Kevin L. Connors – Page 33

A Liar In Our Midst

13. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: General

James Hudnall is incensed that someone would tell tall tales about their military record. To show he’s genuine, he’s posted a picture of himself at Camp Bullis.

He suggests we all do something similar. Well, I can’t say that Sgt. Mom or myself go to any lengths to vet our contributors (pun most certainly intended). But, as for myself (and I’m confident she agrees), unless the quality of their posts leads me to believe something otherwise, I see no reason not to take them at their word.

Sgt. Mom, of course, is something of a célébrité mineure, by virtue of her specialty in broadcasting, while in the service. And as such, her qualifications should go without question. As for myself, I still have my DD214, if anyone’s really interested. 🙂

The Death Squad Scare

13. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: Iraq, War, World

Glenn Reynolds has a few interesting links on the death-squad todo. Of note to me is this bit from Jonah Goldberg:

Okay now, let’s clear a few things up. First of all, the “El Salvador Option” was used in — hold on, let me get my map, yes, yes, that’s right — El Salvador, not Nicaragua. Whatever the merits or demerits of American policy in El Salvador or Nicaragua, the effort in El Salvador did not lead to the Iran-Contra scandal. Newsweek seems to think that piling on negative associations with Latin American foreign policy will help dramatize a story they might not even have in the first place. After all, the substance of the initial story is that people inside the Pentagon are discussing their options. Someone reorder my adult diapers, that is scary!

This seems to be a common thing with foreign policy doves, and particularly conspiracy theorists. Iraq becomes El Salvador, which becomes Nicaragua, which becomes Guatemala and Iran, and then Vietnam. And it all blends together into some grand continuum, with total loss of historical perspective.

The real world, particularly the Islamosphere, is a very complex place. And any Special Operation, designed to terminate hostiles surgically, can be considered a Death Squad. But can anyone deny their strategic importance, particularly in a guerilla war?

After the election, the Iraqis themselves, much more familiar with the lay of the land, and with the aegis of a legitimate government, are actually far more likely to employ Death Squads than we are. And if they are effective at dealing with ex-Ba’athist and foreign terrorist elements within their borders, and maintain military discipline, can we demonize them for it?

Ballistic Fingerprinting Debunked

13. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: General

This should be no surprise to most of my readers. But, despite the facts, I doubt this myth will die a quick death:

(CNSNews.com) – Maryland’s “ballistics imaging” system isn’t working and ought to be scrapped, says a report from the Maryland State Police.

A Maryland law that took effect in 2000 requires gun makers to test-fire all new handguns sold in the state so that each gun’s “ballistic fingerprint” may be entered into a state database. Each fired shell casing has unique markings that police — theoretically — can use to identify guns that were used in crimes.

But as gun control opponents have long noted, the unique markings that gun barrels leave on shell casings can be easily altered, either deliberately or through wear on the gun. Second Amendment supporters say “ballistics imaging” systems amount to gun registration.

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) is congratulating Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich’s administration for releasing the findings of the Maryland State Police Forensic Sciences Division.

Documentaries, Profanity, And The MPAA

13. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: Military, That's Entertainment!

Michael Tucker has sent me this email about his ne movie Gunner Palace:

It’s possible that you have already heard of my film, “Gunner Palace”,
which follows the Army’s 2/3 FA in Baghdad in 2003-2004. The film is
going to be released nation wide on March 4, 2005.

To prepare for the release, we recently submitted the film to the MPAA
for rating. It came back with a “hard” “R” for language, which is the
height of irony considering where these soldiers are and what they are
doing. These are not actors playing soldiers, these are soldiers. It’s
all about context and I’ve decided to appeal the decision.

I think your readers might want to weigh in on this. I’ve attached a
piece by Jack Valenti, grandfather of the MPAA system and WWII vet, on
the FCC/ABC/”saving Private Ryan” telecast last Veterans’ Day–he
argues the case for context better than I ever could.

• I had hoped that the MPAA would be able to make a distinction between
reality and fiction, more, I thought that an association tasked with
reflecting the opinion of American parents, would be able to see that
the majority of Americans support the individual soldier in Iraq and
know that soldiers are living in, and responding to, a very violent
reality.

