Germany Invades Poland, 1939
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TRANSCRIPT:
Today in 1939, Germany invaded Poland. England and France, who had remained mostly silent while Hitler built his war machine in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, gave Germany an ultimatum: withdraw from Poland by September 3rd or risk an all-out war on the Continent. The Second World War had begun.
The events of the day...
...actually began the evening before, when SS troops dressed as Polish soldiers destroyed a German facility just over the border from Poland. This event was used as thin justification for the invasion barely eight hours later along a 1700 mile front.
While the history books and most armchair historians point to September 1st, 1939 as the beginning of World War Two, the actual beginning of the war is hard to determine. In reality, the roots of the war go back to the end of the First World War, when the Allied powers, and France especially, wanted to severely punish Germany for making war in Europe. The economic conditions created in the beaten nation made perfect prerequisites for the rise of fascism.
Ten years after the end of World War One, the modern world began to slide into an economic depression. Most countries made drastic cutbacks in their defense budgets. Germany spent the decade of the 1930's building her navy, air force and army into a force the likes of which the world had never seen. Even though nations like France could field armies nearly as large as Germany’s in terms of manpower, their equipment and tactics were no match for the ultra-modern Wermacht.
Hitler’s only concern with an invasion of Poland was the Soviet Union. In order to quell this potential adversary, Germany entered into a non-aggression pact with the Soviets on August 23rd, a mere nine days before the invasion. The pact contained a secret portion promising the Soviets one half of Poland. They took their half on September 17th, when the Red Army invaded from the east. The Polish Army fought bravely, even sending their mounted cavalry against the German tanks.
At 11pm on September 3rd, the ultimatum for withdrawal of German forces from Poland expired. Fifteen minutes later, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, a man who had once stated that Hitler was someone he could work with, informed his nation that the United Kingdom was at war with Germany. France soon followed suit.
Few realized it then, but the war would last for six years and one day (we’ll talk about the surrender tomorrow). When it was over, empires would end, superpowers would rise and the world that was would cease to exist.
I don't like the Kennedys as a group. I know that some of you (especially those of you who live in the Boston area) see them as American royalty, and when you compare them to British royalty, you're right: they haven't worked for generations and they have the morals of snakes. But let me tell you how I really feel.
About the time old Joe Kennedy quit working in order to cheat on his wife full-time and install one of his sons as President, the family turned the corner from unabashed capitalists to socialist wankers with two exceptions. Joe, Jr. gave his life for his nation, so I will not talk about his politics here. JFK was a brave Naval officer and would be considered conservative today. That leaves Robert and Teddy (or, as I like to call him, Theodore "One More For The Road" Kennedy). Robert was a social liberal and would probably have re-made the Democratic Party long before the 1972 election saw them burn down their own fortunes. And Teddy...well, you know all about Teddy.
The grandchildren of Joe K. are now the ones at the forefront of the family. And as far as mouthpieces go, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. takes the cake. Today, he has a column over at the Huffington Post. I'm not going to reprint the entire thing here, just the first paragraph:
As Hurricane Katrina dismantles Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, it’s worth recalling the central role that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour played in derailing the Kyoto Protocol and kiboshing President Bush’s iron-clad campaign promise to regulate CO2.
The column goes on to assert, despite having no firm evidence, that severe hurricanes are caused by our use of fossil fuels and the increased presence of CO2 in the atmosphere. Of course, President Bush is to blame.
I wonder, though, why Robert Kennedy, who is soooo concerned about future, isn't publicly outing Uncle Ted "Give Me The Keys, Woman" Kennedy for coming out against a proposed windmill farm in Nantucket Sound? Wouldn't that help reduce our use of greenhouse-inducing fossil fuels?
What annoys me most about this is that a dirtbag like Kennedy takes the opportunity to use a national tragedy as a weapon to both blame the President and his policies for causing the problem (at least the possibility) and to push his radical environmentalist agenda. Of course, if you read the comments left after his post, you'll see how well crap like this resounds with those people who do things like wait for the 2,000th soldier to die in Iraq because it gives them a nice round number to paint on their signs.
Asshats.
Michelle Malkin has links to stories concerning looters in New Orleans. According to once source, the children's hospital in town is under literal assault by people trying to get in. Many people on dry land but still isolated have formed groups to patrol streets and guard businesses. The update at the bottom of her post is more than a little scary (from Donald Sensing):
Louisiana Gov. Blanco just said live on FNC that she will ask President Bush to send federal troops to conduct law enforcement in New Orleans and environs. It’s hard to see Bush refusing. This step moves the city closer to actual martial law. The president has the authority under Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution to suspend the writ of Habeas Corpus when “public Safety may require it.” Historically, suspension of Habeas Corpus has been considered an indicator of martial law, as Abraham Lincoln did in the Civil War.
We’ll have to wait to see what enforcement authority the federal troops will have when they arrive. I am guessing that the units sent will be military police from either or both of the regular Army and the Army Reserve.
I don't know if martial law has been declared in an American city since the Civil War, but it is always a move of last resort. As one resident put it:
"The whole U.S. is looking at this city right now, and this is what they see."
Indeed.
According to Drudge, the Navy is sending what reads like a Marine amphibious group (the Navy part, anyway) to assist in rescue work in the NOLA, Mississippi area:
The Pentagon late Tuesday ordered five Navy ships and eight maritime rescue teams to the Gulf Coast to bolster relief operations as worsening conditions overwhelmed the initial response.
The NEW YORK TIMES plans to report later tonight: One Navy amphibious assault ship, the Bataan, with six Sea Stallion and Sea Hawk helicopters that could be used for search and rescue missions.
The ships will carry food, fuel, medical and construction supplies, as well as hovercraft that can be used for evacuation and search-and-rescue missions.
The Navy was also considering sending the hospital ship Comfort.
In an attempt to preempt those of you who consider yourselves experts on the law (and everything else), let me say that this is NOT against the law. It is unlawful for the active-duty military to take part in domestic law enforcement operations, NOT search and rescue.
Sorry for not posting or podcasting today. However, I wanted to draw your attention to some links to charities that are accepting donations for flood relief in The Big Easy. Thanks to Glenn Reynolds for putting it all in one spot.
If you can spare even a few dollars, please send something their way. I live in a part of the country that has known devastating floods and I don't wish that experience on anyone.
MacArthur lands in Japan, 1945
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TRANSCRIPT:
Today in 1945, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur landed in Japan. His mission was to prepare for the formal surrender ceremony and to organize the military government that would oversee the Japanese occupation. As he drove himself to Yokohama, thousands of Japanese soldiers lined the route. The shooting may have ended, but the war was not over.
MacArthur was...
...65 in 1945 and the beginning of the Japanese occupation marked the highpoint of his military career, a career that spanned seven decades and three major conflicts. The occupation also made MacArthur one of the most powerful men on Earth. He was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers in the Pacific and a virtual dictator in charge of Japan.
MacArthur wasted no time in starting to rebuild the shattered Japanese homeland. One of his generals remarked that he was going to ride Emperor Hirohito’s white stallion through the center of Tokyo. MacArthur threatened him with court-martial. The General understood that the Japanese people would have to see their occupiers as people who respected their culture if the occupation was to go smoothly. To ensure sensitivity among the American troops, strict punishments were drawn up against any soldier who harmed a Japanese civilian. Very few incidents occurred.
The greatest contribution MacArthur and his staff made to the success of post-war Japan was the nation’s new constitution that is still in use today. Contrary to legend, MacArthur did not himself do the writing. Two senior officers on his staff, both with law degrees, drafted the document. The finished product recognized the Emperor as the head of state, even though the position is purely ceremonial. It also acknowledged the equality of men and women. The constitution came into official use in 1947, less than two years after the end of the war.
MacArthur handed over power to a newly-formed Japanese government in 1949. In June of the next year, North Korea invaded South Korea and the General found himself once again leading Allied forces into battle. His stunning success at Inchon and the subsequent drive to the Chinese border were classic examples of MacArthur’s strategic genius.
But the world had changed. When China entered the war on the side of the North Koreans in October, 1950, MacArthur suggested to President Truman that the conflict be extended into China. In private correspondence, he even suggested that nuclear weapons be used against targets in the communist country. There was a time when this suggestion would have been taken seriously, but the Cold War meant that the Korean conflict would have to be contained on the peninsula. Truman and MacArthur exchanged heated words on more than one occasion, leading to the General being relieved of command on April 11, 1951. Truman’s critics claimed the President was secretly fearful of MacArthur’s political aspirations.
As was his way, Mac went out with a bang. He gave a farewell address to Congress which was interrupted 30 times by ovations. It was here that he contributed a new truism to American culture: “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”
I'm going to ask a question, and some of you will think it's racist: a s a white man, am I obligated to have some sort of respect for the hip-hop community?
By now, most of you know that 'Suge' Knight is in the hospital recovering from a gunshot wound. Famous people are often the target of weirdos or people seeking fame. But this happened in a club full of famous rappers and actors. Evidently, none of them want to help The Man solve the crime. Sure, sure, that makes sense.
If you behave like an animal, you will end up being treated like an animal. A nice car and an expensive suit doesn't cover up for reprehensible behaviour, even IF The Man is keeping you down.
Human beings were not meant to fly. That’s not to say we shouldn’t do it; it’s just not a natural condition for a person to find himself in. When you think about what’s going on when you fly, it’s both miraculous and scary as hell. You and your fellow passengers are packed into a thin metal tube and shot into the sky. Once there, your life depends on two wings which, if you look closely, move quite a bit during the flight.
But, hey, it certainly saves time. Or...
...at least it’s supposed to.
I boarded an S-80 yesterday at 1:30PM Central Standard Time after a few days of business-related travel. The S-80 is a smallish aircraft, larger than a commuter jet but smaller than the “real” airliners like 757s. I sat in seat 22D, one row back from the emergency aisle and right over the starboard landing gear. This will become important later.
When we took off from DFW about 20 minutes later, it was 90 degrees Fahrenheit and partly sunny. Standiford Field (or Louisville International Airport, if your in local government here), my destination, is 733 air miles away, a flight of just under two hours. I can do two hours standing on my head. I had my iPod, some Coast to Coast AM shows and a copy of ‘Wired’ magazine. Two newlyweds were sitting next to me, leaning together so that I had plenty of room for my rather broad torso (normally, I just hang out in the aisle and get hit by the drink cart----OK, OK, I’m fat).
BZZZZZZZ…..
That’s what the flaps sound like. They’re hanging out there on the edge of the wings, right next to where I’m sitting. They change the shape of the wing so that the plane can fly slowly without falling out of the sky. This means we’re getting ready to land. I must’ve slept through the “Approach” announcement.
MMMMMMM….THUD
The landing gear is down. The flight becomes rough now because we’re “dirty”, meaning that we’ve got a bunch of stuff sticking out of the plane that’s making us less aerodynamic. But something’s not right. We’re pitching and swaying a lot more than normal. I’ve flown on S-80s more than any other aircraft, so I know unusual when I feel it. I look out the window. I can’t see anything. We’re flying through a storm. We can’t be far from the airport. I’m guessing that the pilots are flying on instruments. This does not make me happy.
MMMMMMM….THUD
Shit. The landing gear is going back up into the wheel wells. The plane begins climbing.
BZZZZZZ….
The flaps are going up. Bye, bye Louisville.
“Ladies and gentlemen, there’s a line of severe storms stretching from here to Springfield, Illinois. We’re going to head up to Indianapolis and wait for things to clear up.”
That’s not too bad. Indy is only 15 minutes flying time from Louisville. We’ll orbit around up there for 30 minutes or so and then come back. I close my eyes again.
“Folks, were going to go ahead and land in Indianapolis and refuel. As soon as things are better in Louisville, we’ll be on our way.”
