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Streetcar desire: Road rail our next big thing?
In Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire, the vehicle, like all good literary metaphors, is both real and a symbol. It brings the brutish Stanley Kowalski home with his slab of meat and delivers the fragile Blanche Dubois to her sister, Stella, but it's also an image of urban progress and of the movement away from dying agrarian societies like the one Blanche is forced to abandon.
Likewise, the streetcar that local urban visionaries are imagining for Charlottesville is both real and a symbol. It would be a cool way to get around and it would connect the Corner and the Downtown Mall, but it also represents a vision of the future.
"The streetcar is going to shape West Main," says local architect Gary Okerlund, who along with fellow planner Maurice Cox first came up with the streetcar idea about five years ago.
"Yeah, we like streetcars, they're cool," says Okerlund. "But this is really about coming up with a good way to develop West Main. It's about what the future of Charlottesville will be."
"The streetcar will structure Charlottesville's growth for the next 25 years," declares Cox, who believes that realizing the streetcar is for his generation of urban planners what realizing the Downtown Mall as a pedestrian area was in the seventies. Will the streetcar usher in a new era of urban development? "Without question," says Cox.
In case you haven't noticed, there's a strong desire among our urban planners to build streetcar tracks down West Main Street. Last year, the Alliance for Community Choice in Transportation (ACCT), a local alternative transportation advocacy group, commissioned a study to access the feasibility of a streetcar down West Main and flew a group of local architects, developers, politicians, and city planners to Portland, Oregon for three days to check out that city's new streetcar system. The group also visited the streetcar system in Tacoma, Washington.
Among those who went along for the ride, 23 in all, were Okerlund and Cox, Mayor David Brown, city councilors Kevin Lynch and Rob Shilling, former councilor Meredith Richards, architect Todd Gordon, and C-ville newshound John Borgmeyer.
The expensive field trip was paid for by ACCT with a $100,000 grant from the Blue Moon Fund, a locally based alternative energy foundation (one of the spin-offs from the former W. Alton Jones mega-foundation).
Spearheaded by Cox, who helped secure the grant, the trip was an attempt to seduce some of Charlottesville's movers and shakers into supporting the streetcar idea. In addition, Cox helped lay the groundwork for denser, vertical development along West Main (i.e. high-rise condos, baby!), which Okerlund says is key to making a streetcar system work. In September 2003, during Cox's mayorship, the Charlottesville City Council rewrote the city's zoning laws to allow for such pedestrian-oriented development.
Of course, Portland, a city of nearly three million, would seem a curious model for Charlottesville, whose entire population wouldn't even fill Scott Stadium. "We would be the smallest city in America to have a streetcar," admits ACCT executive director Alia Anderson. "But the experts we've worked with say it's not about population, it's density that matters."
Indeed, the trend toward "density" here has already turned Charlottesville into a kind of pretend-city– all the great city-type stuff without all the people. What was once a quaint outdoor music venue at the east end of the Downtown Mall has become a kind of miniature Sydney Opera House in terms of design ambition. What was once a struggling community theater, LiveArts, now anchors an avant garde art center with an ambitious schedule.
ACAC is building a wellness oasis to rival those in any metropolitan mecca. And then there's the new $10 million Transit Center, the new Paramount Theater, another huge stadium at UVA, and talk of building another hotel on the Downtown Mall, and you have yourself a... well, let's call it a dencity.
A year after the Portland excursion, Charlottesville is no closer to having a streetcar, but our urban visionaries are still at it. Recently, their ambitions went on display in the form of an exhibit at the Charlottesville Community Design Center that imagined Charlottesville 20 years in the future. Again, ACCT was behind the effort, sponsoring Okerlund, Cox, and a group of UVA architecture students to create a design scheme for the streetcar project.
Although ACCT's Anderson says that everyone found the streetcar idea interesting, another issue dominated the discussion during the series of presentations of the exhibit. "Parking is a big issue," says Anderson. "Parking, transit, and transportation– you can't have one without consideration for the other. Right now, we have a parking 'plan' for the West Main corridor, but no real strategy."
Still, such obstacles haven't deterred streetcar aficionados. In a recent story in the Cavalier Daily, Cox declared that the city could be just five years away from operating streetcars.
Okerlund– who puts the cost at $10 to $12 million per mile– admits that the practical realities of funding and building a streetcar system will be tough to overcome, but he emphasizes the need for long-term thinking. "The city needs to understand that it's not an expenditure, it's an investment," he says.
But what about the free CTS trolley? Wouldn't a few more trolleys like that, running between the Corner and the Downtown Mall, work just as well?
"Buses don't work," says Okerlund. "People don't use them, and they get stuck in traffic."
That may be true of city buses, but the trolley (technically a bus) has been a hit with many riders. According to Charlottesville's new Transit Improvement Study, more people ride the trolley route than any other city route, nearly 1,080 riders a day. At night, the trolley accounts for 40 percent of all CTS ridership. In addition, people like Lynch, an alterative transportation advocate, think the trolley system could be further improved with more frequent routes and a system allowing them to travel in sync with traffic lights.
Again, Okerlund cites improved access and economic stimulus as potential streetcar benefits, but he also points out something that Tennessee Williams would probably agree with. "It's also, very frankly, image," he says. "It's about their design impact. A streetcar becomes a piece of architecture itself."
Indeed, it's undoubtedly true that half the reason Williams chose the streetcar to serve as his primary metaphor was that it was so romantic and cool.
Call it Desire, and have it come clanking into the opening scene carrying the play's tormented heroine, and you have a literary classic on your hands. Unfortunately, metaphors are not as well behaved in real life.
Call it a "piece of architecture itself" and have it come clanking down West Main Street carrying a few dreams for Charlottesville's urban future, and there's no telling what you'll get.
"The people in Portland we spoke to were so proud of their street car," says Okerlund, elaborating on the power of its image. That may be so, but before Charlottesvillians can be proud of theirs, they're going to have to desire one first.
Can you imagine it? This photo simulation shows an imagined streetcar pulling up in front of the LiveArts building on Water Street.


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Say what you will about Sarah Palin — and we've sure said a lot — but the woman is photogenic. She was made more so (for a rather steep price) by makeup artist Amy Strozzi, best known for her work on So You Think You Can Dance Strozzi gave an interview to Talking Shopping this week, where she dished on brands, Palin's skin and those long, long eyelashes behind the glasses.
The interview — published in three parts — is by no means a hit job, but Strozzi does dish on the tricks of her trade. Like, despite a specific request from Palin that Strozzi utilize Palin's personal foundation — Revlon Age Defying Makeup with Botafirm in Medium Beige, by the way — Strozzi cheated and mixed in her own preference, Georgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation. Not that Palin needed to be covered up quite the way her running mate did:
I have said this to just about everyone I speak to...the Governor's skin is the most beautiful skin I have ever worked with. Of course, makeup always helps to create an even canvas, but the condition of her skin was flawless. I attribute it to the clean Alaskan air, lots of fresh fish and protein, and a good fitness regime.
Or that picture in the attic, either way.
Oh, and those long eyelashes? If you didn't guess, they're as fake as the ones in the TV commercials. Strozzi says:
Also, she got very accustomed to the individual lashes I would put on her every morning....which, unfortunately are not so easy to do yourself!
Guess that made the winking sexier, right?
Strozzi does shoot down the rumors that Palin's lipliner is tattooed on — she says that she used "an automatic L'Oreal pencil in Nudes, which we covered the lip with and then put a gloss over it." But, if you're a woman whose ever worn lip liner with a shiny gloss, I'll bet you already knew that rumor was false, didn't you? Lip liners always outlast anything else you put on your lips.
Although Strozzi's make-up kit was limited due to space limitations, she does dish on what she regularly applied to Palin, which we've priced out below:
Armani Luminous Silk Foundations: $58.00 (Saks Fifth Ave.)
Revlon Age Defying Makeup with Botafirm: $12.99 (on sale for $11.69 at drugstore.com)
Unlisted brand, though Strozzi says "we" switched to oil free face powder when the days began to get increasing long." Given Strozz's penchant for going high-end on products that could clog one's pores, we'll say she spent $30 on each of 2 different powders at a department store (which is generous, considering how much Armani's powders retail for).
MAC blush in Gingerly and Cubic: $18.00 each (MAC)
Chanel blush in Horizon and Narcisse: $42.00 each (Saks Fifth Avenue)
L'Oreal Voluminous mascara: $6.99 (drugstore.com)
Individual fake eyelashes: (estimate: $14 for Make Up Forever at Sephora but prices vary)
Chanel eyeshadow quads in Variations and Beiges de Chanel: $56.00 each (Saks Fifth Avenue)
MAC single shadows in Amber Lights and Romp: $14.50 each (MAC)
Sephora Slim Eye pencils in Dark Brown, Chocolate Brown, and Black: $5.00 each (Sephora)
automatic L'Oreal pencil in nudes: $7.85 (drugstore.com)
lip gloss: prices vary — but since Strozzi won't spill until she launches her own blog, we're guessing it's not from CVS, and will price this at $30.
So, given that Strozzi probably had a couple of mascaras and glosses, multiple boxes of eyelashes and a couple of things she didn't mention, we estimate that just 10 weeks worth of makeup for Sarah Palin cost between $700 and $1,000. Of course, compared to the $35,000 the campaign spent on Strozzi's services through mid-October, that's a pittance — but it's probably more than some of us have spent on makeup in a lifetime.
Q&A With Sarah Palin's Makeup Artist, Amy Strozzi! [Talking Shopping]
Who's the Fairest of Them All? Amy Says It's Sarah Palin [Talking Shopping]
The Beauty Products Behind Sarah Palin's Look! [Talking Shopping]
Related: Top Salary in McCain Camp? Palin's Makeup Stylist [NY Times]
The Picture of Dorian Gray [Wikipedia]
Is Sarah Palin's Lipliner A Tattoo? [Huffington Post]
Earlier: John McCain's Make-Up Artist

subset: commoncrawl


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Get to Know: Nick Petrangelo
Nick Petrangelo has been crushing both live and online for years. Sarah pulls him aside deep in the Special $25k High Roller at EPT Malta to get his story and to find out what is going through his mind when he is tanking.
