Blog Tools
Edit your Blog
Build a Blog
View Profile
21 Apr, 14 > 27 Apr, 14
7 Apr, 14 > 13 Apr, 14
7 Dec, 09 > 13 Dec, 09
21 Sep, 09 > 27 Sep, 09
7 Sep, 09 > 13 Sep, 09
8 Dec, 08 > 14 Dec, 08
6 Oct, 08 > 12 Oct, 08
29 Sep, 08 > 5 Oct, 08
25 Aug, 08 > 31 Aug, 08
11 Aug, 08 > 17 Aug, 08
4 Aug, 08 > 10 Aug, 08
14 Jul, 08 > 20 Jul, 08
7 Jul, 08 > 13 Jul, 08
30 Jun, 08 > 6 Jul, 08
23 Jun, 08 > 29 Jun, 08
9 Jun, 08 > 15 Jun, 08
19 May, 08 > 25 May, 08
12 May, 08 > 18 May, 08
5 May, 08 > 11 May, 08
28 Apr, 08 > 4 May, 08
21 Apr, 08 > 27 Apr, 08
14 Apr, 08 > 20 Apr, 08
7 Apr, 08 > 13 Apr, 08
31 Mar, 08 > 6 Apr, 08
24 Mar, 08 > 30 Mar, 08
17 Mar, 08 > 23 Mar, 08
3 Mar, 08 > 9 Mar, 08
18 Feb, 08 > 24 Feb, 08
11 Feb, 08 > 17 Feb, 08
21 Jan, 08 > 27 Jan, 08
14 Jan, 08 > 20 Jan, 08
31 Dec, 07 > 6 Jan, 08
17 Dec, 07 > 23 Dec, 07
12 Nov, 07 > 18 Nov, 07
15 Oct, 07 > 21 Oct, 07
1 Oct, 07 > 7 Oct, 07
24 Sep, 07 > 30 Sep, 07
6 Aug, 07 > 12 Aug, 07
30 Jul, 07 > 5 Aug, 07
16 Jul, 07 > 22 Jul, 07
2 Jul, 07 > 8 Jul, 07
25 Jun, 07 > 1 Jul, 07
28 May, 07 > 3 Jun, 07
2 Apr, 07 > 8 Apr, 07
5 Mar, 07 > 11 Mar, 07
26 Feb, 07 > 4 Mar, 07
5 Feb, 07 > 11 Feb, 07
29 Jan, 07 > 4 Feb, 07
15 Jan, 07 > 21 Jan, 07
8 Jan, 07 > 14 Jan, 07
1 Jan, 07 > 7 Jan, 07
18 Dec, 06 > 24 Dec, 06
11 Dec, 06 > 17 Dec, 06
11 Sep, 06 > 17 Sep, 06
12 Jun, 06 > 18 Jun, 06
20 Feb, 06 > 26 Feb, 06
13 Feb, 06 > 19 Feb, 06
26 Sep, 05 > 2 Oct, 05
12 Sep, 05 > 18 Sep, 05
2 May, 05 > 8 May, 05
25 Apr, 05 > 1 May, 05
11 Apr, 05 > 17 Apr, 05
7 Mar, 05 > 13 Mar, 05
28 Feb, 05 > 6 Mar, 05
14 Feb, 05 > 20 Feb, 05
7 Feb, 05 > 13 Feb, 05
31 Jan, 05 > 6 Feb, 05
24 Jan, 05 > 30 Jan, 05
10 Jan, 05 > 16 Jan, 05
29 Nov, 04 > 5 Dec, 04
22 Nov, 04 > 28 Nov, 04
1 Nov, 04 > 7 Nov, 04
25 Oct, 04 > 31 Oct, 04
18 Oct, 04 > 24 Oct, 04
11 Oct, 04 > 17 Oct, 04
4 Oct, 04 > 10 Oct, 04
27 Sep, 04 > 3 Oct, 04
20 Sep, 04 > 26 Sep, 04
13 Sep, 04 > 19 Sep, 04
6 Sep, 04 > 12 Sep, 04
30 Aug, 04 > 5 Sep, 04
23 Aug, 04 > 29 Aug, 04
16 Aug, 04 > 22 Aug, 04
9 Aug, 04 > 15 Aug, 04
2 Aug, 04 > 8 Aug, 04
26 Jul, 04 > 1 Aug, 04
31 Dec, 01 > 6 Jan, 02
You are not logged in. Log in
Entries by Topic
All topics  «
...Those Who Will Not See
Adventures in Spam
America, the Beautiful
Antichristianity
CBS is 2/3 BS
CNN - Breaking Bias
Dan's Rather Biased
Dead War Criminals
Democrat Thought Control
Democrat Violence
Democrat Voter Fraud
Dumb Ambassador Tricks
Dumb Bipartisan Tricks
Dumb campaign ads STINK
Dumb Congressional Tricks
Dumb In-Law Tricks
Dumb Press Tricks
Good News for Once
HOW LAME IS THIS?
Hypocrites In The NEWS!!!
Judges shouldn't make law
Kerry's Lies and Spin
Kerry=Chimp with an M-16?
Lehrer Fixes Debates
Martyred for Freedom
Master debating
minor chuckles....
No Truce with Terror!
Press Gets Reality Check
Stupid Party Tricks
Stupid PBS Tricks
Take THAT, you...
Taking back our Culture
The Audacity of Obama
the Denver media and me
Trans: Headline --> Truth
Treason, Democrat style
Unintentional truths
Vote McCain - it matters
War Criminal Candidates
We'll remember....
WORLD WAR III
Without Anesthesia... where the evil Dr. Ugly S. Truth dissects PARTISAN deception and media slant the Old School Way.
Sunday, 13 April 2008
Barack Obama is a racist.
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Unintentional truths