That’s bad, but not too bad. We’ll probably be an hour late getting to SDF. No problem. After we land, I call Kelli (who is waiting for me in Louisville) and tell her about the delay. She already knows; the board in the terminal is saying that our arrival time is now 6:15PM EST instead of the original 4:53PM EST.
Nearly two hours later, we leave Indianapolis. The little air nozzle above my head was not working for most of that time. I probably smell like a goat. Once we land in Louisville, it’s after 8PM EST. I and my fellow passengers have been on the plane for almost six hours.
You’re probably thinking that I’ve never written about the times that I arrived on time or even early to my destination. You’re correct. I’m not complaining about the airline; they took the decisions they did for our safety and I appreciate it. But a delay like this is a sudden reminder that all our technology is pretty weak in the face of even a moderate “burp” from Mother Nature.
According to Drudge, it looks like New Orleans was spared a full-on hit by the storm, but things are still ugly. I have trouble thinking of winds of 145MPH; that's strong enough to knock down office buildings. New Orleans is mostly below sea level, so a direct hit could've buried the entire historic part of the city. Somebody was praying hard, I'm sure (of course, I'm sure the people along the coast of Mississippi were praying hard, too; talk amongst yourselves).
Gas prices will most likely hit the roof over this. Look for $3 or more per gallon by this time next week, maybe sooner.
That Segway's looking better all the time.
Lindbergh Dies, 1974
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TRANSCRIPT:
Today in 1974, famed aviator Charles Lindbergh died in Hawaii. He was 72. Lindbergh’s story is more than just a tale of a flight across the Atlantic. It is the story of a man punished for his fame, criticized for his beliefs, and then embraced by his country when he was needed the most.
Charles Lindbergh was born...
...in Detroit in 1902, the son of a US Congressman and a chemistry teacher. He had a natural mechanical ability that was evident even in his early years. He originally wanted to be a mechanical engineer, but like so many men of his generation, flying became his primary interest in life. He bought his first airplane in 1923, a Curtiss Jenny left over from World War One. In 1924, Lindbergh entered training to become a US Army aviator. He graduated first in his class and soon found himself delivering airmail on the St. Louis line.
Many people mistakenly believe that Lindbergh was the first person to fly non-stop across the Atlantic. In fact, that feat was accomplished in 1919, when two British fliers flew non-stop nearly 2,000 miles from Newfoundland to Ireland. A month later, Raymond Orteig, a Frenchman who made his money owning hotels, put up a $25,000 prize to any flier or group of fliers who made it non-stop from New York to Paris, at distance nearly twice as far as the 1919 flight. This was the goal Lindbergh hoped to reach.
After convincing the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce to underwrite his efforts to the tune of $15,000, Lindbergh accepted the offer of Ryan Airlines Corporation to build a single-seat aircraft for the journey. The Sprit of St. Louis, as the plane was called, had a giant fuel tank in the front of the aircraft, meaning that the pilot’s only front view would be through a periscope. To save on weight, the ship had no radio, gas gauge, navigation lights, navigation equipment or parachute. The pilot’s seat was made of wicker.
When Lindbergh ferried the aircraft from Ryan’s San Diego factory to New York in May, 1927, he set a new record for the fastest transcontinental flight. Bad weather delayed the trans-Atlantic flight until May 20th. Lindbergh got no sleep the night before the flight due to nerves and a loud reporters’ poker game going on nearby. On takeoff from Roosevelt Field, the aircraft was so heavy that it barely cleared the telephone poles at the edge of the field.
33 and a half hours and 3600 miles away, an incredibly tired Lindbergh landed in Paris and was greeted by a cheering mob. President Calvin Coolidge dispatched a Navy ship to bring the hero home for a ticker-tape parade in Manhattan and awarded him the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was the first human being to fly solo across the Atlantic.
Lindbergh’s life took a turn for the worse in 1932 when his infant son was kidnapped, held for ransom and then later found murdered not far from the Lindbergh home. Bruno Richard Hauptmann was tried, convicted and executed for the crime in 1936. Today, there is substantial doubt that Hauptmann committed the crime.
Before the US entry into the Second World War, Lindbergh was one of the leading voices in support of isolationism. There is also evidence that he had at least a passing respect for the fascist regime in Berlin. He visited Germany at the behest of the US Army Air Corps to gather information about the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe. While there in 1938, Hermann Goering offered him a German medal, which he accepted. The started a groundswell of criticism in the United States. Lindbergh defended his action, saying that to not accept the medal would have been a mark of disrespect to the German leadership.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Lindbergh attempted to put his isolationist past behind him and re-join the Army Air Corps. Several of President Roosevelt’s advisors thought this would be a bad PR move, so he was denied a commission. He did, however, help the war cause by becoming a civilian consultant to aviation companies and the government. During the war, he would fly over 50 combat missions in the Pacific, all as a civilian. His wartime service was not officially recognized until 1954, when President Eisenhower made Lindbergh a Brigadier General in the Air Force Reserve.
Lindbergh spent his last few years living in Hawaii, where he is buried.
You fight because you believe in something. Sometimes, that something may not be noble, but it's what matters. When the battle starts, you are not motivated by grand ideals, but by the brotherly love of the men next to you.
I tried to stay out of the fight as long as I could; I wanted peace in our time. But I realize that the sides were drawn without me. So I will stand on the side of those who have shown me loyalty, not the loyalty of convienence but the loyalty of honesty.
We will never all agree on everything, but what unites us is often stronger than what divides us. If this were only true with everyone.
Laura Ingraham has a link on her site to a piece by Melanie Morgan, a local talk show host on KSFO in San Francisco. In the interest of full disclosure, Morgan is a chairman of Move America Forward (the website is down as of this writing).
Morgan and 14 other talk show hosts and journalists traveled together to Iraq to see firsthand what’s going on there and to talk directly to the men and women in harm’s way. I have reprinted her entire article below. Please take a few moments and read it.
According to Ingraham’s website, the San Francisco Chronicle expressed an interest in Morgan’s write-up of her visit to Iraq. However, once they read her story, they backed away from publishing it. It makes one wonder.
Here’s the article in its entirety:
RIDING SHOTGUN ALONG THE HIGHWAY OF DEATH
We finally broke away from Camp Victory, where 8,000 troops are stationed north of Baghdad. After asking repeatedly to go into Baghdad and away from relative safety, Central Command (CENTCOM) relented, and we were on our way.
Thus began a trip to Iraq sponsored by Move America Forward to tell the story of war on terrorism directly from the men and women serving in our armed forces. With five other talk show hosts, we were determined to get the truth out without the normal liberal bias that seems to cloud coverage by the mainstream media.
CENTCOM clearance to move into Baghdad came only because of the direct intervention of Captain Daniel Green, a quirky cigar-smoking Atlantan with a quick wit, who enlisted the aid of his Commanding Officer Lt. Colonel Robert Roth. Roth cut through all the red tape because he’s angry at the obvious disconnect between the situation on the ground in Iraq and what is coming out of the mainstream media. He wasn’t hesitant to say so for the record. He wanted us to tell the world about the good works his troops are doing and how the Iraqi army is making dramatic strides in training with U.S. forces.
Captain Green choppered into Camp Victory to meet us personally, and escort us back to Camp Prosperity in Baghdad, which is actually one of Saddam Hussein’s many palaces. It’s called the Four Headed Palace, because there were four marble heads of Hussein, perched on top of the marble turrets, visible for miles. All were blown off in the bombing of the palace during the onset of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
We shot pictures of the headless Husseins lying on the palace grounds.
We bonded instantly with the garrulous Dr. Green, one of only four surgeons assigned to the Iraqi theatre. All medical aid is generally given by medics and PA’s, or Physician Assistants. The most badly wounded (including Iraqis) are given life-saving treatment and then flown immediately out to Germany where the wounded receive state- of-the- art medical care.
We set off for Camp Stryker, the staging area where the military shuttles contractors, army personnel and other visitors into the Green Zone. Those of us who opted for the ride into the Green Zone were subject to intense security precautions, including a frightening middle-of-the-night, high speed, lights-out ride in heavily armored buses along the Highway of Death.
Our convoy leaves in the middle of the night to reduce the chances that suicide bombers or sniper fire will kill us. Our convoy was lead by HumVees, manned by soldiers barely 20 years old. These young men were making life and death decisions one minute and playing X-Box games the next hour to pass the time.
Our transport buses motored to a stop at a security checkpoint. We all got a chance to use our satellite phones to report back to the United States as we drove into the sleeping city of Baghdad. Next, we hopped into an open- air truck where I did a live report at 7:00 a.m. (6-p.m. California time) for my radio station in San Francisco, KSFO, as the wind cooled us from the 105-degree temperatures.
With little sleep and intense heat, I found the tactical control room to nap for an hour on a couch. Giant video monitors straight out of a Star Wars set displayed all the ‘hot locations’ in Baghdad and computers hummed away, directing patrols and gathering intelligence. As fascinating as this room was, it didn’t discourage me from getting a little rest.
The company Public Affairs Officer, Major Alayne Conway, soon shook me awake. She assigned me to accompany an ‘up-armored’ HumVee patrol.
An up-armored vehicle is a HumVee that has been re-fitted for extra steel plates on the underside and outside to protect the soldiers inside.
The HumVee is the next generation Army Jeep from World War II, never designed for the kind of war we are fighting in Iraq where cowardly terrorists blow up people, mainly their own countrymen, innocent civilians.
Congressional critics and the “Blame America First” crowd made big headlines months ago- for criticizing the Army’s lack of ‘up-armoring’, However, we find this yet another myth the mainstream media is perpetuating. No patrol is allowed to leave base without the extra protection. It’s the rules and the rules are strictly followed.
The truth is that a remarkable job was done to turn the “21st century jeep’ into an armored vehicle in short order.
My fellow talker Michael Graham of WMAL in Washington, D.C. headed out with another HumVee patrol. Our destination: Route Irish, also known as the Highway of Death.
Graham, a former stand-up comedian, dished out all the gallows humor with a rapid-fire delivery… hitting the punch line every time. Our escorts belly-laughed.
It’s a gift.
The guys who took us on patrol are quite simply the most amazing young men I’ve ever met- Sgt. Jay Perkins, PFC Adam Smith, and Staff Sgt. Matthew Miller. Smith is a 20-year old veteran of these dangerous patrols and has been wounded twice, and awarded two purple hearts. Miller was hit twice, too.
As PFC Smith turned the key and warmed the computers, Sgt. Miller announced “Lock and Load”…all rifles at the ready.
Then, panic broke out.
“Where is she? Smith, what did you do with her?”
Miller responded, “did you lose her? You were supposed to watch her!”
Confused, I looked around. Were they talking about me?
“Perkins, what happened to Beaver?”
Now I’m really lost.
Reaching down under the seat, Smith hauled out a stuffed toy, a Beaver.
Everyone had to rub it, including me.
“Our fuzzy Beaver brings good luck. We never leave for patrol without petting her, and that way we don’t get killed”, said Perkins.
The fuzzy beaver lost and now found allowed us to proceed.
When we turned out of the gate from Camp Prosperity, we headed north and back the way we came in only hours before.
The mercury had now soared past 125 degrees. We rolled along slowly, with the gunner swiveling his weapon in the turret in a continuous sweep through the hot desert air.
I peppered my patrol escort with questions about whether it was worth it—the cost of lives, the excruciating heat, the time away from their families. I demanded they give me bad news—I wanted to know how they really felt about their service.
To the man, all were proud to be doing the job they signed up for. I couldn’t trick them into any criticism of the War on Terror. All were re-enlistees.
They explained to me they want the American public to understand that if ‘we find and kill insurgents here, we won’t be fighting this kind of war at home where all of our families would be at risk.’
