Edward Gibbon; Rome/U.S. parallels

" . . . he valued nothing in sovereign power, except the unbounded licence of indulging his sensual appetites."

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon, volume 1, p. 81. (Modern Library edition).

USS West Virginia; Clifford Olds; Ronald Endicott, Louis "Buddy" Costin; Ted Kennedy

One of the most chilling and horrifying stories I have ever read is a true story.

We all know what happened on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor. We know the story of the Arizona. We have seen photos of the Arizona Memorial. We have seen movies dedicated to the loss of the Arizona and the other ships that day. But what you may not have heard is the story of Clifford Olds and his shipmates on board the USS West Virginia. That story is told on the pages of USSWestVirginia.org. Briefly, Clifford Olds and two of his shipmates were trapped in the lower decks of the battleship West Virginia ("WeeVee") when the attack started. The West Virginia was hit by numerous Japanese torpedoes and sank quickly:

The choicest of targets, she took 9 torpedo hits December 7, 1941. Her port side was literally blasted off. The USS Oklahoma, just ahead of the WV, suffered similar wounds and immediately capsized, but BB48 was of a more advanced water-tight construction. The fast thinking of Lt. Claude Ricketts (THE hero of this ship) prevented the Battleship from turning over. Instead, she settled in the mud on an even keel. This was accomplished by closing all hatch compartments and counter-flooding the starboard side of the ship in a procedure called "set zed". Every sailor knew fate could place them in a doomed area to be drowned like rats. Old Timers would tell 17 and 18 year old "boots" that if that time came "just inhale water quickly and get it over". This, the "grizzled Ones" claimed, was preferable to a slow death in a pitch-black void. For Clifford Olds(20), Ronald Endicott(18), and Louis "Buddy" Costin(21), this would tragically come to pass. Trapped in the forward fresh water pumping station known as area A-111, their fate was sealed when "set zed" was announced after the first Japanese torpedo struck shortly before 8am. Sinking straight down rather than "turning Turtle" enabled hundreds to escape. Those in the lower compartments were drowned, but Olds, Endicott and Costin were alive and well in their air-tight compartment at the bottom of the ship. They did not know what had happened, nor the extent of the carnage above them. Above deck, the Captain was disemboweled by a bomb blast and the Arizona's explosion 50 yards aft rained "Dante's Inferno" onto the WeeVee.

Over 100 died in every way possible. BB48 sank into the Harbor amid burning oil. She burned for 30 hours. When her fires were extinguished late Monday Dec. 8, Guards were posted on the shoreline of Ford Island, next to "Battleship Row". Jittery over rumors of invasion, Sentries at first didn't hear the noise. WeeVee Marine Bugler Dick Fiske recalls: "When it was quiet you could hear it...bang, bang, then stop. Then bang, bang, pause. At first I thought it was a loose piece of rigging slapping against the hull". Then I realized men were making that sound-taking turns making noise". After that night, no one wanted guard duty, but someone had to do it. Bang, bang. It went on for 16 days, slowing in frequency until Christmas Eve. Then silence. The adjacent Oklahoma was upside down and holes were drilled in her bottom to allow a precious few to escape their coffin. The pressure of water inside the hull, pushing up on air pockets, meant as soon as the hull was breached, little time was left before remaining air escaped. Shipmates often drowned in front of rescuers eyes before a hole could be made large enough for escape. Cutting torches ignited trapped gasses and exploded, killing more. Jack-hammers jammed and men drowned while looking at a small hole of light. Knowledgeable Mates quickly learned to "rip open" hull plates fast to insure victims survival. A macabre Naval "C-section" with the same purpose.

Olds, Endicott and Costin were sitting on the harbor floor completely surrounded by water, 40 feet down. Cutting through the side of the hull for rescue was out of the question. The smallest of holes in a pressurized compartment would cause a "blow-out", something Submariners knew well. Besides, considering the destruction and carnage above, the problems of three men didn't amount to a "hill of beans" to busy Navy Brass. All Sailors know they are expendable after "set zed". Concerned Shipmates pin-pointed their banging as coming from the bow section, but could do nothing. Clifford Olds' friend Jack Miller had a sinking feeling Olds was trapped. He knew the pump station well, as Cliff would often invite him there for "bull sessions". It was so air-tight, they often closed the hatch and dared people to hear them cursing wildly inside.

