Aug 262009
 

We all remember Rathergate… about 2 months before the 2004 Bush/Kerry election, Dan Rather on 60 Minutes ran a hit piece about Bush’s military record, a piece that included documents that turned out to be obvious forgeries. These documents (“fake but accurate”) supposedly showed that Bush was a slacker who didn’t bother to do his job for the Texas Air National Guard, and implied that he was a draft dodger. Even though a relatively quick check of the documents by Just Some Guy online showed that they were fake, CBS (in particular, producer Mary Mapes, long an opponant of Bush) ran ’em anyway.
Well, there were other facts that CBS had that they didn’t run. Read the story here:

Mapes had information prior to the airing of the September 8 [2004] Segment that President Bush, while in the TexANG [Texas Air National Guard] did volunteer for service in Vietnam but was turned down in favor of more experienced pilots.  For example, a flight instructor who served in the TexANG with Lieutenant Bush advised Mapes in 1999 that Lieutenant Bush “did want to go to Vietnam but others went first.”  Similarly, several others advised Mapes in 1999, and again in 2004 before September 8, that Lieutenant Bush had volunteered to go to Vietnam but did not have enough flight hours to qualify.

Of course, Bush volunteering for service in Nam doesn’t fit the prescribed anti-Bush narrative, so it was left out.  But one of the bigger questions is… why didn’t Bush ever mention this? Well, there is a sad but obvious answer: one of Bush’s many flaws was that he just didn’t fight back against Leftist smears. While governor of Texas, he was able to get along well with the Democrats in the Texas legislature, and they were able to get along with him, because even though they were Dems, they were Texans. But on the national stage, party affiliation (either party) seems to mean far more than mere national best interest. And Bush…well, Bush was just too damned nice. Cheney, fortunately, is not.

 Posted by at 9:48 am
Aug 262009
 

As an update to this:

 http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20090825231941576

 Ariel Attack, a Denver-based anarchist, was arrested at 2:27am Tues, 24 here in Denver for allegedly smashing 11 windows of the Democratic Party headquaters at 777 Santa Fe Drive. … At this moment, we do not know Ariel’s status within the jail, especially regarding her gender classification. … Jail is a dangerous place for everyone, but especially trans people…

Transgendered anarchists. Oh, yeah, that just screams “Republican Neo-Con Conservative Racist Hatemonger,” dunnit.

<> A few links to additional bits of downright entertaining moonbattery can be found here, including links to “Queers Against Obama.” No. Really.

 Posted by at 12:42 am
Aug 262009
 

Shortly after The War, Boeing produced several designs for a swept-wing jet fighter under the Model 449 designation. Wing sweep included both aft and forward sweep, something that still has not made it onto a production fighter due to the severe torsion that such a wing is put under.

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 Posted by at 12:30 am
Aug 262009
 

If you want to understand someone, don;t just listen to what they say, pay attentiopn to what they’ve done, and who they’ve chosen toa ssociate themselves with. For example, if someone has spent the last thirty years attending weekly Klan rallies and playing dressup witha white sheet, be a tad skeptical if he claims to not be a racist. Similarly, if someone attned a whackjob racist/Marxist church for 20 years, don’t act all surprised if it turns out he’s a Marxist. And who someone chooses as advisors is *all* kinds of telling when it comes to what sort of policies that person wants to enact.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,542680,00.html

Van Jones, green jobs “czar” — admits he’s a communist

John Holdren, science “czar” — proposed “compulsory sterilization” and forced abortions to control population

Cass Sunstein, regulatory “czar” — proposed bans on hunting and eating meat and proposed that your dog to be allowed to have an attorney in court. And a fairness doctrine for the Internet, which he has since stepped away from

Carol Browner, global warming “czar” — was part of Socialist International, a group for “global governance”

Ezekiel Emmanuel, health care adviser — proponent of the Complete Lives System, which puts values on lives based mostly by age

And this:

Jeff Jones, one of the leaders of the Apollo Alliance, may or may not have ever advised the president — we don’t know because we can’t get the entrance records at the White House.

But we do know this: Jones’ organization, which he chairs in New York, had a lot to do with the stimulus bill — according to Harry Reid:

“This legislation is the first step in building a clean energy economy that creates jobs…. The Apollo Alliance has been an important factor in helping us develop and execute a strategy that makes great progress on these goals and in motivating the public to support them.”

Who is Jeff Jones? According to Wiki:

Jeff Jones, Bill Ayers, and Mark Rudd, all signatories to what came to be known as the Weatherman statement, constituted the organization’s new leadership group.

Jones worked throughout the rest of the summer following the convention to promote and organize a demonstration in Oct. 1969 to coincide with the Chicago Seven trial and the second anniversary of the death of Che Guevara.

Jones announced to the crowd the as yet stated target of their wrath, and the small army filed out of the park where they were staged and embarked on a violent rampage that came to be known as the Days of Rage. (The violence amounted to smashing windows, damaging cars, and clashes with police.)

Jones lived for over a year in San Francisco with fellow-fugitive Dohrn. In this time, at least one bombing claimed by Weatherman went off in their locale (Presidio Army base). Although the aforementioned bombing, nor any claimed by Weatherman, can be attributed to any one member of the group, Jones’ name is listed on a roster of issuers of communiqués that were customary before or after one of the organization’s major actions.

Fecking AWESOME. THESE scumbags are whom the President of the United States looks to for wisdom.
As that beacon of leftist though, Hugo Chavez, recently opined: “Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade Obama! Fidel, careful or we are going to end up to his right.”

 Posted by at 12:21 am
Aug 252009
 

Continuing the Rock Island Arsenal Museum photos.

On the right are variants of the Thompson submachine gun, while on the left are numerous assault weapon prototypes. #5823 near the bottom is one of the SPIW prototypes, which was to fire a combo of 40mm grenades and saboted flechette rounds. One of the things that killed the project was that the sabots were made out of fiberglass (why???), which were somewhat shredded after firing… and some of the glass shards would make their way back into the eyes of the shooter. *STOOOOPID.* There must’ve been *something* better than fiberglass.

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Some more oddball prototypes.

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 Posted by at 11:07 pm
Aug 252009
 

Today I gave Tak away to visitors who have been staying here for the past 2 weeks (you know who you are…). When they left, they took Tak with them, to travel across the continent. Tak has been a problem cat here, constantly fighting with Koshka and Raedthinn, while my visitors recently lost their cat of 18 years. So… a logical solution presented itself. It’s sad to see her go, but she’ll go to a home where she’ll be well cared for, and won’t have any other cats to beat up on.

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 Posted by at 11:01 pm
Aug 252009
 

Living as I do just a few miles from marshland, water birds are quite common here in the Utah desert. In particular the “Glossy Ibis,” which has recently been flapping around in large numbers. My new camera, coupled with a good telephoto lens, has allowed me to take some half-ass-decent photos of this critter.

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 Posted by at 10:56 pm
Aug 242009
 

Sitting outside, demanding to be fed. Photo taken through a glass door with a polarizing filter, which did a good job of knocking down – though not eliminating – reflection off the glass.

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 Posted by at 11:17 pm