Just a short way into the ride, I could hear small arms fire. And then a bus of Iraqi men broke down in front of us. That’s when the talk stopped, and everyone went on heightened alert. Sirens blaring and yelling through the loudspeaker, Sgt. Miller instructed everyone to get off the Highway. “Do it, do it, do it now. I’m having a FINE Wednesday and I don’t want to have to shoot y’all.”
The HumVees ahead and behind did U-turns in an evasive action, in case the Iraqi’s were planting IED’s, or improvised explosive devices.
Miller and Perkins jumped out of the vehicles with rifles ready to shoot anyone who made a suspicious move. After securing the area, they jumped back in and we started rolling again. Every bump to the undercarriage made my stomach lurch. Was it a rock, or a bomb?
The patrol seemed to last forever, although we were on the road for an hour. We pulled into our Forward Operating Base where the ride was over -for now. Petting the Beaver seemed to have worked again.
BLONDE ON BASE
The word spread quickly that I was in the area. Suddenly soldiers were everywhere, talking to me and telling me their stories. When a member of the California National Guard Unit arrived, he asked me to walk over to NightStalker, the Guard’s headquarters.
Lt. Cameron Murphy of San Jose, California rushed over to shake my hand. He thanked me profusely for coming. His wife e-mailed him about the “Voices of Soldiers” Truth Tour, and he e-mailed all of his troops asking them to come talk to me.
Everyone had something important to say. Poignant, searing and thoughtful insights about why they are here to fight, die and make peace.
The California National Guard has the highest rate of casualties of all Guard Units. Many of these men had friends who are now dead, crippled or recovering from their wounds.
A wall-sized map of Baghdad was displayed in the conference room. A list of humanitarian projects was posted next to it, with the dollar amount spent on each re-construction effort. The list was too long to remember, but I do recall the total spent in their area of responsibility--$1.3 billion dollars.
Sewer systems, bridge repair, hospital improvements, electricity, and more made the list.
Not sexy headline news for the mainstream media, but it made a deep impression on me. Our military was actually improving and stabilizing the economy, healthcare systems, schools and the everyday lives of Iraqi’s, just as the critics of the war had demanded following the early success of the war effort.
Lt. Murphy dragged me over to his laptop computer and sat me down. He pulled up these amazing photos of a small girl named Hara. He told me that she was caught in crossfire between the insurgents and American forces. Her sister was killed. She was badly wounded. Her parents took her to Iraqi Doctors who bandaged her and sent her home to recuperate. As her leg wounds healed, they fused together. Back to the Iraqi Doctors who broke her legs, leaving her in searing pain.
He told me how her parents then flagged down his patrol, and they rushed her to American Doctors. These Doc’s gave her the first rate medical treatment she needed, and she began months of rehabilitation with some of the finest Physical Therapists America can offer. She is slowly learning to walk again. The NightStalkers have adopted her and her family, sending money and hope that her life and that of her family will get better.
The photos showed the American hospital personnel hugging her and crying when she finally was well enough to go home. I cried.
Lt. Murphy, a muscled 6’5 inch trained killer—brusquely wiped his eyes.
I asked him to write a narrative about this story –the kind we don’t read enough about in the elite newspapers of this country—and I promised to post it on our website, (www.ksfo.com) and shout this good news to everyone I can think of.
He pumped my hand up and down in gratitude.
BUSTED
As I gathered my tape recorder, papers and bags to leave, Lt. Murphy’s Commanding Officer came over. A burly guy with a ready laugh and a southern drawl, he started capping on Lt. Murphy. “Tell her, tell her Murph, about your Purple Heart.”
Lt. Murphy turned bright red and shutdown.
The Captain explained that Murphy was out on patrol when an IED exploded under his HumVee, setting it on fire. He dragged the gunner out of the vehicle, badly injured. Murphy received a searing leg burn while saving the life of his fellow soldier.
As we headed out the door, Lt. Murphy asked me for a favor. He explained that he was no hero; the soldier he saved was the REAL hero. His friend is still in rehabilitation, and facing very long odds of walking again. Murph didn’t want any publicity. He practically begged me not to share this incredible story of valor.
Reluctantly, I promised.
I owe Murph an apology. Because I can’t keep that promise.
People need to know.
That’s the purpose of the Truth Tour--to report on the stories that you don’t otherwise hear coming out of Iraq. Because these stories of good deeds, of accomplishments and of successes in Iraq are every much a part of the truth as are reports of car bombs and terrorist insurgents.
People need to know the work our military is doing. And why they are proud to be doing it, each and every day.
Seeing the good work our fellow Americans are doing to help make this a safer world, and to make a brighter future for those people whom under Saddam Hussein had no future, changes you.
I am a different person today than when I left 10 days ago. The 14 people who came with me on this amazing journey all are different now, too.
Our group, the talk show hosts, the staff of Move America Forward – the photojournalists, and the documentary film producers, we all have a greater appreciation for the sacrifices that are being made by the people who a few months ago were your neighbors, or the man who stocked shelves at your grocery store or serviced your car at the gas station.
Now those same people wear the Uniform of the United States military and they endure practically unbearable heat and dust storms to serve their country. They risk injury and face the prospect of a violent death, and they see their friends die. Still, they attend to their duties with the highest professionalism you could imagine. And they make these sacrifices because they believe in what they are doing, and they are committed to defeating those who would use terrorism to target innocent civilians and undermine Western civilization.
I am extremely grateful and proud to be an American.
Our sons and daughters are doing what we asked of them, and they do it willingly and with little complaint, and not nearly enough pay.
The troops told me over and over again that they read the newspapers, they see the news, and read the polls of slipping support in this country for their mission.
I think the least we could do is to muster the same patience and endurance as our men and women serving overseas, and offer them support, supplies and backing they need to get the job done.
And trust me—if we give them our backing, these men and women will continue make us all proud and do our world a great service.
Melanie Morgan
KSFO, San Francisco
Chairman, Move America Forward
Here's a partial look at the Iraqi Constitution as it stands today. It will be voted on later this week. It's certainly not the document we use (or used to use, according to some), but ours took some getting used to. Ask Jefferson Davis.
HT: Hugh Hewitt
Vesuvius Erupts, 79
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TRANSCRIPT:
Today in 79 A.D., Mount Vesuvius erupted. The volcano, located in southern Italy, was responsible for the destruction of two Roman cities and several small villages located near the Bay of Naples. The cities, Pompeii and Herculaneum, were nearly perfectly preserved by the volcanic ash and mud that covered them during the eruption that lasted an estimated 19 hours.
Much of what we know about the eruption...
...of Vesuvius comes to us from Pliny the Younger, who witnessed the action firsthand and recorded his observations in a letter to the historian Tacitus. Only 17 at the time, his detailed description rivals news reports that we might hear today about a volcanic eruption.
Vesuvius had been active many times before the 79 eruption, but history suggests that it had been quiet for generations by the time the Romans began building in the area. There was a very destructive earthquake in the Bay of Naples area in the year 62, but the Romans did not understand the connection between earthquakes and volcanic activity. People lived on the slopes of the mountain, which was home to gardens and vineyards. Although the mountain we know today has a humpback shape to it, the Vesuvius of the first century had a single peak.
When Vesuvius came to life again on August 24, it ejected a column of gas and ash that was 20 miles high. Ash, hot cinders, pumice and rock showered the area. There was so much debris in the air that the townspeople needed torches in order to see. It wasn’t long before people began suffocating because of the thick ash and poisonous gases in the air. Pompeii was buried under 10ft of tephra, which is the generic term for air-fall products from a volcanic eruption. Those who survived but remained in the city were killed the next day by a cloud of gas which descended from the crater.
History remembers Pompeii, but the smaller city of Herculaneum was actually much harder hit. Since it was closer to the crater, Herculaneum was buried under 75ft of ash and fast-moving mud. The intense heat of the eruption also claimed many lives there. Most of the inhabitants of the town made for the town’s boatyard. It was not until the 1980's that hundreds of bodies were uncovered there. All told, more than 10,000 people probably died in the Bay of Naples area.
The Romans did not rebuild any of the towns destroyed by the eruption. Except for looters and people who tried to dig up their personal belongings, history forgot about the two cities. It was not until the 1700's that a well digger unearthed a marble statue near the volcano. Excavations were started and abandoned a few times in the area , but it was not until 1927 that real archaeological work began on the site.
Vesuvius has come to life many times in the past 19 centuries, most recently in 1944. Today, more than 700,000 people live within the shadow of the volcano.
It didn't take long after 9/11 for the Left in this country to wheel out the division card. You may not be conscious of it, but you've heard it: the President is dividing the nation by invading Iraq, pro-life people divide the nation because they want to make abortion illegal again, the Swift Boat vets divided the nation because they told the truth about John Kerry.
Now, we hear about the division the President is creating by not crucifying himself in front of the Sheehan-less mob assembled in Crawford, TX. Their non-thinking, emotionally-charged protest is not the reason for that division, for if it was, the media would have to rethink the division that all those hippies created during their favorite war, Vietnam (they like that war because we left, just like they want us to do in Iraq---and look how well that turned out).
Division in society is good, and I'm getting sick and tired of everyone, including many conservatives, telling us that the nation needs to come together and heal the hurt or forgive the past or cry over beer or whatever. You may think it's crazy to suggest, but the very lifeblood of this nation and democracy in general is rooted in division. Consider:
-Without a serious division between 30% of the colonists and the rest of North America, the US would still be part of the UK.
-Without the division caused by Winston Churchill while he was still "in the wilderness", so to speak, Great Britain might very well have lost the Second World War in Europe.
-Without the division caused by Ronald Reagan between himself and the Democrats in Congress, Soviet tyranny would still be alive and well.
As I've said before, peace is not the absence of conflict. The protestors in Texas and elsewhere have the right to do what they're doing. But to claim that the President needs to meet with them in order to heal some sort of division is not only childish, but it speaks to how liberals think: unless you agree with us, you're divisive and wrong.
German-Soviet Non-Agression Pact, 1939
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Sorry, no transcript tonight.
Sorry about the lack of posts over the past couple days (other than the podcast transcripts, of course). I have spent all my free time this weekend working on one (ONE!!!!) very, very messed up PC which belongs to a co-worker. Finally, I was able to convince her that the machine needed to be reformatted and have Windows XP re-installed.
I am off to Nashville in the morning for what will, hopefully, be a one day trip to our office there. Then, on Thursday, I will be off to Dallas for an office move from one of the "mid-cities" to another. I'm staying down there for the rest of the weekend. Good times will ensue.
I'm telling you this because posting and podcasting this week will probably be slim and possibly non-existent after Thursday. Thanks for reading and subscribing; please stand by.
San Francisco...this is what happens when the looney left takes over a large city.
There are two groups in this country I despise: lawyers and journalists. Even though it sounds like it, I don't mean my condemnation of these groups to be univeresal. I personally know lawyers who are good people, and I know of many journalists with whom I would enjoy spending time. But these small numbers give the rest a bad name.
More and more, lawyers seem to serve no function in American society other than to disassemble it via wealth redistribution. They invent nothing, they produce nothing. They are parasites.
Journalists are much the same. They are merely cynical observers, throwing rocks at the real people in the ring of life who, right or wrong, have chosen to put on the gloves and fight instead of hiding behind a pencil and a press pass.
I'll save lawyers for another night when I'm angry, but I have a great example concerning journalists. Take this story: the President went bike riding with Lance Armstrong. Twice in the story, the reporter felt the need to mention that Armstrong is not a political supporter of the President. Big deal...half the country doesn't support him. This has been true of every President in modern times when taken on average.
But then there's this paragraph:
But some of his critics view his exercise obsession as an indulgence that takes time away from other priorities.
Among them is Cindy Sheehan, the Vacaville, California, mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, who until late last week was camped out down the road from Bush's ranch seeking a meeting with him to discuss her opposition to the war.
