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Sep 10, 2004

On the verge: Marinespeak returns 

On the verge of the anniversary of 9/11,
On the verge of the fiery destruction of whatever credibility '60 Minutes' had left,
On the verge of a weekend,
And most importantly to this blog, on the verge of me being run into the ground dog-tired for the next six weeks...

I must leave you here... alone... to defend the blogosphere all by yourselves.

Why? Because of that last "verging."

I happen to be on the verge of a rather intensive TAD. And that's today's Marinespeak, returning from it's long absence just in time for me to depart.

Temporary Additional Duty. TAD. Say each letter like they had periods between them, not like it's some preppie sweater-wearing dude's first name.

The Air Force (and I think the Army too) calls it 'TDY,' but what it means is the same. You're probably leaving home to go blow some stuff up, or at the very least learn how to blow some stuff up. Unless you get a sucky paperwork drill TAD, in which case you are not given the means to blow anything up, only the motivation to destroy everything around you. Mine will be somewhere in the middle - doing paperwork while learning how to get other people to blow stuff up.

Follow me?

Well, if you did or you didn't, this all comes down to ME leaving YOU yet again to go do that Marine thing. Six weeks of fun and adventure in the desert - NO, not THAT desert. A little closer to home... and Mexico. Those who are in the know will be savvy to the land of which I speak... the land who's name must not be said...

Anyway, I depart on the morrow and will likely have NO time for likes of this blog until I return. So, once again, please take this time to visit any of the fine people listed to the right on my blogroll, and I'll see ya when I see ya.

Semper Out.
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Sep 9, 2004

Payback's a bitch... literally 

Glenn Reynolds is running scared. The Puppy Blender opened his morning paper and saw this:

DOG SHOOTS MAN
PENSACOLA, Fla., Sept. 9, 2004

(AP) Deputies say a man in Pensacola, Florida, who was trying to shoot seven puppies was shot by one of the dogs.

The man was holding two of the shepherd-mix puppies when one of them wiggled and put its paw on the trigger of the man's .38-caliber revolver, making it discharge.
What a dumbass...

I dig the picture of the dog with the gun, though. Hey, somebody tell Frank J that he can end his search for what Chomps should look like.

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Sep 6, 2004

Can't breathe... 

...can't stop laughing...

...ribs burning...

Oooohhoohoohoohoohoo...

Can't even paraphase - it just wouldn't do it justice. Go read this.
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Sep 4, 2004

Reminder 

Reader Scott K., a former Marine Ammunition Technition (if you see him running, try and keep up), emailed me this link.

The Massgraves

Go ahead, somebody... PLEASE remind me again how there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq... I DARE ya. And then go tell it one of the people in these pictures. More than likely, they'll tell you to go screw yourself.
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Sep 1, 2004

He's climbing to the top rope... 

OHHH... This'll be fun... 

I have gone far too long without ranting about something, and now...

Now I have found my muse.

Nothing really sends me through the stratosphere quite so fast as hippies commies protesters. Hey - I'm all about free speech. This is AMERICA, baby. You can scream your fool head off, and may God bless you for it.

But the crap getting pulled in New York is beyond... well,... it's just beyond...
Waves of protesters clashed with police across midtown and lower Manhattan last night, resulting in at least 900 arrests.
Ahhh... a good start. STIFLE!!! MUUUHUUUWAAHAHAHAHAHA!
The chaos began in the midst of rush hour, as commuters tried to make their way home and security around Madison Square Garden tightened for convention speeches by first lady Laura Bush and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The disorder took place on a day that anarchist groups had marked for civil disobedience.
As we'll soon see, there wasn't a damn thing that was CIVIL about most of this.
At Bryant Park, tensions erupted at 6 p.m. when a dispute over a banner sparked rough-and-tumble verbal and physical encounters between marchers and police on and around the steps of the public library.

Meanwhile, at Ground Zero, a controversial police dragnet at Church and Vesey streets swept up 200 marchers minutes after about 500 of them left on their way to a "die-in."
Ahhh... one can dream, can't one...
As police sirens blared into the night, marchers moved to Herald Square where a series of running encounters took place. Police closed Broadway. The sidewalks were overwhelmed.

"They aren't letting me go this way, they're not letting me go that way," said Joyce Breach, 60, of the East Village, after shopping at Macy's. "I wish the police treated tax-paying New Yorkers with as much consideration as they have for these Republicans."
ah HA! Those eeeeevil Repugs aren't paying their taxes! Obviously it's because they're all rich and the Shrub gave them a free pass. THIS SHALL NOT STAND!!
"This is definitely a little nerve-wracking," said tourist Kimberly King, 40, of Marina Del Rey, Calif. "It seems like we're at a delicate balance between peace and passion and at any moment, the scene could go bad."
"Peace and passion"? What the hell is that? The OJ defense? He killed her cuz he loved her?

How does this play out?

-"I'm sorry your honor, but my throwing urine-filled balloons at conventioneers was done out of love... a crime of passion, if you will."

-"Not guilty."
At one point, police stood shoulder-to-shoulder across 32nd Street, as spotters peered through binoculars waiting for protesters to arrive. When a group of protesters tried to pass a police barrier at Broadway and 34th Street, one woman was nearly trampled as police pushed them back with orange netting. Protesters shouted, "This is what a police state looks like."
Yeah, it's just like Tiananmen Square... now go drink to your tofu latte...
"When there is dissent, they try to break it up and stifle it," said Priya Reddy, a writer and eco-activist of Manhattan. "It's a whitewash. The best thing they can do is let people gather because this is history."
It's historic all-right. I'm sure there's dried mud from Woodstock under the armpits of some unwashed hippie out there on Broadway. If the cops wanted to thin the crowds they'd charge at them with soap, thus sending at least all of the Viet Nam era protesters scurrying for cover...
Talk show host Chris Matthews got a scare on the MSNBC set in Herald Square when a protester hopped a security fence and tried to jump onto the stage. He was immediately subdued and a stunned Matthews carried on.
Hmm... that might not actually have been a protester. That could just be somebody that thinks Matthews is an assclown. Hey, there's quite a few of us. I'll check it out at the next club meeting...
"It's their right to protest," said Mary Ceverha, a delegate from Dallas. "They feel very strongly about it. We feel very strongly about it. I'm so proud of the police."

