Far East Cynic

When they bicker about stupid stuff and in the process fuck away the next election.

My Canadian counterpart, has written an insightful post about how the Republicans evolved into the Rethuglican party. Reading his post, it makes me glad I am no longer a Rush Limbaugh listener (and have not been for quite a while).

I mean think about it. In a perfect world McCain would be a logical successor to Ronald Reagan and should be a no brainer as a choice to kick Hillary’s ass in November. Instead, the petty boneheads who pretend to speak for the party-continue to snipe at McCain because he dared to think his own thoughts:

McCain is not only not conservative enough,” writes David Limbaugh, Rush’s brother, “he has also built a reputation as a maverick by stabbing his party in the back–not in furtherance of conservative principles but by betraying them.”Like so many McCain critics, Limbaugh turned to former Senator Rick Santorum–”whose conservative credentials are beyond question”–as an expert witness. “I don’t hardly agree with him on hardly any issues,” Santorum said.

Rick Santorum-the former useless piece of excrement Senator from my home state, hardly constitutes a reliable source of information. He’s a worthless hypocrite and a pompous bastard.

I agree with Skippystalin when he says, “watching him lose was one of the highlights of my life.”

Seems to me that if Santorum does not like you-that’s the best endorsement of why McCain is the man to vote for.

In the post , the other Skippy highlights all the flawed reasons why these boneheads don’t like McCain:

Which brings us back to John McCain. An article in The Weekly Standard illustrates perfectly how these lemmings think.

There are other concerns, many of them well known. McCain did not support George W. Bush’s tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 and often used left-wing class warfare arguments to voice his opposition. Rather than simply fight for conservative jurists, McCain joined the so-called Gang of 14 that sought to find compromise on judicial appointments. He led Senate opposition to Bush administration policies on detainee interrogation, practices that even administration critics acknowledge have prevented potentially catastrophic attacks. Then there was illegal immigration. And campaign finance reform.

Add them up, the critics argue, and you have John McCain, the Anti-Conservative.
Let’s address these “concerns” one by one, shall we?

This is the point where you pause and go read the counterarguements to that one by one.

At which point, if you have half a brain, you come to the same conclusion that he does:

In a perfect world, John McCain would run as an independent and destroy the Republican party once and for all. McCain is starting to look like a battered housewife who won’t leave because she sees every punch to the head as an expression of love. It’s actually starting to get disturbing.I have no illusions that an independent McCain candidacy would actually win, but it would serve to draw anyone with any common sense in the GOP to leave with him. Let the stupid pricks become modern Whigs like they’ve been aching to do for about 15 years now.I’m at the point where it doesn’t really matter to me one way or the other if the Democrats become a permanent majority in the United States. The only difference between Republicans and Democrats are the retarded fantasies they embrace as ideology.

I think that we can all safely stop pretending that the GOP is still the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Barry Goldwater, or even Ronald Reagan.

Even at his worst, Reagan at least had some grounding in reality. President Reagan never would have invaded a country the size of California with six guys and a fucking deer rifle, then blamed everyone else when it didn’t work out like it did in their feverish dreams. Reagan would never have given away the entire treasury in unwise tax cuts while going on the biggest spending spree since the New Deal, and he sure as shit wouldn’t have done it when the country was fighting two wars. Reagan would have seen insolent fucking thieves like Randy Cunningham and Tom DeLay and kicked them in the balls, not taken them to his bosom.

And if you point any of those things out, you just aren’t a conservative anymore. You’re a RINO, or something even worse.

You know what? Fuck them. I’m well past the point of even trying to understand why any half smart adult would want any part of the party of Terri Schiavo. They don’t even pretend to be the party of small government anymore, so consumed are they with literally waking the dead and hating fags and Mexicans.

Kind of says it all-except for the fag thing. I still don’t like them or Arabs. Oh wait, we are talking apples and apples.

Can’t win them all. I hope McCain kicks ass today.

I comment on a lot of other blogs-where :1)support for the war in Iraq is quite pronounced and 2) they love President Bush. Skippystalin finally helped me find my voice:

There are any number of delusional Republican asshole bloggers who constantly whine about “Bush Derangement Syndrome,” as if there’s actually something deranged about hating President Bush. These are the same idiots who see this administration spreading anarchy throughout the Middle East and call it democracy.

Unless of course you are Saudia Arabia-then you get a pass.

