Anthony Mantova Finds a Calling

Conservative activist and Yellow Elephant Anthony Mantova, a longtime subject of our attention [just search this blog on Mantova], has never found it within himself to Be A Man! Enlist!, but at least he has returned home to northern California [Eureka], where he and his brothers have taken over and updated a business.

Mantovas selling instruments and more

The three Mantova brothers have big plans for their new enterprise, Mantova's Two Street Music.

The Carlotta [CA] natives took over ownership of the longtime Old Town business earlier this fall, and are in the process of refurbishing the space and expanding the offerings. All three -- Anthony, 26; Nick, 23; and Matt, 19 -- are accomplished musicians in their own right. Anthony plays saxophone, Nick plays trumpet and Matt plays both accordion and trumpet.
And each has strengths that benefit the enterprise: Matt is detail-oriented, Nick is good with technology and repairs, while Anthony works the public relations/ advertising angle.

”We get along fine,” said the eldest brother, Anthony.

The trio have several plans for renovating the business. [ . . . ]

Going into the music store business marks the first business ownership for the brothers. Matt is currently enrolled at the College of the Redwoods, Nick works at Safeway in Fortuna and Anthony returned to the North Coast in June 2008 after working in event coordination for Bellevue University, which was based in Nebraska but had an operational center in Virginia. At present, he's working for Bear River Casino. [ . . . ]

The thought of opening a business in the middle of one of the country's deepest economic downturns didn't give the brothers pause. Research has shown, Anthony said, that music stores do well in economic downturns.

”If we survive the recession,” he said, “we'll do fine in the recovery.”

But the brothers plan to do much more than that.

”We want to be the central hub for music in Northern California and Southern Oregon,” he said. [ . . . ]

OYE Comment:

We wish Anthony Mantova and his brothers well in their new venture and hope that they will continue to remain active in their community.

Entrepreneurs of locally-owned businesses play an important role in our nation's economy; we salute them for their confidence in the future of our country.

More on James O'Keefe

In an expression of the high regard in which our society holds Yellow Elephants and the like, the judicial branch of our government has imposed an entirely unnecessary condition of release [bail?] on 25-year-old undercover conservative activist James O'Keefe (above, left):

Under a judge's order, he is required to reside with his parents in New Jersey pending future court hearings.

OYE Comment:

We all knew he lived with his parents. Why? Because he never found it within himself to Be A Man! Enlist!, or to consider doing so. Not surprisingly, the frustrations inherent in his current lifestyle [and we know what they are!] certainly contributed to his recent lapse of judgment.

However, we're not giving up on him yet. There is still time for him to redeem himself, separately from the potentially legitimate issue [off-topic for this blog] to which he says he was trying to call public attention.

Mr. O'Keefe does have a sense of adventure and optimism; if he can add a little discipline and perspective, he might be an asset to our military. While he works with his attorney to resolve his legal issues, we encourage introspection focused on how best he can serve our country, in the near, medium and longer terms.

Hat tip to LT Nixon.

Sorry fellas, but I don't think he's gonna make it.

Young conservative film maker, James O'Keefe, got caught today doing a bad G. Gordon Liddy imitation by illegedly attempting to tap the phones of Senator Mary Landrieu's office. So unless he makes the $250K bail it seems unlikely he'll be at the scheduled Lincoln Day Dinner in Salt Lake City to deliver a speech as the renowned guest speaker.

Even if Mr. O'Keefe goes to prison we're confident he'll be very popular once inside. So popular in fact grown men will fight over him to get his....errrr....attention. Wonder what his current thoughts are on Don't Ask, Don't Tell and if they may change over time?

A Thought for the Road

Buried in an Itineraries: Frequent Flyer article in the New York Times Business Section concerning the Monuments Men, a World War II U.S. military unit that saved Europe's cultural heritage from destruction in the wake of the defeat of Nazi Germany: In His Bags, Spoils of a War and Stories of Heroism.

[ . . . ]

Every time I disembark the plane and see dozens of young men and women in uniform headed home for leave or back to combat, I am in awe of their bravery and the bravery of those who came before them.

The little glitches I have with security or customs are meaningless. [ . . . ]

OYE Comment:

If you really care about your own future, as well as your country's, why would you pass up the chance to be part of something larger than yourself? Think about it.

Ralph Peters differentiates himself from neocons

Sounds like he's describing many of those we've featured on OYE.

According to his critics, Frederick Kagan sometimes shows excessive faith in purely military solutions—a charge to which the neocons, few of whom have ever actually done military service, have been particularly subject. "These are men for whom too much came too easily in life, so it was all too easy for them to view our troops as mere tools to implement their visions," says the military-affairs columnist Ralph Peters, a retired Army intelligence officer. (Peters is perplexed and irked when called a neocon himself. "I'm not qualified," he says. "I served in the military, didn't go to a prep school, didn't go to an Ivy League university, and didn't have a trust fund. And I'm physically fit.")

At least they remembered those who serve

Now that the media treats the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as though they've concluded it's not so easy to find much info on Young and College Republicans opining about the conflicts. It was once a trendy topic for the YR's, something that made them puff out their chests and suck in their guts, but not so much any longer when Our Country has other concerns. After all, stories about hosts leaving American Idol and pro golfers screwing strippers are much more interesting than Servicemen thousands of miles away.

So, I was mildly surprised to see the Iowa College Republicans send care packages to our troops overseas. They didn't have to do it. Especially since they won't even be able to get the pats on the back they would have received a few years ago when so many peeps had wrapped themselves up in phony displays of Patriotism. So thanks Iowa CR's for doing something. You're not nearly as worthless as the other College Republican chapters.