• Is there profanity in the film? Yes. Is it worse than anything on
the latest RIAA rated CD or what is heard in the hallways of American
high schools? No. The soldiers in the film are simply reacting to the
violence and intensity they live in. Writing about the American
soldier, Oliver North said that after a few months in combat they can,
“take profanity to the level of a new art form.”

• According to the MPAA guidelines more than two uses of a “F” word is
an automatic “R” rating. Profanity, like it or not, is the language of
combat. General Norman Schwarzkopf is quoted as saying, “War is a
profanity because, let’s face it, you’ve got two opposing sides trying
to settle their differences by killing as many of each other as they
can.”

• General George C. Patton, known to most Americans via George C.
Scott’s PG rated profanity laden portrayal of him, was once asked by
his nephew about his use of profanity, to which he replied, “You can’t
run an army without profanity. An army without profanity couldn’t fight
it’s way out of a piss-soaked paper bag.”

Anyway, I somehow think Hollywood is out of touch with America. When I
tell people that we are at war, they often say “What war?” When I went
to Baghdad to make this film, all the soldiers asked is that I “tell it
like is”–the good and the bad. That’s what I did and I think that
their voices need to be heard without undue restriction.

As a soldier says in the film, “For y’all this is just a show, but we
live in this movie.”

Best,

Mike Tucker

To me, profanity in a documentary, particularly one about the military, is akin to full frontal nudity in National Geographic. Should we also be taking that out of children’s reach?

As for Gunner Palace, I haven’t seen it yet, of course. But if indeed it does “tell it like it is,” I wish Michael all the luck in the world. As we all know, there is far more going on in Iraq than the crap we see in the popular media.

On One Of The Islamofascist War’s Lesser-Known Fronts…

13. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: War, World

…Where US Special Operations Forces have been operating for some time, officials have happily announced that the Al-Qaeda-linked GIA, claimed to be responsible for over 100,000 deaths, is all but extinct:

Algiers, Algeria, Jan. 12 (UPI) — Algeria announced it has nearly stamped out the Islamic armed group known as GIA, the country’s most dangerous during the 1990s.

The breakaway Salafi Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), our primary target, is weaked, but still active:

The Al-Qaida-linked faction in Algeria known as the Salafist Group for Prayer and Combat (GSPC) has appointed a new amir, or commander, in the wake of the deaths of past commanders Hassan Hattab (a.k.a. Abu Hamza) and Nabil Sahraoui (a.k.a. Abu Ibrahim Mustafa). According to a statement from the group, the new commander has been named as Abu Musab Abd al-Wadoud.

A World Without Israel

13. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: Israel & Palestine

Stanford Professor and Die Zeit Publisher Josef Joffe offers this must-read analysis of the Arab-Israeli situation in Foreign Policy magazine:

Now to the hard version. Ever so subtly, a more baleful tone slips into this narrative: Israel is not merely an unruly neighbor but an unwelcome intruder. Still timidly uttered outside the Arab world, this version’s proponents in the West bestride the stage as truth-sayers who dare to defy taboo. Thus, the British writer A.N. Wilson declares that he has reluctantly come to the conclusion that Israel, through its own actions, has proven it does not have the right to exist. And, following Sept. 11, 2001, Brazilian scholar Jose Arthur Giannotti said: “Let us agree that the history of the Middle East would be entirely different without the State of Israel, which opened a wound between Islam and the West. Can you get rid of Muslim terrorism without getting rid of this wound which is the source of the frustration of potential terrorists?”

Read the whole thing.

A Victory In The Evil War On Drugs

12. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: General

The Supremes have shot down federal manditory sentences which have for years placed drug offenders in prison for longer terms than violent criminals:

The justices, ruling 5-4 in two drug cases, said the guidelines violate the constitutional jury-trial right by forcing judges to increase the range of possible sentences based on their own factual findings. By a separate 5-4 majority, the court said the guidelines will no longer be mandatory for judges and instead will be “effectively advisory.”

