Thursday, March 18, 2010

To Be Fair

As awkward and unaccustomed an experience as that may be …

I trashed The Pacific and talked up Band of Brothers the other day. Gave both another look last night, Episode 1 of The Pacific, and BoB Part 7, “The Breaking Point.” Both episodes, as it happens, deal with intense combat, leadership issues, and an officer cracking up under stress. (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:52 am Comments (0)

“Disingenuous”

Floor whip Stephen Lynch re his boss, via Boston Herald:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:44 am Comments (1)

Your President Reaches Out

He must be desperate. President Barack Obama goes bravely on Fox, tells Bret Baier to put a cork in it, process, schmocess, he’ll see your 18,000 emails and raise you 40,000 a day,* vote-buying what vote-buying, they’ll like it once we’ve forced it on them. 

OK, that isn’t exactly how he put it …

(more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:23 am Comments (1)

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Buy My Pal’s Book

That’s No Angry Mob, That’s My Mom: Team Obama’s Assault on Tea-Party, Talk-Radio Americans by Michael Graham.  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:52 am Comments (1)

Obaccam’s Razor*

The GWOT, or whatever it is being called these days, has produced a lot of groundbreaking legal thought. A lot of it in the Bush era, which got John Yoo in hot water. Here’s Attorney General Eric Holder explaining that it’s OK to read Miranda rights to illegal enemy combantants/terrorists, because regardless of whether he has any constitutional rights, OBL won’t be brought in alive. Politico:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:41 am Comments (2)

GWOT Bears

This is a pretty good idea. I don’t know why people think it’s funny. Airborne GWOT bears vs. bin Laden. Military.com:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:04 am Comments (1)

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Your Government At Work!

This calls for the soundtrack and narration from one of those stirring 1950s civics film shorts.* Washington Post: “House may try to pass Senate health-care bill without voting on it.”  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:26 am Comments (3)

20 Percent More Hateful

That’s the finding of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Tolerance, re the Internet. Fox: (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:23 am Comments (4)

Monday, March 15, 2010

Killing Terrorists*

Apparently the United States government set up a covert contractor operation to do this, now under investigation. OK, interesting. Sounds like a potentially problematic approach when we have professionals in our government’s own employ who are supposed to be doing this. Anyway, this effort involved hiring Robert Young Pelton and Eason Jordan* to provide information. Ppphmppfff! Sorry, coffee coming out my nose. NYT:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:09 pm Comments (5)

Un-PCing The Pacific

Mudville’s got some vintage newsreel vid in a Pacific roundup, including an important look at this hateful … and hurtful …bit of racist wartime Americana: “Bugs Bunny Nips The Nips.” (With the obligatory Bugs-in-drag scene … as a geisha.)

Like I said, I was disappointed in the first episode of The Pacific, which looks more like your standard issue mini-series with a big budget and high production values than Band of Brothers‘ long-form escape from the bounds of the 90-minute film. As reader JohnW noted in comments at the prior post, BoB’s insightful emersion into military life is lacking. That isn’t just a matter of bypassing an opportunity to inform. It gets to the heart of what a long-form depiction of a collective war experience could and should be.  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:49 am Comments (1)

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Liveblogging “The Pacific”

18 minutes into The Pacific. Apparently this is going to be a history lesson — Pacific war kickoff described twice already — and its going to be a soap opera. Looks like Tom Hanks, true to that TIME interview, plans to lecture. Script’s a tad ponderous. I get it, they’re going to war, some might not come back. (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:22 pm Comments (5)

Governing By Poll In The Age Of Obama

Faced with a debacle, support eroding in Congress and out, Obama’s chief pollster engages in a dramatic new kind of governance by poll. It’s the desperately interpreted poll of hopeful persuasion as a substitute for governance. Yeah, I know, it’s complicated. Sort of a double-reverse poll governance, incorporating a great deal of hope that something will change, and as such, highly innovative. The Hill: (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:24 am Comments (4)

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Human Shields

Good one from The Sniper. Thank you for that. The Sniper’s instructive post on the good and the bad leaves out another human shield position, though. The irrelevant one. (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 2:55 pm Comments (3)

War Is (Un-PC As) Hell

Hanks bemoans America’s hateful demonizing of its enemies. TIME:   (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:52 am Comments (3)

“Out Of Left Field”

 

Soccer moms turned into Security Moms. Now, meet the Jihad Mom. WSJ:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:25 am Comments (3)

