Archive for March, 2007
Kathryn Jean Lopez notes parts of a blogger conference call with Senator John McCain. Among the interesting tidbits about the Iraq withdrawal deadlines:
“We — people like me — have got to keep on keeping on and telling the American people what’s at stake here.”
“I strongly recommend to the White House that the president read the list of pork to the American people when he vetoes this bill.”
Regarding the issue and the calls for compromise, he said, basically, “I don’t know where the compromise is between withdrawal and non-withdrawal”
Go read. (via Instapundit)
I found a partial transcript and video of the McCain “unarmed Humvee” thing. I updated the earlier post, so go look.
As I’ve said before, all the media really seems to know about the military are the Pentagon Papers, My Lai, and the words “Tet Offensive”.
MO gets links from all sorts of sites in all sorts of places. But this link from BronteBlog is one of the strangest ever:
On the ever growing list of impossible and weird Wuthering Heights comparisons this one occupies a prominent position. It links Tolkien, Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia and Wuthering Heights.
Of course, they are referring to the OT-for-Murdoc post on Tolkien’s upcoming The Children of Hurin.
That’s great that they stopped by and let’s hope some fans of the Bronte sisters will come back often for the latest on the Stryker and the 6.8 SPC round.
For what it’s worth, Wuthering Heights is some good stuff. Dark and dreary, a forbidden and doomed romance, and a general downer. What’s not to like?
Back in Murdoc’s days as a failed screenwriter, he wrote a Middle Ages drama based loosely on many of the themes and moods found in Wuthering Heights called The Viscount. Interested Hollywood producers should email me so I can tell you where to mail the check.
Who’s Your Favorite ‘Chickenhawk’?
Honest Abe is currently leading FDR by a bit. (via Instapundit)
On the radio this morning I caught part of a discussion between John McCain and John Roberts. Here’s the bit in question:
General Lee’s un-uparmored armed HumveeCNN’S JOHN ROBERTS: I wanted to talk to you about the situation in Iraq. Yesterday in an interview with Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room. I want to play this back for you. You had this to say about the situation there.
[McCAIN CLIP]: General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed humvee. I think you oughta catch up. You are giving the old line of three months ago. I understand it. We certainly don’t get it through the filter of some of the media.
ROBERTS: Senator, did you mean to say that, that General Petraeus goes out every day in an unarmed humvee?
SEN. JOHN McCAIN (R-AZ): I mean that there are neighborhoods safe in Iraq and he does go out into Baghdad and the fact is there has been significant progress and people are stuck in a time warp of three months ago. Of course, it’s still dangerous. Of course it’s still very dangerous. We only have two of the five brigades there and we are already seeing significant progress.
ROBERTS: Because I checked with General Petraeus’s people overnight and they said he never goes out in anything less than an up-armored humvee.
And the radio show hosts (I think it was the William Bennett show, whatever it’s called) agreed that even though McCain had been wrong about the Humvee the larger point was what mattered.
Now, this is a rough paraphrasing, and I had joined in part-way through, but I think I basically got it right. McCain did use the term “time warp”, which seems about right. He says three months ago and I say 40 years, but we agree in principle.
Murdoc asks three questions:
A) Why is Roberts so clueless as to not know the difference between “unarmed” and “unarmored”?
B) Why didn’t McCain jump on him for it?
C) Why didn’t the radio show hosts get a clue and straighten things out? (Or get straightened out by callers, if they take any?)
I don’t have time to look right now, so does anyone know if the General’s regular Humvee has a machine gun or other weapon? I guess I’d be a bit surprised if it did. Armed escort vehicles with him, for sure, and armed troops in the vehicle with the General.
If some amateur blogger at home realizes that Roberts didn’t address McCain’s point, why can’t the professionals?
(For all I know, others in the ol’ blogosphere have already jumped on this. Or maybe it’s ancient history. I don’t know. Point me in the right direction if you’ve seen more on it.)
Dukes of Fallujah pic from here.
UPDATE: Think Progress has kindly posted the video and a partial transcript. It was originally an interview with Wolf Blitzer which was brought up by CNN’s John Roberts. I posted part of the transcript above in place of my original paraphrasing. The original paraphrasing is posted below for completeness.
