They Can Cut Your Head Off While You’re Still Alive and Mutilate Small Children

…but God FORBID you tinkle on their scum encrusted beards.

Someone at HQMC finally woke up.

Marine Corps retreats on court-martial charges in Taliban urination case

The Marine Corps has suddenly dropped criminal charges against an officer in the infamous Taliban urination video case, heading off what promised to be an embarrassing pre-trial hearing for the commandant on Wednesday.

Defense attorneys for Capt. James V. Clement had won a judge’s order, over objections from Marine prosecutors, for two staff attorneys to testify in open court about how senior commanders had interfered in the case to get a guilty verdict.

The lawyers also were seeking to question Gen. James Amos, the commandant, and wanted access to his private emails.

But the criminal case ended Friday when Lt. Gen. Kenneth J. Glueck, who heads Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va., and was overseeing the prosecution, filed a brief court paper withdrawing the charges.

John Dowd, Capt. Clement’s principal defense counsel, had accused the commandant of engineering the largest case of unlawful command influence in the Corps’ history.

“The withdrawal of the charges was another act of cowardice by the the commandant, his counsel and the the Judge Advocate Division of [Marine Corps headquarters] to cover up the worst case of unlawful command influence in the history of the Marine Corps, which was beginning next Wednesday to be uncovered in a hearing before the Chief Judge … on several motions to compel discovery,” Mr. Dowd said Saturday.

The defense attorney said he wanted to see email traffic between the commandant, his counsel and his legal division.

“That email traffic would have revealed that [the commandant] and his lawyers had engaged in a secret, corrupt effort to rig and control the investigations and dispositions of the so-called desecration cases until Capt. Clement refused to submit to a corrupt process [of being] charged with crimes he did not commit,” he said.

Capt. Clement’s defense counsel obtained a sworn statement from Lt. Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, who had been overseeing all urination cases as the convening authority.

He told of a one-on-one meeting in 2012 with Gen. Amos in which the commandant said he wanted Marine defendants “crushed” via courts-martial.

The moron Marines involved drew “harsh criticism from the White House” when their video (geniuses) went viral.

The WORST they should have gotten was a Page 11 ~ basically a peepee whacking line in their Service Record Book. NEVER should it have been a Courts Martial offense, especially IMHO, considering WHO they were pissing on.

Anybody who equates being in the military to a civilian job should take a moment and eyeball the military “justice” system. You don’t sign away your rights to work at McDonald’s and you can walk out the front door any time you want if the boss has it out for you ~ even if you pissed in the fries.

Despicable.

Obama Administration “EXPERTS”

…get ready to start World War III (or at least kill more women and children), and ALL based on irrefutable evidence like…what exactly?

…Much of the U.S. claim that Assad is responsible was initially based on reports from witnesses, non-governmental groups and hours of YouTube videos.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t a “VIDEO” responsible ~ at least for a while ~ for #Benghazi, too?

The fate of the world hangs on YouTube watching morons.

We’re boned.

Tim and ALL Our Friends in Australia

…are FREE AT LAST!!!

Have a quaff on THEM.

As In-State Rivalries Go

…DAMN if it doesn’t help to have Marc Caputo rooting for YOUR team:

Opinion: While Florida Gators fans are arrogant, Miami Hurricanes own series record

Unlike the fake genteel Southern charm emanating from Gainesville, UM fans are cosmopolitans. And oh by the way, we do own the series record.

What do you call the Gator fan section at Saturday’s UM-UF game?

A full set of teeth.

OK, that was low. But brace yourself nonetheless, Miami: They’re coming. So break out the earplugs to shut out the banjo music. Pinch your nose to block the stench of the moonshine.

Everything South Florida hates about the Sunshine State’s hinterlands will wear orange and blue and worship the dumbest and meanest of graven-image reptiles at Sun Life Stadium.

Unlike the simple gator of the swamp, though, the Gators of The Swamp are actually complex creatures, walking contradictions. Gators carry themselves like cosmopolitans, replete with a sense of entitlement and an affectation of Southern noblesse oblige entirely out of proportion to the charmless burg of Gainesville.

