The Original Musings

Oops! He did it again!

By now we’ve all heard ad nauseum about Kerry’s little faux pas the other day. On Tuesday, Kerry told a college group in California, “You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

Whether Kerry’s remarks were a direct insult, Freudian slip or, as he is claiming, a “botched joke,” we’ll never know. Everybody has an opinion and everybody is free to insist that their interpretation is correct. The fact of the matter is, it doesn’t matter what he meant, what matters is what the masses perceived him to mean. One might argue that it’s unfair to hold someone accountable for how their words are interpreted. One might retort that it is for this very reason that those in the public eye must insure that their comments aren’t subject to such interpretation by being scrupulously clear in one’s statements.

Anyhow. Perception is the key. And if you have any doubt as to how our men “stuck in Iraq” perceived the good Senator’s comments, allow me to pass along this message from them:

That is all.

Remind us to return the favor sometime

In June of 1985, TWA Flight 847 was commandeered while en route from Athens to Rome. Over the course of the next 17 days it was shuttled among various Mediterranean airports. On the second day of the ordeal, the hijackers learned that US Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem was on board the plane. So, they beat him unconscious, then shot him to death and dumped his body on the tarmac of the Beirut airport. The hijackers, Mohammed Ali Hamadi, Hassan Izz-Al-Din, Ali Atwa and Imad Mughniyeh later escaped.

Al-Din and Atwa faded into obscurity. Mughniyeh is believed to be responsible for the 1983 barracks bombing that killed 241 US Marines in Lebanon, as well as the 1984 torture and murder of William Buckley, the CIA Station Chief in Beirut. He’s believed to have undergone extensive plastic surgery to help him continue to evade capture.

In 1987 the ringleader, Hamadi, was captured in Frankfurt, Germany, where he was trying to carry explosives onto a plane. Germany put him on trial and he was convicted on both that charge and of Stethem’s murder. He was sentenced to life in prison. (Germany is progressive, so they don’t have a death penalty.)

Late last year, after serving a mere 19 years of his life sentence, and over strong objections from the US, Hamadi was paroled and deported to Lebanon. Coincidentally, a mere four days after his deportation, Susanne Osthoff, a German archeologist taken hostage in Iraq was freed. Germany denies that the two were inter-related.

Mohammed Ali Hamadi was released despite strong U.S. objections, FOX News learned. Those objections were raised in phone calls to German authorities by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller, as well as by top-level State Department and administration counter-terrorism officials.

“[The Germans] ignored us and didn’t give us enough time to pursue it through legal action,” an official told FOX News on the condition of anonymity. “They gave us very short notice.”

And here’s the best part: Hamadi has rejoined Hezbollah.

FOXNews.com – Terrorist Ali Hamadi Rejoins Hezbollah Following Release From Prison

Michael Crook: Prick

Take a peek at part of Michael Crook’s blog entry about 9/11. Rather than quote the pertinent part, and be accused of falsifying it in whole or part, I’ve captured an image of my screen and am reproducing it in part, in accordance with the fair use laws under the DMCA.

All I’ve got to say about it is, it must suck to be such an asshole, huh?

Every time I read something he’s said, I can’t help but wonder about the accuracy of that old adage about how everyone has something good to be found in them. If there’s something good to be found in him, I’m sure at a loss to find it.

Note: I have changed the timestamp on my entry so that this will not go on top of the 2996 Tribute post. I actually contemplated not posting it at all, but I wanted to share part of what he’s spewing and I wouldn’t want any of you to have to actually go to his site in order to be able to see it. No sense driving the little bastard’s hit counter up unless you choose to so that you can leave a comment (which he’ll most likely censor). I consider it taking one for the team.

This is important

Please Note: I’ll post about the trip to the Lansing Great Lakes Feis, how the Feis went and how Missy did, how the dress went over, the trip home and all that stuff tomorrow (today) after I’ve slept. I know you’re all waiting impatiently for it, but you’re just going to have to wait. I’ve now been up for more than 24 straight hours straight, and we had a harrowing trip home. (It’s always something, isn’t it? Never a dull moment.)

Remember Michael Crook — the scrawny little scumbucket that ran (runs?) the (and I use this term lightly) website Forsake the Troops? Hannity and Colmes once chewed him up and spit him out on national television (rumor has it that they still can’t get the nasty rancid taste out of their mouths). I refuse to link to the greasy little slimeball ever again, so if you can’t figure out how to find him with those clues alone, all I can say is *TGFG™. (Or you can always just follow your nose, I’m sure the ungrateful lowlife sludge has left an olfactive trail.)

Michael “I’m a soulless loser” Crook has begun threatening The Mad Pigeon, over at (appropriately enough) Diary of the Mad Pigeon. Seems the lowlife greasespot has taken particular offense at The Mad Pigeon’s posting of his personal details, which, incidentally, the smelly little greaseball has himself posted, and which he included in an email to The Mad Pigeon [which The Mad Pigeon has simply reproduced, as is his personal right as the lawful owner of the email]. The scumsucking bottom-dweller has begun making threats and, sadly, it appears he even has something of a leg to stand on (or perhaps the genetic throwback simply perches on his knuckles, who’s to say?).

Anyhow. The Mad Pigeon needs your help. Go read these three posts (one/two/three) and the related comments. Let me know when you’re done and of course feel free to discuss.

You know what to do next. Have fun!

Random Observation: Michael Crook’s father should have pulled out.

* note: TGFG™ = Thank God For Google

A leopard doesn’t change his spots

Found this one on the same page as the piggy bank story:

Kerry Critique

In his speech Thursday, John Kerry criticized the Bush administration for failing to heed the advice of the now departed Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki (search), who said the Iraq operation would require more troops than the Pentagon had committed. They should have listened to him, Kerry said, “They chose not to. They were wrong.”

Later in the speech, Kerry approvingly quoted Army General George Casey (search) who said our large military presence “feeds the notion of occupation