McCain — talking tough

It’s hard not to like a guy that makes statements like this.

Why does he make it so difficult the rest of the time?

via HotAir

Scumbag of the Year makes the Chicago Tribune

It took a few days, but the story of shitbird extraoardinaire, Jay R. Grodner, caught the attention of the press.

John Kass covered the story today in the Chicago Tribune.

I’m going way beyond fair use, I can’t find any part that I could leave out. Kass talked to more of the people involved than we’ve heard from before — except for the bad actor himself, who remains hidden.

As of this evening, this was the most viewed story on the Chicago Tribune web site.

Jay R. Grodner is officially — infamous.

Marine Sgt. Michael McNulty — now on his way to Iraq for his second tour of duty in the war — took meticulous care of his car.

It is a black two-door BMW, an expensive ride for a young Marine from Chicago, but then, McNulty didn’t exactly join up for the big paycheck and luxury vacations.

The 26-year-old McNulty was a trader at the exchange and enlisted in the Reserves after 9/11. He babied his car so much that he had military vanity plates along with a sticker in his window that let people know that a Marine or a Marine supporter drove that car.

But someone didn’t like the Marine sticker, or the pro-military plates, and decided to stage an anti-war protest, with a key or hard piece of metal, on the shiny black finish of Sgt. McNulty’s car that caused $2,400 in damage.

“It’s a really nice car. It’s in perfect condition. He keeps it meticulous. And he was going to sell it,” said Sgt. McNulty’s friend, Tom Sullivan, a college buddy from Loyola University.

The last time Sgt. McNulty was in Iraq, he worked a .50-caliber machine gun from a Humvee. Now that he’s going back, he really doesn’t need a shiny black BMW that shows dust.

“There wasn’t a scratch on his car,” Sullivan said.

But there is one now.

It is a big scratch, a particularly long scratch in that black paint, a scratch stretching from the rear driver’s side around the back, across the trunk, then up to the passenger’s side.

If you have a car, and parked it on the street, surely you’ve thought about what an angry key could do to it.

According to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, it wasn’t an accident, but a deliberate key job, not done by some kid or street thug, but by a Chicago lawyer who apparently can’t stand the military.

Private attorney Jay R. Grodner, 55, of Chicago has been charged with a class A misdemeanor — criminal damage to property — punishable by up to one year in jail and up to a $2,500 fine, said Andy Conklin, spokesman for the state’s attorney’s office.

Late Wednesday, I reached Sgt. McNulty, who declined to comment for the paper but confirmed the facts in the police report.

And I wanted to get Grodner’s side of it because he’s been accused but not convicted of anything. So we called all the Grodner numbers we could find — home and business — including those on the police report and others in the suburbs and Chicago. Many were disconnected, and his cell phone voice mail was full.

I’d like to ask him two questions:

Why?

And, are you proud?

“McNulty was just coming to pick me up for breakfast, because he was going to training just before deployment,” Sullivan said of that morning on Dec. 1 in Rogers Park.

There are several one-way streets near Sullivan’s home, but McNulty missed the turn, and rather than drive two or three blocks around, he put the car in reverse and backed up a hundred or so feet. He pulled up in front of his friend’s house, rang the bell and Sullivan came downstairs. McNulty then turned around and saw Grodner’s hands on his black car.

“Mike says, ‘Hey, what are you doing to my car? Open up your hand!’” Sullivan told us. “And [Grodner] goes, ‘[Blank] you! Just because you’re in the military you don’t run the roost!’”

There were allegedly many more epithets and cuss words, some allegedly applied to the United States Marine Corps, to the U.S. armed forces and to Sgt. McNulty himself.

“Quite frankly, you don’t even look like a soldier. You’re a small little [blank],” Grodner said according to Sullivan.

This last bit really bothers William McNulty, who is Sgt. McNulty’s brother, and he called me.

“My brother should be commended for not just smashing that guy’s windpipe right there for all the stuff he said about our military, and the insults,” William McNulty said. “Instead, my brother called the police, as he should have.”

According to the police report I read, other investigative accounts and interviews, Grodner was upset to have been accused of purposely scratching the car. So upset, that he accused his accusers of being anti-Semitic.

The Chicago police officer responding to the call didn’t take the accusation seriously, according to the report, because he couldn’t justify it. And Sgt. McNulty’s brother and Sullivan say it is outrageous and nonsensical.

“The officer wasn’t going to hear this kind of talk. He put the kibosh on the whole thing,” Sullivan said. “So [Grodner] became apologetic.”

