Key Congressional Republicans are raising concerns about the Hayden nomination to replace Goss. They are worried about the military completely taking over intelligence. Captain Ed says Hayden is toast.

Armed Liberal highlights an excellent opinion piece in this morning’s L.A. Times. It is by Andrew Klavan, and calls for more patriotic war movies of the sort we had in World War II:

“United 93” — the film celebrating the heroic civilian attempt to retake a hijacked plane on 9/11 — opened last week. That’s great. Well done and about time. But now, let’s have some war movies.

We need some films celebrating the war against Islamo-fascism in Afghanistan and Iraq — and in Iran as well, if and when that becomes necessary. We need films like those that were made during World War II, films such as 1943’s “Sahara” and “Action in the North Atlantic,” or “The Fighting Seabees” and “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo,” which were released in 1944.

Not all of these were great films, or even good ones, but their patriotic tributes to our fighting forces inspired the nation.

. . . .

Today we face an enemy in the grip of a belief system just as evil, just as destructive in its intent, as the system we fought back then. We were attacked at home in this war as we were in World War II. The outcome of the struggle is just as much in doubt. Worse, because Islamic fundamentalism supersedes nationhood, the danger it poses is more protean and diffuse. It’s easier to pretend it isn’t there, more tempting for the war-weary and the fatally foolish to waver and sound retreat.

In short, we need war movies now even more than in the ’40s.

Armed Liberal doesn’t recognize the name Andrew Klavan. But I do. He had a sensible and entertainingly written piece about media bias in Sunday Opinion last year, which I mentioned in this post. Here are some quotes from Klavan’s piece from last year:

Look, I’m really busy right now but, all right, I’ll take five minutes to solve the problems of the mainstream media. I mean, ratings for network news are at an all-time low, newspaper readership is falling off the chart, the public’s trust in journalists is steadily eroding — the least I can do is sacrifice one coffee break in order to sort things out. It doesn’t require internal studies or revamped formats. Just three little words of advice will fix every one of their troubles: Hire some conservatives.

I don’t mean hire a conservative. I don’t mean cover conservatives. I don’t mean allow conservatives to express a minority opinion on your Op-Ed page or argue at the top of their lungs on some yes/no, black/white, point/counterpoint debate program. I mean that at ABC, CBS, NBC, the Los Angeles Times et al, a substantial proportion of the reporters who cover stories, and the editors who assign and shape those stories, should be people with conservative beliefs. The rest can continue to be what they are now: left-wingers who live under the delusion that they’re moderates.

Heh. Klavan also said:

By hiring some conservatives to balance such bias, news outlets may begin to restore the idea that they are, in fact, news outlets, instead of, say, elite would-be opinion-makers instructing us in right thinking by manipulating reportage and distorting facts.

Of course, we’ve seen no evidence that the L.A. Times has followed Klavan’s advice and hired some conservatives. But at least they are allowing Klavan to express his minority opinion on their Op-Ed page. That’s precisely the remedy Klavan deemed insufficient in his piece. But it’s better than nothing.

P.S. When I quoted this piece last year, I said: “This guy can guest-blog for me any time.” And, in fact, I wrote him and invited him to. He declined with some polite excuse or another. But guess what? The guy has his own blog now. It’s rarely updated, but looks like an interesting read. I’ve already subscribed to it on my Bloglines account.

UPDATE: Klavan is going to be on Ace’s radio show. Cool.