His final quote sums it up pretty well if you ask me:

It appears that battle lines are being drawn. On one side, you have Henry Kissinger, General Norman Schwarzkopf, Tom Coburn, Richard Allen, Jack Kemp and Joe Lieberman. On the other you have Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Rick fucking Santorum and 90% of the inbred mutants in the conservative blogosphere.

I know which side I’m on.

Nuff said.

About Iraq.

This post, over at Lex’s place kind of set me off.  Quoting from an article in the New York Post which summarizes Saddam’s mindset as related to what he thought the US would do in the lead up to the invasion. 

Piro, a Lebanese-American and one of the few FBI agents who spoke Arabic, was assigned to debrief Saddam after his December 2003 capture. He ended up spending seven months in the interviews, winning the dictator’s confidence along the way.

When it became clear that the US military was about to come marching in, Saddam asked his generals if they could hold the coalition off for two weeks, “and at that point, it would go into what he called the secret war” – a reference to the insurgency.

Even then, the Butcher of Baghdad still wouldn’t admit that he had no WMDs.

“For him, it was critical that he was seen as still the strong and defiant Saddam,” said Piro. “He thought that [faking having the weapons] would prevent the Iranians from reinvading Iraq.”

The two countries fought a bitter war from 1980 to 1988 that took over 1 million lives.

And Piro tells CBS correspondent Scott Pelley that Saddam still had the resources and intentions to restart the weapons program.

“[Saddam] still had the engineers. The folks that he needed to reconstitute his program are still there,” said Piro. “He wanted to pursue all of WMD . . . to reconstitute his entire WMD program.”

According to Piro, the “entire program” included chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

There is a subtext here that just really bothers me, and as you read blogs that support the war in Iraq it always comes through with a thought like this: “See, we were right to go into Iraq. Even if Saddam had no WMD’s he wanted them and that was reason enough. Now that the surge is succeeding it makes it all right that we have been tied down Iraq for years and years. Victory will be ours!”

It bothers me for several reasons.

First, its clear Saddam was a bad guy. And that he badly fiddled with his country’s future. However he’s not the only such person in the world-he had plenty of company. And still does. So what was it that made him worthy of special consideration?

Here is where the WMD’s come in. He could not be allowed to have them. Even though, Iraq was a soverign nation, however badly misgoverned, and from an Iraqi standpoint it actually made a certain amount of sense-they were a deterent effect on Iraq’s two biggest enemies Iran and the United States.

Now comes the neo con doctrine of pre-emption. Basically, the United States appropriates unto itself the right to divine intention and if judged to have intentions that would threaten the US , then it gives the US the right to invade you first. OK fine-however why does it come as an open ended commitment?

Which, if you listen carefully to all the politicians on the Republican side is exactly what they are saying we have-year after year of American troops serving in that hell hole. What really makes me mad is hearing it compared to Korea or Japan. What a crock of U-know -what.

First, the Koreans and Japanese actually built countries that work. Second they pay a lot of the bill for our presence. Third they have women we can date and beer we can drink-and even at that- the US is trying to get both nations to take more responsibility for their own defense. Plus the total number of troops in all the other locations does not equal what we have committed to Iraq.

My position on Iraq comes down to one sentence: “Fuck the Iraqis!”.

Screw them and their worthless religion, their stupid tribalism, their wierd dirty clothing and all that goes with it. Its the 21st century-the US is in a competitive market now and it has to do what is right for itself. And no matter what amount of effort we expend-the Arabs are not, and will not be our friends. Ever. Their purpose and reason for existence is to sell the west oil and , was until the 1950′s, to be ruled by Europeans for their own protection.

When they abandon Islam and let women wear the mini-skirt come talk to me. Till then, I have very little hope for them.

Unlike Japan and Korea, there is no clear cut victory in Iraq. Even if Iraq settles down tomorrow, it has yet to show the wherewithal to exist as anything but another third world country. It should tell us all something that the most advanced nations in the region are monarchies.

And in the end we will have given them a modern army, with no guarantee that it will not be misused when another strongman will come to power-something I predict will occur in a few years.

So yea, I’m worried about the economy. However make no mistake about it-I’m going to think hard when I vote this year about who will get us out of this useless excuse of Arabia.

Saddam is gone, our work is done. If we want to stay in the middle east, we at least should have the decency to pay the bill-by making the Army 800,000 MEN. However you will notice John, I love the war McCain has not yet publically accepted that fact. He even denied it in the debate in S.C.

He said he knew of no generals who were saying the armed forces needed to be bigger.

Guess he does not listen to the Army Chief of Staff.

But Mc Cain has company in that neither does the President.

