For those of you unfamiliar with the story behind the HBO movie Taking Chance, a New York Post review,
“Taking Chance,” though, a work of transcendent sorrow and infinite dignity, was watched by two million viewers on its first HBO showing last Saturday, the best figure for an HBO original movie in five years. Though the violent death of a serviceman informs every frame, it is also a powerful statement about duty and honor as embodied in the stark face of USMC Lt. Col. Michael Strobl, nobly portrayed by Kevin Bacon with a chesty military bearing and a hidden well of resolve. The film is based on Strobl’s experience escorting the remains of Phelps, who was killed in action in 2004 and who inspired Strobl to keep a journal published on blogs such as Blackfive.net.
Here is Lt. Col. Strobl’s incredible account of Taking Chance Home.
We were honored to have Chance Phelps mother, Gretchen Mack, join us a couple of weeks ago to talk about her son and give us a preview of the movie. Now that we have all seen the movie, this is our time to say thank you, to Gretchen and Mike Strobl. As an emailer, Joe from CA, wrote to me,
We’d like to thank Gretchen and Chance’s family for sharing their loss with us – a self-sacrifice for the greater good on top of the ultimate sacrifice that Chance made.
Tonight at 9:30pm is your opportunity to do so.
Special Guests: Ret. Lt. Col. Mike Strobl and Gretchen Mack
9:30pm EST on Pundit Review Radio, streaming live at WRKO
The phone numer is 617-266-6868 or 877-469-4322
When I heard that the Patriots had traded Mike Vrabel, I just loved the idea. I hadn’t heard to who or for what, I just loved the idea. The “it’s a business” line that pro athletes rely on so much works both ways.
Yes, “it’s a business” when they get huge rookie deals without playing a snap. Yes, “it’s a business” when they go hog wild during a contract year. Yes, “it’s a business” when they get to free agency and go the highest bidder.
What Bill Belichick understands is that it is also “a business” when you are a top earner, being paid mostly for past production. He knows that he squeezed the absolute best there is to get from Vrabel. The combination of age and injuries is catching up to him. I wish Theo Epstein had the same attitude with Big Papi. We’ve gotten the best out of him, and age and injuries are catching up to him. I wouldn’t have minded seeing him dealt this winter.
As the mighty Hub Blog said,
Professional sports is a brutal business with no room for sentimentality.
Amen.
Dan Shaughnessy says Cassel trade is a loud statement
Intellectually and strategically, the deal makes sense, especially if the Patriots come away with another player like linebacker Jerod Mayo in the draft. They can get younger and they have new money to spend.
But emotionally, it’s asking Foxborough fans to swallow a gummy hairball.
Boo freaking hoo. Remember, “it’s a business”.
The fact that they gave up Vrabel and Cassel for only a second round pick? Surprising, yes. I’ll give the final word to a guy I have enormous respect for, the most underappreciated sports reporter in Boston, the Globe’s Mike Reiss,
In the end, the feeling here is that the Patriots turned a 2005 seventh-round draft choice — a player many felt would be cut at the end of training camp (me included) — into a valuable 2009 second-round pick.
It hurts to lose Vrabel, but that’s the risk the team took in placing the franchise tag on Cassel in the first place. They knew that if the market didn’t generate, there would have to be some sacrifices.
So in the end, the Patriots adjusted well to what the market dictated.
This isn’t the mega deal some were hoping for, perhaps even the Patriots themselves. But it’s still a solid trade.
UPDATE I: One of my favorite guests to have on Pundit Review Radio is James Pethokoukas of US News. According to James, I am underselling the impact of Obama’s cap and trade scheme,
As I see it, the most important single item in President Obama’s budget is his commitment to a cap-and-trade plan (to limit and reduce carbon emissions). It represents nothing less than an absolutely breath-taking attempt at reengineering the entire American economy.
Read the full article here. James will be my guest on Pundit Review Radio Sunday night in the 8pm hour.
UPDATE II: Barron’s agrees, this cap and trade scheme raises costs for all Americans. Here is a news analysis by Thomas G. Dolan,
Cap and trade is expected to have the largest direct effect on electric utilities burning coal. Through them it would raise the energy bills of all Americans.
UPDATE III: Also from Barron’s, this time Jim McTague,
Even Senate Democrats might oppose measures that will raise operating costs for the nation’s farmers, manufacturers and consumers during the steepest economic downturn since the Great Depression.
UPDATE IV: There was a third article in Barron’s this weekend, a contributed article on the folly of cap and trade without the participation of China. Nothing we do, even the most draconian things Al Gore could come up with, will have any impact whatsoever as long as China is building two new coal fired electric facilities PER WEEK. I don’t have the exact quote as that section of the paper was sacrificed as kindling for a roaring Saturday evening fire.
UPDATE V: Barron’s cost me $5, you got the same analysis for free, first, right here. What a deal.
ORIGINAL POST
President Obama’s address to the joint session of Congress,
Because of this plan, 95% of the working households in America will receive a tax cut – a tax cut that you will see in your paychecks beginning on April 1st.
The only way this statement is true is if that 95% of Americans lives like a neanderthal and consumes no power at all. No car. No lights. No electricity. No heat. While President Obama is focused on raising income taxes on the “rich” who make $250K/year, all Americans, even those evil rich bastards, will be paying higher energy taxes because of the Obama Cap & Trade proposal that is part of his massive budget. Senator Bob Corker, a Republican member of the energy committee released this statement last night,
“President Obama promised a middle class tax cut but what he didn’t tell us was that he would pay for it with a climate tax,†said Corker. “His budget will generate $645 billion through a climate tax and use that revenue to fund various programs outlined in budget. I guess his claim on Tuesday night that no one earning under $250,000 would pay more in taxes did not apply to this massive climate tax increase all Americans will pay. This is a major sleight of hand.â€
WSJ: Carbon Trading to Raise Consumer Energy Prices
The cost of energy for consumers would be driven higher in President Barack Obama’s proposed budget by a carbon cap-and-trade system that is projected to raise about $80 billion a year starting in 2012.
