Jules Crittenden

Big Guns Make Bad Neighbors

2009-11-07T13:40:17Z

I say, Muffy, that deuced gunnery is flattening the bubbly! Old Ironsides’ la-di-da waterfront condo neighbors want to muffle the guns … a.m. and p.m. salutes to the flag, unsettling. Boston Herald:

Miffed residents of a posh condo complex have invited the commanding officer of the USS Constitution over for a glass of wine so he can hear for himself that the frigate’s twice-daily cannon blasts - a tradition dating to 1798 - are “more disruptive to the neighborhood than you might have imagined.”

Commanding Officer Timothy Cooper received the most recent complaint two weeks ago from neighbors suggesting naval officers assigned to the historic vessel eliminate the morning and evening blasts on weekends, reduce the size of the gunpowder charge and turn down the volume of the national anthem recording played during the daily flag raising and lowering ceremonies.

“The residential population and congestion of this area has (sic) grown significantly and, it seems to us, that the cannon charge/noise is excessive,” the unidentified resident first wrote in an Aug. 26, 2009, letter obtained by the Herald.

High-end condominium developments have sprung up across from the Charlestown Navy Yard over the past decade, transforming the once hardscrabble waterfront into a toney enclave.

“Over the summer, we have entertained several times, and we have had guests sit up in shock when the cannon goes off,” the resident wrote. “It has also awakened them at 8 a.m. while they are vacationing and then blasted them again at sunset.”

Good Lord! It positively bruised the Chardonnay. Startled Fi-Fi. Gave Veronica the vapors!

The ship’s spokesman, Petty Officer First Class Eric Brown, said halting the cannon fire - or even delaying it - would undermine a time-honored patriotic ritual that draws tourists from land and sea. “It’s as much a part of Boston as the Red Sox and Cheers,” Brown said.

More so. It’s been here longer than either of them. Boston-built in 1797, based here for much of her career, with periodic excursions into the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Those guns brought the Barbary pirates to heel, forced HMS Guerriere to strike her colors and dismasted HMS Java. Among others.

Other nearby residents agreed, including 52-year-old Elizabeth Ames, who lives in a luxury development called The Nautica.

“This is the heart of the city’s history,” Ames said. “If you don’t like it, don’t live here.”

It’s a variation on the “Sound of Freedom” dispute, which is what happens when people move in next to military air bases. In this case, it’s the sound of two centuries of American freedom, twice a day. Next thing you know, some Barbary pirates pop up on the horizon, they can’t get enough of it. Hang on a sec … we do have Barbary pirates on the horizon. I guess this means we’re officially in the post post-9/11 era. Post-Barbary pirate era, whatever.

The rail of Constitution, by the way, is where the first United States Marine was killed in action. Lt. William Bush, Aug. 19, 1812, musket shot in the face while preparing to board HMS Guerriere in the action that earned Constitution the nickname “Old Ironsides.”

Two centuries later, United States Marines are still engaged, still taking fire, this time alongside our British cousins.

Donate via Team Marines. All proceeds go to buy laptops and specialized electronics for war-wounded vets.

Combat Wounded, Combat Dead

2009-11-07T12:52:20Z

… deserve Purple Hearts. Their killer probably deserves desertion, treason and terrorism charges if, as all indicators seem to very strongly suggest, he was engaged in jihad, from his violence-inciting, hateful rants about the Koran, his denunciation of the United States as “the aggressor” in arguments with fellow soldiers, to his shouts of “Allahu Akhbar,” to what they believe were his Internet defenses of suicide bombings, to his choice of targets, the Soldier Readiness Center at Fort Hood. If al-Qaeda is an amorphous enemy, an idea made situationally manifest by the will of its adherents, and he was in fact an adherent of its violent agenda, then he is the enemy, his actions were acts of war, and they bled and died under enemy fire.

Is any of the above very likely to be offically recognized? No. No matter what is learned about his motivation, in all likelihood he will be treated as a murder defendant in either a civilian or a military court … possibly with an insanity or bullying defense such as we’re already seeing explored on his behalf … rather than as a committed jihadi, an unlawful combatant, a terrorist, a deserter who aided and abetted the enemy, and a traitor who took up arms against his nation. It’s a push Republican lawmakers and those Democrats who agree could take up, that would command a lot of public support. Politicization of justice? Tell me that hasn’t happened already in this country. I’d call it a simple demand for justice. We owe it to the dead and the wounded to acknowledge why and under what circumstances they died and bled.

