnt count Iraqis where a good day is 33 dead, or military contractors. So, if we're outraged about the deaths of 33 college students why aren't we just as outraged about the 100 deaths of mostly college aged kids fighting a war that has been fought, won and lost. Why isn't America outraged over the futility of death in Iraq, especially of our own? And to those that aren't at least somewhat perturbed, I ask, what are we there dying for?

Every reason for this war has been debunked. So, why arent we outraged that we have men an women dying to make someone an extra buck.

The bloodletting has already started. The genocide/civil war that the defenders of the "stay the course" mentality are afraid of has been going on for four years. We opened a Pandora's Box. Of all times, we are supposed to trust that now...this time, you will know what happens after all your crystal ball told us that: Saddam had links to Al Qaeda...Saddam had weapons of mass destruction...we would be greeted as liberators with flowers and candy...the reconstruction would be paid for with Iraq's oil money...you defenders of this war have been wrong at every turn...but now you're right. Now we're supposed to believe that you know what is best to be done to solve the mess you got us into by lying or at best being completely ignorant of every known fact about Iraq, Al Qaeda, and the whole mess of the war on Terror.

Why dont you Neo Con, chicken hawk, chickenshit, AWOL, draft dodging, war mongers go slink into your lair and "plan" the next big debacle, go to Bohemian Grove and do your Pagan rituals and have your gay orgies, or call up your local escort service and spend time with the mistress. Spend all the time you want doing those things. Let the grown ups with attached brain stems and frontal lobes clean up your mess? The next time you come out with an idea this stupid, I can only hope that there is someone with the decency and patriotism near you willing to let you know what it feels like to be shot or shot at.

It's Not Conspiracy...

2007-04-15T16:52:00.000-05:00

...It's Fucking History.

Leo Strauss started the NeoConservative movement in an attempt to bring America to it's full potential through constant war. He and his ilk felt as though Americans were going the way of the Romans, and were too enthralled in the selfish materialistic culture created by liberal democracy. You know, the "liberal" culture that gives all the Republican businessman their money. Strauss felt America needed a cause in order to keep America from falling into the hypnotic trance of living everyday life, and succmbing to the disease of...peace, I guess.

Saayid Qutb visited the US at the same time in the early '60s as an emissary from Egypt to study American schools. He found American culture repulsive. He thought Americans were too wrapped in their materialistic culture and found a philosophical ally in Strauss. When Qutb returned to Egypt he realized that they needed to renounce American culture so they did not become infected with the "disease." He felt the American way of liberal democracy which created cynicism, materialism, and questioning of authority was contrary to the teachings of Islam. He called on all Muslim nations to rise up and kill their leaders who were "infected" by these evil ideas. Anyone infected by these ideals was fair game to be killed. Civilians included. He was captured by the Egyptian government and tortured and realized this disease wasnt benign, it brought out the worst of mankind. He came to this conclusion based on the fact his torturers were trained by the Americans. Qutb is eventually tried for treason and killed, but there is student of Qutb's that picks up his cause where he left off. A future doctor by the name of Ayman al Zawahiri. Yes that's right...the first number 2 man in Al Qaeda. The guy that has more videos than Puff Daddy.

So, a Muslim that found an ally in the man that created the political movement that is being followed by the current leaders of the US based on the assumption Americans are stupid, and people being able to make their own choices and decisions is wrong, and liberal democracy is a disease that needs to be stamped out, creates the fundementalist Islamic movement and engages a young student that continues his cause who becomes a Co creator of a group that supposedly perpetrates an attack that furthers the agenda of both factions of the same ideology.

So, Leo Strauss' thoughts destroyed the WTC Towers and created fundemenatlist Islam.

Those are some Hardcore fucking thoughts.

Pashtun Pelosi???

2007-04-09T06:54:00.000-05:00

I think not.
SOTH Pelosi is just doing what any good leader would do in a time of crisis. When the shit starts to hit the fan and you realize it doesn't seem like anyone is in charge or has any plan to fix what is going, or the person in charge just seems lost and doesn't know what to do, a good leader will step up and do what needs to be done. SOTH Pelosi is doing just that. She is the leader of the peoples house and Constitutionally equal to the President and has the right, even the obligation to start fixing things she sees are broken. Such as when SOTH Hastert went to Colombia, and SOTH Gingrich basically promised our unfettered protection of an Asian Island Nation without consulting the president. Is SOTH Pelosi a "traitor" as the news and right wing echo chamber would paint her to be for being respectful of another culture and wearing a headscarf just as the first lady did when she visited Arab countries. No. SOTH Pelosi is acting like a true leader, stepping up in a time of crisis to find a solution to a problem created by the same unintelligent, ignorant, assholes that would call her a traitor.

Around Germany and back Again

2007-04-08T13:55:00.000-05:00

Berg Rheifels

Berg Katze

Schloss Neuschwanstein

Out the Window of Neuschwanstein
Outside Neuschwanstein
I told you...just beautiful.

Made our way around Germany this weekend. From Hessen to Bavaria/Alps in Germany to see Neuschwanstein Castle that was the inspiration for the Disney Castle. Absolutely beautiful area of the world, and the weather was absolutely perfect. After spending a couple of days down there we drove up to the Rheinland-Hessen area to visit our favorite wine ship and pick up some gifts from Stefan the shop owner, who has the be Eiswein in the world. And I'm not just saying that, he really wins the wine competition year after year for his Eiswein. If you have an extra $200 he'll ship you some. Just contact him at: Stefan's Wine Paradise. Of course the Rhein area is where all the Castles are: Katz, Mause, Rheinstein, Rheinfels, Eltz, etc.

Hohenschwangau, Germany

View from the Hotel

Hunter at the Aktiv Hotel Schweiger, Fussen, Germany (in the Alps).

It's all Rosie

2007-04-03T06:21:00.000-05:00

First of all in the words of a true poet and artist, Mr. Snoop Dogg: "Fuck Bill O'Reilly...he can suck my cock."

Second Bill O'Reilly, apparently with the number one news show on cable TV (as I'm reminded at every possible opportunity on his show) can't afford a research staff, as Al Franken has pointed out time and time again and I will point out one more time. He must be spending all of the money on loofahs, long distance phone calls, lawyers, and settlements.

Bill, Rosie is right. Building 7 was blown up by admission of Mr. Silverstein the property owner on a PBS documentary Why the Towers Fell. He says in the documentary in order to prevent more loss of life, after talking to fire fighters and structural engineers he decided to "pull building 7." 'Pull' is construction speak for the organized demolition of a building by means of explosives. Mr. Silverstein very clearly states in the documentary that he decided to pull it, and explains what that means to pull a building. Mr. O'Reilly watch something other than your own show, or your own reflection, or the clips and sound bites fed to you by your obviously worthless producers.

I believe this morning's Rosie segment started with a coyfully indignant "Oh no, not again." Please. Like you're really upset that you have to spend a few more minutes on fake news Matt Lauer. Because if you actually had to cover what was going on in the world, your masters as GE might not be too happy with you. We're losing people at a significantly high rate every day, Iraqis are dropping like flies an what's imporatant is an arrogant fake news man commenting on something some TV personality said. Give me a break why dont you do the right thing, do the research that Bill cant afford and prove one side right or wrong. That would require your show to some sort of standard for what is news.

Your 'glib' coverage of the JibJab video pointing out the idiocy of the 24 hour news cycle and the punditocracy was about all I could stomach. Did you not get it? They were pointing out that you dont do your job any more. The fourth estate has fallen.

