Recently PBS’ continually magnificent Frontline documentary series aired “The Wounded Platoon”, about an Iraq unit returning to their base in Fort Carson, Colorado (you can watch it here). Spoiler alert: the transition often didn’t go well. One of the most disturbing portion deals with Jose Barco, a Staff Sergeant with an honorable discharge for medical reasons: burns, post-traumatic stress disorder, and a traumatic brain injury incurred from a car bomb. By all accounts he both served heroically and suffered immensely…and he’s currently scheduled to be in prison for 52 years. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government by Sean Cunningham
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Gerald Ford, among other disabilities during his campaign to win the Presidency he had been appointed to, suffered from rampant inflation. His administration came up with a modest response indeed, a program basically to admonish the citizenry not to engage in inflationary behavior, to save more, spend less and otherwise short-circuit rising prices. This was pitched with a tangy little acronym; Whip Inflation Now! [Read more →]

Tags: money, politics & government by Ken Watson
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Michelle Malkin wrote an interesting column  about Michael Posner, the Assistant Secretary of State who spoke of America’s human rights record to the Communist Chinese, of all people.

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Tags: politics & government by Paul Davis
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Dramatis Personae
Richard Blumenthal, Attorney General of Connecticut
Reporters

REPORTER 1: Mr. Blumenthal, is it true you lied about serving in Vietnam?

BLUMENTHAL: Everyone has a slip of the tongue now and then. I remember Alan Shepard told me — while we were walking on the surface of the moon together — that he was a full admiral; when, of course, he was only a rear one. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government by Colin Cohen
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At age 28, I’m still young enough to get into politics if I choose to. I probably won’t, but if I do, I’m going to make sure I’m single.

Another public figure bites the dust, with an Indiana representative becoming the latest to leave office in personal disgrace. The conduct of some men elected to serve as the official leaders of our country continues to disappoint. Haven’t any of these politicians in question heard of divorce? Maybe some of them don’t believe in the procedure or fear image problems, but if that’s the case, they really shouldn’t be getting married. Nobody takes the whole “’til death do us part” bit of the marital vows seriously anymore. Plus, what’s worse – divorcing for the right reasons or being forced to leave office for the wrong ones?

Obviously, politicians are human, so maybe they want the life company of a marriage. Others might just want a wife as a way of showing how in touch with ‘family values’ they are.

The more of these relationships I hear about though, it makes me think that a politician who embraces and enjoys the single life would be a big step forward for our country.

Tags: his & hers, politics & government by Glenn Giangrande
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Taking a cue from Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez’s use of Twitter to rat out his country’s currency criminals, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio today announced a plan where ordinary citizens can collaborate with his regime in rooting out illegal immigrants.

“If you see anyone suspicious,” said the sheriff, “just tweet me their description and location. Your tip alone will be sufficient grounds for checking the suspect’s citizenship papers.

“Just imagine if the KGB, Stasi, and StB had such technology in their day,” he concluded.

Tags: politics & government by Colin Cohen
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The line of attack against Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is that she wouldn’t let military recruiters on the campus of Harvard law school back when she was the Dean. Republican Senator Jeff Sessions: “This is no little-bitty matter.” Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich: “I see no reason why you would appoint an anti-military Supreme Court justice.”

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Tags: on the law, politics & government by Neil Verma
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The Republican Party is ingeniously allowing ordinary people like you and me to vote on the government expenses we want them to cut. They’re calling it “YouCut.”

Get it? It’s like “youTube.”

Only dumber. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government by Colin Cohen
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If it is true that the greatness of men and nations is measured in the greatness of their enemies, what are we to say of the numberless but talentless hoard sent against us? Yes, truly we can say “sent” now. This week’s Jihadi Jihaderson as much as the Christmas Day Underwear Bomber and the now quaintly convicted Shoe Bomber has demonstrated fandom if not straight employment beneath the ragged parasol of International Jihad. And it is easy and quite hilarious to wonder, is this all they’ve got? The not so hilarious but plain answer is, yes. Yes it is.

For now.

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Tags: on the law, politics & government, terror & war, trusted media & news by Ken Watson
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When he isn’t evoking a smart, funny cyber reality that one could easily mistake for our future, Pop Apocalypse author Lee Konstantinou polishes off doctoral dissertations, loiters in the Mission District, imagines future futurist fiction, and shotguns espresso in the back of the BART or takes his caffeine by intravenous drip. We were lucky to have him take time out from his hectic schedule to drop by our virtual offices and respond to these questions. Thank you so much for your time, Lee.

