A couple of months ago, Dave in Texas, Gabriel Malor, Kevlarchick and I were at the National World War II Memorial in D.C. There was a group of veterans there from Wisconsin who were visiting their memorial, and in speaking with one of them we learned that a member of their group who was scheduled to be on the trip had passed away just the week before. There weren't a lot of dry eyes at that moment.

The whole time we were there, I couldn't help but think of my wife's grandfather, who on December 7, 1941, was aboard the USS California (BB-44), the flagship of the Pacific fleet, which was moored on Pearl Harbor's "Battleship Row". He fought to keep her afloat as long as he could and then swam through a deadly mix of petroleum, seawater and fire after the order to abandon ship came.

He served throughout the war in the Pacific and then remained in the Far East during the postwar rebuilding. Returned to his native and beloved Texas after that and raised a family that I was lucky to become a part of. I miss that man.

Posted by: andy at 11:35 AM | Comments (59)
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It's not even his goddamned house. He doesn't even live there.

It's just a little place in the country where he can escape to when the daily grind of filmmaking and international press-junkets gets to be too much.

99%: Spare housekeys

1%: Spare houses

Occupy Michael Moore's Million Dollar Mansion! He's not using anyway, and I bet the kitchens are very well-stocked.

Thanks to Truman North.

Posted by: Ace at 10:10 AM | Comments (185)
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Pestilence, now. That's how you know you're WINNING!, when you are visited by plagues and pandemics.

“It’s called Zuccotti lung,” said Willie Carey, 28, a demonstrator from Chapel Hill, N.C. “It’s a real thing.”

Incidentally, when speaking of Occupy fatalities, it's now critical that you distinguish the accidental deaths (as due to drug overdoes) from the murders.

Director Blue prepared an informative graph comparing the Tea Party to the Occupy movement. The chart is from a few days ago, so does not include "Murder" and "Plague."

Tuberculosis at Occupy Atlanta: Speaking of this whole "retracing the arc of history" thing.

If you didn't know -- Deadwood was originally conceived to be a show about ancient, pre-glory-days, early-settlement-days Rome. They changed that because HBO had picked up Rome, so.

But what they didn't change was the basic idea -- "How Civilization Arises." Whether it was very old Rome or semi-old Deadwood, the idea was always going to be how amoral violent force is eventually legitimized and regularized (and often wielded by the worst and most violent) and becomes, ultimately, the nucleus of a stable state.

Swearigen in Deadwood was a vicious murderer but eventually was a force for stability and civilization. Not because he was a good man, but just because his personal economic interests now aligned with having a peaceable, orderly settlement.

Anyway, tuberculosis was big in Deadwood, and so now is it big in Occupy Atlanta.

Another Death, This One at Occupy Salt Lake City. Police are treating the death as "inevitable."

Police, meanwhile, are calling the shooting victim at Occupy Burlington (VT) "a hero."

Posted by: Ace at 09:29 AM | Comments (214)
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Very good idea, especially politically. "Infrastructure spending," which apparently means dog parks and stipends for union bosses' mistresses, remains popular with the public, which doesn't seem to understand when they're being conned.

The Democrats keep pushing this forward as a political wedge against us.

This proposal sticks the wedge back between the Democrats' eyes. Because obviously it would also create jobs (and reduce the deficit) to pump oil in America.

So why not do both?

It forces them to choose between pandering to independents and pandering to the liberal base. And it smokes them out -- they want to keep saying all they care about is jobs, jobs, jobs. And yet, when a good proposal for jobs is on the table, they're forced to reveal that they have a hidden agenda that has nothing to do with jobs (or, actually, is anti-jobs).

On Friday, Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) put meat on the bones by announcing a plan that would require lease sales in areas off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, among other areas, and lift a congressional ban on oil-and-gas leasing that covers most of the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
The plan includes a lease sale off VirginiaÂ’s coast by mid-2012.

“The U.S. has vast energy resources that are not being developed due to federal government roadblocks. Removing these barriers and allowing expanded American energy production will create long-term job growth, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and provide much-needed revenue to help pay for vital infrastructure improvements,” Stivers said in a statement Friday.

The plan is expected to move through the House in the “coming weeks,” his office said.

It would provide states with drilling off their shores a 37.5 percent cut of the revenues, expanding the revenue-sharing program for several other Gulf of Mexico states created in 2006 to other regions.

I like it.

Posted by: Ace at 08:42 AM | Comments (126)
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Via Allah, Cain's Iowa lead is down 11 points in 5 days in the same poll.

Over the course of a week, Herman Cain's lead in Iowa shrunk from 15 points to four over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, according to a new Insider Advantage poll of likely Republican caucus-goers in the Hawkeye State.

Meanwhile, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich moved ahead of Romney into second place in South Carolina, according to another Insider Advantage poll released Friday.

According to the Iowa survey, Cain leads the GOP field with 23 percent of the support, while Romney takes 19 percent. Gingrich comes in third with 15 percent. Texas Rep. Ron Paul garners 11 percent, and Gov. Rick Perry receives 9 percent. None of the remaining candidates polls above 5 percent, and 13 percent are undecided.

From occasional guest blogger and editor of The Transom (a must read daily email) Ben Dommenech, Cain still leads nationally in a CBS poll but with plenty of bad news for him.

