Just a couple of months before his 101st birthday. DrewM mentioned him to me last year, when he attended the Pearl Harbor commemoration ceremony in December. Mary Katharine Ham wrote a great piece about him back then too, which included this from his Medal of Honor Citation:

For extraordinary heroism distinguished service, and devotion above and beyond the call of duty. During the first attack by Japanese airplanes on the Naval Air Station, Kaneohe Bay, on 7 December 1941, Lt. Finn promptly secured and manned a .50-caliber machinegun mounted on an instruction stand in a completely exposed section of the parking ramp, which was under heavy enemy machinegun strafing fire.

Although painfully wounded many times, he continued to man this gun and to return the enemy's fire vigorously and with telling effect throughout the enemy strafing and bombing attacks and with complete disregard for his own personal safety. It was only by specific orders that he was persuaded to leave his post to seek medical attention.

Following first aid treatment, although obviously suffering much pain and moving with great difficulty, he returned to the squadron area and actively supervised the rearming of returning planes. His extraordinary heroism and conduct in this action were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

He was the oldest surviving Medal of Honor recipient from World War II. He served in the Navy until 1947.

RIP Lt. Finn.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 03:54 PM | Comments (70)
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She does it because she loves it.

Posted by: Ace at 01:35 PM | Comments (328)
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Is this old? Pretty interesting "wear your seat-belt" commercial. Nice symbolism too.

Anyway, it's new to me.

via The Man-Lesbian of Love, Peace and Crunchy Cheetos over at H2

Because crunchy cheetos are just better.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 11:26 AM | Comments (221)
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Tread on you I shall.

'Tea Party' flag rankles some

Flag, one of nation's oldest, causes stir after being raised over Town Common

By Ted Hayes

WARREN — The Warren Fire Department drew fire Friday morning when members raised one of the nation’s oldest — but these days, controversial — flags from one of three flagpoles they maintain at the Warren Town Common.

Their flying of the Gadsden Flag, a Revolutionary War-era flag depicting a coiled rattlesnake with the slogan “Don’t Tread On Me” below it, angered some residents because though it was originally created to protest the British government prior to and during the American Revolution, it has become a symbol to some of the American Tea Party movement....

[The Fire Chief who raised it said:] “It was only done for history’s sake. If people got offended I apologize. I just hope the American flag isn’t offending anyone, becaue that’s one flag I’ll never take down.”

That offends all the same people, but they know better than to admit it.

Posted by: Ace at 11:25 AM | Comments (176)
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Hmmm...

In related news, the Free Times -- a small local SC rag -- is claiming that their transcript of a phone interview with Will Folks proves he didn't want to discuss the matter, and we should therefore believe him when he says he began braggin' and attention-whorin' only as a defensive action full of integrity and wholesomeness.

Um, two problems: Folks was the one who put this out there and was talking it up himself a year ago. So I don't believe that he didn't want to talk about it. I believe he wanted to create interest and mystery before grabbing some spotlight.

Further, if you read this, he's constantly laughing at questions, loving the attention. His denials aren't denials. He doesn't deny it. He pretty much is saying "Yes, it's true, but I'm not willing to give you the story." At no point does he attempt anything that looks like a convincing denial.

He's just stoking interest in his claims.

For example:

CH: What would you say?

[Talk about FolksÂ’ contract work for HaleyÂ’s House re-election campaign, taxes, disclosures, political rumors]

WF: Are you writing a story?

CH: I donÂ’t know yet, man. I havenÂ’t decided. ThatÂ’s why I called you. YouÂ’re a trustworthy guy. You know about South Carolina politics. YouÂ’re like, the badass blogger of South Carolina politics. You know this story. Help me out. Should I write this story?

WF: [laughs] I donÂ’t know what story youÂ’re talking about.

CH: You havenÂ’t heard about anybody writing a story tonight?

[Talk about booze, political rumors]

WF: If you think youÂ’ve got a specific question you want to ask me, why donÂ’t you ask it, man? DonÂ’t be a pussy, just ask a f#!king question.

CH: Did you have an affair with Nikki Haley?

WF: Did I?

CH: Yeah.

WF: IÂ’m not going to comment on anything like that, man.

CH: Why not?

WF: IÂ’m not going to comment on anything like that. Do you have proof that I did?

CH: Honestly, I guess it depends on how you define proof.

WF: [laughs] Is this like the “what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is?”

CH: Do you think there is proof?