Lee: Thanks, Alex. I’m always looking for excuses not to work, and I appreciate this chance to chat. [Read more →]

Tags: books & writing, politics & government by Alex Kudera
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History is indeed on the march in April. Another invisible pothole has made itself known to the drive-wheels of the Social Justice juggernaut; the Gang of Class Presidents currently running the Fed Gub have crunched and re-crunched the numbers and found that April’s deficit is 82.7 billions. [Read more →]

Tags: money, politics & government by Ken Watson
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Andrew Sullivan, America’s premiere investigative journalist, who once famously kinda proved Sarah Palin was not the mother of her soi-disant son Trig — and who’s been furiously tracking the sexual orientation of Supreme Court nominee Elana Kagan — has unearthed the startling discovery that Kagan is in fact the real mother of Trig.

“Kagan has no alibi for the night of Trig’s birth,” said Sullivan, “and refuses to answer my questions on the subject. What is she trying to hide? Could this whole ‘is she gay?’ thing be nothing more than a smokescreen to hide the real truth? Like all my allegations, it’s true until proven otherwise.”

Tags: politics & government by Colin Cohen
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From MSNBC, President Obama makes his USSC nomination today.

The comparisons of her to Harriet Miers began over a week ago…

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Tags: politics & government by Mike McGowan
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The precipitous if brief drop of last week which punctuated a drawling decline of several weeks duration has apparently inspired a radical and of course brilliant reaction that has lit a fire under equities; as I type the Dow is up 3.4% on the day. What is this miraculous policy? The collected central bankers of the EU have publicly declared that they will buy bonds from governments at terms they cannot get on the open market. To a tune of $960 billions. [Read more →]

Tags: money, politics & government by Ken Watson
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Sitting, as I am, at ground zero for the modern know-nothing movement — that’s Arizona, the Grand Canyon state to you non-news-junkies — I have a certain less-than-impressed perspective on the latest wave of jingoism. For starters, while the state’s recent directive to law-enforcement agencies to drop everything else they’re doing and focus on harassing brown people draws wide support, it strikes me that it enjoys an especially enthusiastic reception among all the snowbirds who settled here after they got tired of waiting for global warming to creep its toasty way north and finally render Minnesota more habitable than the surface of Mars. They upped stakes, bought houses in Phoenix, and woke up one morning with the disturbing sensation that everything around their new domiciles is a little spicier, more colorful, and suntannier than it really ought to be.
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Tags: politics & government, race & culture by J.D. Tuccille
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Oh so briefly yesterday I was a genius. The stay was brief indeed but for a moment my decision to straight cash out my 401k last fall, derided by good and intelligent people in my life and in media was vindicated in an instant and for an instant as the Dow dipped below where it was when I bailed. [Read more →]

Tags: advice, politics & government by Ken Watson
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Tonight’s Brewers-Diamondbacks game has been suspended indefinitely, as the following Brewers were arrested outside Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport this morning: Yovani Gallardo, Claudio Vargas, Carlos Villanueva, Alcides Escobar, and Carlos Gómez.

“The team bus was clocked at 1.5 miles over the speed limit,” said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. “We took the opportunity given to us by our state’s new immigration law to check the citizenship papers of those onboard. The individuals detained were without them.”

No makeup game has yet been scheduled, especially as the arrested players’ whereabouts are currently unknown.

Tags: politics & government by Colin Cohen
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Our country’s illegal alien lawn care crew has reacted to the Arizona immigration law by mowing over the economic “green shoots” we’ve been hearing about for over a year now.

Tags: money, politics & government by Mike McGowan
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White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel once famously said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” And politicians from both parties are taking that advice to heart by trying to get Congress — in the wake of the Times Square bomb scare — to ban gun sales to those on the terrorist watch list.

That is, they want to strip the constitutional rights of citizens without due process. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, terror & war by Colin Cohen
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The Greek people took to the streets again this past weekend. Apparently, they’re not happy with Europe’s foot dragging on their bailout. They want that money and they want it now. After all, the socialist dream cannot continue without other people’s money. The Greek government, like so many around the world with Champagne dreams and swamp water budgets, has outspent its income for a decade. Now the bankers won’t lend them any more. Who’s to blame? According to some interviews, a fair number of Greeks believe it is a U.S. plot to impoverish Greece. Well, from this side of the Atlantic, let me say that the United States government has its hands full impoverishing the American people. [Read more →]

Tags: money, politics & government by Daniel Putkowski
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