McCain definitely said “unarmed”. I don’t know if he meant “unarmored”, but he said “unarmed” and it seems clear that no one at CNN (or Think Progress, apparently) knows the difference.
If McCain really meant what he said, he should have jumped on them for being clueless. But the guts to fight back against stupid crap haven’t really been there for a while.
Read the rest of this entry »
Well, America, here’s your new Democratic Congress for you.
House and Senate vote to set a deadline for America’s defeat, funded by votes bought with pork.
They said that they would provide patriotic leadership, but their votes say otherwise.
They said they wanted to do the right thing in Iraq, but their votes say otherwise.
They said they supported the troops, but their votes say otherwise.
They said they would end the corruption in Congress, but the way their votes were bought says otherwise.
For a mere $42 billion [oops, only $41 billion - my bad] of your cash, America, they’re selling out your troops and everyone that sided with America against tyranny and terrorism. Not only whores, but cheap whores. They’re trying to sell the war for a bit of cash.
Murdoc would like to apologize.
For the past six years and more, (and since this site started over four years back) I’ve bashed Republicans for their petty politics and their outright corruption. I’ve been hard on President Bush and his administration at times because I thought they weren’t doing everything they could or should for America and for the cause of freedom. I’ve claimed that they were not serving the Conservative ideals that got them elected.
Even though I believe my position was correct, I’ve been wrong to say so out loud.
As horrible and terrible as Republican leadership has been, as corrupt and self-centered as those in power have behaved, they don’t hold a candle to the Democrats.
I’ve argued with a lot of Conservatives that some of the Democrats’ points were valid. I’ve argued with a lot of Conservatives that maybe it was just as well if the Republicans suffered for their behavior in the 2006 elections. I’ve argued with a lot of Conservatives that the Democrats couldn’t really do a whole lot worse.
Murdoc was very terribly, horribly wrong.
Veto this damn bill and make damn sure we don’t let anyone forget who is gleefully trying to sell us out.
I was really holding out hope that the Senate would reject this thing. I was really holding out hope that I wouldn’t have to go over completely to the Republican side.
But, unfortunately, as of tonight I utterly reject the Democrats. I oppose everything they stand for if it’s at odds with the Republicans. The Republicans aren’t good. Not at all. And I don’t particularly like standing shoulder to shoulder with them.
But this move to legally demand a defeat on the battlefield is morally, ethically, and patriotically reprehensible. I don’t care if it’s just a big stunt. I don’t care if it’s a maneuver to get the pork through while everyone argues over the Iraq deadline. They publicly and officially are calling for defeat and they must be stamped out.
Too much is at stake to let the Democrats make any meaningful decisions.
I am so ashamed.
I didn’t think I’d ever be here.
The portion of Americans who believe the war is going –very well” or –fairly well” for the United States increased from the all-time low of 30 percent in February to 40 percent this month.
Instapundit writes:
That isn’t huge, but it’s significant. And this reversal as the surge gets underway suggests that much of the decline in support over the past year comes from people who’ve felt we weren’t prosecuting the war vigorously enough, as opposed to people who were simply against the whole enterprise.
UPDATE: Various readers argue that a ten-percent shift in one month is huge. Well, maybe. It would certainly be portrayed as huge if it had gone the other way…
I Think ^(Link) Therefore I Err writes:
The American people do like to vote for a winner.
Murdoc would suspect that it’s mostly a combination of the “I’m glad we’re finally trying to win”
mentality with a little bit of “hey, maybe we are winning” thrown in.
I’d bet that if the front pages of newspapers and the evening news programs reported nothing but the good news for four weeks straight that the approval number would be through the roof. Not that I think that would be responsible reporting, just that I think that’s how much effect news has on opinion polls and that I think the bad news has been over-overemphasised more often than not. That trend seems to have shifted (a bit) lately, maybe because we’re past the election season, and I wonder how much that tiny shift affected these poll results.