As of 11 p.m., some 900 people had been arrested, said Deputy Chief Michael Collins; 150 alone were arrested at 35th Street and Sixth Avenue. At nearby 35th Street and Fifth Avenue about 10 p.m., there were so many arrests that police did not have enough buses to transport those they took into custody.
Anybody want to help me install a tip jar that will fund another bus for the NYPD?
The wave of arrests came a day after a protester attacked a plainclothes officer during a demonstration.
And apparently knocked him cold and sent him to the hospital.
(login pablo901 password pablo901 - Thanks again, bugmenot.)

I thought these guys were all about "peace," "civil protest," and "kumbaya."
Last night's situation was serious enough that Mayor Michael Bloomberg went to the police command center at Penn Station last night.

By midnight, the situation was still developing, but there were no reports of serious injury or extensive vandalism.

Earlier, with dusk descending, the chaos at Bryant Park began when police pounced on two men unfurling a black-and-pink banner.

Hundreds of protesters immediately unfurled their own banners, chanting, "Let them go." Police threw a woman to the ground. The crowd surrounded the officers, chanting, "The Whole World is Watching."

"It was unbelievable," said Cyndy Bruce, 26, of Chicago. "This is a public space. The officer said, 'You can't hang it but you can hold it.' As soon as they held it up, the officers swarmed in. They incited this violence. Not us."

"It feels like a tactic of fear they're trying to instill in us like they're nervous and they feel the need to start controlling people," said Courtney Arnold, 27, of Babylon.
Yeah. That's what they're PAID for. Police: To control, regulate, or keep in order. You could look it up.
Minutes after the crowd gathered, police in phalanx formation linked arms. As scuffles broke out, police strung orange netting and appeared to be preparing to make hundreds of arrests.
Oh sweet Jesus NO! Not... not... the Orange Netting! Oh sweet mother of God... next they'll be using (gasp) wooden sawhorsey barricades that say "Police" on them! AAAAIIIIEEEEEEEE!!!!!
They relented on the arrest plan at 7 p.m., as people began to move to Herald Square. Six people blocked 42nd Street. Police rushed them with scooters, tackled them and loaded them into a van.
I never thought of a scooter as a mechanism of intimidation and repression. I stand corrected.
Meanwhile, at Ground Zero - a touchstone symbol in this year's presidential race - a peaceful march turned sour as police strung orange nets at Vesey and Church streets, corralling 200 people including journalists and onlookers.
AAAHH!! More Orange Nets!!!
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly blamed the Ground Zero arrests on march organizers "reneging on an agreement not to block traffic" and "failing to walk on sidewalk instead of street."

But many detainees told reporters they were not aware of the rules. "They said as long as you observe the red lights, it shouldn't be a problem," said Bob Curley, who was arrested with his son. "Then we walked off the sidewalk and across the street and that was the end."

Police filled five busloads of detainees as people screamed, "Arrest George Bush." "We are fighting against our own people, we have our own people against us," said Stephanie Lobello, 21, a tattoo artist from Flushing. "There is no freedom in this country."
Yes... no freedom at all. It'll take at least a whole DAY before you'll be cut loose and have the opportunity to post over at Democratic Underground again. It's just like being sent to a Soviet gulag, I tell ya.
One officer who was listening said, "We're following orders."

At the Hummer offices at 11th Avenue and 56th Street, 40 officers looked on as a lone protester, Georgi Page, 34, a Web producer from Harlem, marched resolutely in a Hummer costume made from a cardboard box. "I thought there would be a lot more people here," acknowledged Page.

There's always one person who doesn't get the memo...
Her lonely protest lasted 20 minutes before she was asked to leave by a police officer. "I'm not going to be arrested," Page said. "I'm not obstructing traffic. I'm legally protesting."
"I'm not going to be arrested..." Not much of a fortune teller, are ya there Page?
But a teary Page was loaded into a police van. She was charged with disorderly conduct for "parading without a permit."
(Sniff, Sniff) I love the smell of repression in the morning... it smells like... VICTORY.

Ya know, I'm almost glad these people are out there in NYC doing their thing. Let 'em. Congrats, you nutjobs - you're practically SHOVING people into the booths and telling them to vote Bush. There isn't a sane undecided voter that this stuff plays well to. Not one.

Were there massive protests in Boston during the Democratic Convention? No. Was there a need for a huge police presence to react to violence? No. The only thing the cops in Boston had to watch out for was terrorists, not good old-fashioned, American-made loons. And as it turned out, the only thing they REALLY had to watch out for was the Sleep Monster, who threatened to sneak up on them under the cover of Boredom, as Boston turned into a DNC-inspired snooze-fest.

The level of blood-boiling rage that is achieved by these protesters would be sad if it wasn't so funny... or vice-versa. But they'll be around to protest another day. Seems that in this "Police State" of ours, we still haven't perfected the art of the mass-execution of dissidents. But at least we'll have those monitors on our elections from all those countries that have gotten it down to a science. Maybe they can show us what we've been doing wrong...


UPDATE: Allah rounds up a bunch of stuff that you shouldn't miss, as well, including further info on the cop that was hospitalized by "peaceful" protestors.
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