I should listen to my wife more often.
After Sunday night’s health care vote we turned off the television and took our dog for a walk.
I was pretty grumbly and probably not very good company. I griped and complained and expressed astonishment that a bill that mandates this much federal oversight of private industry, that is stuffed, end to end with pork – literally built on a cornerstone of graft – could ever be written in the capitol of the United States.
And then I said, “I wonder how long it will be before some Democrat sums all of this up as 'just a step in the right direction’.”
“Oh! Good point,” Karen said. “When we get home you should fire up Sparky and blog that.”
As it turns out I would have had to blog it that very instant, because while we were out, President Barack Obama addressed the nation and said the same thing almost word for word.
“This legislation will not fix everything that ails our health care system. But it moves us decisively in the right direction.”
Astounding, isn’t it? It’s like I’m some kind of a mind-reader.
Of course, the President's intent, after all the hype this last year, was to begin lowering expectations and yet still declare that the bill was “close enough for government work.” And, make no mistake; government work is precisely what medicine will become.
Looking at the bright side, Congress and the federal bureaucracy got exactly what they want: a platform they can build on and tinker with ad infinitum. More government jobs, more "process", more opportunities, as they say in Chicago, for a few extra potatoes on the side. At the same time, Democrats believe they’ve put another bullet in their campaign clip, and that for decades to come whenever they get into elective-trouble they can always talk about expanding coverage, adding or cutting benefits, means testing, increasing fees, tighter mandates, etc., etc. For Democrats, what’s not to like? This kind of thing is their bread and butter.
Then, President Obama, in his very next sentence, put a cherry on top of the sundae:
“This is what change looks like.”
He got it exactly right. With those six words spoke more truth than he intended.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Democrats Have Painted Themselves Into a Corner
Democrats have painted themselves into an ugly corner with their Health Care Reform Bill (HCR).
The Obama administration has managed to take what has been a standard Democratic vote-getting ploy -- promise government largesse to core constituencies and let the rest of the country pay for it -- and screw it up so badly that regardless of whether HCR passes or fails, Democrats will suffer heavy losses in the midterm election.
Problem is, it's not just Democrats in the corner; they've got the whole country held hostage with them.
Everything else in Washington is at a dead stop. Since late last summer, when details of The Bill began to leak, public support has declined and opposition sharply increased.
Consequently, the Obama administration moved all their troops to the Health Care eastern front. All other problems the nation faces have turned to weeds. The "official" unemployment rate hit 10% in November and has remained there. Iran is said to be months away from having a nuclear bomb. Diplomatic blunders have been committed with Great Britain, Israel, and South America. A would-be terrorist tackled by passengers while attempting to detonate an explosive device over Detroit was questioned by intelligence officers for fifty minutes, then whisked into the Miranda-ized world of the civilian court system. "Party crashers," in three separate incidents, got past security and attended White House functions.
The list goes on to include jihad lawyers hired into the Justice Department; the president's time-out to go to Europe to lobby in favor of bringing the 2016 Olympic Games to Chicago; the White House chief of staff twisting arms, naked, in the Congress-only shower; and a credible charge that a White House "bribe" was offered to a politician as inducement to get him to stay out of a U.S. Senate race. Just the other evening, President Obama, being interviewed by Bret Baier on Fox News, told America that we need to spend millions of dollars to clean up after the earthquake in Hawaii. What earthquake in Hawaii? And we're going to spend millions to fix it? Health Care aside, the POTUS clearly does not have his mind on his work.
Let's take a look at the corner Democrats have put us all in.
The president has staked his entire administration on getting his Health Care Reform Bill passed. If it fails, he fails. The United States will then be shown to have a hollow leader, and the whole world -- Vladimir Putin, Hu Jintao, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and every dictator and drug lord from here to Marrakech -- will know it. By postponing his trip to Asia, first for three days, then for three months, in order to twist arms and get HCR chiseled in stone, President Obama put his entire presidency on the line. He has no plan "B."
Meanwhile, the American people have gotten a good look at the administration's Chicago-style legislative techniques -- sausage-making at its ugliest. Wavering Democrats are being offered anything they want -- anything -- in exchange for their votes. But kick-backs and payoffs aside, when the roll is finally called, each congressman will have only a "yes" or "no" choice: this abomination of a health care bill, or leaving America without a president for three years. Some choice: heads, we lose; tails, we lose.
When independent-minded people away from the heat of Washington consider The Bill, the question then becomes "Can America get along without a president?" Will We the People be able to take care of ourselves while an empty suit keeps the seat warm in the Oval Office?
As anyone who has ever looked at a government program knows, if HCR is this junked-up at the start, then it will take no time after passage before it becomes the biggest bureaucratic mess ever inflicted upon a free people. We all -- or or at least most of us -- will rue the day. Never mind the lost jobs, tax increases, medical rationing; that's just the tip of the iceberg that we can see from a distance. This thing will be worse. America's medical system will become riddled with government inefficiencies, politically-correct tinkering, and endless corruption. A two-tiered medical system will emerge, each coexisting as separate worlds: one for well-connected elites, and one for everyone else. Chills will crawl up your neck the first time you hear that someone in this country had to "tip" a hospital staffer in order to make sure a loved one got clean bed sheets. If government-run health care is bad in Europe, it will be a disaster here in America, where that magnificently American concept, E Pluribus Unum, went out of fashion at about the time the Me Generation got its hands on the culture.
Democrats are holding the entire nation hostage while they struggle to pass the Health Care Reform Bill. They've wasted a full year on something that only 38% of the nation favors. Check the numbers. It is a dead thing. The Obama media may trumpet a triumph, but there will be little joy in passing it -- no band playing "Happy Days Are Here Again" in most neighborhoods.
There is only one way out of the corner: Open a window and jump. It is a long way to the bottom, and it will be a rough landing, but it will beat the alternative of leashing the American public to the dead hand of Big Government.
Democrats...vote "No" and jump. Leave the president and his acolytes in the corner. It is their mess; let them clean it up. Passing the Health Care Reform Bill will not get us out of the corner.
This essay was originally published March 20,2010 on AmericanThinker.com
The Obama administration has managed to take what has been a standard Democratic vote-getting ploy -- promise government largesse to core constituencies and let the rest of the country pay for it -- and screw it up so badly that regardless of whether HCR passes or fails, Democrats will suffer heavy losses in the midterm election.
Problem is, it's not just Democrats in the corner; they've got the whole country held hostage with them.