WF: Proof of what?

CH: That Nikki Haley had an extramarital affair and you were involved?

WF: [laughs] ThatÂ’s the weirdest phrased interrogative I believe IÂ’ve ever heard in my life. I mean, any questions about Nikki Haley you should call Nikki HaleyÂ’s campaign. I did work for Nikki but I donÂ’t work for her now.

CH: YouÂ’re the one IÂ’m asking. I have a feeling thereÂ’s a possibility that you slept with her.

WF: Did you?

CH: Oh, no, I havenÂ’t actually. I definitely wouldnÂ’t say that I havenÂ’t thought about, you know, how IÂ’d feel about something like that. IÂ’d be humbled. But, how about yourself? Have you had an affair with Nikki Haley?

WF: [laughs] Man, IÂ’m not going to dignify that kind of Â…

CH: OK, to be more specific, did you ever tell anybody you had an affair with Nikki Haley?

WF: IÂ’m not going to dignify that with a response.

CH: Did you have an affair with Nikki Haley?

WF: I don’t know what part of “I ain’t commenting on any of that” you don’t understand.

CH: Has anyone ever asked you that before?

WF: Man, I get asked everything, so Â…

CH: Would you say that youÂ’re dodging the question right now?

WF: IÂ’m not going to talk about something that Â…

CH: Would you say that youÂ’re obfuscating? You can ask me a question, man, IÂ’d answer it. Have I had an affair with Nikki Haley? No. Have you?

WF: I ainÂ’t getting into that, man, IÂ’m not dignifying that with a comment. HereÂ’s the thing, man. IÂ’m never going to comment on Â…

CH: Do you think this is a ridiculous question? Do you think this is silly? Am I wasting your time with this?

WF: You can print whatever you want; I mean IÂ’m not worried about it Â…

CH: Is this out of left field?

WF: I donÂ’t think itÂ’s out of left field.

This isn't dodging; this is being coy, and deliberately so, telegraphing the fact you are being coy, more or less sitting there with a big shit-eating grin as he effectively communicates "Yeah it happened, aren't I big playah?"

How much more obvious can it be that this guy is exulting in his first six minutes of his 15 minutes of fame?

I wish I could find the video, but I can't. On The Office, Michael Scott hooked up with his boss, Jan Levinson-Gould, and when asked about it in "confessional," he just grinned and offered the most rote semi-denials possible, and then would giggle, and then would confirm it, and then would retract that confirmation. And then he just began revealing everything. Point is, it was comical. Like this.

This isn't attempting to deny anything; this is releasing a teaser-trailer for a would-be upcoming blockbuster.

Posted by: Ace at 10:20 AM | Comments (422)
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I'm listening in now. Missed the beginning.

Obama: There will be an administration response on Sestak coming "shortly" (days not weeks; how about tomorrow, a Friday, I'm thinking) he claims will satisfy people. He claims "nothing improper" happened.

Top Kill Feed: They have it playing in the corner on Fox. This isn't what I expected success to look like.

OH MY GOD: 5,000 barrels of oil per day?

They might have underestimated slightly on that.

The new estimate: Up to one million gallons per day.

Correction: I wrote that they thought 5,000 gallons were leaking per day, now revised up to 1,000,000.

A reader says I have that wrong -- it was 5,000 barrels, now increased to 1,000,000 gallons. At 55 gallons per barrel, this works out to 275,000 barrels -- so it's not a big a jump as I thought, but still huge.

Whoops: 42 gallons per barrel for crude, so around 230,000 barrels per day.

Uh-Huh: Defending his dealings with BP, he says there was a lack of "urgency" regarding efforts to clean up/enforce safety provisions, but none of the "corrupt practices" of the previous administration occurred in the "current administration."

Doesn't Support Boycotts Against Arizona, But Of Course Is "Examining" Law. BTW, I'm watching clips of his answers now; he ended the conference 15 minutes ago.

I'm So In Charge and In Command I Don't Even Know If MMS Director Elizabeth Birmbaum Was Fired or Resigned. The press is pressing him on this (small, I think) issue. It's emblematic, though, that President Present can't even commit to a position on this.

Posted by: Ace at 09:43 AM | Comments (182)
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Great credit sequence! Best thing about the supertech future -- space-uniforms show off a girl's rack and butt really swell.

Second best thing? This incredible future awaits us, just a few years away, in 1980.