Cheney: 'Self-appointed strategists' forcing withdrawal

2007-04-03T06:12:00.000-05:00

The Penguin Strikes Again.
Hey Mr. Vice President, Darth Maul, Death-Monger in Chief, supereme sith of the Bush-Cheney Neo-Con Death Cult why don't you take a look at the constitution. The Congress isn't self appointed, they are the people's appointed watch dogs. Why dont you try reading a book or two. Congress controlled the purse of the Continental army also. GEN George Washington had to write Senators and Governors to receive more soldiers, money, and equipment.

Hopeless

2007-04-01T20:27:00.000-05:00

It seems hopeless over there. I hate to say it but it doesnt seem winnable as the places where my brigade operated and made great strides seem to be slipping backwards to their state prior to our blood, sweat, and hardwork went into making the areas more secure. It seems since we left Tall Afar almost a year ago I've read once a week of a car bomb that kills at least 30 in that medium sized city of Sunnis, Shia, Kurds, and Turkomen. As today I read about the largest attack since the war began killing 160 and wounding 350 in the city that the President touted as the example for all the other cities to follow in his 2006 SOTU address, as my brigade was entering the country and specifically that city. Now that we have done a 14 month tour, 5 months of it there, and are now back home. I look at the news in disgust. Disgust at our leaders for being so ignorant and naive in starting this preventetive illegal invasion and occupation, and disgust at the Iraqis for being so ignorant and ungrateful. In Ramadi, Fallujah, and Anbar Province it seems to be more of the same. All of our hardwork means nothing, because they are back to where they were before we arrived. They want to be in the 7th Century, so pull out and leave them there. Our time, lives, and treasure there, wasted.

Post Operation Disney Leave

2007-04-01T19:35:00.000-05:00

We only had a few days of leave after Disney so we drove to Memphis so Hunter could meet his Great Grandparents and Alissa's Uncle and his two babies:

On the way back from Memphis Hunter got really ill. Throwing up every couple of hours or so. By the time we hit Kentucky we decided to take him to the ER where they told us it would be a 2 hour wait before they could see him because they had a trauma coming in. Seeing how it was Kentucky it was probably some dumb hillbilly last heard uttering the phrase "Hey yall watch this," after downing a 12 pack of PBR. So we decided to go 30 minutes up the road to Ft. Knox and then decided to nix the ER plan altogether and just drive straight through to Northern Indiana and get him an appt with his doctor. Everytime we thought it was over he would throw up again. We decided it would be best for him to rest so we stopped in a hotel in Indy overnight. We thought all was clear and were on the phone about to cancel the appt. when we heard the familiar cry of pain from the rocket seat in the pack and then the all too familiar smell of curdled milk. It turned out to be some kind of stomach virus or something because he was all better that night, and the doctor couldn't find anything wrong with him. But it was scary to say the least.

And then I got a tatoo

And finally we are all back "home" in Germany...for now.

Operation Disney Part 2

2007-04-01T18:42:00.000-05:00

Let me start by saying Disney is not a vacation alright. It's expensive as hell and you have to make every moment count. I didnt know this before enlisting on this adventure. Disney is like boot camp for parents. And for parents that have been away from their 2 year old child for 14 months it is a wake up call. You cant waste a moment. Every day has to be planned with military precision, and executed accordingly. There is no time to rest and relax. There are 5 theme parks and you have to see every show and ride every ride inside of them. That means you're up at dawn and dont get to bed until hours after the park closes. You really dont have the money to waste time. Adding Univerals Studios to the lineup for first timer like me probably wasnt a good idea either. But there were chances to drink margaritas as we were walking, and all and all I think Hunter enjoyed it as much as I did. I think he's a sadist like that.

Day 2-Disney MGM

We got there as Mater was about to drive away. You dont understand he watches Cars on a loop and loves Mater. Everytime we saw him drive by that day it was a temper tantrum.
Day 3- Universal Studios Islands of Adventure

Day 4-Magic Kingdom Part I

Day 5-Universal Studios

After the Barney show. We had to drag him away kicking and screaming.

Blues Brothers just performed and are driving off.

Day 6-Magic Kingdom Part II

I think the look says it all. It's night six of Operation Disney, the fireworks are going off, the Baby is asleep, and we still have the last ride to go: Space Mountain.

Seeing how we had the money we stayed in Carribbean Beach Resort. It was nice but food ran us at least $100 per day. After six days with two adults and a kid in the same Hotel room with no time to clean up because you are always on the go it doesnt look too good.

Operation Disney Part 1

2007-03-13T20:30:00.000-05:00

Operation Disney Day 0- Travel

We made our way from Indiana to Orlando. One long day.

Operation Disney-Day 1- Animal Kingdom

I'm told not the best of the theme parks on Disney, but we still had fun. I'm rollercoaster guy and the Everest ride wasnt that bad. But toting a two year old makes it a daunting task.

2007-03-07T01:41:00.000-06:00

Just doing traveling. We leave for the US tomorrow go pick up Hunter. I'll probably once again be out of the loop for a few weeks.

3rd Story of the Port Nigra, Trier, Germany

The Roman Amphiteatheater at Trier

Champagne

2007-03-01T03:42:00.000-06:00

Should have internet in a few days. But I thought I would post this thing I wrote in the heat of the 2004 campaign.

Champagne
Marcus Daniel Byrne
October 2004

Sippin’ champagne on the campaign
You sure as hell can’t complain
As you put on a pin stripe suit
Me and a Mother’s son lace up combat boots.
Where were you in ’72?
Was it Harvard Business School?
How long do I have to be here for?
To fight your war
Because I’m poor and couldn’t afford school anymore.
Sent overseas to stop WMDs and set people free
That want to kill me.
Wait there’s a shot...
Pop, pop, pop.
Make your daughters enlist
And put up with this shit.
Oh, aint that a bitch
They’re rich.
Look at the opportunity they’re going to miss.
That’s what the poor are for.
To fight in a war
That closes the door even more
Keepin’ me and my family poor
Old men with grey hair keep makin’ decisions
That decide whether or not I keep living.
Of course, how would they know what it’s like?
When their country called they were AWOL
All the things they keep on preachin’ and teachin’
Love your country because of all it gives to you
It only gives if you are among the connected few
Enron…Halliburton those CEOs aren’t hurtin’
A million jobs and pensions robbed
Take from us to give to you and your band of merry few.
Heart of a lion
Boys around me dyin’
You’re still lyin’
About why I’m here
Mothers cryin’
Still lyin’
How much does your vote matter?
When there’s terrorist chatter and Dirty bombs
And soccer moms with American Flags
On their 4 mile per gallon SUV
Can’t you see the irony as you increase
Our dependency…
oh wait that’s OK…
As long as I wave a flag and say
“Support our troops”
Send them boots, bullets, and magazines maybe someday
My gas will be free
My only hope is that the people listening love the idea of their country as much as me
And aren’t willing
To send it spilling
Over the edge
For a simple pledge
Gas will never be free but the people of this country should be
Around the world our armies roam
While here at home
We live in fear but don’t you dare question
Our method
Oh, and don’t you mind the corporate goons
Lined up like dragoons to cash in
Are we safer than we were four years ago?
Why don’t you ask the soldier in Baghdad on patrol?
How much safer do you feel?
Aim…shoot…kill.
18 years old, full combat gear
A kid can’t even buy a beer
Has to make decisions everyday that decide everyday whether that kid in his sights will keep living
Friend or Foe
He doesn’t know.
Sigh of relief as he runs away
To live another day
How proud the families are that they’ve freed the people in Kandahar
And that women can drive a car.
But here they can’t decide whether or not they should reproduce.
Because of old men with grey hair and pin stripe suits.

Great to back...