Here’s an American hero who deserves the highest honors we can bestow on her. NY Daily News. Sgt. Kimberly Munley, cop, gunfighting woman. Went into a hot situation without regard for her own safety, gave better than she got, wounded in action, got the job done. I’d call that gallantry and valor in the face of the enemy, plus war wounds. Maybe even above and beyond. She’s reportedly an Army vet. If she’s still IRR, make her retroactively active for the period in question, and make it happen.

The Hill: Fort Hood attack shows the enemy infiltrating our military, GOP candidate says. To the extent al-Qaeda is an idea, absolutely. Maj. Hasan isn’t the first. As an actual operation planned by al-Qaeda mission control, maybe, though no indication of that. But if he was on the JihadiNet, then he probably saw the come-ons.

Newsweek: Fort Hood as a harbinger? No, but Newsweek’s notion that this was caused by the stresses of war on the military is an astonishing echo of Bush Derangement Syndrome that fails to mention Hasan’s widely reported Muslim fanaticism, and buys into Hasan as a victim of non-deployed, non-combatant Pre-TSD. A relatively common theme today which gets us back to why the dead of Fort Hood will not be formally recognized as war dead.

And here they are. A little about some of the dead and wounded, via AP. And a lot more at your go to place for ground views in this long war, Mudville Gazette.

Your commentary roundup at Memeorandum.

Obama, suddenly interested in facts prior to reaching conclusions. It’s a new tactic he’s been trying out lately, selectively, to the point of distraction. That’s fine. Everyone’s innocent until proven guilty, whether there is a massive amount of alarming evidence, as in the case of Maj. Hasan, or none at all, as in the case of Sgt. James Crowley.

Previously, Dots, Not Connected.

Jackass 101

2009-11-06T16:37:43Z

Prof. Hullabaloo Digby, lefty blogger extraordinaire, instructing:

I have no idea what happened at Ft Hood. They’ve confirmed that the perpetrators were military. They don’t know the reason for the killings.

“I have no idea what happened” is a great phrase that generally signals you’re dealing with someone who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. It suggests a laudable and high level of self-awareness. It’s the fact that Dgby will not let that be a barrier and continues on that is your first clue that you are dealing with a jackass. Because being a jackass is not the same as being a total moron, dunce, nincompoop, klutz or bozo. Those only require ignorance and ineptitude. Being a jackass requires some level of foreknowledge that one is doing or saying something dumb, or colossally stupid. One needs to know better.

CNN’s military correspondent Barbara Starr says there an incredible amount of stress and PTSD at the post, the biggest in the Army, although she has no particular information.(And since most soldiers have some level of PTSD after multiple deployments, it’s far too broad of a category to mean anything in this context.)

OK, Digby’s now established that no one, publicly, knows what they are talking about.

Regardless of motivation one would certainly hope, above all, that this had nothing to do with it.

Liftoff! Escape velocity achieved. Bounds of Earth broken! Houston, we have jackass! The link will take you to ”Oathkeepers.” Digby, in full admission of his ignorance and lacking any information whatsoever, has decided he’s going with some combination of PTSD and rightwing nutjobbism!

It’s pretty awful that one’s thoughts would immediately turn in that direction when something like this happens. But after Tim McVeigh, you have to consider it. (If the shooters were civilians, my thoughts would go in a different direction.)

We’re back at the self-awareness thing. It is fascinating, like lifting the lid and watching the wheels turn inside a kneejeerk lefty jackass’ head. Love to know what direction that would be. Apparently the machinery is intricately cogged and capable of redirecting widly.

Update: Barbara Starr reports that The Pentagon is begging people not to speculate, that they have no information about motive. That’s correct, and as of now there’s no reason to assume anything one way or the other. Who knows what this is really about?

I think he might, somewhat pedantically, be suggesting it was OK to speculate earlier. Kind of sad if you need CNN to tell you that.