Everything else in Washington is at a dead stop. Since late last summer, when details of The Bill began to leak, public support has declined and opposition sharply increased.
Consequently, the Obama administration moved all their troops to the Health Care eastern front. All other problems the nation faces have turned to weeds. The "official" unemployment rate hit 10% in November and has remained there. Iran is said to be months away from having a nuclear bomb. Diplomatic blunders have been committed with Great Britain, Israel, and South America. A would-be terrorist tackled by passengers while attempting to detonate an explosive device over Detroit was questioned by intelligence officers for fifty minutes, then whisked into the Miranda-ized world of the civilian court system. "Party crashers," in three separate incidents, got past security and attended White House functions.
The list goes on to include jihad lawyers hired into the Justice Department; the president's time-out to go to Europe to lobby in favor of bringing the 2016 Olympic Games to Chicago; the White House chief of staff twisting arms, naked, in the Congress-only shower; and a credible charge that a White House "bribe" was offered to a politician as inducement to get him to stay out of a U.S. Senate race. Just the other evening, President Obama, being interviewed by Bret Baier on Fox News, told America that we need to spend millions of dollars to clean up after the earthquake in Hawaii. What earthquake in Hawaii? And we're going to spend millions to fix it? Health Care aside, the POTUS clearly does not have his mind on his work.
Let's take a look at the corner Democrats have put us all in.
The president has staked his entire administration on getting his Health Care Reform Bill passed. If it fails, he fails. The United States will then be shown to have a hollow leader, and the whole world -- Vladimir Putin, Hu Jintao, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and every dictator and drug lord from here to Marrakech -- will know it. By postponing his trip to Asia, first for three days, then for three months, in order to twist arms and get HCR chiseled in stone, President Obama put his entire presidency on the line. He has no plan "B."
Meanwhile, the American people have gotten a good look at the administration's Chicago-style legislative techniques -- sausage-making at its ugliest. Wavering Democrats are being offered anything they want -- anything -- in exchange for their votes. But kick-backs and payoffs aside, when the roll is finally called, each congressman will have only a "yes" or "no" choice: this abomination of a health care bill, or leaving America without a president for three years. Some choice: heads, we lose; tails, we lose.
When independent-minded people away from the heat of Washington consider The Bill, the question then becomes "Can America get along without a president?" Will We the People be able to take care of ourselves while an empty suit keeps the seat warm in the Oval Office?
As anyone who has ever looked at a government program knows, if HCR is this junked-up at the start, then it will take no time after passage before it becomes the biggest bureaucratic mess ever inflicted upon a free people. We all -- or or at least most of us -- will rue the day. Never mind the lost jobs, tax increases, medical rationing; that's just the tip of the iceberg that we can see from a distance. This thing will be worse. America's medical system will become riddled with government inefficiencies, politically-correct tinkering, and endless corruption. A two-tiered medical system will emerge, each coexisting as separate worlds: one for well-connected elites, and one for everyone else. Chills will crawl up your neck the first time you hear that someone in this country had to "tip" a hospital staffer in order to make sure a loved one got clean bed sheets. If government-run health care is bad in Europe, it will be a disaster here in America, where that magnificently American concept, E Pluribus Unum, went out of fashion at about the time the Me Generation got its hands on the culture.
Democrats are holding the entire nation hostage while they struggle to pass the Health Care Reform Bill. They've wasted a full year on something that only 38% of the nation favors. Check the numbers. It is a dead thing. The Obama media may trumpet a triumph, but there will be little joy in passing it -- no band playing "Happy Days Are Here Again" in most neighborhoods.
There is only one way out of the corner: Open a window and jump. It is a long way to the bottom, and it will be a rough landing, but it will beat the alternative of leashing the American public to the dead hand of Big Government.
Democrats...vote "No" and jump. Leave the president and his acolytes in the corner. It is their mess; let them clean it up. Passing the Health Care Reform Bill will not get us out of the corner.
This essay was originally published March 20,2010 on AmericanThinker.com
Friday, March 12, 2010
The CARROT and the STICK
The Drudge Report got some laughs recently when it published a collection of news headlines, all virtually identical, going back to July 28th, 2009, each hailing an “endgame” deadline for passing the Health Care Reform Bill. These headlines were bannered just prior to the Senate’s August recess, when passage of the bill seemed certain. They were run again just before Labor Day, when passage again seemed assured...then again in mid-October, then before Halloween, then Thanksgiving… Each proclaimed the Health Care Bill a done-deal. All that remained was to take the final vote to send the bill to the President’s desk for signing.
We are now coming up on the third week of March, 2010. Spring is just days away, and the whole blessed Health Care Bill is still gathering dust on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk; un-voted upon. The reason Speaker Pelosi hasn’t yet called for the final House vote is obvious; there aren’t enough Democrats willing to vote for it. It’s just that simple.
Democratic leaders are said to be working furiously. President Obama has postponed his Asian trip to “work on the bill”…Work on the bill? Who are they trying to kid? They can’t change one word in the bill or it has to go back to the Senate where -- as of January 19th -- they no longer have enough Democrats to pass it. It's this bill, warts and all, or nothing. What the phrase “working on the bill” means is they are working to bribe or coerce the few reluctant Democrats to get on-board the bandwagon.
It is said that every man has his price, and House and Senate leaders have spent the last thirteen months in closed door meetings trying to determine each member's price-point, either personally or on behalf of a particular constituency, and then setting about to make sure they get the juice. Some of this juice has become public knowledge and is seen as outrageously laughable. For as long as the sun continues to rise in the east and there remain politics and politicians on the face of the earth, the “Louisiana Purchase”, the Florida “gator aid”, and the Corn Husker Kick-Back will be the stuff of legend. Back room deals don't get any more clownish than that.
Suffice it to say that by now everybody who needed to be taken care of has been taken care of. It has become clear that Leadership has run out of donkeys that will follow carrots dangled in front of them. In order to move the legislative cart any further nothing remains but to get out the stick.
This is where The Chicago Way of doing things comes into play and things can get ugly, because this is where the Administration sends out the message, “Last call for carrots!”
As an example of what can happen to those who refuse to cooperate, consider Eric Massa, now an Ex-Congressman from New York.
Until ten days ago Representative Massa was unknown to the public. It’s even a safe bet that if Jay Leno had done one of his Jay Walking routines in Upstate New York and asked “Who’s the Vice President of the United States? Who’s your Congressional Representative?” He’d have gotten embarrassed chuckles but few right answers.
