Tag: Military

Perfect Example of why Homosexuals do not belong in our armed forces.

Like it or not; it is the truth:

BEAUMONT — Relatives of a slain sailor are calling the 29-year-old’s death a hate crime.

Rose Roy of Beaumont said her nephew, Navy Seaman August Provost III, had complained a year before about being harassed for being gay.

Roy said she advised Provost to report and document the incidents, but she said the military did little to help.

“He went to the Navy to serve and protect,” she said in an interview with Beaumont’s KFDM News, “he didn’t get protected at all.”

Roy told The Associated Press that the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy discouraged her nephew from asking for help.

“That phrase is just stupid because it tells them they have no one to speak to,” she said.

The 29-year-old Houston native was found dead Tuesday at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego. Roy said the family was told that Provost was shot three times, had his hands and feet bound, his mouth gagged, and body burned.

The family plans to hold funeral services July 10 in Houston.

Democratic Rep. Bob Filner of San Diego said Thursday he wants a Defense Department investigation into the death, after leaders of the city’s gay community asked him to intervene.

Investigators have called the sailor’s death a random act unrelated to the his sexuality and have taken a “person of interest” into custody. No charges have been filed.

Roy said Provost joined the Navy in March 2008 to pay off college debt.

via Family of gay Houston sailor found dead faults military | Chronicle | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle.

Had he not been in the Navy; he would still be alive. The Armed Forces is not a place for Homosexuals. It is a tragic thing; but it his own fault.  Gay blades do not belong in the Armed Forces; it is just that simple. This is why this person is dead. Most likely he came onto some officer and they did not like it and they killed him. Do I think it was right, that he was killed? No, I do not. But, if he had not been in the Navy and most likely not shot his mouth off, he would still be alive.

Report: North Korea has fired three missiles

With the news of Michael Jackson and the news of Sarah Palin this story is being ignored by the American Media. This causes a part of me to wonder; was it done intentionally?

Anyhow, here is the story.

First video via CNN:

The Story via CNN:

North Korea fired three short-range missiles toward the Sea of Japan, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported Saturday.

Quoting a South Korean government official, the agency said the missiles were apparently Scud-type missiles, estimated to have a range of about 500 km (310 miles). South Korean intelligence estimates that North Korea has about 700 such missiles in its arsenal.

Pyongyang test-fired four such missiles off the east coast on Thursday, Yonhap reported.

North Korea had issued a warning to mariners to avoid an area in the Sea of Japan at certain times between June 24 and July 9 because of a "military firing exercise," according to a U.S. military communication about the warning provided to CNN.

The recent firings come amid heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula. North Korea conducted a nuclear test in May, fired test rockets and threatened U.S. and South Korean ships near its territorial waters.

Earlier this week analyst Daniel Pinkston said the reported test might be training for a future test but it could also just be a routine military exercise.

"It is worrisome to some degree, but it is different from a ballistic missile launch," said Pinkston, of the International Crisis Group in Seoul, South Korea.

It’s part of military training, but there seem to be no movements of troops or anything that would suggest preparations for military operations.

"So yes, people are watching it, the military is watching it here, but I don’t think it’s related to any plans or operations to attack anyone."

Russia had a low-key reaction to the tests. Russian military experts are carefully studying the reports but the launches will not change the political situation, a spokesman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.

This should be a clear cut message to the Obama Administration that the sort of “Carrot and Stick” approach to North Korea is not working. It is time for action President Obama, what will you do? Of course, seeing what we are dealing with for President; I do not expect much of a change.

Change?: President Obama ready to sign order to Executive Order to Allow Indefinite Detention of Terror Suspects

This broke last night and the Liberal Blogosphere about went nuclear.

Via The Washington Post:

Obama administration officials, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, are crafting language for an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.

Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war. Obama advisers are concerned that an order, which would bypass Congress, could place the president on weaker footing before the courts and anger key supporters, the officials said.

