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Ramblings From the Ragged Crumbling Edge Of The Reality-Based Community

Friday, April 10, 2009

Liquidating Pac-NW History 

...the news, when it came yesterday, was a bit shocking:
A Delaware bankruptcy court on Thursday approved the liquidation sale of all remaining merchandise of 57-year-old G.I. Joe’s Holdings Co.

...back in the day, which in this case is defined as over three decades ago when I first moved to the Greater Portland/Vancouver Metropolitan Area, there were any number of suppliers of outdoor equipment but only two big-league outlets that were the go-to stores for laying one's hands on a wide variety of decent-quality products. One was REI and the other was G.I. Joe's...

While they served similar purposes in providing various sorts of equipment for someone seeking to explore the rich array of outdoor recreation experiences, they were a particular study in contrasts. REI was a co-op and sort of a membership store with only two outlets - the Mother Ship in Seattle and the satellite store at Portland's Jantzen Beach along the Columbia River - that catered to climbers and backpackers (honoring the spirit of full disclosure, my membership number is six digits long, which seemed all wet-behind-the-years rookie-like in those days when standing in line behind someone whose card showed a membership number that was only three - or even two - numbers long). G.I. Joe's seemed more egalitarian, offering a broader array of outdoor goods that may have been less than the absolute best but were more affordable and served a broader spectrum of outdoor enthusiasts like car-campers and fisherpeople and hunters without requiring some sort of membership...

Over the last twenty years, sadly, G.I. Joes - which had become an icon of sorts in the Pac-NW - began to morph into just another one of those high-end profit margin sporting goods retailers. Quality of products might have been first-rate, but prices were, too, and the whole feel of the business that Edward M. Orkney first cranked up when he moved his military surplus business from a tent to a real live building on Vancouver Avenue in north Portland over half a century ago. The name change from "G.I. Joe's" to “Joe’s Sports, Outdoors and More" a couple of years ago by the new outsider ownership struck a discordant notes with anyone who has spent any time living in the Pacific Northwest, but it would be hard to find anyone up here in the northwest corner of the US map who would have - before the fact - pegged this as the moment where the end began...

G.I. Joe's wasn't a national institution and it never - unlike REI or Starbucks or Nike or Microsoft - never grew beyond being a regional enterprise confined to the Northwest, but it had a history born from the musty smell of Army canvas and odd olive drab material that could be used for exploring the vast richness of the high wild country on the cheap. As of today, though, the definitive end of the end has begun and there will soon be a host of empty buildings where an outdoor recreation store having roots extending farther back than my personal history used to operate. "Joe's" never was quite the same as the "G.I. Joe's" of my past used to be, but it was a connection to a long-lost past, and its supposedly "fire sale" liquidation is just another example of the loss of identity that has been plaguing the Pacific Northwest...
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:29 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Bring Back The Jeep Carriers 

...a few months ago when the coverage of Somalian pirates was the Subject Of The Month, I got to thinking about the problems that are said to plague efforts to combat the predation on civilian sea traffic of the coast of Somalia. The solution, it seemed at the time, was to bring back the concept of the "Jeep Carriers" that served such an important role in World War II. With today's gripping story of the crew of an American-flagged merchant ship crewed by Americans who fought back against their pirate captors, the idea of jeep carriers crawled back into my mind again...

The failure of the current concept of force projection by the major sea powers and those who want to join that elite club is plainly demonstrated by the havoc that the Somalian pirates have been wreaking in the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea. While many navies have supplied vessels to the effort to protect commercial shipping, the glaring problem is that all of these resources are just that: ships. There is essentially no provision for air cover that could respond in minutes rather than hours or days to individual attacks on commercial ships. This is where the escort carrier concept crept into my mind...