However, Representative Massa was well-known in Washington, where he made it clear that believed the Health Care Bill did not go far enough. For that reason he planned to vote against it. Got that?
Unfortunately for Rep. Massa, this is not what party leaders need to hear right now. Equally unfortunate, there are some kinky skeletons in Massa’s closet.
Hints of these skeletons began to leak, bone by bone, out of the Congressional Ethics Committee. Surprise, then shock was expressed. In a matter of days Massa was gone.
But, you notice fellow New York Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel, also the subject of an Ethics Committee investigation on tax and bribery charges, is still there... Rangel is a reliable "yes" vote.
It is impossible to believe that much of this came as news to anyone in the Washington power structure, as was claimed, until Massa made some inappropriate remarks at a wedding party in January. Eric Massa ran successfully as a Democrat for the US House of Representatives. That means he went through the nomination process and the election process. He was interviewed many times by Party leaders. He was assigned a DNC team of handlers; he had his background checked; he garnered endorsements, raised money, and shook thousands of hands in DC and in New York. It is simply impossible to believe that in the 24/7 pressure of a campaign somebody did not trip over one of the kinks in Massa's personality.
As clearly troubled as Massa appears, chances are someone did trip over them; likely several some-ones. And as soon as they said, “Whoops! We’ve got a problem here in the 29th District!” someone else higher up the ladder told them to keep their mouths shut. They pegged Massa as a strange one, word was passed along, discussions were held, information was put into a dossier, and the whole thing was kept locked away... until recently.
News out now is that Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office was officially notified about Massa last October. Although, Speaker Pelosi states she personally didn’t get the word but her that her staff did.
“There are many rumors in Washington.” About whom, she didn’t say.
If it is true that staff didn’t pass word along to the Speaker then they were derelict in their duty. Further, Speaker Nancy Pelosi represents a District in San Francisco. She should be able to pick up on various cues.
Here is a suspicion of what happened. Eric Massa wouldn’t budge on his “no” vote. Remember there were quite a lot of Liberal Democrats who said they would vote no unless the bill was made stronger. But, one by one they all fell in line. Not Massa. So, they got out the stick and let him have it.
In Chicago there are two kinds of mob hits: the quiet-kind where the victim just disappears; the body dumped in a landfill or sent to the bottom of Lake Michigan never to be seen again. Then there's The Big Noise, where the victim is whacked in some public place like a restaurant, splattered against a wall in front of a lot of witnesses. The later method is used to send a message; “Don’t let this happen to you.”
Would the Washington power structure do anything this dark, this devious? That's an unpleasant question to contemplate. There is a lot of money and power at stake. They've invested over a year in putting this deal across. If it goes down they've got nothing. So, would they? Speaker Pelosi referenced other "rumors". Certainly what happened to Eric Massa weighs on the other dozen or so Health Care hold-outs. Doubtless they quickly assessed their own pasts. Could there be anything they wouldn't want their families to see splashed across the evening news?
The Eric Massa story, "whether he fell or whether he was pushed" carries the clear inherent message; "The Health Care Bill has been stalled long enough. No more carrots. From now on there's nothing but stick."
We are now coming up on the third week of March, 2010. Spring is just days away, and the whole blessed Health Care Bill is still gathering dust on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk; un-voted upon. The reason Speaker Pelosi hasn’t yet called for the final House vote is obvious; there aren’t enough Democrats willing to vote for it. It’s just that simple.
Democratic leaders are said to be working furiously. President Obama has postponed his Asian trip to “work on the bill”…Work on the bill? Who are they trying to kid? They can’t change one word in the bill or it has to go back to the Senate where -- as of January 19th -- they no longer have enough Democrats to pass it. It's this bill, warts and all, or nothing. What the phrase “working on the bill” means is they are working to bribe or coerce the few reluctant Democrats to get on-board the bandwagon.
It is said that every man has his price, and House and Senate leaders have spent the last thirteen months in closed door meetings trying to determine each member's price-point, either personally or on behalf of a particular constituency, and then setting about to make sure they get the juice. Some of this juice has become public knowledge and is seen as outrageously laughable. For as long as the sun continues to rise in the east and there remain politics and politicians on the face of the earth, the “Louisiana Purchase”, the Florida “gator aid”, and the Corn Husker Kick-Back will be the stuff of legend. Back room deals don't get any more clownish than that.
Suffice it to say that by now everybody who needed to be taken care of has been taken care of. It has become clear that Leadership has run out of donkeys that will follow carrots dangled in front of them. In order to move the legislative cart any further nothing remains but to get out the stick.
This is where The Chicago Way of doing things comes into play and things can get ugly, because this is where the Administration sends out the message, “Last call for carrots!”
As an example of what can happen to those who refuse to cooperate, consider Eric Massa, now an Ex-Congressman from New York.
Until ten days ago Representative Massa was unknown to the public. It’s even a safe bet that if Jay Leno had done one of his Jay Walking routines in Upstate New York and asked “Who’s the Vice President of the United States? Who’s your Congressional Representative?” He’d have gotten embarrassed chuckles but few right answers.
However, Representative Massa was well-known in Washington, where he made it clear that believed the Health Care Bill did not go far enough. For that reason he planned to vote against it. Got that?
Unfortunately for Rep. Massa, this is not what party leaders need to hear right now. Equally unfortunate, there are some kinky skeletons in Massa’s closet.
Hints of these skeletons began to leak, bone by bone, out of the Congressional Ethics Committee. Surprise, then shock was expressed. In a matter of days Massa was gone.
But, you notice fellow New York Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel, also the subject of an Ethics Committee investigation on tax and bribery charges, is still there... Rangel is a reliable "yes" vote.
It is impossible to believe that much of this came as news to anyone in the Washington power structure, as was claimed, until Massa made some inappropriate remarks at a wedding party in January. Eric Massa ran successfully as a Democrat for the US House of Representatives. That means he went through the nomination process and the election process. He was interviewed many times by Party leaders. He was assigned a DNC team of handlers; he had his background checked; he garnered endorsements, raised money, and shook thousands of hands in DC and in New York. It is simply impossible to believe that in the 24/7 pressure of a campaign somebody did not trip over one of the kinks in Massa's personality.