2007-02-23T03:53:00.000-06:00

...even if it is only Germany.
It's great to be back home. Been back since the 19th. Dont have the internet hooked up yet at my house so time is limited, as is my knowledge of the outside world. Just spending time travelling with the wife before we go pick up the little one. Thanks to all of you for your support, words of encouragement, and just being out there to vent through this awful thing.
More posts to come...hopefully the internet will get connected soon.
M

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

2007-02-12T13:04:00.000-06:00

Happy Darwin Day, February 12th 2007.

This picture has nothing to do with that...just trying out new blogger.

Almost out of here 6 more days.....

Top 10 Signs You're a Fundementalist Christian...

2007-02-11T02:03:00.000-06:00

I'm sorry but they just make it too easy...

taken from evilbible.com

10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.

9 - You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.

8 - You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.

7 - Your face turns purple when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" including women, children, and trees!

6 - You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.

5 - You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few generations old.

4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs -- though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving."

3 - While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity.

2 - You define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.

1 - You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history - but still call yourself a Christian.

Taking it to a New Level

2007-01-26T23:31:00.000-06:00

The insurgency is taking their fight to a new level, probably sponsored in part by the Iranians who are trying to tie down GWBs swords in Iraq to stop the rattling. So, who's really making things worse over here? The people that want to get us out of here and back to the states, or the people that want to get us out of Iraq and move us straight to Iran?

This is the kind of brazen attack you see from well funded, well trained, clandestine miltary units, much like the US Special Forces. No, half-assed Al Qaeda insurgent could have pulled this off. They abducted 4 soldiers threw them in the back of a truck and drove off with them to execute them later. First of all these soldiers let their guard down and were caught by surprise, hopefully it's a lesson learned. I know, having done Personal Security, for the types of people who do these BILATs that this had to be a breakdown in military bearing and security. That said, it was a clever trick that could exploit even the smallest crack in a security detail like that. The fact that they did a tactical entry on a building, took prisoners, and killed 5 American soldiers, and spoke English, shows these guys were well trained. It would be hard to do dynamic entry into a building with Americans and be able to retreat alive, but to go in shoot them and come out, with prisoners shows they have training.

I recently saw a video captured from a bunch of dead insurgents that shows them assaulting an OP. Most of this video is a recording of the insurgents doing a rehearsal and a rock drill of the assault. Professional military training. Not to mention these guys conducting the assault, from what I could tell, were Persian not Arab. The video ends with them assaulting the OP, most of them dying and the rest being taken prisoner.

This professional military assault is probably why they gave us permission to shoot Iranians. This proclamation is completely bullshit, and is nothing but a political/foreign relations proclamation. First, we don't stop to ask the people that are exhibiting hostile intent towards us or other Coalition forces, whether it be planting IEDs or busting into buildings where we are having meetings and shooting us, whether they're Persian or Arab, Iraqi or Iranian, Sunni or Shia. We just shoot them. Second, we've been killing or taking prisoner anyone who is or might be actively plotting against our efforts here in Iraq. Nothing new. It's sort of the same mission we've had for 4 and half years.

Just having Army uniforms shouldn't have gotten that far anyways. Maybe past an IP checkpoint, but through American security that should have been on the outside of that building no fucking way. There is something wrong here. The unit conducting this meeting would have been here long enough to know who operates in their AO especially concerning the mission at a JCC. This just shouldn't have happened. And the more I think about the more impossible I think it would be.

"We step forward...

2007-01-09T06:57:00.000-06:00

...because the US Army never steps back." That's what my Drill Sergeant told me in basic training during our bayonet assault course. I believed it too.
Last week a group of US Army National Guard soldiers were engaged with small arms fire by international felons illegally invading our country. Before I get too deep into this let me just say I am by no means a racist, a xenophobe, or isolationist. There are legal means to enter our country and if you wish to be here you may do so. So, you would think that after they got shot at they would return fire. Nope. They're not allowed to. Wait a second even a private citizen has the right to defend themselves when being shot at.
Let's say you are in your house, some people jump over your fence come into your yard and start shooting at you. If you are a gun owner, experienced marksman, like myself, you shoot back, and you have every right to. You have every right to defend yourself, your property, and your family. It's the same prinicple with the member of the US Army on the border. They are sent there to defend their home, people are jumping over the fence illegally and then shooting at them, how can they not have the right to shoot back? How can they not have the right and the means to defend not only themselves but the sovereignty of the US from these attacks?
This was an attack on our nation, and an assault on our military by invaders, and people just brush it off. Did you know that three times last year that armed Mexican military units clandestinely crossed over the border into the US?
What's it going to take for us to use our military, political, and economic might to secure our border, or just annex Mexico?

Sacrifice???

2007-01-04T15:37:00.000-06:00

When the military does your evaluation reports they like things quantifiable. They like numbers here are the numbers on my sacrifice, thus far...
My wife and I have been married for 46 months and have spent 17 of those living together.
We had a child in May 2005 and had to ship him off from Germany where we are stationed to live with his grandmother for three months from the time he was 4 months until the time he was 7 months old. We then had to fly him from Germany back to the US two months later as we deployed to Iraq on a 12 month...no wait, 14 month...what could become a 16 month tour of Iraq because we have to sacrifice. And by the way the Army doesnt pay for him and my mother-in-law to fly back and forth so we were also out almost $6,000 on plane tickets in 2005.
So let's do the math on that one: my son is now almost 21 months old and has spent 15 months living with his grandmother, which is going to be at least 17 out of 23, and could possibly become 19 out of 25 of the most precious first two years of his life.
We're out all the money out of pocket we've had to spend to ensure he didnt get third rate healthcare because my mother-in-law doesnt live near a military base so she cant get a good pediatrician, or use our healthcare at most offices.
So my wife and I have sacrificed being parents to our child whom we love more than anything in the world. And we have sacrificed being companions to one another so we could fight this damned war neither one of us has believed in from the beginning.
We're both hollow shells now. All you have left to take is our physical life, because it doesnt seem that we are ever going to leave this place. We are never going to escape death's shadow. Because you can just keep extending our unit with disregard for the lives that are destroyed by the haplessness of your mistake.

I guess a man who sacrificed the first 40 years of his life to beer and blow, got his cushy assignment in a champagne unit in the Air Guard during VietNam, got his legacy scholarships to Yale and Harvard, got bailed out of failed business after failed business by his dad, and spent 60% of his first 4 years in the oval office on vacation knows all too much about sacrifice though.

I know I signed up for this. No I didnt. I didnt sign up to protect and defend the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iraq, my oath clearly states, "support and defend the Constitution of the United States." And on top of that we have done our time. We did our year plus some. We did our tour of sacrifice, now it is our turn to go home. Let's not have to have one more memorial ceremony for my Brigade. Or any other for that matter. We've done all we can here. It's up to the Iraqi's to sacrifice now, not America. It's up to the Iraqis to defend Iraq, not America.

Thanks

2006-12-17T06:21:00.000-06:00

Thanks to all the visitors from Human.

Unfortunately I've had trouble getting on Blogspot. HTTP 404 errors and the internet has been really slow. I will get around to all of your sites eventually, it takes about 10 minutes to load one page.

No, Really, I hate the American Taliban...

2006-12-12T14:15:00.000-06:00

For those American Taliban against the display of a pentacle on a soldier's tombstone...

...lest, in the general wreck of superstition, of false systems of government, and false theology, we lose sight of morality, of humanity, and of the theology that is true.
-Thomas Paine, Age of Reason, Part One.

