toohotfortnr

on what frequency will liberation be?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 03:48:00 +0000

The new URL is HTTP://WWW.THINKPROGRESS.ORG/ATTACKERMAN.Too Hot For TNR is officially dead. Reset your RSS and edit your blogroll. This is creative destruction. See you at Attackerman.

good times never felt so good

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:21:00 +0000

Soon I'll be on my way to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where I'll be among people who want to kill me simply for being who I am. For practice, last night I went -- for the first time in my life -- to Fenway Park.

On my way to the airport yesterday afternoon, Megan informed me that the first Yanks-Red Sox matchup of 2008 was that evening, and not, as I had thought, Friday the 18th. Oh, nice, I said, maybe I can convince my friend Colin to watch the game with me at some bar. "Or," Megan replied, "you can get tickets on StubHub. I saw some this morning for like $75."

A dam burst. Seeing the Yankees humiliate the Red Sox... in Fenway. Dare I to dream? Si, se puede!

Thanks to the miracle of my broadband card, I opened my laptop at BWI while I waited for my flight and overpaid on StubHub for bleacher seats for me and Colin. But fuck it, right? I don't think I've seen a Yankee-Red Sox game at Yankee Stadium, ever. And if you're going to walk into your enemy's house, you do it like a man: right to the bleachers. Sadly I didn't think of this while I was packing my bag, or my Robi Cano rookie shirt would have marched into Fenway. My friend Erica suggested that it wasn't too late to get tattooed.

Fenway was angry that night, my friends, like an old man trying to return soup at a deli. The rain didn't seem like it was going to stop. It was as if God was trying to save the Sox, and their fans, for what He had in store. But Red Sox fans are infidels. Everything you've heard about their legendary classiness and respect for others and even themselves? True.

Now, I welcome the hate. I wouldn't respect the fans if they didn't unleash a whirlwind of bile and invective. It's not something I mind. What I mind is the unoriginality. Did you know that Jason Giambi used steroids? Or A-Rod might be overpaid? A charming fellow behind us, who spilled his beer on Colin, an amateur boxer, thought he was insulting the Yankees, but any cop would recognize what he was hollering as clear solicitation. By the fifth I opted to cheer loudly and openly. Giambi's homer? That was roid rage right there, friend.

To preempt an obvious objection: Yes, Yankee fans are also terrible. On Mother's Day 2006 I bought extremely expensive tickets to the Stadium to cheer up my ailing mom. Behind us two i-banker assholes talked incessantly about how inventively they had recently fucked some girls. They did not respond to the stinkeye. But one difference between Yankee fans and Red Sox fans? Sox fans turn on each other. When the guy next to us stood up and cheered in the 8th in the hope of igniting a Sox rally, an ornery type behind him demanded he sit down. He complied, but not before speaking his mind. "I'll wake you up with a two-by four," Ornery offered. Fenway cops ejected three fans -- and the fans applauded the cops, instead of supporting their fellow fans.

Another guy demanded... chowder. (They sell chowder at Fenway. It was cold last night, but I'm not eating Fenway clam chowder. My mom pointed out that Yankee Stadium doesn't sell Manhattan clam chowder.) "Hey! Chowder! Chowder! Hey chowder guy! Chowder right here!" It went on for five minutes. When he finally got his fucking chowder, his friend shouted, "Hey chowder guy! Go get the peanut guy!"

Since this is almost as long as the Lizza post: Wang threw a 94-pitch two-hit complete game. Yanks took it decisively, 4-1, but weaknesses showed through: they stranded a lot of baserunners. Today is Beckett versus Moose, and it's hard to see how the Yanks take this one. An encouraging sign: Girardi let Wang complete the game given how hot he was, and that's something Torre almost never would have allowed, particularly against the Red Sox. And now I feel prepared to meet the Taliban.

all the beating drums, the celebration guns

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:49:00 +0000

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 300-08
April 11, 2008
DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Spc. Jacob J. Fairbanks, 22, of Saint Paul, Minn., died April 9 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered in a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.

The incident is under investigation.

