Moar Naval Aviation pr0n!

A friend of mine is on board the USS Nimitz which is currently deployed in support of the war in Afghanistan. He sent these pictures a few days ago. Click to embiggen the pics but be warned these are margin busters!

Isn't that blue camo just cool as hell?

ACORN Voter Fraud again!

Breitbart has the story again!

Dozens of forged and fraudulent absentee ballots from people registered to vote on the Working Families Party line were filed in the Sept. 15 primary elections in Troy.

Documents at the county Board of Elections show the fraudulent ballots were handled by or prepared on behalf of various elected officials and leaders and operatives for the Democratic and Working Families parties.

There may be as many as 50 absentee ballots that were forged, according to people close to the case. Countywide, there were 126 absentee ballots applied for on the Working Families Party line.

The Times Union story is here.

It's time for the Congress to step up and demand a full scale, nationwide investigation of ACORN. There is good reason to fear that ACORN stole Norm Coleman's seat for Al Franken since the winning margin was less than 400 votes. There is reason to believe that this tactic for voter fraud has been used nationwide to steal seats at all levels of government for left wing candidates. Likewise the justice department needs to engage in investigating and prosecuting everyone involved with this corruption at ACORN, regardless of how politically connected they are. If that trail of corruption leads to the White House so be it.

Mr. Obama has attempted to distance himself from ACORN but it just won't work. His touted "community organizer" work was with ACORN. His campaign supplied ACORN with millions of dollars. Was that money spent to create fraudulent votes in favor of the President? Stanley Kutz has detailed the close working relationship between the White House and ACORN and ACORN affiliates:

With the revelation that White House Director of Political Affairs, Patrick Gaspard, has close ties to Bertha Lewis and to ACORN, Mattew Vadum and Erick Erickson appear to be onto something significant. While the Gaspard matter needs further investigation before we form any hard conclusions, it certainly seems to confirm that President Obama’s ties to a whole series of ACORN-controlled organizations are neither minor nor by any means long-past. In fact, making use of what Erickson and Vadum have discovered about Gaspard, we can trace these links still further.

This type of fraud undermines our republic and threatens to tear this country apart. Only shining the light of a full scale investigation, unencumbered by political interference can begin to heal the wound.

Amateur hour in Honduras

The President and his Secretary of State have made some bonehead moves but this one boggles the mind. When Honduras President Zelaya violated the law in his country, making moves that are more than reminiscent of Hugo Chavez's takeover of Venezuela, he lost the support of his party, the Catholic Church, the judiciary and a significant percentage of the public. The military escorted him out of the country in order to preserve the rule of law. Astonishingly the US administration backed Mr. Zelaya rather than the rule of law. They're playing with fire.

Honduras is a strong democratic ally of the US in Central America, something we don't have in surplus. Since his removal Mr. Zelaya has demonstrated that he's all but batshit crazy, ranting from his Brazilian lair.

It's been 89 days since Manuel Zelaya was booted from power. He's sleeping on chairs, and he claims his throat is sore from toxic gases and "Israeli mercenaries'' are torturing him with high-frequency radiation.

 Zelaya rants from the security of the Brazilian Embassy while his followers wreak havoc on the streets.

After several weeks of relative peace and calm in Honduras − and no curfews, despite what the international media consistently misreports − former president Mel Zelaya returned to Honduras Monday and instigated violence again.

Virtually every private car in the area of the Brazilian Embassy where Zelaya is hiding was damaged by breaking out some or all of the windows and ruining the tires. Ironically, Mel Zelaya's own mother's car was parked on the street and was likewise vandalized.

Private homes in the area were broken into and robbed. Citizens were assaulted. Death threats were sprayed unto neighbors' walls. Mountains of trash were strewn in the streets.

At least one woman's house was completely ransacked, robbed, and her two employees were terrorized. The Zelayistas smoked marijuana as they destroyed and smashed everything in her house up to and including the ceilings, doors, and windows − the video of her home shown on the news was horrifying. Other neighbors were terrorized, assaulted, threatened with rape, and forced to prepare food by the rioters while they were being robbed. Numerous citizens called the police about home invasions.

Despite this the US has continued to back Mr. Zelaya insisting that he be reinstated. Since then our brilliant leadership has cut off aid, denied visas to Honduras' independent judiciary, threated their assets and threatened to refuse to recognize elections scheduled for later this year. How astonishing this must seem to the average Honduran citizen who would have thought the US would have been supportive of our ally as they enforced their laws.