According to the police report, “The offender denied scratching the victim’s vehicle, but did admit to rubbing past it.”

Rubbing past it? I guess it all depends on what the definition of “rubbing” is.

That’s where it is now, awaiting another court date, set for Jan. 18, after Sgt. McNulty refused to back off and drop the charges in earlier court appearances.

Lawyers know how to drag things out, with continuance after continuance, stalling until complaining witnesses get tired and move on.

But Marines on their way to war don’t seek continuances.

And all Sgt. McNulty wanted was a little respect, and the chance to sell that car of his, without a scratch.

Wow, Grodner turns out to be an even bigger scumbag than it seemed originally. Pompous, arrogant, obnoxious and now obviously — pretty fucking stupid.

Grodner, if you haven’t figured it out yet, you are completely fucked. You screwed the pooch this time. The best part is — you did it to yourself.

Bluster and hubris are not your friend. This time, you get to bend over and grab your ankles. What is the correct term for a self-inflicted ass pounding?

BOHICA, baby!

I look forward to reporting your sentencing.

When good goofballs go bad –UPDATE: EAT FOR PEACE!!!

Luke Johnson, a twenty something goofball, created a little stir a while back by posting his phone number on Youtube:

He got a lot of calls, he got on local and national news — he lost his mind and went full blown hippie:

]

Wtf? You’re not going to eat for an entire weekend and that’s supposed to stop a war — let alone get anyone to care one bit about what one smelly hippie thinks about anything?

Have fun.

I’ll eat a double cheeseburger in your honor. If I’m in the area, I’ll come down and eat the cheeseburger in front of you so that you can smell it’s cheeseburgery goodness. In fact, I’m calling on all non-smelly anti-hiptards who have a few minutes on the weekend of January 4-6 2008 to come down to the Lincoln Memorial in Wash. DC to counter protest the goofball protest.

Burgers, steaks, bbq ribs, meatball subs — bring anything that you would enjoy for a nice lunch at our nation’s capital on a weekend afternoon. If Luke not eating for AN ENTIRE WEEKEND can change the world — just think what could happen if hundreds, nay thousands billions of us descend on Washington to EAT FOR PEACE.

Eat a pizza, eat an entire fried chicken, eat a deep fried bacon cheese and beer dog — it doesn’t matter what it is IT’S FOR PEACE!!!

EAT YOURSELF SICK FOR PEACE

JANUARY 4-6 2008

LINCOLN MEMORIAL

WASHINGTON DC

 

Thanks to D=S for reminding me about Luke and his cause.

WordPress.com Political Blogger Alliance

Send a troop a text for turkey day

America Supports You: Americans Can Text ‘Thanks’ to Troops

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16, 2007 – For those seeking a quick way to show appreciation for the troops’ service far from home this holiday season, look no further than “Giving Thanks,” a new initiative from the Defense Department’s America Supports You program.

Americans can send text messages of thanks and get responses from active-duty troops through the “Giving Thanks” initiative of the Defense Department’s America Supports You program.

America Supports You connects citizens and corporations with military personnel and their families serving at home and abroad.

“This is a simple way to connect our citizens to our soldiers using modern technology,” Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for internal communications and public liaison, said of the text messaging program.

The program, which already has received nearly 4,000 messages, officially kicks off at 6 a.m. EST Nov. 17 and concludes at midnight PST Nov. 22. Between those times, people wishing to express gratitude to the troops for their service can text a brief message to 89279. Each text message sent will receive a response from an active-duty servicemember in return.

Major mobile wireless providers, including AT&T, Verizon, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile, will provide access to the Giving Thanks text messaging program.

“We know that thousands of families will be sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner and thinking about loved ones who are far away from home serving their country,” Barber said. “We are counting on other American families to take a moment during their holiday celebration to think of those families and their family members who are serving and say, ‘Thanks.’

C’mon. Give it a shot. It’ll take just a few seconds and you’ll make some troop’s day.

I found this via Dan at Protein Wisdom.

Unclear on the concept

Protesters Arrested for Attempting to Block Military Cargo in Olympia, WA

OLYMPIA, Wash — At least three more protesters were arrested Sunday as demonstrations continued against shipments of military cargo through the Port of Olympia.

Others were sprayed with pepper spray by police as they tried to block trucks hauling equipment to Fort Lewis after it was unloaded from a ship carrying the gear back from Iraq.

Protests at the port began Tuesday, after the USNS Brittin arrived and began unloading equipment that had been used in Iraq by the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division from Fort Lewis.