As clearly troubled as Massa appears, chances are someone did trip over them; likely several some-ones. And as soon as they said, “Whoops! We’ve got a problem here in the 29th District!” someone else higher up the ladder told them to keep their mouths shut. They pegged Massa as a strange one, word was passed along, discussions were held, information was put into a dossier, and the whole thing was kept locked away... until recently.
News out now is that Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office was officially notified about Massa last October. Although, Speaker Pelosi states she personally didn’t get the word but her that her staff did.
“There are many rumors in Washington.” About whom, she didn’t say.
If it is true that staff didn’t pass word along to the Speaker then they were derelict in their duty. Further, Speaker Nancy Pelosi represents a District in San Francisco. She should be able to pick up on various cues.
Here is a suspicion of what happened. Eric Massa wouldn’t budge on his “no” vote. Remember there were quite a lot of Liberal Democrats who said they would vote no unless the bill was made stronger. But, one by one they all fell in line. Not Massa. So, they got out the stick and let him have it.
In Chicago there are two kinds of mob hits: the quiet-kind where the victim just disappears; the body dumped in a landfill or sent to the bottom of Lake Michigan never to be seen again. Then there's The Big Noise, where the victim is whacked in some public place like a restaurant, splattered against a wall in front of a lot of witnesses. The later method is used to send a message; “Don’t let this happen to you.”
Would the Washington power structure do anything this dark, this devious? That's an unpleasant question to contemplate. There is a lot of money and power at stake. They've invested over a year in putting this deal across. If it goes down they've got nothing. So, would they? Speaker Pelosi referenced other "rumors". Certainly what happened to Eric Massa weighs on the other dozen or so Health Care hold-outs. Doubtless they quickly assessed their own pasts. Could there be anything they wouldn't want their families to see splashed across the evening news?
The Eric Massa story, "whether he fell or whether he was pushed" carries the clear inherent message; "The Health Care Bill has been stalled long enough. No more carrots. From now on there's nothing but stick."
Thursday, March 4, 2010
JIM BUNNING; None In, None Left On
Late last week the word on retiring Kentucky Senator, Jim Bunning, and his one man bust-up with the Democratic majority was grim. “Looks like some dour Republican has opened his yap and picked a fight he can’t win.”
By Sunday, a few details had penetrated the media firewall and it looked like Bunning might have a valid point: Democrats were proposing to borrow ten billion dollars to save non-essential workers their jobs in the Transportation Department and to install satellite TV in rural areas – this was bundled together with another extension of unemployment benefits. Bunning argued there is no need to go deeper into debt to the Chinese government when hundreds of billions remain unspent in last year’s “Stimulus” fund.
Then, by Tuesday word was out that colleagues were meeting with the Senator trying to get him to give up his cause. His issue had turned into a gift to the Democrats. The mainstream press was having a party; yocking it up, cracking wise on poor old Jim Bunning, portraying the matter as a Republican Party effort to deny unemployment benefits to millions who are out of work.
For Democrats it couldn’t get any better than this. Right in the middle of Congressman Charlie Rangel’s corruption problems, Speaker Pelosi gaffes, the Governor Patterson mess, and the terrorist’s lawyers in the Justice Department – out of the blue came a cranky old Republican who, as a matter of principle, wanted to starve widows and orphans. Champaign corks were popping all over DC.
But the problem for Democrats is that Bunning was able to hold out for five long days. One, lone US Senator was able to stop the gravy-train long enough to attract attention, and for the real message to leak out. In ’06 and ’08 Democrats campaigned specifically on what they call “Pay-Go”, whereby the government must match spending with revenue. The matter was hatched back when Democrats were trying to gum-up the War on Terror. Pay-Go was an attempt to tie George Bush’s hands. You see, voting for military cuts while troops were engaged in combat would have looked bad to voters, but Pay-Go, once passed, was to be a device whereby Democrats could cut military funding indirectly. “Hey, it isn’t us. We’re just following the law…”
But, government moves slowly and just a couple weeks ago, on February 10th, the Pay-Go bill finally became law. We didn’t hear much about a signing ceremony. George W. Bush is long gone and Barack H. Obama now owns The War.
Never the less, when President Obama signed the bill, the message was supposed to be clear: From now on, there’ll be no more spending unless we can pay for it, and that’s that.
This is exactly what the Senator Jim Bunning fuss was all about. A little over two weeks after they outlawed unsecured spending, in their first piece of major financial legislation, the Democratic majority ignored half-a-trillion dollars still sitting in Stimulus funds, and went ahead and borrowed other billions without indicating how they’d pay it back.
Of course, the suspicion is the Stimulus money is not meant for things like unemployment or highway funding, not now at least. Those funds are scheduled to be released later this summer and into the fall in order to give a sugar-boost to the economy just before the mid-term elections. Barack Obama may be a Harvard-educated lawyer, but as a politician he’s pure Chicago. Stashing away a slush fund of public money to dole out at election time is exactly the kind of ethical jiggling they do every day of the week back in the Windy City. The plan is, leave the economy in the tank until we need people to vote.
So, now the Bunning crisis is over. How did the Republicans do? That’s hard to tell just yet. This whole matter came out of the blue and clearly caught GOP leaders by surprise. The more important question is, did Republicans learn anything and do they recognize what Senator Bunning may have done for them?
In his earlier career, Jim Bunning pitched his way into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Back in the 1960s he was among the very best. He made seven All-Star appearances, pitched a perfect game in ‘64 – one of only 18 in official baseball history – and built a lifetime ERA of 3.27. For seventeen seasons Jim Bunning kept his team in the game. And, that may be exactly what he did in his one-man duel with the Senate Democratic majority; he kept Republicans in the game.
In order to get Senator Bunning to sit down Democrats made a couple seemingly minor concessions. They don’t plan to touch those left-over stimulus dollars just yet, but they allowed Bunning to attempt to pay for the bill by closing tax-benefits to the paper industry. That measure only got 43 votes, but that’s two more than the 41 Republicans…Interesting. They also made the re-hire of non-essential Federal employees and the unemployment benefits extension a temporary matter. It will have to be reauthorized in 30 days. That’s even more interesting.
Those 30-days should give Senate Republicans time to prepare. What might happen when this thing comes up for renewal again in April – right around Income Tax time – if a fight were to erupt over Government spending? What would happen if Democrats were forced to pay for jobless benefits and satellite TV and non-essential government employees from the Stimulus fund which taxpayers are already paying for? And by the way, how much longer can we expect Democrat economic policy to keep people unemployed?