(yeah, I lowered the standards a lot to post something nice about these dudes. But the standards are low and continue to sink to become a College Republican, so we're just trying to keep up with their subterranean level. And sadly, this may be the best of what the CR's have to offer since so few of these degenerates will actually man-up and enlist.)

Same ole, same ole.

The new generation of Republicans are as tolerant as the old. Don't expect them to overturn DADT if the decision was left to them.

The GW College Republicans have withdrawn their financial support from Meghan McCain's upcoming appearance at GW, after claims that the Allied in Pride president was not forthcoming about the topic of McCain's speech.

Michael Komo, president of Allied in Pride, told The Hatchet last week that McCain would be appearing as the keynote speaker of their annual "Marriage Equality Week" in February, but the CR leadership claims they were not aware of this when they were asked for their financial support.

I've attended Young Republican events, and believe me, there ain't many women there. You'd think they'd welcome any woman that is willing to stand before them?

These dudes have lotsa hate within them.

Losing Hopey on ending DADT

And the can gets booted a little further down the road.

The Pentagon is stepping up internal discussions on how gay men and lesbians might be able to serve openly in the armed services, military officials said on Thursday, in anticipation of fulfilling President Obama’s campaign pledge to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law.

The discussions, centered in a small group assembled by Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are in preparation for a possible Senate hearing on the 1993 law this month.

In the year since Mr. Obama’s inauguration, the Pentagon has moved slowly on the issue and even now internal dissent remains over how fast any change should be instituted. At a meeting last week of Admiral Mullen and the chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, the officers debated the timing of any repeal and how much stress it would place on the forces.

The Transition from Soldier to Student

Army of Dude has a must read for Veterans entering college. (via)

In my previous post, I outlined some basic principles needed to successfully navigate the murky waters of education under the GI Bill. The challenges in dealing with the VA for education benefits are considerable, yet veterans new to college face an unfamiliar, unpredictable and strange environment on campus. If taken all at once, these hurdles can quickly overwhelm a student veteran and distract from the overall goal: to finish a degree on time with benefits to spare. Next week I will be in class for my fifth semester of higher education, and in my time I have tinkered with a system of how to bring up my veteran status, discussing Iraq and Afghanistan in the classroom and dealing with the myriad reactions fellow students have had.

Pop those zits, kid

I was on Student Council in high school. Suppose this qualifies me as a credible candidate for something, too.

“I figured I would be a good chairman,” Yost said. “I was fortunate enough to run unopposed.”

Yost is an economics major planning to graduate in the spring. He graduated from Cañon City High School in 2005, where he was on the speech and debate team. He now is involved with the College Republicans.

“I’ve been involved in politics since high school,” he said. “From day one, I affiliated with the Republican Party.”

Breaking up is hard to do

Awwwww. Poor guys should seek grief counselling.

Members of the Tampa Bay Young Republicans Club say the split between supporters of Marco Rubio and Charlie Crist in their U.S. Senate race has become personal.

"It's sad," said young Republican Dywan Washington, a Rubio backer. Longtime acquaintances from the two camps have stopped speaking, and some (gasp) are even unfriending each other on Facebook.

Here's a song to help these Young Republicans find the strength to move on:

What goes around....

If one is going to allude to their political opponents as being gay, one should probably avoid photo opps such as these. From AMERICAblog:

The National Republican Campaign Committee has a child running their press outreach, and apparently the GOP frat boy thinks it's funny to insinuate that Democrats are gay, simply based on innuendo (which is ironic, when you see his photo). You see, the NRCC spokesman informs us, repeatedly, that the candidate in question cares about "his body image." And we all know what it means when a guy cares about his body image.

In unrelated news, it must have been one hell of a party that same NRCC spokesman, Andy Seré, attended last May, according to his Facebook page. The Fete was called the "GOB Freedom Festival." It caught my eye since "gob," among other things, is gay slang for oral sex, and for young gay sailors (and, an even odder coincidence, the party was for a military friend coming back to the states). It gets even odder when you look at the photos from the GOB "festival" that I found on Facebook. (The NRCC chap is listed on the GOB page guest list as having attended.) The photos are below. Now, I'm not going to comment on the body image of Mr. Seré's friends, but let's just say that Manhunt may get a run for their money.

As a sidenote his Facebook page says he's a fan of "Al's #1 Italian Beef". We bet you are fan, Andy. We bet you are.

We'll keep fighting to end Don't Ask, Don't Tell so that gentlemen like Andy may serve openly in The Military if he so chooses.

DADT Comedy

Mark Kirk, the Congressman and Naval Officer that opposes gays in the military is finding himself in the position of being accused of being gay.

“Illinois Republican leader Jack Roeser says there is a ‘solid rumor that Kirk is a homosexual,’ ” Martin says in the ad. “Roeser suggests that Kirk is part of a Republican Party homosexual club. Lake County Illinois Republican leader Ray True says Kirk has surrounded himself with homosexuals. Mark Kirk should tell Republican voters the truth.”

Kirk, a U.S. Naval Intelligence officer, was unavailable for comment because he is on active duty over the holidays, said spokesman Eric Elk.

Wonder what the age criteria is?

Since we here at OYE expect many youthy folks to run for office in 2010 I clicked over to the 'Young Guns' program on the NRCC site to see who we can potentially feature. Due to the close proximity to my hometown, I chose to first have a look at Dennis Ross (FL-12). I expected to find a moppy headed 20-something less than three years removed from living in a beer-soaked fraternity house.

Nope, wrong on me. Mr. Ross is 50 years old and, although he appears to look good for his age, does not exactly fit the mold of what we consider a 'Young Gun' (pictured above).

Oh well, I'll continue to go through the list, but in the meantime I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the NRCC for making this 37 year-old feel young by the standards they use. Now I'm going to tear through my garage and go find that skateboard I haven't used in a dozen years.