I’m guessing Dark Moody (my most recent pathetic troll) was there.

They were protesting shipments that were coming back from Iraq.

Aren’t you guys a little late?

This stuff was coming back from ChimpyMcHalliburton’s private war for oil. You should be cheering. If you haven’t been paying attention, the surge worked. So now we are pulling troops and equipment out — not the other way around.

At the port’s gates, protesters wearing goggles and other protective gear withstood several rounds of pepper spray but were physically removed by officers who picked them up and threw them away from the road they had blocked, The Olympian newspaper reported.

One protester, Andrew Yankey, told The Olympian that officers removed protesters’ protective goggles and sprayed them directly in the face.

“I was dragged and sprayed in the face repeatedly,” he said. “My goggles were ripped off my face and stolen.”

Dude, that sucks. Really.

I’m sure that the brave young men and women of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division feel your pain. Or not, you pathetic little douchebag.

I’m getting sick and tired of leftie idiots whining about having their patriotism questioned. Well, this proves it. They have no patriotism to question. They hate this country and everything that it stands for. Why else would they have a protest when troops are returning home?

What did these scumbags do before there were Starbucks and the Internet?

The Democratic party is finding out just how little these life suckers really matter in the grand scheme. They don’t actually contribute anything. Being associated with them is instant political death. Who was that guy that Lieberman ran against? Right, no one remembers. Just like no one will remember these crap weasels in a few years. But, that doesn’t mean we have to tolerate their immature tantrums. This is not about free speech. Moonbats don’t care anything about free speech. They care about their agenda — and nothing else.

France finally figured out the damage that people like this can do to their society.

We are far from having to worry on that scale. But, it’s getting ridiculous.

Tolerance only goes so far. When these spoiled little brats violate the law to hold unpeaceful protests, they should be forced to deal with the consequences of their actions — under the law.

No quarter.

Heartwarming story from Iraq…

That you won’t see covered in any media outlets:

Iraqi Army at Besmaya Installation Support San Diego Fire Victims

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Members of the Iraqi Army in Besmaya collected a donation for the San Diego, Calif., fire victims Thursday night at the Besmaya Range Complex in a moving ceremony to support Besmaya’s San Diego residents.

Iraqi Army Col. Abbass, the commander of the complex, presented a gift of $1,000 to U.S. Army Col. Darel Maxfield, Besmaya Range Complex officer in charge, Multi-National Security Transition Command Iraq, to send to the fire victims in California.

The money was collected from Iraqi officers and enlisted soldiers in Besmaya. In a speech given during the presentation, Col. Abbass stated that he and the Iraqi soldiers were connected with the American people in many ways, and they will not forget the help that the American government has given the Iraqi people. Abbass was honored to participate by sending a simple fund of $1,000 to the American people in San Diego, to lower the suffering felt by the tragedy.

At OPFOR.

Puppy killers!

Another incriminating photo of coalition forces terror tactics surfaces in Baghdad.

Found at Suitably Flip.

Background at Hot Air.

Who says Islamic chicks don’t put out?

Your military dollars at work. Heh.

Thanks to Mike Z.

In the full light of day — for some, blindness still prevails

The New York Times and the Washington Post are running full stories on the Affaire de Beauchamp today.

First, The New York Times:

Army Says Soldier’s Articles for Magazine Were False

An Army investigation into the Baghdad Diarist, a soldier in Iraq who wrote anonymous columns for The New Republic, has concluded that the sometimes shockingly cruel reports were false.

“We are not going into the details of the investigation,” Maj. Steven F. Lamb, deputy public affairs officer in Baghdad, wrote in an e-mail message. “The allegations are false, his platoon and company were interviewed, and no one could substantiate the claims he made.”

I won’t quote any more except this last bit because the Times reporter creates an incredible gap in logic for TNR to sneak through unless you are in possession of a single brain cell.

In an e-mail message, Mr. Foer said, “Thus far, we’ve been provided no evidence that contradicts our original statement, despite directly asking the military for any such evidence it might have,” adding, “We hope the military will share what it has learned so that we can resolve this discrepancy.”

Mr. Foer, meet the door. You are done.

Howard Kurtz at The Washington Post provides, outside of the headline, a wonderfully misconstrued spin on the story…

Army Concludes Baghdad Diarist Accounts Untrue

And, I’m going to go a little beyond fair use on this one because there is just too much wishful thinking and complete bullshit for anyone who has followed this at all in this article — read for yourself.