Not Getting It

Brown re Obama, in the GOP response to the president’s radio message today. Boston Herald:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:06 am Comments (1)

Friday, March 12, 2010

Mud Pit Rules

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, encountering difficulties in the polls, agrees to dive into the mud pit and tackle his most virulent critics … the surprisingly large pool of Boston right-wing talk show hosts. Did you know we have, conservatively, at least four? Make that five. Howie Carr, Michael Graham, Jay Severin, Michele McPhee and now Charley Manning … apparently bashing Dems was good business in blue Mass even before Scott Brown took the Kennedy seat. Imagine that. Anyway, though Patrick’s ready to bravely poke his head into the lion’s den, he’s only going to do it if they agree not to bite him. Boston Herald:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:38 am Comments (2)

Patches Is Right Part II

It’s Howie Carr agreeing with Patrick Kennedy this time. Hurtfulness alert. Boston Herald:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:17 am Comments (1)

Scandal!

Gawker demands to know why the Dems never brought up the fact that Scott Brown was once accused of sexual harassment. Maybe it has something to do with the facts of the case, as laid out by … Gawker:

(more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:47 am Comments (0)

BBC Alters Rove Quote!

Our Dark Lord Rove is “proud” of waterboarding, BBC reports, in a quote that clearly has been manipulated: 

(more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:20 am Comments (0)

Getting Kukris

Big Stick Combat looks at machetes and kukris as tools and as fighting weapons. Nice, straightforward description of the kukri’s fundamentals:   (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:00 am Comments (0)

Thursday, March 11, 2010

To Absent Friends

Seven years ago today I met a couple of friends, brief wartime acquaintances since departed. March 11, 2003:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:23 am Comments (0)

Patches Is Right

 

I entirely agree with him. Only not exactly.

Patrick Kennedy, doing his best Ted act, rants about the poor quality of war coverage in this nation. I agree, it’s lousy, except that what he’s really ranting about is the poor quality of surrender coverage in this nation. That and Patches coverage. CBS:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:24 am Comments (3)

Cabbage Poll

Among people voting with their greenbacks, and Mitt’s new tome, No Apology: The Case for American Greatness, is doing great. Will debut at the top of the NYT bestseller list March 21, Politico reports, citing a source. Adds:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:48 am Comments (5)

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Old Breed, New Again

In the runup to HBO’s The Pacific launch this weekend, you may want to check out Auburn University’s Eugene B. Sledge Collection collection. Here’s vid of a lecture re same. (nod to Auburn on the photo of Sledge above, taken shortly after Okinawa, aged 21 and about 100 years old. Thanks, Aaron.)

Sledge’s magnificent and heart-wrenching “With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa” and Robert Leckie’s “Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific” are the books “The Pacific” is based on. Personal memoirs of the 1st Marine Division’s experience from Parris Island to Guadalcanal, extended R&R in Melbourne, jungle fighting in New Britain, the nightmare of Peleliu and the final nightmare of Okinawa.

High hopes for Hanks and Spielberg’s latest WWII collaboration, in the wake of  Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers. Hey guys, after that character-development/plot-free, grossly inaccurate and exaggerated ”Hurt Locker” triumph the other night, how about a reality-based Iraq war flick?

The late Eugene Sledge’s story was also feature in the Ken Burn’s documentary series, “The War.” More Pacific war reading:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:28 am Comments (2)

Endgame Quagmired!

Drudge indulges in some rare ironic content production. His media-pantsing re health care paints a strangely familiar picture:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:07 am Comments (6)

Browner

Blue Massachusetts is Browning nicely, as 70 percent of Bay State voters approve of the job U.S. Sen. Scott Brown is doing. That’s up from the 51.9 percent who actually wanted him to do the job in the first place. Boston Herald.

The Rasmussen poll was taken after Brown (R-Mass.) voted for the Democratic “jobs” bill, on the theory that any jobs bill is better than no jobs bill, though it had the effect of taking about $24 billion in revenue an earlier bipartisan version wanted to slate for jobs-producing incentives, and made it available for the health care thing. The poll was also taken after Brown’s repeated demands that the health care thing needed to go back to the drawing board.  However, only 52 percent don’t want the health care thing. I predict more partisan line-crossing by Brown.

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:53 am Comments (0)

North Atlantic Islander

Send a message … list your race as “American.”  That’s Mark Krikorian’s principled census suggestion at HotAir: (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:32 am Comments (4)

About That Body Scan And Pat Down

TSA worker hit with child rape charge. Boston Herald:

(more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:14 am Comments (3)

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

“Do You Miss Him Yet?”

