Making tomorrows Military today

I'm back... pukin' rowdy!

2005-08-13T20:44:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lame comeback (from Varsity Blues, for those of you who care). The way of recruiting has been kicking me in the teeth and various other appendages for the past couple of weeks.

I must say that S. Douglas Smith needs a serious ass kicking... again. I have been on this guys ass in the past, and this time it is no exception. This position (USAREC PAO) damn near needs to be a Cabinet Level Appointment so they get someone with at least a miniscule amount of intelligence about what he says and how it affects the recruiters he works for.

This article (un:mikeunruh@hotmail.com pw: fredderf567 thanks bugmenot.com) uses his own words against us in the field. His words are used as battlecries for the Opt-out campaigns all across the country. I am getting a little tired of school administrators bowing to political pressure from their friends from the political left to push recruiting farther and farther outside the school campus.

Right now, most schools are no problem. They understand that we have a job to do and we work well with the office staff and the guidance staff. People usually understand, when we contact them, that we are doing our job and usually treat us with some speck of respect. If I call a young lady 6 times in a year, I am not really doing my job well.

Aileen Brousseau was dumbfounded when military recruiters called her house six times last year to speak to her daughter Maeze, a junior at Coral Reef Senior High.

The woman wants it to be so horrible. 6 times. 30 seconds a phone call, assuming a typical conversation. 3 minutes of her life taken up. That is 1/175,200 of a year folks.

Brousseau believes schools should be for education, period. ''This [opt-out] clause is perverse,'' she said. ``It has nothing to do with education. . . . The kids should not be hassled.''

weird. Opt-out (defn)- to remove information from a certain list. Perverse- obstinate in opposing what is right, reasonable, or accepted. The grand rewrite: This removal of information of a list (recruiter school list) is not right or reasonable. I love catching people with their own words.

My brain is still seeing various DD forms in my sleep at present. I will post more. I promise.

Still Alive

2005-07-31T20:40:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the light posting, but my brain has taken a nosedive over the last few days. I will be back online in a few days.

Lets kick the pants out of an article

2005-07-24T09:12:00.000-05:00

Lake Tahoe!

Military recruiters aggressive with teens

On March 13, Jimmy Coalter and his family were celebrating his 18th birthday with a turkey Thanksgiving-like dinner when the phone rang. It was a military recruiter asking if the teenager-turned-adult ever considered enlisting.

"We were eating dinner and he called," Coalter recalled. "My mom said 'hang up on him' so I did and he called right back."

This is aggressive?

Since there isn't a recruiting station in Tahoe, recruiters from Carson City and Placerville make trips up to the basin. Staff Sgt. Jeremy Funk, an Air Force recruiter in Placerville, hits South Lake Tahoe twice a month. He visits the high school and Lake Tahoe Community College to speak with interested students.

He also asks businesses if he can post a flier describing the benefits of enlisting in the Air Force, such as 100 percent tuition assistance for college and a possible $12,000 signing bonus.

Funk has been working the county for seven months enlisting a dozen future soldiers. It's on target, Funk said, since he works in a rural county and has an expectation of enlisting at least one future soldier a month.

This is aggressive?

Whittell High School graduate Patrick Rafferty decided to join the Navy this year after some indecision. He said $4,000 was pledged to him for signing up although he hasn't received the money. Money for college tuition was also promised.

A recruiter visited his campus but "he really didn't talk me into my decision. I just made it on my own," he said.

He leaves for boot camp Aug. 7.

"I don't like the feeling of being in combat," he said. "I would have probably joined the Army if it wasn't for the war."

None of this is aggressive. These journalists do not know what aggressive is. The kid in the last paragraph was promised a 4,000 bonus for enlisting AND completing his initial training, known as A-School for the navy (AIT for the army, etc). OF COURSE he has not received the money. He still has a chance of getting injured and not being able to commit to the Navy. If we were giving money willy-nilly like this journalist-Field General wants, recruiters would have no such thing as DEP losses. Then it would become a desertion thing. The field general journalist would then cry foul that the military was getting the local police to do their dirty work of getting people into boot camp. We cannot win with these people.

My call to all of the local journalists: spend a day, not a phone call, with your local recruiter. The field guys. Not the Station Commander. Spend it with the guy kissing babies and shaking hands every day. Follow him (or her, don't e-mail me) to see what the street recruiter goes through. From getting people in to getting soldiers out, the days are getting longer and longer, but more and more rewarding.

This week has been nice and long for my office. We have people ready to join, but issues keep coming up. No one is doing well in my area this month. All of the media attention is starting to wear on each of the branches.

Good natured ribbing

2005-07-21T22:33:00.000-05:00

I love these:

Anyone else have any good political cartoons?

11 pages of RSS feeds from Yahoo yielded no good articles on recruiting. It seems that the fresh meat of the Army missing mission is now stale and the journalists have moved on.