Army investigators have concluded that the private whose dispatches for the New Republic accused his fellow soldiers of petty cruelties in Iraq was not telling the truth.

The finding, disclosed yesterday, came days after the Washington-based magazine announced that it had corroborated the claims of the private, Scott Thomas Beauchamp, except for one significant error.

“An investigation has been completed and the allegations made by Pvt. Beauchamp were found to be false,” an Army statement said. “His platoon and company were interviewed and no one could substantiate the claims.”

But New Republic Editor Franklin Foer is standing his ground. “We’ve talked to military personnel directly involved in the events that Scott Thomas Beauchamp described, and they corroborated his account,” Foer said. The magazine granted anonymity to the other soldiers it cited.

A military official, who asked not to be identified because the probe is confidential, said no charges were filed against Beauchamp. Instead, the official said, the matter is being handled administratively, with Beauchamp punished by having his cellphone and laptop confiscated for an undetermined period.

I espescially love this next bit.

The Army probe provides ammunition to conservative critics who have accused the liberal magazine of publishing Beauchamp’s “Baghdad Diarist” essays without adequate checking and being too quick to believe that American soldiers would engage in questionable conduct. It also revives fading memories of the magazine’s 1998 fabrication scandal involving writer Stephen Glass.

No. Really.

They actually do a little reporting here…

Beauchamp, 23, who is married to New Republic reporter Elspeth Reeve, wrote last month that a soldier had used a Bradley Fighting Vehicle to run over stray dogs, and that others had found and played with the skulls of Iraqi children. Beauchamp also wrote that he and other soldiers had openly mocked a woman whose face had been disfigured by an injury — but later acknowledged the incident had taken place in Kuwait before his unit was deployed, not at a Baghdad base as he originally maintained.

But, and get this, where outside the teeny tiny (the only thing that matters) world of grad school journalism majors would this next bit make any sense?

Foer said last week that the Army investigation was “short-circuiting” the magazine’s efforts, in part because it had become impossible to reach Beauchamp.

Skipping a bit…

“Thus far,” he added, “we’ve been provided no evidence that contradicts our original statement, despite directly asking the military for any such evidence it might have.”

Despite the fact that many other individuals and outlets that have been following this from the beginning have had no problem getting access to information that makes that statement and the reporting of it — ridiculous.

Get ready for an incredible leap in logic that has no basis in any sort of fact…

It is not clear whether investigators might have pressured Beauchamp into disavowing the articles by indicating that charges might otherwise be filed against him under the military justice code. A military official said Beauchamp had committed two violations, making false statements and not obtaining permission to publish the articles, which were written under the name Scott Thomas.

Pressured. With what? The truth?

Just to add complete balance to the story, we need to go to a journalism professor to be told what we should think about all of this…

Mark Feldstein, a journalism professor at George Washington University, called the Army’s refusal to release its report “suspect,” adding: “There is a cloud over the New Republic, but there’s one hanging over the Army, as well. Each investigated this and cleared themselves, but they both have vested interests.”

A cloud — vested interests. The Army didn’t fabricate a story. Beauchamp did — and then passed it on to TNR who bought it all and then published wild claims of horrible behavior without any real kind of fact checking. Their own claims of plausibility and passing the “smell test” have already been refuted and ridiculed — everywhere. There was no fact checking — at all.

Scott Thomas Beauchamp is married to New Republic reporter Elspeth Reeve. He went to Iraq to “get street cred” as a writer with battleground experience according to his own blog. He went into the Army with an agenda that he made known to the world, which is most likely the reason he was still an E-2 after two years. I’m sure he touched E-3 for a few moments, but that was short lived as he made everyone around him miserable to the point where he most surely has faced administrative punishment — the “genius” Scott Thomas Beuchamp most certainly would have made at least NCO at this point had he not been “misunderstood” and unfairly judged by the unfair expectations that the Army places on a soldier of actually fulfilling the obligations that it expects of it’s less sensitive and duty bound soldiers.

I truly wish this idiot would have enlisted in the Marines. Not a slam on the Army, but the Marines have a way of weeding shitbirds like this out before they can cause any kind of trouble.

Heavy responsibility is given at lower rank in the Marines. Judgement of the ability to carry that responsibility is also qualified swiftly.

At the end of the day — Beauchamp is a proven liar and fabricator. TNR and Franklin Foer are either hapless fools or wishfull idiots. Which is worse?

Elspeth Reeve — I hope upon hope that you were not a willful participant in this. You married a liar and a traitor. If you were, I wish you and Scotty boy a miserable life on the nutroot circuit trying to pick up the pieces of Shattered Glass.