The Obama administration is backing the Hugo Chavez's leftist ally Zelaya at the expense of democratic rule in Honduras. It's enough to make you shake your head and wonder just what exactly is the underlying political philosophy that drives this administration and how will this manifest itself in our lives?

Naval Aviation pr0n

Back when fish was young I flew in the E-2B Hawkeye during my short career in the USN. Despite the awkward looks of the airframe I loves me a good photo of the aircraft. This is the brand new E-2D model.

World record Pike?

We all get emails that have been forwarded all over the place, usually they are one of several types

1. isn't life wonderful group hug stuff
2. OMG check out this hoax
3. full of photoshopped stuff
4. quotable quotes attributed to the wrong person

I got this one yesterday. If it's real this is the mother of all northern pike.

This is NOT a fish story !

This is a new record Northern Pike in Canada . He caught it on Rainy Lake. Check this thing out.. The man (in the photos below), was fishing and caught a 36" Pike. As he was reeling it in, a 56" - 55 lb Pike tried to eat it !!!!! He landed them both in the same net. The last picture is unreal.

I'm not holding my breath

After months of outrage from the talking heads, those who are supposed to be reporting the news, and their associates who merely comment on the news (and it's getting pretty difficult to tell the news from the commentary anymore) we finally have some actual activists engaging in violent anti-government activity and the news is poo-poo it all and the condemnation from the left is curious, where it isn't celebratory (Huffington Post, Daily KOS) it's rife with excuses for the violence or dominated by utter silence.

I'm talking about the G20. Like all gatherings of the various G groups the left is out in force, hiding their faces, vandalizing everything and begging to have their asses kicked and arrested. This gathering is no different. Many of these professional protesters are actually paid to attend, unlike the participants of the tea parties.

But the most amusing theme to come out of this is the so-called military arrest that's gone viral on you tube.


Drudge picked it up immediately and reported it as a military arrest. OMG it's the end of the universe as we violate posse comitatus and destroy the republic. Smart and observant folk at places like Blackfive were quick to point out these folks aren't military and originally suspected the entire thing was a hoax. In fact it appears these are just police in camo carrying out their duties to round up these anarchist hippies when they violate the law. Good job!

No doubt as the G20 meetings continue we'll see more violence and while I'd love to see and hear the press condemn this left wing violence, I'm not holding my breath. I'm sure we'll continue to hear plenty about all those racists that oppose the financial destruction of the US that the Congress and President are implementing.

No good deed goes unpunished

Apparently this is official now. Acorn is suing James O’Keefe, Hannah Giles and Andrew Breitbart’s Breitbart.com apparently for exposing rampant corruption. So as the Government backs away from this corruption, and Obama conveniently forgets they exist, Acorn doubles down with their lawyers to punish the whistle blowers. I just love the smell of corruption when it first sees the light of day. 


For those who wish to help out you can donate to their legal defense here.


Meanwhile the LA Times tells us that Acorn is even more committed to organize:

And some of the office's 9,000 members say the attacks have pushed them to work harder on behalf of the group.

"They haven't hurt us like they think they did," said Daniel Leary, a member who helps lead ACORN's Foreclosure Fighters, a group that assists people facing eviction. "Our anger makes us more focused. Now we know the mission at hand."

 Memo to Acorn, when you lose Barney Frank, your 'mission' is failing...

Do you feel safer now?

As the FBI and various agencies pursue the latest bunch of jihadis around the country and issue warnings our mass transit facilities are on alert for suspicious behavior. 

Officials with the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI sent a bulletin to transit agencies Friday repeating past warnings to be on guard for attacks on mass transit systems, and identifying hydrogen peroxide-based explosives as a specific risk. Federal officials called the notice "precautionary", and said it included possible countermeasures such as random checks of stations, trains and buses.

Michelle Malkin gives us this update on some little publicized changes at Amtrack's counter terror office

According to multiple government sources who declined to be identified for fear of retribution, OSSSO’s East Coast and West Coast teams have not worked in a counterterrorism capacity since the summer. Their long-arms were put under lock and key after the abrupt departures of Amtrak vice president for security strategy and special operations Bill Rooney and Amtrak Inspector General Fred Weiderhold.