In baseball when a team is on defense the pitcher takes the mound. He stands alone in the center of the infield. He faces each of the opposing batters. One-on-one, it’s him them. It takes a certain kind of guy to do that successfully. Last week Senator Jim Bunning did what a great pitcher does; he gutted it up and kept his team in the game.
Now Republicans need to go on offense and score some runs.
This essay was first published 3/4/10 on American Thinker http://www.americanthinker.com/
By Sunday, a few details had penetrated the media firewall and it looked like Bunning might have a valid point: Democrats were proposing to borrow ten billion dollars to save non-essential workers their jobs in the Transportation Department and to install satellite TV in rural areas – this was bundled together with another extension of unemployment benefits. Bunning argued there is no need to go deeper into debt to the Chinese government when hundreds of billions remain unspent in last year’s “Stimulus” fund.
Then, by Tuesday word was out that colleagues were meeting with the Senator trying to get him to give up his cause. His issue had turned into a gift to the Democrats. The mainstream press was having a party; yocking it up, cracking wise on poor old Jim Bunning, portraying the matter as a Republican Party effort to deny unemployment benefits to millions who are out of work.
For Democrats it couldn’t get any better than this. Right in the middle of Congressman Charlie Rangel’s corruption problems, Speaker Pelosi gaffes, the Governor Patterson mess, and the terrorist’s lawyers in the Justice Department – out of the blue came a cranky old Republican who, as a matter of principle, wanted to starve widows and orphans. Champaign corks were popping all over DC.
But the problem for Democrats is that Bunning was able to hold out for five long days. One, lone US Senator was able to stop the gravy-train long enough to attract attention, and for the real message to leak out. In ’06 and ’08 Democrats campaigned specifically on what they call “Pay-Go”, whereby the government must match spending with revenue. The matter was hatched back when Democrats were trying to gum-up the War on Terror. Pay-Go was an attempt to tie George Bush’s hands. You see, voting for military cuts while troops were engaged in combat would have looked bad to voters, but Pay-Go, once passed, was to be a device whereby Democrats could cut military funding indirectly. “Hey, it isn’t us. We’re just following the law…”
But, government moves slowly and just a couple weeks ago, on February 10th, the Pay-Go bill finally became law. We didn’t hear much about a signing ceremony. George W. Bush is long gone and Barack H. Obama now owns The War.
Never the less, when President Obama signed the bill, the message was supposed to be clear: From now on, there’ll be no more spending unless we can pay for it, and that’s that.
This is exactly what the Senator Jim Bunning fuss was all about. A little over two weeks after they outlawed unsecured spending, in their first piece of major financial legislation, the Democratic majority ignored half-a-trillion dollars still sitting in Stimulus funds, and went ahead and borrowed other billions without indicating how they’d pay it back.
Of course, the suspicion is the Stimulus money is not meant for things like unemployment or highway funding, not now at least. Those funds are scheduled to be released later this summer and into the fall in order to give a sugar-boost to the economy just before the mid-term elections. Barack Obama may be a Harvard-educated lawyer, but as a politician he’s pure Chicago. Stashing away a slush fund of public money to dole out at election time is exactly the kind of ethical jiggling they do every day of the week back in the Windy City. The plan is, leave the economy in the tank until we need people to vote.
So, now the Bunning crisis is over. How did the Republicans do? That’s hard to tell just yet. This whole matter came out of the blue and clearly caught GOP leaders by surprise. The more important question is, did Republicans learn anything and do they recognize what Senator Bunning may have done for them?
In his earlier career, Jim Bunning pitched his way into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Back in the 1960s he was among the very best. He made seven All-Star appearances, pitched a perfect game in ‘64 – one of only 18 in official baseball history – and built a lifetime ERA of 3.27. For seventeen seasons Jim Bunning kept his team in the game. And, that may be exactly what he did in his one-man duel with the Senate Democratic majority; he kept Republicans in the game.
In order to get Senator Bunning to sit down Democrats made a couple seemingly minor concessions. They don’t plan to touch those left-over stimulus dollars just yet, but they allowed Bunning to attempt to pay for the bill by closing tax-benefits to the paper industry. That measure only got 43 votes, but that’s two more than the 41 Republicans…Interesting. They also made the re-hire of non-essential Federal employees and the unemployment benefits extension a temporary matter. It will have to be reauthorized in 30 days. That’s even more interesting.
Those 30-days should give Senate Republicans time to prepare. What might happen when this thing comes up for renewal again in April – right around Income Tax time – if a fight were to erupt over Government spending? What would happen if Democrats were forced to pay for jobless benefits and satellite TV and non-essential government employees from the Stimulus fund which taxpayers are already paying for? And by the way, how much longer can we expect Democrat economic policy to keep people unemployed?
In baseball when a team is on defense the pitcher takes the mound. He stands alone in the center of the infield. He faces each of the opposing batters. One-on-one, it’s him them. It takes a certain kind of guy to do that successfully. Last week Senator Jim Bunning did what a great pitcher does; he gutted it up and kept his team in the game.
Now Republicans need to go on offense and score some runs.
This essay was first published 3/4/10 on American Thinker http://www.americanthinker.com/
Monday, March 1, 2010
Coffee Party, anyone?
In the one-year that The Tea Partiers have been around they have been ignored, insulted, denigrated, and dismissed by mainstream media and official Washington. They have been shut out of public meetings, compared to Nazis, labeled wing-nuts, and denounced as dangerous kooks and populist radicals.
In the face of these calumnies we are reminded that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. Yes, that’s right; the political Left has decided to get in on the act.
Drum roll, please. Enter, stage left; “The Coffee Party”.
Over the last couple weeks I have noticed a couple squibs on the internet about a brand-new political advocacy group dedicated to countering the Tea Party movement. At first I thought it was a joke. I wondered if this an organization made up of people who are not Taxed Enough Already, who think government is too small, that there’s not enough intrusion, who think that when it comes to Washington spending there is still plenty of room left on the National Credit Card. The question is, will they take that famous revolutionary flag seen at Tea Parties, the one with the coiled rattlesnake, and update its message to read “Tread On Me Some More”?