Late spring 1942 found Navy salvage teams finally getting to work on the WV. An Inventive series of tremic cement patches were fitted to her port side, and enough water pumped out to partially float the once grand ship. BB48 was nudged across the Harbor into drydock and the grim task of finding bodies began. For Commander Paul Dice, compartment A-111 was expected to be like the rest: Put on gas masks, place some goo into a bodybag and let the Medical boys worry about identification. They had seen it all, but this compartment was different. Dice first noticed the interior was dry and flashlight batteries and empty ration cans littered the floor. A manhole cover to a fresh water supply was opened. Then he saw the calendar. It was 12"x14" and marked with big red Xs that ended December 23. Hardened salvage workers wept uncontrollably as they realized the fate of these men. Word quickly spread among salvage crews: Three men had lived for 16 days to suffer the most agonizing deaths among the 2800 victims at Pearl Harbor.

emphasis added

The point is, these three men lived in an airtime room for 16 days underwater, while those above could not get to them. It would take months, as recounted above, for the salvage and rescue workers to raise the ship and reach their level. Read the whole thing.

USS West Virginia with crew members trapped below in the dark


Why do I write of this now? Why not wait until the next anniversary of Pearl Harbor? Because I cannot sit still while network hagiographers wax eloquent over Ted Kennedy and Republican apologists minimize the issues as mere "philosophical differences." Ted Kennedy's most famous crime, Chappaquiddick, was not a mere "philosophical difference." After reading of the "slow death in a pitch-black void" sufferred by the three young sailors barely younger than Mary Jo Kopechne, one cannot help but wonder about the person who would willingly subject someone to this fate.

Yes, it was an accident that the car went off the bridge. But it was no accident that Kennedy refused to demand help from every home in the vicinity while there was a chance to save the woman who most likely lived in an air pocket for hours. It was no accident. It was pure political calculation. Ted Kennedy calculated his political future and his ability to avoid blame while Mary Jo Kopechne slowly suffocated in a dark cramped space.

After Pearl Harbor, we did not rest until every Japanese ship that took part in the attack was sunk and the empire of Japan lay in ruins. Millions would die before we made peace. But for Ted Kennedy after Chappaquiddick, life continued on as before. He retained his power and his freedom. He is now an icon of the leftist establishment in this country.

As Kennedy's worst actions are dismissed as mere "disagreements," we must remember what is at stake. Kennedy advocates socialist/totalitarian policies. His policies infringe on our very core freedoms. We would not mourn the passing of a third world dictator. We should not do so merely because the totalitarian happens to have been born in the United States and is supported by a well funded totalitarian movement.

Ted Kennedy's fate is between Kennedy and God. I wish him the best in that regard. But we are under no obligation to pretend that the past did not happen. We must not create an idol where evil existed. History must not change because the establishment wills it. The king cannot compel a lie.

An open convention? Ted Kennedy; 1980 DNC convention

I have written previously about the possibilities for preventing John McCain from getting the GOP nomination so that we might avoid the hopeless choice of McCain v. Obama/Hillary. Those prospects have been dim since last week and become dimmer by the day.

Another thought occurred to me that is also unlikely to succeed, but worth considering. I recently remembered the 1980 Democrat convention, in which Ted Kennedy tried a parliamentary manuever to undo Jimmy Carter's delegate victories during the primaries:

Kennedy came into the Democratic convention at Madison Square Garden in New York City with 1,225 delegates to Carter's 1,981 and 122 uncommitted. Kennedy's only chance to wrest the nomination from Carter, who had enough delegates to win, was to pass an "open rule" motion.

