Grumpy Editor

Stars and Stripes move from Washington raises questions

Military budget cuts have now spread to Stars and Stripes, the 150-year-old U.S. military newspaper that is slated to be kicked out of Washington, D.C. headquarters, finds Grumpy Editor. 

Distributed worldwide, the newspaper started by 10 Union soldiers during the Civil War, has been ordered to move 30 miles from D.C. to the Fort Meade military base.

The cost-cutting effort was directed by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta who figures the move, affecting 80 newsroom and business staffers, will save $1 million a year in rent by leaving the National Press Building.

Moving operations to an Army base, staffers feel the location will cause loss of journalistic independence.

The distance from Maryland also will make it a bit difficult to cover Capitol Hill.

Over many years, the daily newspaper, now with an estimated 350,000 readers, has angered Pentagon and military leadership by printing beefs from military personnel. 

Douglas B. Wilson, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, said the decision to relocate the newspaper to Fort Meade “is not a matter of reducing independence for Stars and Stripes. It is a matter of reducing rent costs to the taxpayer.” 

But raising his eyebrows, Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote to Panetta.  He said questions of editorial independence for Stars and Stripes were “well-placed, and should lead to a review of possible alternatives to this decision.” 

Levin asked, “If this move is based on cost savings, were other alternatives considered, including other government spaces and other leased locations? 

“If Stars and Stripes is moved to Fort Meade, what will the department do to ensure that the actual and perceived independence of the important service provided by Stars and Stripes is preserved?”

 

Republican candidates’ 2 TV debates miss opportunities

Television viewers saw a total of three and a half hours of Republican candidates’ debates from New Hampshire over the weekend and only once was there a mention of rogue North Korea --- with zero discussion of the Communist nation pushing ahead with a nuclear weapons program under a new leader --- and no talk about global warming (rebranded climate change), the illegal immigrants situation in the U.S. and China’s military buildup while the U.S. chops its defense budget, observes Grumpy Editor. 

But everyone --- questioners and other candidates --- targeted Mitt Romney. 

An inordinate portion of Saturday night’s two-hour debate on ABC was consumed with commentator George Stephanopoulos asking Romney, “Do you believe states have the right to ban contraception, or is that trumped by a constitutional right to privacy?” 

That discussion spread to other candidates. 

Ten hours later, NBC expanded its normal one hour “Meet the Press” to 90 minutes to bounce questions off the same six GOP candidates.  David Gregory helmed that debate --- seen “live” in the east but on tape in the West. 

A tape delay for the West also came with the Dec. 10 debate on ABC. 

The problem with delayed viewing in the West is that alert debate followers already have heard sound bites on radio and TV news before viewing the replay.  In addition, Web sites already had covered details and sparring among quizzers and candidates. 

Fifteen minutes before the end of yesterday’s NBC debate, a quickie mention was made about North Korea --- but no questions or discussion followed. 

One plus for the NBC taped-for-the-West version vs. ABC’s delayed release on Dec. 10:  Unlike ABC’s misleading white-on-red LIVE “bug” above its logo in the bottom corner of the screen, NBC did not have that.

 

Memorial Day remembers fallen American troops

Today’s observance means more than backyard barbecues and store sales, reminds Grumpy Editor who is taking the day off.

Originally called Decoration Day, many people observe Memorial Day by visiting memorials and especially Veterans Administration national cemeteries where commemorative events honor American men and women who died in service during wartime periods.

 

U.S. Navy power decline serves as early warning signal

What should be required reading for all members of Congress and the White House --- and serving as fodder for alert editorial page writers in key newspapers --- is the superior op-ed piece, “The Decline of U.S. Naval Power,” by Mark Helprin that appeared in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, urges Grumpy Editor.

It should also serve as an urgent reminder to Pentagon brass, too.

It comes a week after Somali pirates killed four Americans aboard a captured yacht and when there was no suitable U.S. Navy ship in the Mediterranean to assist in evacuation of U.S. citizens from Libya. 

“Not only have we lost our enthusiasm for the exploration of space, we have retreated on the seas,” reminds Helprin, a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute.

Helprin, who once served in the British Merchant Navy, points out the U.S. Navy “has been made to wither even in time of war.”

The U.S., he adds, has “the smallest navy in almost a century, declining to 286 from 1,000 principal combatants.”