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La Salle tops George Washington from line, 76-72
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Tyreek Duren's two free throws with two seconds left in the game preserved La Salle's 76-73 win over George Washington in the Atlantic 10 Conference opener for both schools Thursday night.
Patricio Garino's layup with six seconds left cut the La Salle lead to two, 74-72, and Joe McDonald stole the ball two seconds later, only to turn the ball over himself.
La Salle took the lead early in the first half and did not trail again. The Explorers' biggest lead was seven points in the first half.
Sam Mills led the Explorers (8-6, 1-0) with 17 points. Tyrone Garland added 15 points and Duren added 13. La Salle shot 22 of 45 from the floor (48.9 percent) and was 9 of 20 from long range.
Isaiah Armwood and Garino each scored 15 points for George Washington (12-3, 0-1), and McDonald added another 12 points.


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Hey everyone…. remember the Iron Foodie Contest I entered last December? I made an amazing Warming Winter Soup with soba noodles, porcini mushrooms, fennel pollen seared tofu….. it was a mob of flavors in my mouth and it was good enough to earn me 2nd Place in the contest. And that distinction then paved the way for me to participate in yet another cook-off with fellow bloggers, sponsored by Marx Foods.
This, folks, is a complex and involved contest that yet again, like the Iron Foodie, offers us a chance to utilize some of Marx Foods gourmet products to create original recipes. The first part, however, is a short essay on which three of the following products you would like to have, and what ridiculously delicious thing would you do with them if you won?
Selecting three of these was no easy task, made more complicated by the fact that if indeed you are the last one standing in this elimination type contest, those items you select in this stage will be the ones that you win. I have to be prepared to accept these items in my kitchen if I'm clever enough to rise above the other bloggers and sweep up the competition.
So my choices are the Specialty Sausage Sampler, the 20-lb Heirloom Potato Sampler and the Pink Salmon Fillets. And with these three choices, the ridiculously delicious thing I would do with them if I won would be to host a food sampling party and showcase these amazing items for anyone who attends. Simple, yes, but what a feast that would be!! How could you lose with 9 pounds of sausages made from Buffalo, Duck, Venison, Lamb, Boar, Pheasant, Elk and Rabbit? Imagine those luscious links, grilled to a crackling crisp, split along their sides from the heat to reveal the juicy meat inside? I'd pop open a jar of my homemade Roasted Garlic Mustard, break out the spicy dill pickles, add a crunchy slaw and make sure we had plenty of napkins for the lip-smacking goodness that would ensue from such a feast. Along side those delectable sausages would be served delicate, tender Pink Salmon in a variety of flavorful options such as Lemon and Fresh Herbs, and then seared with either Sweet Sesame, Orange Cranberry or my Spicy Maple glazes. I'd slice the potatoes and roast them to browned and tender perfection so that everyone can sample to their hearts content. Of course, we'd need some good micro-brewed beer for the sausages and several wine selections to sip alongside that salmon. It would be an utterly hedonistic feast to help usher out Winter and welcome the coming Spring. Mmmmm…. I can just about TASTE it!!
Our entries are due by Monday February 7th for consideration by judges at Marx Foods. Should we be selected to move to the next round, by the following week we'll receive a mystery box of ingredients from Marx Foods. Two of those ingredients will be utilized for an original recipe of our choice. From there, it gets a bit more complicated. So first things first, I'll send this in for consideration and cross my fingers.


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Regulating the Air so we can breathe, Scuba Diving Regulators
Scuba diving regulators we stock are the practical and simple type rather than the fancy bells and whistle type. As in our experience simple is better and tends to work and last for longer. Scuba diving regulators come in massive variety of shapes and colours, but the functionality is the same. The key parts of a scuba regulator are:-
- First stage either DIN or A-Clamp/Yoke Connection
- Second stage primary
- Second stage alternate or octopus 'the yellow one'
- Submersible pressure gauge or SPG, but this may be part of a console and contain other instruments.
- Low pressure inflator hose or LPI for inflating your BCD or Wing.
The first stage is connected directly to your scuba tank or cylinder either via a DIN connection or a A-Clamp/Yoke. Yoke is the most common across the world. However many Europeans prefer the DIN connection as this screws into the cylinder valve and has user owned o-ring rather than relying on the one fitted to the cylinder valve. The scuba first stage regulator takes the tank pressure of upwards of 200 bar / 3000 psi and regulates it to around 10 bar. Each manufacturer of scuba diving regulators has very slightly different first stage pressure or IP / intermediate pressure.
Can I breath directly from the cylinder? | Scuba diving regulators | Sabah Divers
Once the first stage regulator has reduced the cylinder pressure to 10 bar it then makes it's way to either the primary second stage regulator or the very important alternate or octopus second stage regulator. Most primary second stage regulators are what's known as a down stream demand valve type regulator. They are designed to deliver air to the user or diver via a diaphragm acting on a demand valve lever. They are also, should an issue arise designed to fail open as the name down stream states. Thus always giving the diver air.
Also attached to the first stage regulators is the high pressure or HP hose leading to the SPG or submersible pressure gauge. This hose delivers tank pressure directly to the gauge and is not reduced in any way. First stage regulators generally have only one HP port but may have more than one on different models. The SPG can be part of a console and contain other very useful gauges such as depth, compass or even a dive computer module.
If there is a particular set of scuba diving regulators you are looking for why not drop us a line and see what fantastic deal we can offer you.
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How much life assurance should I have?
Life Assurance may not be a priority for everyone. If you have no dependants and enough assets to cover your debts then it may not be necessary. Similarly, if you do have dependants and sufficient assets to provide for them after your death, you may not have a need for life assurance.
However, if you have dependants and are the primary provider and/or have significant debts that outweigh your assets, then it is likely that an investment in life assurance is something you should consider. The question that remains is simply, how much?
1. Where death would have a practical impact on the spouse's ability to earn (ceasing work to care for children, or at least covering the cost of child care) then any reduction in earnings could be used to arrive at a lump sum using the formula outlined above. There may also be income, such as dividends, which would cease on death, which should also be included here.
2. This is a sum which, when invested, will provide an income and could be arrived at by taking the annual required income and dividing it by the percentage return that you believe is achievable or realistic to assume. For example:
Earnings £50,000
= £1,250,000
It is appreciated that this is a very simplistic method of converting an income into a capital sum and takes no account of the life expectancy of the beneficiary(ies), inflation or the reasonable expectation of future increases in income. As a broad corrective approach the following methods could be adopted:
- Age of beneficiary: the older the beneficiary the higher the % return figure can be, possibly allowing for capital erosion.
- Inflation: where the life assured wishes to use a real rate of return, after inflation, the % return figure should be reduced by anticipated inflation rates.
- Rising earnings: where earnings are likely to increase, or the individual receives significant levels of non-cash employee benefits, a higher earnings figure can be used.
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Online besplatne igrice
Loot the King
The legend of Robin Hood has inspired countless people. Now it is your turn to follow in the footsteps of Robin Hood and steal as much as possible from the King and give it to the poor.
Skill, Puzzle Games
Flappy Bird
Fun, frustrating, addictive - this is Flappy Birds. Flap your wings to fly in this awesome skill game! While the developer took his masterpiece down from the app stores you can still enjoy it as a free online game. Carefully avoid the pipes and get further than anyone else while you see the other players fail.
Classic Games, Skill
Fruit Cut Ninja
Since Fruit Ninja debuted on the iPhone it has become a popular sport to fillet fruits in the air. Fruit Cut Ninja is a classic cut-game that you can play free. Cut Fruits, avoid bombs and gather points to reach higher levels and gather achievements.
TOP Games, New Games, Arcade Games, Skill
Bubble Meadow
Proof your aiming skills in this brand new bubble adventure game. Connect three bubbles of the same color to clear a screen and win a level!
Puzzle Games, Skill
Rebel Thumb
In this fast paced jump 'n' run game a thumb decides to run off on it's own after being punished night after night on a joysticks and gamepads. Avoid obstacles and escape as long as you can in this fun game!
Jump 'N' Run Games, Skill, Action Games


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These raincoats are perfect for transitions from one season to the next, representing the perfect balance between elegance, style and comfort. Wear over a suit for the perfect office ensemble.
Jackets • Blue Jackets • Waterproof Jackets • Wool Jackets • Bomber Jackets • Leather Jackets


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A WOMAN jailed for hacking off a man's penis after he was killed has launched an appeal against her nine-year prison sentence.
Dianna Gay Wright admitted to cutting off Noel Clark's genitals after two male associates allegedly bashed the Maryborough man to death in 2009.
In September 2012, Wright pleaded guilty to manslaughter and interfering with a corpse, and received a jail sentence of nine years.
Yesterday, the Department of Justice and Attorney-General confirmed Wright had filed an appeal against this sentence.A spokesperson for the department said the appeal was heard in Brisbane earlier this month, and the judgment has been reserved.
When she was originally sentenced last year, the court heard Wright met Mr Clark at Maryborough's Centrelink office in 2009 and drove him to her house with the knowledge two men were waiting to attack him.
Once inside Wright's home, the men allegedly bashed Mr Clark, sprayed his face with a substance, tied him up and left him to die on the bathroom floor.
When one of the men checked his pulse and said "he's dead", they allegedly wrapped Mr Clark in a doona, placed him in the boot of their car and waited until after dark to drive the body out of Maryborough.
Wright followed in her car until the men allegedly pulled over on a section of road where she was "ordered" to cut off Mr Clark's penis with a Stanley knife.