It's the British series UFO. I never really was able to get into it, but I do remember trying. I think a station used to play it on weekends after Mission: Impossible repeats.

I'm thinking the credit sequence probably drew me in, but the show couldn't live up to those promises.

Via Lilieks.

Posted by: Ace at 09:35 AM | Comments (69)
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I made up that last part, but my oh my, the victory laps this guy is going to take after letting oil gout into the Gulf for 36 days.

When he makes his Memorial Day photo-op here, I expect the letter "I" to be used an awful lot in speaking of the disaster arrested; on the other hand, I expect the letters "BP" to be used a lot when speaking of the month before.

Now that the flood of oil was stopped, they can safely admit how much oil they had been allowing into the Gulf:

Allen also said that later today, an interagency team will release a revised estimate of how much oil was flowing from the well into the Gulf. The Coast Guard has estimated the flow at 5,000 barrels a day, but independent estimates suggest it is much higher -- perhaps tens of thousands of barrels a day.

You might think that this could help the cause of energy production a little. A Worst Case Scenario has been handled (we think), after all. But you'd be wrong: Obama's cancelling licenses for offshore drilling.

Posted by: Ace at 08:32 AM | Comments (427)
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Clearly it's part of a conspiracy so that Obama can take credit during his news conference this afternoon.

Not a completely done deal yet but looks promising.

Engineers have at least temporarily stopped the flow of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico from a gushing BP well, the federal government's top oil-spill commander, U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said Thursday morning.

The "top kill" effort, launched Wednesday afternoon by industry and government engineers, had pumped enough drilling fluid to block oil and gas spewing from the well, Allen said. The pressure from the well was very low, he said, but persisting. The top kill effort is not complete, officials caution.

Once engineers had reduced the well pressure to zero, they were to begin pumping cement into the hole to entomb the well. To help in that effort, he said, engineers also were pumping some debris into the blowout preventer at the top of the well.

Meanwhile, the Obama appointed director of the Minerals Management Service gets tossed under the bus.

Obama has a press conference scheduled for I think 12:45 eastern. He's going to try and pretend he's been all over this from the start. Most people, including some Democrats, aren't buying it.

“There are times and places where his cool, technocratic mastery is a great blessing. ... But, ideology aside, what do you think [President Ronald] Reagan would have done in this situation? He’d be down there. Look at [Louisiana Gov. Bobby] Jindal. ... It is puzzling, the detachment,” said one veteran Democratic strategist, a frequent defender of Obama.

“I just cringe at the specter of the president doing a political fundraiser in San Francisco during the memorial service instead of going to the memorial service,” the person added. “He was sure there for the coal miners in West Virginia; he spoke at their funerals. That juxtaposition can’t be good.”

I'm somewhat conflicted on this. I think in these cases people overestimate the ability of a President to "Do Something".

This is BPs mess and they and others in the industry are best suited to deal with the immediate problem. The best thing the government can do in these cases is get out of the way (in terms of regulations and permit processes) and not overly micro-manage the situation.

Look at the problem Bobby Jindal is having getting permission from the feds to build sand barriers to protect the coastal marshes in his state.

Could a President be energetic in cutting through that kind of red tape? Sure. But does anyone believe that's the kind of energy a true believer in big government like Obama will bring to the table? My default position is, the less Obama does about a given thing, the better off the country is.

As for the politics...I get the need for any President to be seen doing something and honestly I'm not above scoring a few political points. I just think it's dangerous in the long term for conservatives to be seen saying, "Oh my, something terrible happened. Where are the feds? Why aren't the feds doing more?"

Added: Just to be clear, the double standard is as infuriating as it is predictable. Someone on Twitter asked last week when this officially becomes Obama's Katrina. My response was I don't think Katrina was Bush's Katrina but a single standard would be nice.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:30 AM | Comments (40)
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Wrong.

The Dow (or any equities-based average) is really meaningless as an overall indicator of the economy. Why? Because the equities market is tiny compared to the debt market. And the debt market is in bad shape, and getting worse, particularly for commercial paper and so-called "junk" bonds. Even Treasuries are getting the stink-eye from some investors.

An upsurge in the equities markets means a healthier 401(k) for most average folks, but the bad debt market means that the overall economy isn't likely to recover any time soon. This situation won't change until spending aligns with income -- and this applies from the sovereign level all the way down to Joe and Jane Taxpayer.

Posted by: Monty at 08:03 AM | Comments (76)
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