More "stay away from my kid!" version 1.2

2005-07-11T22:16:00.000-05:00

So.

I wonder how many times this stuff is going to kick up before it sparkles and fades.

I love mis-information. I wish I had this laundry list of info on a kid. (bolded will be what we are required to receive from schools)

The new database will be managed by BeNow Inc. of Wakefield, Mass., a private database marketing firm, and will include the following information for each student: name, date of birth, gender, address, Social Security number, e-mail address, ethnicity, telephone number, grade point average, education level (by proxy, we only get seniors and we know what year they grad), name of college attending, and any relevant information about expressions of interest in enlisting in the military.

If I could get every e-mail address of every student, I would not call a single person. I would be an e-mailing foo'! If I had an SSN on each person, well, I would do anything different. You can pretty much guess gender.

And the conclusion:

International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, Room 206
New York, NY 10011

Support Mumia Abu-Jamal: http://www.millions4mumia.org/

Who is this dipstick? He is a cop killer. You can argue what you want, but he was the REASON that a cop was killed. He was shot and a cop what shot while he was in a fight with said cop. If he pulled the trigger matters not in the same way that the lefties want to blame Bush for... well... everything. If this cop killer did this in 1978? Why hasn't be been on the receiving end of a lethal injection when he is on Death Row? Don't ask me.

Does anyone with a brain live in San Francisco?

2005-07-11T21:52:00.000-05:00

Goodness.

I am sick of this line:

"Wiping away tears, Sheehan said that the recruiter who persuaded her son to join the Army four years earlier promised Casey he would never see combat and reneged on most of the signing bonus he was guaranteed."

I call Bull. A bonus is written in a contract. That contract will either say you get a bonus or you don't. It also has a block that is WELL explained which verifies that the contract is full and correct, that all verbal promises are written in the contract. If you initial that block, then you are saying that the contract is correct. The recruiter does not guarantee you anything. MEPS and the processors who write up your contract guarantees you things set out by the Dept of (insert branch). If the contract is in error, you have the option of getting out of your contract, accepting the error and continuing in the service, or trying to force the branch to obligate themselves to the contract.

I have never seen or heard of anyone getting screwed out of a deal with the military. If you only get 50% of your bonus up front and the rest over x number of years, then that is the deal. That is what you signed up for. IF you do not obligate to your end of the contract, you do not get the rest of your money. Period. You have to do the time to get paid. Simple as that. I smell a rat in her story.

There are so many other things in this story that I could pick apart, but I am tired tonight. It is all the same counter recruitment crap that is trying to get a foothold. My guess is that it will stop at the end of the summer.

I am going to do my best over the summer to piss off each and every activist parent on my list of schools. I urge each and every recruiter out here with me to get on your cold call lists and hit them up. Lets get to 100% contact of your senior market before school starts.

I guess the NG needs that girl after all

2005-07-11T21:44:00.000-05:00

Wow...

I had no idea. 20 months straight of missing mission nationally. Holy batpoop Batman!

The NG is behind significantly because their recruiters are not trained how to recruit during a war where they are being used. It is as simple as that. They are still selling from the late 90's playbook. The playbook that says that if you join the NG, you will not go to war, you will get college cash and be a weekend warrior.

Kids are not that dumb. IF they are told they are going to defend their country and then get to come back and go to college, I am sure that the guard would not miss it's missions nationally. The guard is doing well here. The local armory is not down any troops.

Oh boy. I bet the news media is going to have a field day with this one.

The NG is on a girl's ass!

2005-07-10T00:41:00.000-05:00

Woo!

Linky

This dumbass girl. She was drilling and getting paid every month by the PaNG. Then, magically (I bet once her unit received a deployment assignment) she claims that the recruiter lied and she vanished. Now, in an unprecedented move (at least to an active duty recruiter) they put a warrant out on her ass! God I would KILL to do that.

I cannot confirm or deny that a cop buddy of mine has accompanied me on a home shipping visit. The thought was that we would both open our back doors and give the ultimatum of "choose a seat". It turned out that the kid was ready for Boot Camp. Thank goodness.

More haters

2005-07-10T00:40:00.000-05:00

I love this stuff.

Military Families Speak Out is back at it again, this time in Unemployment RIDDEN Michigan. With over 7% of Michigan out of work, these Momrons (I coined that yesterday, you can all use it in your daily life if you choose, just give me credit. I accept cash or paypal) want their kids to stay at home, just to live off of the system.

Momron in action... "Oh, no. He's not going," Diane Oleksyn, 40, said of her 17-year-old son, Brandon Benson. "He's my hockey player. He's going to be a Red Wing."

Wait for it....

Wait....

Idiots. Both her and her son. He is going to be a Red Wing my ass. He needs to get his JUMP WINGS. Or his Air Warfare wings.

