That'll Wake You Up in the Mornin', Boys

[ArmyLawyer]

Got my first call from the Pentagon today arising out of some email advice I had given to an 0-5. Good times.

Conditional service

[Lex]

Gays in the military? A "right to serve"?

Openly gay students Jessica Arvidson, Matt Hill Comer, Alex Nini and Stacey Booe tried to enlist in the U.S. Army this morning in an effort to challenge the 13-year-old “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy as part of a 30-city project called the Right to Serve campaign.

They weren’t allowed to enlist and then took part in a sit-in along with several supporters inside the Army Recruiting Center on Merritt Drive in Greensboro.

Booe left the sit-in after police said there would be arrests if they didn’t leave. The other three students and five other supporters were taken away in handcuffs.

Oh, God, not that again.

I’m With Chavez

[Dadmanly]

Hey, I’m really impressed with this Hugo Chavez guy.

No really, he makes a lot of sense, and I think we should act on a couple of his suggestions immediately.

First of all, he accurately described the United Nations (UN):

Let's accept -- let's be honest. The U.N. system, born after the Second World War, collapsed. It's worthless.

So, he proposes that the UN be created anew:

And that is why Venezuela once again proposes, here, today, 20 September, that we re-establish the United Nations.

Best of all, he offers to move the useless, Anti-American entity to a locale much more hospital to the dictators, kleptocrats, sexual predators, and other corrupt elites who so thoroughly enjoy free reign and lawlessness in the Big Apple:

And maybe we have to change location. Maybe we have to put the United Nations somewhere else; maybe a city of the south. We've proposed Venezuela.

This is a win win win situation! No more sulpherous reek for the Gentleman from Venezuela.

I don’t know if it will work – if we closed the UN in NYC, my guess is half of the Royal Court (UN delegates) would seek diplomatic asylum in the US just to stay in Manhattan.

Meanwhile, let us go ahead and create something more humble, and suited no doubt to our evil selves: a union of free and democratic governments to fulfill to true and rightful charter of the organization formerly know as the United Nations.

I’m with Chavez – get the UN out of the US.

(Cross-posted at Dadmanly)

UPDATE: Okay, a day's worth of completely unrelated vitriol exhausts even my patience. Comments now closed. Thanks to any and all who tried to reason with the troll. WW, as ever thanks for your attention. Someday we must send a bill to your analyst for the outside consultations.

Just Fade Away

[Dadmanly]

Former President Bill Clinton, interviewed by NPR and reported by Reuters, casually insults the US Government and President Bush.

"The president says he's just trying to get the rules clear about how far the CIA can go when they're when they whacking these people around in these secret prisons," Clinton said in NPR's "Morning Edition" interview, recorded on Wednesday.

That just gets him started, he further alleges:

"If you go around passing laws that legitimize a violation of the Geneva Convention and institutionalize what happened at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo, we're going to be in real trouble," he said.

Yeah, if we did, Bill. Because everybody knows that the isolated crimes at Abu Ghraib are what this debate is all about. I’m not at all surprised Bill’s so enamored with the vagaries of the latest Geneva Convention protocols. Written in excruciating legalese, with more wriggle room than the back of a ’52 Chevy, they must suit that great legal intellect who can parse what “is” means in context or inspire his junior’s “no controlling legal authority” evasion.

More commentary over at Dadmanly.

Saddam Spy Arraigned

[Soldier's Dad]

via San Jose Mercury News

LOS ANGELES - A man accused of collecting intelligence for Saddam Hussein's regime during the 1990s was indicted on charges of failing to register as an agent of a foreign government, authorities said Wednesday.

William Shaoul Benjamin, 64, of Los Angeles also faces charges of making false statements and conspiracy, according to the FBI.

Codenamed "9211," Benjamin allegedly worked with the Iraqi Intelligence Service between 1993 and 2001, infiltrating groups and organizations considered hostile to Saddam's government and relaying information to his Iraqi handlers. Prosecutors refused to say which groups he allegedly monitored.