Joe Trippi was on the convention floor the evening of Aug. 11, 1980, marshalling the Kennedy delegations from Texas and Utah. He remembers the deciding vote as "the robot rule vote," which came after an hour-long debate that played out in front of a prime time television audience. The debate was over whether delegates should have to vote for the candidate they'd been pledged for, or have an "open" vote during which they could pick Kennedy or Carter, Trippi recalled in an interview. The back story being that the economic and international political situation had deteriorated between the time most people voted and the time of the convention, opening the door to Kennedy, who was billed as a change candidate. "It went all the way down to the wire," said Trippi, who was an adviser to Edwards' 2008 campaign.

Kennedy had no real basis to undo the delegate commitments except for the fact that the domestic and foreign situation had grown worse since each of the primaries. That was a flimsy pretext not founded in law or party rules. I can recall the controversy leading up to that convention, in which numerous Democrat elected officials spoke out one way or the other. I recall Robert Byrd speaking in favor of the "open convention" motion, even though he professed to support Jimmy Carter on the ultimate nomination battle. I also recall Jimmy Carter repeatedly denouncing the idea of a convention decided in "smoke filled rooms" instead of on the basis of the primary votes.

Ted Kennedy addresses the convention - August 12, 1980












I suggest that we try the same manuever here. I am not familiar with RNC rules. But this motion would not depend on RNC rules. It would depend on the idea that the RNC cannot nominate someone who does not represent Republican policies or positions, especially where such nomination results from victories in which the nominee received no more than 35% of the vote. That is no more flimsy than Ted Kennedy's argument in 1980, and Kennedy was treated seriously at the time.

This move would provide the ultimate irony against the man who, behind the scenes, used the gang of 14 to derail the Bush administration's judicial nominees and who, with the help of Ted Kennedy behind the scenes, kept trying to resurrect amnesty despite overwhelming public opposition.

This is a desparation move and probably destined to go down in flames, but the Republic is at stake. As I wrote last week:

Because the stakes are so high, I am not yet ready to declare the Republic dead yet. Most of us are suffocating inside that coffin that is now being nailed shut. Once the Republic is dead, it is not coming back. More than 1800 years elapsed between the death of Rome's republic (@ 48 B.C.) and the birth of the American Republic (1776). I can not wait that long for the rebirth of freedom somewhere in the world.

We cannot give up the fight now or even after the convention or the election itself. We won't know that we have lost for sure until the day (in the now not too distant future) that we receive official notice of which government medical facility we must now use and where to redeem our now worthless dollars for the new "revalued" currency and which government agency will now have custody of our children, etc.

Random Thoughts on Larry Craig (R - ID); hypocrisy; gay marriage; television programming; restroom gay sex;

• This past weekend's resignation by Senator Craig (Idaho) will not stop the MSM/DNC from talking about the scandal for quite some time.
• More people have died in Senator Kennedy's car than in Senator Craig's restroom stall, yet Kennedy remains a hero to the left and to his party.
• The Republican party is not the place to be if you are a pervert looking for somewhere to hide.
• It is not "hypocrisy" to oppose homosexual marriage (civil unions, etc.) while practicing homosexuality. Opposition to gay marriage is not the same as opposition to homosexuality or opposition to gays themselves. Opposition to homosexual marriage is based on the desire to preserve the insurance industry, creditor rights, property rights and as much of the legal system as has become intertwined with marriage over the millenia. (That is the subject of a much longer post in the future.)
• In future MSM/DNC references to this scandal, the word "Idaho" and the name "Larry Craig" will be scarce. The MSM/DNC will begin referring vaguely to a Republican Senator and the Minneapolis airport. The words "Republican Senator" and "Minneapolis airport" will be much more common than "Idaho" or "Larry Craig." The MSM/DNC hopes that marginal voters in Minnesota will mistakenly associate this scandal with Republican Norm Coleman, who faces a reelection battle for U.S. Senator from Minnesota in 2008 (and whose record is thus far spotless).
• One day last week, I heard Sean Hannity speculate on the nature of these bathroom homosexual encounters that led to the sting operation that ensnared Senator Craig. Hannity wondered if these encounters are common and if, in fact, there is an entire subculture centered on restroom gay sex. Whoever the undercover police are waiting for when they sit on toilets all day anticipating homosexual solicitation are the same people who decide what our families see on television.

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update
Michelle Malkin covers Craig's resignation and the immediate fallout.