Michael Crook Takes His Toys and Stomps Off

You may recall Michael Crook, who appeared on Hannity and Colmes the other night to talk about his hatred for the military look like a stupid idiot while ranting about his sites ForsakeTheTroops and ForsakethePolice.

Today I decided to take another look at his wretched little hole in the wall. Turns out it was gone, and he had moved his pityparty to his private blog. I spent some time reading the comments, and I gotta say - my 7-year-old is better behaved on a bad day. A Blue Star Mother calmly and with a lot more restraint than most asked what would prompt such a hateful need for publicity. She then told him he was in her prayers. He responded by saying it was “all about the money, bitch.” When another person told Crook that “you could have made your point without calling her a name”, Crook replied “Yes, I could have, moron.”

When I read the post about veterans’ graves being defiled and vandalized over the weekend, and Crook rejoicing over it, I had had enough. I finally posted a comment, the gist of which was this:

A lot of ruckus has been made about your hatred and troop bashing, but I don’t enough time has been spent on why you have this agenda. Thank God for blogging, which allows people like me to rectify that problem. [I then pointed him to this post on Euphoric Reality exposing the military career that's almost as short as his last brain wave.]

As a veteran of the Armed Forces, I am not angered by your little crusade. You’re not really worth that. You may think you’re some kind of revolutionary, and you may have a lot of publicity now, but you’re really nothing. You’re a flash in the pan; a whining, insignificant little brat who’s upset that his dream of being in the military was stomped on. In a few months, we will only bring up your name as a punchline, a joke; and that’s if we even remember it at all.

Until then, yes, we will rant about you on our sites, we will laugh at you to your face. But we will also continue to defend your right to speak your mind; offering our time, our blood, limbs and lives to ensure that you will always be able to publicly air whatever tantrums you feel like. We understand that our sacrifice purchases freedom for all, not just those who appreciate it.

I am comforted by the knowledge that at the end of my life, I will look back and know that I was part of something larger than myself; something that is a proud and honorable truth greater than almost anything else I could have accomplished. I did something with my life. On the other hand, you will have nothing but your hatred and bitterness; and the knowledge that you spent a large part of your adult life railing against the one thing you wanted more than anything - simply because you could not have it for yourself. I pity you. What a sad little life.

I realize you’ll post an insult in reply to this, and that’s fine. Have a great day.

My comment never did show up on the site, and when I went back a bit later to show The Marine the retardation abounding in his corner of the internet, I was greeted with this message. Perplexed, I went directly to Michaelcrook.com, where I saw this.

Classy, isn’t he?

Apparently he’s retreated back to his playpen, choosing only to consort with others who share his pacifier-sucking sullenness. Maybe we’ve seen the last of this snot-nosed child, and maybe not. Either way, I’ll go to bed tonight smiling.

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FBI Agent Admits to Being ‘Deep Throat’

W. Mark Felt, 91, who was the #2 man in the FBI during the early 1970’s, has come forward about his role in the Watergate scandal that brought down President Nixon.

“I’m the guy they used to call Deep Throat,” he told lawyer John D. O’Connor, the author of the Vanity Fair article, the magazine said in a news release.

Interestingly enough, he finds his past “dishonorable”.

“I don’t think [being Deep Throat] was anything to be proud of,” Felt indicated to his son, Mark Jr., at one point, according to the article. “You [should] not leak information to anyone.”

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Four Troops Killed in Crash

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An Iraqi Air Force aircraft crash has killed four U.S. Air Force personnel and one Iraqi on board, the American military confirmed Tuesday.

The crash happened at about noon Monday near the village of Jalula, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) northeast of the capital, Baghdad, said military spokesman Lt. Col. Fred Wellman.

“All the personnel onboard are confirmed to have been killed in action, but there is still an investigation ongoing,” Wellman said.

More details to come.

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Tuesday Blogburst: Set Kerry’s 180 FREE!

John Kerry has never released his military records, in spite of his bragging about being a “war hero”, and claiming he would release them soon on the “Meet The Press” television show with Tim Russert and the “Imus in the Morning” show with Don Imus. So let’s encourage him to release his military records to “clear things up”.