Here endeth the rant.

Note to self. When someone invites you to go out with Korean counterparts-just say no!

I’m moving very slowly this morning, a result of a combination beer, scotch, soju and wine induced mother of all hangovers. This came from what was supposed to be (or so I was told) just a dinner to celebrate the upcoming lunar new year. No one told me that there would be mandatory shots and since when does one take 18 year old scotch and use it as a boilermaker?

Hillary the whore is on TV right now. Trying to explain why she is a loser. That probably makes me feel not so good also.

God, it is cold here! Weather has been good, but the cold is just biting. Even here in my room, I’m still not really warm.

Work is OK-however when tempered by the knowledge that I’m not going to keep doing this for all this year it is hard to stay focused. The crop of USAF guys I’m working with this time around are more reasonable than last time however which is nice. One guy I’m working with just found out he was selected to be a Wing Vice Commander so he was pretty happy today. He’d said yes to everything we asked for.

Watching the news has been interesting, although truth to tell-I’m tired of BOTH Hillary and Obama. The Republicans are not blowing my skirt either. Watching snippets of the debate today while working-I found it interesting that McCain was asked a question about how the Army needed to be expanded to support his multi year occupation of loserville Iraq-he totally ignored the question. Just repeated the tired old trip of how the troops want to be allowed to win. I know more than a few who just want to know when they can start going someplace else besides the sandbox.

Gotta run now to dinner. I’m in a lousy mood tonight-for no real good reason. There is always OB though to fix my bad mood.

Its Korea-what else?

Actually, a big part of my lack of posting is working on personal issues for myself.  Regular buffoonery will return soon.

However I would kill for some good commercials. Basically watching AFN here, I have learned that : Sexual assault is a crime and you will be punished. (No Sh*t!) But why do I have to be told so every 15 minutes?

Servicemen gamble to much.

Sexual harassment is all about what the women think. And it happens all the time.

And spouses get beaten all the time.

Its a wonder anything gets done over here. Yet the military does a lot of great work over here. How do you think it happens with all this sex , drinking and gambling going on?

Enquiring minds want to know!

Let’s see. Wake up early so I can get to the airport. While moving suitcase from its stand in my hotel room(said suitcase is heavy from carrying winter items for Korea), accidentally bump lamp. Lamp slips off table and cracks when it hits the floor. Go down to main desk to get the clerk to come up and see how it happened so we don’t get into a pissing contest later.

All this occurs while CNN is on, with the cheery news that “World Stock Markets tanked yesterday because no likes GWB’s stimulus plan. US Stock market on holiday-expect major drop on opening”.

Or words to that effect.

Taxi driver takes his sweet time getting to Changi airport. Thus getting ready to rush to gate.

And they are predicting snow flurries in Seoul.

It just does not get any better than this!

Lots to blog about -no time. However I did get the chance to meet Expat at Large, Izzy, and Indy for beers on Sunday night. That was probably the one good moment of this trip so far.

On to the plane!

Are found on FOX News:

After a long ordeal with airports and airlines-arrived here in one piece. Spending a few days here then off to Korea for the next to the last time.

I suspect this is something of a farewell tour to a city that I dearly love. And more importantly-farewell to a dream. Try as I might to find interest in the part of employers here-so far nothing rears its head. That and a combination of other factors are making me realize that, as is the case so often in the world-life is not always fair. And dreams fail to come true for a lot of people.

Hope persists-but it is clear that I will have to-at some point-accept defeat and go where I can manage better financially. Choices have a way of rising up and engulfing you it seems. Maybe with some changes in circumstances I can manage a life here-but right now its not looking in the cards. Which makes me rather sad to say the least.

However for today-I’ll just enjoy the day. See the sights and stroll down memory lane.

And, like Scarlett, I’ll worry about other things another day. 

As the title says, been too busy to post. Catch up this weekend.

Talk among yourselves and answer me this question:

How does one reconcile what you know you want to do-with want you know you are going to have to do?

All part of the No Skippy left behind act-coming to a theater near you soon………………

More this weekend-got to sleep NOW!

When I move on to wherever it is I will be moving on to-will be the travel.  Somehow, I think that unless I am really, really lucky-I’m not going to find a job that allows me to travel the way I have the last few years.

And I’m going to really miss that.

Now mind you, I’ve not been thrilled with the 3 weeks of mind numbing routine that has come between the boarding of planes at both ends of the journey this last year or so, but for the most part- having to travel a lot really does not bother me.  I know a lot of people say they hate it-they hate the time away from home and hearth. And they wish they were back with their families.