He amplifies that by citing “60 ships were commonly under way in America’s seaward approaches in 1998, but today…there are only 20.”

Helprin warns, “As China’s navy rises and ours declines, not that far in the future the trajectories will cross.”

Read his full Wall Street Journal piece here.

 

U.S. readies order to buy 21 helicopters --- from Russians

Amid loud cries to create more U.S. jobs, Grumpy Editor finds there has been scant media coverage of last Friday’s news that the U.S. Army plans to award a “sole source” contract to a Russian firm for 21 Mi-17 Russian-produced helicopters to be used by Afghan military forces.

The order is slated through Russia’s state arms trader Rosoboronexport which, until last year, was under sanctions that prohibited the U.S. government from dealing with it following its transactions with Iran.

Left out are helicopter manufacturers in the U.S., including Boeing Co., Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. and Robinson Helicopter Co.

The Russian firm’s sanctions were lifted last year as part of a White House push “to patch up relations with the Kremlin,” mentions The Wall Street Journal, which ran a story on the helicopter deal Friday.

The basic Mi-17, with a crew of three, is used for military, police and civilian purposes.  In military use, it can carry up to 30 troops.

The latest action follows eyebrow raising by six members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation five months ago in writing to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on a U.S. Navy decision to purchase a similar quantity --- 21 --- of Russian-made helicopters, also for Afghan’s military.

They wrote:  “Particularly in light of the great commitment the United States is making to Afghanistan, rather than procuring Russian helicopters with unclear reliability and cost, we believe it is only prudent to consider proposals from U.S. manufacturers, employing American workers, with a history of providing the Defense Department with the best equipment at the best value to the U.S. taxpayer."

 

Scolding of Navy commander shows humor dead in water

In the wake of the fallout from the “raunchy” comedy videos made several years ago by Capt. Owen Honors, then executive officer on the USS Enterprise, to entertain sailors --- especially in enemy territory --- will outlandish humor be banned on Navy ships, wonders Grumpy Editor.

Honors, stripped yesterday as commander of the aircraft carrier soon to sail again, was criticized for his efforts to boost morale during a long deployment operating in support of Afghanistan and Iraq wars on a ship with 5,000 personnel aboard, equal to the population of a small city.

Considering the heavy print and broadcast coverage, media did not cite that what’s strange in this saga, which started with videos leaked to the Virginia-Pilot newspaper three days ago in the Navy port city of Norfolk, Va., is that the skits were created in 2006-2007 --- without a public peep from anyone over the years.

The skits included what has been termed “homophobic slurs” among other material Navy officials this week called “inappropriate.”

The leak comes within several days of Congress’ repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

The Pentagon’s action this week likely will curb future enlistments as potential recruits view the modern Navy as being too strict and loaded with “don’ts” --- including putting a clamp on humor.

What some rigid, desk-bound current Pentagon officials overlooked is that in any combat zone, staying loose with injections of humor --- especially from a commanding officer --- are greatly relished.

 

'Mystery missile' saga takes 2 days to pin plume on jet

Four days after a spectacular mystery contrail was photographed near sunset by a television news helicopter in the skies over the Pacific, west of Los Angeles --- sparking talk of a missile or a rocket launch --- all is quiet now after Washington officials pinned the aerial trail as “probably” from a jet aircraft, notes Grumpy Editor.

What media did not pursue was why it took federal agencies, ranging from the Defense Department to NASA, two days to analyze the Monday plume that was illuminated by the setting sun.

And apparently no one asked if the Pentagon immediately examined input from a U.S. reconnaissance (or spy) satellite to determine the source of the unexpected airborne trail.

That would have put a cap on the mystery pronto.

The saga started when a video was photographed around sunset Monday by a news helicopter from Los Angeles TV station KCBS.

Initially, Pentagon officials were stumped.

“Nobody within the Department of Defense that we’ve reached out to has been able to explain what this contrail is, where it came from,” said a Pentagon spokesman the following day.

On Wednesday, that spokesman declared officials were satisfied that the evening phenomenon two days earlier probably was caused by an airplane contrail distorted by camera angle, winds and other environmental factors.

That conclusion was reached, in part, after the FAA ran radar replays, which did not reveal any fast-moving, unidentified targets in a large area west of Los Angeles on Monday afternoon.