Update II (2:35pst): Apparently NBC is reporting that the shooter was a Major with an arabic sounding name. Cliff Van Zandt, the professional “profiler” pretty much called this an al Qaeda plot on MSNBC, although he said nothing about the name. I suppose that would explain the intense involvement that’s being reported by the White House and the Pentagon.

ABC reports:

The suspected gunman was identified by ABC News as Major Malik Nadal Hasan.

The shooter was killed and two other suspects, who are also soldiers, have been apprehended, Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone said.

But again …. this is all rumor and gossip. We really know nothing at this point.

That’s odd. A couple of graphs earlier, lacking even a name, the guy was a white gun-toting religion-clinging rightwing nutjob. Unclear whether that last line “this is all rumor and gossip” is meant to apply to ABC’s news report, this post or the “Hullabaloo” blog in general. Based on past experience, I’m going with the latter. ABC, as a news organization, has at least some minimal standards of sourcing its information. But I’d like to nominate that line for Digby’s motto. “This is all rumor and gossip! We really know nothing!”

Anyway, Digby’s apparently cottoned on to the fact that he’s got a bit of a problem. Good time to go on the attack. Best jackass defense is a good jackass offense. This is interesting because here he is criticizing someone not for her own speculation on the initial reporting of the matter at hand (”Three men — is a conspiracy”), but for forming an opinion on a prior incident based on well-established information:

Here’s Atlas Shrugged:

MUSLIM TERROR ATTACK: ‘NINE shot dead’ 12 30 Wounded at Mass Shooting at Fort Hood, US Army Base

UPDATE: Shepard Smith, that silly woman, keeps calling it a tragedy. It is an act of war.

MUSLIM KILLER: The suspected gunman was identified as Major Malik Nadal Hasan.

UPDATE: The coverage is beyond stupid. Three men — is a conspiracy. Three men is a terror cell. For the FBI to rule out terrorism in an obvious act of terrorism (by whom, we know not yet) indicates were are worse off tha the UK. Three men, synchronized shoting, M16s, maximum kill ………… you won’t get the real story from the media..

Keep in mind what Atlas said just two days ago about the sentencing of the DC sniper:

Muslim John Allen Muhammad is scheduled to be executed next Tuesday, November 10, 2009. We can only hope that he is promptly dispatched to meet his 72 virgins. If this attempt to stay the execution of this bloodthirsty jihadi gets traction, we must march on Washington. He must die.

Thirteen people were shot, 10 fatally, when Muhammad and accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, went on a random shooting rampage around the Washington region in 2002.

Muhammad’s lawyers said in a statement they asked Kaine on Thursday to commute Muhammad’s sentence to life in prison. They said Muhammad’s illness is “illustrated by brain damage, brain dysfunction, neurological deficits as well as his psychotic and delusional behavior.” Read Full Article.

He is a Muslim. This was jihad. Is Islam a mental illness? Is that the position of the defense? This was jihad. Kill this depraved jihadi.

Meanwhile, our government continues to be completely disingenuous as to the root cause for his actions. Our “government” continues to assert that the murders were related to an “individual’s” (Mohammad’s) aberrant criminal, abnormal behavior… not what it truly is…the fact that he (John AllenMuhammad) is representative of millions who are followers of the tenets of Islam.

I think she’s pretty clear about her feelings on this subject.

And Digby’s outta here!

Topic for discussion: Does Digby actually display any self-awareness, and is there any evidence to support that. Or does this simply a verbal upchuck simply happens to include phrases that might be mistaken for self-awareness? Extra credit assignment: Graph the stages between “Moron” and “Jackass,” show where on that chart you think Digby belongs, and explain your reasons. You may go beyond “Jackass” to “Mountebank” and “Charlatan” if you feel circumstances warrant, but given that “Hullabaloo” is just another pseudonymous group blog, to suggest Digby is some kind of fraud is tautological.

Legal Insurrection, writing on the same Digby post, notes a mea culpa buried in comments. Brave man, Legal, diving in there:

I regret speculating about the Oathers in the early minutes of the story. It was the first thing that jumped to my mind when I heard about it being multiple shooters who were members of the military. Obviously, that speculation was wrong and it cast aspersions on the Oathers who had nothing to do with this. It’s hard for me to see how that little link, along with all the disclaimers that went with it, puts me in the same category as the lunatics, but if it does, so be it. Just call me Atlas…. 11.05.09 - 10:18 pm.