For more information media may contact the Fort Campbell public affairs office at (270) 798-9966.

all the beating drums, the celebration guns

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:48:00 +0000

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 299-08
April 11, 2008
DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Sgt. Jesse A. Ault, 28, of Dublin, Va., died April 9 in Baghdad, Iraq, from wounds suffered in Tunnis, Iraq, when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 429th Brigade Support Battalion, Virginia Army National Guard, Roanoke, Va.

For more information media may contact the Virginia National Guard public affairs office at (434) 294-1477 or (540) 407-5644.

you snitchin where i come from, you gonna get your shit blown

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:54:00 +0000

On Monday, THFTNR goes out of business and Attackerman rises to take its place. That means I have a limited amount of time to take this blog back to its essence: the beef with TNR. And I have one score in particular that I badly need to settle. The story of Snitching Ryan Lizza.

For years, Ryan and I were cool. Lots of people at TNR are lazy -- The Plank got started because Frank, Crowley and Jason Zengerle figured it would be easier to collect their web-writing bonus by blogging instead of writing twice-monthly columns -- but Ryan never was. Remember that obnoxious intern in Shattered Glass who constantly pokes his nose into other people's business because he's desperate to be put on? That's based on Ryan. His specialty was always in schmoozing -- meeting powerful people, ingratiating himself to powerful people, trying to get something out of powerful people. He was the first person I ever met who showed off his BlackBerry. But I never had a problem with Ryan.

By 2006, Frank had instituted a policy of fucking me over. It was harder for me to place pieces in the magazine than it was under Beinart and Scoblic. Even my blog posts were put under a cumbersome series of edits that no other writer -- except, I believe, Lawrence -- had to endure. At editorial meetings I received no support for either pitches or suggestions for coverage. It was, to say the least, frustrating: Frank was one of the people I was closest with at the magazine when we were both writers, and I cheered his ascension to editor. I didn't understand why he was playing me like this.

So one day I was commiserating with Ryan. Just blowing off steam. Understand: the lives of journalists are built around complaining, striving and martyrdom. We're prima donnas. It's unattractive but true. TNR in particular had a kind of conspiratorial atmosphere -- lots of gossip; lots of complex alliances of personal, political and bureaucratic convenience; and an age/status division between the senior editors and up, who were all in their 30s and older; and the associate editor (me) and down, who were all in our 20s. In a moment of blowing off steam, I said to Ryan that maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if I got fired for TNR for being too left-wing. There were probably some editors who'd come to my aid if that happened, since people in The Game know what TNR is really like.

I thought nothing of it. Again, that kind of venting isn't unusual for TNR, and I heard other writers say much worse things about the place over the years. But a couple weeks later Frank asked me to have lunch with him. Great! I thought. Finally an audience with my friend-turned-editor, who seems not to have time for me anymore. We went to the sushi place on New York Avenue and 11th.

"Listen," Frank said, "I know you've been telling people that you welcome getting fired. I want to tell you how unprofessional and immature that is."

Stunning. Lizza had run to our boss and told him something I had said as a way of calming myself down. Now, here it was, ripped from context, and made into a problem between me and my editor. It was the first salvo of much fake outrage from Frank over the coming months. When I grumbled that I knew who snitched on me, Frank -- realizing he had fucked up -- urged me to let it go.

I tried. Lizza went on smiling at me in the hallways, shooting the breeze, acting friendly. And then things got a little weird. By the fall, I was openly getting in conflicts with Frank and Kate Marsh, one of TNR's deputy editors. Ryan IM'd me one day and told me that if ever I was feeling frustrated, I could always go to him to talk it out.

Now, I can't prove what I'm about to write. But I thought that was really weird on his part, since we were never what you'd call friends. The only time he took any interest in me was when I was involved in inter-TNR controversy. And I'm supposed to confide in him? After he snitched on me and gave Frank the pretext he needed to poison our relationship? My suspicion: he was funneling Frank whatever I told him. Like I said, I can't prove it. But I do know that Lizza, an inveterate gossip and kiss-ass, cannot help involving himself in these kinds of minor intrigues, and he has done that to other TNR writers as well. But those aren't stories for me to tell.

