In honor of that, A Pen Warmed In Hell, brings you a visual blast from the past from our archives. Seems like it was only yesterday that they slapped the cuffs on him, my how time flies.
BTW, I've been to Jack's old restaurant, "Signatures" and I gotta tell ya, judging from the quality of the offerings, and the prices, it wasn't the food that anyone went there for.
This just in from that America's Favorite, Chicken Hawk, our Michelle:
"The New York Times published excerpts this weekend from Iraq war veterans who have contributed on-the-ground diary accounts to the New York State Veteran Oral History Program. This one was eye-catching:First Sgt. Kevin Lyons, Third Armored Cavalry RegimentFOX NEWS
Finally some local Iraqis went across the Syrian border, and they were buying televisions and satellite dishes. So this squadron bought one — and Fox News! It was like the greatest thing. It was the biggest event we had in two months. They hooked up the satellite dish and there was Fox News. I’m sitting there in Iraq and we’d go up to the briefing room, and if we didn’t have anything to do we’d sit there for hours at a time. At night we stayed up late just to watch Fox News.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this professional, cowardly, (don't see her volunteering to go to Iraq, though she looks able-bodied, for a Chicken Hawk), racist just loathe The New York Times?
Except when it serves her purposes, I guess.Wow.
"The marines had been on a continuous foot patrol for several days, hunting for insurgents. They were lost in the hard and isolating rhythms of infantry life.They knew nothing of the week’s news.
Now they were being told by an Iraqi whose house they occupied that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, one of the principal architects of the policies that had them here, had resigned. “Rumsfeld is gone?” the sergeant asked. “Really?”
Mr. Menti nodded. “This is better for Iraq,” he said. “Iraqi people say thank you.”
The sergeant went upstairs to tell his marines, just as he had informed them the day before that the Republican Party had lost control of the House of Representatives and that Congress was in the midst of sweeping change. Mr. Menti had told them that, too.
“Rumsfeld’s out,” he said to five marines sprawled with rifles on the cold floor.
Lance Cpl. James L. Davis Jr. looked up from his cigarette. “Who’s Rumsfeld?” he asked."
This was originally written on September 5th, 2006.
Since The Dow Jones hit a "new high" of 12,218.01 points today, I thought I'd bump it up to here.On January 20th, 1993, as Bill Clinton was about to become President the Dow Jones Industrial average closed at:
3,241.95 points
Eight years later, on January 19th, 2001 the Dow Jones closed at
10,587.59 points.
This is a gain of
7,345.64 points.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11669218/
To express this the way you asked, the Dow is currently trading at 11,460 points, which means that if it was at 10,587 points when Bush took office then it has risen all of
873 points
In the 5.75 years Bush has been President.
Clinton: Dow up by 7,345 points in 8 years.
Bush: Dow up by 873 points in 5.75 years.
You figure it out.
Btw, this averages out to about 150 points a year, which means that the Dow has been gaining a little over 1% a year for the last 5.75 years versus the 10% it usually gains.
Want to tell me how great the economy is doing again?
This is a New Depression and no one wants to admit it.
Don't get me started on how much value the Dollar has lost to the Euro in the last 5 years.
It's down 30%, which means that maybe a lot of Americans won't be going to France anytime soon, but the French will be over here playing tourist and buying our cheap, Made In China goods, and wondering how Americans got so fat, not eating any French cuisine, except for our fries.
Leaving off the fact that we've already "won" the war/invasion of Iraq in the Spring of 2003, and that we are already the "victors", please allow me a way to say that there is a way out of all of this.
It's not all that complex.
It's a rather simple idea, really.
Let's just go back to our original Causus Belli, the threat of Saddam Hussein possessing Weapons of Mass Destruction to be used against The United States of America.
What's to stop us from saying:
"We went into Iraq confirm our fears, found out that the WMDs in Iraq are not the threat we thought them to be, we removed Saddam as a possible, probable, future threat, to the USA, were he to remain in power in Iraq, and, additionally, because we are such good people, we helped create the roots of a democracy in Iraq, so our mission has been accomplished."How hard is it to say that?