Well John has gone and “done it” folks. He finally signed the Form 180 according to his staff and his personal newspaper the Boston Globe. Now he just needs to release the form and make the records available to the public. As a group of concerned citizens who want to hold our leaders accountable we’ve formed a blogburst group to drive the issue home. If you want to join the blogroll for Free Kerry’s 180, click here to email me, include the url for your blog. The blogburst is every Tuesday, so don’t forget to blog about it. All you have to do is encourage Kerry to set his 180 FREE, I’ll send you the code for the blogroll.

The more people we have, the merrier!

So to quote a great American:
“Why don’t you jump on the team and come on in for the big win? ”

——

It’s poetry meme time! At , here’s my entry:

There once was a “soldier” named John,
who was nothing much more than a con.
For his records we wait
(’cuz his country he hates)
and his word is as sticky as teflon.

[Hey! It's 0830 here. I just woke up. Cut me some slack.]

If you think mine is bad, check out The Pirate’s Cove. He’s doing things to Shakespeare that shouldn’t even be legal. But they’re still amusing, and that’s what counts. ;)

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A New Low in Journalism (Again)

Once again, the New York Times shows its anti-American ass, this time by publishing, openly and in detail, about the CIA’s contracted airlines used to shuttle captured terror suspects in the War on Terror. Winds of Change explains:

Today’s New York Times provides intimate detail on the charter flights used by the CIA to ferry prisoners across the globe. The names of the charter companies are disclosed. The types of aircraft flown are revealed. The points of departure and destinations of these flights are stated. There is even a picture of one of the charter craft, with the identification number of the aircraft in full display.

[...]

What exactly is the purpose of the New York Times in reporting on sensitive issues such as these? Do they even care about the consequences of making such information pubic? It appears the editors of the New York Times feel that breaking a titillating story about sensitive CIA operations is much more important than national security and the lives of those fighting in the war. All to our detriment.

USMC_Vet says it best:

Not long after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, many on the left, including more than a few in America’s media (among them many columnists at The New York Times), saw fit to lay blame at the doorstep of President George W. Bush. It was, after all, on his watch. It was proclaimed that he had done nothing to protect us from the scourge of terror.

Now, years since and amidst what is only the beginning of a long, protracted, and necessarily often murky War on Terror, George W. Bush has aggressively combated terrorism and terrorists across the globe. For this, his reward includes attacks on himself, his administration and any US agency or department that dare provide the very protection previously demanded. And all from the same who cried foul weeks after September 11, 2001.

Which way would they have it?

The MSM is clearly out of control. Is there no way to make them stop endangering us in their quest for the biggest scoop?

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Ambush

Hurl, the Marine Cobra pilot that I read (and trust me, you should too), has a grotesque story about the real nature of the war we’re fighting in Iraq. Insurgents ambushed a convoy of Iraqi security and civilian contractors, and then after slaughtering them and leaving them by the side of the road, they set up another ambush for the American troops by booby-trapping the bodies and setting up improvised mines. Things got ugly, but the moral of the story is “Hellfire missiles rule.”

What about the sentence “these people are animals” is so hard to understand?

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EXCLUSIVE: Anatomy of a Troll (The Story of Jane)

According to the Urban Dictionary, a “troll” is someone who “posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.”

Allow me to introduce you to a real life troll. Her alias is Jane Howard. You might know Jane from her many posts throughout the blogosphere, all of which had the same tone: Lt. Ilario Pantano is a horrible officer. Those of us who followed the Pantano case with bated breath and fearful, prayer-filled hearts know Jane well, for we couldn’t go anywhere in the blogosphere without seeing her snide, hateful comments. We were all certain that Jane had a hidden agenda; for no other “regular citizen” was nearly as pointed or personal in their verbal attacks on Ilario’s character. Jane was tireless; posting with three aliases at all hours of the day and night, on any blog that talked about Pantano and allowed comments. Sadly, Jane was as unoriginal as she was venomous, and was forced to resort to cutting and pasting the same tired, embittered story that she got from her “son”, who she claimed was a classmate of Pantano’s in Officer School.

