"Resolved, That two Battalions of marines be raised, Consisting of one Colonel, two Lieutenant Colonels, two Majors, and other officers as usual in other regiments; and that they consist of an equal number of privates with other battalions; that special care be taken, that no persons be appointed to office, or inlisted into said Battalions, but such as are good seamen, or so aquatinted with maritime affairs as to be able to serve to advantage by sea when required: that they be inlisted and commissioned to serve for and during the present war between Great Britain and the colonies, unless dismissed by order of Congress: that they be distinguished by the names of the first and second battalions of American Marines, and that they be considered as part of the number which the continental Army before Boston is ordered to consist of."
-In Congress, Resolve of 10 November 1775
Happy Birthday, fellas.
Semper Fi.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Friday, October 09, 2009
Hail to the Chief
The Russell Record congratulates President Barack H. Obama on winning the Nobel Peace Prize of 2009. Chesty was as stunned as anyone by this announcement as he staggered from his bed to the iMac this morning, but after realizing this wasn't a pilsner-induced hallucination, came to see just how ...well...funny it is. Just when the conservatives thought they had him on the run, that they had taken back the initiative, the Nobel Committee steps in and gives him something which will probably gain him another ten points in the polls, at least in the short term.
A lot of ink is being spent this morning, particluarly over at CNN.com, saying that this was "the last thing he needs," and that it will just embolden conservatives who always said Obama was about soaring rhetoric as opposed to dynamic action, and that the committee bought it, too. But I say bunk to that. The American people just got a validation of the choice they made last year: the rest of the world likes and respects him, and are willing to follow his lead in trying to improve this ball of rock we all share. If conservatives want to attack that, they are free to do so. But if morons like Glenn Beck and Rush are the best they've got in the way of spokesmen, then they are going to continue to fail.
On a related note: Obama has just one-upped John F. Kennedy in the department of "Cool Things To Have On Your Desk in the Oval Office." A Pultizer is pretty cool, but a Nobel? Way, way cooler. (Makes you wonder what Reagan would have done if he'd ever gotten an Oscar, doesn't it?)
A lot of ink is being spent this morning, particluarly over at CNN.com, saying that this was "the last thing he needs," and that it will just embolden conservatives who always said Obama was about soaring rhetoric as opposed to dynamic action, and that the committee bought it, too. But I say bunk to that. The American people just got a validation of the choice they made last year: the rest of the world likes and respects him, and are willing to follow his lead in trying to improve this ball of rock we all share. If conservatives want to attack that, they are free to do so. But if morons like Glenn Beck and Rush are the best they've got in the way of spokesmen, then they are going to continue to fail.
On a related note: Obama has just one-upped John F. Kennedy in the department of "Cool Things To Have On Your Desk in the Oval Office." A Pultizer is pretty cool, but a Nobel? Way, way cooler. (Makes you wonder what Reagan would have done if he'd ever gotten an Oscar, doesn't it?)
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Busted Birther
The Russell Record salutes the Honorable Clay D. Land, U.S. district court judge for the Middle District of Georgia, for his order yesterday in the case of Rhodes v. McDonald, et al., No 4:09-CV-106 (2009), in which he laid down the smack on birther den mother Orly Taitz and the rather foolish Army officer she duped into suing to get out of deploying to Iraq.
Taitz was cautioned that if she ever brought such a case in the Middle District of Georgia again, she would face Rule 11 sanctions. As it is, for bringing what the court considered a patently frivolous claim, her client has to pay the defendants' legal fees. All the time and manpower the government spent on this case, this plaintiff has to cover. Good luck with that on a captain's salary.
I highly encourage reading not only the attached article, but the pdf of the judge's 14-page decision in which he disembowels the birther movement.
Taitz was cautioned that if she ever brought such a case in the Middle District of Georgia again, she would face Rule 11 sanctions. As it is, for bringing what the court considered a patently frivolous claim, her client has to pay the defendants' legal fees. All the time and manpower the government spent on this case, this plaintiff has to cover. Good luck with that on a captain's salary.