What do we know?

http://www.startribune.com/nation/17591464.html

"At issue are comments he (Obama) made privately at a fundraiser in San Francisco last Sunday. He was trying to explain his troubles winning over some working-class voters, saying they have become frustrated with economic conditions:

"It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

The comments, posted Friday on The Huffington Post Web site, set off a blast of criticism from Clinton, Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain and other GOP officials, and drew attention to a potential Obama weakness — the image some have that the Harvard-trained lawyer is arrogant and aloof."

I think that Obama went way past "arrogant and aloof." 

Barack Obama is obviously so immersed in that famous racial experience he and his former pastor share that he is indulging in prejudice against people who are not like him.  He is a glib, slick, gladhanding racist.

This isn't as much about arrogance as it is about prejudice.  Obama is so blind to the concerns of "people in those small towns" (which is another way of saying "white people") that he discounts those concerns without having examined them.  

If people in Carmel, Indiana or Peoria, Illinois or Hershey, Pennsylvania, or Thibodaux, Louisiana or Sterling, Colorado don't agree with Obama on gun control (which, since the assault weapons ban elapsed several years back, has been demonstrated to be almost completely unnecessary), economic policy, faith or illegal immigration (which should concern people, considering that it IS a violation of Federal law that Obama's party is trying to help people commit), Obama doesn't need to revisit his ideas - oh, no, it's the fault of those ignorant, inbred crackers out in the sticks who don't even know the real reason they're upset. 

It's our fault.  We're just a bunch of ignorant redneck white trash. 

Back to the story: 

"His campaign scrambled to defuse possible damage.

There has been a small "political flare-up because I said something that everybody knows is true, which is that there are a whole bunch of folks in small towns in Pennsylvania, in towns right here in Indiana, in my hometown in Illinois, who are bitter," Obama said Saturday morning at a town hall-style meeting at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. "They are angry. They feel like they have been left behind. They feel like nobody is paying attention to what they're going through.

"So I said, well you know, when you're bitter you turn to what you can count on. So people, they vote about guns, or they take comfort from their faith and their family and their community. And they get mad about illegal immigrants who are coming over to this country." 

After acknowledging his previous remarks in California could have been better phrased, he added:

"The truth is that these traditions that are passed on from generation to generation, those are important. That's what sustains us. But what is absolutely true is that people don't feel like they are being listened to."