ZAGARIT, Iraq, Nov. 9 — Hashim al-Menti smiled wanly at the marine sergeant beside him on his couch. The sergeant had appeared in the darkness on Wednesday night, knocking on the door of Mr. Menti’s home.
When Mr. Menti answered, a squad of infantrymen swiftly moved in, making him an involuntary host.
Since then marines had been on his roof with rifles, watching roads where insurgents often planted bombs.
Mr. Menti had passed the time watching television. Now he had news. He spoke in broken English. “Rumsfeld is gone,” he told the sergeant, Michael A. McKinnon.
“Democracy,” he added, and made a thumbs-up sign. “Good.”
The marines had been on a continuous foot patrol for several days, hunting for insurgents. They were lost in the hard and isolating rhythms of infantry life.
They knew nothing of the week’s news.
Now they were being told by an Iraqi whose house they occupied that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, one of the principal architects of the policies that had them here, had resigned. “Rumsfeld is gone?” the sergeant asked. “Really?”
Mr. Menti nodded. “This is better for Iraq,” he said. “Iraqi people say thank you.”
The sergeant went upstairs to tell his marines, just as he had informed them the day before that the Republican Party had lost control of the House of Representatives and that Congress was in the midst of sweeping change. Mr. Menti had told them that, too.
“Rumsfeld’s out,” he said to five marines sprawled with rifles on the cold floor.
Lance Cpl. James L. Davis Jr. looked up from his cigarette. “Who’s Rumsfeld?” he asked.
If history is any guide, many of the young men who endure the severest hardships and assume the greatest risks in the war in Iraq will become interested in politics and politicians later, when they are older and look back on their combat tours.
But not yet. Marine infantry units have traditionally been nonpolitical, to the point of stubbornly embracing a peculiar detachment from policy currents at home. It is a pillar of the corps’ martial culture: those with the most at stake are among the least involved in the decisions that send them where they go.
Mr. Rumsfeld may have become one of the war’s most polarizing figures at home. But among these young marines slogging through the war in Anbar Province, he appeared to mean almost nothing. If he was another casualty, they had seen worse.
“Rumsfeld is the secretary of defense,” Sergeant McKinnon said, answering Lance Corporal Davis’s question.
Lance Corporal Davis simply cursed.
It did not sound like anger or disgust. It seemed instead to be an exclamation about the irrelevance of the news. The sergeant might as well have told the squad of yesterday’s weather.
Another marine, Lance Cpl. Patrick S. Maguire, said the decisions that mattered here, inside Company F, Second Battalion, Eighth Marines, were much more important to them than those made in the Pentagon back home.
There are daily, dangerous questions: When to go on patrol, when to come back, which route to take down a road, which weapon to carry, and, at this moment, which watch each marine would stand, crouched up on the roof, in the cold wind, exposed to sniper fire.
His grandfather fought at Iwo Jima, he said, and his father was a marine in Vietnam. This was his second tour in Iraq. “Here’s the deal,” he said. “Someone points a finger at you, and you go.”
“The chain of command?” he added. “You know how high I know? My battalion commander is Lt. Col. DeTreux. That’s how high I know.”
And so between the marines and Mr. Menti and his family, the split reactions to news of Mr. Rumsfeld’s resignation made for surreal scenes.
Mr. Menti, 50, a radiologist by training, spent part of the afternoon trying to impress the meaning of the news on the young sergeant beside him on the couch.
The war policy was soon to change, he said.
“I think in one year you return to America,” he said.
The sergeant sat implacably.
“This is good for you,” Mr. Menti said. “No?”
He spoke of years of fear. Under Saddam Hussein, he said, they were afraid. Now, with the American troops and insurgents fighting in Anbar, they are still afraid. He returned to the news of Mr. Rumsfeld’s resignation.
“People in America are very happy,” he said. “I saw this on TV. And I am very happy. Thank you, American people.”
He pointed at the young marines before him, smoking on his couches, drinking his hot, sweetened tea. “These soldiers, in Iraq, they make freedom?” he asked.
“Yes,” Sergeant McKinnon said.
“What kind of freedom?” he asked.
He had been talking about the living conditions in the province since the night before, when the marines appeared at his door.