I'm sure Christopher Columbus exemplified the morality of the Christian faith as he enslaved and tortured the natives of Hispaniola. I'm sure the many other Christians following his lead in the genocide of the Native people of the Americas were also only following the venerable moral code of their religion. They, of course, had and have the Christian God on their side and relegated those who did not, to lower forms of humanity, not deserving of decent and equal treatment or recognition. Find me a supposed Christian, who thinks my service, is undeserving of recognition though I am ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for a country that I thought stood for freedom for all, to take my place. Those zealots who would block the display of the pentacle or any other religious symbol in a national cemetery, especially for those that have died protecting the supposed land of the free, are only a small step away from those zealots I fight here in Iraq. People who kill their fellow countrymen without flinching; people who kill their own because they believe differently, and because they believe differently they are less than human, and not deserving of life, respect, or recognition as a human being. Find me that Christian to take my place here in the military, find a Christian to take the place of all of us who fight and don't wave the banner of Christianity. We will give you your dominionist army so that you may carry out your fantasy of a non-secular society. Soon you will flush all of the minority religions out of the armed forces and be able to use your Christmilitialtia to round up all of those who believe differently than you. Who will be your Moqtada Al Sadr? Your utopia is obviously what we are fighting here in Iraq, just with a different name and a paler face. How long before we start finding the bullet riddled bodies of Atheists, Wiccans, Hindus, and others on Main Street in America just the same as we find them everyday in Baghdad? This thinking is not a bridge too far, but is the progressive step of a plurality out of control. If my service to my country is any less honorable because of my religious beliefs, or lack thereof, please find one of yhomogeneousnous own to take mine and my wife's place. When you protest the display of that religious symbol, you reenact the very intolerance and persecution that forced our forefather's father's from their home, and inflames the violence in Iraq today. How long before my family is rounded up by masked men in the night drug out to the street and shot because of our religion? How could you in good conscience as an American deny a soldier who died defending the very freedoms for which he fought? It's wholly fascist and completely un-American. Remember as you say your prayer tonight, and go to the church of your choice on your day of worship: you're denying someone who died protecting that freedom the very same freedom you enjoy openly and without persecution. And you are using the laws of the very country they died defending to disenfranchise them and make their service seem less than honorable. I am an atheist who has been shot at and had vehicles blown up around me, and to this day I hold onto my convictions as tightly as I did the day I deployed. If there is one thing the religious have taught me, it is that there is, indeed, no God. If there is another thing I have learned is that there is no difference between the zealots of all the religions. They seem to work towards the same homogeneous hegemony through endless war based on ignorant xenophobia.

War On Christmas

2006-12-12T14:09:00.000-06:00

No one will deny or dispute the power of the Almighty to make such a communication if he pleases. But admitting, for the sake of a case, that something has been revealed to a certain person, and not revealed to any other person, it is revelation to that person only. When he tells it to a second person, the second to a third, a third to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be revelation to all those persons. It is revelation to the first person only, and heresay to every other; consequently they are not obliged to believe it.
-Thomas Paine referring to religious texts and dogma in Age of Reason, Part One.

This controversy over the disbanding of the Christmas trees in Sea-Tac is such a false controversy in more ways than one. First of all Christmas, as a celebration of the birth of Jesus, would more accurately be celebrated in March or April. Religious scholars and historians agree that Jesus was actually born around that time. The Christmas Tree and Yule log are actually Pagan traditions started before the Roman invasion of the Barbarian lands. So, the Rabbi suing to put a Menorah next to a “Chrisitian” Christmas tree, which isn’t really Christian except in the confused minds over-commercialized populous who have been told it and believe it is so. Just like they were told Jesus was born in December and believe that is so also, when facts point out it is not. I’ve noticed facts don’t matter much to the religious though. All that matters is belief, and beliefs and dogmas inside of organized religion, are as easily misconstrued as the original message at the end of the child’s game of “telephone.”
Does it really matter if a Christmas tree is displayed? Even if we assume that Jesus really was born in December on the Gregorian calendar, and that the tree is really now, and always has been a Christian tradition, is that still what it really means? Aren’t the original enemies of Christmas profiteerism and commercialization? Weren’t they the ones that transformed it into a meaningless Holiday enabled by the Christian majority in our capitalist society? It wasn’t the SP’s as Bill O’Reilly likes to call them in his ridiculous war on Christmas. So maybe Mr. O’Reilly should first ask for the Christian capitalists to restore the religious meaning to their own holiday, then, maybe it might lend credibility to the cause against SP’s railing against this holiday that really has lost all its religious meaning. After all, I am a very cynical atheist and I celebrate Christmas as a joyous holiday family and giving. I guess I celebrate the American watered-down version.

Tread Surely but Lightly

2006-11-09T05:44:00.000-06:00

I'm certainly surprised by the Democratic victory in the Legislature as I was fully expecting this election to be stolen through electronic voting apparati. Now, what? With the extreme situations America faces both domestically, and internationally, that is the main question. Dems say we are not out for revenge, which I say, Of course not. We are out for accountability and oversight. If you think investigating the Executive is just nasty partisan politics then you dont understand the mission of the "People's House." If you believe that then you have fallen for the NeoCon Reichwing fantasy of a unitary executive and hopefully you will never again hold a place in the Senate or House. If you had an employee who still worked for your company and you found in the past that they had stolen or used suspect techniques in the execution of your business you would certainly have every right to investigate and punish them as neccessary. It is no different than the relationship between the Executive and Legislative. It is their job to keep the executive in CHECK, through whatever Parliamentary means they have available. Including investigations and drawing up Articles of Impeachment.

To Democrats: If America wanted two more years of abuse they wouldnt have elected you. If America wanted to stay the course in Iraq, on Paris Hilton tax cuts, on minimum wage, on healthcare, on stem cell research, on foreign policy, they would have stayed the course in the Senate and Congress. Dont squander that hope for change on doing nothing, hoping to save it for two years and magically open it up and use it in 2008. The President and the Republicans may balk, veto, and filibuster but this will only point them out for the whiny hypocrites they are. Hence the fight for 2008 begins with the 110th Congress of the United States with a Democrat majority and two Independents who caucus with Dems in th Senate. Show the American people now, the next two years, what accountability means, and what a compassionte government can do. Because if there is one thing Americans appreciate it's justice, not revenge.

Reality's a Bitch

2006-11-08T14:37:00.000-06:00

Hahhaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhaaaaaaaaahhhahahahahahahahahhhhaaaaa!!!!!!!
Nov 7th 2006 was my early Christmas present. Thank you America. I knew you had it in you.

The Brownshirts are coming!!!!!

2006-11-01T05:20:00.000-06:00

So, a man walks up to a political candidate and asks that candidate question. The man is immediately pounced by supporters of the candidate acting like bouncers at a downtown bar. He is put in a headlock and dragged away from the candidate. Did the scene I describe occur A) 1930's Germany during the Rise of Hitler, Fascism, and the Nazis or B) Yesterday, in Virginia USA? If you picked either answer you are correct.

When a member of our democracy is physically attacked by supporters of a political candidate with no provocation, but to ask a question, however inappropriate, what would you call that? I call it FASCISM. All these people are missing are the Brownshirts, jackboots, and swasitkas. While their agenda might be slightly nativist in nature, their real hatred is for freedom. They abhor Freedom of dissent, free speech, free thought, and freedom of and from religion. Everyone should be and think like them, and if you dont prepare for the beating of your life.

Dont believe they hate freedom and they arent the Jeffersonian Conservatives yet? Did you know the President now has the power to control the National Guard of your state without you or your governors consent?