I highly encourage reading not only the attached article, but the pdf of the judge's 14-page decision in which he disembowels the birther movement.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Joe Wilson and the Race Card
After listening to numerous tirades on the playing of the race card with regard to Joe Wilson's outburst last week, I spent part of my evening trying to organize my thoughts.
To review: The specific comment of the President which caused Wilson to pop off was the statement that illegal immigrants would not get free health care under the proposed plan. (Or at least, no more than they already get, what with those who go to emergency rooms with life threatening injuries or illnesses and then never pay, which is obviously not a problem limited to illegal immigrants.) Wilson screamed that he was lying at that point, violating various rules of congressional protocol and earning criticism from both sides of the aisle. Wilson has since apologized for the form of his objection, but not for the substance, and he has refused to apologize on the floor of the House.
Now, to my understanding, and I admit that I am not reading too much on the subject anymore, people are not suggesting that Wilson is a racist simply because he called a black president a liar. It's because he was, in a lot of people's opinions, deliberately trying to raise a specter of illegal immigrants getting taxpayer-paid benefits under Obama's plan, in spite in the actual text of the plan clearly stating otherwise. In doing so, the theory goes, he was deliberately playing a race card which will always rile people up.
This theory is a bit of logical reasoning that is hard for some people to follow, but what many people may not be aware of is that our immigration policy --tired, poor, huddled masses notwithstanding-- has a history of being tinged with bigotry and racism. Check out the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which was referred to in one of my favorite movies, Tombstone. (Sheriff Behan: "I'm also town tax collector, captain of the fire brigade, and chairman of the Non-Partisan Anti-Chinese League.") Or the literacy and English-speaking tests proposed at various times in the 19th and early 20th Centuries which would have kept most Irish immigrants, to say nothing of the Italians, Poles, Russians, Greeks and anybody else who wasn't English or Scottish out of this country. The fact is, whether people like Joe Wilson want to acknowledge it or not, whenever you talk about immigration, you are also talking about race...specifically, you're talking about how America should deal with the problem of races other than the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant coming here, taking jobs from "real" Americans, and gaining too much power and influence. That may not be what is in the hearts and minds of people like Joe Wilson, but it is the historical reality of our law and policy, going back almost two centuries.
And, not for nothing, but if the GOP doesn't like the idea of being called "racists" every time they oppose Obama, perhaps they should reflect on the wisdom of having called liberals "traitors" or "appeasers" or "cowards" every time they opposed Bush. If you take the gloves off, then they are off. It's a little late to whine about Marquis of Queensbury rules when you were the first one to pull out the brass knuckles. Particularly when the guy doing the whining once cited "hatred of America" as the reason a Democratic Congressman would suggest that the WMD justification for war was insufficient, given that we'd supplied WMDs to Iraq during their war with Iran. Or who insisted that the half-African-American woman fathered out-of-wedlock by Senator Strom Thurmond should have kept quiet about her parentage to keep from diminishing the segregationist senator's legacy.
To review: The specific comment of the President which caused Wilson to pop off was the statement that illegal immigrants would not get free health care under the proposed plan. (Or at least, no more than they already get, what with those who go to emergency rooms with life threatening injuries or illnesses and then never pay, which is obviously not a problem limited to illegal immigrants.) Wilson screamed that he was lying at that point, violating various rules of congressional protocol and earning criticism from both sides of the aisle. Wilson has since apologized for the form of his objection, but not for the substance, and he has refused to apologize on the floor of the House.
Now, to my understanding, and I admit that I am not reading too much on the subject anymore, people are not suggesting that Wilson is a racist simply because he called a black president a liar. It's because he was, in a lot of people's opinions, deliberately trying to raise a specter of illegal immigrants getting taxpayer-paid benefits under Obama's plan, in spite in the actual text of the plan clearly stating otherwise. In doing so, the theory goes, he was deliberately playing a race card which will always rile people up.
