Why We're Not in Government
Why We're Not in Government If you watched any of General David Petraeus's testimony before a variety of congressional committees last week, The Scrapbook thought you might enjoy seeing "the rest...
...And not because of Carter's snarky comments about George W. Bush, or his indefatigable hammering on behalf of Habitat for Humanity...
...Anderson must have forgotten that those American soldiers were responding to Somali rebels, affiliated with Osama bin Laden, who shot down a helicopter and killed 18 American soldiers, dragging their corpses through the streets of Mogadishu...
...Well, of course: Of all 10 presidents in the White House since Castro's seizure of power, Jimmy ("Inordinate Fear of Communism") Carter was the most easily manipulated by Cuba— and, as anyone who remembers the Mariel Boat Lift will attest, humiliated as well...
...In Black Hawk Down, the alleged good guys mowed down hundreds of faceless Africans...
...So, here's the Question of the Week...
...Anderson does enjoy parts of the film while other scenes get bogged down in the bureaucracy...
...Spend enough time in Washington, and someone back home will inevitably ask if you ever thought of going into public service...
...But there's another two-word reason: congressional hearings...
...We presume his answer is yes...
...But we mentioned nostalgia, and here's why...
...The Scrapbook is now really looking forward to The Kingdom, no matter what this alleged movie critic says...
...Whether the essay was actually written by Dr...
...Kingdom Come Afew weeks ago, we quoted Entertainment Weekly, which described director Peter Berg's fear that his upcoming terrorist drama, The Kingdom, would be seen as jingoistic...
...Like Leonid Brezhnev, Omar Torrijos of Panama, and the Ayatol-lah Khomeini, Fidel Castro has good reason to think nice thoughts about Jimmy Carter...
...but so far, only silence from the invincible team...
...Watching Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker field questions from the blowdried blowhards, Owens wrote at National Review Online that he was reminded of an Army captain who taught at U.S...
...Shouldn't terrorism be treated as crime—that is, as a civil rather than military matter...
...James Carter...
...We've always said no and joked that there's a two-word reason for that: breakfast meetings...
...I'll never forget [the captain's] reply...
...Or, as he calls him, "James Carter...
...The Scrapbook would like to think that the two senators might be mildly embarrassed by this unsolicited endorsement from Havana...
...anyone in a caftan or a kepi is fair game...
...Or put another way: Would they approach Cuba in the manner of one Democratic predecessor (John F. Kennedy) or in the footsteps of another (James Carter...
...Then there was Castro's insightful observation that a Democratic ticket of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would be "invincible" in 2008...
...It's a question that's at the heart of the Iraq War debate, and it's one raised loudly and clearly by The Kingdom, a realist thriller that mixes crowd-pleasing mayhem with provocative politics...
...This, in turn, reminded us of the good old days when the Ku Klux Klan would endorse a presidential candidate who, in turn, would feel obligated to reject the endorsement...
...Alleged" good guys...
...No, because the Man from Plains "was not an accomplice to the brutal terrorism against Cuba," and concluded a maritime agreement with Castro's regime nearly 30 years ago...
...Our friend Mackubin T. Owens had the best reaction to the spectacle...
...The sense of vicarious sport is the same...
...President James Carter...
...he asks...
...During a screening, audiences cheered loudly when the Americans took down a group of terrorists, prompting Berg to agonize, "Am I experiencing American bloodlust...
...Are Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama mortified to learn Castro is betting on their candidacy, or do they welcome this as a sign of improving relations between Washington and Havana...
...During one session with "a class of brand new lieutenants . . . , one of the students asked him a question...
...First is the revelation, if that's the word for it, that of all American presidents since 1959, his favorite is Jimmy Carter...
...It's been awhile since anyone referred to Carter publicly by his given name, and Castro's usage reminded us of the old Soviet style in the pages of Pravda, circa 1977, where he was always "U.S...
...Why We're Not in Government If you watched any of General David Petraeus's testimony before a variety of congressional committees last week, The Scrapbook thought you might enjoy seeing "the rest of the picture" (as Paul Harvey might put it...
...Now it seems Variety's John Anderson has similar concerns...
...Lieutenant, we all know that there's no such thing as a stupid question, but I want you to know that yours is the closest to one I have ever heard.'" ? Carter...
...Castro, who is 81 years old, evidently dying, and has not been seen in public for the past year, we may never know...
...The Scrapbook felt a twinge—just a twinge, but a twinge nonethe-less—of nostalgia when we read Fidel Castro's recent editorial comments in Granma, the newspaper of the Cuban Communist party...
...Field Artillery School...
...Fair enough...
...Although burdened by far more procedure than plot, this Jamie Foxx vehicle . . . is quietly jingoistic, in a way guaranteed to sell auds on the idea that what's truly American is about more than disputed foreign policy...
...But, the critic complains, "Where pic goes astray is in turning anonymous, indigenous peoples into ducks at a shooting gallery...
...here, it's Arabs, in what seem like comparable numbers...
...But as connoisseurs of the old tyrant's rhetorical style, we think it has the ring of authenticity...
Vol. 13 • September 2007 • No. 2
