Jules Crittenden is the city editor for the Boston Herald and a columnist for the paper of military matters and foreign affairs. He is terrific. The blogosphere just got a little better with the recent launch of “Forward Movement”, Jules new blog.
The blogosphere is the perfect outlet for a guy like Jules, he’s brash, opinionated, smart and a hell of a writer. He shouldn’t be confined by the limits of the MSM with a once or twice a week column. Make this blog a regular part of your news diet.
Here is a post Jules did on the toughest call a reporter ever has to make,
Once upon a time, a dead American soldier from Massachusetts would have been front page news in my newspaper. I used to know all their names. I had spoken to relatives and friends of most of them. I had been to some of their homes, and to their funerals. Now I don’t even know the exact number.
Last night, we learned a young man with family ties to Worcester, Mass., was dead. Someone had to be assigned to make the call that no one wants to make.
This is what I advise reporters to say when they are intruding on someone’s grief:
Read the full post here.
Topic: Doing away with anonymous earmarks which enable legislators to pad bills with pork without having to be accountable for it.
Question: Why didn’t a GOP controlled Congress think of this?
Answer: They did. They talked about it endlessly. In the end, they did nothing.
Headline: Democrats: Identify pork sponsors
Irony: The party of limited government has handed a core issue, fiscal responsibility, to the Democrats.
Agony: The fact that a far left liberal like Nancy Pelosi is doing what the GOP Congress should have done years ago.
Bottom Line: A good idea is a good idea, even if it comes from Nancy Pelosi.
Democrats: Identify pork sponsors
WASHINGTON â?? Democrats aim to open the next Congress in January with a new rule that identifies lawmakers who use legislative “earmarks” to help special interests â?? a change Republicans promised but didn’t implement.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said her first agenda item after being elected House speaker will be a vote to require sponsors of earmarks to be identified. Currently, lawmakers can remain anonymous in sponsoring an earmark, which is language in a bill that directs funds or tax benefits to a business, project or institution.
“There has to be transparency,” the California congresswoman told USA TODAY last week. “I’d just as soon do away with all (earmarks), but that probably isn’t realistic.”
And yes, I know the Democrat leadership is up to their ears with earmarks themselves, but this is something that needs to be done, and should have been done a long time ago. I don’t really care who does it, just do it.
Tonight on Pundit Review Radio we welcomed blogger Dean Barnett to the studio and had a great time talking about the 2006 mid-term and looking ahead to 2008.
Dean's writing can be found at HughHewitt.com and in The Weekly Standard Magazine. We hope to have him back in soon.
Like all of our interviews, this is also available for download at iTunes.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week Kevin & Gregg give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Hailed as “Groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 7-10pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Leader.
Just last night I was watching a show about the Medal of Honor and they told the story of President Truman, and what he would tell men he was presenting with this award,
I would rather have this award than be president of the United States.
That is how big an honor this is. When I woke this morning, the first news I heard was this,
WASHINGTON – President Bush said yesterday he will bestow the nation’s highest award for valor to a Marine from upstate New York who dove on a grenade to save his buddies in Iraq. The Medal of Honor will go posthumously to Cpl. Jason Dunham of Scio, N.Y., who would have been 25 years old yesterday – the 231st birthday of the Marine Corps.
As part of our weekly collaboration with Matthew Currier Burden of Blackfive to bring his series Someone You Should Know to the radio, we featured the amazing story of Jason Dunham back in May. To listen to what Jason did to receive our country’s highest honor, click here.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week Kevin & Gregg give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Hailed as �??Groundbreaking�?� by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening at 8pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston�??s Talk Leader.
Although is was a tough loss for Republians Tuesday given thier past gains in off year elections (the loss of GOP House and Senate seats were historically normal in a 6th year of a president’s second term) there were some reasons to be optimistic about the future:
Some interesting ballot initiatives:
English as official language passed overwhelmingly in Arizona.
Legalising domestic partnerships failed in Colorado.
End of affirmative action passed in Michigan.
Same sex marriage banned in 6 States.
Anti-Kelo initiative passed in Nevada
Likely House majority leader Jack Murtha (Code Pinks’ Boy) had this to say today:
â??They donâ??t want a rubber-stamp Congress,â? Murtha said Tuesday night. â??They want a Congress thatâ??s going to stand up.â?Â
As for Bushâ??s future actions in Iraq, Murtha was blunt: â??Heâ??s not going to go on with this war.â?Â
Our friend Matt Margolis had this to say:
You can bet the farm that a Murtha-led congress will cut the funding for our troops and their mission, thus placing them in ever-increasing peril.
It will be Jack Murtha himself, not George Bush, who will turn Iraq into another Vietnam. And the consequences of another Vietnam this time around couldn’t be deadlier.
I could not agree more. That’s a great morale booster for the troops huh? They must feel really confident I am sure.
Unfortunately, Republicans who were elected by large majorities in 2000,2002, and 2004 to advance the conservative agenda on which they campaigned failed to lead instead opting to secure incumbancy via earmark spending and emulating Democrats. “Values voters” (a euphemism for social conservative Christians) and Pocket Book/War on Terror conservatives and independants sent a strong message to Republicans that they had better heed in the 24 short months leading up to the 08′ elections. “Do what you say you’re gonna do or we are not going to vote for you anymore.”
But the reality is that the Democrats are more likely than Republicans to actually follow thru on their campaign promises which in this case has always been “strategic redeplyment” of the troops in Iraq (another euphemism for redeploying the troops strategically back home in the United States of America). The libs now control appropriations and have the authority to cut funding for the troops. And everybody that has studied history (Viet Nam in particular) knows that millions will die in Iraq as a result of de-funding them. The Jihadists will then control Iraq, a significant ammount of the world’s oil supply, and the “central front” in the War on Terror. America will have waived the “white flag” of surrender.
If Americans think that the Jihadist threat will diminish, they are sadly mistaken. Cutting and running will demonstrate that Ameirca lacks the will to win. This will only embolden the throat cutting savages and increase thier recruiting and confidence. They are in this to the end. They have made their intentions unambiguously clear that their goal is to destroy Israel and the United States and Western Civilization in general by imposing Sharia law on the world and establishing a global Caliphate. All who fail to willfully submit to Allah will be killed.
There is only one remedy for the threat we face. And appeasement is not it.
I pray that Americans wake up and realize that we are now the lone defenders of Western Civilization.
Time is running out.
Matt from Blackfive joined us as he does every week at 9pm EST for another edition of Someone You Should Know, our weekly collaboration to bring the untold, inspirational true stories of the men and women fighting for us around the world to the radio.
This week we heard the amazing story of Lance Corporal Christopher Adlesperger, a man who has been nominated for our highest honor, the Medal of Honor.
Unable to penetrate the building with his M-16, Lance Corporal Aldesperger shifted to the grenade launcher. Standing on the roof, he blew holes in the building and then rained down gunfire on the insurgents below. They returned fire and then fled.
Pfc. Aldesperger killed four insurgents who fled into the courtyard, each with a shot to the head. By Col. Malay’s estimate, Aldesperger killed a total of 11 insurgents. The actual number may be higher.
The building had been an insurgent command-and-control center. Failure to quickly subdue it, Col. Malay concluded, could have thrown off the timetable for the Fallujah assault, which depended on speed and keeping U.S. casualties to a minimum.
We also give thanks to the LA Times and reporter Tony Perry for being the exception to the rule, and telling this amazing story in a major American newspaper.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week Kevin and Gregg give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Hailed as “Groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 7-10pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Leader.