Subject: Armed Forces

• Gary Sinise & the Lt. Dan Band

  March 26, 2009

• A Third Anniversary Gift for Iraq

  Who knew that our political and military leaders were such a bunch of ol' sentimental softies? As a gift for the Iraqi people to mark the third invasion of their country, our leaders got them a miniature version of the invasion, Operation Swarmer. The mini-invasion has all feature that made that full-sized original so special. Lots of hardware directed against a virtually nonexistant but relentless overhyped threat? Yes. True motive hidden behind a threadbare pretext? Check. A spoon-fed media wi

  March 18, 2006

• Spreading Democracy... or something

  Regardless of whether or not the Bush administration will succeed in its plan to introduce democracy into Iraq through an armed invasion and years of chaotic violence, it now appears that the administration has succeeded in bringing to Iraq something the country has had very little of since the British were kicked out many long decades ago: white supremacists. As the New York Times reports this morning: "We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad," the [Southern Poverty Law Center] quoted a D

  July 7, 2006

• Fire Update: Almost out of the woods?

  The Orange County Fire Authority reports that the Santiago blaze is now 75 percent contained. Though firefighters are hoping to kill the beast by Friday (before the nasty Santa Ana winds whip it up over the weekend), the OCFA website lists Sunday as D-Day for full containment. Approximately 28,445 acres have been burned thus far. The fire had some 2,000 firefighters on the job at its peak, but an estimated 1,800 are out there now, Battalion Chief Kris Concepcion told the Weekly over the phone

  October 30, 2007

• Knott's Berry Farm Welcomes Veterans

  Sure, there are easier ways to get inside Knott's Berry Farm than joining the military (there used to be a great way sneak in off of La Palma and. . . well, let's just leave it at that), but for those Americans who've already taken the military oath, KBF is offering free admission now through Thanksgiving Day to veterans with proper identification (DD214, Veterans Administration Hospital I.D. or Active Military Service I.D.). Veterans are also allowed to purchase up to six tickets for $12.95. T

  November 6, 2007

• Wake Up and Suck the Orange 1.31.08

  POORMAN SUES KDOC: LA Times - Dana Parsons covers the Poorman with typical dollops of smarminess. No genital warts mentioned whatsoever. I'd wax moronic but Luke Y. Thompson already covered this like a month ago (Exit Poorman, Feb. 3). So will he be a Richman? Do fiddlers play on roofs? DEBBIE #1 GETS A BREAK: OC Register - Deborah Carona, wife of former Sheriff Mike Carona, will not be charged with inappropriate behavior while a member of the Orange County Fair Board, although the prosecution

  January 31, 2008

• Five years of war protest in Huntington Beach on 03/15

  On the fifth anniversary of U.S. involvement in the Iraq War, 500 protectors engaged in a silent, single-file march down Main Street in Huntington Beach. Members of dozens of peace organizations under the Orange County Peace Coalition gathered near the Huntington Pier armed with folding card tables, flyers and bold signs. Among the groups present were Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Cal State Fullerton Students for Peace and Justice, Code Pink and the Grey Panthers.

  March 17, 2008

• Reveille for Ridiculous

  April 22, 1999

• Up In Smoke

  November 18, 1999

• Lasers

  August 15, 2002

• The Action Sports Industrial Complex

  October 3, 2002

• After Saddam

  November 28, 2002

• Remilitarized Zone

  April 22, 2004

• The Eternal Spic-Mick Connection

  In honor of the wearing of the green, one of my all-time favorite ¡Ask a Mexican! back-and-forths, one so scandalous it got a man suspended from work:Dear Mexican: Why do spics and micks get along so well? Is it because both races are drunk, fornicating, degenerate Catholics?Don MulletinoDear Mick: Get your racial slurs straight--Mexicans are wabs, not spics. Otherwise, you nailed it on the cabeza, cabrón. And the similarities don't end there. The Irish were the Mexicans of the United States b

  March 17, 2009

• Diane Harkey Protects Us From Accidental Terrorism

  Assemblywoman Diane Harkey put forth a resolution back in February to keep ex-Guantanamo detainees out of Camp Pendleton. With Barack Obama set to close the notorious, quasi-constitutional prison some time next year, Harkey wants to make sure the administration doesn't even think about putting any of the maybe-terrorists in her district's military base.Last week, she explained her reasoning to the Sacramento Statehouse Examiner:"It is very, very important that they are in maximum security and no

  April 2, 2009

• Santa Ana, Police Feted for Getting Their War On

  Parked on Civic Center?If you're scooting past Santa Ana police headquarters Thursday afternoon and notice a large contingency of uniformed members of the Armed Services, worry not. That portion of Downtown Santa Ana has not been declared a war zone. Yet.Nor is it a green zone signifying safety from threats real or imagined. Nope, it's just part of the Department of Defense's honoring of the City of Santa Ana and its police department Thursday for helping to make it easier to wage war or protect

  April 14, 2009

• Attacking the Epidemic 
of Gender-Based Violence 
in Central Africa

  March 12, 2009

• Life is a Song

  February 26, 2009

• Grillin’, 
Not Killin’

  July 10, 2008

• [Aural Reports] Arrival Are an (Air) Force to Reckon With

  May 22, 2008

• The Deciders

  March 13, 2008

• OC's Scariest People

  Our Congressional delegation tops this year’s list of 33 villains (31 for October, plus two more to get to the Dia de los Muertos, ese)

  October 25, 2007

• Our Man in San Salvador

  August 29, 2002

• This Is Madness

  PSP players: tonight, you game in hell

  April 26, 2007

• His Brothers Keeper

  March 31, 2005

• Burning Bush

  October 14, 2004

• Burning Bush

  August 5, 2004

• About Face! Forward, Censor!