I bet I can call the local recruiting office there, and the kid has sent in lead card after lead card. He wants to be in just like his brother, who is a Marine. Good luck bud.

Used War Salesman... I think NOT

2005-07-10T00:03:00.000-05:00

I am getting a little pissed off with the Chickenhawk crap.

For those of you who do not know, a chickenhawk is someone who is for the war, but will not volunteer themselves or their children for the conflict.

This page went a little too far... I am no used war salesman.

What is the obsession with Jenna Bush being on the front line? Can someone tell me? The freaking News went batshit crazy when a suicide bomber came along side a convoy and killed 5 female marines and a female Navy Medic. Do these sick bastards want more women killed in combat? Oh... It is ok if it is some rich, snotty person who is killed, gender be damned. If it is a dirt grunt from the Red State South it does the media no good, therefore, it seems to me, they do not care.

You show me a puff piece on CNN about the Iraq war, and I will show you a nice, crisp, 1 dollar bill.

Any Takers?

Quotey Quote Quotes

2005-07-10T00:01:00.000-05:00

This is going to be a list of quotes that I find that show me the thoughts in Journalists minds.

"I have no qualms about saying my daughter won't fight, nor does she. The Bush administration justified the war with rhetoric about weapons of mass destruction that didn't make sense at the time and has since been proven exaggerated, if not outright bogus." The Bozeman Daily Chronicle

Just a list of drivel from some folks near Minneapolis, Captain Ed from Captain's Quarters needs to smarten up some of his neighbors.

Well crap. It is the weekend and there are not that many links to good stuff. I will find more later.

Enjoy what is left of your weekend!

Sniffing out the politics

2005-07-02T09:21:00.000-05:00

Some Soldier's Mom posted a comment that got me thinking last night. I started replying to it but I decided to make it into a post.

Why are parents pissed about schools giving their kids info to the military? Really? The schools give a list of their students to local governments for safety in case a student goes missing, a fire, etc. Schools get paid large sums of money to provide their school lists to colleges and universities that SPAM THE PISS out of you. The schools are not the local yoko schools either. Using 8 years ago data, the schools were places that no one has ever heard of, universities that have only been around for 3 or so years, etc. I understand marketing. I understand that they need people too. But come on.

Then there is the list to the local recruiter. It costs me nothing (now) with the NCLB. We are required to have three things according to the NCLB: student's name, addy and phone. No SSN, nothing else. Some schools are a little "liberal" with what they give us. I have one school that will print out the entire 9-12 list with mom's name, dad's name, ssn, everything that the school knows about the student.

So why is it ok for the universities to have the info and the recruiters cannot? Here is my guess. M.O.N.E.Y. Mr Larry Sykes from this post has been outed. He is not just some local crony military dude like they wanted you to believe. He is the freaking Toledo public schools president as noted on this site. What the hell? So he is pushing saying "I think it comes down to dollars and cents for the recruiters," when it smells to me that it is dollars and cents TO THE SCHOOL DISTRICT.

The jackasses that own this press release are a front organization. They are a front for a company called Working Assets, which from this page you find this paragraph (I will hand it to them, they at least put it at the top)

Working Assets was established in 1985 to help busy people make a difference in the world through everyday activities like talking on the phone. Every time a customer uses one of Working Assets' donation-linked services (Long Distance, Wireless and Credit Card), the company donates a portion of the charges to nonprofit groups working to build a world that is more just, humane, and environmentally sustainable. To date, over $47 million has been raised for progressive causes.

Who are these "progressive causes" you say?

Since 1985, Working Assets has generated over $47 million for progressive nonprofits, including Greenpeace, Oxfam America, Rainforest Action Network, Human Rights Watch, Planned Parenthood, ACLU and People for the American Way, among many others.

Each year Working Assets supports nonprofit groups in five categories: Economic & Social Justice, Environment, Civil Rights, Peace & International Freedom and Education and Freedom of Expression. In 2004 alone, Working Assets raised nearly $7 million in donations for worthy causes.

What the hell is this? The ACLU? Jay, get on these guys! We at least have a by proxy link between the ACLU and anti-recruitment now. I am on the asses of the Board of Directors of this working assets place. The first one is Lawrence Litvak. This dood is the manager for Working Assets, and also the treasurer at the Tides Center. Check out how the Tide's Center gets money to all of the people that are left and in power in this country.

The CEO's name is Laura Scher. Her hands touch salesforce.com as well. So if you are planning on using that company, don't. Beth Sawi is also on the board. She is not really a nutjob, that I can find.

Oh wow. Lookie what I found. BuyBlue.org is a website that has a list of all companies that donate to the left. Make sure you take a look at it prior to buying stuff from a new company. They want you to use it to buy blue, but at least you can buy red as well.

I will have to work on this more as the weekend goes along.