And another thing that is absolutely true is that people don't want to be told that they don't know what they're angry about when it's very clear:

- people are getting away with waltzing across our national border in direct violation of Federal law;

- once here, they steal the identities of American citizens, run up debts in their names, DON'T pay taxes, DO send their kids to school at public expense despite NOT paying taxes, murder, rob, rape and steal at much higher rates than people who are here legally;

- the people who ARE here legally are being deprived of their own legitimate rights, such as the right to keep and bear arms, the right to be secure in their possessions and property against greedy land developers who pay city councils off in order to run folks off of their land through abuse of eminent domain; 

- health care is unaffordable to a large part of the populace in great part because one of the largest supporters of the Democratic party, the trial lawyers of America, flood the courts with baseless law suits which are often paid off by hospitals, drug manufacturers and their insurance companies to avoid trials in which exorbitant awards could bankrupt health care providers whether they're guilty or innocent of any wrongdoing - and the cost is passed down to the rest of us, so many of us can't afford health care when we once could...

...the list goes on and on.  We know perfectly well why we're angry - the system is broken and Barack Obama's party had a large part in breaking it.  But it's easier to smugly explain all of that away by talking about bitter people in small towns than to confront the activists and wealthy supporters of one's own party in an election year.  

You can't win the Democratic Party's nomination to the Presidency by admitting that the Democratic Party has, by hook and by crook, sabotaged our own government - so sharp operators like Hillary Clinton and John Edwards could make fortunes by picking up the phone and cashing in favors, or by threatening to bankrupt your local hospital if their insurance company doesn't cough up a few million dollars, forty percent of which a sharp operator like Edwards can keep.  Easy money for the Democratic Party's powerful. 

That's why Hillary Clinton's attacks on Obama are so cynical and crooked - she plays exactly the same game he does - she just sugar-coats her quack medicine more palatably.

"Clinton attacked Obama's remarks much more harshly Saturday than she had the night before, calling them "demeaning." Her aides feel Obama has given them a big opening, pulling the spotlight away from troublesome stories such as former President Clinton's recent revisiting of his wife's misstatements about an airport landing in Bosnia 10 years ago.

Obama is trying to focus attention narrowly on his remarks, arguing there's no question that some working-class families are anxious and bitter. The Clinton campaign is parsing every word, focusing on what Obama said about religion, guns, immigration and trade.

Clinton hit all those themes in lengthy comments to manufacturing workers in Indianapolis.

"The people of faith I know don't 'cling' to religion because they're bitter. People embrace faith not because they are materially poor, but because they are spiritually rich," she said.

"I also disagree with Senator Obama's assertion that people in this country 'cling to guns' and have certain attitudes about immigration or trade simply out of frustration," Clinton added."

That's funny.  The wench never saw a gun control bill she didn't like before....

"People don't need a president who looks down on them," she said. "They need a president who stands up for them."

Exactly why neither Clinton nor Obama belongs in the White House.  They BOTH look down on us as ignorant sheep waiting to be sheared. 

"McCain's campaign piled on Obama, releasing a statement that also accused him of elitism."

Again, pot calling kettle black.  McCain has also played footsy with liberal elitists whenever he thought it would help him... remember "McCain-Feingold"?  The law that gave George Soros and his liberal pals a near-monopoly on access to political advertising in the 2004 election?

"One of Clinton's staunchest supporters, Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., acknowledged there was some truth in Obama's remarks. But he said Republicans would use them against him anyway."

Republicans?  REPUBLICANS?  Bayh (another elitist horse's ass from the Senate) seems oblivious to where 99 percent of the brick bats over Obama's little lapse into saying how he really feels are coming from - the other Democratic candidate.  Not the Republican party.  McCain has hardly said anything - doesn't need to, really.  Hillary's got that target saturated. 

"Political insiders differed on whether Obama's comments, which came to light Friday, would become a full-blown political disaster that could prompt party leaders to try to steer the nomination to Clinton even though Obama has more pledged delegates. Clinton supporters were eagerly hoping so.

They handed out "I'm not bitter" stickers in North Carolina, and held a conference call of Pennsylvania mayors to denounce the Illinois senator. In Indiana, Clinton did the work herself, telling plant workers in Indianapolis that Obama's comments were "elitist and out of touch."

No.  Obama's comments were accurate in that they tell us how the man really feels. 

He does NOT respect the people of America - at least the people who are not like him. 

Barack Obama is himself a patronizing bigot of the worst sort - the kind who believes he is uniquely qualified to run other people's lives for them. 

His remarks about "people in small towns" are very thinly disguised code for "people who don't look like me and who didn't go to an Ivy League school."

"Obama tried to quell the furor Saturday, explaining his remarks while also conceding he had chosen his words poorly.

