A Few Words for HM2 Jaime Jaenke

I missed the announcement of the death of Jaime Jaenke when it was posted. I know that there are Seabees in Iraq, and I know that they, too, have Corpsmen assigned to them. We just hadn't lost one yet.

Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Jaime S. Jaenke, 29, of Bay City, Wis., died June 5 as a result of enemy action when her HMMWV was struck by an improvised explosive device in Al Anbar province, Iraq. She was assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 25, Fort McCoy, Wis. She had actually moved back home to Iowa Falls last July before deploying.
I'm not very highly evolved. I come from a time before women were getting blown up in their jeeps in forward areas, and seeing the pictures of Petty Officer Jaenke's funeral with her 9 year old daughter following the coffin and receiving the flag... well, I'm not used to it.
Now I read that as a matter of policy her death benefits are to be held in trust for her daughter instead of being used for her rearing as Petty Officer Jaenke had intended. One reads this piece, and hopes that an admiral did not really tell the child's grandmother that in the meantime the child "may have to learn to do without."
It all comes with the territory. People get blown up or beat down or burned out, and some of them now are mothers. You just hope that They know what They're doing this time... against all evidence to the contrary.

A Word About Hospitalman Kyle Nolen

Hospitalman Kyle A. Nolen, 21, of Ennis, Texas, died Dec. 21 in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, as a result of enemy action.

Doc Nolen was assigned to India Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Division, Regimental Combat Team 7, I Marine Expeditionary Force Forward, 29 Palms, Calif.

Semper Fi

Season's Greetings

Best wishes to each of you,

and to all who love you

this Holiday Season

and throughout 2007.

I Have A Thing About Heights

As I was reading this story about the Skywalk that the Hualapai want to build out over the Grand Canyon I was reminded of Tybee Island. You see that picture of me atop the Tybee Island lighthouse and you probably have no idea of what was involved in reaching out to that rail and moving away from the wall of the lighthouse.

A group of MSN 50s Chatters… it was Sheri and Mike’s idea actually… decided to meet out on Tybee Island to put faces to screen names, and there was this lighthouse which, naturally, begged to be climbed. Here’s the thing though… I have an issue with heights.
I get to the top of the stairs inside with Kathy and Linda, and Linda… bless her heart… steps off to the side saying that she’s afraid of heights and wants to stay inside. I’ve fallen into the habit of teasing Linda and there is no way I can say, “Me, too.” I have to talk her into stepping out onto the top.

So out we go… Kathy who is ex-Army and fearless, Linda who is scared to death but game, and me. If you can see the picture you’ll see that Kathy is enjoying herself, and that Linda looks… uncomfortable. Did you notice that my back is pressed to the wall? My scapulae were actually trying to cling to the wall. Then the guilt started. I had talked her out there so after she went back in I had to go around the top… and I had to have my picture taken out on the rail.

Linda, if you see this, it’s your fault. If you hadn’t gone out there I could have just poked my head out the door and come right back in. As for this Skywalk? Not in this lifetime. Not in a million years.

A Word About Hospitalman Christopher Anderson

Hospitalman Christopher A. Anderson, 24, of Longmont, Colo., died Dec. 4 as a result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.

Doc Anderson was a Navy Corpsman assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic, based in Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Semper Fi

What Guys Do

Remember when I said a few words about Chris Walsh? That's okay; it was three months ago.
A HUGE hat tip to Sean at Doc In The Box for this story. You have to go read this story in the Boston Globe (free registration required for the entire story)because this is a great example of what guys do.

Thanksgiving

"I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
I am increasingly distrustful of the material accretions that more and more seem to encumber me, and mindful of the rich blessings of fellowship with people such as you. So far, even where I have found people to be wrong-headed or disagreeable, I have been able to come away from each encounter with some new piece of an idea or perspective and I have been richer for the experience.
Thank you for sharing the experience of your life with me, and for sharing mine.

I Never Wanted to Hear Him Tell Me About VietNam

I feel the need to vent my feelings about Dubya sharing his insights on comparisons between the VietNam War and the war in Iraq. "We'll succeed unless we quit," my ass.
How are the wars different?
For starters, Dubya ducked one and started the other. With him it's about his mouth writing checks for other asses to cover... I guess that's a similarity, too.
For another, I think that VietNam has a homogenous primary culture, and we got involved to prevent the foreseeable outcome of their self-determination. Iraq has/had three primary cultures artificially combined eighty years ago and held together only by dictators... and we succeeded in removing the dictator. ("Mission Accomplished") All the king's horses and all the king's men can't put Humpty Dumpty together again.
How are they similar? We lost a lot of good people in pursuit of a foregone conclusion... but we aren't done yet in Iraq.

