Hamilton's Pamphlets

Chafee Dodges a Bullet... Twice!

From Alexander K. McClure at Polipundit:

2006 Rhode Island Senate Race

In what is getting to be a comedy, Representative Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island has decided not to run against incumbent Senator Lincoln Chafee.

Of course the other Congressman, James Langevin, has also dropped out of the race. The only remaining candidate is Secretary of State Matt Brown, and a recent poll showed Chafee crushing Brown.

So the weakest of the weak Republican senators avoids the guy most likely to unseat him, Congressman Jim Lagevin (full on quadraplegic and a hell of a nice guy!), and then by the merest of luck, the only other guy with a legitimate shot at him, Congressman Patrick Kennedy, decides the time is not right to be a junior senator.

Kennedy's mom must really be in a bad way, this is the best opportunity he has had to move up to the upper house.  He is also the savviest of the Kennedy's since JFK and Bobby.  He clearly sees that it is far better to be an entrenched member of the House Appropriations committee than it is to be a junior senator in the minority party while the "other" party controls the White House.  Kennedy is one to watch.  He's much closer to main stream Democrats than his father.  He's hawkish even when no one is looking and this decision shows he has patience.  Six term Congressman and he's what 36?  Ten years from now we will be hearing alot about this Kennedy.

See what happens when you pigeon hole people?  You thought I was a die-hard far right Republican who could see no good on the other side of the aisle.  Well, actually I am a die-hard way to the right of center Republican, but I have a soft spot for Kennedy (probably in my head!).  Don't anyone tell my Dad!!!

Army Captain Rogelio Maynulet

From Blackfive:

Mercy Killing

Personally, I don't understand the combat lifesaver line of argument.  If Maynulet had chosen to evaluate the Iraqi, would it then be more okay to kill him?  I don't think the prosecution intended that...maybe that last quoted line was just for dramatic effect.

I heard about this on the radio Wednesday night (KVI AM 570 - Brian Suits, of course).  Didn't know enough to make any sort of informed opinion, but I knew I didn't like it.

Read up on it.  Damn!  Captain Maynulet screwed up.  He never should have shot the guy like that.  It goes against all training, doctrine and rules of engagement.  I'm not sure if he just felt sorry for the guy or just wanted him to shut up or what.  The one thing that is sure is that he did it and he shouldn't have.

Great officer with a great record.  Makes a bad decision at the end of a running gun battle in a war zone and "poof" no more career.  No more Army.  People who have never served in the Armed Forces don't understand the pressure and consequences of "one bad decision".  I really feel for Captain Maynulet.

Regardless of the fact that I feel very, very sorry for the Captain, the Court Martial had to find him guilty.  We can't have soldier's out there "putting people out of their misery", it just ain't how it's done by the guys on our side.  I'm glad they used the lesser charge and only dismissed him from the Army with no prison time.  Sure hope it was a general discharge and not one with negative impacts.  A dishonorable discharge is a huge liability to drag around in your life.  A general let's him have GI bill and VA benefits.  I hope it was general.  Getting booted from the Army he loved was punishment enough.

I hope he lands on his feet and that this will not become the defining moment in his life...

Sandy Berger

So Sandy Berger steals classified documents relating to our preparedness, intel, etc. leading into 9/11.  Mr. Berger destroys the stolen documents.  Mr. Berger pleads guilty to a misdemeanor on Friday, 01 April. 

Please someone tell me that this is an April Fools joke!  Please?

The U.S. government that I work for people go to jail and do hard time for that sort of thing.  One set of rules for those in Uniform and another for the civilians supposedly in charge of those in uniform? 

Whoever cut that plea bargain deal needs to be fired AND do the time that Berger is skipping out on.

Jerks!

TKS in Turkey

Don't know if anyone else noticed, but since Jim Geraghty moved to Turkey TKS just hasn't been as good.  I really, really, really don't care about U.S. - Turkey relations.  The bastards wouldn't let us stage and base in southern Turkey for the Iraq invasion and cost us U.S. lives.  They're lucky we sell them our second hand weapons systems and really damn lucky we don't use the good stuff on them!

For Pete's sake.  Since the end of the Cold War, Turkey has really lost most, if not all of it's strategic value.  If they want to act like spoiled brats, let them.  Just point to Afghanistan and Iraq to remind them what happens if they get too unruly...

Jim should work hard at convincing Mrs. TKS that Washington DC is where they ought to be (suddenly the theme from the Beverly Hillbillys is playing in my head... must. make. it. stop.)

Random Thoughts

Just a few completely random thoughts...

• I didn't like it when the feds tried to "help" Elian Gonzales.
• I didn't like it when the feds tried to "help" Terri Schiavo.
• If we are bringing peace and democracy to Iraq/the middle east, why is gasoline so friggin expensive?  Shouldn't we be getting a price break on oil for the lives and billions of $ we're pumping into the Persian Gulf region?
• Can we stop food and water to Michael Jackson and all the scum sucking media covering his trial?  Change of venue to Florida, I hear that sort of thing is legal down there...
• Why is it that the states with the best beaches are the most screwed up? Specifically California and Florida.  Can anyone in their right mind want to live in those states? (I'm not counting Hawaii in that, cause they really don't think they are one of the states anyway...)
• Whatever happened to the contested governor's race?  Is the judge in Wenatchee just going to keep gathering facts and data for another 3 and 1/2 years and then there will be a new election and he can just say that it has been "overcome by events" (obe)?
• I'm thinking Rossi for Senator in '06 and McKenna for Governor in '08...
• Is the Washington State Legislature stupid enough to establish California vehichle emissions here?  If they want screwed up laws, high taxes, and over regulation why don't they just move BACK to California?
• Can our new Nissan Pathfinder be any cooler?  Don't think so.  Glad we went with the Navigation thing.  Glad we skipped the DVD player, the little pamphleteers get too much video anyway.  Really dig the new SUV.  Gas prices be damned!
• The damage done by Cong. Pat Schroder to the Navy post-tailhook still goes on...The people who were Lieutenants at that time are now Captains.  Some of them should be in some other profession...However the vacuum created by the Schroder purges and pogroms left them in...Now the leadership vacuum at the O-6 level is vast and demoralizing... I'm not even going to start on the zero-defect culture and the damage done by the Clintons...