Escort carriers were a slower, smaller, less technologically sophisticated version of large fast attack fleet carriers that the British, Americans, and Japanese used to redefine warfare on the high seas. While the American versions of these baby flat tops generally served in virtual anonymity in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters, they did figure prominently in one of the most important Pacific sea battles during WWII, when the jeep carriers and destroyer/destroyer escort screen of Taffy 3 (officially designated Task Unit 77.4.3) went nose to nose with a far more powerful Japanese surface force and (with the assistance from aircraft from the escort carriers of the other two elements of the Task Force) turned back the last-gasp "Hail Mary Pass" effort by the Japanese to turn the tide of the war back in its favor. The more notable but unremarked role of escort carriers, however, was their role in the Atlantic blunting the effectiveness of the German submarine assault on the cargo lifeline between the United States and Great Britain...

That latter piece of history is what made me start thinking. Why not start cranking out jeep carriers? The answer, of course, is obvious; we have nowhere near the manufacturing capacity that we had during WWII to support this sort of output, where we went from converted C-class merchant ships (such as the Bogue class carriers) to the hull-up purposed-built Casablanca class escort carriers spit out like so many widgets by the Kaiser shipyards that once existed in the greater Portland, Orygun, Metropolitan Area (actually across the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington). We built a huge gaggle of jeep carriers back then, but probably couldn't come close to getting there now without some serious commitment to a new wartime industrial footing...

The problem facing the world's navies today in terms of responding to this 21st century version of the Barbary pirates is quite simple: the amount of ocean needing to be covered to deter this century's pirates is far too large to be handled by surface ships, and in the whole world there are less than two dozen aircraft carriers of any type that could expand on that deterrent effect and a number of those ships are more suited to amphibious assault support than air superiority. Many of them, in fact, are more like our own Tarawa and Wasp class amphibious assault ships which don't - by the way - count against the number of American fleet aircraft carriers...

And maybe that is the answer: put a couple of Amphibious Assault Groups into the Arabian Sea. Trade a few transport helicopters for more Harrier jets on the hanger deck and have a combination of Sea Cobra attack helicopters and LCAC's to assist in interdiction and patrol duties in the way that the Jeep Carriers performed that duty back in the olden days. We won't anytime soon see the sort of effort that led to the construction of those Jeep Carriers and there isn't any current evidence that there is a latter-day Stephan Decatur out there ready to use guile and personal heroism to rescue us from this latter-day pirate scourge. Regardless of all that, it's clearly time to thinking about bringing back the Jeep Carriers, or at least fall back on something that has that same sort of philosophical look....
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:22 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

As The Whole World Misses The Real Ted Stevens Story 

...it has been a remarkable couple of days. First, the Holder-led Justice Department asks a trial judge for permission to withdraw its charges and set aside the conviction. The judge not only does that, but also appoints a special prosecutor to investigate whether the federal prosecutors committed criminal acts. Throughout all of this strange trip, various commentators are referring to all of this as an "exoneration" of Ted Stevens...

It is truly strange to watch the aging Alaskan "Hulk" almost dancing as best as he can in the unwarranted spring sunshine while his defenders - many of them experienced federal legislators and lawyers who otherwise would be expected to know better - spin out variations on the old Ray Donovan line "Where do I go to get my reputation back?". In Uncle Ted's case, the answer is probably...oh, I don't know...maybe the mythical town of Cicely, or maybe, just maybe, nowhere, given that these last few days haven't set up the moment where his reputation can even be reclaimed...

Given the problems of simple journalistic ethics that have beset it over the last few years, it is surprisingly the Associated Press that actually has taken the time to honestly address this whole "exoneration" meme when most other major media has ignored the subject. "Presumed innocence" is a ship that sailed a long time ago for Ted Stevens. The issues of misconduct by federal prosecutors don't even go halfway toward toward addressing the fact that many of the charges against Stevens have not been refuted or otherwise put to rest by the recent actions of the Justice Department. The stained glass window, the fish sculpture, and the massage chair are all things that weren't adequately addressed by the defense; more to the point, whether the contractor accurately recalled a conversation or properly valued the remodeling work on Uncle Ted's "cabin", the question of whether the work was properly paid for by the property owner hasn't been addressed...