I admit to being blindsided by Lizza. Part of me -- the public part -- puffed up my chest and talked big about how I didn't care what happened to me at the magazine. But most of me -- the part I kept to myself -- was confused, frightened and deeply hurt at being cast out of favor at a magazine and social environment that meant everything to me. So I didn't say much to Lizza. But one thing I did say was that I didn't really mean what I said about not thinking it was so bad if I got fired. He told me I was "back-pedaling."

Two days before I ultimately got fired Ryan IM'd me. It was after I wrote two THFTNR posts: one about how the magazine's content-management-system was appropriately called Coma and the other about how the cool kids hate TNR. Jokey stuff. Ryan contacted me in a snit and told me how deeply I had offended my colleagues and how I was out of control -- but I could always talk to him about whatever I was going through. I told him, first, that I didn't realize I had offended anyone and would write an apology over email, which I did; and second, that what I really wanted was to see if the kind of magazine I believed in could still be saved -- something brave, honest, and penetrative. In other words: I didn't want to be fired, and I didn't want to quit. I didn't want to leave.

And then we took the conversation to a phone chat, and I said something else. How dare Lizza snitch on me? How dare he so casually toy with me? Lizza apologized. I remember this moment so vividly: I was standing on my porch, smoking a cigarette while it rained, my voice trembling, my hands trembling. I called Lizza a lot of colorful names. My friend Kate came up the stairs and looked vaguely frightened at how angry I was. Two days later I was fired.

What I learned from this is something every journalist, every editor, every potential source and every reader should know: Ryan Lizza is not to be trusted. He will betray you, and betray you casually. Whatever helps Lizza get what he want, Lizza will do. It doesn't matter if you and he have a warm relationship. He only -- only -- cares about himself. So congratulations, Ryan! You got what you wanted. You're the New Yorker's Washington correspondent. I hope it's worth it to you to have that job, since the path that you took to get it was to become a sniveling, obsequious, deceitful coward. Or maybe that's what you've always been, and always will be.

may the kings all drown in the blood of conquest

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:31:00 +0000

Abu Muqawama surveys Egyptian unrest and says "this isn't an insurgency (yet)":

If the unrest does become an insurgency, one should, unfortunately, probably bet on the Egyptian apparatus of state repression to triumph. The Egyptians do counterinsurgency the old-fashioned way: they kill a lot of people, arrest even more, torture those who they arrest, intimidate the families and professional contacts of those targeted, shut down channels of political dissent, and keep the pressure going indefinitely. How long has Egypt been under a state of emergency? Nearly 30 years, right?

Obviously I think this state of affairs is reprehensible. But to look at it outside the realm of normative judgment, what stands out is that a domestic insurgency really would become a fight for survival on the part of the ruling Egyptian clique. That will make the Mubarak-niks fight with all the brutality a battle for survival entails. To make the obvious point, an army of occupation does not face the same existential imperatives as a government beset with a mass uprising does -- unless the purpose of that occupation is to sustain itself forever. (And even then, the imperative doesn't really exist unless the occupation implicates the survival of the imperial metropole. Not the case in Iraq, despite all the "we fight them over there so we won't fight them over here" lies.) Furthermore, we should be very, very wary of viewing counterinsurgency as a continuum of operations, since doing so could draw us into the mistake of saying, "Well, you know, the Egyptians really know what they're doing..."

we can go toe to toe in the middle of a cell

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:13:00 +0000

Brian Katulis and Matt Duss empty a clip into the Kagans:

One of the most skewed analyses of the recent intra-Shiite clashes in Iraq came from two architects of the Bush administration's 2007 surge, Fred and Kimberly Kagan. Writing in the Weekly Standard, the Kagans described last month's battle in Basra as a security operation launched by "the legitimate Government of Iraq and its legally constituted security forces [against] illegal, foreign-backed, insurgent and criminal militias serving leaders who openly call for the defeat and humiliation of the United States and its allies in Iraq and throughout the region."