This theory is a bit of logical reasoning that is hard for some people to follow, but what many people may not be aware of is that our immigration policy --tired, poor, huddled masses notwithstanding-- has a history of being tinged with bigotry and racism. Check out the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which was referred to in one of my favorite movies, Tombstone. (Sheriff Behan: "I'm also town tax collector, captain of the fire brigade, and chairman of the Non-Partisan Anti-Chinese League.") Or the literacy and English-speaking tests proposed at various times in the 19th and early 20th Centuries which would have kept most Irish immigrants, to say nothing of the Italians, Poles, Russians, Greeks and anybody else who wasn't English or Scottish out of this country. The fact is, whether people like Joe Wilson want to acknowledge it or not, whenever you talk about immigration, you are also talking about race...specifically, you're talking about how America should deal with the problem of races other than the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant coming here, taking jobs from "real" Americans, and gaining too much power and influence. That may not be what is in the hearts and minds of people like Joe Wilson, but it is the historical reality of our law and policy, going back almost two centuries.
And, not for nothing, but if the GOP doesn't like the idea of being called "racists" every time they oppose Obama, perhaps they should reflect on the wisdom of having called liberals "traitors" or "appeasers" or "cowards" every time they opposed Bush. If you take the gloves off, then they are off. It's a little late to whine about Marquis of Queensbury rules when you were the first one to pull out the brass knuckles. Particularly when the guy doing the whining once cited "hatred of America" as the reason a Democratic Congressman would suggest that the WMD justification for war was insufficient, given that we'd supplied WMDs to Iraq during their war with Iran. Or who insisted that the half-African-American woman fathered out-of-wedlock by Senator Strom Thurmond should have kept quiet about her parentage to keep from diminishing the segregationist senator's legacy.
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
All the Tyranny Fit to Tout
I usually defend the Times to my more conservative friends. But today, I am literally in a state of shock. A passage from today's op-eds:
Thomas Friedman has finally flipped his wig. Sort of a Joe Kennedy, "Democracy is finished in Europe" kind of moment, except that Friedman will probably get another Pulitzer instead of being shipped home in disgrace.
Leaving aside for a moment Freidman's unique perspective on the current government in Bejing, consider: Our system was not designed to be efficient. It was designed to be free. Of course it makes things harder for the federal government to accomplish. That was the whole point.
If there is a trade-off between efficiency and liberty, I want the latter.
One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages.
Thomas Friedman has finally flipped his wig. Sort of a Joe Kennedy, "Democracy is finished in Europe" kind of moment, except that Friedman will probably get another Pulitzer instead of being shipped home in disgrace.
Leaving aside for a moment Freidman's unique perspective on the current government in Bejing, consider: Our system was not designed to be efficient. It was designed to be free. Of course it makes things harder for the federal government to accomplish. That was the whole point.
If there is a trade-off between efficiency and liberty, I want the latter.
Sunday, September 06, 2009
New York's Local News Boobs
Note to NY1 local news: Father Vincent Capodanno was NOT awarded the Bronze Star for his actions in Vietnam.
He was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
The Lion Sleeps Tonight
The world stops to note the passing of Joe Kennedy's last surviving son this morning at his home in Massachusetts. After 46 years in the Senate, Ted Kennedy lays down his burden under the inexorable weight of brain cancer.
As an Irish American, it's a bittersweet moment, a chance to look back to the time when our race faced down the bigotry that awaited us as we stepped off the coffin ships into a nation that hated Catholics. And to remember a time when, after gaining enough money and influence to defend ourselves, we reached back behind us to help those immigrants a few ships behind us. (This is in contrast to today, when too many of us are willing to collaborate with the same Brahmins and bigots who worked so hard to keep Catholics out of the country clubs and curb immigration, legal or otherwise.) It's true that Joe and his family put on airs to fit in with the Protestant-dominated social structure from time to time, as do most lace-curtain types, but in hindsight, they wouldn't have accomplished as much, either for us or the nation at large, if they hadn't.