NYT Opinionator’s Stanley Fish asks the question, notes the signs of renewed popularity from polls to Obama policy reversals, opines that “the judgment of history … will be more nuanced than anything the professional Bush-haters — indistinguishable in temperament from the professional Obama-haters — are now able to imagine.”

Yeah, but what do they mean … “yet?” (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:09 am Comments (2)

Romney’s Health Care Problem

Boston Herald: The Massachusetts health care miracle that Romney’s been talking up on the pre-campaign trail funds abortion, and it could be a problem for the man who would be president. Romney hopes to get out from under that by saying the state’s high court made him do it. Maybe, but they didn’t make him do health care, which gets us to the next issue.

Michael Graham at the Boston Herald points out the other problem with talking up th Massachusetts miracle. Premiums up 30 percent and skyrocketing subsidized health-care costs, the Bay State’s double whammy on taxpaying ratepayers. 

Funny, I was thinking the same thing when I heard Romney talking up his Massachusetts miracle on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” last week. He kept saying “we” didn’t have to raise taxes. And he’s right. He was long gone when Deval Patrick started jacking up every fee and tax he could when he was forced to balance the budget with revenues headed south and the new health care mandate headed north. Turns out, instituting massively expensive universal health care on the verge of the deepest recession in decades wasn’t such a great idea. Imagine trying to do it during the deepest recession in decades.

Ed Morrissey has some thoughts on the subject, specifically what Romney might want to do about his health care history: Jettison it, write it off to bad implementation. There’s a thought. Clinging to a trainwreck of a universal health care plan has a bit of an Obamian ring to it.

Meanwhile, via Newsmax, here’s Romney’s latest pot-kettle blast at Obama.

via Gateway, Pelosi: “We have to pass it so you can find out what’s in it.”

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:48 am Comments (4)

Stupid Season

Bumper crop this year. NYT on how it hit Rahm Emanual during the Nightmare in Massachusetts … you know, the race for the “Kennedy seat” … that he was growing stupid:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:19 am Comments (0)

Hurt, So Bad

AP reports EOD techs in Iraq give Hurt Locker ”mixed reviews.” Actually, three out of three bomb techs say it has no bearing on reality: (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:00 am Comments (1)

Monday, March 8, 2010

Bummer

Turns out they didn’t nab Azzam the American after all. CBS copy corrected on the fly. Seems to be a little ambiguity. Maybe they decided they didn’t want to say they had him.

Here’s AP. He’s a Yank, just not the same one. One “Abu Yahya Majadin Adam,” the name’s kind of close, hence the confusion, but no other details yet available on who he is.

Oh well, better luck next time. Not so bad, let’s look on the bright side. If Azzam the American is still out there, that means he won’t be read his Miranda rights any time soon, and he’s still a candidate for a UAV surprise.

Don’t be so sad, HotAir. Roundup on the roundup at Gateway.

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:12 am Comments (0)

Stand In The Place Where You Work

It was the title of an REM song (back when REM was still producing catchy tunes with somewhat thought-provoking lyrics that sometimes even rocked, before they switched over to whiny ballads.) And it is what I’m doing now, as if I needed to be any more eccentric … 

(IMPORTANT READER UPDATES BELOW)

(more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:42 am Comments (6)

World Of Hurt

Congratulations, Hollywood! You just noticed … there’s a war on, American soldiers are giving their all in combat, have been for some time now. Some of them may actually be doing something good, if only the Sisyphean task of disarming of a few bombs. This dirty but possibly necessary work, however, will make you crazy. 

Hollywood’s in, it’s out and The Hurt Locker wins big, including “Best Picture.” (Apparently, no big surprise, I can’t call ‘em.*) 

From the numerous inaccuracies and improbabilities in modes of operating and equipment, to a thin script, to a cavalier, superficial and insulting treatment of its subject matter, war addiction, this movie didn’t deserve “Best Picture,” “Best Director” or “Best Screenplay.” It’s too bad, for the potential it had to be a great movie. It tried to depict the world of hurt. It just didn’t quite get there. (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:25 am Comments (7)

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Oscar Night!

I don’t go to the movies much, and have seen exactly two Oscar-nominated best pictures … both on DVD. That and other considerations may heavily influence my picks, but here they are.

Best Movie:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:36 am Comments (6)

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Ayo Gurkhali!

Let us now praise Gurkhas … and kukris. 

