Today, America lost one of its great politicians ... and more importantly a decent man.
Senator George McGovern passed away this morning at the age of 90.
In his 50+ years as a public servant, McGovern made major contributions to the anti-war and civil rights movements. In his later years, he immersed himself in the fight to end world hunger. His 1972 Presidential run helped launch the political careers of Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham.
I'd like to think that we will see future politicians cut from his cloth, but I highly doubt it.
One of the project's objectives was to visually incorporate the organization's still logo into a moving PSA.
To achieve this, we traveled out to Dumont Dunes, deep in the Mojave Desert. The small crew that flew out West is one of my favorite groups to work with, so even the challenges felt like fun.
Here are a couple quick iPhone pictures of my camera position.
It's great to see the finished PSA finally make it to air, and I especially like that Kevin Costner did the voiceover. I have a lot of respect for him as a filmmaker and a human being, so it feels good to have worked with him on this project ... even if indirectly.
The soldier emerging from the desert is Xavier Clarke, a Marine Corps veteran. The wounded warrior draped over his shoulders is not a lightweight dummy. That is a full grown man you see him carrying. On top of that, it was 104-106 degrees in the shade ... Xavier was wearing full battle gear ... and he didn't complain once. Ex-Marine indeed.
The second part of the trip involved a visit with retired Army Sgt. 1st Class, Norberto "Norbie" Lara and his family.
In June 2004, while on combat patrol in Iraq, a rocket propelled grenade struck Norbie's Humvee. The RPG took his arm off and shrapnel from the explosion ripped through his body, lacerating his liver and causing damage to his lungs.
The whole crew was moved by this short visit, and left there with a greater appreciation of the value of life.
If you did not see the ABC Nightline interview of Sarah Palin by Charlie Gibson, you MUST take the time to watch the whole thing.
There really is no excuse.
I am in the middle of an enormous production job right now, involving Carnets, international crew members and other major distractions.
However, I would have moved Heaven and Earth to see this interview.
If The McCain/Palin ticket is sucessful, this woman statistically has a 30% chance of becoming president. For this very reason, EVERYONE in this country has a duty to check her out before they vote.
There are so many portions of the interview that you should see, but this one is perhaps the most telling.
*She often seems confused by the questions Charlie Gibson poses to her regarding international affairs.
The list goes on.
I am constantly amazed by the stupidity of middle Americans to buy into this crap, hook line and sinker.
For those of you located in one of the red states (pictured above), not interested in watching boring and difficult to understand politcal programing, I have provided an alternative viewing option.
Here are the top five reasons you should not vote for John McCain.
"Drumroll"
1) John McCain positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year. We really don't need any more pollution.
2) The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.
3) According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi.
4) His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.
The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis'. One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger-but recognize the opportunity.
The U.S. military said 14 American troops have died in several attacks in the past 48 hours, including five who were killed Thursday in a single roadside bombing.
This brings the US death toll in Iraq very close to the 3,500 mark.
When pictures like the one below were later released to the general public, it was hard to deny that at least some American soldiers had crossed the line while in Iraq.
For me ... there are two things that jump out at me from this picture.
1) If you take a look at the upper right leg of the foreground prisoner (click picture to enlarge), it becomes painfully obvious that good spelling is not a strict requirement for a US military prison guard.
And …
2) This would be the first rapist I have seen with his hands tied and his underwear pulled down to the middle of his leg.
Although this method of torture sells newspapers and gives mid-western military personnel their sexual jollies, I think there is a much better way.
Historically Americans have been resourceful when approaching their problems, and I think this situation is no different. I believe we have resources in this country, which could be successfully used to torture enemy captives in such cruel ways that they would have no choice but to eventually spill the beans.
For example, I believe that enemy combatants would sooner die than be tied to chairs and forced to watch endless Ashley Simpson videos.
I believe that this would crack most of them open like eggs. However, some would require harsher torture, and for those evildoers, we would fly them to New York City.
These forms of torture would certainly test the limits of the Geneva Convention, but I am sure they would be effective.
In the event that more was needed, we could turn to one of our allies in the War on Terror. John Howard and Australia could provide us with such a horrific torment that no Al-Qaeda terrorist would stand a chance in Hell. The CIA has often traveled overseas to torture its prisoners, so this would not be unusual.
Upon arriving down under via Qantas Airways, the hardest of the hard prisoners would be denied sleep and forced to watch back-to-back seasons of "The Wiggles".
BAGHDAD - Vice President Dick Cheney made another unannounced visit to Iraq. He and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged problems in the pace of reducing violence in Iraq on Wednesday, but both pledged their governments would continue working together toward a solution.
The Iraqi leader said he and Cheney discussed "practical steps ... to support our efforts working on both the security front as well as the domestic political issues."