Neo Con Incompetence

2006-10-25T05:55:00.000-05:00

I've come to realize there is an inherent flaw in Neo Cons running a war of stability and support operations (SASO). They lack the morals and values necessary to fight such a war correctly. To fight a an insurgency correctly requires empathy, to know how the people are suffering and being able to correct it before your enemy can. It require an ability to understand complex social structures and networks and work within those networks to achieve compromise amongst the indigenous people. In other words, a war such as this requires flexible diplomacy from the strategic to the tactical level with a common goal. That goal was unapparent in the beginning months of this war and that's when we lost our momentum. The Neo Cons don't even care about the people they supposedly govern, I reference Hurricane Katrina as one example, why would they care about the plight of people who can't unelect them, or have no power to stop them. Someone once said, "Terrorism is the war of the powerless, and war is the terrorism of the powerful." So, what are the powerless going to resort to when they see their grievances, inflicted by us, are not being addressed? The war of the powerless.So, Neo Cons, lacking simple human emotions, morals, and values, and having no other goals but unlimited power, are the wrong people to fight any war, much less a war where the will of the occupied is the center of gravity, and the deciding factor for victory.

Wars of Credibility

2006-10-11T14:02:00.000-05:00

What's this new diplomatic SOP where we dont talk to our enemies? I can't understand it. Of course, you talk to your enemies, you know what your friends are doing to hell with them you dont need to talk to them, that's how you find out what your enemies are doing. You know, there are other ways to force your political will on other countries without going to war, without using the military, without violence. You do it through talking. That is such retarded middle school bullshit. "We dont talk to our enemies." Then who the fuck are you talking to. Oh yeah, that's right you have a direct line to God and God tells you which of his people to kill and not kill. What's the number so I can call him and tell him he fucked up? Can I send him a text? I'm sure God has a blackberry. Maybe I can explain the ways of peace and diplomacy to him. Talking to your enemies is the first resort from the strategic to the tactical level. That's what you do first, not shoot them.
I know why they dont talk to our enemies because we have no leverage. We used to be able to leverage our credibility to build worldwide coalitions to force our/the WORLD'S diplomatic will. First that credibility is gone so we cant build a coalition to do a high school science project. Second we have gone so far over the deep end that noone knows what our strategic and national goals and/or will are anymore. And people are afraid to get behind us because we're like lunatic with a loaded gun. They just dont know where we are going to shoot and why.

"So you were attacked by OBL, what do you want to do about it America."
"Well, I think we'll attack Atlantis."
"But Atlantis is fictional Mr. President."
"That's just what the liberal media wants you to think, that's where all the WMD's and OBL are hiding, that's where they harbor all the terrorists."

I mean that might as well have been the conversation with us and the rest of the world the months following 9-11, because what was done in our name makes just as much sense. So, just like the schoolyard bullies I used to piss off with my smart mouth and quick wit our only reaction to any problem of diplomacy is violence. It wasnt hard to outwit the bully, but when I did, he had no other option but to punch me in the face in order to enforce his will upon me. At that point I would gladly give him my lunch money. I got punched all because he couldnt come up with clever scheme to outsmart me out of my money. I guess my point is, When all you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail.

"Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'tis time to part." Thomas Paine on Decolonization

EXTENSION!!!!

2006-09-25T08:29:00.000-05:00

We knew it was coming all along...the extension of the 1BDE, 1AD. We have officially been extended to stay in Ramadi because there is no unit that could replace us without violating "dwell time" standards. For OPSEC reasons I wont say which unit or for how long we are extended but it's shorter than most extensions, considering last time 1AD was here it was for 15 months. This news comes on the day when I find these headlines on Army Knowledge Online or AKO for short:

Army Warns Rumsfeld It's Billions Short
An extraordinary action by the chief of staff sends a message: The Pentagon must increase the budget or reduce commitments in Iraq and elsewhere.
By Peter Spiegel, Times Staff Writer

They chose this goddamn war now they want to starve the military that's fighting it. Remember Mr. Secretary, we all know now this was a war of CHOICE. So, you better come up with the fucking money to fight it right.
___________________________________________________________________
Washington Times: September 25, 2006
Army Considers More Combat Units For Iraq
Escalated deployments eyed to tackle violence
By Rowan Scarborough, The Washington Times

Escalated deployments such as for the unit replacing us.
"We'll be greeted as liberators." 2003
"Major combat operations in Iraq have ended." 2003
"I think what we are seeing here is an insurgency in its last throes." 2004
_____________________________________________________________
New York Times: September 25, 2006
Unit Makes Do As Army Strives To Plug Gaps
By David S. Cloud

A story about 3ID training with minimal equipment and time because all of their equipment was torn up by the last deployment, or it got left behind as what is called Theater Provided Equipment. The Army version of hand-me-downs.
_____________________________________________________________
Washington Times: September 25, 2006 Pg. 1
U.S. Soldiers See Inept Output By Iraqi Troops
By Antonio Castaneda, Associated Press

Look these Iraqis are never going to take over their own country they are too afraid. I talk to the Iraqi soldiers here in Ramadi and they are not from here. They are from completely different regions of the country. They tell me that "Ramadi is no good. All Ali Baba." Ali Baba is the word for a thief or a bad person. They dont like the people here and have no reason to want to defend them because they are outsiders just like us being attacked by them. On several occasions I've been asked to attach IA convoys to mine and have refused on the grounds that this is their country and if they are too afraid to drive a convoy at night in their own country then they are never going to take over and we are never going to leave.
___________________________________________________________________

February 2003

2006-09-23T16:20:00.000-05:00

I remember it like it was yesterday. It was another cold and brisk, but sunny February day in Muncie, Indiana in 2003. At the time I was attending college, an institution of enlightenment, I was in my second to last year. I was a telecommunications major with emphasis in television, radio, and film production, with a minor in military science. I remember leaving to go pick my future wife up from class right as Secretary of State Colin Powell stepped up to the microphone at the United Nations Assembly. I listened to the local NPR station as they carried the broadcast live. I yelled and screamed, to my wife, or anyone that would listen, “There it is, the proof, he’s laying it all out for you. How can we not go to war now? We must defend America from this grave and serious threat. How can the nations of old, most proximal to this threat, allow it to exist past today with this mountain of proof?” And it was not as if I had no skin in the game because I had been enlisted in the Army Reserve since 1999, and knew how much they relied on the Reserve in the support function in the last war in this same desert. Two life-changing events happened within the next month. On March 8th 2003 I married a woman who would also become an officer, and March 17th the US invaded Iraq.
The most important fact was that my wife and I were both going to be officers. Shortly thereafter I signed my Senior ROTC contract committing me to 8 more years, 3 of those on active duty, to an Army at war. At the time we were being told that the war would be over in no time. I remember seeing pictures of Chalabi, and stories on the Iraqi National Congress. I thought if there is someone willing to take over, let them. Take out the dangerous dictator; put Chalabi, who at the time I did not know was an international felon, in the charge of this country. I signed the line based on the promise of the civilian leadership of the military, and this country that we would be in and out quickly, and the Iraqis would quickly take the reigns of their own country. I was so naïve that I even remember lamenting, with my fellow cadets, that I would be in the Army from 1999 until 2012 and I would miss the chance to go to war. Yet, here it is 2006 and I have been deployed almost a whole year.
I can’t really recall what happened but I woke up. I can’t recall the exact incident or time, but I realized everything that I had been told was bullshit. I know it was later in the year of 2003 when I came to realize I had been duped. It could have been the information that I was gradually getting off the internet since none of the major news networks carried it. Maybe it was because we had been in country almost 9 months, by that time, and there was no sign of WMD’s that were supposedly parked in everyone’s garage, and under every floor mat. Maybe it was because NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING the administration had said had come to be true. Maybe it was because I saw my Commander-In-Chief stand on the deck of a ship and declare “Mission Accomplished,” but my brothers and sisters in arms were still fighting and dying in Iraq, and casualties were mounting in greater numbers than they did during the invasion.
I was not the type of person to question my government, or my commanders but by the end of 2003 a cynic was born, and I realized the grave mistake I had made. My wife and I had both signed the line to fight a war that we were told would be over long before we hit the force. It was a war that I had rooted for. I had gone so far as to counter-protest with my signs stating the facts given to me by Colin Powell. I wasn’t trying to avoid going to war, but if my leadership got so many things, perhaps everything, so wrong about this war how could I trust them for the rest of my tenure as an officer.
If the reasons they had stated to go to war in the first place were all false then why did we go to war in Iraq? If I can no longer trust the intentions of my leaders then how can I continue in this profession? Of course, I had already signed the line; I had and still have no choice but to continue until the end of my obligation. What I once thought was a noble profession, being a leader in the military, has been muddied inside of me by the same inalienable values and convictions that make this profession great, and those who do it great leaders. My conviction to moral principles and dedication to my subordinates and my country are at odds with my duty to obey orders of the Commander-In-Chief, and my superiors. With all the evidence against them, how can I trust what they say is true? How can I know that the orders I get are lawful and legal when the character of their producers is at the very least suspect, if not in violation of my own and the military’s moral code of principles and ethics? I’m sure if I thought about it, in my view, I would find violations of all of the Army’s 7 Core Values by the Commander-In-Chief; Loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage. What are they to them but words that keep me loyal, and to me convictions that keep me bound to service in a conflict where their anithesis is their creator.