A Political Observation

When I sat down to think about this post the only thing I really wanted to say was that I think those who are saying that Republicans lost the recent elections because of Dubya are shifting the blame.
I don't believe they lost because Dubya betrayed them. I believe they lost because they betrayed their constituents.
I know several of you give Dubya more credit for brains than I do, but in any case he couldn't have done what has been been done without the consent of the governed in the guise of our representatives to Congress. It's supposed to be all about the constituents, and Congress blew it.

Then I got down to where the piece mentioned a "crankiness that sets in with any administration after six years," and I was struck by another thought: there are differences between the Republican and Democratic parties!
Don't laugh! I'd never thought about it! I haven't kept registration in a political party since 1964 unless I had to choose for a primary election. PACs I've worked with have focused on specific issues. I have no idea what differentiates a moderate Republican from a moderate Democrat.
Ike probably would have been reelected in 1960 despite his failed diplomatic policies in Europe and Cuba because he was Ike. (We liked Ike!) Nixon was disgraced by the Watergate cover-up. Reagan had his Iran-Contra problem. Clinton got busted for lying about shtupping an intern. Dubya is afflicted with his dumbass blind denial of error in the GWOT.
It is possible that these differences are as much personal as political since many of the same people have been involved in the Nixon, Reagan, and Dubya trainwrecks, but I have to say that there seems to be a tendency toward megalomania on the part of one party. Not for nothing, but for me I'm more put off by uber-nationalism and the abridgment of civil rights than I am by womanizing.

P.S. Crankiness? I'm no journalist, but I don't believe I would have dismissed this as "crankiness."

A Piece I Wish I'd Written

Please take a minute and read this posted by an Army medic. (Hat Tip to Sean at Doc in the Box)
I had some things I wanted to share about my experiences with Red-Staters during my drive in September, but Sgt. Haibi does a much better job at pointing out the superficial nature of our alleged differences. We despise one another and make war for what; and years from now not even anthropologists can tell the bodies apart.

Veterans/Remembrance Day

We say "Remember", but so often it feels as though we don't.
Memorial Day, originally in remembrance of Civil War dead, is now the "Unofficial Beginning of Summer."
Veterans Day, formerly Armistice Day, or Remembrance Day as it is known in other countries, has become the new start of the Holiday shopping season ("Get a Headstart on the Thanksgiving Weekend Holiday Sales").
This is okay; life goes on as it was meant to.
VA Secretary Jim Nichols suggests that if we wore our medals and ribbons all day as veterans do in other countries it might make society more aware of our presence among them and of our contributions. My sense is that the gesture would be lost on nearly everyone except our brothers and sisters in uniform and their loved ones.
In the U.S.A, we do what we do... or what we did... for however long, and then the more fortunate of us just try to get on with our lives; and that, too, is as it should be. Whatever brought us into the military, I've never met anyone who joined in order to be remembered on Veterans Day.
Still, it would be nice if people would take a moment today on their way to Macy's to remember that none of this came for free.

"Your Face Looks Vaguely Familiar"

A Hat Tip to Rain for sharing this site.
It's humbling... I was hoping for Harrison Ford... James Coburn maybe... Donald Freaking Rumsfeld? That's just wrong!

Happy 231st Birthday!

Happy 231st Birthday to the United States Marine Corps!

Semper Fi!

How Important is Political Correctness?

Once again my eye is drawn to an item I would normally consider completely irrelevant... except that, instead of these people being left to stew in their own juices, they are being pilloried.
A Houston couple with a landscaping business notified a household that they would not be putting in a bid to do their project because the couple requesting the bid was gay... and I still think the English language needs that word back.
This isn't a pharmacist refusing to provide legal contraception. This isn't a public safety agency refusing to preserve life or property. This isn't a fair housing issue. This is a couple in a very crowded service business so blinded by their bias that they'd rather go hungry than go to work for a same-sex couple. Evolution is going to deal with this couple.
My concern is with the public reaction to their refusal. Death threats? Threats against their children? Getting booted from the landscapers' club? Isn't it possible that folks are taking landscaping just a little too seriously?