These depictions ignore an inconvenient truth: The leaders in Iraq's current government are closely aligned with Tehran and represent some of Iran's closest allies in Iraq. This is perhaps best illustrated by the warm welcome Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad received in his visit to Iraq last month, which punctures the myth that the current battle is between a unified Iraqi government and fringe groups receiving support from Iran.

did you win that race? did you score that point?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:07:00 +0000

My friend Ari Berman catches the Los Angeles Times' Peter Wallstein relying on a racist rightwinger, Debbie Schlussel, for a piece implying that Barack Obama has some kind of animus against the Jews. Apparently it's impossible to be a friend of both Israel and Palestine! Christ, Wallstein also uses another friend of mine, Hussein Ibish, to say in coded words, See? See? Arabs like Obama! Arabs!

all the beating drums, the celebration guns

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:58:00 +0000

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 297-08
April 10, 2008
DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Sgt. Shaun P. Tousha, 30, of Hull, Texas, died April 9 in Baghdad, Iraq, from wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

For more information media may contact the Fort Hood public affairs office at (254) 287-9993; after hours (254) 291-2591.

all the beating drums, the celebration guns

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:35:00 +0000

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 296-08
April 10, 2008
DoD Identifies Air Force Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of an airman who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Tech. Sgt Anthony L. Capra, 31, of Hanford, Calif., died April 9 near Golden Hills, Iraq, of wounds suffered when he encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to Detachment 63, 688 Armament Systems Squadron, Indian Head City, Md.

For further information related to this release, please contact the 96th Air Base Wing Air Force Base public affairs office at (850) 882-5987.

it's like asking an orphan to shut the fuck up

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:27:00 +0000

Gregg Easterbrook writes in -- I'm so sorry to say it -- The Washington Independent:

Here is the October 2002 joint congressional resolution authorizing the invasion of Iraq. Give it a read in light of what is now known. Needless to say, the resolution cites banned weapons as a justification for war; we can stipulate this was a reasonable belief at the time. Other justifications for war cited include that "members of Al Qaeda… are known to be in Iraq." Whether this was true then or not, members of Al Qaeda are known to be in Britain; is the presence in a country of individual criminals a justification for invasion?

Of course, you didn't have to wait until the invasion occurred to recognize that kind of fallacious reasoning. And I worked with Gregg at TNR at the time -- I even had to waste a weekend combing through his books for potentially-offensive statements after he attacked the Jews on his blog -- and I don't recall him saying a word in opposition to the war at editorial meetings when the magazine was backing the resolution.

seen your video

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:20:00 +0000

Attention DC-area THFTNR readers: would you like to be in a music video? (Not for The Surge.) I need a posse for a shoot I'm doing. Email supportthesurge-at-gmail-dot-com. Serious inquiries only please.

DJ Scott La Rock has a college degree

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:07:00 +0000

Everyone cheer on my friend and counterinsurgency luminary Erin Simpson, who defends her dissertation ~~today~~ tomorrow. Woo Erin! Doctor Simpson! I bought you a pink Varitek t-shirt to mark your special day.

streets is watching

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:46:00 +0000

My summation of the Petraeus hearings is out at the Washington Independent. Can I preach it like I feel it?

Yet Petraeus defied expectations in one sense. He did not exhibit much deference to his potential Democratic bosses. At times, he appeared downright dismissive of the idea that anti-war forces might have a point. He repeatedly said that dire consequences would follow a precipitous withdrawal, but declined to answer a question from House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D- Calif.) how he would mitigate those consequences if ordered to implement a withdrawal.

When asked by Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) -- a decided moderate in both outlook and temperament -- if reasonable people could disagree about the way forward in Iraq, Petraeus replied, "Lots of things in life are arguable." He sounded more like Donald Rumsfeld than the officer who has become a national hero.

More substantively, Petraeus twice refused to say that he would be prepared to either design or execute a plan for withdrawal should a new (read: Democratic) president order one. Aware that what he was saying edged up to the line of insubordination, he added, "Let me state up front that I absolutely support the idea of civilian control of the military. We do not work for ourselves." Yet he did not say either that he would resign on principle if asked to implement a strategy he did not support, or that he would ultimately salute and follow orders.

