CHRISTMAS INTERLUDE

This year for me the holidays involved closing on the house - thanks to my status as a 1099 contractor and the current state of the credit markets this turned out to be the single most difficult business transaction I have ever been involved in, bar none.

The rest of my Christmas break - the past couple of weeks - involved The Big Move; lifting furniture up and down stairs all day, Wifee's pottery operation (work benches, spinning wheels, boxes full of clay that weigh about 50lbs each, and not one but TWO kilns), all of my tools and work benches, the boat, the tractor, lifting and unpacking a thousand boxes and one of the most dreaded activities known to Man - hanging curtain rods.

Still it's all been worth it; we're in a FANTASTIC property in a GREAT location and as an added bonus this is the ONLY Christmastime where I have LOST ten pounds, versus the usual ten-to-fifteen weight gain.

Somewhere in between all of the above and a million trips back and forth to Lowe's, Daughter #1 and I were tooling down the road in the Fahrvergnügen;

"So, like, I friended him on Facebook and I let him friend me and then I downloaded some freewear and a bunch of share tunes on my iPod and then I checked in on My Sims and . . . blah, blah, blah . . ."

Suddenly a Close Encounter of the 70's Kind . . . a rare relic from the Decade of Disco:

"Excuse me Daughter, please direct your attention to the car in front of us."

"What . . . IS . . . it?"

"That, young lady, is a Dodge Dart. 1973 or 74, I'd say, judging by the tail lights."

"It . . . it . . . has no . . . STYLE."

"Au contraire, Little Lady - it has nothing BUT style. Look at that trunk . . ."

"It's HUGE."

"It's small, actually, by the standards of it's day. Look at that bumper."

"It's . . . it's . . ."

"It's chrome-plated, 8-gauge Detroit STEEL is what it is - not like the $2500 piece o' plastic they've got on these things we're rolling around in nowadays. You bump into that bumper, it'll TALK to ya . . ."

"Woah."

"225 cubic inch, slant-six, three on the tree . . . "

"You can tell all that just from looking at the TAILLIGHTS ? ? ? "

"Actually, yes I can."

"How . . . how can you DO that, Dad?"

"Because, Little Lady, that was back when cars were REAL . . . and I was THERE."

The 70's - what little of it we can remember . . .

. . . we don't even TRY to understand.




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THE FACE BUTT GENERATION

HOKAY LISSEN UP TROOPS!

The past news cycle has generated a couple of My-Face-My-Butt-Social-Web-Virtual-Web-Engineering-Not-Real-Site-related stories.

Or whatever.

First is this big deal over a young lady who's running for Congress, a bunch of uptight hypocrites who probably ate too much library paste when they were kids are trying to destroy her life over a bunch of photos she had posted on her Facebook thingie that are downright TAME by STORMBRINGER party standards.

I mean, anybody who's read my Blog more than once should realize that I'm such an ultra-conservative I make Rush Limbaugh look middle of the road . . . left of center if anything . . .

HAVING SAID THAT, here at STORMBRINGERs when the party lamp is lit - ANYTHING GOES . . . Google the Green Bar in Algodones and you'll know I'm no Boy Scout . . . I could keep you lot laughing your tits off with stories of self discovery in the Lesbian bars of Key West . . . or the time I demonstrated the fine art of tequila deep cleavage body shots at my twentieth high school reunion . . . nights without end staggering through the red light districts of Bangkok . . . Onlongapo . . . Hong Kong . . . ITaeWon . . . Tel Aviv . . . down by the Koenigstrasse in Stuttgart . . .

This stuff about poor little Krystal Ball is TAME - they keep honking on about "scantily clad" photos . . . do you mean to tell me THIS is what the big deal is all about? BORING ! ! ! Hell, the thing we SHOULD be focusing on is the fact that she's a DEMOCRAT . . .

Not even up to Babes of STORMBRINGER standards . . .

HOKAY we move on from that Yawn Fest Non-Scandal to the NEXT Face Butt Generation Poster Child to initiate the Self-Destruct Sequence on himself:

Meet Alex Knepper

This kid's biggest crime seems to be that - like all adolescents - he thinks he invented sex AND he had the poor lack of judgment to document his adolescent gropings on the Internet. Of course, in Alec's case his crime is compounded by the fact that he is a self-proclaimed queer homo of the gay variety.