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Skinny, touch-screen phones may be the flavor du jour of the cell phone world, but there are still those of us who want a handset that can take a beating. Ruggedized phones are nothing new, of course, but few are attractive or designed with the everyday consumer in mind. The Casio G'zOne series of phones aimed to change that perception, with sporty-looking handsets that are military-tested to be tough as nails. The Type-V was the first model; it had EV-DO and a megapixel camera, but no Bluetooth. The Type-S was the second; though it had Bluetooth, it had no EV-DO, and only a VGA camera. In 2008, Casio and Verizon have finally settled down on a model that has all the desired features wrapped up in a striking new design. Dubbed the G'zOne Boulder (so named for its angular, rock-like look), this handset has EV-DO, push-to-talk, a megapixel camera, and Bluetooth, as well as access to V Cast Music, which wasn't on either of its predecessors. The Boulder looks to be the perfect all-in-one durable handset for outdoor enthusiasts, industrial workers, or the clumsy among us. It's currently available for $129.99 with a two-year service agreement. If your company doesn't allow camera phones, the Boulder is also available in a sans-camera version.
The Boulder is one tough cell phone, and it shows. It has jagged, rocky angles along its front exterior that makes the handset deserving of its namesake. But that doesn't mean it's not attractive; the Boulder has a simple stripe down the middle of the phone, plus a round external display that looks a lot like a typical sports stopwatch. At 4.9-ounces, it's not a fashion phone by any means, but we like the overall sporty look. We can easily see someone using this on, say, the ski slopes, without looking out of place.
Measuring 3.9 inches long by 2 inches wide by 0.9 inch thick, the Boulder is also covered in rubberized bumpers and a hard plastic chassis, all built to take a beating. Military-certified (under code MIL-STD-810F, if you care about that sort of thing) to withstand water, shock, dust, immersion, vibration, salt, fog, humidity, solar radiation, high altitude, and extreme temperatures, the Boulder is certainly no wimp. There's even a locking mechanism with the battery cover so you can be sure the battery won't get damaged (you can unlock it by using a small coin), and all the ports (microSD and charging slots) have a tight rubberized cover as well. We weren't able to truly test out the durability of the phone, but we did dunk it in some water and throw it against a wall a few times to no ill effect.
As we mentioned earlier, the Boulder has a round, monochrome external display, similar to the ones on its predecessors. It measures 1.2-inches across, and displays the date, time, caller ID, battery, and signal strength information. When the phone is closed, you can also use it to view music player information, as well as the electronic compass, the countdown timer, and the stop watch. Even though the external display is mono, you can still use it as a self-portrait viewfinder when the camera is activated. You can change the clock format on the external display if you like. Above the display is a camera lens, plus a bright flash, which can also be used as a flashlight. On the left spine are the push-to-talk key, the volume rocker, and a key that acts as the voice command key when the phone is open, but acts as the compass/countdown timer/stop watch key when the phone is closed (you switch between the different options by holding down the key). The microSD card slot is on the right.
Flip open the phone and you'll find a very nice 2.0-inch, 65,000-color display. Even though it only supports 65,000 colors, we still thought it was a lovely looking screen, with bright tones and legible font. Though it comes with the default tab-style Verizon menu interface, you can choose to select a Grid style configured to either a messaging or personalizing focus. You can adjust the screen's backlight time, the clock format, the dial fonts, and the contrast.
The navigation pad consists of two soft keys, a four-way toggle with a middle OK key, a dedicated camera/camcorder key, plus a speakerphone key that acts as a flashlight key if you hold it down for a longer press. The toggle's up, left, and down arrows act as shortcuts to three user-defined functions, while the right arrow leads to a mini My Shortcuts menu with up to four user-defined shortcuts. Of course, the array is followed by the Send, Clear, and End/Power keys under that. We found all the keys well-spaced apart and quite easy to dial and text. The keypad on the Boulder carries on the theme of its namesake by incorporating tiny peaks and valleys in the design of the keys, which results in a pleasant tactile experience.
The G'zOne Boulder comes with a desktop charging cradle and a headset jack adapter.
While we're fans of the Boulder's rugged design, we're even more pleased with its feature package. It has all the features of both the Type-V and the Type-S, plus a few that weren't in either. But first, let's start with the basics. The Boulder has a 500-entry phone book, which seems a little small for our tastes, but each contact is able to hold up to four phone numbers and two e-mail addresses. Each contact can also be organized into groups, matched with a photo for caller ID, or with one of 12 polyphonic ring tones and alert sounds. Other basic features include a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, a speakerphone (which can be activated prior to a phone call), an alarm clock, a calendar, a calculator, a stop watch, a countdown timer, a world clock, and a notepad.


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>The Treatment
>Soaking the wound in non-scalding hot water to tolerance (110 to 113 F / 43.3 to 45 C)
>If the injured person appears intoxicated or is weak, vomiting, short of breath or unconscious, seek immediate advanced medical care.
>Wound care is standard, so, for the blistering wound, appropriate therapy would be a topical antiseptic (such as silver sulfadiazene [Silvadene] cream or bacitracin ointment) and daily dressing changes. A scorpionfish sting frequently requires weeks to months to heal, and therefore requires the attention of a physician. There is an antivenin available to physicians to help manage the sting of the dreaded stonefish.
>For more information on marine life injuries, see the complete article by Paul S. Auerbach, M.D., M.S. on Marine Life Trauma from the Jan/Feb 1998 issue of Alert Diver.


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Conflict represents worst breach in civilian-military relations in decades.
The matter of Rumsfeld v. the Generals bears close scrutiny. The controversy represents the worst breach in civil-military relations since Harry Truman dismissed Gen. Douglas MacArthur in 1951 for his conduct and his criticism of the president during the Korean War. It has proven an unwelcome distraction for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Joint Chiefs, and has added to the already considerable woes of President Bush in his role as a wartime commander-in-chief.
Notably, the calls from a group of recently retired generals that Rumsfeld should resign has also thrust senior military leaders and, by proxy, the uniformed services into the middle of a hyperpartisan political argument -- territory from which the U.S. military rarely escapes unscathed.
Given the nearly unprecedented nature of the controversy, what is perhaps most remarkable is how utterly unsurprising it is to anyone who has spent time with senior military officers, in the field, over drinks at the officers' club, or especially on the ground in Iraq. The fact that the Army chief of staff came out of retirement to take the job after sources say at least three active-duty generals declined it, and reports that the Marine Corps commandant, Gen. Michael W. Hagee, may retire before his term is up, speak volumes about the frayed state of civil-military relations in today's Pentagon.
Practically from the moment they first occupied the E Ring, Rumsfeld and his tight circle of senior aides demonstrated a dismissive attitude that has grated on uniformed leaders. In the view of Bush's civilian team, President Clinton had allowed the generals and the admirals to run roughshod. Rumsfeld and his band of reformers were a rude awakening for senior military leaders conditioned to expect a measure of courtesy from civilian bosses as a privilege of their rank; instead, Bush's team set out to show the generals who was boss.
Rumsfeld's incessant needling of the Army, in particular, to more rapidly reshape itself into an expeditionary force, at a time when the service has been run nearly ragged by back-to-back-to-back deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, added insult to injury. From the beginning, the Rumsfeld reformers have also considered themselves bold revolutionaries who deal only in transformative ideas, and their "roll the dice" spirit in nearly all things has often been at odds with the more cautious nature of a uniformed military pledged to securing the Republic.
In response to Pentagon policies -- set by Rumsfeld and his inner circle -- pushing the envelope on prisoner treatment, for instance, eight retired generals and admirals have written to Bush asking for an independent, 9/11-type commission to investigate detainee abuse. Two of those senior officers, including the Navy's former judge advocate general, have joined a lawsuit seeking to hold Rumsfeld directly accountable for policies that gave rise to torture and abuse of U.S.-held prisoners.
Above all, the other eight (and counting) retired generals who have called for Rumsfeld's resignation are wrestling to win the narrative of the Iraq war. Privately, most generals will tell you that a new Defense secretary is unlikely to change the dynamics of an Iraqi campaign now mostly defined by missed opportunities and foreclosed options. Notably, two of the eight served as division commanders in Iraq and saw firsthand how decisions made by their civilian bosses limited their military choices.
Whatever the final outcome of the conflict, they and a large number of senior officers on active duty believe that the Office of the Secretary of Defense -- Rumsfeld and his top civilian advisers -- is responsible for the most poorly analyzed and mismanaged U.S. military intervention since Vietnam.
For these commanders, who have returned home with 2,400 fewer troops than they led into Iraq, that calls for some accountability.
"My primary issue with Secretary Rumsfeld's leadership is accountability, because I grew up in a culture where the captain of the ship or the commander of the unit is held responsible, and Rumsfeld has committed acts of gross negligence and incompetence," retired Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni told National Journal.
As head of U.S. Central Command, which oversees all American troops in the Middle East, Zinni and his staff planned and war-gamed an invasion of Iraq for years, plans that active-duty officers assured him were constantly updated right up to the moment that Rumsfeld discarded them.
"We knew that you would need a lot of troops to establish law and order over a traumatized population, and to combat all kinds of troublemaking elements coming from outside Iraq," Zinni said.
"We knew that you had to secure the infrastructure and that reconstruction would be a huge and expensive task. We knew that Iraqi exiles like Ahmad Chalabi had zero credibility in the region. All of that was foreseeable, and yet our warnings were brushed aside and we were personally attacked," the general continued. "Rumsfeld said our planning was 'old and stale.' That this was going to be a 'cakewalk,' with 'shock and awe' and flowers in the streets, and Iraqi oil paying for reconstruction. Those were wild-eyed and patently ridiculous ideas."