Cain has lost support among women since late October. Then, he led among women, garnering 28 percent of their support. Now, his support among women is just 15 percent. He has also lost ground with conservatives, from 30 percent to 23 percent now. And there has been some movement among Tea Party supporters as well; their support for Cain has declined from 32 percent to 19 percent. Romney has lost support among men, while Gingrich's support among that group has increased eight points.

There's also a McClatchy-Marist poll out today showing Mitt Romney back in the lead nationally, Newt Gingrich rising to second and Cain falling to third.

The breakdown of the poll:

— Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, 23 percent;

—Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, 19 percent;

—Cain, the former restaurant executive, 17 percent;

Ron Paul is the only other candidate in double digits at 10%.

It would be interesting to see what hurt Cain more, the allegations themselves (which are shaky at best) or his brutal handling of them.

Either way, it's pretty clear that Cain's momentum has been broken. It's not to say that he's done but he's come back to the field. The next week or two will tell if this is his new plateau or if he slides further back towards where he was before his recent climb began in the Florida straw poll.

Clearly Newt is "Not Romney" this month. God knows there more than enough ammunition in his past to shoot him with. With about 7 weeks until Iowa, maybe he's timed it just right. As much as I'm ant-Romney and pro-Gingrich now, I'm not sure if that would be a good or a bad thing.

It's simply amazing this is the spot we are in. Simply amazing.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:25 AM | Comments (354)
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Its origin is Armistice Day, the end of hostilities between the armies on the Western Front in 1918, World War I. The guns fell silent on the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month". After World War II it was changed to Veterans Day, to continue a tradition of honoring those who served after the first world war.

Veterans Day is a day for us to celebrate and recognize the honorable service of those who wore the uniform and did their duty, whether in peacetime or in harm's way.

more...

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 06:55 AM | Comments (47)
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Following his brain cramp, Rick Perry went on just about every TV show he could find.

Here he is doing the Top 10 on Letterman.

I'm not a big fan of presidential candidates trying to be pop culture stars but it's the world we live in. Coming of the most painful 51 seconds in presidential debate history, this is about the best he could do.

Before I realized Ace wasn't going to be around yesterday, I did a Perry post on my own little blog about how Perry's "Look at what I did" strategy might help him.

Here's part of what I wrote.

...People are quickly going from laughing at him (which is fatal) to laughing with him (which can be powerful). It also helps that at some pint in a venue large or small, weÂ’ve all been there. ItÂ’s an endearing and humanizing moment that basically means a chance for Perry to make a first impression for the second time.

What Perry does with the second chance in the coming days will likely be the difference between an early demise for his campaign or a another legitimate shot at the nomination.

I don’t know if the stiff and lifeless Perry we’ve seen at the debates is the “real” Perry or if the looser, quirkier one we are seeing now (and in the famous NH speech) is closer to the truth. If it’s the latter I hope he just lets that fly and sees where it takes him. Personally I’ve gotten the sense from Perry that he’s so uptight, so worried about saying the wrong thing he’s basically gone flat (maybe his apparent lack of preparation for this run was the cause of his caution). That was not the concern I had about him when he launched his bid. I thought his supposedly outsized personality would be too hot, to “Texas” for many voters. Well, cautious Rick Perry was struggling to hang on to the tail end of the 2nd tier at about 6% support before last night. If you’re going to go down, go down with your best pitch Rick. Throw it all out on the table and see if it works.

Can Perry capitalize on the opportunity? Well the window is small. There's another debate tomorrow that will focus exclusively on foreign affairs. Another brain cramp or even one of his typical extended periods where he just checks out and he's done.

Posted by: DrewM at 05:20 AM | Comments (253)
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Today is Veteran's day, and there will be many a post about that to honor those who served. Let us not forget, however, that today is also the once-in-a-century celebration of all things one louder: more...

Posted by: CAC at 04:41 AM | Comments (34)
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A Smart Military Blog™ thank you to all who have served in the finest military the world has ever known. God bless you.

"Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die." ~ G.K. Chesterton

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Posted by: andy at 03:30 AM | Comments (198)
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The 19 Things Our Generals in Afghanistan Know Are True But Cannot Say in Public

As compiled by Thomas E. Ricks based on information he's received from insiders and Afghan veterans. Some of these I would quibble with but most seem seem straightforwardly obvious. After nearly a decade of fighting in Afghanistan we have a lot invested in the outcome, but I can't see a good ending when we're unable to speak honestly about the true situation and our long-term goals there.

• Pakistan is now an enemy of the United States.
  
• We don't know why we are here, what we are fighting for, or how to know if we are winning.
  
• The strategy is to fight, talk, and build. But we're withdrawing the fighters, the Taliban won't talk, and the builders are corrupt.
  
• Karzai's family is especially corrupt.
  
• We want President Karzai gone but we don't have a Pushtun successor handy.
  
• But the problem isn't corruption, it is which corrupt people are getting the dollars. We have to help corruption be more fair.
  
• Another thing we'll never stop here is the drug traffic, so the counternarcotics mission is probably a waste of time and resources that just alienates a swath of Afghans.
  
• Making this a NATO mission hurt, not helped. Most NATO countries are just going through the motions in Afghanistan as the price necessary to keep the US in Europe
  
• Yes, the exit deadline is killing us.
  

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:31 PM | Comments (707)
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