Find more and background at:

Hot Air

Michelle Malkin

Confederate Yankee

And, Ace was on this the entire way

Michael Goldberg led the way though, at The Weekly Standard. Great work.

Addendum: I wrote this up in the wee hours of the night as the information came out so the links I’ve provided may be a little behind. This will certainly have comprehensive coverage over the next several hours. I will update and link appropriately.

Not used to being ahead of the curve.

Update: Oh noes — a link from Scott Thomas himself. With a little poem.

I love the smell of vindication in the morning

I’m slicker than Clinton
Smarter than Gore
I’ve turned the Media
Into my whore

Blogs covering this today:

Michelle Malkin — Winter Soldier Syndrome

Power Line — What War Did To The New Republic

Ace of Spades HQ — MSM: We Support Our Winter Soldiers

Confederate Yankee — Deceiver

The asshole lying scumbag piece of shit finally admits that he’s an asshole lying scumbag piece of shit

Scott, I’m an asshole lying scumbag piece of shit, Beauchamp offered up the truth to save whatever is left of his slimy little ass.

(hey, I’m gonna fuck all of my buddies, wanna watch?)

Beauchamp Recants

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned from a military source close to the investigation that Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp–author of the much-disputed “Shock Troops” article in the New Republic’s July 23 issue as well as two previous “Baghdad Diarist” columns–signed a sworn statement admitting that all three articles he published in the New Republic were exaggerations and falsehoods–fabrications containing only “a smidgen of truth,” in the words of our source.

Separately, we received this statement from Major Steven F. Lamb, the deputy Public Affairs Officer for Multi National Division-Baghdad:

An investigation has been completed and the allegations made by PVT Beauchamp were found to be false. His platoon and company were interviewed and no one could substantiate the claims.

According to the military source, Beauchamp’s recantation was volunteered on the first day of the military’s investigation. So as Beauchamp was in Iraq signing an affidavit denying the truth of his stories, the New Republic was publishing a statement from him on its website on July 26, in which Beauchamp said, “I’m willing to stand by the entirety of my articles for the New Republic using my real name.”

The magazine’s editors admitted on August 2 that one of the anecdotes Beauchamp stood by in its entirety–meant to illustrate the “morally and emotionally distorting effects of war”–took place (if at all) in Kuwait, before his tour of duty in Iraq began, and not, as he had claimed, in his mess hall in Iraq. That event was the public humiliation by Beauchamp and a comrade of a woman whose face had been “melted” by an IED.

No. Fucking. Kidding.

The entire left side of the blogosphere jumped on this little shit kiddies bandwagon when The New
Republic published these obvious wet dreams of the uber liberal psychotics. Forget the fact that most of this waste of skins claims were so out there that anyone with half a neuron in their greasy little noggin would at least pause for a second and think — wtf?

Fake, but accurate. But, in this case, not even close to accurate.

You’d think they would have learned their lesson by now. How many times do you have to be bludgeoned by the clue bat before trying to pass off flat out lies starts to become a bad idea?

Progressive — the new stupid.

Repeat.

So as Beauchamp was in Iraq signing an affidavit denying the truth of his stories, the New Republic was publishing a statement from him on its website on July 26, in which Beauchamp said, “I’m willing to stand by the entirety of my articles for the New Republic using my real name.”

And, TNR backed him up. Again.

Every leftie blog was outraged that we dare question this “heroe’s” daring tales from the battlefield. How dare we? We’d all be eating crow by the end of the month. We dared because this was just another example of flat out shit being passed off as the truth — again. By the compassionate denizens the left.

Lies, lies and more lies. How can we not question? There are too many recent examples of this insane behavior. Jesse Macbeth, Dan Rather, Eason Jordan, anyone?

Stephen Glass. Scott Beauchamp. Name to be filled in later.

Bye bye, Frankie Foer.

At Ace’s — BEAUCHAMP RECANTS: SIGNS STATEMENT THAT HE FABRICATED STORIES WITH ONLY “SMIDGEN OF TRUTH”

Go there just for the videos.

There’s a lot more reaction to this out there, but I don’t think they’d like me tracking back with the title of this post.

I have no doubt that the hyper-intelligent idiots who run leftie blogs will try to spin this as some sort of conspiracy between conservative blogs and the military. Their latest bit of genius was to try to find a Rovian explanation as to why a military Public Affairs Officer would actually give information about their investigation to, oh noes — the public.