Ted Stevens hasn't been exonerated of anything; he has only been saved from conviction by the sort of prosecutorial overreach that has become far too common at all levels of the system over the last decade or more as government attorneys began to push the envelope in the hope that increasingly conservative Federal courts would support their actions. As quotes from the AP article suggest, Uncle Ted lost his presumption of innocence when he was convicted of things that do not bear on questions of misbehavior by federal prosecutors. Even on those issues in question, there isn't any suggestion that he Did The Right Thing; there are only questions about the actions of federal lawyers. The real Ted Stevens story is that he may well make it across the county line for no other reason than the malfeasance of federal lawyers rather than any compelling evidence that he wasn't actually involved in the kinds of actions that he was accused of being wrapped up in...
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:39 PM 0 comments

Monday, April 06, 2009

Let The Games Begin 

...Bob Gates has made his cut on the military budget, and that noise you hear isn't the wind cutting past your window. It is, in fact, the sound of Honorable Members of both the House Of Representatives and the Senate - from both parties - registering complaints that have more to do with the success or failure of defense-related industries in their states than with the actual defense of the "homeland", although that latter reason will be offered up frequently over the next few months...

The basics of Gates' vision are pretty straightforward: the F-22 Raptor would become a specialty weapon like the F-117 Nighthawk, with only 187 planes being built; the armored vehiclesFEBA transport core of the the Future Combat System wouldn't be built; Barack Obama would still be clattering around in variants of the Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King helicopter that first came into service the year he was born. There would also be a refreshing reassessment of that whole "Star Wars" missile defense system that has dogged us for the better part of three decades...

This will not stand the scrutiny of Congress, of course, and it won't be at all about whether or not President Obama needs a new helicopter (even though that's the subject of conversation a few weeks ago). It is going to be all about whether or not businesses in the Congressional districts and states that would build the parts and pieces for the new presidential helicopter are going to be affected....or the states involved in the construction of the Raptor or the Future Combat Systems Infantry Carrier Vehicle or any one of a couple dozen other systems. It is as it was when it comes to these discussions, because the funding for these systems are a cheap and easy way to direct earmarks without falling directly into the mudpit where accusations of "pork" are so casually tossed around. This isn't "pork", after all; it's "Homeland Security"...or whatever...

The real fun will start in a few weeks where the noise will rival the most ungodly mating season caterwalling ever heard on the Serengeti plain. Democrats and Republicans alike will molt out of their former skins and plunge their newly slicked-up bodies into the scrum that the funding of the military-industrial complex has become. There won't be a torch-lighting ceremony per se, but this is the point where the games will begin.... intended to be the
Posted by: Jack K. / 8:55 PM 0 comments

Sunday, April 05, 2009

On How Newt Should Be Allowed In The White House 

...public tours are offered of the White House to groups of 10 or more. If one were to sit down and actually think about any and all circumstances under which Newt Gingrich should be allowed inside the doors, having him round up all his friends, ex-wives, and GOPAC executives and call his Congressman to see if he could get hooked up with some tour tickets is the only sensible way in which he should ever set foot in that building. If he can't come up with 10 people from that list, he could probably give South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford a call to round out the roster, because that's probably the only way Sanford should be allowed in the White House either...

This isn't a decision to be made lightly. Based on both of their performances on FAUX News Sunday, neither of these two should ever be allowed into any of the White House recesses where actual decisions are made. More to the point, neither of them should ever be allowed anywhere close to the Office of the President, if their track record coupled with today's performance is any indication. Gingrich spun a strange fantasy scenario apparently founded on some variant of a "24" worldview that might have been script-doctored by Tom Clancy, suggesting that we "disable" the missile using some deep double-secret technology that only he is apparently privy to...