Make no mistake: Gators are more Honey Boo Boo than Scarlett O’Hara.

It’s a blisterin’.

“You Can’t Hide Those Millions of People Forever”

Rick’s talking about an unemployment rate that only goes DOWN because people drop OUT, not because they, like, get jobs or anything productive.

Oh, how’s about a little WAR!

Anybody? ?

Smart Power!

Oh good god. I know I just promised myself that I would not write about Syria today but this is, well, simply so typical of the frankly stupid incompetent morons we have in DC to ignore

It all happened in an exchange with Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., during which Hagel said it’s no secret that the Assad regime has significant stockpiles of chemical weapons.

When Wilson asked where they’d come from, Hagel said, “Well, the Russians supply them. Others are supplying them with those chemical weapons. They make some themselves.”

Our Secretary of Defense, testifying to Congress, accuses the Russians of supplying Syria with chemical weapons.

As Ed at HotAir writes:

This is one of the two Cabinet members sent to Congress to reassure Capitol Hill that the Obama administration knows what it’s doing on Syria, the other being John “Bombing Another Country Isn’t Really War-War” Kerry.

How can any, ANY, Member of Congress vote for this Sicilian Expedition is beyond me.

The Parking Spot: Update

As you may recall I had a rather unfortunate incident at the Parking Spot a few weeks back:

As you know I was out of town for most of the week. I really didn’t feel like paying the $30+ per day to park at Newark, and I didn’t want my Bride to come and pick me up late Thursday night when I got home (especially if there were delays) so I decided to give The Parking Spot right across from EWR a try. They’re right there, cost only $9/day, and

As the leading near-airport parking company in the nation, The Parking Spot provides full service parking to 21 major airports in the U.S., with a total of 33 parking lots. When you reserve a space with The Parking Spot, you can expect more than cheap airport parking. You’re getting a superior airport parking experience. Our lots are spacious, fully-fenced, well lit, and open 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We offer: friendly shuttles every 5-7 minutes, earn free parking with The Spot Club, luggage assistance, complimentary newspaper & chilled bottled water.

What’s not to love? I’ve seen their vans zipping about the airport all the time, so I figured what the hey.

Well, you can get the measure of a company (and of people) not by how they do things right when things are running smoothly (heck that’s the easy stuff; as Jane Austen wrote “Everything nourishes that which is strong already.”) but rather by how they perform and act when things go really, really, reeeeeeally wrong.

I parked my car there on Monday afternoon. I had reserved a spot, pulled into the secure gated drop-off area, left the keys with the attendant and was soon on the shuttle bus; ten minutes later at most I was in the terminal and preparing to expose my inner-most secrets to TSA. So far so good.

Fast-forward to Thursday, sitting in the Las Vegas airport creatively whiling away the time while my flight was delayed 3 hours, making my eta back to Newark now 1am instead of 10pm, so I was glad I hadn’t drafted my poor Bride to come pick me up. She’d get to sleep!

So after a reasonably uneventful 5 hour flight we land around 1-ish, I walk off the plane and call them to send the minibus around. It shows up very quickly (yay!) and me and a couple of other folks hop aboard for the short drive to the lot. The nice fellow driving helps them with their luggage when we get there and the cars are all lined up and off they go.

Except me.

My car’s not there.

The manager comes up to me and very apologetically says to me “Oh Mr. Bingley, I’ve been waiting for you. I’m sorry your flight was so delayed, but um, well we seem to have lost your keys.”

Exsqueeze me?

You know, I’m a little tired and not focused terribly clearly here at this late/early hour, why by gum I almost thought I heard you just say you’ve LOST. MY. KEYS. ?!?!?!?!

My car keys, which also had my house keys and several other keys, as well as the all-important key id tags for various beer and wine clubs I belong to. Oh and the gym tag (what, you think this body was sculpted for free?).

Now I guess some folks would react to this sort of thing rather violently or emotionally but that’s really not my style; the deed was done, the milk was spilled and the coop had collapsed on the chickens. The big question, the only question that mattered was what do we do now.

