Call It A Comeback
You have to preview them and then submit. The blog spam was out of control so that step was added and seems to be doing a lot of good. There’s also a thirty second limit for one comment after another which shouldn’t matter much.
Via Ralph
WASHINGTON — President Bush should pardon six Army reservists from Ohio who were court-martialed for taking equipment to carry out their mission in Iraq, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Tuesday.
In a letter to the president, Durbin said the members of the 656th Transportation Company may have committed a technical violation and an error in judgment but the military should not have treated this mistake as a felony.
“The punishment is completely out of step with the violation,” Durbin said. “Soldiers have been scavenging for equipment on battlefields from the time of the Romans to the present day. … Yes, they made a mistake, but it was not so someone could get rich; these soldiers were trying to protect their unit and accomplish their mission.”
Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) earlier asked the Army to grant clemency to the reservists from the unit, which is headquartered in Springfield, Ohio.
Six reservists, including two veteran officers who had received Bronze Stars, were court-martialed for commandeering two tractors and two trailers left in Kuwait by other U.S. units that had already moved into Iraq and for stripping a third vehicle for parts they needed to repair their trucks.
Durbin said the 656th had played a crucial role in maintaining the gasoline supply between Balad Airfield and Tikrit.
Ummm…they didn’t make a mistake. They improvised, overcame and adapted. Wrong service, but that isn’t something to be prosecuted.
Who remembers the idiotic move by then Congressman Blagorgeous to try and require that napalm shipments be announced to communities they were being shipped through. This makes about as much sense as announcing when gasoline is being shipped through your community–actually less sense.
Napalm is essentially a jelly form of gasoline liked by militaries because it sticks to things like people and continues to burn unlike liquid gasoline that burns itself up too quickly.
Shipping it is safer than gasoline because if there is a spill, it doesn’t leak into the ground rapidly or spread itself nearly as wide as regular gasoline. But leaving it tanks does open up the chance that it will slowly leak out and enter things like water supplies where it is stored. Shipping it for permanent diposal is a good strategy and Blagojevich spent a bunch of time fighting it based on it having a scary name.
and it’ll probably continue through the 9th of January just to warn you. Between the holidays, several projects coming to a head and a professional conference coming up, my time has been pretty slim. I should be posting more often than the last couple weeks, but don’t expect the usual volume until after the 9th or 10th. Political news slows down during this period anyway.
One can’t even do a GOP Republican Cattle Call for any office because there are too many possible combinations. Rich Miller’s column from two weeks ago addresses a bunch.
Lauzen seems ready to jump in as well. Birkett is the Democrats’ wet dream. Few politicians are simply as unlikeable as he is. His bigger challenge is that if he challenges Madigan for AG, last time everyone assumed she’d be a plant from her father, but has shown an admirable independent streak and impressed a lot of people–she’ll be hard to target for anyone. Depending on who moves around, the only potentially vulnerable Dem in position is Blagojevich with the Treasurer’s spot possibly an open seat. If Hynes doesn’t take another run, that’ll be two open slots and a race for Governor leaving a nearly impossible run against White and an uphill race against Madigan.
Illinois Republicans aren’t in a strong position for this cycle though the biggest spot is up for a serious challenge.
Because Miller got there first in his weekly column. It’s a winner, though one has to wonder why the Guv isn’t focused on other issues. It’s especially a winner with married women who are a key demographic.
And obviously parents need to be more involved in these things as Miller points out. What I’ll say in addition is that while parents need to pay more attention to what media their kids are consuming, that doesn’t mean that retailers don’t have a moral responsibility to watch out for kids. It’d be nice, if like the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) the rating system was enforced at the buying or renting point and then parents can override that decision by accompanying the kids, but that didn’t happen.
Even if the Governor’s plan isn’t enacted as law, who wants to bet the industry starts paying attention more?
Capitol Fax also has a bit on how the Govenor made a splashy announcement on a free book program for young children, but now it has been dropped without a peep.
When I read the initial idea, I wondered why one wouldn’t utilize Parents as Teachers as the distribution mechanism….
Not flashy enough even though it exists and would be relatively cheap.
I know the correct view in the blogosphere is that The Blagorgeous is a right wing fascist nanny state leftist who should be more libertarian about video games, but I’m at a loss as to why any decent business is selling Leisure Suit Larry to children. Or why it’s so absurd as to suggest kids shouldn’t be able to buy just any video game off the shelf.
Let’s be clear about the proposal. It affects children and children only. There are not limitations on what adults can buy or rent. We keep children from buying many things including sexually explicit movies and magazines.
Unless one argues that pornography should be available to children who want it and only it’s the parents responsibility to keep it from them even though the kids could theoretically buy it themselves, the issue is essentially the same except it includes violence as well. I see no reason that a responsible business shouldn’t already be restricting sales of such games to minors if they carry them.
Is he jumping on an issue and making a big public show of it? Absolutely. And welcome to politics, but that doesn’t make the position horrible.
There are materials we restrict from minors and we do it for a reason–it’s adult subject matter and it affects a developing mind more than an adult’s.
Should a 17 year old be able to play Doom? Most probably can handle it, but their parents can decide that and then the next year the adult can decide for himself or herself. Should a 10 year old play Doom? No. And if a parent wants to buy it for their kid, well, the law would allow them to be irresponsible, but the adult decides.
Rich Miller has a hysterical bit analyzing the Governor’s announcement scheming.
All that said, trying to write the legal definition narrow enough to pass Constitutional muster on the violence bit will be really difficult.
Leader Looper John Zahm is back in the State of Illinois and posting a up a storm in all sorts of places. He’s got his Looperness on at the Leader too
When one is in a blog funk, just let the gadflies bring you back. It never fails.
Maureen Ryan of the Trib is doing the Watcher on the Trib Site. It’s very good and contains lots of good TV gossip. I’m already a fan and will be permalinking soon.
Other new sites include
Decatur Democrat A good site for Macon County and downstate politics
WillyNilly focusing on Peoria
IlPundit, my favorite new one, though he hasn’t posted in a while–he used to post in comments under SpringfieldDem and I’m a fan of his.
Life Liberty and Chocolate with a reference to Catwoman as the author. I’m a sucker for Batman references.
ArchPundit