High-Stakes Showdown
Regardless of the emotional content of the generals' arguments, the stakes of the controversy could hardly be greater. On a strategic level, the issues raised go to the fundamental judgment and competence of those entrusted with the nation's most lethal levers of power at a time of great uncertainty. The dangers include a potential confrontation with Iran over its supposed pursuit of nuclear weapons, while North Korea is waiting in the wings. And the war on terrorism continues.
The U.S. military is also poised to attempt the delicate process of extricating itself from Iraq within the next two years without setting the scene for that country, and the region, to descend into sectarian war. Meanwhile, another military manpower crunch is coming late this year and early next as planners search for soldiers and marines to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan for their third -- and in some cases fourth -- combat tours, an effort necessitated by Rumsfeld's stubborn refusal to increase the size of U.S. infantry forces from pre-9/11 levels permanently, despite wars on multiple fronts and urgings from some in Congress.
In breaking with two centuries of military tradition, the retired generals asking for the head of Donald Rumsfeld have essentially gone around their former civilian bosses to put the question directly to the American people: Do you want to confront the crises ahead led by the person who brought you Iraq? "My own decision to speak out goes back to watching firsthand the arrogant and contemptuous attitude of Rumsfeld as he ignored the advice of military experts during preparations for war, and then living with the impact of those strategic blunders as a division commander in Iraq," retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste said in an interview.
After serving in the Pentagon as chief military aide to then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz -- where he was privy to many high-level meetings -- and then commanding the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, Batiste declined promotion to lieutenant general and command of an Army corps.
"That was a gut-wrenching decision for me, but at some point I realized that in order to try and change course and have this debate, I had to retire," he said. "Secretary Rumsfeld and his team turned what should have been a deliberate victory in Iraq into a prolonged challenge. My concern now is that we still have a long way to go in the Iraq war, and other monumental decisions are coming just around the corner. Don't the American people deserve senior leaders whose instincts and judgments they can trust?"
Not surprisingly, Bush has vigorously defended his Defense secretary, having already declined the resignations that Rumsfeld tendered in 2004 over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. The era when President Clinton's Defense secretary, Les Aspin, resigned over a single bad day in Somalia and a controversy over gays in the military now seems almost quaint.
One irony of the current controversy, however, is that in speaking out the generals may have actually helped secure Rumsfeld's job. No wartime president can bow to such public pressure from senior military voices without appearing weak, and firing Rumsfeld would also amount to an admission by Bush that the defining issue of his presidency was fraught with strategic mistakes.
Yet the seriousness of the controversy warrants at least an examination of the generals' writ. It's not just that the military leaders have called for Rumsfeld's resignation, it's that they cite specific decisions that they say he got terribly, terribly wrong. The list of particulars was perhaps best summarized by retired Lt. Gen. Greg Newbold, the top operations officer on the Joint Staff in the run-up to the Iraq war.
Before he stepped down, Newbold was a strong candidate for future commandant of the Marine Corps. "What we are living with now is the consequences of successive policy failures," Newbold wrote in Time magazine. "Some of the missteps include: the distortion of intelligence in the buildup to the war, McNamara-like micromanagement that kept our forces from having enough resources to do the job, the failure to retain and reconstitute the Iraqi military in time to help quell civil disorder, initial denial that insurgency was at the heart of the opposition to occupation, alienation of allies who could have helped in a more robust way to rebuild Iraq, and the continuing failure of other agencies of U.S. government to commit themselves to the same degree as the Defense Department."
Here are the details behind the generals' specific complaints.
The Intelligence
The failure to find Saddam Hussein's stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, President Bush's casus belli for the invasion, still tops many after-action assessments. As was detailed in the bipartisan Robb-Silberman report on intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction, an intelligence failure of that magnitude has many fathers. The question posed by the generals is whether Rumsfeld and his top aides were prominent among them.
In fact, despite the general assumption within the vast U.S. intelligence network that Saddam almost certainly retained some residual or reconstituted chemical and biological (but not nuclear) weapons capabilities, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz were not satisfied with the often qualified and inconclusive intelligence on Iraq's WMD programs that filtered up through the intelligence bureaucracy.
Nor was Rumsfeld's confidant, Vice President Cheney. So Wolfowitz had the Pentagon's No. 3 civilian, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, establish a new intelligence shop on Iraq called the Office of Special Plans.
OSP operated outside normal intelligence channels and was known to have very close ties to Cheney's office and to Iraqi exile Ahmad Chalabi and his network of Iraqi defectors, who had a vested interest in overthrowing Saddam. The vice president's chief of staff and top national security adviser, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, was a former protege of Wolfowitz's, having worked with him in the Pentagon in the early 1990s on issues involving weapons of mass destruction.
Many experts believe that OSP circumvented the normal vetting and filtering process by which intelligence made its way up the pyramid of collection and analysis, and instead relayed essentially raw intelligence gathered from Chalabi's defectors directly to the vice president's office, where it found its way into Cheney's speeches.
In August 2002, for instance, Cheney proclaimed, "There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction" and is pursuing "an aggressive nuclear weapons program" that Cheney surmised would soon produce a weapon. Nor was there any doubt, Cheney said, that "he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us." In his address to the United Nations in October 2002, Bush thus posited the case for pre-emptive war against Iraq: "We cannot wait for the final proof -- the smoking gun -- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."
Notably, at the time of Cheney's speech the Pentagon, and not the CIA, was circulating a detailed intelligence briefing on Baghdad's nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons programs to key allies and members of Congress, and was reportedly working on a report that would show links between Al Qaeda and Iraq. The Pentagon official spearheading that briefing was J.D. Crouch, Rumsfeld's assistant secretary of Defense for international security policy.
The Robb-Silberman report concluded that two Chalabi-supplied Iraqi defectors were "fabricators." The use of another serial liar, a source code-named "Curveball," who was behind reports of Iraqi mobile biological weapons labs, was, the report noted, "at bottom, a story of Defense Department collectors who abdicated their responsibility to vet a critical source...." The 9/11 commission report, meanwhile, found no credible operational links between Al Qaeda and Saddam's regime. Since the reports' release, both Bill Luti, who ran the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans, and Crouch have gone on to work for the National Security Council, in the White House.
"As someone doing consulting work for the CIA right up until the war started, I saw the intelligence on Iraq's WMD, and I can tell you that the administration's talk of an imminent danger of 'mushroom clouds' wasn't just a stretch," Zinni said. "Quite frankly, it was outright bullshit. I asked the CIA analysts where that was coming from, and they just stared at their shoes."
McNamara-Like Micromanagement
Did Rumsfeld micromanage the Iraq operation to the degree that Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and President Johnson did with Vietnam? ("I won't let those Air Force generals bomb even the smallest outhouse without checking with me!" Johnson used to brag.)
Bush asked about Rumsfeld's management approach when talking to the Pentagon's top civilian in Iraq, Paul Bremer, who headed the Coalition Provisional Authority in 2003-2004. "I like Don, Mr. President. I've known him for 30 years, admire him, and consider him highly intelligent. But he does micromanage," Bremer recalls in his book My Year in Iraq. "Don terrifies his subordinates, so that I can rarely get any decisions out of anyone but him."
From a military standpoint, Exhibit A in the micromanagement charge is Rumsfeld's insistence in the critical period leading up to the Iraq invasion that the Joint Staff and the Central Command jettison the Time Phased Force and Deployment List. What the military calls the "Tip Fid" is the matrix by which theater commanders identify the forces needed for a specific campaign and the services prioritize the deployment of those forces and requisite support units.
The methodical, timed, and phased nature of such a deployment scheme assaulted Rumsfeld's notions of "transformational war," and he derided the Tip Fid as part of the military's "Industrial Age" thinking. Rumsfeld and his aides favored a "just in time" buildup to war fashioned more on the FedEx model -- hold everything back until you absolutely need it.
War is not package delivery, however, and the Pentagon civilians' insistence on scuttling the Tip Fid infuriated commanders in the Middle East, who were ordered to move into Iraq even as units needed to guard their exposed supply lines were still pouring off ships in Kuwait. Often those forces arrived in the wrong order of priority and with inadequate supplies and transport.
"Rumsfeld insists that the Tip Fid process is too ponderous and slow, and it may well be, but it's the only process we have for managing the flow of forces into theater and matching them with needed lift and support," a senior general involved in planning the invasion told National Journal at the time. "Since we've been ordered to abandon the Tip Fid, it would be really nice if those of us responsible for executing this campaign knew and understood what the hell is supposed to replace it. And we don't!"
Too Few Troops
When then-Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki told Congress before the Iraq war that it would take on the order of "several hundred thousand" troops to stabilize the country, the general was actually being conservative. Central Command's war plan for Iraq originally called for a minimum of 380,000 troops to topple the regime and secure the country.
Studying force-to-population ratios in seven previous occupations, ranging from Germany and Japan in the 1940s all the way to Somalia and the Balkans in the 1990s, the Rand think tank prepared a report shortly before the Iraq war that was brought to Rumsfeld's attention. Rand put the number of troops needed to stabilize Iraq at 500,000.
Yet Wolfowitz derided Shinseki's "notion of hundreds of thousands of American troops" as "way off the mark," and OSD made Shinseki a lame duck by naming his replacement more than a year before his scheduled retirement. After constant pressure from Rumsfeld prompted Central Command's Gen. Tommy Franks to whittle the invasion force down to roughly 140,000 U.S. troops, it became clear that in their overriding focus on transformation and bold new ideas, Pentagon civilians had ignored the lessons of even recent history.
Rumsfeld has never acknowledged that those forces proved manifestly inadequate to the task of taming an ethnically fractious country of 27 million inhabitants. Ultimately, there were too few troops to stop the looting and the growing sense of anarchy and lawlessness that took hold in the weeks and months after Saddam's regime fell, or to guard abandoned Iraqi army ammo dumps from raids by the nascent insurgency. As a result, the U.S. military saw its critical honeymoon of liberation cut short in Iraq, and some senior commanders have never forgotten it.