More "stay away from my kid!"

2005-06-30T23:04:00.000-05:00

Toledo, OH.

“We have to do a better job because it is essential that parents know their rights,” Larry Sykes said. “I have seen recruiters sway kids with promises of what they can do after they enlist. But once they are in, [the recruiters] have very little or no control over where the student is sent.”

Yep. We do that. We tell them that we cannot give them a guarantee where they will go except for basic training and technical school. but yet, somehow, we are blamed when the kid is a dirtbag. I recieved a phone call from a mother yesterday blaming me that her son was popped on a drug test for marijuana. It is always the easiest to blame the recruiter instead of the family member.

Can any military recruiter out there tell me when they recieved a bonus for putting someone in? Mr Sykes thinks we do...

“I think it comes down to dollars and cents for the recruiters,” Mr. Sykes added.

Talking out of his ass. Typical. And he says that he was prior Army. What a shame.

Sometimes even Generals need to be quiet

2005-06-30T22:58:00.000-05:00

Link

Please do not inflate the media's ego by telling them that recruiting is going to suffer NEXT YEAR. You don't know poo about poo, especially next year's poo.

Favorite line segment:

"It's very important that you and your colleagues use your considerable influence to explain to the American people and to those that are influencers out there how important it is for our young people to serve this nation at a time like this," Schoomaker told the senators.

"Some of us do that every day, general," replied Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a Navy pilot and prisoner of war during Vietnam.

Oh please McCain. You may be a "friend" of the military, but lately you are pushing yourself to the political center. All over a little pissing contest you have with Bush over having your ass kicked in South Carolina and elsewhere in 2000. If you do not watch out, it will happen again when whoever runs with Rove pulls out all of the stops against you. Until you get back in line with the rest of the party you will be labeled a troublemaker.

Happy Mission Day!

2005-06-30T21:28:00.000-05:00

I am going to get down to the nitty gritty with this article. This is an editorial at least. My first problem is that the writer is attacking the President's one line: "To those watching tonight who are considering a military career, there is no higher calling than service in our Armed Forces." I applaud the man for putting the idea out there in such a public manner.

Then the author then puts his uneducated 2 cents in:

How to replenish the ranks during a bloody war with no end in sight? Among the options, each with drawbacks:

-Recruiting more women. Opening more jobs to women would help fill the ranks, but it would also bring women closer to combat. Already, many conservatives say the Army has gone too far, citing incidents such as last week's ambush in Fallujah, where three servicewomen died.

Bring it on. Right now, we have to recruit 7 upper mental group women to get 1 lower female seat. Women have proven themselves. HOWEVER, if you want to play with fire, the female soldier/sailor/marine/airman needs to be held to the EXACT same standards for physical testing including the Physical Readiness exams.

-Lowering standards. Recruiters are already taking more high school dropouts and recruits who score lower on aptitude tests. But research shows such recruits are harder to train, more likely to be discipline problems and less likely to complete their first tours.

The only standard that needs to be removed is the tattoo screening policy. That is the mosasininene policy that we have. We already have low enough standards. However, some of the most driven recruits and S/S/A/M's are in that CAT 4 category or just above. You really cannot judge completely on aptitude, but our standards are low enough.

-Ending anti-gay discrimination. Enlisting openly gay soldiers would mean repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" rule, which has led to 10,000 servicemembers being forced out since 1993. The military and Congress oppose the repeal.

I am no fan of intermingling of homosexual and straight in combat or in the military in general, but we could have an entire division of homosexuals in the Army. I am picturing the scene from South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut with "Operation Get Behind in the Darkies". I do not believe that will happen. If it does, I will paint my recruiting office a nice shade of pink.

-Enlisting more non-citizens. As today's front-page Cover Story relates, thousands of non-citizens are enlisting with the promise of expedited path to U.S. citizenship. A surge in non-U.S. soldiers, however, would give the U.S. military a mercenary flavor.

I only wish we could get Hispanicanic crowd to come in my office. I think that we should ADVERTISE the fast track to citizenship for joining. As a matter of fact, if someone wants to join and they are here illegally, I think they should be able to join under a tempoary work visa. After 2 years of proven service in the military, then gepermanentnent resident status. After 4, US citizen. If you are willing to work for this country, I am willing to work for you and let you work arm in arm with me.

-Raising enlistment incentives. The Army has offered shorter enlistments and is about to ask Congress for approval to raise the top enlistment bonus to $40,000. Money might prove to be the most powerful tool, but that risks having the poor shoulder U.S. battles even more than in past conflicts.