Weiderhold played an instrumental role in creating OSSSO’s predecessor at Amtrak, the Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU). He tapped Rooney to oversee the office. But Rooney was quietly given the “thank you for your service” heave-ho in May and Weiderhold was unexpectedly “retired” a few weeks later — just as the government-subsidized rail service faced mounting complaints about its meddling in financial audits and probes.

You can read then entire tale of political meddling and political cronyism at Malkin's website.

Do you feel safer now that US foreign policy is in such well nuanced hands?

Stone's Levitation Ale

I tried this last weekend. After finishing up a six I'm going to say I like this ale, I like it very much. This is a smooth ale with a decent hoppy flavor but unlike other offerings like their Ruination Ale it's not overly hopped and unlike Ruination it won't set you back $16 a sixer.

You can read more at Stone's website  or beer advocate.

Flying Fish rates this 8.5 of 10. Very nice indeed!

Crowder Does UCBerkeley

These are the leaders of tomorrow? OMG!

McChrystal to resign?

So much for Obama's 'good war'.

There's an excellent article written by Bill Roggio here

http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2009/09/mcchrystal_to_resign_if_not_gi.php

Remember Obama once wrote these words during his campaign:

Senator McCain said - just months ago - that "Afghanistan is not in trouble because of our diversion to Iraq." I could not disagree more. Our troops and our NATO allies are performing heroically in Afghanistan, but I have argued for years that we lack the resources to finish the job because of our commitment to Iraq. That's what the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said earlier this month. And that's why, as President, I will make the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban the top priority that it should be. This is a war that we have to win.


http://www.barackobama.com/2008/07/15/remarks_of_senator_barack_obam_96.php


Now Obama is demonstrating a lack of focus and commitment in this war, a "war that we have to win".

Edit: This says what I've been thinking far more articulately than I can. 

Not the best fall fishing I ever had...

I departed right after I posted the other day. Stopped in Oxford and picked up groceries and headed over to NH. Going through Grafton Notch I hit low clouds and rain, the tops of the mountains were in the soup so I didn't shoot any pics there. Arrived at John's camp to find it locked, the next door neighbor was supposed to open it up. So I left the cooler full of food on the back deck and headed over to the Androscoggin. I first stopped at the Gage House pool and chatted up a nice old dood who was in the process of climbing out of his suit and into his waders. Turned out he had deployed to Vietnam in the late 1960's as an AW2 with VP-11. I finally left him to the gage house and drove around to the other side of the river to fish. Suited up and walked down to the river. 

Three casts and I had a nice rainbow about 12" or so. Here's a shot of the water:

The wind was trying to be a total pain in the ass and it was scattered showers just to keep things interesting. Here's the VP-11 dood working his way down the other side

He was throwing a weighted nymph and taking fish fairly regularly. 

About 5:30 or so the sun dropped below the trees and the fish shut right off. I had caught about a dozen fish, all but two of them were rainbows, with the largest about 14-15". The other two fish were landlocked salmon. Not bad for a short afternoon of dry fly fishing. 

So I headed back to camp and it was unlocked so I unloaded and put the food away. I read a book and dozed while sipping an Oaked Arrogant Bastard until John arrived about 8PM. We made some grub, drank beer and listened to the winds howling outside. It didn't bode well for Saturday. 

Saturday morning when we got up we had gale force winds. So after a nice breakfast of sausage and eggs I helped John put 5 bundles of roofing down on his garage. Once that was done we packed a lunch and drove over to Pittsburg, NH to see what was going on with the Upper Connecticut River; we were especially interested in looking over the so-called trophy sections between the lakes. Here's a few shots of that area.

here's where the river dumps into Lake Francis

and a shot down the lake

The lake is low because they drain them every fall to make it easier to manage the winter precipitation

The wind was howling and every place we stopped and looked the good pools were full of fishermen so we decided to take a different route back to Colebrook. Along the way I shot this tractor pr0n. That's quite a collection!

We walked in where I had fished the day before and fished for about 2 hours. I caught one rainbow 10-12" and lost another bigger fish. John didn't catch a thing. So we headed back to camp, made a bunch of hot wings and drank beer while we watched the Big Lebowski, that being a kind of a ritual for these trips. 