[…]

The cases are U.S. v. Booker, 04-104, and U.S. v. Fanfan, 04- 105.

Expect those convicted of drug offenses, as well as white-collar criminals, to swamp the courts with motions for sentence reconsideration. Also, expect Congress to draft up some new way to “get tough”:

“Ours, of course, is not the last word,” Breyer wrote. “The ball now lies in Congress’s court.”

A New Low-Cost Mac

12. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: General

Apple has introduced a $499 Macintosh. But closer examination reveals it’s not quite as good a deal as it sounds:

The Mac Mini is a complete Macintosh system not much longer or wider than a compact disc, and shorter than an iPod Mini at only two inches. It features two versions of Apple’s G4 processor, a generation behind the G5 processor currently shipping in Power Macs and iMacs.

Apple will release two versions of the Mac Mini on Jan. 22. The least expensive model will cost $499 and offers a 1.25GHz G4 processor, 256MB of PC2700 (333MHz) DDR (double data rate) SDRAM (synchronous dynamic RAM), a 40GB hard drive, a DVD-ROM/CD-RW optical drive and a Radeon 9200 graphics processor from ATI Technologies Inc. The other model costs $599 and offers a 1.42GHz processor and an 80GB hard drive.

Nor does it come with a monitor, keyboard or mouse.

More Heads To Roll At CBS

11. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: General

Newsweek’s Howard Fineman has just said on MSNBC’s Scarborough Country, that more heads, including that of Andrew Heywood, are to roll at CBS. Stay tuned.

Ah I’m right!

11. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: General

Just now, on Fox News’ Special Report With Brit Hume, It was announced that the Memogate scandal first came out not as a post on Powerline or Little Green Footballs, but a post on the BBS, FreeRepublic.com. Kudos for the BBS format, and vindication for me.

6.8 – It’s Really Great

11. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: Military, Technology

Take a .30 Rem, put a .270 slug on it, and you’ve got the 6.8×43 Remington SPC. My info tells me this cartridge has tested VERY favorably, and will be the choice, over the old 5.56 NATO standard, on the new H&K XM8. It seems the M16 has gotten a very bad rap in Iraq. It’s too big for house-to-house fighting, and too weak for the open desert. Hell, this is the same thing my range instructor told us back in 1975.

Anyone with newer information, please comment.

I wonder how all this will play in Russia, where their AN-94 Abakan, hailed by many as “the wolrd’s most advanced” assult rifle, fires an even smaller, weaker shell then the 5.56 NATO?

Tending To Our Lost And Wounded.

11. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: Military, Veteran's Affairs

U.S. News and World Report’s Mort Zuckerman comments on a serious deficiency in our efforts to retain personnel:

America’s commitment to the survivors of the tsunami is a mark of our generosity. The commitment we make to those who voluntarily put themselves in harm’s way to fight our wars is a mark of our character. It is reflected in two ways. The first is the effort to save the wounded. The success is unparalleled. Some 98 percent of the wounded now survive, a mortality rate half of previous wars and down 22 percent even when compared with the first Gulf War, thanks to rapid evacuation, body armor capable of stopping high-velocity rifle rounds, fast-clot bandages, better tourniquets to preserve blood, and access to fresh whole blood that saves many soldiers from bleeding to death. Beyond that, there is a greater understanding than there was just a few years ago of the mental stress of combat, much aggravated in Iraq, where our soldiers face an enemy who masquerades in civilian clothes and bogus uniforms and blows himself up in order to kill and maim. Post-traumatic stress disorder has a debilitating effect on the brain’s chemistry that sometimes lasts the rest of a person’s life, long after the war is over. It can lead to flashbacks, sleep disorders, panic attacks, survivor’s guilt, depression, and emotional numbness.

For all the great advances in battlefield medicine, however, America comes up short when it comes to follow-on assistance to our men and women who bear arms. If an American in military uniform is killed, his or her family receives a one-time tax-exempt death gratuity of $12,000 and rent-free government housing for 180 days, or its equivalent. There is a special group life insurance program that could provide as much as an additional $250,000 if the serviceman or his family subscribes to the program. Compare this with the millions of dollars the families who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attacks received. Then there is the Survivor Benefit Plan, which pays the spouse of a military person killed in action 55 percent of his or her retirement pay–an amount already so low that it qualifies many military families for food stamps. Just recently, the law was revamped to allow spouses to remarry after age 57 and keep receiving this minimal compensation. But those who remarry before 57 still lose their survivor benefits.