The Left is good at looking down on the common-folk, at telling others what to do, but they are not good a copying conservative phenomena. Remember what happened when they tried to get in on the talk radio business? Air America, now defunct, was a nation-wide Left wing broadcasting network that spent gobs of money – some of it tax money – yet was able to attract an audience from among only the most loyal of their fringe. Just to give an idea of how big that fringe is, their “hit” program was The Al Franken Show; at its peak it drew 1.5 million listeners per week, not listeners per day or listeners per 15-minute rating segments. That’s listeners per week to their top-rated program. In broadcasting numbers that low are presumed to include a significant percentage of those who tuned in accidentally and were unable to change the dial. The few times I got curious enough to tune in I almost asked for Novocain. That was back before Al Franken got himself elected the Senator from ACORN.
So now, the Left is going to take a stab at populist organizing. Of course, their idea of “populist” is a little high-falutin’ if the Washington Post article of February 26th is an indication. One organizer was quoted saying; “let's start a coffee party . . . smoothie party. red bull party. anything but tea. Geez. Ooh how about cappuccino party? that would really piss 'em off because it sounds elitist . . . let's get together and drink cappuccino and have real political dialogue with substance and compassion.”
Yes, and then we’ll all hold hands and feel good about ourselves.
First, we can see the Left's grasp of populist reality is limited. They don’t understand that regular Joes don’t spend too much time worrying about what beverages to serve at their meetings.
Second – and I think this is an important distinction – Tea Party people do not seek to “piss off” others. Rather, Tea Partiers seek to inform and persuade – which is what makes them effective and such a problem for the Left.
So let’s get out our crystal ball and have a look. As we gaze into the future here is what’s likely to happen: The Coffee Party will perk into existence under the leadership of the customary Democratic Party enablers. They’ll hold a couple media-approved rallies. They’ll stress that they are in favor of co-operation between the public and the government. They will say they want this 2,400 page health care bill to pass, but think it should be expanded to cover everybody on the planet. They'll want to screw The Rich to the wall with taxes, they think Rush Limbaugh should be forced off the air, and are saddened by the fact that Dick Cheney has not had the big one. The mainstream media message will be, “Isn’t it nice that such reasonable people care about our future?”
But it’ll be no time at all before some guy in a “Che” t-shirt says something dumb in front of a FOX NEWS camera. Or one of their leaders is identified as a 9/11 Truther, or a spokesman is found to have an arrest record for drug and firearm violations, or somebody was busted 20-years ago for mailing a pipe-bomb but their Democratic Congressman got the charges dropped. The possibilities are endless.
Tea, anyone?
In the face of these calumnies we are reminded that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. Yes, that’s right; the political Left has decided to get in on the act.
Drum roll, please. Enter, stage left; “The Coffee Party”.
Over the last couple weeks I have noticed a couple squibs on the internet about a brand-new political advocacy group dedicated to countering the Tea Party movement. At first I thought it was a joke. I wondered if this an organization made up of people who are not Taxed Enough Already, who think government is too small, that there’s not enough intrusion, who think that when it comes to Washington spending there is still plenty of room left on the National Credit Card. The question is, will they take that famous revolutionary flag seen at Tea Parties, the one with the coiled rattlesnake, and update its message to read “Tread On Me Some More”?
The Left is good at looking down on the common-folk, at telling others what to do, but they are not good a copying conservative phenomena. Remember what happened when they tried to get in on the talk radio business? Air America, now defunct, was a nation-wide Left wing broadcasting network that spent gobs of money – some of it tax money – yet was able to attract an audience from among only the most loyal of their fringe. Just to give an idea of how big that fringe is, their “hit” program was The Al Franken Show; at its peak it drew 1.5 million listeners per week, not listeners per day or listeners per 15-minute rating segments. That’s listeners per week to their top-rated program. In broadcasting numbers that low are presumed to include a significant percentage of those who tuned in accidentally and were unable to change the dial. The few times I got curious enough to tune in I almost asked for Novocain. That was back before Al Franken got himself elected the Senator from ACORN.
So now, the Left is going to take a stab at populist organizing. Of course, their idea of “populist” is a little high-falutin’ if the Washington Post article of February 26th is an indication. One organizer was quoted saying; “let's start a coffee party . . . smoothie party. red bull party. anything but tea. Geez. Ooh how about cappuccino party? that would really piss 'em off because it sounds elitist . . . let's get together and drink cappuccino and have real political dialogue with substance and compassion.”
Yes, and then we’ll all hold hands and feel good about ourselves.
First, we can see the Left's grasp of populist reality is limited. They don’t understand that regular Joes don’t spend too much time worrying about what beverages to serve at their meetings.
Second – and I think this is an important distinction – Tea Party people do not seek to “piss off” others. Rather, Tea Partiers seek to inform and persuade – which is what makes them effective and such a problem for the Left.
So let’s get out our crystal ball and have a look. As we gaze into the future here is what’s likely to happen: The Coffee Party will perk into existence under the leadership of the customary Democratic Party enablers. They’ll hold a couple media-approved rallies. They’ll stress that they are in favor of co-operation between the public and the government. They will say they want this 2,400 page health care bill to pass, but think it should be expanded to cover everybody on the planet. They'll want to screw The Rich to the wall with taxes, they think Rush Limbaugh should be forced off the air, and are saddened by the fact that Dick Cheney has not had the big one. The mainstream media message will be, “Isn’t it nice that such reasonable people care about our future?”
But it’ll be no time at all before some guy in a “Che” t-shirt says something dumb in front of a FOX NEWS camera. Or one of their leaders is identified as a 9/11 Truther, or a spokesman is found to have an arrest record for drug and firearm violations, or somebody was busted 20-years ago for mailing a pipe-bomb but their Democratic Congressman got the charges dropped. The possibilities are endless.
Tea, anyone?
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Democrats Check In...but they can't check out
Now that the Health Care Summit is over it’s safe to say that Barack Obama, even if he serves but a single term, is one president who’ll not soon be forgotten.
Depending on which side you're on, either for or against Obama’s stated goals, it is clear that for years to come we’ll all be marveling over either the monumental smallness of this man’s accomplishments or the grandness of his missed opportunities. It is now apparent to anyone half-paying attention that Barack Obama and his entire administration are in way over their heads. They come across as callow opinionated student protesters who have barricaded themselves into the Dean’s office and shut down the campus…Now what?
There was a moment following the Scott Brown Senate victory back in January, that it looked like the President had gotten the message; he indicated he would go to work on the economy, on lowering unemployment, on getting business moving and keeping the country safe. This was a sad but entirely reasonable fall-back position; write off the first year of his administration as a wild goose chase and go to work on the problems that face the nation.