(HELPFUL KNIVE-AND-SHOVEL-WIELDING READER UPDATES BELOW)

(more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:03 am Comments (5)

Oh … That Massively Stimulating OT

Boston Herald gets action. State transportation officials, the memory of Big Dig excesses* fresh, pledge to eye the OT-palooza on federal job stimulus funds that have given some civil engineers the equivalent to two jobs’ worth of pay, while the staties rake in detail pay. Kind of makes me wonder whether the feds would be interested in that, and how many people actually hold how many of those stimulating jobs. History shows that can sometimes depend on how embarrassing it gets.

Previously, Great Recession!

Related, via Yahoo: Congressional Budget Office says O admin is underestimating the deficits generated by it’s budget plans by $1.2 trillion. The 10-year figure is $9.8 trillion. Damn. That’s a lot of clams. Because you have to spend money in order to waste money. Gateway with a chart helpfully compares Obama to the spendthrift warmonger Bush. Oddly, it turns out making the world safe for democracy and commerce, free exchange of ideas, that kind of thing, is cheaper … and arguably a lot more effective … than making jobs safe for Democrats.

* You remember the Big Dig. That was when Massachusetts spent nearly $15 billion … much of it in federal funds … on a $2 billion highway project. Assorted fraud and overage investigations took new impetous  and otehrs were fired up when it started leaking, and when a large section of it fell and killed a woman in her car. Not to be confused with The Big Splurge, which was when nearly $1 trillion federal job stimulus funds were used to safeguard Democratic-leanig hack jobs and apparently, massively stimulate their OT.

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:43 am Comments (1)

Friday, March 5, 2010

Hopeful Change

Obama advisors set to recommend military tribunals for 9/11 plotters. Washington Post:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:51 am Comments (1)

Crazy Shooter Identity

Admit it. One of the first things that goes through your head when you hear about another crazy shooter incident is … “Mohammed or Billy Bob?”  Islamic extremist nutcase or homegrown ultra right-wing nutjob? What name are the cops going to release? Which side, politically, is going to say “Told you so.”  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:51 am Comments (6)

Great Recession!

Someone’s having one! Massachusetts state employees cash in big time on stimulus OT while unemployment climbs! Boston Herald:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:48 am Comments (1)

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Go Tell The Spartans

That obedient to their laws, we dine here …

American fast food joints are being shut down at U.S. military bases in Afghanistan, where Gen. McChrystal’s ordered the Army and Air Force Exchange Service to shutter the Taco Bells, Burger Kings and other amenities. There hasn’t been much coverage of this nor much explanation. Army Times:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 1:32 pm Comments (4)

Hurtful Locker

Army EOD vet says he was the inspiration for The Hurt Locker and sues for some of the take. Curiously, this isn’t a defamation suit over the out-of-control irresponsible cowboy portrayal. Army Times:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:19 pm Comments (3)

Good, Tough … And Even Cheaper

Amazon’s pushing Casio sport watches. As I mentioned before, I’m a huge fan. Sport watches? Heck, more like adventure and war watches. (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:34 am Comments (4)

It’s War!

On the Massachusetts-New Hampshire line! The “Live Free or Die!” state eyes the fat pickings to the south, figures what’s already been surrendered isn’t enough. Can’t say I blame them. What’s the deterrent to a border war when your opponent’s big guns are all aimed at his own feet? Strategic sitrep follows the news, via Boston Herald:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:39 am Comments (0)

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

With The Old Breed

Eugene Sledge’s sons weigh in on the HBO series, “The Pacific,” that is based in part on dad’s book. It was a tough view for them and one they think would be tougher on the old man … which frankly given the background of this series sounds like a pretty good review. Birmingham News:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:11 am Comments (5)

About That Armada

Found on the bookshelves one I’d forgotten I had: England and the Spanish Armada: The Necessary Quarrel by James McDermott. Published at the same time as Neil Hanson’s The Confident Hope of a Miracle: The True Story of the Spanish Armada, which I’ve raved about earlier, Necessary Quarrel is a very different take.  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:35 am Comments (1)

Brownulus

Scott Brown, whose Senate debut was a vote for a cynical Dem “jobs” bill that had more to do with financing the health thing,* comes back with a proposal to give voters their money back. Actually, it’s to give them the money they’re borrowing. Boston Herald:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:46 am Comments (5)

Getting It/Not Getting It

Getting it, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick spikes $5 RMV fee hike. Boston Herald:  (more…)

Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:34 am Comments (0)