After months of internal debate over how to close the military facility in Cuba, White House officials are increasingly worried that reaching quick agreement with Congress on a new detention system may be impossible. Several officials said there is concern in the White House that the administration may not be able to close the prison by the president’s January deadline.

White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said that there is no executive order and that the administration has not decided whether to issue one. But one administration official suggested that the White House is already trying to build support for an order.

“Civil liberties groups have encouraged the administration, that if a prolonged detention system were to be sought, to do it through executive order,” the official said. Such an order could be rescinded and would not block later efforts to write legislation, but civil liberties groups generally oppose long-term detention, arguing that detainees should be prosecuted or released.

The Justice Department has declined to comment on the prospects for a long-term detention system while internal reviews of Guantanamo detainees’ cases are underway. One task force, which is assessing detainee policy, is expected to complete its work by July 21.

In a May speech, President Obama broached the need for a system of long-term detention and suggested that it would include congressional and judicial oversight. “We must recognize that these detention policies cannot be unbounded. They can’t be based simply on what I or the executive branch decide alone,” he said.

Shall we start calling him President George W. Obama? It sure sounds like it. When the Conservatives AND Liberals are calling this plan a disaster; something is dreadfully wrong.

Should be interesting to follow.

As always Memeorandum has the round up.

The Southern Avenger Says "Obama and Cheney Make Us Less Safe"

In the ongoing debate between President Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney on torture, former CIA terrorism expert Michael Scheuer points out how both leaders’ refusal to address U.S. interventionism as the primary catalyst for terrorism makes us all “less safe.”

The Southern Avenger’s Blog

The Southern Avenger @ Taki’s Magazine

Happy Memorial Day – Let us never forget

To some Memorial is just another day or to some it is a excuse to get out of work or cook on the grill.

To those of us, who have a deep and abiding respect for our Nation’s Military. This is a scared and hallowed day.

These cartoons are the best representative of this Holiday and the attitude that everyone should have.

The only commentary that I will add, is this picture here:

Terrorist plot to blow up Jewish Synagogues in the Bronx thwarted

This news broke last night, but I was not in any mood to write about it.

Video Report, showing NY’s Mayor Bloomberg:

Four men were arrested Wednesday night in what the authorities said was a plot to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y.

The men, all of whom live in Newburgh, about 60 miles north of New York City, were arrested around 9 p.m. after planting what they believed to be bombs in cars outside the Riverdale Temple and the nearby Riverdale Jewish Center, officials said. But the men did not know the bombs, obtained with the help of an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, were fake.

The arrests capped what officials described as a “painstaking investigation” that began in June 2008 involving an F.B.I. agent who had been told by a federal informant of the men’s desire to attack targets in America. As part of the plot, the men intended to fire Stinger missiles at military aircraft at the base, which is at Stewart International Airport, officials said.

“This latest attempt to attack our freedoms shows that the homeland security threats against New York City are sadly all too real and underscores why we must remain vigilant in our efforts to prevent terrorism,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in a statement. The mayor was expected to appear at 6:45 a.m. Thursday at the Riverdale Jewish Center morning services, joined by Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly.

The charges against the four men represent some of the most significant allegations of domestic terrorism in some time, and come months into a new presidential administration, as President Obama grapples with the question of how to handle detainees at the Guantánamo Bay camp in Cuba.

Rabbi Jonathan I. Rosenblatt, the senior rabbi at the Riverdale Jewish Center, a modern Orthodox congregation, said the police informed him on Wednesday evening that his synagogue was a target of the plot, as well as the Riverdale Temple, a Reform synagogue that is a short distance away, on Independence Avenue. The two buildings are about six blocks apart, each with a brick facade. Outside the synagogues on Wednesday night, the streets were eerily quiet.

Rabbi Rosenblatt said in a phone interview that he took the news with “shock, surprise — a sense of disbelief that something which is supposed to belong to the world of front pages and the evening news had invaded the quiet world of our synagogue.”

via 4 Accused of Bombing Plot at Bronx Synagogues – NYTimes.com.