I am so tired of this "the poor are fighting Bush's war" B.S. I have attacked this subject before. If "poor" folks are fighting, it is because they are the only ones willing to fight in the Entitlement Generation. I am "part" of this generation. I got the entitlement knocked out of me. I know that this is part of the class warfare that has spurred the Democratic Party, but why take it to the military? We, the military, are not pawns. IF you do not want the poor fighting the war, pay us more. That then ends the argument. IF the military is paid more, thereby competing with entry level jobs (not just through "incentive packages" which company'spanys do not put a price tag on) people would have a higher propensity to enlist.

This brings me to my last point. This month's unemployment figures are at 5.1%. The last time the Army had troubles recruiting was in the late 90's tech boom when every kid thought and pretty much could get out of high school and work for a dot com. Our unemployment rate Aprilapril 9Januarynuary 99 was from 4.3-4.5%. This was the last time that the army had troubles. Yes, you are right, the war has something to do with getting those that taht "want money for college". But those other booger eaters that only only get entry level jobs for the rest of their days are sticking with changing oil for 20 years and no advancement to even assistant manager instead of talking to a recruiter about the military. One of the disadvantages of pushing for "x million new jobs" is that the new jobs are weighted to the lower end, which it has to be. If a company hired 5 new executives at 100 grand, they could hire 20 new oil changers at 25k. If they hire executives, they get complained (by certain dems) about because they are not focusethen teh little man. And the Dems will then turn and say that the only jobs that are being created are little guy jobs. The same little guys that vote for them.

I hope everyone's mission day was good. If it wasn't, keep charging. It will change with hard work. If you are in charge, give your recruiters a night off.

I have two words for these folks

2005-06-29T22:20:00.000-05:00

Press release

Leave My Child Alone Coalition Urges Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to Start National 'Do Not Call' List for Military Recruiting
Wednesday June 29, 6:00 am ET

BOLINAS, Calif., June 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Leave My Child Alone coalition called on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to establish a National Do Not Call List to safeguard family privacy from unwanted military recruitment.

This initiative is in response to recent revelations that the Pentagon, in violation of the Family Education Right to Privacy Act (FREDA), created and now uses a mega-database of private information on 30 million Americans ages 16 to 25, without anyone's consent. The updated www.leavemychildalone.org web site shows parents how to "Opt Out" of such Pentagon lists.

"Millions applauded when the FCC formed a Do Not Call List for consumers. Now we need the armed forces to create one to protect our children's privacy," says Megan Matson, founder of the Mainstream Moms Operation Blue (the MMOB) and member of LeaveMyChildAlone.org coalition. "The Pentagon has no right to pressure our kids to enlist -- that should be a private, family decision."

While the coalition maintains that such a database of minors shouldn't exist at all in this age of data theft and security breaches, it is committed to providing families with the tools they need to remove their children's information from the military recruitment portion of those lists.

Updated daily and distributed monthly to military recruiters, the mega-database (known as Joint Advertising and Marketing Research and Studies, (or JAMMERS) was consolidated and is managed by a private marketing firm, BeNow Inc., of Wakefield, Mass. The database consists of information such as cell phone numbers, e-mail addresses, height, weight, ethnicity, and areas of study. LeaveMyChildAlone.org coalition believes that by failing to notify and invite public comment before JAMMERS' began in 2002, as required by law, the Pentagon is in violation of the Privacy Act.

Screw you. (MilitantWife edited me to the more pussified saying)

These whiney, candy assed little wimps cannot handle a freaking phone call from one of the most polite, professional salesmen in the WORLD. Hey folks, if you do not scream at us, call us names, or tell us that your kid is going to college when he cannot even spell his name right and he is #141 of 142 graduating in his class, we usually will only call you once in the fall, once in the spring, and once near or just past graduation. If you are an ass you will get more phone calls. We like killing you with kindness. If your kid wants to be in the military and he creates a lead somehow, we will call until YOUR CHILD tells us that he is not interested.

Speaking of JAMMERS, I only WISH I had something like this. No one has any access to what they are talking about.

Oh... the favorite... wait for it...

"The Pentagon has no right to pressure our kids to enlist -- that should be a private, family decision."

(insert whiney tone here) We don't like recruiters! We want this to be an uninformed decision on a career! (/winey tone) Their booger-eating-moron of a son who licks the window of the short bus, has no people or life skills at all who can make a 35 on the ASVAB (or even 31 right now... CAT 4 Baby!) is going to the Univ. of Illinois. I see that happening. He cannot even hear about the advantages of the military. Screw him. Let him bag groceries for the rest of his life and live off of my tax dollars. (disclaimer: bagging groceries is an honorable job for someone 16-20... and I appreciate them immensely)

I am going to put the contact info lady's name just so when she google's her name, I will be the first hit. Felicity Crush Julie Pezzino... see my two words above for you. Unedited.

in a word... Booyah!

2005-06-29T21:55:00.000-05:00

We told you guys that we would get this turd turned around. All of the branches made it this month.