Sheehan, who left her vigil on Thursday to tend to her sick mother, has said she believes Bush should take fewer bike rides to have more time to focus on the "the nation's work."
Are we talking about the President and Lance Armstrong, or Cindy Sheehan? I know this is a Reuters piece and that I shouldn't expect much, but can we at least stick to the topic? Did Caren Bohan miss the day they taught that in school?
During the Presidential campaign of 2000, Dick Cheney's health was a big issue. He could have another heart attack, they said. And what if something happened to Bush? This man with a ticking time bomb in his chest would be running the country. Oh my.
Now, five years later, we have a President who is healthier than almost everyone his age and is probably healthier than most Americans of ANY age. But "critics" say that he's spending too much time exercising. Should he stop? Would it be better if he spent his time getting blowjobs from interns?
They are the hollow men.
The First Lincoln-Douglas Debate, 1858
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TRANSCRIPT:
Today in 1858, the first of the Lincoln-Douglas debates took place in Illinois. The seven debates, when taken together, probably represent better than any other written or spoken works the issues that divided the United States in the years immediately before the Civil War. Mostly, the two men debated the issue of slavery. Douglas was a Democrat; Lincoln belonged to a new party whose members called themselves Republicans.
Abraham Lincoln, born in 1809, was...
...the son of Kentucky farmers. Early in life, he moved several times with his family; most of the moves were forced relocations arising from court battles over land . As a young man, Lincoln witnessed a slave sale in New Orleans. Some historians believe that these two events shaped Lincoln’s future as a lawyer and an anti-slavery politician.
By the time of the debates, Lincoln had served four terms in the Illinois State House and one term in the US House of Representatives. He was a tall man with a gift for words, two qualities that undoubtedly helped him create a successful law practice.
Stephen Douglas was born in Vermont. His father, a doctor, died soon after Stephen’s birth. Douglas was raised by an uncle until he was fourteen, when he set out on his own. After studying law, he settled in Illinois and was admitted to the Bar at the age of 21. At the time of the debates, Douglas was a United States Senator. The debates came to be because his Senate seat was up for grabs in November, 1858. While Douglas can not be termed pro-slavery in the way we think of the term today, he definitely embraced a more hands-off approach to the issue. It is believed that he did this in order to gain Southern voters’ confidence for a planned Presidential run in 1860, an election in which he once again faced Abraham Lincoln.
Douglas was often called “The Little Giant” because of his short stature but broad shoulders and large chest. He had a loud, clear voice, but many onlookers said that his delivery was not as smooth as Lincoln’s.
The debate between these two masters came down to the issue of slavery in the territories that were then being formed in the western portions of the United States. Douglas believed in what became known as popular sovereignty. This was the idea that each territory, as it was admitted to the Union, should be allowed to be slave or free based on the vote of the citizens of that state. Lincoln opposed slavery in any of the new territories. He did not mention banning the institution outright, but believed in containing it in the American south with the hope that it would die out on its own.
While there was no clear winner in the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Douglas did retain his Senate seat. But Abraham Lincoln became a player on the national scene because of the debates, allowing him to beat Douglas and a Constitutional Union candidate in the 1860 Presidential election. The election of an anti-slavery Republican was the last straw to many in the South; the firing shot of the Civil War was fired a month after Lincoln was sworn into office in March, 1861.
The USS Constitution earns a nickname, 1812
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I'm not going to comment on this except to say that if there was ever a time for a guy to go postal, this is it.
Thoughts on "Mainstream" vs. "Indie" podcasts.
Sorry, no transcript for this one...just me and my rattled little mind.
I have been blogging since June, 2002. I moved to this site through the kindness of some friends in September, 2003. While I was certainly not in the first wave of people who considered themselves bloggers, I think it’s safe to say that I’ve put a lot of words out into the ether.
There have been times...
...when I have had a larger audience for this blog than I do now. If you were around the blogosphere when Rathergate occurred last year, you know that it was the blogs who first broke the story of the fake documents. I was there; I just happened to catch the thread on Free Republic that talked about the potential fakes. Because I was linked several times on the front of Hugh Hewitt’s site that month, my readership skyrocketed and remained high through the Presidential election.
With the election over, the crowds moved on. I don’t write as much as I used to, mainly due to work considerations. There has been a small spike lately from people who have subscribed to my podcast, since about five times more people listen to that than read this blog. I try to be politically neutral on the podcast, since the focus is history and not my personal interpretation of events. But people who may love history may also disagree with me politically. When they visit this site, I can imagine that some of these people see more than they bargained for.
I mention this because, in the past month, I have received several e-mails from listeners to the podcast chiding me for my political views. Words like “reactionary” have been used. I love e-mail because it tells me that people are not only reading and listening, but care enough to take the time to disagree. But I believe that the time has come for me to explain some things.
First, I am reactionary. Most of my posts are written quickly with little or no editing. That’s the way we live life; I don’t think my posts should be any different than if you and I were talking about an issue over a cup of coffee. You don’t rehearse what you’re going to say, so neither do I. I am not a journalist, as some bloggers claim to be (and some really are). I would be considered a pundit, someone who takes the news and puts a spin on it. You only have to read a few posts to know what that spin is.
Second, I make few apologies. There have been several occasions in which people have pointed out that something I wrote was needlessly critical or bordered on tastelessness. On those occasions I have read over my post and changed a word or phrase so my meaning would not get lost. But when I take Howard Dean to task for stupid comments about Iraq, I mean what I say---he is damaging the Democrats in ways that will take a generation to fix, and he deserves to be criticized harshly for it. When Ted Turner visits North Korea, I really do wish he’d stay there. I think it would do wonders for his outlook to see how cruel socialism/Marxism/Juche can be. Maybe he would stop pouring his money down the UN sinkhole.
Finally, you have a right to respond. If you don’t like what I say, leave a comment. But be warned: single line runaways and idiots on soapboxes will be treated harshly by me and by others who post here regularly. But if you stick around long enough, you will find that there are thoughtful, well-reasoned people who disagree with me but whose posts are well-written and worth of consideration. Their voices are welcome here.
Hess flies to Scotland, 1941
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Today in 1987, Rudolf Hess was found dead in his cell in Berlin’s Spandau Prison. He was 93. Hess was the last surviving member of Hitler’s inner circle. He had served the Fuhrer faithfully for over 20 years. His actions during the Second World War read like something out of a bad spy novel.
Like most of the future leaders of the Nazi Party...
...Hess served in World War One. He first heard Adolf Hitler speak in 1920 and was immediately drawn to him. He soon rose to the command of an SA battalion, the forerunner of the SS. After the failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, Hess escaped to Austria but soon returned voluntarily to serve his prison sentence. He spent his 7 months in prison acting as Hitler’s personal secretary. He took dictation from the future leader and edited his long-winded diatribe, Mein Kampf.
By the time Hitler came to power in 1933, Rudolf Hess was deputy party leader and only third in the line of leadership behind Hitler and Hermann Goering. As the decade wore on, Hitler took more and more power for himself, leaving Hess with little more than a title and privilege. Things became even worse for Hess once the war began in 1939 as Hitler’s generals stole the spotlight from the senior Nazi Party members. Some give this as one of the reasons for what happened next.
On May 10th, 1941, Hess stole a Messerschmitt Bf110 and flew to Scotland. He parachuted out of the aircraft south of Glasgow, breaking his ankle. Hess’s stated mission was simple: negotiate peace with Great Britain. He wanted to meet with the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, a man whom Hess believed was opposed to Winston Churchill. Hess refused to negotiate directly with Churchill because he held him responsible for starting the war in the first place, despite the fact that he was not Prime Minister in 1939.
Hess was armed with the same peace proposal that Hitler had tried to broker before the start of the war: Germany would leave England alone if England agreed to let Germany have free reign over Europe. It soon became apparent that Hess did not represent anyone other than himself. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London for the duration of the war.
Hess’s stunt stunned Hitler and his inner circle. They quickly spread the word that Hess was insane and had acted on his own. He was quickly replaced in the Party.
After the end of the war, Hess was put on trial at Nuremberg and was found guilty of crimes against peace. He was given a life sentence. From 1966 on, he was the only prisoner in Spandau Prison. He was guarded by a multi-national force from the United States, Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union. Rumor had it that, after years of confinement, Hess had gone insane.
When his body was found today in 1987, authorities immediately ruled it a suicide. It seemed like an open and shut case of self-strangulation with an electrical cord. It didn’t take long for the neo-Nazi movement in Germany to make a martyr of Hess and the story began to circulate that he had been killed. No evidence to this end has ever been found.
From the Washington Times:
Appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation" yesterday, the fiery former Vermont governor said, "It looks like today, and this could change, as of today it looks like women will be worse off in Iraq than they were when Saddam Hussein was president of Iraq."
I'd like to dedicate this quote to all of you who keep voting for Democrats because they're "fur the workin' man" or whatever the hell it is that keeps you happy. Dean is now your man...aren't you glad he represents your party?
Oh, and don't tell me that you don't belong to the party. If you vote for the man the party nominates, you belong to his party. Here's your sign.
SEOUL (AFP) - CNN founder Ted Turner arrived in the North Korean capital Pyongyang, North Korean official media reported.
"Robert Edward Turner, chairman of the Turner Foundation INC. of the United States, and his party ... arrived here," said the Korean Central News Agency, monitored here.
South Korean officials said Turner was visiting the Stalinist state to discuss a project to turn the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) dividing the two Koreas into a nature reserve.
He will visit an international environmental forum on the project here early next week, they said.
With any luck, he'll stay there.
"You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine and you'll stop the terrorism," Sheehan declares.
Cindy Sheehan, the woman who is holding a vigil/protest outside President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, has moved on from her role as the grieving and angry mother of a soldier who died in Iraq last year. Now, she also feels...
comfortable spouting off about US foreign and Israeli domestic policy.
I have run out of sympathy for Sheehan. She has a right to protest the war that killed her son. She even has a right to speak out about American foreign policy. But the only reason anyone gives a damn about Cindy Sheehan is because one of her sons died in Iraq. Without that terrible event, she would be just another middle-aged American woman with uninformed opinions.
Sheehan is being used by the media and by the Left. Do you think it just occurred to her to start making statements about Israel? The linking of Israel’s domestic policies to the continuation of terrorism around the world is the stuff of Michael Moore and his ilk. It reeks of anti-Semitism, something that liberals don’t seem to have a problem with when it furthers their agenda.
Sheehan is taking the advice of those who would grant the schoolyard bully his wishes in the hope that he would leave them alone. Bin Laden and other Al Qaeda members only mention Israel as just one of the reasons they are pursuing the course they are; they also want all of us to become Muslims. I guess that’s just a little side detail.
After 9/11, more than one friend told me that we need to understand why “they hate us so much.” When someone punches you, are you worried about why he hates you? If you’re like me, you’re busy trying to kick his teeth in. If you beat him hard enough, he’ll stop hitting you---and damn his reasoning.
I may be wrong, but something tells me that Cindy Sheehan’s son understood that.
The Berlin Wall is built, 1961
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TRANSCRIPT:
Today in 1961, the East German government began construction of the Berlin Wall. The Wall would become a physical manifestation of the Iron Curtain, the term first used by Winston Churchill to describe the physical and political boundaries which separated the Eastern Bloc from the Western democracies.
After the Second World War...
Germany was divided into four zones of occupation. The three zones in the western half of the country were controlled by the United States, the UK and France. The eastern half of the country was controlled by the Soviet Union. Since Berlin was in the eastern half of the nation, the city itself was divided into four zones.
Until 1961, it was fairly easy for citizens of East Berlin and other parts of the East Germany to cross over into West Berlin. As a result, more that 2.5 million East Germans crossed into West Germany, mostly by going from East to West Berlin. East Germany was losing her best and brightest to the promise of the freedom and opportunity outside the sphere of Soviet domination.