There’s not enough aluminum foil on the planet to explain this amount of nutbaggery.

When all is said in done, I feel no vindication that we were right — again.

I’m ashamed that there are Americans that wanted this lunatic’s insane fabrications to be true.

*Many thanks to Beth “Gracie” Greem, ROTC for getting the truth out at the expense of his/her job.

Update: An Army Lawyer has a post up on what the Army may do to the little shitmeister.

Allah at Hotair asks whether Beauchamp was just telling investigators what they wanted to hear to avoid punishment.

Here’s the thing, if he was lying, there’s not much that he can be charged with. At most it would be some variant of an Article 92 violation for publication without permission or something similar (presuming such a prohibition existed within his command). At most, that’ll get him 2 years if it’s a general order, more than likely it’d be violation of an “other lawful order” which is 6 months max confinement.

Now some may argue that he’s lying to investigators but he told TNR the truth. Problem there is that the penalties for a False Official Statement are far harsher (7 yrs and a dishonorable discharge). Lying to investigators is often worse than the misconduct itself. So even if Beauchamp IS lying, he sure can’t ever say so while in uniform, as that subjects him to the more serious Article 107 charge.

There’s quite a bit more, but I don’t want to steal his entire post. Go read the rest.

Moosetracked at the Bullwinkle Blog

More than 100 dead

The article paints a very negative picture, and it is pretty damn sad, but I can’t help this question about Iraq and other havens for insane lunatic’s willing to slaughter civilians, children, mothers and non-participatory fathers.  Is the problem in Iraq brought about by the US “invasion,” which is really a code word for “evil conquest by an alien western culture,” or is it that the previous regime, and the support from Iran and Syria has no problem putting HUGE amounts of modern explosives into the hands of lunatics?

I’m pro-second amendment, but I think it’s a fair bet that a truck’s worth of explosives would raise some eyebrows and deserves a little investigation and research.

The only occupation an unemployed undocummented iranian, syrian, saudi, pick your random islamic nation can fill is that of murderous animal.  Lets hope they engage in immigration reform, as well as enact a pogram.

Sorry, you gotta kill the loyalists, even we did it.

Ignorance is bliss dangerous

Cox and Forkum

Absolutely touching

The young widow of a USMC Lance Corporal, who was recently killed in action, is enlisting in the Army to be a combat medic.

A combat medic held the hand of her husband as he died. She wants to be able to offer the same kind of support to our soldiers and Marines in their time of need.

A Special Soldier Remembered On Memorial Day By His Wife

One year ago Melissa and Edward Garvin of Malden were celebrating their wedding. They had culminated their relationship that started in second grade and eventually led to the altar on May 26, 2006. The wedding was held with the knowledge that Marine Lance Corporal Garvin would be deploying shortly after he said “I do” to his longtime sweetheart. The fact that something could happen to her husband never entered the thought process for, at the time, 19-year old Melissa.

“Never”, said Melissa Garvin. “I knew he was leaving in September but you still never think that anything will happen to him. Last year I was extremely happy and this year definitely not.”

The unthinkable happened on October 4 2006. Lance Corporal Edward Garvin was killed in the Anbar Province of Iraq while on combat operations. . It brought an end to a life that had promise. He was special according to Melissa Garvin in personality and what he wanted to accomplish.

The death of a soldier would hit any family member hard. Age and experience mean nothing when trying to cope. Sometimes in life death is expected because of illness. It does not make things easier but that scenario allows for preparation. A death in combat offers no warning. It comes knocking at the door with immediacy. And the immediacy hits hard. It hit hard for Melissa Garvin.

“It was surreal”, she says. “It was all a blur. It was like watching a movie and sometimes it does not seem real. You sort of expect him to come through the door. But you know he is not going to. It is definitely not easy.”

“It may sound strange”, she says “but the strength comes from being together with him since second grade. He still pushes me to keep going. I know for him I need to keep going. I want to make sure that he is always remembered and it is what makes me keep going every single day.”

Melissa Garvin’s immediate future involves giving back. Her late husband was a Boy Scout and worked for the Boy Scouts before he became a marine. She ran a fundraiser recently for the T.L. Storer Scout Camp in Barnstead, New Hampshire and started a scholarship which will send 11 kids to the camp. She is also headed to the camp June 16th to redo the camp using the money she raised.

After that there will not be much time until July 11th. It is a date that is significant because she leaves for basic training. Melissa has joined the army. If you are asking why you are not alone. She says everyone asks. Her reasons for enlisting of course do have something to do with what happened in October but not in the way you might imagine.