Of course, the Neo-Conservative Blogs are all over this one. A couple of things to point out:

  1. There’s no proof at all, that these guys were connected to any sort of formal terrorist group
  2. They never were able to obtain any sort of real weapons

So, what we have here is a group of wanna-be’s who got caught. This is what, the second time? The first was the much hyped Fort Dix plot; which turned out to be a great deal of nothing. I am sure that the Conservative media and blogs are going to hype this for all it is worth. The liberal-controlled media; hopefully, will take a more reasoned approach to the situation and report the facts, and shy away from the hype.

Do not misunderstand me here. I personally believe that the war on terrorism, as George W. Bush rightfully called it, is quite real. However, I have a hard time believing that this group of bumbling idiots were a part of it formally. If anything, these guys were a group of morons who could not even make a pipe bomb; much less a damn bomb capable of causing any sort of real damage.

As to why they did it. These guys were upset about our involvement in Afghanistan. We can expect to see this sort of a thing, as that War progresses. Now the idiots on the far liberal left will try and say that this is why we should leave Afghanistan. Which any sane, rational person knows is foolish. We should not leave until Osama and his henchmen are dead and Al-Qaeda is formally defeated. Some say this is impossible. I believe nothing is impossible, if it is done correctly. The far left likes to bring up that Russia tried to fight a war in this region and ended up pulling out. I say; apples and oranges. Different kind of a war, and the Russians did not have nearly the Military that we have and the technology that we have today.

The good thing about all this is, that this terrorist cell was broken up and these idiots are going to jail. Thanks to the fine work of our men at the F.B.I. Good show guys, keep up the good work.

Update: …and then there’s the Libertarian conspiracy theorist angle. No wonder the Republicans think that most libertarians are kooks.

The Southern Avenger says "Partisans Make Us Less Safe"

How support for both “financial security” and “national security” reveal partisan hypocrisy and make us less safe.

The Southern Avenger on "Ron Paul Republicans"

While the GOP establishment continues to debate how the party lost its way, Republicans should consider the best path out of the wilderness – by following the one man who has always remained loyal to his party’s conservative roots.

The Southern Avenger’s Blog

The Southern Avenger @ Taki’s Magazine

President Obama decides not to release prison abuse photos, Left is not happy

I figure if I am going to keep some sort of readership here; that I should try to post at least one blog posting a day. Sorry for the lapse in posts. I just haven’t been much in the mood. Plus, I was playing a little Ham Radio, and then I discovered my rig has an issue, one that I thought was fixed, and it turns out, either it didn’t fix the problem or the rig needs a tweaking. It sucks, but eh, such is life; I guess.

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It seems that President Obama has basically stood up to his base and decided that the photos that were taken during some of the prison abuse that went on in Afghanistan and Iraq, would not be released.

Jack Tapper at ABC NEWS has more:

President Obama defended his decision to fight the release of photos showing detainee abuse Wednesday afternoon, saying it would only put American troops in harms way and create a backlash against Americans.

“The most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger,” the president said before departing on his trip to Arizona. “Moreover, I fear the publication of these photos may only have a chilling effect on future investigations of detainee abuse.”

The move is a complete 180. In a letter from the Justice Department to a federal judge on April 23, the Obama administration announced that the Pentagon would turn over 44 photographs showing detainee abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq during the Bush administration.

But in a letter sent this afternoon to the District Court Judge in the case, Alvin Hellerstein of the US District Court in the Southern District of New York, acting US Attorney Lev Dassin, writes that while his previous April 23 letter informed the court that the Obama administration had decided not to seek certiorari of the Second Circuit Court’s ruling to force the release of the photographs, his office had “been informed today that, upon further reflection at the highest levels of Government, the Government has decided to pursue further options regarding that decision, including but not limited to the option of seeking certiorari.”

The deadline for that decision is June 9.