After three of his brothers died before their hair could turn gray, Ted's frailties began to show. The drinking, the womanizing, the desire to live while there was time that led to disasters. It was inevitable, of course, that his detractors would focus on that night in 1969, when his immaturity and poor judgment got the better of him and cost an idealistic young woman her life. And, decades later, how his testimony about his actions the night his nephew was accused of rape demonstrated that he learned little from the Chappaquiddick incident. It is not inappropriate to mention these failings in reflecting on his life, any more than to remember the decades of service to the cause of civil rights or his championing of health care reform. It just bothers me a little that some people think that the accident outweighs the five decades of service. But then I remember that these are people to whom civil rights or Medicare or anything else to help poor people never meant little in the first place.
It is also true that some on the Left will now paint the debate over health care reform as a fight to do right by Ted's last wishes. But before people get too irritated by this, we should remember that Johnson did much the same in order to push Jack's goal of the Civil Rights Act. Few thinking people would argue that he was wrong to do so. And those indignant voice on the Right should remember that, at his death in 2004, John Paul II was honored by conservatives as a demonstration of the pontiff's recognition of the sanctity of all life, even in the failing years.
I don't pray much anymore, but I will light a candle for a man who touched the lives of millions of people around the world. A man who I criticized over the years, whom I disagreed with on many points of domestic policy and personal conduct, but a man whom, in the final analysis, served his constituents and his country to the best of his ability. He was flawed, as are we all. He made mistakes, even some big ones. So do all men of great power. But, for all his failings, he left a mark on this country that made it better than before he entered the Senate so many years ago.
Ted's mother was fond of saying that "[t]o whom much is given, much is expected." I think its fair to say that Ted, while a difficult child, met his mother's expectations.
Say hello to my dad at the bar, Teddy.
As an Irish American, it's a bittersweet moment, a chance to look back to the time when our race faced down the bigotry that awaited us as we stepped off the coffin ships into a nation that hated Catholics. And to remember a time when, after gaining enough money and influence to defend ourselves, we reached back behind us to help those immigrants a few ships behind us. (This is in contrast to today, when too many of us are willing to collaborate with the same Brahmins and bigots who worked so hard to keep Catholics out of the country clubs and curb immigration, legal or otherwise.) It's true that Joe and his family put on airs to fit in with the Protestant-dominated social structure from time to time, as do most lace-curtain types, but in hindsight, they wouldn't have accomplished as much, either for us or the nation at large, if they hadn't.
After three of his brothers died before their hair could turn gray, Ted's frailties began to show. The drinking, the womanizing, the desire to live while there was time that led to disasters. It was inevitable, of course, that his detractors would focus on that night in 1969, when his immaturity and poor judgment got the better of him and cost an idealistic young woman her life. And, decades later, how his testimony about his actions the night his nephew was accused of rape demonstrated that he learned little from the Chappaquiddick incident. It is not inappropriate to mention these failings in reflecting on his life, any more than to remember the decades of service to the cause of civil rights or his championing of health care reform. It just bothers me a little that some people think that the accident outweighs the five decades of service. But then I remember that these are people to whom civil rights or Medicare or anything else to help poor people never meant little in the first place.
It is also true that some on the Left will now paint the debate over health care reform as a fight to do right by Ted's last wishes. But before people get too irritated by this, we should remember that Johnson did much the same in order to push Jack's goal of the Civil Rights Act. Few thinking people would argue that he was wrong to do so. And those indignant voice on the Right should remember that, at his death in 2004, John Paul II was honored by conservatives as a demonstration of the pontiff's recognition of the sanctity of all life, even in the failing years.
I don't pray much anymore, but I will light a candle for a man who touched the lives of millions of people around the world. A man who I criticized over the years, whom I disagreed with on many points of domestic policy and personal conduct, but a man whom, in the final analysis, served his constituents and his country to the best of his ability. He was flawed, as are we all. He made mistakes, even some big ones. So do all men of great power. But, for all his failings, he left a mark on this country that made it better than before he entered the Senate so many years ago.
Ted's mother was fond of saying that "[t]o whom much is given, much is expected." I think its fair to say that Ted, while a difficult child, met his mother's expectations.
Say hello to my dad at the bar, Teddy.
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