That only took about 5 hours and 30-odd comments. But props to Digby for admitting jackassitude, if in a somewhat self-righteously jackassed way. Have to say, if the sorely maligned Atlas, for example, had immediately assumed ”Muslim” and it turned out to be some lone white right-wing nutjob, I suspect Digby would be less charitable about the gaffe, disclaimers or no. But no worries, Digby. Your place among the lunatics was secured long ago.

In other jackass news, here’s the President of the United States and his “pet goat” moment. Linda Chavez at Commentary.

Digby, by the way, is apparently a woman, and very brave and inspiring, according to these Salon posts that laud her for taking off the mask though neither of them, strangely enough, include a name. Interesting. My apologies to all men for using the presumptive male pronoun. I clearly haven’t been paying enough attention to the intricacies of the world of gutless pseudonymous lefty blogging, though now that I think of it, it sounds vaguely familiar. She writes like a guy, as the other astonished lefty bloggers at the links suggest. I don’t mean that in a good way. More in sort of boneheaded yahoo “guy” way. None of that stereotypic feminine sensitivity, reflection or thoughtfulness. Historically, women writers have used pseudonyms, initials, that kind of thing to suggest they are guys in order to be taken more seriously, due to rampant societal sexism. If that’s Digby’s intent, I’d call it an abject failure. My apologies to any sensitive, reflective, thoughtful guys or boneheaded, yahoo women who might be offended by any of that. Hey, it’s not like I suggested Digby’s views make her a likely mass-killing terrorism suspect. Just a jackass. I suppose I could root around a little more and see if she’s actually put her name out there somewhere, but “Jackass” seems to cover it.

Dots, Not Connected

2009-11-06T07:27:39Z

Not in time, anyway. The murders of 12 people and wounding of 31 others by one man with two handguns probably made a lot of things painfully obvious, and probably helped cut through a lot of clutter and red tape pretty quickly.

But when, within a matter of hours, the following facts and suspicions are widely reported, it suggests there may have been insufficient urgency in some quarters, maybe official obstacles in others, maybe reluctance to act on concerns elsewhere … maybe a desire to see the problem known as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan go elsewhere … and in the end, a lot of dots not connected.

Culled variously from AP, Washington Post, New York Times:

Maj. Hasan is a native-born American of Palestinian origin, raised in Virginia, began his military career in the early 1990s as an ROTC student at Virginia Tech. Is an avid Redskins fan. “Very devout” Muslim, prayed up to seven days a week at an Islamic center in Silver Spring, Md., often in uniform, while stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical center. Is not married at 39, but has wanted to be. No kids. Too bad. Marriage and children ground us, give life a special meaning, help cut through a lot of noise. Identified his nationality as “Palestinian” in paperwork seeking a Muslim bride, which the imam thought odd as he considered him American. So maybe it was a sort of cultural identity. Nothing wrong with any of that. Maybe a little counterintuitive, some of it, even contradictory, some would say.

Theoretically, in one combination of parts or another, the above could describe a lot of loyal, stable, well-adjusted Americans who are minding their own business and even serving their country.

Is recalled as pretty uptight. Didn’t want to be photographed with women coworkers, didn’t have friends. Argued with fellow soldiers about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thought “Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor.” That … “the aggressor” …. is a reference to both Hasan’s nation, which he had sworn to defend, and specifically his employer, which expected him to be willing to lay down his life. Starts to sound like a problem. A tightly wound problem.

Had told family members he was being harassed because he is a Muslim. At least one superior officer and family members are saying publicly they were aware he didn’t want to go to serve in those wars. Presumably, officially, the Army knew it, too. Was actively trying to get out of the Army, but had been denied. Well, you don’t get to not go just because you don’t want to. Apparently was disturbed by what he was hearing from the combat-traumatized solders he was counseling. Very sensitive, couldn’t hang with the war wounds. Had poor performance reports and was himself in counseling.