Among the key issues discussed were:
1) The need to get bigger leather chairs in the meeting room to support their bloated fat asses.
2) Where the best “Big and Fat” store was to buy a charcoal single-breasted suit.
Testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Kevin Tillman claimed that United States government officials created a heroic story about the death of his brother Cpl. Pat Tillman (pictured below) to distract attention from setbacks in Iraq and the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
Former Pvt. Jessica Lynch (pictured below) leveled similar criticism today at the hearing about the initial accounts given by the Army of her capture and rescue in Iraq.
In her testimony this morning, she said she did not understand why the Army put out a story that she went down firing at the enemy.
Perhaps she felt this was an infinitely better time to come out with this admission, than when she was posing (pictured below) in front of the poster of the 2003 movie version of “Saving Jessica Lynch”.
This is absolutely crazy.
Next they are going to try to tell us that John Rambo (pictured below) did not, as we were told, single handedly take out the Taliban stronghold at Tora Bora and save Princess Leia.
Late this morning, Vice President Dick Cheney experienced “mild calf discomfort” sometime after delivering a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars and visited his doctor’s office at George Washington University.
An ultrasound revealed a deep venous thrombosis, a blood clot, in the lower part of his left leg.
The danger from deep venous thrombosis is that a piece of the clot can break off, travel with the blood and lodge as an embolus in a lung to damage the organ or cause sudden death.
My heart goes out to the big sensitive lug, and I know just the place for him to receive top notch treatment for this life threatening condition.
This is my 200th post on this blog, and I thought I would use it to pass on some good news for a change.
Today I received some E-mail from Pierre, Robert Secher’s dad. He wrote me to pass on news that his son would be awarded the Bronze Star posthumously by the Marine Corps. When awarded for bravery, it is the fourth-highest combat award of the U.S. Armed Forces.
His bravery and dedication was apparent to all of us who had the privilege to know him while he was on this earth. I am glad the Marines have decided to make it official.
This medal will certainly validate this honor. However, I have always thought that the best indicator of respect was the hundreds of people who showed up for his service in Memphis, Tennessee this October. You could see it in all of their faces.
The assembly of men in red jackets (pictured below) is a veterans group from our last three wars. They traveled great distances to attend Robert’s service, and I believe the look on their faces tell the whole story.
Click to enlarge picture, and then guess who has had too many bacon double cheeseburgers since the last time he put on his red jacket?
Alongside Democrats Joseph Biden and Carl Levin, Chuck Hagel proposed a non-binding resolution to the Democratic-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, which rejected Bush's current policy in Iraq." The resolution concludes "it is not in the national interest of the United States" to deepen U.S. military involvement in Iraq.
This is not the first time that Chuck Hagel has voiced his concerns on this important issue. Chuck Hagel has a long history of questioning the Bush administration.
It dates back to August 18, 2005, when Hagel compared the Iraq War to Vietnam, and openly mocked Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion that the Iraqi insurgency was in its "last throes."
In November 2005, Hagel made a much-publicized statement saying "To question your government is not unpatriotic -- to not question your government is unpatriotic."
A U.S. military helicopter crashed Saturday northeast of Baghdad, killing all 13 people on board, a new blow to American efforts in Iraq as U.S. and Iraqi forces prepare for a major security operation to pacify the capital and surrounding areas.
The military said the crash was under investigation. The brief U.S. statement lacked the customary comment that the aircraft was not shot down, indicating it may have come under fire by insurgents.
After several hours, reporters were finally able to reach President George Bush for a statement on these tragic events. In light of this bad news, Bush now says he is going to reconsider his recent decision to increase American troop levels in Iraq by 20,000.
Instead, he has decided to send an additional 20,013 troops.
The Pentagon announced yesterday that it has abandoned its limit on the time a citizen-soldier can be required to serve on active duty overseas. This is a major change that reflects an Army stretched thin by longer-than-expected combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This is excellent news for Martin O'Keefer (Pictured below). He will be back reporting for active duty in the Al Anbar province, just as soon as he can remember where he put his teeth.
All kidding aside ...
This is Chief Warrant Officer Margaret Murray (Pictured below) She stands 4 foot, 8 inches tall. Her M-16 assult rife is nearly as big as she is. She is 55 years old, and headed for Iraq in a few weeks.
BAGHDAD, Jan. 2 — Iraq’s Shiite-led government said Tuesday that it had ordered an investigation into the abusive behavior at the execution of Saddam Hussein, who was subjected to a battery of taunts by official Shiite witnesses and guards as he awaited his hanging.
They are worried that Saddam's feelings were hurt before they snapped his neck with a rope?
Iraq may be struggling to model its fledgling democratic government after the United States, but they certainly have successfully learned from us how to have a pointless investigation that will lead absolutely nowhere.