"If I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that," Obama said in an interview with the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal."

Not "I'm sorry,' not "I shouldn't have said those stupid things," not "I was out of line and said things I had no business saying," but "I deeply regret that."

"I deeply regret that" is one of those things a politician says when he doesn't regret having done something one bit, but can't afford to admit it. 

Barack Obama has managed to be a sublimely arrogant racist and an insufferable snob at once.  And if the people of this country vote for him we deserve every minute of national agony we will endure afterwards.

Barack Obama is worse than Jimmy Carter because, unlike Carter, Obama is smart enough to really foul things up - like the precocious six-year old who knows how to pull the back cover of the color TV off. 

In a century when countries that can't maintain their own paved roads can purchase nuclear weapons, we don't need snotty, arrogant, bigoted pissants (or psychotic broads with major control issues) in charge.  

McCain may not be the best choice for the job, but he's the best man for the job in the current Presidential election.   In four years, maybe we can get Joe Lieberman to run. 

Until then, it's McCain or national disaster.


Posted by V.P. Frickey at 9:37 PM MDT
Updated: Sunday, 13 April 2008 10:05 PM MDT
Post Comment | Permalink
Saturday, 12 April 2008
Spy photos reveal 'secret launch site' for Iran's long-range missile

(as posted to Open Source Intelligence on yahoo.com by Dietmar Muehlboeck dmuehlboeck@gmx.net)

"Spy photos reveal 'secret launch site' for Iran's long-range missiles

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3724048.ece

The secret site where Iran is suspected of developing long-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching targets in Europe has been uncovered by new satellite photographs.

The imagery has pinpointed the facility from where the Iranians launched their Kavoshgar 1 “research rocket” on February 4, claiming that it was  in connection with their space programme.

Analysis of the photographs taken by the Digital Globe QuickBird satellite four days after the launch has revealed a number of intriguing  features that indicate to experts that it is the same site where Iran is focusing its efforts on developing a ballistic missile with a range of about 6,000km (4,000 miles).

A previously unknown missile location, the site, about 230km southeast of Tehran, and the link with Iran's long-range programme, was revealed by Jane's Intelligence Review after a study of the imagery by a former Iraq weapons inspector. A close examination of the photographs has indicated that the Iranians are following the same path as North Korea, pursuing a space programme that enables Tehran to acquire expertise in long-range missile technology.

Geoffrey Forden, a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that there was a recently constructed building on the site, about 40 metres in length, which was similar in form and size to the Taepodong long-range missile assembly facility in North Korea.

Avital Johanan, the editor of Jane's Proliferation, said that the analysis of the Iranian site indicated that Tehran may be about five years away from developing a 6,000km ballistic missile. This would tie in with American intelligence estimates and underlines why President Bush wants the Polish and Czech components of the US missile defence system to be up and running by 2013.

The Czech Republic has now agreed to have a special radar system on its soil and the Polish Government is still negotiating with Washington over the American request to site ten interceptor missiles in Poland.

The Kavoshgar 1 rocket that was launched in the presence of President Ahmadinejad of Iran was based on the Shahab 3B missile, a version of the North Korean Nodong liquid-propellant missile.

Dr Forden said that the Kavoshgar launch did not demonstrate any significant advances in ballistic missile technology. “But it does reveal the likely future development of Iran's missile programme,” he said.

At a meeting on February 25 between the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Iranians, UN inspectors confronted them with evidence of design studies for mounting nuclear warheads on long-range missiles. The Iranians denied any such aspirations.

However, according to Jane's Intelligence Review, the satellite photographs prove that the Kavoshgar 1 rocket was not part of a civilian space centre project but was consistent with Iran's clandestine programme to develop longer-range missiles.

The examination of the launch site revealed that it was part of a large and growing complex “with very high levels of security and recent construction activity”. It was clearly “an important strategic facility”, Dr Forden said.

The former Iraq weapons inspector said that Iran was benefiting from the North Korean missile programme and following its designs. The Taepodong 1 consisted of a liquid-propellant Nodong (like the Shahab 3) first stage, a liquid-propellant Scud second stage and solid-propellant third stage.

“The production and testing facility next to the Kavoshgar 1 launch site would seem well positioned to contribute to this third stage,” Dr Forden said."
 
No, the Iranian government doesn't pose a threat to other countries - unless you count three-stage ICBMs built with North Korean technology. 
 