The building of the Wall actually began on the evening of August 12 when East German soldiers began stringing barbed wire through the heart of the Berlin. The next morning, East Germany began closing the access points into and out of the eastern half of the city. On the 15th, the barbed wire began to be slowly replaced by tall concrete barriers. One of the most famous pictures from that period is of Conrad Schumann, a 19-year old East German soldier who leapt across the barbed wire barrier with his rifle slung over his shoulder. The Berlin Wall would eventually become over 100 miles long and would not only cut the city in half, but would surround almost all of West Berlin.
Twenty-eight years later, with East Germany crumbling from within, the communists announced an easing of border enforcement between the two halves of the city. So many East Berliners sought access to the West that the border guards just opened the gates and let people out. On November 9, 1989, with the world watching, citizens of the both East and West Berlin took sledgehammers and began dismantling the Wall. Germany became a unified nation in 1990 and parts of the Wall, once a symbol of communist tyranny, have found their way to the four corners of the globe.
Hirohito records surrender, 1945
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TRANSCRIPT:
Today in 1945, Japanese Emperor Hirohito recorded a message to the Japanese people announcing the nation’s surrender. The speech was broadcast the next day at noon, Japan standard time. The speech was spoken in formal Japanese that was only used in the Imperial Court. It was the first time a Japanese Emperor had spoken to the common people, either directly or, as was the case here, via a recording.
The Japanese War Council...
had submitted a formal declaration of surrender to the Allies on August 10th. But fighting continued until the 15th as the Soviets pushed into Manchuria and invaded the northern islands of Japan itself. Off the coast of Japan, aircraft carrier raids continued against airfields, roads and bridges as a precursor to an invasion that would never come. Even the Japanese continued fighting after submitting their surrender—a Japanese submarine sank two American ships off the coast of Okinawa on the 12th.
When radio stations in Japan announced the forthcoming proclamation, over one thousand Japanese soldiers attempted to overrun the Imperial Palace. Their goal was to seize all copies of the Emperor’s recording and destroy them, thus delaying the surrender announcement. The attackers were repulsed by troops still loyal to the Imperial Court.
The next day, the Japanese people heard their leader’s voice for the first time. It was not the voice of a god, but the voice of a man whose fate was still uncertain. He said that the nation would have to bear the unbearable and endure the unendurable. The war that had ruined the nation island nation was over, and the unthinkable had happened. Japan and her citizens had nowhere to go but up.
Have you ever read a story that was so moving that you couldn't stop thinking about it? I'm reading such a story now. Called "Screened Her Going Down", it's the story of the USS Hammann, a destroyer that was sunk with the USS Yorktown at the Battle of Midway. The story starts with the ship's commissioning in 1939 and ends with her sinking in June, 1942. The author, a man named Norman Shaw, served on the ship.
There is one part of the book that sent chills down my spine. During the Battle of Coral Sea in May, 1942, The USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier, sustained heavy damage and was starting the sink. Her escorts began launching boats to pick up the men in the water, but soon it became evident that more help was needed. One by one, the escorts pulled alongside the stricken vessel as men climbed down from the flight deck using cargo nets.
When it was the Hammann's turn, the Lexington was listing (leaning) so badly that the ship was in danger of capsizing. The destroyer's captain, a man named True, went next to the carrier anyway, gently pushing his ship's bow against the Lexington. All I could picture is this hulking ship leaning over this tiny (by comparison) destroyer as the men on the deck pulled their fellow sailors aboard. Any moment, the Lexington could've rolled over on the destroyer and crushed her.
I always wonder what I would do in a situation like that. Were those men scared? You bet. But they did their duty anyway. The captain of the Lexington even did a stem-to-stern inspection of his dying ship before he would leave (he was the last man off) so as to make sure no wounded crewmen were left aboard.
Wow.
IBM introduces its PC, 1981
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From Drudge:
FAMILY OF FALLEN SOLDIER PLEADS: PLEASE STOP, CINDY!
Thu Aug 11 2005 12:56:21 ET
The family of American soldier Casey Sheehan, who was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004, has broken its silence and spoken out against his mother Cindy Sheehan's anti-war vigil against George Bush held outside the president's Crawford, Texas ranch.
The following email was received by the DRUDGE REPORT from Cherie Quarterolo, Casey's aunt and godmother:
Our family has been so distressed by the recent activities of Cindy we are breaking our silence and we have collectively written a statement for release. Feel free to distribute it as you wish. Thanks Ð Cherie
In response to questions regarding the Cindy Sheehan/Crawford Texas issue: Sheehan Family Statement:
The Sheehan Family lost our beloved Casey in the Iraq War and we have been silently, respectfully grieving. We do not agree with the political motivations and publicity tactics of Cindy Sheehan. She now appears to be promoting her own personal agenda and notoriety at the the expense of her son's good name and reputation. The rest of the Sheehan Family supports the troops, our country, and our President, silently, with prayer and respect.
Sincerely,
Casey Sheehan's grandparents, aunts, uncles and numerous cousins.
Cindy Sheehan, the woman who is staging a silent protest near President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas has now become the focus of a media whirlwind. She’s sort of a female Michael Moore, standing there until someone starts answering her questions. And lest you believe I want her to shut up, let me say that it’s her right to protest, to speak her mind, to want some sort of response to her queries.
But I read an article...
in the San Francisco Chronicle this morning that made me wonder about what’s really going on with Mrs. Sheehan. One line stands out:
And nobody -- not even the activist group scheduling her interviews at precise 15-minute intervals -- knows what's going to happen next.
Activist group? Schedule? Really? Upon reading that, I suddenly realized that Sheehan is not a lone woman on a plot of grass in Texas, but the point of a spear made up of anti-war groups, anti-Bush liberals and their fellow travelers in the media.
Cindy Sheehan is the ultimate protest weapon---a woman who has lost a child in the very war she is protesting. None dare question her sincerity or honesty lest they be called insensitive or worse. The questions she is asked in interviews are softballs which present her with an open stage on which to spout her pre-written monologues. Since she now has handlers, I can’t help but wonder if she is being coached. After all, some of the phrases she uses sound very, very familiar.
We don’t often hear from people who still support the war after losing children, so I can’t say whether or not Sheehan’s opinions represent a majority. But I do know that her actions and words cheapen her sons death. She is being used as an exclamation point at the end of an old sentence that has nothing to do with saving other mothers’ sons and everything to do with hatred of this Administration. Shame on them all.
Chris Pirillo’s latest podcast is about Vista, the next generation of Windows which is now in closed beta. For those of you who aren’t computer geeks, a closed beta is a program which allows certain people (software developers and the like) to use a pre-release version of a software package. Pirillo also included audio comments from other beta testers.
The overall opinion seems to be that Vista offers very little in the way of new and exciting features. Microsoft has promised many new features in the next beta release, so it’s probably not fair to write off the product just yet. But there are a few things we know for sure.
First, PCs with mediocre video cards will not be able to fully take advantage of the new interface. That means that all those business PCs with 1 or 2 MB integrated graphics that run XP without a hitch will probably not make the upgrade to Vista without some upgrade work.
Second, the interface does not seem to be radically different from what we’ve become used to in the past 10 years. While I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing (after all, a user interface can only be so efficient and it can’t be a complete change from the last one), it may have an effect on retail sales. You can talk about security and stability all you want, but people want something new to look at for their money.
Finally, there is the release date issue. As of today, Microsoft is talking about a release window of Q4 2006. That’s a long way off in the world of software, especially when you can buy incredibly slick operating systems (like OS X) right now. By the end of next year, there will be a new generation of Linux distros out there (like Suse 10.0) that will make that OS more user-friendly than ever. For the first time in a long time, there will be two mature operating systems already available to hammer on Vista the day it’s released.
If I were Steve Jobs, I would be doing back flips. This is a golden opportunity to get the x86 version of OS X into as many hands as possible in the next 18 months. Here’s what I would do:
1. Put OS X out on store shelves and unlock it so it can run on any x86 machine.
2. Partner with someone (Lenovo?) to put a cheap PC running OS X in stores like Wal-Mart. I know that makes the Mac faithful cringe, but if you want to be the people’s computer company, you have to reach out to people who buy cheap and easy.
3. Keep selling Mac hardware; as I’ve said before, Apple does a great job of selling cool. Concentrate on high-end laptops and workstations and dump the Mac mini and eMac. They are good machines, but they would not be able to compete with cheaper x86 hardware.
4. Start an ad campaign focusing on spyware, viruses and the age of Windows XP.
5. Embrace the open source community. You have a –nix OS; admit it, love it, live it.
Alcatraz opens to federal convicts, 1934
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TRANSCRIPT:
Today in 1934, the first group of civilian inmates arrived at Alcatraz Island. These prisoners were considered the most dangerous men in the US federal prison system. The penitentiary on Alcatraz was high-security, state-of-the-art and considered escape-proof.
Alcatraz was given its name by Juan Manuel, a Spanish explorer, in 1775. The full name of the island was “Isla de los Alcatraces” or Island of the Pelicans because of the huge number of sea birds that congregated there. The name was eventually shortened and anglicized until it became the name we know today.
The Spanish were first people to build fortifications on the island because it was a natural spot from which to defend the inner harbor of San Francisco. The US bought the island from Spain in 1849 and immediately began construction of a lighthouse there, the first one on the coast of California. The US Army began using the island as a fort in 1859.
At the beginning of the Civil War in April, 1861, Alcatraz was under the command of Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston. California was by then a state and the population was made up of both southern and northern sympathizers. Johnston, a Southerner by birth, did his duty as a Union Army officer and kept the peace in the San Francisco area as new troops arrived to train at and to garrison the island. He later resigned his commission and joined the Confederate Army. There’s a man who took his obligations seriously.
After the Civil War, it soon became apparent that Alcatraz’s life as a military fort was coming to an end. Artillery was becoming more accurate and deadly, meaning that even a well-built structure would not stand for long in an all-out fight. Slowly, the island became a place for military to send men who were deserters or who had otherwise disobeyed orders. During the Indian Wars of the latter half of the 19th century, several Native American leaders were held on the island.
In 1907, Alcatraz officially become a US military prison. As the decades passed and the island’s population grew, the prison became more and more of a headache. The Army left the island in 1933, leaving 32 of the worst prisoners for the Bureau of Prisons to take care of.
Alcatraz was closed in 1963 and is, today, a destination for more than a million visitors a year.
Chris Martin, the man who heads up the band Coldplay, has refused to meet with Prime Minister Tony Blair at the PM's home. According to the article, Martin is afraid that his fans who disagree with UK’s involvement in Iraq would be offended by such a visit. Despite the snub, Martin claims to like Blair.
I could almost understand if Martin turned down the Prime Minister’s offer as some sort of act of defiance or whatever. I think that would be childish, but at least Martin could say that he is doing as his conscience dictates. But not going because you’re afraid of upsetting the fans reeks of Clintonesque marketing. Why doesn’t he take a poll? If the majority says they will still buy the band’s music, then he could go.
When what’s-her-name from the Ditsy Twits spouted off about how embarrassed she was to be from Texas, I called her on it because she made that statement in a foreign country knowing that an American audience would’ve booed her off the stage. But at least her statement was genuine. Martin is handling this as if he were being instructed by a PR firm.
So much for the free-wheeling artist.
First, an update. Since my little tirade this morning on internet access, our service has been down ONCE. Earlier, some guys from our cable provider were up a nearby pole doing something and the connection dropped for about 30 seconds. Other than that, it's been smooth sailing tonight. Hi, my name is Matt, and I'm an addict.
Second, I had a very interesting conversation this afternoon with two IT types from one of our partner companies located in Sacramento, CA. Their observations about the Louisville area were keen and eye-opening, but reinforced my belief that this is a great place to live. And, we have bourbon, horses and locusts.