This morning it was bitter, 28 when I got out of bed. So we ate breakfast and I packed up. On the way out I stopped and fished the gage house pool for about an hour, no fish were moving and when the winds came up I said the heck with it and headed for home. On the way back I shot this pic of Grafton Notch.

As always you can click to embiggen the pics...

Back in a few days!

Battledog Galaticat!

Battledog Galacticat from guyzzer on Vimeo.

I know it is wrong but I can't stop laughing

moar guitar pr0n

This late 1970's Tokai belongs to my good friend Larry who runs his own website devoted to Japanese Vintage (JV) strats over at 21 Frets. Drop by and check it out.

click to embiggen!

immaculate!

Jimmy Carter steps in it again

No longer content to be remembered as the worst President of the 20th Century Jimmy Carter continues in his bid to be remembered as the worst ex-President of all time. It may be a new millennium but this is the same old Carter.

When historians look back on the Carter Presidency I have little doubt they will see a political lightweight, completely out of his depth; the man who ended up being a doormat for every tin pot maniac with an axe to grind against the US. Despite his stunning ineptitude I once admired Carter's post Presidential work with Habitat for Humanity, and though that it redeemed in part, his abysmal performance as President. It was Carter's lack of a strong response to the Iranian Revolution that is directly responsible for the rise of radical Shite Islam. Carter engaged in endless indirect negotiation with the Iranians as they blatantly disregarded international diplomatic law, and commited scores of war crimes against our embassay personnel. The disasterously embarassing rescue attempt reflects on how poorly the CIA performed under his watch. A weak and ineffective man, Carter has spent the last several years showing respect to radical Islam at the cost of his own integrity. Carter wrote an exceptionally one sided and dishonest book about the middle east conflict, a book that helped to undermine US efforts in negotiating a peace settlement at the time it was published (not that I have any faith that a peaceful settlement can be reached then or now). His constant harping against the country of his birth is standard fare for the US loathing left. Consistently throughout his career Carter has shown himself to be just another political poltroon who values rhetoric over the truth. In Carter's world ideology trumps facts.

Once apon a time in this fine republic of ours political disagreement was not only acceptable but expected as an inherent part of the political process; a process where the grand machinations of discussion, debate, and compromise frequenly combined to produce results that carried the highest political endorsement possible, the consent of the governed. Now after 8 years of listening to the left prattle on about how "dissent is the highest form of patriotism" we've entered a new era. Obama's "post-racial" era, that new aquarian age where Obama unites one and all and dissent can no longer found. Dissent can no longer be found because the left has decided that it is tratorous, racist and must be suppressed by any means possible. Carter's senile ranting is right in step with this new meme. Welcome to the new world my brothers, now sit down shut up because "I won". Having confused winning the election with a mandate to ascend the throne of the Americas, Obama and his supporters have little tolerance for dissent and are using their most treasured tactic, the cry of racism, as the opening ploy in their rush to discredit and silence all opposition. It's bad enough that the news media, still basking in the glow of the electorial coup they pulled off in 2008, for the most part still continue to cast anything and everything critical of the current administration as racist, but now this pool senile fool Carter has stepped up to take the spotlight by repeating these dishonest and dispicable slurs. Shame on you Jimmy Carter! Shame on the press for taking advantage of Mr. Carter in his dotage by airing these ludicrious statements. Shame on all of us if we continue to tolerate this divisive behavior on the part of Obama and his supporters.

Now Mr. Gibbs has announced that President Obama doesn't agree with Mr. Carter. This too is standard Obama fare, his shock troops make the allegations and when those allegations cross the line Mr. Obama deftly distances himself from them. We saw this play out throughout the campaign and I expect we'll see it again in the future.

I hope that Mr. Carter and his handlers decide that he's done enough (damage) for one lifetime and that he retires and enjoys a peaceful dotage out of the spotlight. Mr. Carter please do us all one this one last service, shut up and go home, perhaps you could do some rabbit hunting?

a spot of summer fun

This is my friend Andy who came over from the UK to visit and sample a bit of smallmouth bass fishing.



We did a 6 mile drift on the Androscoggin River and had a terrific time though the fishing was a bit slow in spots we both caught a few and had a decent time of it. Of course once we pulled off the river it was time to sample some of Maine's finest microbrew and head home for a lobster feast.