But I'm sure that given enough notice, they could hide all traces of this weapons program in time for the UN to give them a clean bill of health. 

Posted by V.P. Frickey at 1:18 PM MDT
Updated: Saturday, 12 April 2008 1:24 PM MDT
Post Comment | Permalink
Wednesday, 9 April 2008
You may be a Taliban if....
Mood:  mischievious
Topic: minor chuckles....

Tip of the hat to "obanish" on the Time/CNN Web site, who contributed this: 

"With apologies to Jeff Foxworthy, US troops in Afghanistan prove they've retained their sense of humor with the following,

"YOU MAY BE A TALIBAN IF......"

1. You refine heroin for a living, but you have a moral objection to beer.

2. You own a $3,000 machine gun and $5,000 rocket launcher, but you can't afford shoes.

3. You have more wives than teeth.

4. You wipe your rear with your bare left hand, but consider bacon "unclean."

5. You think vests come in two styles: Bullet-proof and suicide.

6. You can't think of anyone you HAVEN'T declared Jihad against.

7. You consider television dangerous, but routinely carry explosives in your clothing.

8. You were amazed to discover that cell phones have uses other than setting off roadside bombs.

9. You have ever uttered the phrase, "I love what you've done with your cave."

10. You have nothing against women and think every man should own at least one.

11. You bathe at least monthly whether necessary or not.

12. You have ever had a crush on your neighbor's goat."


Posted by V.P. Frickey at 10:15 AM MDT
Post Comment | Permalink
Monday, 31 March 2008
Churchill didn't like them, either
Topic: No Truce with Terror!

We are used to thinking of the danger posed by Islam as something new, as worldwide, Muslims are threatening to slaughter and burn if a fifteen minute-long film that simply contrasts what Islam says with what Islam does is broadcast.

But that's not true.  If anything, the changes are almost entirely due to oil money and airline travel from the Middle East.

Read an English politician's thoughts from 109 years ago:

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries.  Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.
A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.
No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome."

Winston S. Churchill, from The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899)

Yes, the same Winston Spencer Churchill who led Great Britain to victory over Hitler in the Second World War.  Somehow, I don't think that this guy cared about oil or the state of Israel (which was still some fifty years from being established when he wrote the words I quoted).

No, Churchill had simply been there, and was in a position to know what he was talking about.  And now we're in a position where we have to watch what we say, or the big bad Muslims will take out another skyscraper or murder thousands of their own fellow citizens in riots whipped up by fanatic morons with towels on their heads.

It's unreasonable to run our lives to suit a bunch of fanatical fools across the world.   We should offer them a simple solution - don't threaten us or send any more terrorists and we won't turn your countries into massive molten glass ashtrays.   No more boots on the ground, just Minuteman III ICBMs arcing over the planet to where they will do the most good.

It's time to stop pretending we don't know who pulls the strings on the murderers.  Cut the strings and a lot of the trouble will stop, because we will have set the price for attacking our people too high for anyone to want to pay.  If these people want to live in the Seventh Century so badly, we can send them back there about an hour after the President sends the orders.  It's time.


Posted by V.P. Frickey at 2:35 AM MDT
Updated: Monday, 31 March 2008 2:47 AM MDT
Post Comment | Permalink
Wednesday, 26 March 2008

A not-quite perfect copy of a Mississippi ID card which an illegal alien was found with...  
 
Who says we need "Real ID"?  
 
Heck, people can just roll their own, these days... saves all that waiting around at the DMV. 
 

  

UNDOCUMENTED GUEST TIP # 12  
 
When making a fake ID, attach a picture of yourself only... 

 

 
 

Posted by V.P. Frickey at 4:57 AM MDT
Updated: Wednesday, 26 March 2008 5:07 AM MDT
Post Comment | Permalink
H-1B visas during a RECESSION? WHY?
Topic: HOW LAME IS THIS?

Nearly HALF of all illegal aliens in the United States entered legally at first with a visa.

As dumb as it seems, though, certain members of Congress are rushing to expand the H-1B visa program, which imports foreign workers to take American jobs, many of whom overstay their visas and become illegal aliens.

Apparently the Software Business Association's been spending some major folding money on the Hill in one way or another, because expansion of the H-1B visa program makes no sense when American workers are staring right down the barrels of a recession.  Does it?