The J.F. Mam's are over. I am sure that the Army is going to inflate it's goals over the next three months to make up their defecit. I hate looking over into the next office and seeing them working so late, but they made their mission early this month and they were just happy as they could be.

My office doubled it's mission attainment this month. That has been a great weight off my shoulders. We are rolling.

Congrats to all of the other recruiters out there!

For all of you in IL miffed by the SCOTUS

2005-06-29T21:18:00.000-05:00

Get on the phone, call Steve Rauschenberger's office tomorrow and tell him that you are behind him and his idea for a bill to limit Government's ability to take your private property for private gain.

His office phone number is 847.622.1049

Thanks to the Peoria Pundit, and by proxy, Rich Miller.

Best Press release EVER!

2005-06-28T19:32:00.000-05:00

From Freestar Media

Press Release

For Release Monday, June 27 to New Hampshire media
For Release Tuesday, June 28 to all other media

Weare, New Hampshire (PRWEB) Could a hotel be built on the land owned by Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter? A new ruling by the Supreme Court which was supported by Justice Souter himself itself might allow it. A private developer is seeking to use this very law to build a hotel on Souter's land.

Justice Souter's vote in the "Kelo vs. City of New London" decision allows city governments to take land from one private owner and give it to another if the government will generate greater tax revenue or other economic benefits when the land is developed by the new owner.

On Monday June 27, Logan Darrow Clements, faxed a request to Chip Meany the code enforcement officer of the Towne of Weare, New Hampshire seeking to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road. This is the present location of Mr. Souter's home.

Clements, CEO of Freestar Media, LLC, points out that the City of Weare will certainly gain greater tax revenue and economic benefits with a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road than allowing Mr. Souter to own the land.

The proposed development, called "The Lost Liberty Hotel" will feature the "Just Desserts Café" and include a museum, open to the public, featuring a permanent exhibit on the loss of freedom in America. Instead of a Gideon's Bible each guest will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged."

Clements indicated that the hotel must be built on this particular piece of land because it is a unique site being the home of someone largely responsible for destroying property rights for all Americans.

"This is not a prank" said Clements, "The Towne of Weare has five people on the Board of Selectmen. If three of them vote to use the power of eminent domain to take this land from Mr. Souter we can begin our hotel development."

Clements' plan is to raise investment capital from wealthy pro-liberty investors and draw up architectural plans. These plans would then be used to raise investment capital for the project. Clements hopes that regular customers of the hotel might include supporters of the Institute For Justice and participants in the Free State Project among others.

# # #

Logan Darrow Clements
Freestar Media, LLC

And the DUH award goes to...

2005-06-24T22:17:00.000-05:00

ABC News!

I must say, just the headline made me want to get up and smack a pollster.

Poll Finds Most Oppose Return to Draft, Wouldn't Encourage Children to Enlist

Hmmm. No one in the military wants a return to the draft! Hell even Donald Rumsfeld does not want a draft! I do not know anyone who wants a draft! My favorite line from this one is:

"...although men, older Americans and Republicans were most likely to say it's a good idea, an AP-Ipsos poll found."

Wait a minute. Most likely? That sounds a little subjective, Don't you think?

Funny.

Draft Counselors are popping back up. This time they are trying to get their hands on the community early.

Oh well.

First day back

2005-06-23T22:05:00.000-05:00

Oh my goodness. I show up and wow. My office was in complete disarray. The recruiters have done a great job pushing themselves further than ever, but they did not do ANY admin.

The first thing that I noticed was the notice on the wall about the Marine recruiter in Washington. Basically it said, watch what you are going.

There was nothing really interesting today with the exception of the "National Database". Hey folks, we already have a database. It is broken down by stations, but instead of a company doing the leg work, we do. National Recruiting will do mass mailouts to every senior we have on file sometime around February, right before Spring Break, peddling phone cards if you call in to get it activated. The only difference is that we have to let each of the other branches know that we put someone in the service. We are all in the same geographic location so it is pretty easy. It saves their time, and our DEP family's time.

I suspect that this is just another ploy to push back the No Child Left behind act. Ah well.

I will let you know more tomorrow. I think that the Militantwife and I are going to go camping this weekend for a little R&R, now that I can enjoy myself off of convalescence leave.

Back from Formula None

2005-06-22T09:45:00.000-05:00

Oh boy. What a weekend.

For starters, my family and I were treated like royalty. We ended up sitting in the terrace suites where they pamper you like no other. We had a police- escorted motorcade to the race in the morning, basically the best tickets money cannot buy, food, drinks, open bar, everything within about 20 feet. It looked to me like this was going to be an "overload weekend" where things are just so good that you end up getting numb to how good you really have it at the moment.

Boy was I wrong.