The generals are, however, at least partly responsible for the lack of sufficient troops in Iraq. Knowing after the Shinseki affair that OSD would deem a request for more troops most unwelcome, and understanding that if a larger force were committed to Iraq it would hasten the day when deployments would break the back of their Army and National Guard combat and support units, the generals kept mum or played word games in public.
In early September 2003, for instance, the senior commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, insisted that he had enough troops for the mission "currently assigned." At the time that mission did not include fighting an all-out insurgency, confronting renegade militias, training a new Iraqi army, securing the porous border against terrorist infiltration, or holding ground cleared of insurgents by U.S. military sweeps. "If a militia or internal conflict of some nature were to erupt ... that would be a challenge out there that I do not have sufficient force for," Sanchez said then.
When those challenges and more arose in the fateful spring of 2004, however, the generals still bit their tongues in public about the need for more troops. They did so even after Rumsfeld pulled what many of them saw as a bait and switch. He originally assured uniformed leaders that the Army's 1st Cavalry Division was in the pipeline to reinforce the U.S. invasion force, and then he abruptly canceled the deployment.
So, did Rumsfeld fail to supply his generals with adequate forces in Iraq? The Bush administration's top man there certainly thought so. As early as July 2003, well before the insurgency had fully coalesced, Bremer spoke with then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, as he recalls in his book. "In my view, the coalition's got about half the number of soldiers we need here," Bremer told her. "And we run the risk of having this thing go south on us."
Disbanding Iraq's Army
When Bremer signed Coalition Provisional Authority Order No. 2 on May 23, 2003, formally dissolving all Iraqi military formations, he had some compelling reasons. Iraqi security forces were an instrument of Saddam's brutal repression; they were viewed as a threat by both the Kurds and the Shiite Iraqi exiles like Chalabi who were so favored by OSD; and, anyway, those uniformed forces had largely melted away after the regime collapsed. After discussing the idea with his civilian staff, Bremer vetted his plan to abolish all Iraqi intelligence, security, and military forces with Rumsfeld and Feith. Both approved the idea.
For many military commanders in Iraq, however, the idea was pure folly. As opposed to Saddam's brutal Republican Guard, the regular Iraqi army was a relatively respected institution into which many Iraqis had been conscripted and had served honorably, especially during the Iraq-Iran war. Because the Iraqi army also had its own command-and-control systems and mobility, U.S. military experts believed that if the force were reconstituted quickly, it could prove critical in establishing security and helping with reconstruction.
Did military experts share their concerns with Bremer? One who did was retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, the head of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, the initial American postwar overseer in Baghdad. Bremer later replaced Garner. The retired general advised Bremer that abolishing the Iraqi army would be a huge mistake. Once again, however, military advice went unheeded. With Iraq's long, hot summer of occupation just beginning in 2003, the second edict of Bremer's Pentagon-led occupational authority threw hundreds of thousands of military-age Iraqi men out of work, with every last one of them nursing a grudge and trained to bear arms.
The CPA's first edict? Feith's "De-Baathification of Iraqi Society" order. Perhaps not surprisingly, the process was eventually entrusted to Chalabi, who predictably took the purge to draconian levels and further inflamed the Sunni-based insurgency. That may be why Franks, the top U.S. commander of the Iraq war, wrote in his autobiography that Feith was "getting a reputation around here as the dumbest [expletive] guy on the planet."
"Why de-Baathification was handed to Chalabi was one of the great mysteries to all of us, because it was absolutely the wrong thing to do," said a senior active-duty general who was in Iraq at the time. "Chalabi had a vested interest in the total elimination of the Baathist structure in Iraq as a way of clearing the political field. To say that his de-Baathification efforts undercut our attempts to bring the Sunnis into the political process would be an understatement."
No New Iraqi Army
If U.S. military commanders in Iraq were outraged at the formal dissolution of the Iraqi army, they were absolutely confounded by the CPA's noted lack of urgency in training a force to take its place. Because Saddam had used the Republican Guard to keep his boot on the necks of the Iraqi people, Bremer believed that any new army should have only external security responsibilities -- guarding borders and the like.
With the old Iraqi army formally dissolved, no new one on the horizon, and growing signs of an organized insurgency by fall 2003, however, U.S. commanders viewed that plan as sentencing U.S. troops to indefinite service in Iraq.
U.S. commanders in Iraq understood better than most that raising an army from scratch was a mammoth enterprise likely to take years. In the end, they won approval to create a small number of "Iraqi National Guard" battalions, but the training and equipping of even these units had to come out of the hides of coalition forces in Iraq, already stretched thin. A year after the invasion, there were not enough personal weapons for even the new Iraqi National Guard battalions.
Meanwhile, Bremer assigned responsibility for overseeing creation of the New Iraqi Army to a civilian on his staff, Walter Slocombe, who announced the rather modest first-year objective of forming a single army division of roughly 12,000 troops. Even that effort, according to U.S. military commanders, was plagued by chronic underfunding and a lack of adequate manpower, resources, and high-level attention.
"History will have to sort out the pros and cons of disbanding the Iraqi army, but even proponents of the idea understood that you would have to immediately devote a lot of resources and manpower to replacing it, and the fact that never happened is a damning indictment of Secretary Rumsfeld's leadership," retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who led the initial effort to create a New Iraqi Army, told National Journal. "Instead, I fell in on a staff of five guys borrowed from Central Command's staff, and we were supposed to build an army for a country of 27 million people. And I never did get the people and money that were promised to execute the mission, and that same lack of urgency persists even today."
When some of the Iraqi National Guard battalions and units of the New Iraqi Army were thrown into battle in the simultaneous Sunni and Shiite uprisings in spring 2004 -- what Bremer called "the most critical crisis of the occupation" -- most of the poorly trained and ill-equipped Iraqis went AWOL or refused to fight. That left the mission of quelling the uprisings to U.S. forces in Iraq. At the time, those forces included one of Paul Eaton's two sons in uniform.
"Some people have criticized my comments as counterproductive to the war effort, but with two children in uniform this is very personal for me," said Eaton, who called for Rumsfeld's resignation in a recent op-ed in The New York Times. "I looked at the terrible path Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld has led us down, and I thought two and a half more years of that leadership was too long for my nation, for my Army, and for my family."
Alienating Allies
From the beginning, the Rumsfeld team viewed NATO and other venerable U.S. alliances in a suspect light. A multilateral alliance might be useful for nation-building operations in the Balkans and for keeping the peace in Europe, but such mundane missions held no allure for the Rumsfeld reformers.
Certainly in terms of combat, OSD viewed such alliances as too much of a constraint on its vision of transformational warfare. This opinion comported with some air-power advocates in uniform who derided the "war by committee" character of NATO's 1999 campaign in Kosovo.
So when NATO proudly invoked its collective defense clause for the first time in history to come to America's aid after the 9/11 attacks, allied nations were stunned by the Pentagon's reply of "thanks, but no thanks." As Rumsfeld memorably told NATO members when the U.S. set out unilaterally to topple the Taliban and take the fight to Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, "The mission will define the coalition."
Even when that mission entailed invading and occupying a country of 27 million people, however, OSD seemed remarkably cavalier about the need for a broad coalition. Rumsfeld infuriated European allies when he responded to German and French reluctance to invade Iraq by rhetorically dividing the Continent into "old Europe" and "new Europe."
Wolfowitz's suggestion that the Turkish military should help overcome civilian resistance there to the war upset many civilians in the Ankara government, which eventually denied a U.S. request to launch a northern front in Iraq from Turkish territory. After Saddam's regime fell, the Pentagon further alienated allies by suggesting that French and German contractors would be barred from the anticipated spoils of Iraqi reconstruction.
Did the Pentagon's incursions into prewar diplomacy help alienate venerable U.S. allies? One person who thought so was the official frequently tasked with trying to mend those frayed relations. "Terms like 'old Europe' didn't exactly have a confidence-building effect, and clearly helped turn public opinion in Europe against us," former Secretary of State Colin Powell told the German magazine Stern in an interview last year.
Although the Bush administration eventually cobbled together a coalition of some 30 nations in Iraq, the generals have always understood that their support from allies is a mile wide and an inch deep. The lack of allied help denied them the much-desired northern front during the invasion, cost them a multinational division planned for fall 2003, and left them without the legitimacy that major Arab allies might have bestowed on a genuine coalition operation.
Several key allies have announced plans to pull their forces out of Iraq this year. Perhaps most important, polls taken before the war clearly showed that the American public would have been much more supportive of the war if the U.S. were perceived as being part of a broad coalition.
None of that would have mattered if OSD's optimistic assumptions going into Iraq -- that U.S. forces would be viewed overwhelmingly and lastingly as liberators, that the basic structures of government would remain intact, that Iraqi oil would pay for the country's reconstruction, that democratic reforms could surmount long-standing ethnic divisions -- had proven true. But because those assumptions proved wrong, and with the U.S. military entering its fourth year in Iraq, that lack of broad and deep support at home and abroad matters a lot.
"I have nothing personal against Rumsfeld; I've never even met him," said Zinni, who has a son in uniform serving in Afghanistan. "But how can we change course, move forward, and win allies back to our cause when the same person who put us on this disastrous path and burned those allies in the past is still at the helm, saying nothing has changed and no mistakes have been made? I just don't think you can be open to new ideas and courses of action if you have a vested interest in constantly defending old decisions."
Not Fading Away
Rumsfeld is reportedly worried that the revolt of the generals has weakened the principle of civilian control of the military, and in that concern he has much company. Whatever blame Rumsfeld shares for a civil-military relationship in tatters, the active-duty and retired flag officers who have rushed to his defense recognize that their comrades have violated an important tradition. One reason that the U.S. military consistently polls as the most respected institution in America is that it's viewed as being above politics.