Some of the culprits?  (Click on their names to get information on how to show them the error of their ways, please!)


Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz) has introduced the Innovation Employment Act (H.R. 5630), which would DOUBLE the current H-1B visa cap to 130,000 per fiscal year. H.R. 5630 would further raise the cap to 180,000, for five years beginning in 2010, if the 130,000 cap is reached during the 2009 fiscal year.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) has introduced the Strengthening United States Technology and Innovation Act (H.R. 5642), which would TRIPLE the current H-1B visa cap to 195,000 in 2008 and 2009.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) is calling for a bill that would make Rep. Smith's increases permanent.

House Chief Deputy Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) recently made the erroneous statement that H-1B visas are "not tied up to the larger issue of illegal immigration" (when half of illegal aliens are here now on expired or otherwise invalid visas).

Representatives Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) and Michael McCaul (R-Texas) have introduced a bill that would practically staple a green card to the diploma of every foreign student who gets their Ph.D. from an American University.

These people can stick whatever name they like on their bills, but "strengthening United States Technology and Innovation" by opening the flood gates to unemployed foreign workers while Americans qualified and "overqualified" for the same jobs are unemployed is a strange way to go about the process.

It strikes me as more honest to force the authors and/or sponsors of these bills to label them honestly

- "The Taking Jobs Away From Taxpaying American Technology Workers Act" would be a fine description for any of them, as would

- the "Importing Sudden Jihad Syndrome Sufferers Bill." 

It's no stretch to see that when the big spenders in Silicon Valley bring in their hundreds of thousands of information workers from Pakistan and points further out in Radical Islam-land, their catch will include folks who identify intensely with Al-Qaeda and other Islamic radical organizations.

Even if they refrain from terror acts themselves (the Sudden Jihad Syndrome), too many will send money home to fund terror schools and increase the danger to our homeland.

We have all the technology workers America needs - they just can't be underpaid and bullied around the way that visa holders can by their sponsors.  Bringing in workers from overseas during a recession is both stupid and immoral.   It just makes no sense.


Posted by V.P. Frickey at 2:30 AM MDT
Updated: Wednesday, 26 March 2008 3:03 AM MDT
Post Comment | Permalink
Sunday, 23 March 2008
The real story about Armand Luke Frickey and the Gaiennies
I couldn't afford to get my son Luke - Sergeant Armand Luke Frickey, who died in Iraq this January when the Bradley in which he and eight other people were patrolling in was blown up - much when he was alive, but I can at least speak the truth for him now that he has gone.

Despite the fact that Luke's grandparents - my wife's parents - in Houma had called the press without even consulting my son's widow and started giving interviews about how close they were to him, the truth is a little different.

My wife's parents had had some very bad things to say about my son and his wife in the twelve months before he died. If my experience (from when Bud and Peggy were angry with my wife and me for daring to move away from Houma so I could go to college in north Louisiana) is any guide, they said these bad things to anyone who would sit still long enough.

Because of this, my son and daughter-in-law really didn't want to hang out with the Gaiennies in the year or so before he went to Iraq and died.

The last time that he and Nikki went to see them, it was at a party held at my wife's parents' home for the cousins, etc., who were going to Iraq. Luke really didn't want to go. My wife's parents exerted a LOT of emotional pressure on my wife to get Luke to go to that party, and that was probably the only reason he went.

I hated that Luke's grandparents used Denise like that, and it wasn't the first time they had used her like that by a long shot in our twenty-seven years of marriage.

When Luke and Nikki went - because his mother pleaded with him to go - Nikki stood off in a corner of the yard. Why? My guess is that the yard was full of people who had badmouthed her and relatives of people who had badmouthed her. Sounds like a good reason to me. I think she was using very good judgment.

My wife's father was STILL badmouthing Nikki over the wooden table set up in the driveway as he ate - I saw and heard him. I know from sad experience how cutting and patronizing Luke's grandparents and his uncle and aunt can be while smiling over a dinner table. I don't blame Luke or Nikki for not wanting to be there.

Luke mingled enough to be polite, but chose much of the time to be close to his wife - who he loved dearly, and with whom he would have very little time to visit before leaving for Iraq and dying not long after that. Because they were with each other and not gladhanding with a bunch of people who probably weren't all that fond of them, my wife's mother went over and argued with them both.