That new focus lasted about a day and a half…then, just like nothing ever happened, it was back to work trying to cram that over-stuffed the 2,400+page Senate Health Care Bill into law. Reports began to leak of Democratic strategy sessions, of possible legislative tricks and legal maneuvering. The Health Care Bill would be declared a piece of “financial” legislation so that Budget Reconciliation could be used to pass it with 50 votes plus the Vice President’s. Holy Criminetly! Now another six weeks has slipped by.
If there is a good side to this, and there’s only one that I can see, it is this: The whole dream of nationalized health care has turned into a giant Democratic Party “Roach Motel” -- you know, one of those household pest removers that advertise “bugs check in but they don’t check out”. The Health Care Bill is like that. In order to grease this abomination through all the committees and all the test votes Democratic Party leadership loaded the bill with goodies of every description; with ear marks, pork, kick-backs and pay-offs galore. The operative question in private discussions was not "how do we make this bill better for the American people", but “What do you need to get on board?”
Here's the situation for Democrats, and it is only going to get worse: As public resistance to the Health Care Bill grows, now at 60% and growing, Democrats are finding they can't back out of the deal. They are caught in a trap of their own devising. First, if they try to get out their own party base, the hard-core Left, would go berserk. Second, if the bill goes down in flames it will take all the "Gator Aid" and "Corn Husker Kick-Backs" with it. Those guys will not get a piece of the action if there is no action. Third, whether they pass it or don't pass it, they'll gain little political advantage with the voters. Large sections of the public have already written them off as dolts.
Well, by now it is dawning on them that they have checked into The Democratic Party Roach Motel. In fact, they booked themselves into the honeymoon suite. Somebody should send up a bottle of champagne.
Depending on which side you're on, either for or against Obama’s stated goals, it is clear that for years to come we’ll all be marveling over either the monumental smallness of this man’s accomplishments or the grandness of his missed opportunities. It is now apparent to anyone half-paying attention that Barack Obama and his entire administration are in way over their heads. They come across as callow opinionated student protesters who have barricaded themselves into the Dean’s office and shut down the campus…Now what?
There was a moment following the Scott Brown Senate victory back in January, that it looked like the President had gotten the message; he indicated he would go to work on the economy, on lowering unemployment, on getting business moving and keeping the country safe. This was a sad but entirely reasonable fall-back position; write off the first year of his administration as a wild goose chase and go to work on the problems that face the nation.
That new focus lasted about a day and a half…then, just like nothing ever happened, it was back to work trying to cram that over-stuffed the 2,400+page Senate Health Care Bill into law. Reports began to leak of Democratic strategy sessions, of possible legislative tricks and legal maneuvering. The Health Care Bill would be declared a piece of “financial” legislation so that Budget Reconciliation could be used to pass it with 50 votes plus the Vice President’s. Holy Criminetly! Now another six weeks has slipped by.
If there is a good side to this, and there’s only one that I can see, it is this: The whole dream of nationalized health care has turned into a giant Democratic Party “Roach Motel” -- you know, one of those household pest removers that advertise “bugs check in but they don’t check out”. The Health Care Bill is like that. In order to grease this abomination through all the committees and all the test votes Democratic Party leadership loaded the bill with goodies of every description; with ear marks, pork, kick-backs and pay-offs galore. The operative question in private discussions was not "how do we make this bill better for the American people", but “What do you need to get on board?”
Here's the situation for Democrats, and it is only going to get worse: As public resistance to the Health Care Bill grows, now at 60% and growing, Democrats are finding they can't back out of the deal. They are caught in a trap of their own devising. First, if they try to get out their own party base, the hard-core Left, would go berserk. Second, if the bill goes down in flames it will take all the "Gator Aid" and "Corn Husker Kick-Backs" with it. Those guys will not get a piece of the action if there is no action. Third, whether they pass it or don't pass it, they'll gain little political advantage with the voters. Large sections of the public have already written them off as dolts.
Well, by now it is dawning on them that they have checked into The Democratic Party Roach Motel. In fact, they booked themselves into the honeymoon suite. Somebody should send up a bottle of champagne.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
THE TRIANGLE OF DEATH, film review
It’s happened to all of us. We receive a recommendation from a friend: “You’ve got to see this documentary movie. It's important.”
Right away our suspicions are aroused. While the film in question may deal with an issue that cries out for public outrage, it is also likely to be a pretentious dry-ball exercise that will make an evening’s movie-going feel like sitting at the dinner table when you were eight years old and being told by your Mother to “eat your peas and carrots”. Experience has taught us to graciously accept the recommendation, and put said film on our “must see” list – at the bottom – where it stays.
The Triangle of Death is not that movie. It belongs at the top of your list.
The Triangle of Death is a fast paced picture that documents the day to day combat experiences of the 3rd Platoon of the 2/24th of the United States Marine Corps while deployed in the Sunni Triangle in 2004-2005. For 94 pounding minutes the film puts the viewer right at the tip of the spear. You are there; traveling in the convoys, going house to house, battling from the rooftops. The bullets whizzing by are as thick as deerflies at a Wisconsin fish fry in July, and they are real bullets. Same for the mortar rounds, the IEDs, and the blood…they’re all real, too.
And speaking of blood; this film is not for the kiddies. Body parts go flying, wild dogs feed on rotting corpses, and Al Qaeda reprisals against anyone aiding the Marines are brutal. The pictures are unvarnished. The language is unbleeped. It is all right there on the screen.
The film itself is something of an improbability. Get this: all of the combat footage was filmed by one man, Corporal Follah S. Tamba, a rifleman in Echo Company, who in addition to his other gear carried a small high-quality video camera. And what pictures he captured. Tightly edited together, The Triangle of Death it is like an extended fireworks display. The viewer is bashed by one astonishing image after another. Tamba was wounded midway through his deployment and had his first camera blown to bits by an IED. He got patched up, found a back-up camera and went right back into action.
Going further, and even more into the improbable, consider these facts: Corporal Follah S. Tamba is an immigrant from Nigeria. He has a degree in film from Chicago’s Columbia College. Upon graduation he didn’t go to Hollywood, he joined the Marines.
In the course of filming his deployment, and through follow up interviews back home, Tamba draws a clear picture of combat and the men who serve. Writer George Orwell’s statement “We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm” is spot on, but it also omits several important characteristics of these American Marines. The first is dedication. They are charged up and ready to go. The young Marines who are wounded can’t wait to get back into action. They clearly want victory and they want to accomplish their mission.