Sounds a bit like the psychiatrist, not simply unwilling and ill-suited to the military career he had chosen, might have been morphing into patient, or should have been, as he found himself increasingly conflicted at the intersection of various aspects of his life, which appears to have included a respectable level of stress and some potentially extreme contradictions. Given that he worked at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, that part of it starts to sound like a very big dot that shouldn’t have needed that much connecting.

Here’s another one, dot-connection in process.

Had been the focus of some level of attention by federal agents for at least six months, due to disturbing Internet postings that appear to justify suicide bombings and other threats. They believed he was the author, and were in the process of seeking warrants to examine his computer. That starts to sound like a really big problem.

Apparently the latter process wasn’t moving fast enough. Unclear what the Army itself was up to, whether any of the dots were being connected and the concerns voiced or addressed. The reports that they still had him on active duty, working in a hospital and were getting ready to ship him overseas would tend to suggest no, or not sufficiently. Maybe we’ll learn otherwise.

In any case, he ended up yesterday afternoon with two handguns and a lot of extra ammo at Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Center, where he must have figured he’d find a lot of the aggressors getting ready to deploy. Also, from the sounds of it, a lot of them just back, being recognized for the academic work they did while they did whatever else they were doing overseas.

Maj. Hasan was alive at last report, critical but stable, under armed guard and expected to live. An apparently heroic MP, a woman who was shot by him, managed to shoot him and ended it. At last report she had emerged from surgery and was stable. Her name had not been released at last check. I hope she’ll be OK. Details on how that went down, and how all the rest of the above went down, or didn’t go down, presumably will begin to emerge as all the dots … 12 bodies later, plus 31 lives shattered and God knows how many more deeply shaken … get connected.

Big roundup at Memeorandum.

The Many, The Generous …

2009-11-07T13:40:30Z

Team Marines. Leading by more than seven grand and double-digit percentage points as of 11:30 a.m.

Just because Team Marines is kicking A doesn’t mean the war-wounded vets of all branches that Valour IT serves don’t still need your help.

Don’t hate Team Marines because we’re beautiful. That goes double for the lovely Cassandra at Villainous Company. Donate via Team Marines. All proceeds go to buy laptops and specialized electronics for war-wounded vets.

Here’s Villainous Company on wounded Marines taking care of each other.

The Phillies Won!

2009-11-05T17:55:24Z

I would approve of this fine snark at Legal Insurrection, but then I’d have to think the New York Yankees and their Evil Empire are the GOP of baseball, and I can’t do that. As long as we’re plumbing the baseball-sports nexus, hope to change ”There’s always next year” to “There’s also next year.”

Speaking of next year, Surber mulls the prospects of 15 percent unemployment. He ties it to a drop in private business investment. I’d tie that to a porkulus that shoveled big piles of deficit-financed cash to non-productive sectors and assorted boondoggles that it could have shoveled into job-generating and ultimately revenue-producing tax cuts. Bad play. Yer out?

“Weak knees keep shaking,” Benen at the Washington Monthly sneers at an insufficently Change Hopeful media that failed to note what a resounding victory the Dem Cong won Tuesday night. Sure. The Surrender Team could always use a few more enthusiastic white-flag wavers and players on the self-inflicted DL.

Did O’s Re-Invented Politics Bubble Just Pop?

2009-11-05T16:30:36Z

Flip side of that ancient “All Politics Is Local” wisdom, and Gibbs’ claim that it isn’t. The reinvented-politics dotcom startup has been looking a little inflated ever since it failed to mobilize for the stimulus or health care. So did it just get its shoe-leather, bricks-and-mortar, pocketbook issues comeuppance? Maybe ear-to-ear bandwidth, glitzy graphics and a catchy slogan isn’t enough.

All Politics Is Local

2009-11-05T14:27:05Z

Congratulations, New Jersey and Virginia. You’re Obamically insignificant! Gibbs, Virginia and New Jersey politics are local. via CNN:

WASHINGTON (CNN) – White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs dismissed Democratic electoral defeats in New Jersey and Virginia as “two very local elections” that say nothing about President Barack Obama’s standing with the American people right now.

“It’s hard to pick national trends out of local elections,” Gibbs told reporters at a Wednesday briefing just hours after incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine was knocked out despite Obama’s two appearances in New Jersey on Sunday. Obama also had campaigned for Creigh Deeds, the Democratic candidate for governor in Virginia, who lost as well.