In particular, the Joint Chiefs, hand-picked by Rumsfeld, understand the implied criticism in the generals' writ against their boss: that the chiefs have too often acted as "yes men," insulating Rumsfeld in an echo chamber.
"I haven't noticed any shrinking lilies among the Joint Chiefs, and we all understand our responsibility to state our advice, and for the chairman [of the Joint Chiefs] to take that advice to the secretary of Defense and the president," Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, said recently to defense reporters.
"That doesn't mean our bosses always agree with our advice," he said. "At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself: Is a decision legal, ethical, and can I live with the consequences? If you can't, then you do have a responsibility to do something about it; but in my opinion, you should do it while still in uniform. If you've gone through the debate and lived with the decision, I think it's inappropriate to go around cleansing your conscience in public after the fact. I certainly don't want civil authorities distrusting military advice because they're worried about what someone is going to say publicly down the road."
By tradition, old soldiers who can no longer in good conscience obey their civilian masters are supposed to state their case in private, offer their resignation, and then quietly fade away. Air Force Chief of Staff Ron Fogleman did that in 1997 over disagreement with the Clinton administration's military drawdown and OSD's disciplining of one of his generals over the Khobar Towers terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia.
Despite being treated shabbily, Shinseki in retirement has largely declined to publicly criticize Rumsfeld. Ever the old soldier, Colin Powell, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, has refused to directly criticize Rumsfeld and Cheney for their largely successful efforts to marginalize him in the Iraq debate.
Especially for the post-Vietnam generations of officers, however, this burden of silence weighs uneasily. Nearly all of them have read Dereliction of Duty, a seminal book by Army Col. H.R. McMaster, published in 1997, that was once on the chairman of the Joint Chiefs' required reading list.
In it, McMaster excoriates the Vietnam-era Joint Chiefs and other senior military leaders for not speaking out more forcefully against misguided policies that many in uniform believed cost them a war and the lives of tens of thousands of American soldiers. President Johnson's "plan of deception depended on the tacit approval or silence of the Joint Chiefs of Staff," McMaster wrote. "LBJ had misrepresented the mission of U.S. ground forces in Vietnam, distorted the views of the chiefs to lend credibility to his decision against mobilization, grossly understated the numbers of troops General [William] Westmoreland had requested, and lied to the Congress about the monetary cost of actions already approved and of those awaiting final decision.... The 'five silent men' on the Joint Chiefs made possible the way the United States went to war in Vietnam."
Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey was one of the most decorated combat veterans of Vietnam and a division commander in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. "You know, when people ask me whether Secretary Rumsfeld should resign, I tell them it would be inappropriate for me to comment on such a personal matter, but I will provide my objective view on some of his policies that have gotten this country and our military into serious trouble," he told National Journal. "I still think our national leadership has the unquestioned loyalty of our senior military leaders in uniform. These retired generals who are speaking out, however, I view as combat veterans with the full rights of U.S. citizens to talk about the security challenges they see facing the country."
For the Vietnam generation of officers and those who mentored at their shoulder, the quintessential model of a leader struggling with the dilemma of divided loyalties is not Gen. George Catlett Marshall, but rather Gen. Edward (Shy) Meyer. Given that the Senate Armed Services Committee recently announced possible hearings on the matter of Rumsfeld v. the Generals, his case is worth contemplating.
In the spring of 1980, the Soviet Union had just invaded Afghanistan, U.S. diplomats were still being held hostage in Iran, and the U.S. military was reeling from a post-Vietnam decade of poor morale and defense cutbacks. As Army chief of staff, Meyer knew that speaking out publicly on that sorry state of affairs would be viewed as an act of disloyalty by his civilian bosses in the Pentagon and by President Carter, who was entering a difficult re-election campaign.
A veteran of Vietnam, Meyer was also mindful that the United States military was nearly unique in taking its oath of allegiance not to an individual leader, political party, or monarch, but rather to the principles and ideals in the Constitution.
The Constitution prescribed not only civilian control of the military but also a separation of powers, establishing the president as commander-in-chief but giving Congress the responsibility for the raising of armies. So when members of Congress asked the general in public testimony about the state of their army, Meyer told them that the United States had a "hollow Army."
Pointedly, Meyer did not directly criticize the commander-in-chief or call for the resignation of the secretary of Defense. He privately offered his own resignation. It was not accepted. When the secretary of the Army, his civilian boss, demanded that Meyer rescind his comments about a "hollow Army," however, he flatly refused. Gen. Shy Meyer just told the truth and trusted in the Constitution. The American people did the rest.


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Team USA Starts Sluggishly, Rallies to Beat Puerto Rico 111-100Team USA defeated Puerto Rico 111-100 in the first game of the preliminary round of the FIBA World Championships. Don't expect this tournament to be a cakewalk: Puerto Rico is far from being the best team that the U.S. will face but they took an early 12-7 lead and still were ahead 36-32 well into the second quarter. Carlos Arroyo led all first half scorers with 15 points as he and the other Puerto Rico guards repeatedly used dribble penetration to break down the U.S. defense. At the other end of the court, Puerto Rico frustrated the U.S. by using a zone defense. Team USA did not do a good job of attacking the zone, instead settling for three pointers or taking wild, low percentage shots. As ESPN2 analyst Fran Fraschilla observed, FIBA uses a 24 second clock, so there is less time to methodically attack the zone than there is in college basketball; while the NBA got rid of the illegal defense rule, you still cannot play a pure zone in the NBA because a defender cannot be in the paint for more than three seconds unless he is within arm's length of an offensive player--so the three-two zone that Puerto Rico employed is something that the Team USA players have not seen since their college (or high school) days.
The two saving graces for Team USA are their superior depth and athleticism. The U.S. had nine steals in the first half, which created numerous transition scoring opportunities and enabled the U.S. to shoot 68% from the field. Unfortunately, the U.S. only led 57-51 at the break because when the U.S. did not force turnovers they did a poor job of defending against dribble penetration by the guards and against screen and roll plays, allowing Puerto Rico to shoot 54% from the field. The U.S. made a 12-2 run early in the second half to push the lead to 69-53, taking advantage of mismatches on the block with Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade and also converting two LeBron James fast break layups and a Chris Paul three pointer. The U.S. lead swelled to as much as 20 in the fourth quarter before a late Puerto Rico run nearly cut the margin in half.
The Puerto Rico team is on such a shoestring budget that they had to save money by not arriving in Japan until Wednesday, later than any of the other squads got to Japan. Speaking of not arriving in Japan, ESPN2's Jim Durham and Fran Fraschilla broadcast the game live and direct from ESPN's studios in Bristol, Connecticut. Watching the ESPN score graphic mysteriously add and subtract points without the ball going through the hoop made me wonder if the ESPN stats crew was watching the game from a sports bar while playing Pop a Shot. Suffice it to say that scoring this game at home was a bit confusing--and, yes, you can insert a Keith Olbermann line here about anyone who was spending Friday night/Saturday morning scoring a basketball game at home.
I guess that Monday Night Football package set back the Worldwide Leader in Sports more than we realized. Durham and Fraschilla neither pretended to be in Japan nor did they clearly state that most television viewers in the Continental United States are actually physically closer to the event than they are. Despite watching the game on television like the rest of us, Fraschilla made some interesting comments during the telecast. He repeatedly questioned if three weeks is long enough preparation time for the U.S. team to get on the same page defensively. The screen and roll defense was not good and the defense against dribble penetration left much to be desired. The U.S. hustled, played hard and forced a lot of turnovers but a lot of the same shortcomings that plagued recent U.S. teams also showed up in this game. I've always felt that the Larry Brown-coached 2004 U.S. Olympic team that lost its first game to Puerto Rico got a bum rap. That team did the best it could but simply did not have enough preparation time to play the FIBA game against teams that have played FIBA basketball together for years. The current Team USA has the benefit of seeing everything that went wrong in 2002 and 2004, is going into the FIBA World Championships with the right attitude and still did not have an easy time of it--and things will only get tougher throughout this event.
Fraschilla noted that most of the Team USA players are either first or second on their NBA teams in scoring and wondered if the three weeks of training is sufficient for such players to adjust to being role players and not being the focus of the offense. No one is questioning the selflessness of these players but it is an adjustment to go from shooting the ball 20 times a game to shooting it five or six. In the NBA, a LeBron James or Dwyane Wade can start out 0-5 and finish the game 13-20, but that kind of volume shooting approach will not work in this event.
Franschilla also made a point that I mentioned in a post two weeks ago after the U.S. beat Puerto Rico 114-69 in Las Vegas in their first exhibition game: USA Basketball should have made sure that all of the officials for Team USA's exhibition games came from FIBA. FIBA referees officiate the game differently than NBA referees do. That does not mean that FIBA refs are bad or that they are cheating; they are, shall we say, a bit idiosyncratic. If you watched today's U.S.-Puerto Rico game, you know what I mean. For instance, a Kirk Hinrich jump shot apparently gave the U.S. a 19-15 lead in the first quarter but the officials waved off the basket and awarded two free throws to Arroyo. This mysterious technical foul enabled Puerto Rico to tie the game. Of course, Durham and Fraschilla had no way to know what was happening from thousands of miles away. U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski seemed puzzled as well; early in the second quarter Durham explained that the U.S. had been cited for having six players on the court. Since this happened in the middle of game action, I find it hard to believe that an extra U.S. player just walked on the court while Hinrich was shooting. Anyway, Team USA's practice games should have been played under conditions that resemble real FIBA basketball as much as possible, particularly given the short amount of preparation time that the U.S. had going into this tournament--and real FIBA basketball includes wacky officiating, like the second half play when a Puerto Rican player drove to the hoop, made a shot, was fouled and was awarded two free throws after the basket was waved off. Eventually the official figured out that if he called the foul in the act of shooting that he should score the goal and award one free throw. Fraschilla wryly called this "inductive reasoning" (I'm just quoting what he said because it's a good line; any logicians out there who quarrel with Fraschilla's usage of the phrase should direct their comments to him c/o ESPN).