The second characteristic is professionalism. These guys are the most efficient, businesslike warriors the world has yet to see. No muss. No fuss. They train, they practice and they show up ready for action.
Third, and most unexpectedly, we see how funny these Marines are. Through all they experienced – heat, filth, fatigue, and the threat of miserable death, they maintain an almost chipper sense of humor. Off-hand comments heard in the background while something serious was going on led to some unexpected laughs. Their effort to establish good relations with the Iraqi locals was interesting, too.
While the Americans made it a priority to work within the framework of local mores and customs, sometimes this was a pretty tall order. An incident that occurred during a training exercise with Iraqi militia recruits was especially telling and amusing. At one point an Iraqi trainee, through negligence, accidentally discharged his weapon. As punishment the offender was ordered to carry around a 63 pound rock, in the heat of day through whatever they were doing. Throughout the rest of the filmed sequence, lurking on the fringes we see a gangly Iraqi with a slab of stone perched on his shoulder. This incident underlined the off-center humor sprinkled throughout the film.
The film's producers, Juan Montelongo and Thomas Hartmann, along with Corporal Tamba, are also Columbia College graduates. They formed Wolf Dog Films in the western suburbs of Chicago. The final cut of their picture finished, their task now is to get the film into as many festivals as possible and secure some form of general release.
As well photographed as the film is a key participant in the final presentation was the editor, Eugene Gordon. He kept things tight and moving forward. There is not one slow second of screen time. The sound designer, Tom Balazs, deserves mention, too. “The sound” of the FX tracks was first rate and enhanced the reality of the finished film far beyond the limitations of its modest budget.
As a piece of filmmaking, The Triangle of Death is a unique rare gem, a little jewel. Seeing it today you can easily imagine the film’s increased documentary value five hundred years from now. In future times someone viewing it will have a clear window into the American military of today, its character and capability, unfiltered and untarnished by current mainstream media bias. The Triangle of Death is fast paced, exciting, violent, funny and it makes a serious point: Some first-rate young men are working hard and taking risks so that the rest of America can sleep well again tonight.
Here's a preview.
And, to purchase a copy of the film click here.
Right away our suspicions are aroused. While the film in question may deal with an issue that cries out for public outrage, it is also likely to be a pretentious dry-ball exercise that will make an evening’s movie-going feel like sitting at the dinner table when you were eight years old and being told by your Mother to “eat your peas and carrots”. Experience has taught us to graciously accept the recommendation, and put said film on our “must see” list – at the bottom – where it stays.
The Triangle of Death is not that movie. It belongs at the top of your list.
The Triangle of Death is a fast paced picture that documents the day to day combat experiences of the 3rd Platoon of the 2/24th of the United States Marine Corps while deployed in the Sunni Triangle in 2004-2005. For 94 pounding minutes the film puts the viewer right at the tip of the spear. You are there; traveling in the convoys, going house to house, battling from the rooftops. The bullets whizzing by are as thick as deerflies at a Wisconsin fish fry in July, and they are real bullets. Same for the mortar rounds, the IEDs, and the blood…they’re all real, too.
And speaking of blood; this film is not for the kiddies. Body parts go flying, wild dogs feed on rotting corpses, and Al Qaeda reprisals against anyone aiding the Marines are brutal. The pictures are unvarnished. The language is unbleeped. It is all right there on the screen.
The film itself is something of an improbability. Get this: all of the combat footage was filmed by one man, Corporal Follah S. Tamba, a rifleman in Echo Company, who in addition to his other gear carried a small high-quality video camera. And what pictures he captured. Tightly edited together, The Triangle of Death it is like an extended fireworks display. The viewer is bashed by one astonishing image after another. Tamba was wounded midway through his deployment and had his first camera blown to bits by an IED. He got patched up, found a back-up camera and went right back into action.
Going further, and even more into the improbable, consider these facts: Corporal Follah S. Tamba is an immigrant from Nigeria. He has a degree in film from Chicago’s Columbia College. Upon graduation he didn’t go to Hollywood, he joined the Marines.
In the course of filming his deployment, and through follow up interviews back home, Tamba draws a clear picture of combat and the men who serve. Writer George Orwell’s statement “We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm” is spot on, but it also omits several important characteristics of these American Marines. The first is dedication. They are charged up and ready to go. The young Marines who are wounded can’t wait to get back into action. They clearly want victory and they want to accomplish their mission.
The second characteristic is professionalism. These guys are the most efficient, businesslike warriors the world has yet to see. No muss. No fuss. They train, they practice and they show up ready for action.
Third, and most unexpectedly, we see how funny these Marines are. Through all they experienced – heat, filth, fatigue, and the threat of miserable death, they maintain an almost chipper sense of humor. Off-hand comments heard in the background while something serious was going on led to some unexpected laughs. Their effort to establish good relations with the Iraqi locals was interesting, too.
While the Americans made it a priority to work within the framework of local mores and customs, sometimes this was a pretty tall order. An incident that occurred during a training exercise with Iraqi militia recruits was especially telling and amusing. At one point an Iraqi trainee, through negligence, accidentally discharged his weapon. As punishment the offender was ordered to carry around a 63 pound rock, in the heat of day through whatever they were doing. Throughout the rest of the filmed sequence, lurking on the fringes we see a gangly Iraqi with a slab of stone perched on his shoulder. This incident underlined the off-center humor sprinkled throughout the film.
The film's producers, Juan Montelongo and Thomas Hartmann, along with Corporal Tamba, are also Columbia College graduates. They formed Wolf Dog Films in the western suburbs of Chicago. The final cut of their picture finished, their task now is to get the film into as many festivals as possible and secure some form of general release.
As well photographed as the film is a key participant in the final presentation was the editor, Eugene Gordon. He kept things tight and moving forward. There is not one slow second of screen time. The sound designer, Tom Balazs, deserves mention, too. “The sound” of the FX tracks was first rate and enhanced the reality of the finished film far beyond the limitations of its modest budget.
As a piece of filmmaking, The Triangle of Death is a unique rare gem, a little jewel. Seeing it today you can easily imagine the film’s increased documentary value five hundred years from now. In future times someone viewing it will have a clear window into the American military of today, its character and capability, unfiltered and untarnished by current mainstream media bias. The Triangle of Death is fast paced, exciting, violent, funny and it makes a serious point: Some first-rate young men are working hard and taking risks so that the rest of America can sleep well again tonight.
Here's a preview.
And, to purchase a copy of the film click here.
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