I know I'm going to get it for that last bit - NOW before everybody starts honking on about how Sean Linnane is a Homo Sapien hater and all the rest of it let me say two things: A) I could care less what a bunch of uptight library paste eaters think about me, and B) I can assure you I am NOT a hater.

Anyway, Dave Frum vouched for Alex and that's good enough for me. Alex, you can drink from my canteen any day . . . uh . . . hang on there Alex now you're done I have to wipe the opening REAL GOOD and maybe use some kind of alcohol swab . . . nothing personal, Alex; it's just that there are viruses out there . . . and the fact that I don't know and I really don't WANT to know where those lips might have been ten minutes ago . . .

SERIOUSLY THOUGH I could care less about Alex Knepper's sexuality, and that is really the point of all this. For every guy like Alex Knepper who's thing is going down the Old Dirt Road with other guys - WELL H-E-Y-Y-Y that just means more poontang for ME! =)

And if Alex Knepper wishes to be some kind of exhibitionist then he has just learned there is a price for this kind of hedonism and he has paid. Myself - I'd just as soon NOT have people's sexuality thrown in my face and THAT IS THE POINT.

We of the American Warrior Class don't care if a guy is hetero-, homo-, or has a rubber chicken suit in his duffel bag . . . WE REALLY DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR SEXUALITY . . . all we care about is that a guy can troop the line, carry his load and do his part for God and Country . . . and that he keeps his kink in the closet where it belongs . . .

Well, no, that was not my point . . . I got off track there with the DADT philosophy a Lesbian sailor once shared with me on little sea cruise on the USS Mount Whitney . . . my point is about this whole modern compulsion of people to disgorge every facet of their lives onto the Internet for no objective reason whatsoever . . . NOTHING GOOD WILL COME OF THIS.

There's a reason I adopted a nom de guerre - I have a professional career and my employers would not be too thrilled to learn I have a side gig as a philosopher.

I know a thing or two about the nature of security organizations - from an insider's point of view - and I know what a background investigation is. Everything you do in life - no matter how deep you think you have it buried - will come back up to haunt you - ESPECIALLY IF YOU PUT IT ON FACEBOOK.

Unless you did it in the dead of night, that is, and nobody was in on the deal with you, nobody saw you do it, you didn't leave a shred of evidence, and most importantly she doesn't know your name.

Search the Internet high and low, you will not find a photograph linking a face to Sean Linnane. There is no Facebook, no My Space, nothing. I'm not even on Linked In, not even under my real name. One of the trolls over at Frum Forum dished up this photo in a lame attempt to have some fun at my expense.

Whatever.

The shameful part is, not only is that NOT me, that is Sergeant William J. Cahir, former news reporter and congressional candidate, who enlisted in the Marines at age 35 and was killed in action August 13 2009 in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

Sgt. Cahis was a much more worthy man than me, and TEN MILLION TIMES more worthy a human being than the pathetic wannabe's out there who's idea of getting a life is to dredge up some party shots of Krystal that are so tame they look like a meeting of the Ladies Auxiliary, or to lower themselves into the sewer in order to character assassinate young Alec Knepper whose only crime was youthful indiscretion.

Sheesh.

Alright that's it for today's mentoring session. Before you get back to work you can take 5. Smoke 'em if you got 'em, the porta-potties and the dumpsters are ON LIMITS!


SEAN LINNANE SENDS



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ONLINE SCAMMERS HIT DEPLOYED GIs FAMILIES

This is a reprint from Milblogging.com - I am posting here in the interest of safety & security for our extended military family - Sean Linnane

---

Online Scams targeting the Army's 3rd ID


Sunday, August 15, 2010, 08:05 AM - News Stories

Savannah Morning News has the story how scammers are using technology to prey on deployed troops and their loved ones. In this case, it’s the 3rd ID falling victim.


The story starts off with a scam uncovered by Ginger Cucolo, whose husband Maj. Gen. Tony Cucolo was deployed when they were “skyping”. Funnily enough, she was tipped off that the person she was skyping, wasn’t her husband after the imposter ended all their sentences in “Love”.


Which, let’s be honest, is far more interesting than your run-of-the-mill online military scam story.


That didn't sound like her Tony.


"It was when Tony first deployed," said Ginger Cucolo, wife of Maj. Gen. Tony Cucolo, the 3rd Infantry Division's commanding general. "We were Skyping, but the visual still wasn't on so it was basically like texting back and fourth. After the third day of the visual not working, I realized either something is wrong, or you're not my husband."