I don't mean to sound like I am raining on Team USA's parade. Quite the contrary, in fact. Overall this was a decent win against an experienced international team that beat the U.S. in the 2004 Olympics. All I am saying is that the road only gets harder from here and that people should not only understand that but also cut some slack to the 2004 team--I mean, Lamar Odom was getting intravenous fluids so that he could play and Allen Iverson was a standup guy on and off the court (save for one missed practice--and only one) but that team was simply doomed to not win the gold because it did not have enough preparation time; it is not right to suggest that those players did not care or were not trying. This current team may win gold in the FIBA World Championships but, even if it doesn't, this is part of a multi-year plan to reestablish the U.S. as a power in FIBA basketball and should be understood in that light. I believe that Team USA's current growing pains will be a springboard to winning the gold medal in the 2008 Olympics.
posted by David Friedman @ 3:23 AM


text:
I always wait for Groupon or Livingsocial to send me discounted activities to indulge in my personal hobbies. I only participate in my hobbies once per month, and usually those sites send me discounts right on time for a wine tasting or kayaking trip (or both combined!!!).
Ask the Readers: How Do You Save Money on Your Hobbies?
Editor's Note: Congratulations to Melissa Hansson, Alex J, and Margaret Davis for winning this week's contest!
If you have any free time after work or on the weekends, you probably have some sort of hobby you participate in to pass the time. Whether you are a guy who loves to work on his car, a beach fanatic who enjoys surfing, or a movie buff who must see the latest movie as soon as it comes out, your hobby probably costs you money. Chances are you have figured out how to keep your passion for your hobby alive without breaking the bank!
How do you save money on your hobbies? Do you use discount sites? Buy previously used equipment? Or do you have other tricks to help you participate in your favorite hobby frugally?
Tell us how you save money on your hobbies and we'll enter you in a drawing to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card!
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I buy discounted gift cards for Michaels craft store from online sites that sell them, such as giftcardrescue.com. Sometimes I can save 15% or more on the giftcard. Then I clip coupons to multiply the savings. My daughter makes jewelry. She has long given her handmade jewelry as gifts to friends and family, which is a form of savings to her. Now she's selling it on her website.
My two biggest hobbies are reading and running. To save money on reading, I use the library. I rarely purchase books. Why should I when I can get them at the library, which I already pay for through taxes? To save money on running, I try to buy shoes not when I desperately need them, but in advance, when they are on clearance, just as the new model is coming out. A lot of my running shirts are the cool dry-fit shirts that I get from running races, and my other attire is either gifts or things bought on clearance at Marshall's. I also try to run local 5K races where the entrance fees are less and the door prizes are plenty! (Just last week I ran a race with an entry fee of $30. Then I won a $25 gift certificate to one of my favorite restaurants, and noshed on post-race bananas, bread, granola bars and water. I also got a medal for placing third in my age group!)
I browse craigslist for deals on used equipment. You can generally find near mint stuff for 25-30% cheaper.
My main hobby is crafts - and the way I save is to plan my projects. Rather than going out one day and impulsively buying all the supplies, I pick them up when I see them on sale, and then put everything together later!
I found a few hobbies that I absolutely LOVE and one of them actually makes me money! I love jewelry and accessories, so I found a way to make jewelry and sell it locally as a tiny business. It has paid for a few outings like skydiving and a trip to Chicago for my daughter and me. My favorite hobby is kayaking. We live in Michigan, where you're never more than 6 miles from water. Thankfully, within 6 miles of my house, we have 2 lakes, a few rivers, and Lake Michigan! There are always great places to kayak and the start up cost was about $200 for the kayak, a paddle, and a comfy lifevest. I can strap the kayak on top of my car and away I go! (I have to admit, I keep it there a LOT during the warm weather. I was already out twice this last weekend!)
As a yarnaholic, I use store coupons regularly. JoAnn Fabric, Hobby Lobby, Catan's and Michael's all have coupons available. The tricky part is that they can't be used on a sale item. I have to wait until the item goes off sale or go ahead and buy it at the sale price.
I save money on my hobbies (scrapbooking and crocheting) by selling my old or unused supplies, buying off eBay and used items.
I win Amazon gift certificates from websites and use those to buy the tools/equipment for my hobbies! Haha
I make sure to treat all the equipment I have for my hobbies as carefully as possible. I also tend to try and find durability and quality over price on the equipment.
I have two hobbies. One is sewing - and I save money on that hobby by sewing productive items, namely all my husband's shirts. Since he is a self employed carpenter/tradesmen he doesn't need to wear button down or dress shirts. Instead his shirts are modeled on a nurses scrub top with a chest pocket and two front pockets. We make it fun by shopping for various prints in cotton fabric at the end of the season so they are on clearance and I have time to get assembled before the seasonal weather returns.
My second hobby is fishkeeping. I have a total of 12 tanks so I save money by buying supplies in bulk over the internet rather than at local pet stores. I have an account with a large internet supplier and I earn points toward discounts on upcoming orders.
I love to read so I go to the library. Also I download free ebooks on Amazon Kindle. I download directly to my computer.
I like crafting as a hobby, so I try to buy things on sale or clearance. I also try to save money buy repurposing things like materials or cards I already have so I don't have to visit the craft store as often.
When I'm in a creative mood I make multiples! I then sell the extras on Etsy or Ebay. For instance, I make polyclay dollhouse miniatures. I make what I need for my own use, and since I already have the colors blended, pop out a few more to sell. This completely covers my cost of materials, and then some... Same thing with gardening - propagate and sell! Knitting, crochet... For saving on supplies, I wait for Hobby Lobby 40% off or free shipping coupons. Sign up with them by email and you will be ahead of the game!
I like to swim, so I moved into a school district that lets residents use their sports facilities for free. Now I don't have to pay for a YMCA or community pool membership and I can use the pool at my neighborhood high school whenever I want.
I search for online coupons when checking out. This usually saves 10-15% or at least free shipping. It's a great way to save a few bucks here and there.
As a mom of a large family, keeping hobby costs down is a full time job. No matter what the pursuit, we follow this simple process for indulging in fun without breaking the bank.
1. Can it be done for free? From horseback riding to knitting, there is a way to get what you need for next to nothing. A) Trade your time and talent. Muck stalls, trade services, or become expert at referrals (to name a few) B) Find free sources for materials like libraries if you love reading or freecycle for (just about everything) the things you need your pursuit. C0 Trade hobbies- chances are good that if you do not like snowboarding, someone else would love to give it a try and probably has invested in a hobby that was not quite right for them either.
2. Reduce the cost- Use coupons and discounts. Buy used from Craigslist, cheapcycle, thrift stores and yard sales.
3. Start a club. If you love a hobby that has lots of bits and pieces that make the pursuit fun, try starting a group where everyone meets up to enjoy the advantage of the tools collectively.
4. Wait it out. Every hot new thing is followed by the next hot new thing. Trust me, the incredible whatever-it-is will go on sale and you'll save big time.
I just started sewing late last year. Like the other crafter, I use coupons to hobby stores (like Joann) and signed up for their mailing list to get more coupons in the mail. I'm also only buying exactly what I need and not a bunch of random stuff that I think I'll need "one day". I also visit a local store that saves unwanted items (scrap fabric, unused notions, along with other household items) and re-sells them for a fraction of the cost. Sewing doesn't just save me money; I've been able to sew myself things that I see in a catalog but wouldn't pay money for (like a bedside organizer). Also, I can never find summer tops I like (damn those baby-length sleeves!), so I plan on sewing tops for myself soon.
My other hobby is gardening. I repurpose a bunch of food containers (like egg cartons, yogurt cups, etc) to start seeds and grow the seedlings. Once you have pots for the mature plant, you usually don't have to replace them for awhile. The only other thing is soil. I have been buying potting soil with fertilizer added from WalMart, but I think I might start buying the cheap soil and adding a water-fertilizer mix myself; I'm not sure if that would save money. Gardening does save me some money, but you can't compare the taste of a home-grown tomato to that garbage available in the grocery stores.
I save on my hobbies by always checking the clearance sections of my favorite stores, using coupons, and checking thrift stores.
I save on my hobbies by always checking the clearance sections of my favorite stores, using coupons, and checking thrift stores.
I focus on just one hobby at a time. This year, it's bouldering, which means that I won't be buying any yoga classes.
I focus on just one hobby at a time. This year, it's bouldering, which means that I won't be buying any yoga classes.
My hobbies are sewing and crocheting. Like others have mentioned, I plan ahead and, I use coupons for JoAnns, Hobby Lobby, etc. If I need 3 skeins of yarn, I wait till I have 3 coupons for each skein. I never pay full price for supplies.
I love comic books, and switching to digital through comixology.com has saved me lots of money. The price of individual issues drops by a dollar when they've been out a month, and the site constantly runs great sales with issues for just a dollar each.
I mostly have cheap hobbies. My most expensive hobby is gardening, for which I wait for sails and discounts and buy seeds when possible (or get freebies from family). Then there's watching movies, and for that I use the cheapest Netflix subscription ($4.95/mo for 2 discs and 2 hours of streaming). Other than that, my hobbies are all free or nearly so (and reading about personal finance is one of them).
As an avid crafter with very little time to devote, I've developed a new system. I use Pinterest to pin ideas for crafts I can do with supplies I already have or with goods that are easily available at thrift stores. I love being able to pick up an unloved sweater and turn it into a cute hat or headband.
Also, every craft & art store publishes weekly coupons & I never shop without them. Also, Joann's and Michael's honor each other's published coupons, but not the self-printed kind. And Joann's offers 20% off including clearance, while Michael's never includes clearance in their coupons.