I am not one of those people.

I sometimes feel guilty about not feeling guilty about it-or not having the yearning for protracted time at home with the S.O. Trouble is, I don’t feel that way. Give me about 3 weeks at the ranch and slowly but surely I will climb the walls-which means its time to get away, prowl the new places, drink beer and otherwise engage in anti-soccer mom behavior. ( Which includes trying to chat up said soccer moms on occasion……).

I guess I’m just strange that way. The trip to the airport excites me. Getting the boarding pass, proceeding to the lounge, the first frosty beer in said lounge are all interesting , repetitive experiences for me. Checking into a hotel, that first quick glance around the room, the snap on of the TV-followed by the anticipation of exploring new locations.

Sure it can get old at times-but I’ve found that is mostly the quality of the experience at the destination-or the lack of attractive things to do at said destination-not the journey.

Esepecially when someone else is paying the bill.

Which is why I read  E at L and Spike with a tinge of envy. ( Plus they are bolder than I on that whole “zest for life” thing.).

So for now, I am content-watching an Iran Air 747 being backed away from the gate. Its hard for an American to realize these days-but people actually travel to Tehran. God knows why-the pursuit of Yuan, Yen, Rubles, or Euros no doubt-but they do. I saw the lady with the final boarding call sign -Seoul then Tehran-not exactly a trip to garden spots if you ask me.

Still its a trip.

Blogging may be light the next couple of days. We’ll see.

Lots to worry about in the short term for me and my little world-its future is hazy to say the least. But today-I’m at peace.

A traveling man should be that way.

See you on the other side! 

No post yesterday-I spent most of the day horizontal and having some very wierd dreams. The S.O. was kind enough to give me her cold and I felt like dog squeeze yesterday- all day. When I am sick and I sleep-I have the same dream over and over again. Regrettably Norika is never in it, naked, for some inexplicable reason.

Feeling better today though, which is good because tomorrow I begin one of my marathon trips-one of the last I shall make for a while, I fear. After this one, only one more then it all comes to screeching halt for a while, at least.  After a couple of stops end up where else-but Korea for about 10 days. I will be freezing my a$$ off there, hat in hand, brief case full of resumes. When not working I will be crying in my beer I suspect. Shameless bleg: Anybody wants to put me in contact with some of the Yongsan /Osan contractors-please e-mail here.

So it seems time for a blog/events round up. A lot to cover and little time to cover it in.

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Over at the USFSPA Repeal Group (see link on the left hand side), one of their readers has discovered that the Army actually helps former spouses collect their money. Whose side are these guys on? They are supposed to be helping the retiree keep it-not make it easier for him or her to give it away to someone who did not earn it.

Actually it points out something that should have been rectified a long time ago. Law or no law-DFAS should not be allowed to garnish retirement pay, or active duty pay for that matter-for anything.  If I were president (there’s a laugh……..), I would sign an executive order forbidding DFAS to garnish any pays-period. DFAS would no longer be a bill collector-just a cash payment agency. Let the whores go through the courts and try to get their money like every other bill collector.

Besides-if DFAS was not allowed to garnish retirement checks-guys like me would have an easier time skipping the country and living in Thailand for the rest of their lives. The way it is now, I could skip to Thailand and just stop paying alimony. But she can garnish the retirement pay for her alimony. And I get screwed only receiving at most 40% of my disposable retirement pay. That’s just wrong. Let her sleep in a cardboard box-not me.

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Under the category of “don’t view this if you have just eaten”, be careful when you visit Expat at Large’s place. I was treated to a rather disgusting view of his feet!

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It’s official. GI Korea confirms that  I spent 5 weeks in Korea this fall for no good reason.  His key point is that , for the ROK’s, the status quo is the way to go. Without a substantial investment in their command and control infrastructure, they are not prepared to assume operational control. This is particularly true with respect to the ROK Navy, who recently moved to a new headquarters. ( The story is uglier, but I cannot repeat it here.). On the other hand, it is also true that the US -particularly our Navy,  has some unreasonable expectations of the ROKS-like presuming they can function fully in a staff to staff relationship without a liasion element to turn ROK double talk into something a US staff can understand. They can’t do that, and if makes the ROKS happy to have a liasion element-I say let em have it. Besides, it keeps guys like me employed. Too bad the bonehead himself cannot realize that.

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One of the guys I work with , does this on the weekends (not him in the video-there is nonetheless a whole subculture of guys who do this. And no,  its not on his liberty plan!).

