Senator McCain attempting to straddle the fence again:

Senator John McCain said Monday that he had “no confidence” in Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, citing the secretary’s handling of the war in Iraq and troop levels there that Mr. McCain deems insufficient.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican who is a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, said his comments were not a call for Mr. Rumsfeld’s resignation. President Bush “can have the team that he wants around him,” the senator said.

I guess this is McCain trying to pretend he’s not a party soldier even as he continues the march of a GOP soldier. If he really doesn’t have faith in Rumsfeld, why doesn’t he call for a change? This isn’t the Department of Commerce we’re talking about. People are dying because of decisions being made in the Pentagon. That should prompt dissatisfied senators to take a hard stand.

Bad choice:

When Marine Lance Cpl. David Battle learned he’d either have to sacrifice his ring finger or the wedding band he wore, he told doctors at a field hospital in Iraq to cut off the finger.
. . .
Doctors were preparing to cut off Battle’s ring to save as much of his finger as they could.
“But that would mean destroying my wedding ring,” he said. “My wife is the strongest woman I know. She’s basically running two people’s lives since I’ve been gone.”
With his approval, doctors severed his finger, but in the chaos that followed, they lost his ring.

I’m guessing that had he gone with saving the finger, it probably won’t have been misplaced on the way home.
I’m not married, so perhaps I’m not the best judge of this, but isn’t replacing a wedding ring a lot easier than replacing a finger? Even when you factor in sentimental value?

Les Jones notes how Viacom is using 60 Minutes for free advertising.
If I had some free time, I could probably think of more examples of this. But right now I’m caught up in MSNBC’s hard-hitting analysis of last night’s Apprentice.

This whole story about armored U.S. military vehicles in Iraq is a great illustration of the pack-mentality of today’s media.
A Tennessee reservist asks why his comrades are having to dig through the dump to shore up their vehicles. And within 24 hours the issue of armed vehicles is headline news on all the major news outlets and the Department of Defense is having multiple press conferences on the topic.
Only thing is, there’s really nothing “new” here to report, because anyone following this war has known of the armored vehicle shortage for months. So what does the media “report” about this? Well, they spend one news cycle covering the fact that the reservist asked Rumsfeld a question about the armor (apparently something they’ve been unable to do for the past year. Then they cover more press conferences. Then they cover the fact that the reservist was “coached” by a reporter (why someone needed “help” to ask that question beyond me. Then last night they covered how Bush said if he was over there he might ask the same thing.
What was missing from this discussion? A number of the reports failed to mention that Bush, as commander in chief, could and should have been asking Rumsfeld that question a long time ago. And very few actually dug into the why of the shortage issue. But that would have required someone to do some actual research rather than following the cluster of press corp microphones around and repeating what they heard.
Our news media is great, isn’t it?

I’ve obviously been away from the blog for a few days. I’ve kind of been in a bunkered down mode since the plane crash. I been reflecting on some of the larger issues in life, and haven’t felt like writing much on current events.
On Tuesday I attended the memorial service in Dalton, GA. The nearly three-hour long service included life sketches, photographs, music, memories, and some preaching. I thought Jeremy Arnall’s was the most effective in conveying a sense of who his brother was. Undoubtedly it was extremely difficult to talk of his twin brother on that stage, but Jeremy was very composed.
One of the most moving moments of the service was when Dave Cress’s eight-year-old daughter played a hymn on the piano. She, likewise, held up very well. I, on the other hand, found the thing to be very difficult to watch.
On the flip side, I did get to visit with a few former Cohutta Springs Camp co-workers who I hadn’t seen in several years. It’s regrettable that it took this event to bring us together. But their companionship made the evening a little easier to take.