The photographs are part of a 2003 Freedom of Information Act request by the ACLU for all information relating to the treatment of detainees — the same battle that led to President Obama’s decision to release memos from the Bush Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel providing legal justifications for brutal interrogation methods, many of which the International Committee of the Red Cross calls torture.

Of course there are some on the liberal left or see this as a direct betrayal of the promises made by the President during his campaign. Chris over at “The Fix” reports:

President Barack Obama’s reversal on the release of detainee photos has angered the liberal left, a perceived poke in the eye that has left some questioning Obama’s commitment to progressive policies.

In brief remarks before heading to Arizona to deliver a commencement speech at Arizona State University, Obama argued that “the publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals” and, in fact, the most likely effect would be “to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger.”

Liberals — particularly in the blogosphere — immediately expressed their displeasure with the decision.

“Since he’s been inaugurated, Barack Obama has demonstrated a remarkable desire to keep evidence of Bush crimes generally, and Bush’s torture regime specifically, concealed,” said Jane Hamsher, the founder of the Fire Dog Lake blog in an email exchange with the Fix. “Some of his supporters won’t care. But others believe he is betraying promises he made on the campaign trail about transparency, and there is a growing sense that he is becoming complicit in the crimes he is attempting desperately to shield from public scrutiny.”

On several liberal blogs, the reaction was similar.

Talking Points Memo is leading its site with the headline “Obama Admin Falls Back On Bushism: Abuse Pics’ Release Would Hurt Troops”.

On Daily Kos, Joan McCarter, a contributing editor to the site, described the move as “an unwelcome and probably futile policy reversal” by Obama; the post had already drawn more than 500 comments less than two hours since it was posted.

And Digby, another prominent liberal blogger, called White House press secretary Robert Gibbs’ explanation of why the Administration is reversing position as rising to “Fleischeresque levels of fatuousness”.

To be clear: it’s not immediately clear that liberals are abandoning the president in droves. Rather, as happens with almost every president, elements of the base are coming to grips with the idea that Obama may not be the liberal hero that people thought he was when he was first elected.

Of course, the greatest liberal organization of them all; the communist ran, funded, and supported ACLU is not happy about this either:

The Obama administration’s adoption of the stonewalling tactics and opaque policies of the Bush administration flies in the face of the president’s stated desire to restore the rule of law, to revive our moral standing in the world and to lead a transparent government. This decision is particularly disturbing given the Justice Department’s failure to initiate a criminal investigation of torture crimes under the Bush administration.

“It is true that these photos would be disturbing; the day we are no longer disturbed by such repugnant acts would be a sad one. In America, every fact and document gets known – whether now or years from now. And when these photos do see the light of day, the outrage will focus not only on the commission of torture by the Bush administration but on the Obama administration’s complicity in covering them up. Any outrage related to these photos should be due not to their release but to the very crimes depicted in them.

Of course, the ACLU does not care about the fact that this photos could cause grave danger to our Military officers serving in the war. Because they do not care about them! They hate the Military! All of the far left sees the Military as an extention of the empire of America, which all far left Communists hate with a passion.

Ed Morrissey weighs in on the reason why President Obama did this huge reversal:

What changed? The decision angered the military, which recalled the hysterics over the Abu Ghraib photos. Even Obama’s allies on the decision admitted that the release would damage security and put American troops in more danger, including John Kerry, who said they made great propaganda for our terrorist enemies. With the CIA already battling the White House after the release of the OLC memos, the last thing Obama needed was a war with the Pentagon.

Ed’s right on the money there. Because if you lose your intellegence agency and you lose your Military; you may as well hang it up as President. Obama knew this, the President is not stupid. The President will score some political capital with the right and with the independents, but he will lose it badly with the far left. I do not know, at this point, if it will cost him the election or not in 2012. But the short term will be a little rough. I expect to see a little push back from the far left. As to whether or not it will have any serious impact or not, remains to be seen.

I would suppose that the ACLU will take this to the SCOTUS, it will be quite interesting to see how this plays out and if the court agrees with Obama or not.