For all of you NAS(ty)CAR fans out there, F1 is a different breed. These are all prototype cars, where you can have an advantage over the next guy. F1 you cheer for teams by name, drivers by name, not "that #8 car" like I hear so often. It is all competition, all the time. So Michelin showed up with an inferior tire because no teams choose to test in America. Michelin was having trouble keeping their tires from blowing out through turn 13 (or turn 1 for the Indy 500 fans out there) because the speed combined with the banked surface, new track surfacing, etc.

So there we are, sitting through the Formula BMW race, The Corral of Cars were beautiful, and we made it back in time to sit down, turn on the speed channel in the Penthouse to the news. Michelin did not want to race because of turn 13. None of us knew what would happen next.

The parade lap began. Out goes the Bridgestone teams: Ferrari, Minardi and Jordan. Then after about 3 or so minutes, the Michelin teams come out. Toyota first, then Williams, then the rest. The parade laps were over, the Formation came up to the line, and off they went to warm up the tires. Ok we are going to race. Happy boy. Happy Family (not that REALLY bad Chinese Food dish) .They all come around turn 13 and what happens. All of the Michelin teams pull into the pits. At this point it looked like it was going to be a "we are going to change our tires and you cannot do anything about it" so we waited for the green light and all of the teams would fly out of the pits. Um... come on guys. Come out. We finally could get the camera to focus down there and we saw the BAR team taking the cars into the Garage. Oh no. What the hell is going on now?

So we got to see a Ferrari Test Session. Yes there were two other teams out there. But come on, it would be like An Olympian and a Special Olympian with Ferrari and Minardi/ Jordan. No excitement. No anything. It was horrible.

So now the FIA is charging the teams with multiple counts in the Int'l Sporting Court for their actions.
? failed to ensure that they had a supply of suitable tyres for the race
? wrongfully refused to allow their cars to start the race
? wrongfully refused to allow their cars to race, subject to a speed restriction in one corner which was safe for such tyres as they had available
? combined with other teams to make a demonstration damaging to the image of Formula One by pulling into the pits immediately before the start of the race
? failed to notify the stewards of their intention not to race, in breach of Article 131 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.

I must say that I agree with the charges. The teams RUINED the experience for over 100,000 fans at Indy, and millions on millions around the world. I still had a good time. All of the other stuff overshadowed the race. I can always say that I was at the race that No one raced.

Our families are now gone. They all flew back to their respective homes and we are back to normal here. I go back to work tomorrow as well. It will be a bad time. Things have been going well at work lately from what I have heard. I should have a good amount to talk about recruiting wise when I get back in the saddle.

Forwards... the Blog way

2005-06-13T21:40:00.000-05:00

To my surprise this morning, I am now part of the "cool kids". Guy at Snugg Harbor has pinned me with one of these Meme things. I read it as chain letter spam, but I will participate. I have not really thought about this subject before, so without further adieu...

1. What's the last popular tune that got stuck in your head?

Just Be from DJ Tiesto. That is not so terribly popular, but it lives with me, even if I just think about the song... Damn you Guy!!!! Ugh...

2. What popular tunes do you most dread to hear, because they get stuck in your head?

The Zoom-Zoom kid and song from the Mazda Commercials. That freaking jingle just gets in my head and never goes away.

One thing that I do all of the time is sing "The Tonight Show" theme music back when Johnny Carson was hosting it. There was a guy that I worked with that started it and I do it now. Grr!

3. When last you were in a commercial establishment, and their "courtesy" music caused a tune to get stuck in your head:
a. Where were you?
b. What was the tune?
c. Did you complete the transaction you'd gone there for, or did you flee screaming and vowing never to return?

At the local BMW dealership sitting... patiently... waiting for my car to emerge from the back with all of the new goodies attached. I could not tell you what the tune was, but it was hideous. I had to go drool on the show cars (mmmm.... nice cars... also a MB and Porsche dealership) to get the tune out.

4. When last a television commercial caused a tune to get stuck in your head:
a. What was the commercial for?
b. What was the tune?
c. Did you shrug it off, or vow never again to patronize the establishment?

For all of the WLS fans out there: 1-8-7-7 KARS-4-KIDS... K-A-R-S KARS-4-KIDS

I hate that song, yet I sing along with it all of the time. Jake Hartford, the turd on one of the morning weekend shows, is said to be one of the voices on the song. I want to choke him for that. If not, then he loses turd status.

5. What is your usual recourse when a tune gets irritatingly, stubbornly, maddeningly stuck in your head?

Kick and scream until I can get to the nearest radio.

6. What five bloggers would you like to afflict, ah, infect with this meme?

I will be the official killer of this meme...um... forward.

Thanks for playing.

Democrats kicking the draft card again

2005-06-12T18:30:00.000-05:00

I knew it would come to this.

Joseph Biden, the top Democrat of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made the prediction after new data released by the Pentagon showed the US Army failing to meet its recruitment targets for four straight months.

