This time it's a Marine.

A Marine who repeatedly braved enemy fire in eastern Afghanistan attempting to find and save fellow members of his embedded training team will receive the Medal of Honor, Marine Corps Times has confirmed.

Dakota Meyer was contacted by President Obama on Monday, according to sources with knowledge of the award.
...

Meyer, who left active-duty service in June 2010 as a corporal, will be honored for his actions Sept. 8, 2009. He charged into a kill zone on foot and alone to find three missing Marines and a Navy corpsman, who had been pinned down under intense enemy fire in Ganjgal, a remote village near the Pakistan border in violent Kunar province.

Already wounded by shrapnel, Meyer found them dead and stripped of their gear and weapons, and helped carry them from the kill zone, according to military documents obtained by Marine Corps Times.

Meyer — who now lives in Austin, Texas — could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday night. In interviews with Marine Corps Times in November, he said he felt “like the furthest thing from a hero” because he did not find his fellow Marines alive.

“Whatever comes out of it, it’s for those guys,” he said at the time. “I feel like I let my guys down because I didn’t bring them home alive.”

There's no word yet on the date of the official awards ceremony.

I'm not sure what, if anything, has changed in the decision making process but I'm glad to see the military awarding Medals of Honor to men who survived their actions.

It's a bitter-sweet moment to see these men recognized. It's clear from the interviews they give and their demeanor that while we celebrate their
heroism, it's clear that the medal is reminder to them of what has to be one of the worst, if not the worst, days of their lives.

As important as these Medal of Honor recipients are, we should never forget they represent and incredibly small percentage of the servicemen and women who have been fighting and sacrificing so much for almost 10 years now. I'm not sure that on 9/10/01 many people thought we would find so many who would step up to serve for so long. Thank God for those who answered the call.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:13 AM | Comments (74)
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Beer at last, beer at last, thank God, we are beer at last! The Minnesota state shutdown will (probably) end today, and the liquor can once again flow freely. Democrats hate the compromise, which means that the state GOP probably got a pretty good deal.

If President Obama likes this "Gang of Six" plan, it probably means it sucks and will really piss off conservatives. However, it may also be the best deal we're going to get out of this President. Do we take the deal and keep our powder dry for 2012, or do we bunker in and insist on a better deal? Mark Steyn at NRO hates the plan, and he thinks the deal will work out as these things usually do:

If you take the Gang’s figure of half-a-trillion dollars in immediate “aggressive deficit reduction” seriously, that represents about what the U.S. government borrows every four months. What’s “aggressive” about that? And what’s immediate about it? It’s all unspecified “discretionary spending caps” and “process reforms” that will collapse like soufflés ten minutes after the signing ceremony. Obviously it’s appealing to Democrats: It accepts their view that 25 percent of GDP should be the new baseline for national (“federal” no longer seems quite the word) government spending. But what’s in it for Republicans?

There is evidence that bondholders and ratings agencies are getting antsy about the lack of a budget deal, but I continue to think this is media-generated hysteria and political theater. Smart bond-holders have factored in US debt concerns long ago, and they know that there is almost no chance the US will actually default on its debt. So when you hear the hysterical warnings that a default is imminent, you can safely ignore them, whatever happens. The US, for all its problems, is still the best of a bad lot, and investors know that.

Paul Ryan's take on the "Gang of Six" proposal. He doesn't hate it, but he seems to see more bad than good in it.

Who would have thought that a Byzantine, badly-thought-out, and partisan piece of legislation would actually exacerbate the very problem it was meant to solve? Impossible!

Give the Greeks what they deserve: Communism. This seems like a cruel fate, but after all many Greeks have been agitating for it for a century. Maybe a decade or two of having having to live in a Communist hellhole will kill their taste for it.

Thomas Sowell: Misreading 90 years of tax-cut history. Listen to the man.

The spirit of public service always warms my heart. In Wisconsin, public employees are retiring in droves to avoid any cuts to their retirement benefits. The phenomenon of "pre-emptive retirement" is quite commonplace, and it will further strain state and municipal budgets due to the sudden spike in pension rolls combined with the shortfall in senior personnel.

A California judge halts Costa Mesa layoffs until a trial. The public-employee unions asked for the injunction, and the judge granted it. Expect to see more and more of this kind of thing as city budgets run out and layoffs end up being the only major avenue of cost savings. We may end up with a wholly bizarre situation where a judge essentially orders a municipality to go bankrupt by preventing them from getting their payroll costs under control.

Someone needs to remind this guy that past performance is no guarantee of future results. You'd think he'd have learned that lesson in the 2008 downturn, but I guess not. (And those stock-market "windfalls" can disappear with terrifying speed, guys. One bad day on the exchange is all you need.)