  July 22, 2004

• Burning Bush

  May 20, 2004

• Empire Falls

  March 18, 2004

• Sweet and Loh Down

  March 11, 2004

• Murder, He Wrote

  November 6, 2003

• Cold Case at the Marine base

  September 11, 2003

• Hail the Preemptive Heroes

  April 10, 2003

• War College

  March 6, 2003

• Oy, No! We Won't Go!

  April 18, 2002

• Honored Heroes, Forgotten Dead

  February 21, 2002

• Letters

  October 18, 2001

• Aim Higher!

  September 28, 2000

• Alien Toxins

  December 9, 1999

• Letters

  August 27, 1998

• To Do Tonight - 5/12

  Queen Mary Salutes U.S. Military Personnel, all month!Long Beach's favorite tourist trap/financial drain, the Queen Mary, is offering a special $5.00 General Admission to all U.S. Military personnel, both active and retired, for the entire month of May. But wait, there's more! Anyone, military or not, accompanying a military person (with ID to prove it) will receive a $5.00 discount off the regular General Admission price! It's like Christmas in May!Queen Mary, 1126 Queens Hwy., Long Beach, CA;

  May 12, 2009

• Conference Aims to Help Returning War Vets With Mental Issues

  The National Alliance on Mental Illness/Orange County's second Veterans Front Line Conference--which sheds light on the "gathering storm" of thousands of U.S. military service personnel returning to the States with depression and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)--runs from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Kaiser Permanente hospital on Sand Canyon just north of the 405 freeway in Irvine.Suicide rates are rising among returning troops, and military leaders are warning civilian psychiatric care

  April 22, 2009

• Don't Ask, Don't Tell Victim Choi Seeks Additional Support

  Tustin's Dan Choi, who turned up in previous Navel Gazing posts here and (hilariously) here, is famously battling to remain an Army lieutenant despite having come out as a gay American. He has received 141,262 online signatures of support for his recent letter to President Obama seeking the Commander in Chief's intervention. Rick Jacobs, the chairman of California's progressive online site Courage Campaign, sends word that Choi is again reaching out for public support on the eve of his military

  June 26, 2009

• Hell, No

  December 6, 2007

• Lt. Dan Choi on KPFK-FM 90.7 at 4:20 p.m. TODAY

  Sorry for the late notice, but you can hear Army Lt. Dan Choi, who's recently made headlines for challenging the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy," today at 4:20 p.m. on KPFK-FM 90.7, online at www.kpfk.org. It's a pre-recorded segment, and one where you immediately get the warmth of the man and the idiocy of the miltary policy (although Choi says the armed forces' top brass don't give a damn). Also tune in to hear Choi trash my alma mater, Anaheim High School, versus his beloved Tillers

  July 7, 2009

• Get Your War On Today at Los Alamitos or This Weekend at Seal Beach

  Maj. Gen. John S. Harrel​If you can make it there in less than half as hour, you can still catch the 11 a.m. Commanding General Change of Command ceremony at the Joint Forces Training Base, 11200 Lexington Ave., Los Alamitos.Major General John S. Harrel, commanding general of the California Army National Guard's 40th Infantry Division since August 2007, is transferring command to Brigadier General Scott W. Johnson during what is billed as a "rare and impressive event." Troops, family, veterans

  July 31, 2009

• John Stern: Neither "Inglourious" Nor "Basterd"

  ​A filmmaker is exposing the world to the little-told story of Jewish Americans who banded together to fight Nazis during World War II.No, the filmmaker is not Quentin Tarantino and the story is not the fictional one told in his film Inglourious Basterds, which not only won at the weekend box office but scored the largest debut in the illustrious director's career.Documentary filmmaker Steven Karras' book The Enemy I Knew: German Jews in the Allied Military in World War II, which is scheduled

  August 25, 2009

• Treasures of Napoleon

  October 8, 2009

• New York Times Accused of "Journalistic Sleight-of-Hand" in Citing Local Fallen Navy Hero

  U.S. NavyThe late Petty Officer Second Class (SEAL) Michael Mansoor of Long Beach.​Conservatives accuse a New York Times reporter of employing "a journalistic sleight-of-hand" when it came to including a dead Catholic Navy hero who grew up in Garden Grove in a piece about complications facing Muslims serving in the U.S. armed forces in light of Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan's alleged shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, last week.

  November 11, 2009