The Army's CID based in northern Virginia is seeing hundreds of cases of fake online accounts that try tricking people into thinking they’re someone they’re not – and if they’re successful in their attempts, they’re able to get money


"In the past six to eight months, I've seen hundreds of cases, from majors and lower-level officers, to mid-level ranks and everything in between," said Christopher Grey, spokesman for the Army's Criminal Investigation Division based in northern Virginia. "It happens, quite frankly, from Australia to Ireland."


You can read the entire story here.





NOTE: Click on the link above and read the rest of this story and you will see that there are bloodsucking leeches out there who play upon the emotions of the innocent & naïve. This is a crime just as disgraceful and outrageous as the phony wannabees who dishonor the uniform for personal gain and profit.


Just so you know - there is NO "Sean Linnane" Facebook page, MySpace, or any other social network. Sean Linnane is a pseudonym, of course, and I only appear here on Blog STORMBRINGER, Theo's LAST OF THE FEW, David Frum's FrumForum and occasionally I get picked up on BLACKFIVE. That's about it - those people know who I am and can vet anything I send their way.


If you see ANYTHING, ANYWHERE claiming to be me; rest assured it is not. I do not do the social networking thing - not even in my real name - it is absolutely counter to every principle of the security work I do in real life.


I AM presently active within the Twitter phenomenon, however. A recent development: I've received a couple of emails requesting link exchanges - in broken English - and then there's that person who comments in Chinese; I don't touch these things with a ten-foot barge pole.


Call me paranoid? Perhaps; a Truism of the security profession is to maintain a healthy level of fear - if you're not afraid, then you're doing something wrong and you're probably about to be hit.


SEAN LINNANE SENDS

TO BETRAY, YOU MUST FIRST BELONG . . .

U.S.: EVIDENCE TIES LEAKS TO SOLDIER

Investigators found concrete evidence on computers used by PFC Bradley Manning that link him with the leak of classified Afghanistan war reports, a U.S. defense official said, The Wall Street Journal reported July 30. Defense officials said the FBI was investigating whether civilians aided Manning in providing the information to WikiLeaks.

Defense officials said Manning used his "Top Secret/SCI" clearance to
tap into documents around the world. A search of the computers yielded evidence he had downloaded the Afghanistan war logs, the defense official said.

Copyright 2010 STRATFOR




"To betray, you must first belong," is a US Army Counter-Intelligence (CI) Truism.

In this case, knucklehead here recruited himself, and he betrayed for no measureable purpose. That is, Brad Manning did not betray his country for money, nor did he betray for an ideology or cause.

He did it because he was a fame whore; he sought attention for himself.

Manning passed the video to Wikileaks in February. After April 5 when the video was released and made headlines Manning contacted 20-year-old Tyler Watkins - a close friend in Boston - from Iraq asking him about the reaction in the United States.

“He would message me, Are people talking about it? Are the media saying anything?”

This is a sign of where the popular culture is headed via all those stupid social networking sites and reality-based TV shows; a symptom of what I describe as the "Fifteen Minutes of Fame" Syndrome, after the term coined by Andy Warhol, back in the early 60s.

Bradley Manning will have a lot of time to contemplate what he did and why; now, and for the rest of his life - in between episodes where his fellow inmates pass him around and use him as their communal sock puppet, that is.

- Sean Linnane

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AMERICA HAS ALWAYS HAD TRAITORS . . .

. . . in every war we've been in . . . THIS young punk is our Latest & Greatest . . .


BRADLEY MANNING - Self-Recruited American Traitor, and Douchebag.


SO I WENT TO WIKILEAKS . . . checked out the laundry list of sh*t waiting for me to open it:

The data is provided in HTML (web), CSV (comma-separated values) and SQL (database) formats, and was rendered into KML (Keyhole Markup Language) mapping data that can be used with Google Earth. Please note that the checksums will change.