“I did it for many reasons,” she says. “One is because what helps me is knowing my husband did not suffer after talking to the medic that actually worked on him. I wanted to be able to do the same thing for other people. If I could go over there, which is my goal to go to Iraq, and I could help one family member not feel the pain I feel every day it will be worth it.”

This story is about Melissa and Edward Garvin. It is symbolic however of many families in the United States on Memorial Day 2007. It is meant to call attention to our fallen heroes on a day when millions are at a barbecue, on a golf course, and contemplating several great months of pleasure. The reason we can do what we want to do is because of the sacrifices these “Heroes” are making.

Amazing.

Godspeed, Melissa Garvin.

Video at CNN via Hot Air.

Aww crap!

I’m sure most everyone already knows.  Allah’s got details that makes it look like the missing soldiers have been killed and dumped in the euphrates. 

Two of the body’s had indications of torture.  Like actual torture.

This stuff just sucks.

You know I beat Insty by about 3 hours, just ask Ace, but he probably deleted it.

I’m a dork, often drunk, sometimes crazy, but always a geek.

Maintaining this quadrofectionaryialism (I know that isn’t a word) is sometimes hard for me, and by sometimes, I mean often.

Anyways, I remember reading about the first reports of “land warrior” and they were EXACTLY IDENTICAL, and I have been out for almost ten years.  The Marines only liked the digital sight but everything else sucked.

But Popular Mechanics actually asks the servicemembers, rather than the generals who are looking for “real world” jobs once they “retire” (btw, generals aren’t actually allowed to ‘retire’ In the classical sense of it, did you know that?) or for cabinet members looking for board posisitions.

See?  Anything that weighs a lot? is a detriment, not a help, in that link?  My favorite quote?

 ”…’It’s just a bunch of stuff we don’t use, taking the place of useful stuff like guns,’ says Sgt. James Young,”

“stuff” like guns?  You know what the military does?  In general?

They shoot guns, WHY IN THE HELL DO THEY NEED A 9 lb blackberry on their back.

Read the whole thing.  Let me add this, Why in the hell would soldiers/Marines in the field wear headphones?  See, most of the directional understanding is based on HEARING!

Even someone with smaller ears than mine (I have big fat huge ears) knows that sometimes there is a benefit to not being deaf, just like someone with good eyesight hates being blind.

Once again “It’s just a bunch of stuff we don’t use, taking the place of useful stuff like guns,” 

And to quote an old joke, about engineers.  

“If it ain’t broke, add more options.”

Update:  Did I leave out the link to Popular Mechanics?  I’m so retarded.

The religion of peace atrocities

If you are still one of the uninformed sheeple who feel that muslim extremists pose no threat to the world — read the articles that I link here. If you are not compeletely disgusted and horrified, I suggest that you make a trip to the Middle East to commune with your buddies. Make sure you wear the bacon scented tuxedo to ingratiate yourself — until they cut off your head with a rusty knife while video taping it for their pals.

The Christian victims of Iraq

Holy Week is a time when Christians think of the crucifixion of Jesus. This year, they should also be meditating on another crucifixion: that of a 14-year-old boy, nailed to a cross by Islamists in Iraq.

This diabolical crime was part of a campaign by jihadists to extinguish one of the most ancient Christian Churches in the world, that of the Assyrians.

I don’t know if the Christian teenager who was crucified in Basra last October knew Jesus’s language, but by the time the Islamists had finished with him he certainly knew a great deal about his suffering.

From The Catholic Herald:

“When they cook a dish in the Middle East, it is traditional to put the meat on top of the rice when they serve it. They kidnapped a woman’s baby in Baghdad, a toddler, and because the mother was unable to pay the ransom, they returned her child – beheaded, roasted and served on a mound of rice.” The infant’s crime was to be an Assyrian, but this story, reported by the Barnabus Fund, went unnoticed in the West, like so many other horrific accounts of Christian persecution in Iraq.

Since the invasion of Iraq, Muslim militants have bombed 28 churches and murdered hundreds of Christians. Last October, Islamists beheaded a priest in Mosul in revenge for the Pope’s remarks about Islam at Regensburg. But never let it be said that jihadis do not have a sense of ironic humour: that same month they crucified a 14-year-old Christian boy in Basra.

Barbaric. Disgusting. Evil.

The articles I link are very interesting, but try to blame the West for indifference to the suffering of Iraqi Christians as cause for the incidents. Never mind that we have over a hundred thousand young men and women on the ground working to quash these lowest of human scum.