Enough for now...  I'll be back (imagine the Terminator saying that for the complete package...)

No really, I'll be back.

Seriously, just cause I've been a blog slacker doesn't mean I won't be back!

Jeez...you guys are so demanding!

This is cool

Thanks to Ninme.

bold the states you've been to, underline the states you've lived in and italicize the state you're in now...

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut/ Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington/ West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C /

Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.

Terri Schiavo

First and foremost, I agree with Bill Hobbs.  Bill writes:

I have not written about the Terri Schiavo case because it is too complex, too multilayered, and too steeped in unknown or unknowable facts for me - indeed for most people - to have a fully informed opinion.

I don't know - and neither do you - if Michael Schiavo is trying to murder his wife or trying to fulfill her stated wishes for just such a scenario. I don't know what Terri Schiavo would want - and neither do you - because she didn't tell us via a living will. We have only the word of her husband who assures us that his wife once said she wouldn't want to be kept alive this way, and we have her parents, who love their daughter and desire only to care for her.

I do know that the Congress did the wrong thing, intervened where it had no Constitutional right, and solved nothing.

This is a very complex and very personal conflict.  It is one that even Mrs. Hamilton's Pamphlets and I don't agree on.  As a parent, I understand Terri's parents position and as a husband I think I see Michael's point of carrying out her wishes (if that really is what she said and really wanted).

Here's where I leap off the cliff... I would not want to live in Terri's condition.  I have lots of life insurance and I do not want to be a burden to my family.  One of my greatest fears is to somehow become a completely dependent invalid.  I would rather die.  I am a Christian and I am not afraid to die.  I believe that there is life after death.  Hanging on to our mortal shell in the vain hope that medical technology will bring us back to what we once were is not right for me.  Let me go and let me move on to a better place.  Let my family get on with healing and recovery.  Years and years of vain hope for what was has got to be the most heartbreaking thing I can think of. 

To the political side of all this.  Again, I agree with Bill Hobbs.  Congress should have stayed out of it.  At least the Supreme Court showed some sense and declined it.  I am mystified that some of the same people who screamed when Clinton/Reno sent the Feds in to snatch Elian Gonzales are screaming for the Feds to intervene with Terri Schiavo.  The same people that want Roe V. Wade overturned touting states rights are demanding Federal Laws and jurisdiction over Terri Schiavo.  Supposedly small government Republicans expanding federal government and creating legislation over specific individuals.  Has everyone lost their collective minds?  Have there not been 15 years of court decisions in this case?  It is not even remotely possible that all those courts and all those people are in collusion with Michael Schiavo to do in his wife.  I think too many folks have let their emotions control the debate.

Bottom line in all this for me is that I'm updating my will and making sure I have a living will that tells the world that I would rather starve and die of thirst than live as total invalid.  Cause the Mrs. already said she'd keep me around like a potted geranium if there was even the remotest chance of rehabilitation...the thought of that just scares the hell out of me...

I'm baaaack.....

Sorry, but it has been crazy busy and I've been sick as a dog.  Needless to say blogging came way down on the list of priorities in the big scheme of things...then my brother-in-law starts sending me harassing emails and blog topics to jump start me...okay, Shane, I get the picture.  Let the blogging recommence!!!

Whoa Nellie!!!

Man have I been lame on the blogging!!!  I'm on travel in beautiful scenic (and frickin FREEZING) Pennsylvania...

Of all the places to get sent on TAD.  Snow.  20 degrees outside.  I cannot believe people have the nerve to complain about Seattle weather.  I'll take raining and 50 over 20 with a windchill factor in the vicinity of Antarctica any day!!!

I've been in a conference that's been going 0800 to 1830ish every day... that's eight in the morning till around six-thirty at night for the non-military reader...  I just can't absorb that much info all at once...I reach saturation point around 2...

Can't wait to get back to Puget Sound!

Groningen Protocol Update

Way back in December I picked up on a topic from Hugh Hewitt about the Groningen Protocol.  Basically, what I read and posted about was that in the Netherlands, they had developed a protocol for euthanizing terminally ill newborn children.

Recently, P-BS-Watcher posted a comment of follow up on it.  Their take?  What the heck happened to it?  The Groningen Protocol is a truely horrific development but it seems to have completely fallen off the radar... from Watcher:

What happened to the argument about the Groningen Protocol? Did I miss the resolution? Or did it just fade away like the missing explosives in Iraq after the election?

P-BS-Watcher also points out that there were some inaccuracies in the way the protocol was portrayed:

"The Groningen Protocol has five criteria: the suffering must be so severe that the newborn has no prospects of a future; there is no possibility of a cure or alleviation with medication or surgery; the parents must always give their consent; a second opinion must be provided by an independent doctor who has not been involved with the child’s treatment; and the deliberate ending of life must be meticulously carried out with the emphasis on aftercare. " [emphasis added]

Sorry, but I just don't buy it.  Ever taken your child to the emergency room?  Once you hand them over to the medicos you are only an interested spectator (if they even let you stay in the room).  Those sound like nice words to soothe the guilty consciences of parents and doctors.  I think Hugh and the others (me included) had it right when we call it horrific.  All that said, I agree with P-BS-Watcher that some follow up is LONG OVERDUE.