A Quick Observation

2006-09-01T05:51:00.000-05:00

If things are getting better shouldn't my chances of getting blown up when I roll out the gate decrease, not increase? Just thought that might be a good measuring stick for progress. Throwing it out there. You decide.

Who's the Fascist?

2006-09-01T05:22:00.000-05:00

I want someone who advocated the abuse and torture of prisoners to talk to me about fascism. I want an administration that is classifying documents at the highest rate in our history, in a supposedly open government, to speak to me about totalitarianism. I want to be lectured by a government that solves all problems through military force about the dangers of power run amok. I want a government that spies on 20 million of its own citizens to define the fight against despotism. I want a man who has spent his time in public office, in the name of my country, supplying brutal dictators with chemical and biological weapons and contra soldiers to define, for me, the global struggle against fascists. I think the first person to speak out against fascism should be a government that is stripping its own people of “certain unalienable rights” that it hypocritically tries to spread around the world as a guise for its imperialist ambitions. I want a government that has more citizens imprisoned than any other nation in the world to speak of fascism. In a country where peaceful protestors are wrangled into fenced off areas to redress their grievances against their government. It is in this country that political dissenters are put on no-fly lists and harassed by executive law enforcement agencies. It is in America where political protestors have been shot, maced, and gassed without provocation by representatives of the executive branch of our government. A government where day after day the executive violates rules and laws they swore to uphold. The same government that imprisoned its own citizens for years after 9-11-01 with no due process should know full well the dangers of fascism. I want an executive that uses religion to justify its political stance against life saving medical procedures to lecture me about the dangers of religious fanaticism. The fight against fascism needs to start at home. These Orwellian “newspeak” speeches given around the US to unite people in a struggle against the supposed fascists on the outside, while we forget the tactics we use to fight this “enemy” are the creation of the fascists on the inside. These people we fight are not fascists; they are missing one important ingredient…the corporations. Fascism by definition is the blending of corporate interest with public government. I can’t think of anyplace on the planet where it is more the case, than it is in the US. In a country where you are hard pressed to find legislation that is not bought and paid for by corporate interests. Or try to find the individual senator or congressperson that isn’t bought either; it will be a hard find. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. If we are going to fight an all out war on fascism we should start at home. Only then will we have the moral authority to demand and end to totalitarianism around the world.

On a More Somber Note

2006-08-31T01:58:00.000-05:00

We like to think and say we are making progress over here, but there is one thing I notice as I drive down Iraqi streets. Men wandering aimlessly, staring out at my convoy with a listless, hopeless stare that seems to ask why have we done this to them. These men have nothing to do. Go out at all hours that it is not curfew and you will see all the men just standing outside their homes, or markets staring off into the distance. We want to know why they join the insurgency, its because they have nothing better to do, and no other way to make money. Let's see I can stand here and do nothing to support my family all day, or I can go plant this bomb and make $100. I mean really what would you do? I know the US is doing the best they can, but so are the insurgents (Iraqi and Foreign) at thwarting our every attempt to improve life for these miserable bastards. It just doesnt seem like there is any progress as month after month I see the same dudes starting at me from the same place everytime I roll out the gate. I guess the one bonus is that this means more IA/IP recruits which means more of a chance of the entire military pulling out sooner.

Northwest Union CANT STRIKE

2006-08-25T16:10:00.000-05:00

Apparently workers in this country no longer have the right to assemble to redress grievances against their employer. One of the top things that have made America what it is today and give people the opportunity for success are labor unions and their ability to use their mass as a bargaining chip for job improvement. I didnt know that a judge could order people not to strike...not to speak out against their employer. This judge is taking the only bartering chip they have away from them and it cant be constitutional or fair.
FUCK IT. GO ON STRIKE ANYWAY show this government run amok who this country actually belongs to. This is a country of, for, and by the people no the corporation. STRIKE. This, I think is pivotal, to the future of unions and the future of worker rights in this country. I dont care if they're striking because they want caviar and limos, it's a workers right and not a judges business. One judge cant stop all of them.

American Idiots

2006-08-24T01:08:00.000-05:00

Let's start talking about things in the context of reality. Americans are dumb, ignorant, and practically illiterate. You know, most polls are stupid and some just show how stupid we're getting as a country. More people can name the winner of American Idol than can name a Justice of the Supreme Court. Nothing against these idol winners but I think it's fitting that the only talent our American "Idol" has is the ability to sing karaoke. I've seen guys so drunk they can't remember their name, but they can still sing karaoke with the best of them. It's pretty bad because my wife who absolutely hates politics and pays absolutely no attention to it could tell me about Justice Alito and the controversy surrounding his appointment. I love my wife and she's a smart woman, but she pays absolutely no attention to this crap (seems strange huh, considering how impassioned I am about it) and she could tell me about two of the Supreme Court Justices (Justice Bader-Ginsberg and Justice Alito). My point is what kind of vaccuum do you have to be living in to know absolutely nothing about what is happening to your own country. I understand people are probably distracted by Iraq, but 60% of high school graduates couldn't point to it on a world map. Most Americans only read and comprehend at a seventh grade level. What the hell? Americans like to tout that people come from all over the world to attend our universities and colleges. Yeah, that's right they do. But they go to our colleges and they attend a class taught by a professor, more than likely, not from this country either, especially in the sciences and math. I guess the magical being theory just doesn't hold up in college level chemistry and biology, now does it Kansas Board of Education. That's because these foreigners come from education systems where they teach you things like math and science in math and science class, and not fables like creationism. Why dont we just start teaching history from the Bible also?

You know, I'm very libertarian, you Christo-Fascists can have your own schools where you teach your future idiot Bush supporting children that a big bearded man in the sky made the earth magically appear 4,000 years ago, just don't take my country down with you. We want to accomplish things and progress, not retard, our society.

Another thing. No more medical treatment for anyone pro-lifer or Chirsto-fascists. Because every medicine and procedure probably had people die in the course of its development. I dont want that hanging on your conscience as you take the viagara before slipping into your gimp outfits. That means no more surgeries, no more prescriptions. All you get to do is pray. And if 50% of the country is pro-life then that's 150 million people that we wont have to put on the national health care plan which would really make it cost productive. From now on medicine is only for people who believe in science. You can believe in God and still believe in science, and when you come to that realization then you can have the medicine and the doctors.
I'm tired of hearing about Islamo-Fascists in the news and never hearing about the Christo-Nazis who want to dismantle our country from the inside out. The real threat is the people who want to turn America into a theocracy and force their beliefs onto everyone because they are so insecure in their own faith they can't live and let live. The American Taliban is no different than the Afghan Taliban other than the fact they don't wear burkahs and the men are a little more clean shaven. But we give them a pass because they look like us.