Finally, a story idea for you to comment on if you wish: what if something significant in history was a lie? For example, what if FDR and Naval Intelligence knew about the Japanese task force heading for Pearl Harbor a week before the attack but let it come because FDR knew the isolationist American people would be willing to enter the war if we were attacked first? And if this were told to us today, would it change anything? What if the lie were more recent but bigger? Say, that the CIA killed JFK? And what if the lie were big enough that it might upset our society? What if people were willing to kill to protect the lie?
I'm just thinking about something.
Magellan sets sail, 1519
The URL for Matt's Today in History podcast is:
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TRANSCRIPT:
Good evening and welcome to Today in History. I’m Matt Dattilo. Today is August 10, 2005. Today in 1519, Ferdinand Magellan set out from Spain with five ships and 237 men. His goal was to prove to King Charles I of Spain (who was also the Holy Roman Emporer) that the Spice Islands (which are today part of Indonesia) were on a direct route from Spanish Peru. To do this, he would have to sail to the Pacific via the Atlantic around the tip of South America through waters no European had ever seen. The Spice Islands were a good source of clove and nutmeg, both highly sought after as preservatives. The country that controlled the islands would quickly amass incredible wealth from the spice trade.
Magellan was actually Portugese by birth, but the King of Portugal thought that a journey to the islands was foolish. At this time, Portugal and Spain were bitter enemies, with each vying for the larger share of the New World and Pacific territories. The undeclared war between the two nations would have a terrible effect on Magellan and his crew.
It took the five ships three months to reach Rio de Janeiro. The ships were restocked, but the area was claimed by Portugal, so the ships soon sailed on. As the sailed further and further south, the crews encountered cold and rough weather. Magellan put down a mutiny by executing three men and marooning two. Soon after, one of the ships ran aground and was destroyed by the surf. The crew survived, but all their supplies were lost. By the time the ships rounded the tip of South America via the straits that now bear his name, Magellan and his men were facing starvation.
20 men died from starvation and its complications by the time the four remaining ships reached Guam on March 6, 1521. Finding the natives to be hostile, they sailed to nearby islands where they found food and water. From there, Magellan set sail for the Philippines, an area he had visited before by traveling the other direction. He and his crew converted many of the natives to Christianity. Whether inspired by faith or an interest in acquiring allies, it was an attempt at conversion which cost Magellan his life at the hands of a local chief and his warriors on April 27, 1521.
The voyage continued on under the command of Juan Sebastian Del Cano. It is believed that Del Cano seized control and was not Magellan’s second-in-command. By now, only two ships and 47 men remained. As the ships headed for the Cape of Good Hope, they were attacked by the Portugese, who succeeded in sinking one of the ships. All that remained as the ship turned north into the Atlantic was the Victoria.
The remaining crew once again faced starvation and had to make a stop at the Cape Verde Islands. Once again, the Portugese tried to foil the explorers’ plans. The Portugese on the island rounded up every crew member they could and imprisoned them. When the Victoria left the islands, there were barely enough men left to sail the ship.
On September 8th, 1522, 18 survivors out of a crew of 237 men sailed into Seville, Spain. They had circumnavigated the globe, the first men to ever do so.
That’s it for this evening. Please feel free to contact me at mattdattilo@yahoo.com. You can check out my weblog at opapuelucidity.com. Our theme music is provided by Aaron Drake. You can read Aaron’s weblog at celticmusicnews.com. Thanks and have a good evening. We’ll talk again soon.
Our home connection to the internet is through our local cable provider. For the past six weeks, the connection has dropped out several times a night. Our provider knows about the problem, which is caused by the putting too many people on one node. Evidently, instead of slowing down everyone’s connection, the controllers simply drop people off the node until more bandwidth is available. The provider has, supposedly, been working on the problem since November. I considered moving us to DSL, but by cruel trick of the cosmos, our phone number does not show up in any company’s database, so they continually tell us we can’t have DSL despite the fact that our neighbors do. So we’ll just live with it.
Being web-less some nights has made me re-evaluate how connected we all are. I’m a habitual e-mail checker, sometimes checking my e-mail 20 times a day. This does not include my work e-mail, which notifies me when I have a new one. I can be reached by cell phone or home phone. I used to be reachable via IM client, but I quit using AOL’s Instant Messenger because I was getting almost constant interruptions from people I know and I didn’t want to be rude. Here’s the crazy thing: I’m no more accessible than the average first-world citizen. We can all be contacted pretty much anywhere we go. My parents recently bought a cell phone, so I know everyone else in the free world who wants one has one.
I’m beginning to resent the fact that people I barely know can contact me any time they damn well please. E-mail isn’t too bad because I don’t have to answer it immediately; as I’ve said before, it is voice communication that really, really annoys me. There are some people in my life that I rarely see in person because of distance; with these people, long phone calls are fine. My more considerate local friends wait until we are face-to-face to do our real “coffee talk”---they use the phone for more pressing things, like making plans to meet face-to-face. This is an EXCELLENT use of the phone.
I guess the reason I get bothered by all of this is because there seems to be a growing number of people who will call at odd hours for no good reason. When I was growing up, my parents had some hard and fast rules about phone calls: we did not talk on the phone during dinner, and we didn’t call anyone after 9PM. These rules were easy to enforce because there were only two or three phones in the house (all of them corded until I was 13 or so) and a cell phone would’ve been considered something from science fiction.
So, with this in mind, I have adapted these rules for all our modes of communication. I know I’m being preachy and that I sound a lot like my father, but I’m trying to make the world a happy place. Now be happy, dammit!
1. No calls after 9PM (local time) unless it’s an emergency. An emergency is death and/or severe injury or if the caller is stranded somewhere dangerous.
2. You do NOT have to answer the phone. If people just walked up and started banging on your front door, would you let them all in? Then why do you run for the phone when it rings? If it’s important, they’ll leave a message. No message, no callback. I will answer the phone when I feel like it, which isn’t very often.
3. If you e-mail someone, please don’t e-mail them 20 minutes later wondering why they have not responded. E-mail is not always instantaneous. Depending on where it’s coming from and where it’s going, it may take a few minutes for the message to be delivered. And if you’re e-mailing something to someone at work, ask yourself if you want the IT department reading the message. Chances are they can and are reading everyone’s e-mail. It’s part of what we do. And please keep in mind that not everyone has a broadband connection. A large attachment on a dial-up connection will essentially lock up the machine.
4. If you use an instant-messaging client, don’t be a bother to everyone on your buddy list. Just because a person’s online doesn’t mean they want to talk. A simple “hi” and “do you have time to chat?” works very well.
5. If you are somewhere and there’s a sign asking you to set your cell phone to vibrate, DO IT! YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL! The call you are waiting for is much, much less important than the movie I’m trying to watch. And if you’re in a public place on the phone, please go to somewhere quiet to have your conversation instead of talking very loudly in the middle of the crowd. We all have cell phones now; talking loudly and using words like “synergy” and “win-win” in the airport just make you look like a laughable, insecure asshole, which you probably are.
I like Fox News as much as anyone, but how much mileage is Greta going to get out of that missing girl in Aruba? Is anyone still interested? I feel for the family, but she's either dead or somewhere off the island.
BTW, Page Hopkins=hottie. You Fox people know what I mean.
Jesse Owens cleans up at the Olympics, 1936
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Sorry, no transcript today.
From Drudge this afternoon (you know this woman if you've seen any of the Big 3 networks in the past 4 or 5 days):
PROTESTING SOLDIER MOM CHANGED STORY ON BUSH
Mon Aug 08 2005 10:11:07 ET
The mother of a fallen U.S. soldier who is holding a roadside peace vigil near President Bush's ranch -- has dramatically changed her account about what happened when she met the commander-in-chief last summer!
Cindy Sheehan, 48, of Vacaville, Calif., who last year praised Bush for bringing her family the "gift of happiness," took to the nation's TV outlets this weekend to declare how Bush "killed an indispensable part of our family and humanity."
CINDY 2004
THE REPORTER of Vacaville, CA published an account of Cindy Sheehan's visit with the president at Fort Lewis near Seattle on June 24, 2004:
"'I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis,' Cindy said after their meeting. 'I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith.'
"The meeting didn't last long, but in their time with Bush, Cindy spoke about Casey and asked the president to make her son's sacrifice count for something. They also spoke of their faith.
"The trip had one benefit that none of the Sheehans expected.
"For a moment, life returned to the way it was before Casey died. They laughed, joked and bickered playfully as they briefly toured Seattle.
For the first time in 11 weeks, they felt whole again.
"'That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together,' Cindy said."
CINDY 2005
Sheehan's current comments are a striking departure.
She vowed on Sunday to continue her protest until she can personally ask Bush: "Why did you kill my son?"
In an interview on CNN, she claimed Bush "acted like it was party" when she met him last year.
"It was -- you know, there was a lot of things said. We wanted to use the time for him to know that he killed an indispensable part of our family and humanity. And we wanted him to look at the pictures of Casey.
"He wouldn't look at the pictures of Casey. He didn't even know Casey's name. He came in the room and the very first thing he said is, 'So who are we honoring here?' He didn't even know Casey's name. He didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to hear anything about Casey. He wouldn't even call him 'him' or 'he.' He called him 'your loved one.'
Every time we tried to talk about Casey and how much we missed him, he would change the subject. And he acted like it was a party.
BLITZER: Like a party? I mean...
SHEEHAN: Yes, he came in very jovial, and like we should be happy that he, our son, died for his misguided policies. He didn't even pretend like somebody...
END
On her current media tour, Sheehan has not been asked to explain her twist on Bush; from praise to damnation!
Developing...
One question: what would her son think of her behaviour?
When I first started blogging, I had a thought towards serializing a book in blog form; that is, writing a little bit every day or once a week and posting it for people to read.
Now, I am considering that again. I heard something last week that is so hard to believe that, had anyone other than someone I would trust with my life told me, I would've called them a liar. It has all the makings of a great novel: deceit, family struggle, fraud, etc. Of course, I would have to change names to protect the guilty, but it's pretty tempting.
If I decide to do it, I'll probably start a new blog to host my writings so it doesn't get confused with my daily stuff from here. As is my tendency, I will link to it prominently.
From Fox News:
INDIANAPOLIS — Fed up with what it considers "hostile" and "abusive" American Indian nicknames, the NCAA (search) announced Friday it would shut those words and images out of postseason tournaments, a move that left some school officials angry and threatening legal action.
Hostile and abusive? Since when did naming a mascot become a action of abuse and hostility? I always thought that choosing a name for a mascot was a way of honoring a person or group. My high school mascot was the Pioneers; no one gave it a second thought.
Let's look at some non-Native American mascots:
Notre Dame Fighting Irish - What are you trying to say? Do the Irish like to fight more than other people? Are you saying they fight more because they drink more?
Purdue Boilermakers - No, this is not a drink, but an old occupation. Why is a college mascot named after an outdated blue-collar career? Are you poking fun at people who punch a time clock and wear their name on their shirt?
Indiana Hoosiers - What the hell? I live in Indiana and I don't know what a Hoosier is.
IUS Grenadiers - This is our local IU campus. Grenadiers were soldiers. Isn't this promoting militarism? What not call them the IUS Panzer Divisions?
My point is that anything can be made offensive if you look at it from a different angle. This is a fury made by people who have nothing else in their miserable lives. And we all have to deal with it.
Hiroshima Bombed, 1945
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TRANSCRIPT (Follow the link below for the entire text):
Good afternoon and welcome to Today in History. I’m Matt Dattilo. Today is August 6th, 2005. At 8:15AM local time 60 years ago today, a B-29 Superfortress named Enola Gay dropped a single bomb weighing nearly five tons on the city of Hiroshima in Japan. The bomb contained 140lbs of uranium. Only 1.4% of the uranium fuel actually became super-critical, but the resulting explosion had the same force as 13 kilotons of TNT. 80,000 people died immediately; by the end of 1945, 60,000 more people had died from radiation poisoning.