Forgive the spotty camera work, I took this with my Konica Dimage Z5 which is actually a still camera.

War on drugs = fail

I've long been a critic of the war on drugs. It looks to me like a civil war against your neighbors and their children and possibly even your own children. The police have become increasingly militarized, confiscatory laws provide law enforcement with profit incentives for arrest and convictions, the collateral damage seems intolerably high and in essence all we've accomplished is to provide a government price support mechanism. I found this article in New Scientist interesting despite the lack of depth.

SO FAR this year, about 4000 people have died in Mexico's drugs war - a horrifying toll. If only a good fairy could wave a magic wand and make all illegal drugs disappear, the world would be a better place.

Dream on. Recreational drug use is as old as humanity, and has not been stopped by the most draconian laws. Given that drugs are here to stay, how do we limit the harm they do?

The evidence suggests most of the problems stem not from drugs themselves, but from the fact that they are illegal. The obvious answer, then, is to make them legal.

The argument most often deployed in support of the status quo is that keeping drugs illegal curbs drug use among the law-abiding majority, thereby reducing harm overall. But a closer look reveals that this really doesn't stand up. In the UK, as in many countries, the real clampdown on drugs started in the late 1960s, yet government statistics show that the number of heroin or cocaine addicts seen by the health service has grown ever since - from around 1000 people per year then, to 100,000 today. It is a pattern that has been repeated the world over.

You can read the whole thing here: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327251.100-better-world-legalise-drugs.html

Pedros

Posting from Afghanistan Michael Yon put up a new post today and it's one of his best ever. If you're not familiar with his work, you are in for a surprise he's one of the best. 


http://www.michaelyon-online.com/pedros.htm


Remember he survives on contributions, if you like his stuff consider hitting the tip jar. 

It's that time again!

One of the best things about fall is that in the fall Gritty's releases my favorite seasonal, Halloween Ale.

This is the nectar of the gods folks! If you don't live near a Gritty's then you're missing out.

So hello and here we go. Who am I and what am I doing here?

I'm a middle aged IT guy, USN vet, guitar player with a serious love for all things that come with 6 strings, especially if they say stratocaster on them, fly fishing fool, libertarian leaning fiscal conservative, father of 2 (one of each) and computer gamer.

First lets talk about IT. I've been a VAX/VMS system admin, a UNIX system admin, a network (wan/lan) manager, a data center manager, a programmer and an Oracle DBA. Its not as glamorous as it used to be (if it ever was glamorous) its not as exciting as it used to be, but it pays the bills.

In the USN I was an AT2/NAC what they used to call an E-2 Flight Tech or Radar Operator. I flew off the USS Ranger, USS Enterprise and USS Nimitz. I always like a spot of Naval Aviation pr0n.

This picture was taken at Lossiemouth Scotland in January of 1978. 

I've played in bands off and on most of my life from high school until the past few years. I'd love to get a blues band going but my current job isn't conducive to that type of commitment and where I live doesn't have many venues that you can leverage, even if all you want to accomplish in playing is a boys night out and enough cash to make beer change. I've currently got a nice collection of instruments, and I'll be showing them off from time to time.

I'm appalled by the current deficit spending going on these days and fear we're going to suffer through a great deal more before the boneheads of both parties in DC and elsewhere realize you can just spend without limits.

 I've got two kids from a previous marriage, a daughter 23 and a son 21. Despite my best efforts to the contrary they both turned out to be responsible adults. Go figure. Miracles do happen.

Where to start with gaming? I love combat flight simulations, starting back on my commodore 64 playing F-15 right up through today (Rise of Flight, IL-2) I've always had a joystick and a flight sim installed. I also liked a few strategy games, most notably Total Annihilation. I spent about 2 years playing Eve Online as a member of the Morsus Mihi Alliance, but eventually I got bored with the endless BOB wars and parked my characters. If you know Eve then you know about the war, if you don't but are interested google is your friend.

I live in central Maine, and that brings me to fly fishing. I've been fly fishing since about 1980-81. I tie my flies, I've built many of my rods, and I've dubbed about with restoring old bamboo rods.

There is nothing more gratifying than casting a fly you've tied, on a rod you wrapped to a wild trout and catching and releasing the fish. Which brings me to this fine picture of my buddy Frank taken one morning on the Androscoggin River.

I need to get out and fish more. Don't we all?