About a month ago I noted an Army Times article on the decision by Delta Force to go with the Heckler & Koch HK416, a piston-driven assault rifle, over the standard M4 carbine. Now, it appears that a Special Forces battalion is taking things into its own hands and ordering their own HK416 upper receivers to use on their existing weapons.
According to the Brand Name Justification Letter:
Currently Heckler & Koch Defense, Inc. (H&K) is the only company that can meet the Government’s needs. H&K is the only company that manufactures the 416 Upper Receiver Kit. The 416 Upper Receiver Kit is an upper receiver replacement that allows soldiers to replace the existing M4 upper receiver with an HK proprietary gas system that does not introduce propellant gases and the associated carbon fouling back into the weapon’s interior. This reduces operator cleaning time, and increases the reliability of the M4 Carbine, particularly in an environment in which sand and dust are prevalent. The elimination of the gas tube currently used in the M4 Carbine means that the M4 will function normally even if the weapon is fired full of water without first being drained. There isn’t another company that offers these features in their products. It is a practical, versatile system.
That’s a good description of the system, and note that it’s not just a new “barrel” that’s being used but an entire upper receiver.
However, the “there isn’t another company that offers these features in their products” isn’t accurate. The first alternative that comes to mind is LW Rifles, which built the weapons Murdoc fired at the SHOT Show last January. LWRC’s (formerly Leitner-Wise) system, I believe, does everything the H&K system does.
I don’t know how the LWRC system compares cost-wise. Maybe the H&K is significantly cheaper? And I don’t know how ready they are to begin large-scale production, but this order is only for 84 uppers with diopter rear sights, 10 spare barrels, and associated tools and mounting gear.
If the wares on display at the SHOT Show were any indication, piston-driven ARs are going to be the next big rage, and if Special Forces use of HK416s, HK416 uppers, and SCARs proves the value of the piston system in US weapons, manufacturers are going to have to scramble to keep up with the demand.
Senate war bill features $20B in pork
Nice to see that the Democrats are toeing the line on corruption and graft:
Like their counterparts in the House, the Senate has larded its version of an “emergency” war spending bill with nearly $20 billion in pork-barrel outlays, including $100 million for the two major political parties’ 2008 presidential conventions.
The $121 billion bill includes $102 billion for the troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as $14 billion for Hurricane Katrina aid and more than $4 billion for “emergency farm relief.”
I’m no fan of Republican games, but wasn’t the whole point of the Democrats’ platform that they weren’t going to do all that bad stuff?
The Senate bill is $18 billion more than President Bush requested for military operations. The House bill, which passed last week, exceeded the administration’s request by $21 billion and included money for spinach growers, peanut storage and citrus farmers.
Included is $50 million each for the GOP and Dem national conventions in 2008. The Appropriations Committee noted that $50 million had been spent in 2004, but that was in the standard budget and not tacked onto an emergency war budget.
The new bill also includes $13 million for “ewe replacement and retention,” $24 million for sugar beets growers and $95 million for dairy producers.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the bill contains “enough in each of the four food groups for a balanced meal.”
And it includes $3.5 million for the Capitol’s guided–tour program and $20 million for, in part, insect infestation control in Nevada, thanks to Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Among the other beneficiaries of the Senate “emergency” war bill is the tree assistance program, including, specifically, Christmas trees.
Elect the Democratics and Christmas comes early. Nothing at all like those mean old grinch Republicans.
And it’s nice to know that Iraq withdrawal deadlines can pass on the merit of the proposition. Thank goodness the corruption has been swept out.
Rain KO’d Interceptors During Korea Missile Tests
Danger Room:
Torrential rains wiped out a quarter of the U.S.’ intercontinental ballistic missile interceptors in Ft. Greely, Alaska last summer — right when North Korea was preparing to carry out an advanced missile launch, according to documents obtained by the Project On Government Oversight.
Murdoc remains supportive of the National Missile Defense programs and am not all up in arms over the piles of cash we’re throwing at it. It’s very difficult and very important, and I know that it won’t come cheap. I guess taking potshots at problems like this is part of the deal, and I don’t mind keeping a little heat on those spending the money.
Read more at POGO.