Here at ER, we take great pride in our ability to ferret out the idiots who like to think that because they hide behind an alias, their immature ramblings will not be tied to their real life persona. As with Coburn, whose oral diarrhea is preserved for posterity on this blog and in court testimony, our curiosity was piqued at the idea that yet another cretin whose bitterness far outweighed their intelligence was running amok.

Being the enterprising minds that we are, we finally decided that with such an abundance of clues as to the posters’ identity, we would be doing the public a disservice by not outing these weasels and parading their insanity and stupidity for the entire world to see. After all, they seemed to be begging for attention, and who are we to deny them that?

So now, in keeping with our tradition of exposing losers who think they’re anonymous, I present to you the true story of Jane.

[Read more]

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Memorial Day 2

This is just apart of the Memorial Day tribute over at Mudville Gazette. Please go there and read the whole thing.

Nothing I’ve ever written compares to this letter home from Marine Capt. Ryan A. Beaupre:

Mom & Dad,
Well if you are reading this, then things didn’t go well for me over in Iraq. I’m sorry for the pain that I have caused you because of this. Please do not be upset with the Marine Corps, the military, the government, or the President. It was my choice to go into the military. The President and my higher commanders were just doing what they thought was best. Realize that I died doing something that I truly love, and for a purpose greater than myself. There is a paragraph that I read from time to time when I lose focus. “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.” John Stewart Mill Now there is a little Marine Corps bravado in there, but I do believe in the basic premise. I want you to know that I could not have asked for better parents, or a better family. ….. I’ll never forget that one of my friends in elementary school said that if he could trade places with one person, he’d trade places with me because of my parents and home life. I truly feel that I’ve had a blessed life thanks to you two. Please give my love to Alyse & Ryan, Kari & Matt & the girls, Chris & Brandy, and everyone else in the family.
All my love,
Ryan

Beaupre, 30, of Bloomington, Ill., was killed March 20 in a helicopter crash in Kuwait.
[...]

Lincoln, in his Gettysburg Address said: “…we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow, this ground– The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.”

So what ground did these men hallow? Some sand? Your next tank of gas? No. Far from it. Freedom is the sacred ground hallowed by their blood. And it’s yours and mine, to enjoy every day. To laugh, or cry, and hug our children. And hope that those miserable creatures that John Stuart Mill described may some day know of men and women better then themselves.

Amen.

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American Embassy Targeted

Andi brings us this frightening report:

Jakarta, Indonesia

A web page viewed by The Associated Press offers chilling instructions of how to attack a US Embassy with a rocket launcher or suicide bomb and includes a partial diagram of the facility including the ambassador’s office.

Using a grenade launcher is an effective measure that can go through the parking area and blast the side of the building that is situated next to the ambassador’s room,” the instructions said. “The use of the suicide bomber is possible if using … 150 kilograms (330 pounds) of TNT which could produce a blast impact more than 30 meters (98 feet) wide.”

It wasn’t clear when the instructions were posted but their discovery came a day after the United States closed all of its diplomatic facilities in Indonesia until further notice, citing a security threat which it did not specify.

As the new wife of a Marine who just ended a tour as an embassy guard in locations around the globe, this scares me.

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Memorial Day

I had planned to write something profound for this, perhaps the most sacred holiday of the year for me, but Matt beat me to it.

If you read nothing else this Memorial Day, read that. For this weekend, it is not about the politics, or the religion, or the legalities of it all. It is not about conservatives or liberals or even George Bush and Saddam Hussein.

It is about men and women that believed in something greater than themselves. It’s about what honor and duty truly mean. It’s about the cost of freedom - the ordinary men and women who knowingly paid the price with their lives; and in doing so, provided myself and my countrymen with a gift that many Americans take for granted. I am honored and humbled to have served my country.

This weekend, enjoy your freedom. It is an expensive gift. But more importantly, take the time to email a soldier or Marine and let them know how much you appreciate their continued sacrifice.