This really depends on the hobby:
For reading-I use the library, and get library books on kindle
For knitting-I plan projects ahead, and then buy lots of yarn when it goes on sale
For running-I use websites that let me download free, pre-made playlists to run to
I follow politics as a hobby and the only cost is internet connection. It saves me a lot of money it is a full time job and don't have time to shop and spend money.
My hobby is reading books, so I save up $25 to then buy books online at Amazon, which permits me to get some excellent discounted books shipped to me without a shipping or handling fee. We don't have a good local bookstore within 25 miles of where I live. Buying books from Amazon also saves time and gas.
Also, a friend gave me his old Kindle and so far I've downloaded over 200 free ebooks that are available on Amazon. Many of these are classics and by prominent authors. All free, which is quite a saving.
Of my numerous hobbies, my most expensive has somehow managed to be gardening. The way I save is I joined MyPoints a few years ago, and then use my points (earned mostly for free) on Home Depot or Lowe's gift cards. I have saved close to $300 over the last 4 years thanks to mypoints, and my purchases have included soil, seeds, a grow light, special bulbs, and a station for all of it! :-D
If I'm taking a class somewhere I always ask if they have a discount for new comers. I buy classes in bulk. I'm on a cheap/free event listserv so I keep my eye out for my hobbies.
I save a number of ways. For example -- I'm an artist. When I decided to FINALLY get a legitimate easle, I was able to find one on overstock.com. It fit nicely within my budget, and it was several hundred dollars less than what other, current art sites were selling it for.
I also try to watch for sales or coupons if I know I'll have a project coming up.
My hobby is gardening and I try to save my seeds every year. I also have a couple of friends that I swap seeds/ seedlings with. On top of that, I grow vegetables so I always end up saving money on groceries!
I do jewelry beading and I use ebay for a lot of wholesale beads and jewelry parts. I also go to bead shows for wholesale items, also. If I need a particular items, I'll use certain sites like artbeads or auntie's beads.
My hobby is reading. I earned a Kindle with points that I had accured through one of my survey companies. I signed up for an email alert on "free" ebooks that are available for my Kindle, and that's how I am saving money on my ebooks. I also read "real" books and I get new releases from the library and I look for books at thrift stores.
For skiing, I buy my season pass way before it ever starts snowing ... when the cost is a few hundred less than it is once it's snowing! And when I'm not at my home base resort, I seek out ones with deep discount days or that offer 50% off to passholders at my resort. I also buy used gear (from gear swaps or demo skis from the shop) when I can and sweet-talk the shop employees into giving me a discount on top of sale prices on the rare occasion where I do have to buy new.
I also like to go boating/river running and don't own anything of the sort. I borrow gear from friends and plan trips with enough people to keep gas, permit and any rental costs down. I also don't let gear I don't use sit around. When I realized it had been over a year that I hadn't touched my climbing equipment and had no desire to, I started selling it off. The extra cash goes to future 'fun' outdoor expenses.
The very best, though, is work-your-way spots for Grand Canyon river trips (~290 river miles on the Colorado). I spent 8 days last summer essentially being the low-(wo)man on the crew - up at 4am, catering to passengers, dressing mild injuries, pep-talking people through new experiences, cooking, washing dishes, the list has no end. It's long hours and hard work, but I get a free spot on the trip of a lifetime ... that would otherwise cost nearly $3,000. Since I've done that and gone on other smaller trips, I've met more guides who can help me get on future trips, so my plan is to line up 2 of these trips for this summer, hopefully getting to celebrate my next birthday in the canyon :)
I'm a fly fisherman. Fly rods can be pretty expensive, but they're a lot cheaper if you build your own (not to mention, building them is a hobby in it's own right). For instance, I just built a rod that would have been $805 if I had bought it already made, but I bought all the components for around $450. That's $350 right there.
Then, to save a little more, I build my own rod cases (normally $20-$40 retail) out of PVC pipe. The cases I build cost around $5, so there's another $15-$35 right there.
My biggest hobby is reading, and I get all of my books from the library or www.paperbackswap.com if the library doesn't have the book.
My Hobbies are making & designing Jewerly. I also sell & take orders at Craft Fairs.
I also Crochet & Knit any thing you want. And teach All three classes.
How I save is buying beads, trickets and yarn on sale.
It's like having my OWN "STORE AT HOME".
I LOVE your WEBSITE, it's very informative. YOUR THE "BEST".
So I'm always busy learning new things and making extra money to support my hobbies.
Most of the time I don't get to sleep til about 2:00 A.M. & up by 5:00 A.M.
Time waits for no one. And Either does Hobby Monies. And yes, I enjoy "ALL of CRAFTING".
My hobbies are pretty inexpensive. Running, which I can do for free outside anytime I want...even race fees can be manageable, or incorporated into a vacation. My other hobby, which is along the lines of collage, mixed-media with a touch of handmade cards is also pretty inexpensive. Most of the basics I purchased on sale or with coupons, but the rest I have been collecting for at least 10 years from various free sources. Keeping the materials organized is the most important part!
When it comes to hobbies, I buy used. Then when I want to upgrade or get something a little newer, I buy used again and sell my old stuff to recoup some of the cost.
I love reading, and use the library to get books. Free! I also love the beach on weekends in the summer. No getting around the admission and gas/tolls, but we pack our own lunch and drinks.
My hobbies are reading, listening to music, movies, and travel. Most of those aren't too expensive. I often ask for books or bookstore gift cards for Christmas and my birthday. I use coupons whenever possible. Winning an Amazon GC would help with buying books too (hint, hint)! I see matinees, go to the drive-in in the summer (3 movies for $7 per person!), or simply wait until the movie is on DVD or cable. Now, travel...that's the pricey hobby. Again, I use coupons, look for discounts, and travel off-season when possible.
I buy hobby supplies on sale whenever possible~ crochet yarn, camera equipment, plants. I use coupons & discount offers when available, such as ordering shutterfly books. I order free books for my kindle from Amazon & take advantage of the Amazon Prime free book per month. The Annual fee is $79, but I've saved a ton with free shipping & free books. I read the whole Hunger Games trilogy for free!
My hobby is baptiste power yoga,... which can get a bit expensive. So every few months they have major sales like "buy so many classes for x amount" and i stock up! :)
I try not to have expensive hobbies to begin with! I read a lot, and never ever buy books. I use the library or borrow from friends.
Whatever supplies or equipment you need for your hobbies find like minded folks and do a swap meet-up.
I've watched my husband elegantly change hobbies for years, never overspending. His secret was to start slow & inexpensive, buy-up until he could buy what he ultimately wanted & then sell-off to finance his next project. It keeps the storage space manageable & his guilt level low. He accomplishes this by being patient, learning his new hobby, surfing for deals, & not holding too tightly to things when it was time to sell off or move on. Without exception, he has made money in the process.
I do not do anything anymore if I can't find a discount. I either find discount gift cards, use groupon, or wait for a special deal.
The big hobby in our house is video games. Though it doesn't *stop* my husband from buying AAA titles, Gamefly does cut down a lot on game purchases and seems to be worth the $.
I'm always trying new hobbies before investing in them full-out. I ask a friend to let me tag along on an outing and then after a few time trying it - kayaking, wine making, etc. - if I'm really still into it, I buy used equipment.
I like to make jewelery. I buy old, broken or outdated jewelery at yard sales and re-purpose it into something new!
I buy lower-end equipment when I first start a hobby. The only hobbies that have outgrown my initial purchase were camping and digital photography - things started to wear out then I purchased equipment that came recommended. Luckily I live in the city where Coleman was founded so we have a low-priced clearance outlet.
For my needle crafting and scrapbooking hobbies: I pick up supplies whenever I come across something unique that is clearanced or sold second-hand. I add these to my stash. The Dollar Tree had a nice scrapbooking section when it first opened here - I got a ton of equipment for $1 each. Needle crafting equipment is frequently available in thrift stores.
As I like digital photography, I found refurbished cameras on Bestbuy.com are just like new but cost 60% less than new. The chargers, extra batteries, accessories and cards can be found for 25% of original price used on Ebay. I've had no complaints about the quality of the used accessories.
Find like-minded friends: Online university bulletin boards, craigslist, meetup.com and newspaper calendars of events have lots of groups of hobbiest looking for more friends.
In short, the biggest way to fund hobbies is to prioritize your spending. I don't like television much any longer so I only have $23 network TV package. I have no need for a Blue-Ray player or LCD TV. I do enjoy Redbox movies but I'm don't see the point to spending on a theatre in my home. I like cooking at home and using generics to cook from scratch isn't noticeable. I don't mind Dollar Tree toiletries and cleaning stuff. I also find the local thrift stores to have more than adequate clothing options. Spending money where it gives me the most satisfaction, on my hobbies, maximizes a small income.
I have two expensive hobbies, photography and motorcycling. Sometimes there isn't anything you can do to save on some things in photography. You have to have a camera and perhaps a flash and a collection of lenses, none of them cheap unless you can find them used. But there are some items like reflectors and gadgets that you can find cheaply on eBay or make yourself. I go the cheap/homemade route on all non-essential equipment in photography.
With motorcycling you don't want to cheap out on things like helmets or tires, but I do all my own maintenance and repairs. Join an internet group for your make of bike and learn how to work on your bike. It's not that hard and it beats the mechanics rate of $70 an hour for sometimes mediocre work.
I love to read and since I received a Kindle for Christmas I have been reading only free books.
I used to spend quite a bit of money on crafts. I'm now trying to use my stash. When I truly need something, I try and wait for a sale or one of the store's 40% off coupons.
I try to always use a coupon on my craft items which I make as a hobby. Many times it involves multiple trips to the store, but I will only buy one item at a time if the coupon is for a discount off one item. That increases my profit by the amount saved - used 40 - 50% off.