Brandon at VetVoice reminds us that eighteen Americans have died in Iraq since Sunday.

all the beating drums, the celebration guns

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:46:00 +0000

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 291-08
April 10, 2008
DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Spc. Jeremiah C. Hughes, 26, of Jacksonville, Fla., died April 9 in Balad Iraq, of injuries sustained in a non-combat related incident in Abu Gharab, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team (Stryker), 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

The incident is under investigation.

For more information media may contact the 25th Infantry Division public affairs office at (808) 655-6341.

all the beating drums, the celebration guns

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:45:00 +0000

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 290-08
April 10, 2008
DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Staff Sgt. Jeffery L. Hartley, 25, of Hempstead, Texas, died April 8 in Kharguliah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Benning, Ga.

For more information media may contact the Fort Benning public affairs office at (706) 545-3512; after hours, call (706) 545-2218.

all the beating drums, the celebration guns

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 22:44:00 +0000

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 289-08
April 09, 2008
DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Maj. Mark E. Rosenberg, 32, of Miami Lakes, Fla., died April 8 in Baghdad, Iraq of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.

For more information related to this release, media may contact the Fort Carson public affairs office at (719) 526-4143; after hours (719) 526-5500.

i'm so tired i can't sleep

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 22:36:00 +0000

Two days. Four hearings. Sixty posts. Well, 62: One I forgot to post -- it was about Barbara Boxer's accent -- and one Laura took down because she didn't like me calling for our readers to storm the C-Span offices and murder the producers who cut away from the House Armed Services Committee. Also a 930-word sum-up that Allison is editing now. I'm exhausted and a bit delirious. So that means it's karaoke time.

superman that ho

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:14:00 +0000

Ezra has a great column pivoting off Yglesias's great book:

Yet the internationalist vision was more deeply interwoven into our cultural fabric than we often realize. Superman and Captain America were superheroes of an odd sort: Tremendously powerful beings whose primary struggle was often to follow the self-imposed rules and strictures that lent their power a moral legitimacy. Neither allowed themselves to kill, and both sought to work within the law. Given their strength, either could have sought world domination, and even if they didn't, could have been viewed with deep suspicion and even hatred by those who were convinced they one day would seek world domination. It was only by following ostentatiously strict moral codes that they could legitimize their power, and thus exist cooperatively with a world that had every right to fear them. Indeed, soon enough, both were forming communities of likeminded super beings (The Justice League for Superman, the Avengers for Captain America) and generally operating much like, well, the nation that birthed them. As Spiderman -- a later hero who, like so many heroes, bought into the idea that rules and restraint separated the good guys from the bad guys -- liked to say, "with great power comes great responsibility."

An excellent point. For years I've had a burr under my saddle about an admittedly rare neoconservative trope: to advocate a "heroic" foreign policy. Tom Donnelly and Vance Serchuck wrote a 2004 piece for the Weekly Standard attacking John Kerry for not realizing that the U.S. is Batman. It was admittedly odd: I like my comic books, but I can also distinguish fantasy from reality.

Ezra's making me think twice. Maybe there's something to be said for Justice League or Iron Man approaches to foreign affairs.

all the beating drums, the celebration guns

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:30:00 +0000

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 286-08
April 09, 2008
DoD Identifies Army Casualties

The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died April 7 in Sadr City, Iraq, when enemy forces attacked using a rocket propelled grenade. They were assigned to the 1st Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany.

Killed were:

Spc. Jason C. Kazarick, 30, of Oakmont, Pa.

Sgt. Michael T. Lilly, 23, of Boise, Idaho.

For more information media may contact the U.S. Army, Europe, public affairs office at 011-49-6221-57-5816 or 8694, or email: ocpa.pi@eur.army.mil .

all the beating drums, the celebration guns

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:54:00 +0000

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 287-08
April 09, 2008
DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Sgt. Timothy M. Smith, 25, of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., died April 7 in Baghdad, Iraq of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 4th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), located at Fort Polk, La.