A Couple of Early Thoughts

I have a couple of thoughts I'd like to share.
As I was getting ready for work this morning I heard a political commentator remarking the disarray among Democrats, many of whom had been "forced to run in the center" to win election. I'm just a guy speaking for no one but myself, but I believe that Ms. Pelosi would be making a mistake to assume that a victory was won by the Democrats. A defeat was delivered to the Republicans in large part, I believe, by independent voters.
Arnold Schwarzenegger will enjoy a second term as governor because the Democrats chose to run Phil Angelides against him despite Steve Westley's commanding lead in the polls. If I didn't live in California I'd say that it served them right to lose, but in the process California also lost.
I care no more for the Democrats than I do for the Republicans. I care about issues; and if it's necessary to clean house again in two years that'll be fine by me.
Speaking to Secretary Rumsfeld's resignation, I won't miss him; but Robert Gates to succeed him?
Dr. Gates enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the CIA. He served with Bush, Sr. in the CIA and in the first Bush administration. Nowhere in his C.V. do I see where he knows one damn thing about the military and its operations. He's a friend of Dubya's father and probably a committed public servant, but he doesn't look like a Secretary of Defense to me.
Is this how it's going to be? Rummy gets prepped last weekend to take the fall if the election goes badly and these people move in a shill to take his place?
As of this morning my biggest issue was to knock off the signing statements from the White House. As of this evening I'm wondering if maybe impeachment hearings might not be in order.
That's just me.

A Quick Note

I'm a pretty happy camper this morning. I'll have more to say later about my hopes for the House.
Today I just want to observe that one knows one is voting in Rowland Heights when one poll worker speaks English, one speaks Spanish, one speaks... I think it was Taiwanese, and one speaks Korean. I was first in line yesterday, and watching them get set up and "organized" was... entertaining.

What I Think This Election Is About

I had several things in mind for blog posts this past weekend... especially some questions on California ballots... but as I tried to write them it kept coming to me that, although they are critically important to Californians, I'm not going to be here when it's time to pay the piper, and if the ones who are going to be here sleep through this election then shame on them.
The Administration's braying about Saddam Hussein's guilty verdict and sentencing haunts me. I keep remembering that picture of Donald Rumsfeld and Saddam Hussein shaking hands in December, 1983.
Hussein is convicted for the deaths of 148 Shi'ites in 1982. Mr. Rumsfeld says in 2002 that he spoke to Hussein about the use of chemical weapons at their meeting... although contemporaneous reports do not support that... and the U.S. continued to support him.
This midterm election is not about the Foleys or the Haggards or the DeLays. This election is about what it ultimately means to be an American.
Who are we? In what direction does our moral compass point? Do we have a moral compass? Do we stand for anything?
We talk about gay marriage, but we let complicity in ongoing crimes against humanity go unchallenged. Who explains this to the grandkids? Is this where we just say, "It's complicated?"

On the Subject of the American Economy

Maybe it's just me, but I think it's disingenuous to hold up the performance of 30 of the largest multinational corporations (the Dow-Jones Industrial Average) as a measure of the performance of the American economy.
Personally, I'm a lot more interested in the net income in my apartment than I am in the stock price of Exxon, GE and GM.
That's just me, and I don't claim to speak for anyone but myself... but my economy hasn't gone anywhere good for awhile now.

An Aside About a Foregone Conclusion

I know he's going to win reelection, but I have to say something about this.
I know there's a word for the guy who was looking to gut public employee pension and benefit programs just last year now eulogizing the firefighters killed in San Bernardino County on Thursday. Arnold, if the Democrats had run anyone but Angelides, you'd be an outgoing governor in a few days.
When he was elected governor, Arnold promised that if the public employees would just work with him in the first year and let him "borrow" their funding he'd make it up to them. In his second year Arnold set about making it up to them by going after the public employees and their unions and challenging longstanding public funding apportionments for essential public services. California voters pretty much kicked his ass last November.
Now, in his third (reelection) year, Arnold has effectively muzzled public employees and even most political opposition by touting "the largest education budget in California history," and $38 Billion in pork funded by bond issues ("No new taxes"... until the bonds are sold and the debt service starts).
California teachers have every reason to say that they don't trust Arnold. It is entirely reasonable to ask which Arnold will appear in Sacramento in 2007 through 2010. Since he's not running for reelection, I am expecting the return of 2005 Arnold advancing the agenda of his conservative handlers. That's just me.
The thing that gets my goat is Arnold's crocodile tears over the four dead firefighters and one in the Arrowhead burn unit whose pay, pension, and survivor benefits he wanted to cannibalize a year ago. The transparent insincerity is just wrong.

For California Voters

It's too late to register to vote in the November 7th election. California requires that you be registered fifteen days before any election.
Concerns have been expressed about the nature and quality of accountability for the accuracy of electronic voting. Voting machines have been hacked and jiggered before, and if the people in charge of an election felt threatened...
According to the Secretary of State's website, applications for an absentee ballot "must be submitted to the county elections officials no later than 5 p.m. on October 31, 2006."
An application is attached to the "Official Sample Ballot and Voter Instructions" and is also downloadable as a PDF from here or from the Secretary of State's website.
California "County Elections Officials" locations are listed here or on the Secretary of State's website.

Let's not let this opportunity get away from us. We don't know when we'll get another like it.