Read the whole thing. We will pay a king’s ransom in reenlistment bonuses to those with highly needed specialties. But yet, when a servicemember is lost, or no longer useful, they or their survivors are given short shrift. This is both unconscionable and short-sighted.

Update: A movement is afoot in congress to increase the death benefit to $100,000, and the life insurance to $400,000, at the same premium.

And This Week’s Idiotarian Award Goes To…

10. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: General

… Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly. In an interview with Ann Coulter on tonight’s The O’Reilly Factor, he claimed that Japan “has no military,” and relies upon the United States for it’s defense.

Wrong, Bill. While Japan’s military forces are strictly defensive in nature. They have a very formidable military. In fact, their defense budget is second only to the United States.

Ok, Tank Guys

10. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: General

I’m currently watching a History Channel show on stealth. And they are saying the M1A2 “can roar across the desert at almost 45 mph.” What? I thought the Abrams was good for over 50, flat out. But I’ve checked several sources, and it seems top speed is “governed” to 42. What’s up?

Update: It is to laugh. On the same program, they are talking about the Future Warrior project. And some brainiac is saying “the day may come when a soldier can punch a code into his suit, and make it adapt to any enviroment.” What? When that day comes, the suit will be smart enough to adapt on its own. Idiots – we are led by idiots.

24

10. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: That's Entertainment!

This remains the most engaging series on broadcast TV. However, as with Timmer’s post on National Treasure, I tend to get caught up in the technical details. For one, it is absurd to believe a federal law enforcement unit wouldn’t call upon local police to secure a perimeter – something the LAPD and LA County Sheriffs could do in an instant at Union Station. Further, in the time it took Jack to free himself from the cuffs, the perp could be on the Ventura Freeway, and halfway to the valley (either San Fernando or San Gabriel). Ridiculous.

The Ultimate Makeover.

09. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: That's Entertainment!

A few of these guys I know personally. The others I know of. This is the makover dream-team. And the job they do for the SEMA show on this ’70 Mustang for TLC’s Overhaulin’ is something to be seen.

Oh, and of course, there’s always Courtney. What a babe! 🙂

Nightmare On The Dream Ticket

09. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: That's Entertainment!

If you should buy Elton John’s Dream Ticket CD set, take my advice: save the first disk for later. This is from a performance at Carnegie Hall, which can only be described as an aging rocker attempting to recapture past glory. The low point is a guest appearance from Mary J. Blige, where she can best be described as a cross between Tina Turner and Kermit the Frog.

While I haven’t seen the fourth disc yet, the second and third are mesmerizing. Watch those first.

It’s 1936…

08. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: General, History

… You have more money than Midas. You are looking for a new car – a sporting cabriolet. What would you buy?

This is an interesting question. Despite the worldwide depression, there was a wealth of spectacular (for their day) high-end automobiles available. Just consider: the Blower Bentley, the Mercedes 540K Special Roadster, the Hispano-Suiza J-12, the Type 57 Bugatti, the Cadillac 36-60/90, the Talbot-Lago T150C SS, the Isotta-Fraschini Tipo 8B, the Maybach SW38, and, of course, the Duesenburg SSJ.

Well, the Cadillac and the Bentley can really be considered “second tier” automobiles. [It’s sad to say, my Limey friends, but in-between the Silver Ghost and the VW/BMW takeover, Rolls-Royce produced some relatively crude automobiles (great aircraft engines though)] Further, the Cadillac, the Isotta-Fraschinis, the Maybach, and the Hispano-Suiza were really more touring than sports cars (there were some exceptions, witness the ’37 Dubonnet Hispano.).

