Joint Chiefs Chairman Calls for Iraq Troop Cut; Sir Yes Sir!; From Page to Screen - Resurrecting the Champ; FilmWeek Reviews
Joint Chiefs Chairman Calls for Iraq Troop Cut
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Peter Pace, will likely call on President Bush to reduce U.S. troops in Iraq by half next year. This recommendation is in sharp contrast with the proposal expected to be outlined in a report on the progress of the surge prepared by Army General David Patraeus, to be delivered to Congress in September. In that assessment, General Patraeus is expected to call for the U.S. to maintain high troop levels for 2008. Guest host Ted Chen talks with LA Times reporter Julian Barnes about General Pace's controversial recommendations.
Sir Yes Sir!
A Marine drill instructor in San Diego was arraigned this week on 244 charges of abusing recruits. According to San Diego Tribune reporter Rick Roberts, over a dozen drill instructors from the San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot have been prosecuted on similar charges since 2005. Is boot camp abuse on the rise at this particular training camp or is it that abuse is being less tolerated by the Marine leadership? Ted discusses where the line is drawn between character building and abuse with Roberts, Master Sergeant Vic Ditchkoff of the United States Marine Corps Drill Instructors Association, former Air Force first sergeant Rod Powers, and Gary Solis of West Point and Georgetown University Law Center.
From Page to Screen - Resurrecting the Champ
In 1997 reporter, J.R. Moehringer wrote a feature for the Los Angeles Times Magazine about Bob Satterfield, a former professional boxer Moehringer discovered living on the streets of Santa Ana. Ten years later that article became the basis of the new feature film, Resurrecting the Champ. Ted talks about the story and its journey from page to screen with Moehringer and the film's director, Rod Lurie.
FilmWeek Reviews
Ted and critics Jean Oppenheimer of Village Voice Media and Andy Klein, film editor and chief critic for CityBeat, review the week's new releases including The Nanny Diaries, Resurrecting the Champ, Dedication, Mr. Bean's Holiday, The Hottest State, Closing Escrow, Right at Your Door, September Dawn, Deep Water, and Blood and Tears: The Arab-Israeli Conflict.