Mel Wasn't All Wrong...

2006-08-02T06:17:00.000-05:00

But how can an unabashed liberal say such a thing. Let me tell you why. Just as our government was hijacked by a group of hawks, mostly of the chicken variety, so has the Israeli government been. The NeoCons of the US, I am positive, collaborated with the Likkuds in Israel to start this war. To say Israel does anything over there without our consent is insane. When they are the #1 purchaser of weapons from the #1 arms dealer in the world (US) with the 4th largest army in the world they sort of dance to our tune.
For whatever crazy reason the NeoCon movement has always had a vested interest in the returning of all Semitic lands to Israel. I dont know why. NeoCons by their doctrine are not religious people, but think religion is something that should be used to con people into putting you into power. (Don't believe me then read Leo Strauss). So its not because of faith or belief. I dont know if the Neo Cons were conned into this policy belief, or what, but it is their driving doctrine. It seems as though they are controlled completely by this policy and will spend whatever American capitial to ensure it happens. But I see no reason why we should have anything to do with Israel's mess. Sure we created Israel with the help of the UN, but if they want to continue to live in a place where they constantly get bombed and killed, NOT OUR PROBLEM. If they want to go on a rampage and try and kill all the Arabs around them NOT OUR PROBLEM. We have bigger problems that directly affect the U.S. to worry about than a safe secure Israel. How about a safe and secure U.S.? or a Safe and secure IRAQ?
And dont give me that tired ass line of well we're fighting them over there so we dont have to fight them here. Uhhh they weren't over here (Iraq) until we made it possible for them to get here. Dont confuse the war on terror with this mistake. Hezbollah. Not our problem. They want to kill Israelis fine let them do it or let Israel kill all of them. I really dont give a shit. I'm just tired of seeing whiny fucking -Bergs and -Steins on television crying about how they are always the fucking victim when the have the complete support of the US government and have all the weapons we have in our aresenal and an army that is better trained but falls a little short on the numbers. You are responsible for the wars there. Quit acting like the victim. Attacking sovereign nations and killing innocent people doesn't exactly make you look innocent and doing it with the equipment provided by the US doesnt make us look any better and doesnt help win the hearts and minds of Arabs and Muslims here in Iraq. So, you are in fact making the situation in Iraq here worse. Example as we have for the past two years been able to quell the Mahdi Militia of Al Sadr they are making a comeback so they can go fight Israelis in Lebanon. If these two fucking bullshit religions want to slug it out for shitty piece of property where some fucking stories from their books of fables took place, fuck it, let them.
The other argument I dont want to hear is, "We cant allow countries to harbor terrorists, and any country that harbors them should be attacked." Well, in that case you are insinuating that America should be attacked as we harbor terrorists here. Or do you just me Muslim terrorists? Example Posada Carilles, who, after nearly annual attempts at extradition by the Venezuelan, Cuban, and Nicaraguan governments for terrorist acts committed in or against those countries still lives the good life in the US under US protection. He was the main conspirator in the bombing of a Cubana Airliner killing 73 INNOCENT people and was also one of the main leaders of the Contras terrorist acts in Nicaragua. So, those who live in glass houses. But I forgot that over the past 5 years we only make rules we dont have to follow them, and the rules we abided by before we dont have to follow if those in power now consider them quaint or contrary to our goals. Like a schoolyard bully we use our brutishness to change the rules so that we can win.

2006-08-01T08:55:00.000-05:00

NeoConservative Middle East Peace Plan:
Step 1. Incite as many Arabs in fighting in Israel and Lebanon as possible.
Setp 2. Get involved in as many wars as possible with those Arab countries.
Step 3. Kill all the Arabs and take all their oil.
Step 4. Return all of Israel and ME over to the Israelis
Step 5. Wait for the second coming of Jesus.
Step 6. Use oil for war with China and Iran.

The Angry Middle East Peace Plan
Step 1. Kill all the Arabs/Palestinians
Step 2. Kill all the Israelis
Step 3. Claim all the land in the ME in the name of the US
Step 4. Kill anyone who has a problem with that.
Step 5. Wait for the second coming of Jesus (or first coming of Jesus if you're Jewish).

The Common Sense ME Peace Plan
There isn't one. You might as well face it these people will be fighting until one side or the other is completely annhilated. Hahahahaha. And we can't tell Israel to stop a preventative war because we have no moral ground to stand on in that arena as we are embroiled in the aftermath of a preventative war in Iraq. So all we can say is..."Well, uhhhh be nice and try not to kill innocent people." We've lost our moral standing. We have created a new monster in foreign policy that we can't control. The preventative war. I just wonder when the first preventative war is going to be launched on the U.S.?

In all seriousness I see no peaceful conclusion to this mess I'm in or that one over there and they are both connected.

Iraq...its Hot...its sandy...its Hell...

2006-07-25T07:57:00.000-05:00

Well, I am in a certain province that begins with an "A", and city that begins with an "R." My time so far has not been that bad. We've hit a couple of IEDs had a few rounds fired at us but all in all we are doing pretty well. Not too long before we get to go home where we get to redeploy our Brigade first from Iraq to Germany then from Germany back to Texas. No rest for the wicked. But we are over the hump on the downhill slope and from this side of the mountain the downhill side doesnt seem that bad.

There is no Zionist Conspiracy...

2006-07-25T07:44:00.000-05:00

The fact that people tell me I'm crazy when I tell them the government at the very least was complicit in the attacks on doesnt give me much hope when I try to convince them that there are people in our government who wholeheartedly believe in the Book Of Revelations and will do anything to insure those prophecies come to fruition. Hence the complete acceptance by this Admin and the rest of the world that it is OK for Israel to conduct terrorist attacks on other nations. The 4th largest military in the world attacking a country that is already weak. My question is, if Israel kills an American in Lebanon do we get to invade Israel? Not to mention the attacking of a Muslim state by Israel, with the support of the US with US weapons and munitions, is not boding well for us over here in Iraq. Call me a cynic, but did Hezbollah ever show proof they had captured Israeli soliders? You would think something like that would be on Al Jazeera. There is not much you can do to stop the march of "Armageddon" now. Just sit back relax, enjoy the light show, and hope they all wipe each other out first.

I'm Still here

2006-06-14T05:54:00.000-05:00

Well I'm in Iraq still...long lapse in posts because all of my anger has been vented towards insurgents/Iraqis, whatever you want to call them, the guys trying to blow me up, in a new spot in Iraq. On top of that internet has been scarce. Well we've relocated and are settling in the only downside is my wife and I are split up now. It really sucks because we've been there to comfort each other when we started feeling down about leaving our son behind but now we're too far apart to do that and rarely get to email each other. It sucks. Everyone tells me that now I get a taste of what everyone else has to deal with being separated from their spouse, which is not true at all because they dont have to worry about their spouse getting hit by an IED, or a sniper, or a mortar round. So its not the fucking same at all. The only thing you have to worry about is your spouse choking down too many little debbies from stress and putting on a few pounds before you get back, that's a little different than wondering whether everyday you'll get a call to come to the commander's office and him giving you the bad news.

But anyway the world of politics has gotten beyond my grasp...I dont get it, the guy has no popular support and has broken national and international law and is somehow still the president. What the fuck ever? Then we have his cronies in the White House leaking secret information and still able to keep the security clearances and hang around. Jesus. I dont know what more he has to do to just get impeached. I'm just tired of thinking about it. And really I dont have the time or energy anymore. I've lost all hope for the restoration of our republic.