* Complete dump of the website, HTML format 75 MB
o (SHA1: 80adb634a0d218bd0f9a0f22734e3d2e7e67acfc)
o This is a complete dump of the website at http://wardiary.wikileaks.org. Extract this to your local hard disk and open it with your web browser. Please check the project website http://wardiary.wikileaks.org for the most recent version.
* All entries, CSV format 15 MB
o (SHA1: d6b82f955a7beb9589f92e9487c74669d1912a34)
o Raw data in comma-separated value format for further processing.
* All entries, SQL format 16M MB
o (SHA1: 9463f73ebbcd3f95899a138d6ba9817e1b6b800d)
o Raw data in SQL format for further processing.
* All entries, KML format 16 MB
o (SHA1: 34562c0c7722522161e40330d80ac9082014845f)
o This archive contains all events in one KML file. This file needs much memory if opened with Google Earth.
* All NATO entries, KML format 209 kB
o (SHA1: 088ff8999a316f30e5e398021375fa3b4fc6349e)
o Contains the events that were tagged with NATO.
* Entries by month, KML format 16 MB
o (SHA1: 01a5c0639e1e1e844b10e962a44849b2a521d092)
o This archive provides the entries split by month. This makes it easier to browse the data in Google Earth on low power machines.
* Entries with scale filter, KML format 981 kB
o (SHA1: 4669c721b87775a44472f6688e768305c686beff)
o File that will show a scale corresponding to the number of incidents in Google Earth. Each incident begins with a 0.5 base score, and 0.1 has been added for each incident involving humans. This set of data provides only events that have a scaling of 1.5.


To decompress the files you will need . . .



*************************************************************************************


It occurred to me that if the enemy of my enemy is my friend, then conversely the friend of my enemy is my enemy. This is bad, there is nothing good of this, and this will only help America's enemies . . . now is a good opportunity to remind the American public that the only crime worse than murder is . . . treason .

So Hey There Hero - I hope your fifteen minutes of fame were worth it - 'coz you know you're going to spend a LONG TIME in the Joint - and YOU KNOW they're going to pass you around like the communal hacky-sack . . .


. . . and OH YEAH I nearly forgot - the crew here at Blog STORMBRINGER wants to wish you aREAL SPECIAL Salutations ! ! !

WHISTLEBLOWER BLOWS WHISTLE ON WIKILEAKS WHISTLEBLOWER

MYSPACE FACEBOOK GENERATION TRAITOR BUSTED


“If you had unprecedented access to classified networks 14 hours a day 7 days a week for 8+ months, what would you do?”


I dunno about you, but somehow the thought of betraying my oountry and causing potentially grave damage to National Security was never a temptation to me.


Army Specialist Bradley Manning, 22, is about to get a taste of reality.


Federal officials have arrested an Army intelligence analyst who boasted of giving classified U.S. combat video and hundreds of thousands of classified State Department records to whistleblower site Wikileaks:



U.S. Intelligence Analyst Arrested in Wikileaks Video Probe



SPC Bradley Manning, 22, of Potomac, Maryland, was stationed at Forward Operating Base Hammer, 40 miles east of Baghdad, where he was arrested nearly two weeks ago by the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division.


Manning was turned in late last month by a former computer hacker with whom he spoke online. In the course of their chats, Manning took credit for leaking a headline-making video of a helicopter attack that Wikileaks posted online in April. The video showed a deadly 2007 U.S. helicopter air strike in Baghdad that claimed the lives of several innocent civilians:





Manning came to the attention of the FBI and Army investigators after he contacted former hacker Adrian Lamo late last month over instant messenger and e-mail.

“I wouldn’t have done this if lives weren’t in danger,” says Lamo, former hacker Adrian Lamo, who contacted the FBI of Manning's activities. “He was in a war zone and basically trying to vacuum up as much classified information as he could, and just throwing it up into the air.”


Manning's Facebook photo



Manning passed the video to Wikileaks in February, he told Lamo. After April 5 when the video was released and made headlines Manning contacted 20-year-old Tyler Watkins - a close friend in Boston - from Iraq asking him about the reaction in the United States.

“He would message me, Are people talking about it?… Are the media saying anything?”


Self-gratification mindset; My Space, Facebook; it's all about me. Well, you got your Fifteen Minutes of Fame, kiddo - you happy now?

A PICTURE IS WORTH A TRILLION ($) WORDS

House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk (standing, far right) is speaking while colleagues Rep. Barbara Lambert, D-Milford and Rep. Jack F. Hennessy, D-Bridgeport, play solitaire Monday night as the House convened to vote on a new budget. (AP)

The guy sitting in the row in front of these two . . . he's on Facebook, and the guy behind Hennessy is checking out the baseball scores.

These are the folks that couldn't get the budget out by October 1, are about to control your health care, cap and trade, and the list goes on . . .

THESE PEOPLE CAN'T EVEN RUN A RAILROAD and they're proposing legislation that will give them control of 20% of the largest economy in the world ? ? ?