We have had six decades of debate over the use of atomic weapons against the Japanese homeland. Instead of rehashing the debate, I thought it might be of some use to explore what may have happened had atomic bombs NOT been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But to gain a full appreciation of that time, we must take a short detour to discuss the summer of 1945.
By July, 1945, Japan appeared to be a nation on the edge of defeat. The Pacific islands that she had so easily conquered in late 1941 and early 1942 had been taken back in a series of hard-fought battles that left the Japanese Army decimated and virtually wiped out the Imperial Navy. However, Japan still held a large part of the China and had over a million soldiers stationed on the Home Islands in case of an invasion. They had also mustered nearly 10,000 aircraft for use as kamikazes against an enemy fleet.
There was also the civilian population of Japan to consider. Millions of women, children and older men were trained to fight against any invasion. They were not well-armed, but confrontations with Japanese civilians in places like Saipan had taught the Allies that much of the Japanese population would die rather than surrender.
The plan for the invasion of the Japanese home islands was called Operation Downfall. It was to occur in two stages. Operation Olympic would be the invasion of Kyushu, the southernmost island of the chain. The second staged was called Operation Coronet and would be the invasion of Honshu near Tokyo. It was scheduled for the spring of 1946.
The Allied invasion fleet would have been the largest assemblage of naval vessels in the history of man. Over 2,000 ships were designated for the two invasions, including nearly 60 aircraft carriers of various types. Almost the entire Marine Corps and over one million soldiers from the US and the British Commonwealth would have taken part.
No two sources agree on the projected casualty figures for the two invasions, but even conservative estimates claimed a quarter-million Allied fatalities with potentially millions of Japanese soldiers and civilians killed. Using the Okinawa invasion as a guide, it is possible that the casualty rate could have been as high as 35% for all forces involved in the invasion.
Those of us who did not live through the Second World War often view it as a time of great patriotism and shared sacrifice. While this is certainly true, it is important to remember that the United States and Great Britain had, together, lost nearly three-quarters of a million soldiers by 1945. As supportive as the civilian populations were, there were limits to how much death they would support before the foundations of civility were threatened. I don’t believe it’s a overstatement to suggest that a continuation of the war into the middle of 1946 or even 1947 could have caused unrest on the home fronts of Allied nations.
The actions of the Soviet Union also had to be taken into consideration. The Soviets had stayed out of the Pacific war for various reasons, one of which was because of the tremendous strain put on that nation by her commitments of men and machines in Europe. By August, 1945, with the war in Europe over, the Kremlin could turn its sites on Japan. Stalin declared war against Japan on August 8th and immediately ordered an invasion of the Kuril Islands and an offensive against Japanese forces in Manchuria. A Soviet invasion of the main Japanese home islands would doubtless have resulted in even more civilian deaths than an American/British invasion from the south.
Would Japan have surrendered without the use of atomic weapons? Eventually, yes, but keep in mind that even a “wait and see” action against Japan would’ve resulted in civilian deaths. By 1945, Japan was isolated and even basic commodities were becoming scarce. A long-term blockade would surely have killed more people than the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.
We must also take into account the Japanese government of the time. While the Emperor was seen as the leader of the nation, he was nearly powerless. The country could only sign a peace agreement with the full support of the cabinet, which was dominated by high-ranking officers from the Army and Navy. The civilian leadership had been sending out peace feelers as early as January, 1945, but military officials remained opposed to negotiations until after the bombing of Nagasaki. It is likely that an invasion of the homeland would have strengthened the military’s resolve to fight to the last man.
The birth of atomic weapons pushed humanity into an age where, for the first time, it was possible to extinguish virtually all life on the planet. It is probable that another world war was avoided because the thought of large-scale use of nuclear weapons was too horrible to contemplate. All wars, even just wars, show the worst of humanity. It is hard for us to grasp the notion of killing to save lives, for each human life is precious. But there were really only two options open to President Truman in August of 1945, and I have to believe, for better or worse, that he took the right decision.
That’s it for this afternoon. Please feel free to contact me at mattdattilo@yahoo.com. You can check out my weblog and a transcript of this podcast at opaquelucidity.com. Our theme music is provided by Aaron Drake. You can read Aaron’s weblog at celticmusicnews.com. Thanks and have a good weekend. We’ll talk again soon.
Since it's birth, Air America has been a media darling. It was going to be the left-leaning network that finally brought the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity to their knees with quick-witted commentary from geniuses like Al Franken and Janeane Garafaolo.
More than a year in, conservative talk radio is bigger then ever and Air America is barely scraping by. In fact, without satellite radio, it is doubtful the network would still exist. And now, there's this: one of the owners of Air America "borrowed" $400,000 from the Boys and Girls Club, for which he was the development director.
What's amazing to me is the fact that this is getting almost no attention from the MSM. If Sean Hannity took an illegal loan to keep his show on the air, do you think it would be above the fold on the front page of the NY Times? Certainly.
But there is little surprise here. If you've ever listened to Air America, then you realize that the show hosts tend to be either washed up actors (like Franken) or hippy has-beens trying to recapture 1968. Don't worry; it'll all be over soon.
Hopefully.
A quick Q&A session. Sorry, but no transcript for this podcast.
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From Drudge earlier today:
NY TIMES INVESTIGATES ADOPTION RECORDS OF SUPREME COURT NOMINEE'S CHILDREN
**Exclusive**
The NEW YORK TIMES is looking into the adoption records of the children of Supreme Court Nominee John G. Roberts, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
The TIMES has investigative reporter Glen Justice hot on the case to investigate the status of adoption records of Judge Roberts’ two young children, Josie age 5 and Jack age 4, a top source reveals.
Judge Roberts and his wife Jane adopted the children when they each were infants.
Both children were adopted from Latin America.
A TIMES insider claims the look into the adoption papers are part of the paper's "standard background check."
Bill Borders, NYT senior editor, explains: "Our reporters made initial inquiries about the adoptions, as they did about many other aspects of his background. They did so with great care, understanding the sensitivity of the issue."
Roberts’ young son Jack delighted millions of Americans during his father’s Supreme Court nomination announcement ceremony when he wouldn’t stop dancing while the President and his father spoke to a national television audience.
Previously the WASHINGTON POST Style section had published a story criticizing the outfits Mrs. Roberts had them wear at the announcement ceremony.
One top Washington official with knowledge of the NEW YORK TIMES action declared: “Trying to pry into the lives of the Roberts’ family like this is despicable. Children’s lives should be off limits. The TIMES is putting politics over fundamental decency.”
One top Republican official when told of the situation was incredulous. “This can’t possibly be true?”
Can anyone tell me that this is appropriate on any level? What do they hope to find in those adoption records?
It wasn't until about 80 years ago that Supreme Court nominees even bothered to show up in front of the Senate. Time was when the President's nominees got approved; when your party was elected, your guys got approved. But, now, somehow, a liberal minority is being allowed to put this man on trial.
Tell me this isn't the beginning of the end of our form of government.
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident, 1964
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TRANSCRIPT:
Good evening and welcome to Today in History. I’m Matt Dattilo. Today is August 4th, 2005. Before we get started, I have two quick announcements. First, thanks to those of you who have voted for this podcast on podcastalley.com. As of 8PM EST, we are 90th out of over 4000 podcasts. If you have not yet voted, please remember the words of more than one Kennedy: vote early and vote often.
Second, this Saturday will mark the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. To commemorate this event, my Saturday podcast will be longer than usual, maybe even an hour and it probably won’t be up until Saturday afternoon. I know that many of you enjoy this ‘cast precisely because it’s only about 5 minutes long, so I wanted to give you a heads-up. Hopefully this will be the first in a series of occasionally longer weekend podcasts focusing on events and people in our recent history.
Tonight, we’re going to talk about a lie. It’s a lie that many of us were taught in high school because the truth was only known by a few. If you’re under 30, you may not be aware of the lie at all, or it may seem like old news to you. Either way, the lie gave way to a war that was already being fought in secret and forced a President and a defense establishment to tell larger and larger lies in order to hide the fact that a few men in places of power wanted that war.
On this night in 1964, what would later become known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident came to an end. The Gulf of Tonkin is the body of water immediately off the eastern coast of Vietnam. In 1964, it was a hotbed of activity as South Vietnamese commandos used the Gulf as means of raiding the North and North Vietnamese patrol boats scoured the Gulf looking for South Vietnamese assets. The US Navy had been operating in the Gulf of Tonkin for some time, gathering electronic and photographic intelligence that was then shared with our South Vietnamese allies.
On the afternoon of August 2nd, the USS Maddox, a destroyer, was attacked by 3 North Vietnamese torpedo boats whose captains claimed to have mistaken the ship for a South Vietnamese vessel. The Maddox called for air support, resulting in one of the boats being sunk and the other two being damaged. The Maddox headed south for safer waters.
Two days later, the Maddox was back in the area of the attack, this time paired with the USS C. Turner Joy, another destroyer. The two were conducting a DESOTO patrol. We’ll have to discuss the history of the DESOTO patrol on another night, but suffice to say that these patrols were designed to go close to an enemy shoreline (but stay in international waters) and gather communications intelligence.
The Maddox soon received radar signals that were believed to signal another North Vietnamese PT boat attack. For more than an hour, the two ships zigzagged to miss torpedoes and fired at targets that could only be seen on radar. There is no conclusive proof that any shots or torpedoes were fired at either ship. Eight Crusader fighter/bombers sent from the USS Ticonderoga saw nothing. The captain of the Maddox later blamed overeager sailors the radar and visual reports.
A detailed report of this second incident reached Washington at 11AM. President Johnson ordered the Joint Chiefs of Staff to prepare for a retaliatory strike against North Vietnamese naval facilities. He also met with 16 Congressmen and informed them that he intended to ask for a Congressional resolution to support the air strikes. That evening, as President Johnson took his case to the American people, the aircraft were already on their way to their targets. US involvement in Vietnam was about to become an open, public matter. Johnson said during his speech, “We still seek no wider war.” The lie was complete.
Admiral James Stockdale, the man who was Ross Perot’s running mate in the 1992 Presidential race, was a squadron commander that night in 1964. He later stated:
“I had the best seat in the house to watch that event, and our destroyers were just shooting at phantom targets—there were no PT boats there...there was nothing there but black water and American fire power.”
There have been numerous conspiracy theories about Lyndon Johnson’s desires to ramp up US involvement in Vietnam. We will never know the truth, for many of the men who advised the President are no longer with us. What we do know is that the war in Vietnam changed this nation in ways that are still evident and that still have an effect on how and when we wage war and negotiate peace.
That’s it for this evening. Please feel free to contact me at mattdattilo@yahoo.com . You can check out my weblog and a transcript of this podcast at opaquelucidity.com. Thanks and have a good evening. We’ll talk again soon.
The Washington Post is breathlessly running that story again: President Bush is going on vacation at his ranch in Crawford, TX. This time, he is planning on spending five weeks there; the paper does not mention the trips he will make while on “vacation”. The piece then loads us down with statistics on how long the President has been away from the White House.
As all of you know, the President is completely cut off from the outside world while he’s at the ranch. The area is only accessible via Conestoga wagon, and then only if it’s not during the rainy season. Food and other supplies must be air-lifted in. The ranch house has no phone, no running water and the roof is thatched. The Secret Service members sleep outside under the stars.