There are almost no schools, he said. There is almost no medicine. There is little food, and no electricity except from generators. The list went on. No water. No work. Violence. Abductions. Beheadings. Explosions.
His son-in-law had been kidnapped by insurgents seven months ago, he said, and a note the insurgents left said he was abducted for being friendly with American troops. He has not been seen since.
In Baghdad, he said, Iranian-backed death squads were killing Sunni citizens. The country was falling apart.
“You like freedom?” he asked the sergeant. “This kind? This way?”
“No,” Sergeant McKinnon said.
“I think you and I and many people do not like freedom in this way,” he said. “I believe this. I am sure.”
“It is wrong, the American Army coming here. It is wrong.”
He looked at Sergeant McKinnon, who is younger than many of his 14 children. He was trying to draw him out.
“If American Army came here for three months, four months, O.K.” Mr. Menti said. “But now is four years.”
If there were no American military presence in Iraq, he said, there would be no insurgents. One serves as a magnet for the other.
Mr. Menti spoke to the sergeant as if he were an American diplomat, as if he had some influence over the broad sweeps of American foreign policy. The sergeant remained quiet and polite.
“I don’t think he realizes that we’re trying to make this country safer for him,” he said to Lance Corporal Maguire.
“I think he realizes that we’re trying to make it safe, but that the more we stay here the more people come in and make it worse,” Lance Corporal Maguire replied.
They went upstairs, to pack their gear for the next move, planned for after dark, to another house and another night of looking down on the roads, waiting for an insurgent with a bomb to step within range of a rifle shot.
Sergeant McKinnon spoke of the squad’s isolation. “I only found out yesterday that the Saddam trial was over,” he said. “Another Iraqi told me that.”
He turned to the task of planning for the night’s fire support.
Up on the roof, Lance Corporal Maguire mused about the news. Whatever Mr. Rumsfeld’s resignation might eventually mean, it did not matter here yet, and it would not keep them alive tonight.
Another marine, Lance Cpl. Randall D. Webb, was scanning traffic through his rifle scope, worried that they had been spotted and the insurgents would soon know where they were.
“I think they see us,” he said.
“Man, they all see us,” Lance Corporal Maguire said, and lighted another cigarette.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
By Staff Sgt. Scott Dunn, Headquarters Marine Corps
Quantico, VA (Nov. 10, 2006) -- A corporal who died shielding men in his care from a bursting grenade deserves America’s highest military decoration, President Bush has confirmed.
Actions by Cpl. Jason L. Dunham, who would have turned 25 today, merit the Medal of Honor, Bush said at the National Museum of the Marine Corps’ dedication ceremony, which coincided with the 231st Marine Corps anniversary.
“And on this special birthday, in the company of his fellow Marines, I’m proud to announce that our nation will recognize Cpl. Jason Dunham’s action with America’s highest decoration for valor, the Medal of Honor,” Bush said in front of approximately 15,000 people.
The announcement prompted a booming “Ooh-rah!” – a spirited cry among Marines –from the back of the crowd, and a long applause followed.
On April 14, 2004, in Iraq near the Syrian border, the corporal used his helmet and his body to smother an exploding Mills Bomb let loose by a raging insurgent whom Dunham and two other Marines tried to subdue.
The explosion dazed and wounded Lance Cpl. William Hampton and Pfc. Kelly Miller. The insurgent stood up after the blast and was immediately killed by Marine small-arms fire.
“By giving his own life, Cpl. Dunham saved the lives of two of his men and showed the world what it means to be a Marine,” said Bush.
Dunham lay face down with a shard the size of a dress-shirt button lodged in his head. The hard, molded mesh that was his Kevlar helmet was now scattered yards around into clods and shredded fabric. Dunham never regained consciousness and died eight days later at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., with his mother and father at his bedside.
Dunham’s commanding officers from 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, investigated his actions and nominated him for the Medal of Honor. After two years and seven months making its way to the White House, the nomination now has the necessary approval from the president. The president will present the medal and citation at a date to be determined.
Hoping the president would make the Medal of Honor announcement on their son’s birthday, Dan and Debra Dunham drove to Quantico from their home in Scio, N.Y. Dunham is buried in Scio.