"We're going to have to face that question," Biden said on NBC's "Meet the Press" television show when asked if it was realistic to expect restoration of the draft.

I love it when the draft is brought up. I have such a good plan. The draft is such a good recruiting tool. If you do it right, say... 10,000 people a month. Publicize the piss out of that policy, but do not actually draft anyone. People will line up in droves outside of recruiting stations to get into the branch of choice. All of the recruiting manuals have a section for the Draft.

But while admitting that restoring the draft would be politically "very difficult," Senator Patrick Leahy, the ranking Democrat of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said something will have to be done because the situation with recruitment was not likely to improve.

"If you think you have trouble getting recruits today, you're going to have far more trouble six months from now," Leahy predicted on CBS's "Face the Nation" program. "It is not going to get better. That's going to get worse."

Anyone remember Campaign 2004 when Kerry kept pushing the back Door Draft issue? I love it now. Only the Legislature can turn on the draft. I am certain that it will not happen. They will keep throwing money at it. That is the Governments way. They will cut the bonuses for the Navy and Air Force because they are doing ok now, but that will push them to issues later on. Here is an interesting thought... oh... snap...

The army, navy and marine corps reserves also fell short of their monthly goals by 18 percent, six percent and 12 percent respectively, according to the figures.

Recruitment at the Army National Guard was down 29 percent while the Air National Guard fell short 22 percent.

According to the office mates, the Navy Reserve has been WAY worse until the active and Reserve Navy came together. The Marine Reserves are doing ok, just a bad month, and the Army Reserve is plagued with the same issues. The Army and Reserve look the same and on the street, the entitlement kids will not talk to them. The National Guard and Air NG get a Yearly quota vice a Monthly. The NG usually makes their yearly mission somewhere around April-May.

Any one ever notice that Bin Laden mixed together would be Biden? Just a thought.

Journalist sticking to her guns

2005-06-10T22:30:00.000-05:00

He...He.... He...

I must say that this woman has Gov. Blago's "Testicular fortitude". The lady who wrote the article that charged me up yesterday, is defending her story.

Her defense is based off a few e-mails that ran the gamete from the recruiters were right to recruiters should be banned. The loudest critics were Gregory Gadow and Ted Fitch, a website designer for MJM and Associates.

With feelings about military recruiters in our high schools running hot, many, Gregory Gadow, Ted Fitch and others included, called for action against the recruiters (who did not return requests for interviews), for going beyond the call to fill their quotas.

Here is my favorite section of her article.

They accused the teen, his mother, and the other relatives and friends who witnessed pieces of Axel's experience of lying. They called the boy a wimp and worse. And, without knowing anything about her, they called his mother a control freak for tracking her boy to Seattle and, with her daughter's help, springing him from the testing center.

She did not actually say anything rebutting the statements made in her e-mail. From the outside, driving a far distance to get your kid from doing what he wanted seems a little controlling. The boy could be a wimp. He might be a wimp. He had his mom, at the very least, tell the recruiters that he was not interested. That to me is not masculine. Which in male form, could be defined as a WIMP.

He had to run away from his own mother to join the Marines and so did his son, wrote Michael G. Jackson, Col., USMC (retired). Who signed off with: "If you can read this, thank a teacher. If it's in English, thank a U.S. Marine."

You can see from her writing the last line of that paragraph that she does not understand how the Military works, does not appreciate it and wants nothing to do with the military.

I am sick:

And, after 12 years as a U.S. Army recruiter, Lonnie Dotson offered these tips (assuming that the teen truly does not want to join):

"Call the recruiting station commander, the recruiters' commanding officer and/or the command sergeant major and complain.

Hmmm... All ours will do is send down an e-mail saying "good job, but cool your jets a little"

Call or write your elected official -- the military will drop everything to respond.

I will Smack you in an instant for that one. Let me tell you one thing... if you pull that with one recruiter, we have ways... oh do we have ways... lead cards are easy to create. I will go to Army.com, Navy.com, Airforce.com, 1-800-go-guard.com, marines.com, gocoastguard.com, and put your name, address and phone number into each. That is 6 hungry recruiters that will call you and call you. Oh, and don't forget changing the zip code... then you have different cities recruiters calling you.

Fail the written test on purpose.

Can't do anything about that one.

Fail the physical, tell the recruiters you take mind-altering drugs, or that you're a convicted felon waiting for your parole to finish.

We verify... Especially if you are a lead.

And lastly, call a reporter."

I hope you call one of my local reporters. They are usually taken out for lunch at least once a month by at least one of the services. We like to have as many people on our side as we can... they are called Centers of Influence. This recruiter needs his ass kicked. It seems as if he is a favorite of the Seattle News Media. Dotson however served VERY honorably in Vietnam, so his ass only needs to be kicked... a little.

We then find out that Axel is staying at home at Community College. WIMP. WUSSASS.

I love that word.