The manager explained their system for tracking the keys (which is, after all, the core of their business) and, well, they knew which employee screwed up. In a nutshell, the keys are scanned in and out every time they are touched to move a car and this fellow simply grabbed a couple sets of keys to “save time” and dropped mine somewhere (in another car, on the ground) after he moved mine. As they say in The Hobbit “short cuts lead to long delays.” In this case my delay. The manager again was very polite and apologetic and offered to rent a car for me to get home or to have someone drive me home and I could come up the next day…strike that, later the same day because it was now 1:30am on Friday and get the car. I said no, drive me home, I will get my spare keys and come back with your employee and get my car now, I didn’t want to wait and who knows, if the gods were smiling perhaps the keys were dropped in my car and not someone else’s and are now god-knows-where.

So my poor Bride (so much for sleep!) gets a phone call from me at 1:30 (which is an hour when everyone just loves to have the phone ring) and I ask her to put the spare car key outside and leave the door open as I have no house keys now. We drive 45 minutes from the airport to Chez Bingley, I run in, drop off my bag, pick up the keys and run back out. Then 45 minutes back to the airport. The fellow who gave me a ride was a very nice fellow, btw.

Get there, open up the car, the manager and everyone is crossing their fingers that my original keys are in the car. Nope. Damn.

Now life has just gotten a lot more complicated and expensive. I talk to the manager and tell him that I am going to have to spend the next day getting new car keys and all the locks on the house changed and that I expect them to pay for it. He says “of course” and gives me the contact information for his supervisors and apologizes again. I get in and drive home, getting there at 3:30. Yay me.

After a few hours of sleep I get up and head out, going first to the locksmith to arrange for new locks (they came Saturday and installed them) and then to the dealership to get a new key and fob for the car (I sat there for an hour or so as they made/programmed them). During the day I got phone calls and emails from various managers at the Parking Spot assuring me that they would cover the charges and apologizing again for what happened. I will repeat again: every Parking Spot employee I had contact with was courteous and polite and promised to make it right (as much as they could).

So we shall see: tomorrow I’m emailing them the receipts for the roughly $700 I had to spend (I didn’t charge them for my time, but I’m giving that way) and their words will be put to the test. Key control is the core of their business and they messed it up. It happens occasionally and unfortunately this number came up for me last week and not Powerball. Based on all my interactions with them over the past few days I fully expect them to honor their commitments to me and I will keep y’all informed on how it goes.

Quite honestly, assuming they send me the check reasonably quickly I wouldn’t hesitate to use them again. Oh sure I’ll joke about it and annoy their employees by saying “now don’t lose my keys this time!” when I drop the car off but losing my keys aside they do a great job. Now I know that sounds kind of like saying “well aside from that, how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?” but seriously: they’re polite, inexpensive (in theory…) and close to the airport.

So the ball is in their court.

Stay tuned.

Well I am very happy to report that a few days ago I received a check from them for the full amount, so Huzzah for them and, as I said, I will use them again in the future.

Only this time I will not give them all of my keys.

Again, Well Done Parking Spot.

(yes, I probably didn’t need to reprint everything here but by gum I am so sick of writing about this Syria disaster that I wanted some cheap-n-easy filler)

(and a drink)

Guess Who The AP Is Relying Upon For Its Syria Photos?

Upon which Obama is taking us to war?

“Shaam News Network”

You just can’t make this shit up.

No Wonder 100+ Cars Crashed

Crazy buggers are all driving on the wrong side of the road.

These Damn Hashtags ALWAYS Happen Right Before Bed

I’m sure I could do better in the light of day…

#JohnKerryWarMovies I Thought Assad A Puddy Tat

— tree hugging sister (@treehuggingsis) September 5, 2013

#JohnKerryWarMovies Charge of the Lightweight Brigade

— tree hugging sister (@treehuggingsis) September 5, 2013

#JohnKerryWarMovies The Frozen Might Have Chosen

— tree hugging sister (@treehuggingsis) September 5, 2013

#JohnKerryWarMovies The Guns of Nevermind

— tree hugging sister (@treehuggingsis) September 5, 2013

#JohnKerryWarMovies Rice Capades

— tree hugging sister (@treehuggingsis) September 5, 2013

#JohnKerryWarMovies White Blunderer, Purple Heart

— tree hugging sister (@treehuggingsis) September 5, 2013

For Ace

…who remains haunted by the Clown to this day

Butler University Lost Somebody Pretty Near and Dear Saturday

…who “walked softly and carried a big bone.”