Some rare good news for American manufacturing: American Airlines orders 460 narrowbody aircraft. 200 of those planes will come from Boeing, with the rest coming from Europe's Airbus. (I wonder if this will have any impact on the current NLRB case against Boeing?)

UPDATE 1: Via Vic in the comments: Moody's threatens a downgrade of five states if the US credit rating is cut. Like I've been saying, the credit ratings agencies were terribly embarrassed by their utter failure in the subprime meltdown, and are trying mightily to build their cred back up again.

UPDATE 2: Compton, CA, a city of delights comparable to classical Florence, is laying off 30% of its workforce. Well, unless a judge orders them not to.

UPDATE 3: Slouching towards default.
more...

Posted by: Monty at 04:56 AM | Comments (170)
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The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:01 AM | Comments (131)
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So...this is the Overnight Thread. Nice place you've got here. It's a shame something happened to it.

IÂ’m not sure what you people did to piss Maetneloch off so much that he's punishing you by having me do it tonight but it must have been pretty bad. I hope you enjoyed it.

Without further adoÂ…Welcome to the ONT: Sports Edition (mostly)

First, everything you need to know about the best sport, Hockey, from the best sports movie ever, Slap Shot.

If you're anything like me, and I bet you are, you've often thought to yourself, "You know what would make the Tour De France more interesting? Randomly hitting riders with a car". Clearly this guy had the same idea and when he had the chance, he took it. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 05:30 PM | Comments (760)
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The vote total was 234-190. It's not expected to get through the Senate, I guess, but hey, it's a plan. In related news, Senator DeMint says that Obama is only backing the "gang of six" plan because the GOP is on the move:

"I don't know enough about the Gang of Six proposal, but I do know the only reason the president is stepping up and saying he might support this is that Republicans are now on the offense with a plan that would increase the debt limit in a way that Moody's and S&P would recognize as credible long-term deficit reduction," DeMint said Tuesday on Fox Business Network.

. . .

"There is only one proposal that actually is written that will be voted on, and that is the ‘cut, cap and balance’ proposal," DeMint said.

I don't know enough about the gang of six proposal either. But from Drew's post earlier today, it seems a little vague, a little aspirational--a little long on promise and short on specifics. And how many times has the GOP been lead down the primrose path on promised future spending cuts? Reagan and Bush 41, from what I can recall. I'm sure there are others. Because of this, I'm leaning toward not liking it, and I'm starting to wonder whether Senator Coburn deserves the name "Dr. No." But we'll see.

Added: Representative Paul Ryan is on Fox right now, and he sounds more than a little skeptical about the gang of six plan. He doesn't like the backdoor way it miraculously appeared today. Again, it's hard to see why Senator Coburn is involved in this.

Posted by: rdbrewer at 05:00 PM | Comments (107)
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That's pretty much the nicest thing he wrote to her in an email after Wasserman-Schultz went after him in a floor speech.

From: Z112 West, Allen
Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2011 04:48 PM
To: Wasserman Schultz, Debbie
Cc: McCarthy, Kevin; Blyth, Jonathan; Pelosi, Nancy; Cantor, Eric
Subject: Unprofessional and Inappropriate Sophomoric Behavior from Wasserman-Schultz

Look, Debbie, I understand that after I departed the House floor you directed your floor speech comments directly towards me. Let me make myself perfectly clear, you want a personal fight, I am happy to oblige. You are the most vile, unprofessional ,and despicable member of the US House of Representatives. If you have something to say to me, stop being a coward and say it to my face, otherwise, shut the heck up. Focus on your own congressional district!

I am bringing your actions today to our Majority Leader and Majority Whip and from this time forward, understand that I shall defend myself forthright against your heinous characterless behaviorÂ…Â…which dates back to the disgusting protest you ordered at my campaign hqs, October 2010 in Deerfield Beach.

You have proven repeatedly that you are not a Lady, therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me!

Steadfast and Loyal

Congressman Allen B West (R-FL)

I'm sure this will get the ho-hum treatment that attacks on Palin, Bachmann and other GOP women get.

Or you know, Allen West will become Public Enemy Number 1. I'm going to guess he's not too worried about that.

Posted by: DrewM at 02:54 PM | Comments (431)
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Once again Jake Tapper gets the goods from Jay Carney.

CARNEY: Leadership is not proposing a plan for the sake of having it voted up or down, and likely voted down because it is — look, you know how this town works and how Congress works. If an individual, whether Democrat or Republican leader, steps forward and says, this is my plan and solely my plan, it makes it a lot harder for that plan to be the basis for a bipartisan compromise. The way to reach a bipartisan compromise is in bipartisan negotiations where a plan emerges that is the product of that negotiation and is supported by Republicans and Democrats and then presented. Otherwise, your chances of actually achieving something diminish greatly.

I guess this just happens magically or something.