The Talbot, and particularly the Bugatti, are both spectacular examples of industrial craftsmanship – every facet finished to perfection. However, while the Talbots were by-and-large particularly beautiful, the 57s, with exception of the stunning Atlantic coupes (only 3 made), were some of the most ungainly Bugattis ever produced. For myself, iconoclast that I am, these cars would have a strong pull for me. But my practical side would not be unaware that these were really “small” and “delicate” cars for their age – not really the ticket for America’s [non] roads.

This brings us to the Mercedes and the Duesy. This is a tough choice. To me, there are few pre-war cars more beautiful than Jack Warner’s 540K Special Roadster (only 6 “hidden spare” models were built, IIRC). But Gary Cooper’s SSJ comes close (also IIRC, only 2 SSJs were ever built). On paper, you had that marvelous Duesenburg engine vs. that futuristic Mercedes chassis. But, in reality, while there are very few who have driven a 540K, ask anybody who’s driven a 300SL coupe, a Porsche 356 or early 911/912, or for that matter, a VW Bug or a MUTT – those swing-axle rear ends aren’t what they are cracked up to be.

In the end, it comes down to this: The Benz was a 105mph car, the Duesy would do 140+. I know what I’d choose.

Update: Well this is the last time I waste my time on an extendeded classic car post on you people. Not one comment? Not even to mention my omission of the spectacular Delahaye? Jeeze. (j/k – As I don’t make a dime on this, if I did it to please the unwashed masses, I wouldn’t do it.).

I Don’t Know About You…

07. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: That's Entertainment!

… But I am really looking forward to the US premiere of Battlestar Galactica on the 14th. The word from my friends in Britain, where it has been showing for some time on Sky One, is that it is as good as the mini-series, which I loved.

This Seems Like A Cool Site

07. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: General

If you are like me, you miss the good-ol’ Army-Navy surplus store. I seem to have found one online here, at Brigade Quartermasters. Please note that this is not an endorsement. I have yet to buy anything from them. But I likely will in the near future, unless I hear something bad about them in the meantime. If you know anything about them, or any similar online mil-gear suppliers, please comment.

Oh, and check their Bargain Bunker;. Looks like a great price on camo parkas and Zeiss binoculars (still expensive, but they are Zeiss, after all).

Oh, and I am still looking for a good source of surplus aircraft hardware (fasteners, cable, electrical components, etc.). If you know of any, please comment.

Let’s Play The Name Game

07. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: General

Well, it seems it’s not Pork anymore, it’s PORC.

Consider Maurice Johannessen, a legislator from far Northern California until his Senate term ended two years ago. Johannessen was one of a handful of Republicans who regularly bolted from his party to help Democrats get state budgets passed. That’s how he became a master at delivering to folks back home what he called “district augmentations” and others describe as Projects of Regional Concern — PORC for short.

ROTFL

An Editorial Syzygy

06. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: General, That's Entertainment!

It’s a very rare occasion when the NYTimes’ editorial board and I are of like thought, but this is one:

Sometimes an idea comes along that is so stupid, all you can do is stand back, give it some room, and stare:

THE LOS ANGELES ANGELS OF ANAHEIM

Gene Autry is turning over in his grave.

Just Marvel-ous

06. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: That's Entertainment!

In their TV ads for the new movie Elektra, starring Jennifer Garner, Twentieth Century Fox proudly announces, “from the people who brought you X-Men.” I find it amusing that they say nothing about Daredevil. 🙂

And I Thought My Ex Was A Lush

05. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: General Nonsense

I took her to the ER once for an unrelated condition. Her blood-alcohol level was 0.42, and she was perfectly alert and lucid. That seems amazing, but it pails next to this:

SOFIA, BULGARIA – Bulgarian doctors tested a man’s blood-alcohol level five times before accepting it was 0.914 – nearly twice the amount considered to be life-threatening.

The 67-year-old man landed in hospital on Dec. 20 after a car knocked him off his feet in the southern Bulgarian city of Plovdiv, police and doctors said Tuesday.

[…]

The man, who has not been identified, was reported to be in stable condition after being treated for head injuries.