I blame the animals that perpetrated the acts.

There is a large Assyrian Catholic and Chaldean community here in the Detroit area. Their plight over the centuries is well known to many here. The media, with their nano-second long term memory, like to blame us for anything bad that happens in Iraq, saying that toppling Saddam created a power vacuum that is responsible for the hideous events described above. Saddam was the reason hundreds of thousand of Iraqi Christians fled their country. Many returned after his toppling, some finding the situation too volatile and leaving once again.

Assyrian and Chaldean Christians were being persecuted long before the US invaded Iraq. The only difference now is that the bad actors are not following the orders of Saddam and his henchmen. Saddam was able to reign in some of the extremists in the past, but only because he pacified them with fear and the occasional mass slaughter.

Extremists with the support of Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia are behind most of the the problems we are seeing today. Any religion that fosters and tolerates this special kind of evil needs to be questioned. Moderate muslims say that these acts are not representative of most muslims.

So, while these primitive animals continue to wage terror on their own citizens, all in the name of Islam — we wait for the voice of moderate Islam to stand up and condemn their savage brethren.

So far, the silence has been deafening.

h/t The articles above were first brought to my attention by Bratty Brother at My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

Moosetracked at the Bullwinkle Blog

America is at the mall

No doubt.

From OPFOR

Michael Totten is heading back to Iraq

On My Way to Iraq

I’ll be spending some quality time in Iraq over the next two and a half months doing consulting work, journalism, and video – first in the northern Kurdistan region and then in Baghdad and the heart of the Sunni Triangle

Photo copyright Patrick S. Lasswell

This time I’m going to give you some video as well as writing and photographs. Stay tuned for taped interviews with Kurdish civilians and officials, and also some video postcards of what this place actually looks like. Kurdistan always shocks people when they see it for the first time. It doesn’t look anything like the hellish images that come out of Baghdad.

I’ll be there for a month or so, then will come home for a short break. Then I’m off to Baghdad and the Sunni Triangle for two weeks with the American military.

I need body armor and combat zone insurance for Baghdad. And I’d like to pick up a new handheld video camera for Kurdistan. I want to give you the highest quality video footage possible over Internet broadcasts. Spending 10,000 dollars on a professional camera would be a waste of money for Internet video, but it would be nice to pick up a 1,000 dollar camera if possible. Best not to waste the opportunity using a cheap one with a small cell phone camera sized lens.

Any donations you can send my way via Pay Pal will help me give you the best content possible, and will help keep me alive and insured when I finally make it, and long last, to Baghdad and the war.

Read the rest here.

I know I’ve learned a lot about what’s really happening in the Middle East through Michael’s reporting. In the past couple of years he’s been to Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon and Israel giving us an inside view of what’s happening on the ground. That’s worth at least a couple of bucks.

Please go to Michael Totten’s site and hit the Pay Pal button for a few dollars.

A Sunday Night in Baghdad.

Omar from Iraq the Model reports that the recent troop surge seems to be having the desired effect.

A Sunday Night in Baghdad.

Baghdad is still enjoying some days of relative calm interrupted only with minor sporadic incidents. In general there’s a feeling that these days are better than almost any other time in months. This is more evident in the eastern side of Baghdad than the western part, because the former part has received more US and Iraqi military reinforcements than the latter.

Checkpoints in Baghdad are becoming more abundant, with more attention paid to the exits and entrances of the city. I’m also hearing that those checkpoints have been reinforced with more soldiers and equipment.

Moktada Al Sadr has fled the country to Iran:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 — The powerful Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr has left Iraq and has been living in Iran for the past several weeks, senior Bush administration officials said Tuesday.

With fresh American forces arriving in Baghdad as part of the White House plan to stabilize the capital, officials in Washington suggested that Mr. Sadr might have fled Iraq to avoid being captured or killed during the crackdown.

Leave it to the New York Times to spin that into a negative.

If Mr. Sadr had indeed fled, his absence would create a vacuum that could allow even more radical elements of the Shiite group to take power.

The surge seems to be going so well that even the Masters of Doom in the democratic leadership are toning down their rhetoric. At least for a couple of days. Then it’s back to supoorting our troops while they plan for their defeat again.

Update: Geez. Leave it to Jack (unidicted co-conspirator) Murtha to prove me wrong. He couldn’t even wait one day to get back to the crazy. Video.

Wow. Just wow.

A wonderful story of love and service to country.

I won’t even try to add anything to this.

The picture. The story.

Wow.

Found at Hot Air

Update: Video