Oh Yeah if you have a myspace account there is a band on there called Biteboy look them up and give them some money so they can go annoy the shit out of Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church for a day Sunday June 18th. Phelps is the guy protesting at soldiers funerals saying thank god for IEDs and all that happy horseshit. Apparently there is a biker gang that is going with biteboy as support. I dont know, I think kissing a few of those people with an aluminum baseball bat might be worth it. Fuck Fred Phelps and the pseudoChristians of the Westboro Baptist "Church".

Study: Bush tax cuts making rich richer

2006-04-05T08:03:00.000-05:00

Some headlines just catch your attention...No fucking shit Sherlock, I thought we learned two things from the 80's 1) Cocaine is not a good meal replacement, and 2) Voodoo economics fucks the lower and middle class. Holy shit...you know when CNN has caught on we just may be onto something, economists have only been screaming this for 25 years.

That is Democracy

2006-03-08T03:10:00.000-06:00

People keep asking when will democracy take over in Iraq? When will the big plan of the 5th reaon for invasion come to fruition, when will all the war stop? Fact is democracy has been implaced in Iraq, and the minority doesn't like it. Because what have we as Americans taught the Iraqis about Democracy, if not that, democracy is the tyrrany of the majority. We are trying to avoid handing the Iraqi government over to religious fundementalists who think everyone should be and do as they, but we allow the same type of people with fairer skin, no facial hair, and a different moniker (Pastor, Reverend, Born-Again Christian) to take over the American government. We allow the religious majority to dictate what people can and cant do with their own bodies, and in their own bedrooms because they see it as immoral. Robertson, Falwell, and that group from Missouri aren't any different ideologically than the ayatollahs, imams, and clerics on Al Jazeera. Sure they look more like "us" so we give them the pass, but their message is still one of intolerance and the institution of a theocracy. They have created a tyrannical religious majority that does not want to live and let live, but wants to order and command everyone to live as they wish to live.
I have one question for all the theocrats out there. Supposing that there is a God: Did he not give us the ability to make our own decisions? Or are you saying he made a mistake and that ability should be taken from us based on your lowly interpretation of God's word? So, I guess you work directly for God and know exactly what he wants, and he wants to you to take all free will and all temptation away, so that everyone will live by his word; or at least your interpretation of it. So does God talk to you on a two-way radio, cell phone, or do you have a direct line?
Democracy has taken hold in Iraq the same way it has in the US, the tyrannical majority has taken over. The only difference is the minority in Iraq is not going to stand aside while they are pushed around and subjugated to be second class citizens. Democracy should be majority rule with deference to the minority's opinions and beliefs. This wont happen in Iraq, and it certainly is becoming less and less likely to happen in America, the supposed land of the free, and for some odd reason the plague of religion seems to be the infection that keeps people from being able to live free and work together. Here in Iraq it's Sunni vs. Shi'a in the states it's tyrannical Chritian Aytollahs vs. open minded freedom loving Americans (many regular Christians included). Coinicidence...I think not.

I Just Dont Care

2006-01-16T02:32:00.000-06:00

I think I may be able to get into trouble for some of the things I say on here. But I just dont care anymore. These Fascists have gone too far and I took the same oath they did to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, they didn't live up to their oath so IMPEACH them. They have violated the Constitution but they don't care. Make them care Congress. America is behind you. The loonies who think it's alright for the "President" to abuse power are in the minority. At least Censure and have a trial to find out whether or not he comitted an impeachable offense. That's why you are there. IMPEACH this unelected and criminal organization that has taken control of our government. This Cabal should govern no longer. IMPEACH. Do your fucking job Congress, or you wont have one next election cycle.

Troops Morale Hurt by President's Undermining of Democracy

2006-01-13T02:30:00.000-06:00

Here's a post for all you brain-dead, flag-waving, red-state, lobotamized Coservative, Republican, Neo-Cons, and TheoCons, especially members of the Straussian Bush-Cheney Neo-Con deathcult. I'm going to try and not use any big words, but go ahead and pull out your dictionaries just in case you need some help, and dig in because its going to be a long one.

"Conservatives" keep spinning Rep. Murtha's comments by saying that he is hurting the morale of the troops. Well, I consider myself a soldier, not really a troop, because I am not officially in a Cav unit, but anyway, I've been in the Army since 1999. I'm a soldier, and I see what John Murtha says as the truth. I'm not signing back up, and almost everyone I talk to isn't, so when he says he wouldn't reenlist, he's following the sentiment of most of the people in my circle, maybe my circle isn't representative of the Army, I dont know. I just know 60-70% of the people I know aren't signing back up. It's sad but true. So, Rep. Murtha is expressing popular sentiment amongst myself andmy peers, and being honest with the American people and expressing his OPINION as someone who has served gallantly in the military for an extended period of time that he wouldn't enlist today. Fair enough. Didn't hurt my morale, as a matter of fact it boosted it, because if someone of his experience in the Armed forces sees the problems I do, 1) he's actually paying attention and listening and 2) he's probably going to work on fixing them.
There have been many reasons given for invading Iraq, it's gone from he was a threat to spreading freedom like it's Avian Flu and once it's in the air it infects everyone it's around, and apparently in Iraq has the same mortality rate, but I digress. So, we are there to institute a Free Iraqi State. OK, I'll buy that for a dollar. I like freedom, and my neighbors seem to like it, so, why the hell not? Just last week it came out that the Federal government has been spying on citizens private phone calls without warrants, not even the bullshit pseudo-warrants issued by the FISA that allow the government to moinitor your calls for three days to collect evidence to have probable cause to get a real wiretap warrant. So, the Federal government with the blessing of the executive is violating the Constitution, specifically the 4th Amendment. The President also had to be coaxed to sign a bill saying we wouldn't torture people, which would seem like a pretty American thing to not do. On top of that the government has been whiddling away our freeedoms bit by bit.
Now, the Murtha comment, I believe came out the same week as the wirtapping fiasco. I am now going to ask a question, in a mostly rhetorical fashion, what hurts the morale of the "troops" more 1) an elected representative of the people speaking his mind and opinion, which, seems to be a mostly true sentiment, or 2) the President of the United States colluding to violate the freedoms that we are supposedly fighting to spread around the world and institute in Iraq by our example, and therefore undermining our credibility on such matters in the face of an already seemingly impossible mission. Therefore, giving us no leg to stand on in the institution of a free and open society in Iraq, ergo making the mission in Iraq infinite.

Police State...

2006-01-13T02:10:00.000-06:00

U.S. Supreme Court to Decide if Police Can Barge in Unannounced
The police are becoming willing participants in the creation of a police state. They have decided that the constitution is crap as long as the job gets done. I'm fine with cops, they keep law and order in society and have a pretty rough, scary, dangerous, and sometimes thankless job (that I can empathize with). The only problem is they are not above the law. They cant just go crashing into peoples homes in five man stacks without a warrant, and say that the evidence they found is justification, after the fact. That's like the Office of Pre-Crime in the movie Minority Report.
They may think they have the authority to do it, but we as American citizens must put them in their place. I would hate to condone violence against law enforcment officers, but if that is what it takes for them to get the point that they are not above the law, then so be it. My job, and the job of every American, is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, when people violate that document they become the enemies of freedom and our country and should be shown NO quarter; especially when executing such actions in a violent and hostile fashion.
It would be one thing if they knocked on the door and pushed their way into his house and started snooping, but they were doing it in a violent fashion, which is the most aggregious abuse of power to destroy the 4th Amendment.
This time they've been caught and it has been appealed to the Supreme Court, but what happens when search and seizure without and warrant, and without probable cause becomes the norm? Or has it already? What happens when you are automatically suspect just for being a citizen? Or are you already? Have your phone conversations been monitored or wiretapped? Are you on the governments No-Fly List or the No-Flay Watchlist? You dont know, do you? And there is no way to find out...