He’s Lost

03. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: Military, World

I don’t see how a former general can be so consistently out-of-touch. On tonight’s installment of Hardball with Chris Matthews, Barry McCaffrey has actually claimed that aid to tsunami victim has “stretched our military to the breaking point.” This is ridiculous. This relief effort is a mere calisthenic, relative to fighting a war.

I do, however, agree with ret. gen. Wayne Downing, who says that this has put a tax on our airlift capacity. But that is merely employed as a fast response stop-gap measure, until the NGOs can get up-to-speed. In a few days, our military will again have full mobilization capability.

I’d like to note here, that I do hope we are devoting sufficient resources to force protection. While it would be incredibly stupid for the Islamofascists to make a strike against our forces in the region during this crisis, stupidity seems to be their stock-in-trade. I would hate to see another U.S.S. Cole incident.

California Mourns

03. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: General

We seem to have been rocked by an exceptional level of tragedy these past couple of weeks. California Representatives Shirley Chisom and Robert Matsui have just passed on.

While I have frequently disagreed with their politics, I have always admired the tumultuous path they took to greatness.

Mending Fences, Burning Bridges

03. January 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: Politics, That's Entertainment!

This from RatherBiased.com:

–Earlier today, Broadcasting and Cable magazine reported, based on anonymous sources, that CBS News president Andrew Heyward and Washington bureau chief Janet Leissner met with the White House to try and persuade it that CBS News and Dan Rather don’t hate the Bush Administration. Since the B&C site is down from a Drudge link right now, we’re reprinting the article in this email and also hosting it on our site at the address above until things calm down.

Stay tuned for later today as we try and confirm whether or not a meeting took place and dismantle CBS’s claim that Dan Rather doesn’t have a grudge against Bush 43 and 41. Also, see below for additional context.

The following article was printed by Broadcasting and Cable magazine earlier today. Since they’re swamped by Drudge hits right now, we’re reprinting it with minor corrections until things calm down. Read on for additional context if you’ve already seen the B&C report.

Let the fence-mending begin. According to a Broadcasting & Cable source in Washington, D.C., CBS News president Andrew Heyward, along with Washington bureau chief Janet Leissner, recently met with White House communications director Dan Bartlett, in part to repair chilly relations with the Bush administration.

CBS News’s popularity at the White House-never high to begin with-plunged further in the wake of Dan Rather’s discredited “60 Minutes [Wednesday]” story on George Bush’s [Air] National Guard service.

An incentive for making nice is the impending report from the two-member panel investigating CBS’s use of now-infamous documents for the ’60 Minutes’ piece.

Heyward was “working overtime to convince Bartlett that neither CBS News nor Rather had a vendetta against the White House,” our source says, “and from here on out would do everything it could to be fair and balanced.” CBS declined to comment.

More than likely, one of the most prominent topics at the alleged meeting was some CBS begging to let Dan Rather, who has been banned from the Bush White House, interview President Bush before the older Texan retires from the CBS News anchor desk.

Though he has pursued a somewhat different policy agenda from his father, George W. Bush in many ways borrows much from George H. W. Bush in his treatment of the media, particularly of reporters that they know to be adversarial toward the administration. The Bush family has still never forgiven Rather for his 1988 attack interview with the 41st president.

B&C’s report about Memogate souring White House-CBS relations is also backed up by this report from the campaign 2004 book just put out by Newsweek magazine:

Bush seemed to be enjoying the discomfiture of Dan Rather and CBS over the phony documents. At a press conference in mid-September with interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, Bush called out, “Is anybody here from CBS?” He sounded more needling than gracious.

His father had been worrying. The elder Bush’s ulcers had been acting up. Bush senior had watched the “60 Minutes” “scoop” with rising indignation. He disliked the “60 Minutes II” [sic] anchorman, Dan Rather, who had staged a hostile confrontation with the then Vice President Bush in an interview during the 1988 campaign. George H. W. Bush was by and large an optimist and a forgiving man. But he nurtured long grudges against certain reporters, and Rather was one of them. Lately Bush senior had been keeping a sleeve of saltine crackers on his desk to tamp down his bile. He would munch on the crackers as he watched the talking heads and the evening news, his stomach churning.

Oh, this is almost as much fun as international diplomacy

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