The worst part? He gets paid to do it!

On second thought- I may need this as a job soon enough! 

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Always, always,always-make sure the contents match up with the shipping label! The report below shows what happens when you don’t.  It is actually a telling tale of the problems with globalization-you end up doing what the manufacter tells you to do.

Gakken Toys’ Smart Globe labels Taiwan as “Taiwan Island,” and its talking feature tells users that Taiwan is part of the People’s Republic of China, with its national capital in Beijing. After receiving many complaints from consumers, Gakken Toys issued a recall of the globes, offering full reimbursements to those who bought them.

Gakken had originally intended to use the standard labeling for Taiwan (as per the Ministry of Education’s specifications), but the Chinese factory based in Shenzhen apparently refused to produce the globes unless Gakken agreed to label Taiwan as part of China. Gakken agreed to the factory’s demands.

The company sold out their entire first shipment of 10,000 Smart Globes, which were released in Japan last August, but customer complaints flooded in, prompting a recall.

Interestingly, a note included in the box along with each Smart Globe explained that Taiwan’s name and data had been changed at the factory based on instructions from the Chinese government. However, at a January 10 press conference to announce the recall, Gakken said that they did not receive direct instructions to make the changes, and that they are investigating why the changes were made.

Here’s your sign!

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Tommorow is coming of age day in Japan. (Seijin no hi). Here’s a report on how the 20-year-olds serving at a Ground Self Defense Forces base in Fukuoka Prefecture celebrate the occasion:

Each person coming to the platform had to shout out their wishes for the new year. Some wished for a good life-some just tell jokes. I find it interesting that the senior officers were there judging them. Somehow I can picture that happening at a US Army post near you soon.

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Finally, after an almost 5 month abscence, Japanese ships will return to the Indian Ocean. The bill to allow it was voted down in the Upper House of Councillors-so the bill was re-voted on in the lower house, allowing them under Japanese law to override the upper house-the first such vote in 57 years.

Most observers believe that it shows that the Democratic Party of Japan is weaker than it appears (just like its American counterpart-are you listening Nancy?). The government is making preparations to resume the refueling mission possibly around mid-February.
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This is for Bullnav. The one that got away!:

She’s the girl in the dress! Need your house painted?

And -its been a while. I need to see cold the caress of an ice cold beer and the lovely warmth of a woman’s thighs…………..

Use these when the Steelers lose a close one! ( Like last weekend!).

And dream of this:

Summed up in two paragraphs:

While I agree with Fred Thompson on almost everything, he’s demonstrated time and again that he isn’t serious about winning. Don’t get me wrong, Fred’s strategy would be perfect if this were 1854 and he could sit on the porch and let voters come to him, but it hasn’t been 1854 for quite a while now.

He’d rather sit around on the couch and stare at his wife’s giant titties all day. And while I can certainly appreciate that, I’m not sure that I’d vote for it. Given his campaign schedule, I’m not convinced that Fred actually lived through his second season on Law and Order.

I can agree with both sentiments.

Spike   has some good movie reviews up, ( what else are you going to do in Bangkok when you have to be a good boy?)  its worth a look. Priceless is this quote:

Ping Pong is not the Macarena. It takes patience. She is like a fine, well-aged prostitute… it takes years to learn her tricks. She is cruel, laughs at you when you are naked, but you keep coming back for more, and more! Why? Because she is the only prostitute I can afford.

THAT is not the reason I am depressed. I’ve been in a real funk all day. There is no real reason for it, except for the fact that I am slowly coming to the realization that I am slowly being sucked back into something I really have no desire to return to.

The Thirst
Fear of the unknown fueled
A deep and quenchless craving.

It was real. It was desired.
It tugged at my frame and
Dulled my reflexes.
It rounded the sharp edges
And Lord, it felt good.

The terrible thirst fueled
The fear, which in turn fueled
The thirst. And then.

Into the bowels of hell I
Entered again, with my stomach
Heaving and body retching.

I had nothing to offer, nothing
To puke up except the raw
Scrapings of my soul.

Then I drifted into sweet and
Blessed unconsciousness.
—Roy Eddings

Did you ever want something really badly-and you try and try to get it-and all the while you can feel it slipping away from you, through your fingers, and you know in your heart-that you will never have it again.

I see expats in (fill in the blank) all the time-how is it they can do it and I can’t?

And in case you are wondering-it was this little phrase that set me off today:

You were not referred for this position because you were not in the group of best qualified candidates.

SAYS WHO?