9 is TOO young.

May there be BIG bones, basketballs, swimming pools and lovely green trees aplenty, Blue II.

When You’ve Lost…

I Like The Cut Of This Man’s Jib

It’s time to quit using the Constitution as toilet paper

Senator Rand Paul’s amendment to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee resolution throws President Obama’s own words back at him.

The amendment quotes from a response Obama gave The Boston Globe back in 2007 as a Senator, in which Obama said that “the President does not have the power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”

Well That Saves Ohio Several Million Dollars

Works for me.

(CNN) — Ariel Castro, who was sentenced to life plus 1,000 years for kidnapping and raping three women, as well as murder, was found hanging in his prison cell Tuesday night, the state’s Department of Corrections said.

The cause of death was hanging with a bed sheet, Dr. Jan Gorniak of the Franklin County Coroner’s Office told CNN.

Smart Power, Extended Reset Button Dance Mix

Obama to Brits: Toodle-Loo

British military chiefs are being ejected from US meetings about Syria in the first direct consequence of David Cameron’s refusal to join military action.

The role of senior British officers based at US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, has been downgraded because they cannot be trusted with high-level intelligence about a conflict with which they are no longer involved, military sources say.

Obama to Russia: Putin on the risk

Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected the American evidence that Syrian forces used chemical weapons, calling the suggestion “utter nonsense.”

“While the Syrian army is on the offensive, saying that it is the Syrian government that used chemical weapons is utter nonsense,” Putin told journalists in Vladivostok, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.

He urged the United States to present its evidence to the UN Security Council and cautioned President Obama about the consequences of getting involved.

“I would like to address Obama as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate: before using force in Syria, it would be good to think about future casualties,” he said.

Man, that “community organizer” stint really is the strength of his resume, ain’t it?

I Have To Say This Is One Headline I’d Never Thought I’d See

Maybe all those conspiracy theories were on to something

Police break up ‘drug-fueled orgy’ at Masonic Lodge after finding women dancing naked on stage and men filming sex acts

Police in Michigan have broken up a shocking ‘drug-fueled orgy’ being hosted at a secretive Masonic Lodge – and this wasn’t the first time it’s happened, authorities warn.

Officers were called to the prominent building in downtown Battle Creek, Michigan – which sits across a park from police headquarters – about 2.15am Sunday. They found five women dancing on stage naked.

…The Battle Creek Freemasons refused to comment on camera for the TV station, but insisted that the orgy was not part of the secret society’s rituals. They said the party was not sponsored by their group at all.

Instead, they say, a party promoter paid $900 to rent the space for the night.

Ah, the old “we rented the hall” excuse.

A Firm Hand On The Tiller Putter

So The One went golfing this weekend instead of requesting Congress to come back early after he changed his mind about his Red Line improvisation…well, you get the idea. If it’s not so urgent to require immediate discussion then it really isn’t worth a single American life nor the multiple billions that it would cost, along with the further degradation of our already-stretched military capacity.

Congress should, must, vote “no” on this.

Over 100,000 people have died in the Syrian Civil War prior to this gas attack – whoever caused it – so why are the deaths of a thousand more suddenly worth our involvement?

There is absolutely nothing to be gained by this.

Seamus Heaney Has Died

He was a giant. A wonderful poet, and frankly a damned fun guy; I shared a few pints with him in oh ’84 or ’85 when he came to Virginia for a talk.

His translation of Beowulf is simply stunning.

RIP

Get Your Damned Foot Off That Desk

No one, or should I say No One, has done more damage to that office than this Community Organizer.