Soon afterwards, they left and my wife and I left not long after they did, to be with our son and daughter-in-law at their home. I consider the time spent at that party a callous theft of the few hours we had to visit with our son, by people who just didn't care about him or us all that much, but wanted to pretend everything was fine when it wasn't.

My wife's mother chose to send an Email to our son when he was in Iraq, full of self-pity and anger with Luke for not pretending at the party he only went to for his Mom's sake that all was well.

No thanks to him in that letter for going to that party at all despite all the nasty things that Bud and Peggy and their son Charles had had to say about Luke and his wife in the year before. No thanks to my son for going to war to defend their sorry asses from terrorists. Apparently the world was all about Peggy and her hurt feelings.

I felt that I had to write this to put the memorial service held for my son at Annunziata Catholic Church in Houma - an official memorial service had already been scheduled just before Luke's official Army funeral at the funeral home - in perspective.

If Luke had been alive, he wouldn't have gone there, because the service would have been one more lying pretense that all was well between him and my wife's parents and their circle of friends and relatives.

I didn't go there either. It just didn't feel right to do that to my son.

It didn't help that right after Denise and I had arrived in Houma to be at our son's funeral, my wife's mother called me up at my hotel to scream at me, demanding at the top of her lungs that we put a notice about that memorial service in Luke's obituary.

If I had had my wits about me - IF I HAD NOT BEEN TRAUMATIZED ABOUT MY SON HAVING BEEN KILLED AND DISFIGURED BADLY ENOUGH TO HAVE HAD A CLOSED CASKET FUNERAL - I'd have told her to go to Hell.

If only in death, my son deserved the dignity of not having people pretend - at what was supposed to be a memorial service for him - that he had warm feelings for Bud and Peggy Gaiennie and their son Charles.

At least I had enough respect for my son to not help perpetuate that sorry lie about him.

Posted by V.P. Frickey at 9:46 PM MDT
Post Comment | Permalink
Wednesday, 19 March 2008
The Democrats just keep missing the point... it's the national defense, stupid!
Topic: Stupid Party Tricks

Barack Obama's "race speech," in which he carefully used the words "former pastor" to put distance between him and a clergyman who was revealed on video as a racist hatemonger and conspiracy theorist, misses the real point.  Race isn't the issue unless, like Rev. Wright and people of all races who think like him, you just want it to be the issue.

It's possible to cut to the end of Obama's "race" speech and get the idea that Senator Obama tries to get across.  And he did a good job: 

"We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words.

"We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

"We can do that. But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction, and then another one, and then another one. And nothing will change.

"That is one option.

"Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, 'Not this time.' "

And vote for John McCain. 

It's the only choice that comes even close to making sense, given the issues we face as a nation here and abroad.

It's important to be able to win a world war if one happens in the next eight years - and it looks as though we're looking at fighting one.   It's important to define a strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan that makes sense - not just cutting and running, or doing more of the same thing we've been doing since 2003.  As the father of a young man who died in Iraq in 2005 at the hands of a coward wielding a remote-control roadside bomb, I know this as well as anyone who hasn't actually gone over there in uniform and fought.

We also need someone in the Presidency strong and confident enough to represent us abroad against some very clever and dangerous people.   No more George W. Bush or Al Gore searching in vain for honesty in the eyes of the new dictator of Russia.  We need someone who's familiar with all of the tools we have or need to get in order to protect us against someone who's been busy for years selling nuclear weapons technology to the terrorists running Iran.  Someone, preferably, who's served his country in wartime, in uniform.

And even if you grant every positive thing that's been said of Barack Obama as being true, you can't say that he has any experience at all in national defense.   In the Senate, Obama formed a subcommittee on defense matters and never attended a meeting.   Not one.   When you can't be bothered to show up for meetings of a subcommittee you supposedly lead, it says something bad.

This goes beyond just not being knowledgeable on national defense - the only correct word is neglectful.  Obama's had a chance to show how really involved he has been with national defense issues - and failed miserably.

The only thing this guy Obama really does well is give motivational speeches.   We need more than that from our next President.

In the Urban Dictionary, there are many "definitions" for "Barack Obama," but the closest thing to a good single sentence portrait of him compares him to Jimmy Carter.  Carter, like Obama, had the ability to convince folks of his absolute sincerity.   I'll go farther and say Carter WAS sincere - and it still wasn't enough.