In the first place, the most likely technology available to "disable" the missile outside of a Clancy novel is called "shoot it down. Not very stealthy, that, which leads to the next question for The Man Who Would Love To Be President: So, what then, Genius? Aside from the fact that I have way more scratch in this game than Newt does - unless he wants to buy some property out here next to me on the West Coast that might just be reachable by a lucky North Korean shot - what exactly is the end-game here? If we are supposedly dealing with a regime that is so unstable that we simply cannot tolerate the most remote prospect of it developing a long-range ICBM program and will "disable a test to prevent that, what exactly is our post-'disabling' response when this dangerously unstable regime decides to respond as threatened by flinging a few short-range missiles at South Korea or Japan? Do we plant a couple of nukes on Pyongyang? Do we invade? And if we do invade, with what forces? Or do we fire up our aerial assets and carpet-bomb all of North Korea's military facilities and surround civilian areas, which has always been such a 'hearts and minds' winner? And what exactly is your plan for addressing concerns that China might have about turning its client state and neighbor into a molten glassy landscape or the northern half of a newly-united US client state? Inquiring minds, especially those still reeling from the brutal nonsense that passed as foreign policy during the 43rd presidency, would like to know what the next step and Plan B would look like...

Newt, of course, is a man with a history, the sort of fellow that we have known for a long time was too many bubbles off level to ever be the person sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office through any means other than by some sort of magnanimous invitation by the rightfully elected occupant. Mark Sanford doesn't have that sort of history, and there are those who say he has an eye on a presidential run and is working on the kinds of smooth moves that will take him all the way. Sadly, even though he was sitting right there next to Newt talking World War III, he is working on developing a history of his own that demonstrates that he is just another chatty, blustery wingnut who doesn't have - in tribute to this weekend's men's and women's NCAA Final Four - anything looking like a strong move to the basket. According to the Politico report of his appearance (I SHALL not register with FAUX News to get my own copy), Gov. Sanford said this:
“In the countryside of South Carolina, at some point, you’ve got to back up words with action. …

Stop right there.

He said more, trying to demonstrate his stern rock-ribbed "kill 'em all" Republican chops, but that little bit is the important piece. Mark Sanford has been making big noise about turning down major chunks of the stimulus package or spending it in ways not intended by its creators. Apparently, however, in an effort to truly demonstrate how tough and hard-nosed he actually is, he folded like a nine-high Texas Hold 'Em hand and proceeded to lay all the blame for his crass failure at leadership on the South Carolina legislature. The majority Republican leadership in both houses of the South Carolina General Assembly are, predictably, not amused...

So there it is: two short-list names for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination campaign showing their stuff on the most favorable venue they could hope to find, and one of them - who deserves to be best remembered (aside from his marital circumstances) for his disastrous inability to think strategically that led to the 1995 federal government shutdown and which transmorgrified Bill Clinton from a failed one-term president to a likely candidate for the top ten president list - decides to go off like some ugly half-bright reprise of George W. Bush on an important foreign relations issue that has tremendous significance to several of our allies. Sitting by his side (at least visually) is a Southern governor, one who has recently demonstrated that out there in the South Carolina countryside there are apparently those who back up their words with actions that are little more than capitulation and crass self-serving recriminations directed against their own putative allies, even as he tries to convince us that he has some otherwise undetectable moral fiber that will make him respond forceably to some external threat. What was displayed today was one guy who tried to crash the country back in '95 because he didn't like his Air Force One seating assignment and another who can't stick with the courage of his own talking-point convictions...

These are people who haven't demonstrated the moxie or moral fiber to successfully run for the presidency of the United States, much less actually make the sorts of wise decisions that the office demands, if today's FAUX News performance is any measure. Give 'em a White House tour; heck, give them that "special" personal show that lets them spend a minute or two sitting behind that big desk in the Oval Office. That's as close as either of these two ever need to get to the levers of power...
Posted by: Jack K. / 6:38 PM 0 comments

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