In reality, this whole thing is a non-issue created to cater to those who wish to foster class envy. The truth is that the President could live in Crawford and be just as effective as he is in White House. Cell and satellite phones, video conferencing and broadband internet access mean that the White House can travel with any President. This President, like the Presidents before him, is NEVER really on vacation. He receives a briefing every morning and his days are full of many of the same meetings he sits through in Washington. He even has the nuclear launch codes with him, in case someone gets way out of line. And if he needs to get back to Washington in a hurry, Air Force One is standing by. It’s fast, big and can be re-fueled in the air. He could live at 30,000 feet if need be.
I don’t remember seeing any stories about Bill Clinton’s vacation choices. Do you know why? Because Bill and Hill didn’t own a house anywhere. They stayed in California, the Hamptons and Martha’s Vineyard at the homes of the Hollywood elite and wealthy campaign donors. That was acceptable because that’s where the liberals who control the MSM hang out. Crawford, Texas isn’t considered very trendy by reporters used to staying in posh resorts but who are now forced to bunk in Waco.
For the record, I hope G.W. takes six weeks of vacation next year.
Oh, yeah...this is something I want to attend. Hell, I'm a geek and these people scare me:
The Internet has become "crime ridden slums," said Phil Zimmermann, a well-known cryptographer who spoke at the conference. Hackers and the computer security experts who make a living on tripping up systems say security would be better if people were less lazy.
To make their point, they pilfered Internet passwords from convention attendees.
Anyone naive enough to access the Internet through the hotel's unsecured wireless system could see their name and part of their passwords scrolling across a huge public screen.
It was dubbed the "The Wall of Sheep."
Among the exposed sheep were an engineer from Cisco Systems Inc., multiple employees from Apple Computer Inc. and a Harvard professor.
Makes you want to go back to pen and paper, doesn't it?
This is typical of what those on the Left are talking about today in the blogosphere. The author himself says this is "progressive" (using the writings of Ted Kennedy as his yardstick). If this is progressive, what do the liberals think? I don't want to know; I enjoy sleeping at night.
Once again: sound and fury signifying nothing. As many problems as I have with Rush Limbaugh, he certainly is right about at least one thing: liberals out of power are funny. Liberals in power are scary.
'Matt's Today in History' is now in the top 100 podcasts at podcastalley.com (it's 99th). Of course, the month is young and it won't stay there.
But now is the time. If I could get about 50 of you who have not yet voted for the podcast to go to the description of my blog at Podcast Alley and vote (using a real e-mail address for confirmation), I think we could peak in the top 20 before the big boys get all their votes for the month.
Yes, I'm crass and I'm begging. If you have more than one e-mail address, please vote from home AND from work. After all, some people are entirely different creatures at work, right?
I received an e-mail this morning from a man who listens to the podcast. He went to the trouble of designing a logo which, if I can size it correctly, I will add to the RSS feed for the show so it will show up in iTunes (by the way, the ‘cast is now in the Education category). I don’t remember asking for a logo, but I probably did and I’m thankful that he took the time to make it.
Things like this always make me think of how much “bottled” creativity is around us. Many of us (dare I say most?) work in jobs that never require us to be creative. Productive, yes; thinking, yes; creative; no. This is the way of the world: most work is tedious. We accept this because our work pays the bills.
But there are those people whose jobs create challenges for them every day. I don’t mean the challenge of not having enough time or resources to do a job, but challenges that require creativity and originality. Not all of these jobs are in the arts, even though that is what we think of most often.
For those of us who work in tedious (or, in my case, semi-monotonous) jobs, our creative outlets are found outside of work. I podcast and write this blog; my wife cross-stitches and is teaching herself to knit. More and more, we are exposed to musicians and other artists who have day jobs but do the things they love at night or on the weekends. It’s a beautiful thing, but a shame that we can’t all do what we love full-time. Maybe in my next life.
You may remember my post a few days ago about my belief that a modular system should replace the aging Shuttle fleet. Lo and behold, that's exactly what some at NASA are working on. According to the article, the cargo rocket could life 100 tons. That's an enormous amount of stuff.
You read it here first. I want a paycheck.
Iraq invades Kuwait, 1990
The URL for Matt's Today in History podcast is:
http://mdattilo.audioblog.com/rss/tih.xml
TRANSCRIPT:
Good evening and welcome to Today in History. I’m Matt Dattilo. Today is August 2nd, 2005. One quick note: it’s now August, so please take a moment and give this podcast a vote at podcastalley.com. I notice that some of you already have; thank you. Now on to the history.
15 years ago today, Iraq invaded Kuwait. This marked the impetus for what would become two operations, Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Taken together, these two operations would become known as the Persian Gulf War. Before it was over, more than a million soldiers from both sides would do battle in the desert of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq.
Saddam Hussein had lusted after Kuwait for a long time before the invasion of 1990. However, until 1988, Iraq was locked in a struggle with Iran that would cost, by some estimates, more than a millions lives. Once a shaky peace was achieved, Hussein turned his enormous army’s attention (it was the fourth largest in the world in 1990) to Kuwait.
Iraqi troops rolled into Kuwait City within hours of the invasion. Kuwait’s defense forces were either destroyed or pushed back into Saudi Arabia. Hussein quickly made Kuwait an Iraqi province, established a provincial government, and stationed more than 300,000 troops there. The conquest of Kuwait meant that Iraq now controlled twenty percent of the planet’s oil reserves.
On August 6th, the UN Security Council placed a worldwide trading ban on Iraq while US forces began arriving in Saudi Arabia on August 9th. It was not known at that time how far Hussein’s desires went, but an invasion of the Arabian peninsula by Iraq was not considered a remote possibility. On November 29th, the Security Council approved the use of force against Iraq if its forces did not leave Kuwait by January 15th.
In the meantime, the greatest assembly of allied power since the end of World War II gathered in the Middle East. 700,000 troops from 32 nations under the overall command of US General Norman Schwarzkopf trained, coordinated and waited for the signal. January 15th came and went with no movement on the part of Saddam Hussein.
At 4:30PM EST on January 16, 1991, the opening shot of the Gulf War was fired. It was a cruise missile with the Louisville Slugger logo painted on it. The missile came from the USS Louisville, a Los Angeles-class attack submarine. Stop and think about that for a minute: the opening shot of a war in the desert came from a submarine.
The air bombardment of Iraqi forces lasted for six weeks. When the ground offensive began on February 24th, the Iraqi Army quickly went, in the words of Norman Schwarzkopf, from being the fourth largest army in the world to the second largest army in Iraq. A cease-fire was called four days later by President George H. W. Bush.
That’s it for this evening. Feel free to contact me at mattdattilo@yahoo.com. You can check out my weblog at opaquelucidity.com. Our theme music is provided by Aaron Drake. You can see Aaron’s weblog at celticmusicnews.com. Thanks and have a good evening. We’ll talk again soon.
This from the Daily Kos:
This is Bush in a nutshell -- a lazy, ignorant, privileged fratboy who has never seen or even considered a principled position in his life. You either serve his pleasure or don't serve.
What one might consider a virtue, his "loyalty" to his team, is really nothing more than spoiled petulance at having his will crossed.
The Bolton recess appointment is yet another example.
How do you think he responded to Bill Clinton's 140 recess appointments?
Look back over the above quote and keep in mind that Daily Kos is the #1 most viewed liberal blog. This is supposed to represent the top of the heap. What does that say about the rest of the players?
Hi..this is Kelli and I wanted to take a moment to talk about a very interesting movie Matt & I took in over the weekend. The Island is a thought provoking action/drama/thriller that should make everyone who leaves the theater ask this question. "What is the true meaning of life and who determines when life is valid and worth living?"
The major characters in the film discover that the life they are living is a lie and that they have been "harvested" and are merely copies of their "sponsers" in the real world. Yet, these characters have emotions, desires, hopes and dreams of reaching the Island, the last know "uncontaminated" place on Earth. The movies does a great job of building up the audience's hopes that Lincoln 6 Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan 2 Delta (Scarlet Johansson) will learn the truth and escape their fates to live in the real world. However, the animalistic hunt that ensues to recapture the "product" left me feeling disgusted with all humanity.
Does life mean so little to people that they are able to divorce emotion from the creation of another life/clone of themselves to help them escape death. I left the movie theater asking a lot of questions about how much life is valued within our society. After a lengthy discussion with Matt, I realized that the reality shown in The Island is one that we are well on the way to achieving unless we step back and begin to question whether or not the scientific advances we achieve is worth the moral cost.
Fox News is reporting that President Bush will, indeed, appoint John Bolton to be our UN ambassador. Hooray!
Bolton is exactly the kind of man we need at the UN: distrustful of the organization, critical of it in the past, and not likely to be influenced by his peers on the Security Council. With scandal after scandal after scandal at its heels, the UN is not a place for wimpy negotiators.
UPDATE:
For those of you who think that a recess appointment is somehow dirty and lowdown, here's a list of past appointments, one going back to George Washington. Bolton will hold his position until the next session of Congress, which begins in January, 2007. He will then have to be re-affirmed.
Helen Thomas is angry because a reporter did to her the very thing that reporters have been doing to everyone else for fifty years: writing about something that was not meant for public consumption.
You may remember the story last week in which Thomas said that she would kill herself it Dick Cheney is ever elected President. This is an amazing statement from anyone, much less a woman who has been a member of the White House press corps since the Kennedy administration. If you’ve ever seen Thomas in action, you know that her bias is so evident that she sometimes appears to be a protestor who snuck into the Press Room. She was, at one time, a UPI reporter; I don’t know who she works for now. She no longer has a permanent press pass, so I have to wonder if she’ll continue to be invited back to the White House.
Thomas is a sterling example of what happens when a reporter becomes a crusader. Thomas has hated this administration from the start, and her questions betray her bias. During the Clinton Administration, you never once heard Thomas ask a cross question, even when the Lewinsky scandal was on the front burner. When sailors were killed aboard the USS Cole in 2000, Thomas didn’t seem to be concerned. Strangely, she is very worried about body armor and Humvees in Iraq.
Here’s a zinger from July 18th of this year (courtesy of Unknown News):
What is [the President's] problem? Two years, and he can't call Rove in and find out what the hell is going on? I mean, why is it so difficult to find out the facts? It costs thousands, millions of dollars, two years, it tied up how many lawyers? All he's got to do is call him in.
Here’s a nice little exchange from July 6, 2004:
Q: Does the President feel that he had enough information about weapons to take this nation to war?
A: Well, I think you heard directly from the President earlier today in the Oval Office, following his meeting with Prime Minister Oddsson. The President talked about how Saddam Hussein was a threat. It was a threat that was real --
Q: Was a threat how?
A: Well, we have learned since going into Iraq and removing that regime from power that the regime certainly had the intent and capability when it comes to weapons of mass destruction --
Q: What do you mean by intent?
A: Well, the Iraq Survey Group, that was previously headed by David Kay and is now headed by Charles Duelfer, has looked into the issues and showed that Saddam Hussein was in serious and clear violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441. That resolution, you'll recall, called for serious consequences if Saddam Hussein --
Q: It didn't call for war.
A: It gave him one final opportunity to comply, or face serious consequences if he continued to defy the international community. And the world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power.
Q: Do you know how vague you sound on that?
A: And you heard that directly from the President of the United States earlier today.
Many of you may be reading these questions and thinking that you have had many of the same questions. You are, presumably, a taxpayer and a voter, so you have the right and the obligation to question the actions of your government. But Helen Thomas does not represent you---she represents the organization for which she works. Furthermore, there is such a thing as respect for the office. She is in the White House trying to shout down a man who works directly for the President of the United States. As you can see, her line of questioning reveals nothing and probably makes the Press Secretary less likely to be open in his responses.
I don’t know how old Thomas is, but she must be well into her 70’s, far past the age when she should retire. I can imagine that she sees herself as speaking truth to power and acting as some sort of hero to us little people. But her self-serving elitism soaked in liberal tripe not only turns off the staff at the White House, but most right-thinking little people as well.