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The Bottom of the Slope

Navy SEAL Lt. Andrew Ledford is getting back to his life after being “Pantano-ized”: You know, getting brought up on bullshit charges due to others’ incompetence and lack of integrity. Thankfully, he was rendered not guilty.

As Froggy says though, while it’s good that Ledford and Pantano were found innocent of the charges, the idea that charges were brought at all is disgusting.

Do you want to increase retention in the SEAL Teams? Don’t charge people for risking their lives. Do you want to see more Marines wounded and killed? Don’t cause Marines to second guess themselves in combat. While these show trials may alleviate pressure on the brass and the administration, they will have a chilling effect on troops in the field. Real leaders don’t let their subordinates twist in the wind.

Allowing Sgt Daniel Coburn to run roughshod over the values that the Corps revere (like honor and duty), or trying to make SEALS like Letford take the fall for CIA incompetence isn’t going to have the positive effect the lefties think. They’re so worried about how we look to the rest of the world that they’re willing to sacrifice good officers on the altar of moonbat self-esteem.

Keep doing what you’re doing, Mr. Liberal. Keep protesting the presence of military recruiters anywhere and everywhere. Keep telling students it’s wrong and bad to serve their country. Keep whining about the rights of terrorists, and disregarding the lives of our troops. Soon, you’ll have what you want: a “utopia” where people are free to come and go in and out of this country with no worry about hurting us once they get here; and no real military to stop them from doing it.

Just remember that at the end of the day, to them you’re still an infidel.

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Currie For Congress!

A Milblogger for Congress? Hell yes.

Rusten Currie, better known to the blogosphere as Sic Vis Pacem, Para Bellum, is running for Congress. He’s one of Major K’s guys, and the Major has already weighed in with his endorsement.

He’s going up against Maxine Waters, so it’ll be a fantastic thing if he wins.

Here’s his campaign address:

Currie for Congress
P.O. Box 2265
Venice, CA 90294

I’ll be blogging about this more in the future.

Hat Tip: Greyhawk

UPDATE: Rusten has graciously agreed to be interviewed. I’ll be posting that hopefully later today.

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Daniel Pearl Was A Reporter

This was left as a comment on a post at Jackson’s Junction:

“There have indeed been jounalists killed in Iraq, as there have been in many conflicts around the globe. I have read many of the reports from investigations into these incidents. In most cases the deaths were due to reporters being caught in crossfire within battles. There have been cases of mistaken identity, as with the camerman on top of that Bagdad hotel that was fired on by a tank gunner. News agencies have to be aware that the lense of a camera at distance resembles the scope on a rifle or other gun. Many of the claims of American Military killing were revealed to have come at the hands of insurgents. War is a deadly business and not everyone who gets killed was “targeted” for death. I don’t doubt for a minute that any soldier that discovers he or she fired on a reporter rather than a combatant wishes they could take it back. Only the most bitterly hostile individual could attribute this to a systematic endeavor as Linda Foley and her ilk do. She disgusts me. She should save her indignation for those that sawed the head off a living Daniel Pearl, or has she forgotten that reporter?”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

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Bashing! Immigrant Bashing!

Immigrant-bashing? How horrible!

Look at what those basher people did:

Organizers did not want to focus on the recent outcry over the illegal status of 19-year- old Raul Garcia-Gomez, the man suspected of killing Denver police Detective Donald Young, but they acknowledged it was part of the recent bashing.

Bashing? That’s not bashing. Throwing full soda cans at cops and rushing people’s cars - that’s bashing. Oh, that’s right. The illegal aliens and their supporters do that. I forgot. That’s okay.

Hat Tip: Immigration Blog

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Step Up And Help

Chad over at InTheBullpen has a call to action of sorts.

I simply cannot believe there are soldiers stationed accross the globe that do not receive any words of encouragement from home. We must It is our duty to do so and support those who are supporting us.

Again I ask, please join me in Letters to Heroes and let’s make this a success by showing our nation’s support for the fine men and women risking their lives for ours.

Chad is collecting emails for the troops. Stop by and leave a letter for the troops in his comments, or send him an email. It’s a few minutes out of your day, and it means the world to them.

They’re fighting for us. It’s the least we can do.

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