And after four years of Carter nearly losing the Cold War, we finally gave in and voted for an old Republican warhorse.  Why don't we avoid the four-year wait this time?  We can't afford another four-year episode of the doldrums while Russia goes hog-wild invading her neighbors or arming the Osama bin Ladens of the world.


Posted by V.P. Frickey at 7:56 AM MDT
Updated: Wednesday, 26 March 2008 2:37 AM MDT
Post Comment | Permalink
Friday, 14 March 2008
Obama's Pastor - "God Damn America!"
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: HOW LAME IS THIS?

ABC News's surprising report on Barack Obama's pastor - his spiritual guide for 20 years - reveals this clergyman to be a racist and a traitor to the very country Obama says he wants to run.

I'm just naïve enough to believe that racism is racism.  If you say "God Damn America" and rant on and on about how much you hate one particular ethnic group, you're a racist and a traitor.  Your skin color shouldn't give you a permit to engage in racist behavior without being exposed for your treachery toward your fellow Americans.  That goes double for someone who is absurd enough to blame the United States of America for the mass murders of 9/11/2001.

That describes Barack Obama's spiritual director in a nutshell.  It also raises dire questions about the fitness of the man receiving this spiritual direction to be President of the United States.

Reverse the situation.  Let's say that Fred Thompson or John McCain were found to be attending a church whose pastor was dispensing inflammatory hate rhetoric, and saying that the faithful should be saying "God Damn America" - just as Barack Obama's pastor does.

Would there even have to be a discussion about whether or not the politician concerned had forfeited his right to even be considered as a candidate for the highest office in the land?   Wouldn't the liberal press yell for the blood of the candidate foolish enough to have this man as a trusted spiritual guide?

But so far, it's just been ABC News who has had the courage to run with this story.  I've noticed sporadic signs of a backbone in that news organization - ABC sometimes reports the news even when it makes the Left look like the hypocrites that they are.  I doubt it'll last long, but it's nice to see. 


Posted by V.P. Frickey at 11:17 AM MDT
Updated: Friday, 14 March 2008 11:22 AM MDT
Post Comment | Permalink
Wednesday, 5 March 2008
Hillary Ready To Run White House From Behind Scenes Again
Mood:  mischievious
Topic: Trans: Headline --> Truth
WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton scored three victories in a night of revival that denied Barack Hussein Obama (if we have to call Mrs. Clinton by all three names, we have to do it to all the Democratic contenders... if we're going for consistency) a ripe opportunity to drive her from the Democratic presidential race.  Clarity came only to Sen. Clinton after she realized that she would only lose an all-out November 2008 slug-fest as women across America decided that John McCain was less threatening and voted the opposite of how they poll.

So, Clinton, fresh off big primary victories, hinted Wednesday at the possibility of sharing the Democratic presidential ticket with Obama — with her at the vice-presidential spot.  Obama, realizing that after he was sworn in, Mrs. Clinton really would be a heartbeat away from the Presidency, is still trying to get Edwards or Kucinich to go for it.

In a night that failed to clarify the Democratic race, McCain clinched the Republican nomination despite being denounced by every knowledgeable conservative pundit.  Meanwhile, McCain's large cashier's check to the editor of the New York Times has cleared.  Said editor's negotiations for title to the island of Bermuda are now in progress, the British royal family holding out for a pay-off of Prince Edward's air travel bill for the last year.

Clinton won primaries in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island, halting Obama's winning streak at "having whupped her ass good already."  

Both Democrats insisted on Wednesday they had the best credentials to go head to head — or as Clinton put it, "tool to tool" — against McCain.

Asked on CBS's "The Early Show" whether she and Obama should be on the same ticket, Clinton said: "That may be where this is headed, but of course we have to decide who is on top. I think the people of the United States have very clearly said that the resulting metaphor was far too distasteful to contemplate."

 NOTE:  THIS IS A PARODY OF AN MSNBC REPORT.  WE FIND THE PARODY, ON THE WHOLE, SLIGHTLY MORE PLAUSIBLE.


Posted by V.P. Frickey at 3:41 PM MST
Updated: Wednesday, 5 March 2008 5:37 PM MST
Post Comment | Permalink

Newer | Latest | Older