The budget assumes the U.S. adopts the cap-and-trade system that would set limits on the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that industries can emit, and allow companies to buy and sell rights to emit those gases. The budget assumes a starting price of $20 per ton for carbon emissions, an amount that Mr. Obama’s aides says is conservative and would likely rise.
The budget projects raising $645 billion from the auction of emissions credits between 2012, when the system kicks in, and 2019. Mr. Obama would use some of that money to pay for about $120 billion of spending on various low-carbon technologies over that time. The rest of the money — about $525 billion — would be retuned “to the people, especially vulnerable families, communities and businesses to help the transition to a clean energy economy,” according to Mr. Obama’s proposal.
Obama is from the government and he is here to help. As we head towards a European-style, quasi-socialist state, we should pause for a moment to consider how well these carbon schemes have worked out in Europe.
Business Week: Is Europe Leading or Losing on CO2 Emissions?
The bureaucrats that run the European Union’s day-to-day business aren’t known for taking risks. Yet back in 2005, when they devised the EU Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS), these pencil pushers gambled that a cap-and-trade scheme would help cut the EU’s carbon dioxide emissions. Now, three years on, the environmental benefits from the EU ETS remain unclear: The continent’s CO2 output actually rose 1.1% last year.
UK Guardian: A collapsing carbon market makes mega-pollution cheap
Europe’s system to edge up the cost of emissions and boost green energy has backfired. There isn’t much time to rescue it
The lesson of the carbon slump, like the credit crunch, is that markets can be a conduit, but not a substitute, for political will. They only work when properly primed and regulated. Europe hoped that the mere creation of a carbon market would drive everyone away from fossil fuels. It forgot that demand had to outstrip supply, and that if growth stops, demand drops too.
There is not much time to rescue the system. Carbon trading remains at the heart of the international response to climate change. Obama backs what Americans call cap and trade. Australia wants to try the same thing. It should be at the heart of a deal at the Copenhagen summit this winter. But both are hesitating, given Europe’s mess.
Well, at least Australia is “hesitating”.
The law of unintended consequences has struck again. Two years ago, the European Union created a market to control carbon dioxide emissions by setting a cap, then issuing tradable “allowances.” But those chits are now trading for pennies on the dollar. It’s become so cheap to emit greenhouse gas that it now pays to burn more dirty fossil fuel than less. Along the way, millions of dollars have been spent on projects of questionable environmental value.
That worked out well, didn’t it. Let’s try it here! Hope & Change.
Get a load of this post from Excitable Andy Sullivan, the world’s most insufferable pundit,
25 Feb 2009 03:46 pm
Gitmo Now
Disturbing reports of prison guards, knowing that their opportunity for IRFing, beating, degrading and abusing inmates is coming to an end, are increasing abuses. The Pentagon’s self-exoneration on the matter is, of course, ludicrous. I cannot confirm the accounts but I should say I fear the worst. Gitmo was created as a torture lab – and in the end, the guards who are part of that system behave accordingly.
Note the disregard that Sullivan has for the men and women in the U.S. military. Actually, disregard isn’t strong enough. How about utter contempt?
And what about those “disturbing reports”? It’s a Reuters story passing along smears from terorist lawyers,
LONDON (Reuters) – Abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay has worsened sharply since President Barack Obama took office as prison guards “get their kicks in” before the camp is closed, according to a lawyer who represents detainees.
Good enough for Excitable Andy to slander and smear the men and women working at GITMO. Too bad for Excitable Andy, Attorney General Holder visited GITMO yesterday and he concluded the following,
Holder: Gitmo Well-Run, Professional
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday the Guantanamo detention center is a well-run, professional facility that will be difficult to close — but he’s still going to do it.
What a tool Excitable Andy is. GITMO is closing because of useful idiots like Sullivan, and not because of the men and women who actually work there.
The theme of the night was the Obama national security strategy, which looks awfully similar to that of the war criminal who preceded him. Meet the New Boss. The examples are piling up, the GITMO review, Afghan detainees right’s and rendition.
Memeorandum screen capture…
The GITMO report really annoyed me. He closes GITMO to great fanfare, in order to restore our standing in the world. Then, he looks into what is actually happening there. The conclusion, nothing. Politics, that’s all. Been bothering me all weekend so I invited retired Special Forces Master Sergent James Hanson for some on-air therapy. He’s known as Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive, where he writes about the military, politics, intelligence operations and foreign policy.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking†by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 8-10 pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.
Bruce McQuain from QandO joined us once again for Someone You Should Know, our weekly tribute to the troops. Bruce spent 28 years in the U.S. Army and he is a veteran of the Vietnam war. He brings a perspective and understanding to these stories that we could never match.
A few weeks ago Bruce told us how 10 Special Foces soldiers earned Silver Stars in a single battle,
Tonight he was back with a correction. It was nine Special Forces and one combat cameraman, Specialist Michael Carter! This is the story of how Specialist Carter became the first combat cameraman to be awarded a Silver Star,
The Someone You Should Know radio collaboration began as an extension of Matt Burden’s series at Blackfive. Bruce McQuain from QandO does an incredible job with the series every week.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 8-10 pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.