“The public now knows what Jason did,” said Deb. “We still have a loss, but the gift that Jason gave helps us go on.
"The good part is that we get to make new memories and bring new people into the family; the bad news is there will be no new memories with Jason.”
The president acknowledged Dan and Deb sitting in the front row. The parents held each other close as the audience gave a resounding applause.
“We took (the applause) as a thank you for us, but it was for Jason,” Deb said. “At that point, Dan and I were missing Jason a lot.”
Addressing Dunham’s parents, Bush said, “We remember that the Marine who so freely gave his life was your beloved son. We ask a loving God to comfort you for a loss that can never be replaced.
“As long as we have Marines like Cpl. Dunham, America will never fear for her liberty.”
Before Dunham, the last Marine actions to earn the medal happened May 8, 1970, in Vietnam, according to Marine Corps History Division records. A Medal of Honor citation details Lance Cpl. Miguel Keith’s machine-gun charge that inspired a platoon facing nearly overwhelming odds: Wounded, Keith ran into “fire-swept terrain.” Wounded again by a grenade, he still attacked, taking out enemies in the forward rush. Keith fought until mortally wounded; his platoon came out on top despite being heavily outnumbered.
The last Marine to receive the Medal of Honor was Maj. Gen. James L. Day, who distinguished himself as a corporal in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. On Jan. 20, 1998, more than half a century later, President Bill Clinton presented the medal to Day, who passed away that year.
Since the Long War began, the president has presented one Medal of Honor. On April 4, 2003, during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul R. Smith posthumously earned the medal for organizing a defense that held off a company-sized attack on more than 100 vulnerable coalition soldiers. In the defense, Smith manned a .50 caliber machine gun in an exposed position until he was mortally wounded.
Correspondence on a listserv I'm on 'tween me and a coupla friends:
Derek wrote:
> So what's happened there then?
Well, our otherwise progressive and anti-discriminatory Constitution is
to be amended to define "marriage" as "between one man and one woman,"
which it really already did, and goes even further to basically outlaw
civil unions, REGARDLESS of gender or orientation, by denying civil
unions "any status substantially similar to marriage."
WI was one of the first states to add "sexual orientation" to its
anti-discrimination clause.
Ohio has already been through this, and has shown that such clauses
essentially remove even basic protections and rights from un-married
couples, even \'common-law marriages,\' hetero or homo.
Oh, and we want to let our obviously fair and efficient government start
executing people based on DNA evidence.
gregory // two GIANT STEPS back // dj lo
",0] ); //-->
Well, our otherwise progressive and anti-discriminatory Constitution is
to be amended to define "marriage" as "between one man and one woman,"
which it really already did, and goes even further to basically outlaw
civil unions, REGARDLESS of gender or orientation, by denying civil
unions "any status substantially similar to marriage."
WI was one of the first states to add "sexual orientation" to its
anti-discrimination clause.
Ohio has already been through this, and has shown that such clauses
essentially remove even basic protections and rights from un-married
couples, even 'common-law marriages,' hetero or homo.
Oh, and we want to let our obviously fair and efficient government start
executing people based on DNA evidence.
gman // two GIANT STEPS back // dj hifio
To which I responded:
Yeah, some major bitter disappointments across the board last night.
My local guys, including a friend who ran as an out gay person, two
Republicans I voted for, and a Democrat who the DNC left out to hang
dry when he coulda easily won, lost.
Gay marriage/gay rights amendments, lost.
Decrim marijuana in Colo and NV, lost
Schwarzwenegger, re-elected, (what the fuck is *wrong* with you
peoples in CA?!?!)
Kinky Friedman, lost.
Harold Ford, lost.
Lamont, lost.
And it goes on and on and on.
Major suckitude on all fronts.
But you know what?
I just don't care anymore.
Why?
Because the first called seat last night came straight outta Vermont
and you motherfuckers elected a SOCIALIST to the US Senate!!!
What's in the water up there, T-Snake?
Mind mixing up us all a batch of Kool-Aid from it?
Let's go to the tape, shall we?