For further information media may contact the Fort Polk public affairs office at (337) 531-4630.

we gon' do it again, we gon' do it again

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:18:00 +0000

If it was Petraeus you were after, I sure hope you read the Streak yesterday. I'm well on my way to breaking my TPM record from September of 50 Petraeus posts in two days: we got like 40 in on day one. I'll be liveblogging rounds three and four of the Petraeus-Congress bout over at The Streak today, too. Thanks to Holly for taking care of the Obama questioning while I was out Surging.

So, a quick after-action report: it's been nine years since I played a hardcore show. (Maybe I should have titled the post "Nine Years Later.") And the Bobby Fisher Memorial Building was a perfect reintroduction: totally collective-run, in a space covered in Borf-graffiti, that the city's charging the BFMB kids thousands upon thousands of dollars to use. We had to take an extremely heavy generator to the gas station on Florida and North Capitol to acquire the necessary fuel to power the PA. No one complained; they just got to work. The actual staging area looked great, with a small riser for a stage, tasteful lighting, and an extremely live concrete room. Support these guys. They want to turn the space into a real community center. Maybe next up will be a Gestures/Surge extravaganza.

Video coming soon of us. I thought we were pretty good. But Ingrid, who're from around DC, were better. Pulvarizing math-metal. The guitarist could rival Marnie Stern and the drummer was waaaaay better than I am. Luckily she borrowed my snare stand; I told her I hope she some of her style on it. Ryan Harvey sang some great and humorous folk songs about the war and the circumstances that drove it. He works with Iraq Veterans Against the War, so he had me at "I'm not going to use the mic." (The Surge's newest song is called "Winter Soldier," inspired by/a tribute to this.)

Then: From The Depths. My second time seeing them, and after a bit of a disjointed beginning they came back with their blend of operatic anarcho-metalcore. Kids were doing the piano-haul dance. (Sam called it The Rope Ladder. Hardcore kids, what's this actually called? It seems to be the new picking-up-change.) I had some trouble hearing Monica, except when she sang her solo Italian folk song, but no trouble at all hearing the dueling technical guitars, or Jeff's blunt-end-of-the-stick drumming. If you go see them, don't expect Requiem -- they do not sound like Requiem, to *****'s great credit -- but do expect something special.

Even better was getting to see ***** for the first time in about 18 months. He came by the Flophouse and suddenly we were in a long chat about Iraq, troubles with the antiwar movement, and other things we talk about to indicate "I am doing well and hope you are too; now catch me up, it's been too goddamn long." Sam came in from Boston before flying back to Berlin this afternoon, making for an interesting bookend: *****'s old band Catharsis played the first show that Sam and my old band Yakub ever played, in New Brunswick in 1998.

So: probably no THFTNR today either. Petraeus is back on the Hill in a little under an hour. Storm heaven! And unleash hell.

all the beating drums, the celebration guns

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:17:00 +0000

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 284-08
April 08, 2008
DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Staff Sgt. Jeremiah E. McNeal, 23, of Norfolk, Va., died April 6 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 237th Engineer Company, 276th Engineer Battalion, 91st Troop Command, Virginia Army National Guard, West Point, Va.

For more information media may contact the Virginia National Guard public affairs office at (434) 298-6107.

all the beating drums, the celebration guns

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:16:00 +0000

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 283-08
April 08, 2008
DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Sgt. Richard A. Vaughn, 22, of San Diego, Calif., died April 7 in Baghdad, Iraq from wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked using a rocket propelled grenade, improvised explosive device and small arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

For more information media may contact the Fort Hood public affairs office at (254) 287-9993; after hours (254) 291-2591.

all the beating drums, the celebration guns

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:15:00 +0000

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 282-08
April 08, 2008
DoD Identifies Army Casualties

The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died April 6 in Baghdad, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked their unit with indirect fire.

Killed were:

Col. Stephen K. Scott, 54, of New Market, Ala. He was assigned to the 356th Quartermaster Battalion, Laurel, Miss., and

Maj. Stuart A. Wolfer, 36, of Coral Springs, Fla. He was assigned to the 11th Battalion, 104th Division, Boise, Idaho.

For more information on Col. Scott, the media may contact the 81st Regional Readiness Command at (205) 795-1690.

For more information on Maj. Wolfer, the media may contact Lt. Col. Tim Marsano at (208) 422-5268.