Personally I'd describe Obama's leadership style as "Bitch about people actually doing something and then take credit for it later".

Keep in mind the Gang of 6 "plan" Obama was talking about today, isn't so much a plan as a plan to have a plan. And some of that is of questionable valuable to say the least.

The plan claims just $500 billion in “immediate deficit savings,” but even these don’t seem all that immediate. Here’s what’s included as “immediate”:

-- Statutory spending caps through 2015. But that still leaves the actual cuts to be determined.

-- “(N)umerous budget process reforms.” Again, that’s not an actual cut.

-- “Shift to the chained-CPI (a more accurate measure of inflation) government-wide starting in 2012, along with the following specifications for Social Security: (1) exempt SSI from the shift for five years, and then phase in the shift over the next five years; and (2) provide a minimum benefit equal to 125% of the poverty line for five years.”

In other words, let some future Congress can fight it out with AARP in 2017 when it comes times to actually implement this change.

So for all of the complaining, there's sill only one party in this whole mess who actually has proposed a plan that can be voted on. And that's the one President Leading by Not Leading is attacking.

Posted by: DrewM at 02:25 PM | Comments (86)
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I've had migraines all day. No, that's not a dig at Michele Bachmann.

This is a fun post to ponder.

Posted by: Ace at 01:47 PM | Comments (154)
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Here's the link, but I'm not lying.

CAC adds:

The Kos kiddies can enjoy "well he's not up against Generic R" ntil they start to figure out Romney is quietly approaching the Generic's numbers in many states, Perry as well, and even Bachmann is starting to close her gap in performance against Obama.

The only thing skewing the results on the RCP average is that laughable AP poll back in MAY of O+11 and the JUNE NBC poll of O+5.

The 30 day polling average in a national poll Generic R v Obama:

PPP R+4
Ras R+5
Gallup R+8

Avg of 3- R by 5.66% shift of over 12 points from 2008 result.

A shift of that maginitude not only guarantees the hypothetical Republican beats Obama, it costs Obama the entire Midwest save for Illinois, the entire southwest, and puts the Pacific Northwest and the light-blue North East into tossup territory.

Imagine if CBS actually used correctly weighted polling...

That RCP average is here.

The graph there is heartening. Even with those suspect, dated polls included, Obama only manages a 0.8% lead.

Update: CAC says Rasmussen is about to release its latest head-to-head (vs. a Generic), and the Generic has increased the lead from +5 to +6.

Okay, so that's not a real increase. But it's confirmatory.

Posted by: Ace at 12:59 PM | Comments (200)
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Robert Costa at NRO:

Republican senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, is part of the problem, DeMint says. Instead of enabling conservatives to propose their solutions early on, McConnell made them wait until the Biden debt-reduction talks collapsed, leaving little time to rally behind counterproposals.

. . .

“Early on, Republican leaders in the House and Senate also said that we have to raise the debt limit,” DeMint says. “Unfortunately, we showed our hand.” Now, he says, “Republicans have our backs against the walls.”

“When I spoke to the conference months ago, I told my colleagues that the most important part of negotiations is when you put your proposal on the table,” DeMint says. But that never happened. The “difference in the sense of urgency among Senate Republicans,” he says, is troublesome.

It looks like Senator DeMint has an understanding of basic horse trading. To mix metaphors, you wouldn't tell the car salesman, "And that is all that I will pay... unless I have to pay some more," or "Rest easy; there is no way I will walk out that door." You couldn't get a deal after that. You'd look longingly at the showroom door, maybe get up to leave.

Likewise, you wouldn't tell the other side, "Relax, there's no way we'd shut down the government," or "Maybe we could just let you change the debt ceiling all you want and hope you choke on it." Your object is not to reassure your opponent or tell them what you might be willing to do in the end. Tension is your friend. Use it.

A salesman wouldn't last a week at Allen Merrill's New & Used on Route 66 in Yukon doing that kind of thing--starting a deal by announcing what he or she could or couldn't do.

These are basic errors, like starting a hand of poker by saying "Darn, I didn't get an ace."

Added:

Andy sent me this litany of McConnell negotiating errors from RedState yesterday:

Senator Mitch McConnell has lost almost every major legislative battle he has managed.

In the early ’90?s, he managed opposition to the Motor Voter Bill, which encouraged groups like ACORN to register fraudulent voters. McConnell refused to filibuster the motion to take up the bill — something that would have served as a key delaying tactic.

Moreover, Sen. McConnell sat by idly as sponsors of the bill played “let’s make a deal” — offering amendment after amendment to buy off opponents of the bill. A bill, which initially had more than enough votes to kill it, ended up passing because of McConnell’s ill-advised strategy.

Much more at the link.

Posted by: rdbrewer at 12:23 PM | Comments (151)
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