Santorum, GONE!
Harris, GONE!
Weldon, GONE!
Ney, GONE!
Sherwood, GONE!
Foley, LOST!
Delay's old seat in DEMOCRAT Nick Lampson's hands!
28 Democratic Statehouses including a major upset in MD where a
popular Republican *incumbent* lost to O'Malley, a Democrat!
Not 12, not 15, 20,or 25, seats, but, count 'em, **27** House Seats!!!!
And that's not counting the 13 that haven't been decided yet.
There were only 33 US Senate Seats in play yesterday.
Out of the 67 not up for election a solid 40 were already in
Republican hands v. The Dems 27.
Out of the 33 seats that were in play, the Republicans only needed to
win 5 last night to get to the majority of 60 that they needed to
absolutely control the US Senate.
That didn't happen either, did it?
What happened yesterday with the US Senate Races yesterday was an
absolute miracle.
Yeah, a lot of shit didn't go right yesterday, but being that on the
whole, we ran the fucking table and mopped the floor up with these
assholes, and while it may be a small victory, (God, I've kinda
forgotten what that feels like), I'll friggin' take it.
Seriously, we did good, real good, and while there's gonna be a lot of
work ahead of us from this point on, let's enjoy and savor this for a
little bit, m'kay?
Don't look now, but we just earned us some major political capital,
and hopefully we won't squander it, like Bush did.
Mmmm, subpeona power.
Speaker Of The House Pelosi.
Don't know about ya'll, but me likey.
:-)
~nyc
On November 6th, 2006, The USS Intrepid Floating Museum was to be moved from her berth on the West Side of Manhattan, where she had been living after her Naval decommissioning, to Bayonne, NJ, so that she could undergo a much needed overhaul and get all spruced up for future generation of war-pr0n loving Americans.
The above pic is from an Ebay promotion where 6 seats were to be sold at $100k a pop.
Guess what?
Wouldn't you know it?
Here in the land of Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coullter, and Rupert Murdoch's flag waving, jingoistic, war-profiteering gang over there at Fox News there were...
No takers.
None.
Zilch.
Zero.
De Nada.
The Big Zero.
Goose Eggs.
Not one of those fucker wanted to step up to the plate and do the right thing with their ill-gotten gains.
At least none that wanted to put their money where their moufs are and "Support The Troops" in a tangible way, past putting a magnetic yellow sticker on their Stupid Ugly Vehicles.
Which is just as well, because after sitting in that one spot for the better part of 20 years, a lot of silt built up and she got, well, stuck in the motherfucking mud!
How's that for a metaphor for our age?
And on the Monday before the Mid-Term Congressional Elections, no less.
(Full Disclosure: I once kinda briefly lived aboard the USS Intrepid a few months prior to my enlistment in the US Marine Corps, here's the story I've relayed elsewhere to a friend about it:
Back in 1986 I worked on a Michael Keaton movie called 'The Squeeze' and practically lived on board this sucker for about two weeks because it was 8 hours between call and my commute home, (we shot at night, yuck), was a 2 hour journey each way, so a coupla mornings I'd do the linger in the background thing until everybody left and I'd go sleep for a few hours in my little hidey-place.
It was funny, on the days I left with the crew the pre-Ghouliani era hookers were waiting for us at the exit gates. Always made me feel like I was leaving a factory in the 1930's instead of modern day film location. :-)
When the movie came out, it was clear that they had re-shot some of the sequences that didn't involve HS Marching bands, NJ General cheerleaders, Marine Corps Color Guard and John Davidson, in a studio in North Carolina....
.... I was a Set\Parking PA,Craft Service, Evian Water Boy, Stepin Fetchit.
One of the more interesting tasks on that job was they had me go out and buy gallons and gallons of that ghetto wine, Ripple, because Micheal Keaton's lovable loser character is supposed to take a bath in it according to the script, though I think they cut that scene out of the movie.
Another example of the profligate wastefulness of Hollywood.
The again, it wasn't a total waste for me, by the end of shoot, Über-hottie, Rae Dawn Chong, Tommy Chong's daughter, and the movie's love interest was calling me by my name. :-) How cool is that?")