Gibbs noted that exit polls showed the number two issue in New Jersey was local property taxes, and claimed that and other data shows the gubernatorial races were decided on local issues “that did not involve the president.”

Bad news, Gibbs. High taxes most definitely involve the president. The people who are tired of paying those high property taxes who voted in Christie are the same ones who will get stuck with the bill on that $1.4 trillion deficit, and may yet get stuck with paying for other people’s health care on top of their own, and there are 49 other states full of them. Gibbs and his boss need to bone up on their ancient Democratic tactical lore. Tip O’Neill: All Politics Is Local.

On second thought, never mind. That old stuff’s irrelevant to Obama’s standing with the American people, ever since Obama reinvented politics.

Laugh out loud fun. TNOYF: The White House Bunker on Election Night.

WSJ, helpfully, on how local to Washington local politics can be:

Yesterday in advance of the results, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was dismissing commentary on the impending bad news as “navel gazing.” If so, navel gazing’s bad reputation is suddenly looking up. The onrushing Obama Democratic machine has just hit a significant speed bump.

Calling Virginia a bellwether might have been a stretch if the result had been close by anyone’s definition. It wasn’t.

No state drew more commentary last year as evidence that the national electoral tide was turning blue.

via HotAir: so if O wasn’t watching himself on HBO, what was White House-TV nexus on election night? NBC’s “The Biggest Loser.” Apparently this is not cruel, hurtful satire.

Barone on the night’s other Biggest Loser: Union thuggery.

Speaking of localizing the politics, Gateway warms today’s “Kill The Bill” protest in DC. Malkin re the GOP’s 12-hour online telecast re health care

Legal Insurrection and Malkin on the pending AARP Obamacare endorsement. Apparently AARP doesn’t think those local elections are relevant, either.

Surber on all the right-wing extremism. Apparently it is very local in America.

Ready To Hurt More

2009-11-05T13:22:05Z

Two more waiting to receive their copies of Fit for Combat: When Fitness is a Matter of Life or Death for a total of 18 since last month.

Two got The Complete Guide to Navy SEAL Fitness. One got The Official United States Navy SEAL Workout. And one, sensibly, got the Joist Mount Chin Up Bar. Which is a pretty neat-looking item.

I’m impressed, and pleased if the “Live Forever Or Die Trying” series of posts played any role whatsoever in encouraging that many people to start working out again. Particularly impressed that you’re actually seeking out people who know what they are talking about and not relying on this program:

Old? Fat? Feeling Death’s Icy Chill Down Your Neck? How To Live Forever Part 1, the Crittenden Workout for Middle-Aged Fat Bastards.

How To Live Forever Part 2 The Beer Workout. Drink and be healthy.

How to Live Forever Part 3 Israeli research finding: Advanced geezerdom no bar to exercise’s life-extending benefits.

How To Live Forever Part 4: Fit For Combat You think preparing for combat is healthy? Try combat. Hey, when’s someone going to market the Combat Weight Loss Program?

Run For Your Lives! Just got in that dirty little two-miler …

Danger Zone How to eat all you want this holiday season and not let something dumb like winter interfere with your workout program …

Hurt More You’ll feel better.

Here’s how much trouble that SEAL workout can get you into, BTW: Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10.

OK. Four-mile walk out around the general store and by the pond Monday. Four-mile run out around the cranberry bogs Tuesday. That dirty little two-miler with all the hills yesterday. Whole bunch of pushups, crunches and curls each day. Crittenden plan for fat old bastards calls for another walk or bike ride today to mix it up and avoid injury. The bulldog wants a big walk, I still want to run. Hmm. I guess the bulldog wins.

Still taking your progress reports and injury accounts plus remedies via “contact” or in comments.

(Care to comment? Use the “contact” link to assure me you are a real human being interested in commenting on the topics at hand. Include your preferred screenname and temporary password. Lefty Kumbayah singers, moderate handwringers, meanspirited rightwingers all welcome. This is a free speech zone as long as you keep it clean and make an effort to be accurate.)

Hope And Shrimp Tacos

2009-11-05T12:46:22Z

You get the presidency if you buy everyone else shrimp tacos. via Director Blue.