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"He concluded well before leaving the Pentagon that the war was futile, but he did not share that insight with the public until late in life," says the Times of John Kennedy's and Lyndon Johnson's Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, who died this morning at 93, and Vietnam. He was among the "Best and the Brightest" of the 1960s whose technocratic approach managed to lose a foreign war against a small enemy nation, as well as thousands of American servicemembers. It is less well remembered that he was a successful president of the Ford Motor Company before his government service. In this clip from Errol Morris' The Fog of War, McNamara discusses the morality of the mass killing of civilians as an instrument of war.

Good news, freeloaders -- your welfare checks are going up by as much as 38 dollars! The Times reports the monthly stipend for a family of four just went up from $375.70 to $413.70. It's the first such increase in nineteen years.

Diabetic single recipient Georgeanna Hicks, 54, gets an extra $13 to throw around every month. "I'll do my laundry more often," she says excitedly. "I'll spend it on things like toilet paper, lotion, dishwashing soap. I can't really buy much of anything, but it'll help me."

The Times offers no dissenting spokesman to decry the wasteful government largesse. (We thought all New York papers had the Manhattan Institute on speed-dial.) Thank God blogs are here to break the MSM monopoly. NY Daily Balance informs us that the reform that has Hicks and others rolling in dough also makes it harder to find welfare double-dippers. "So New York's descent into the 1960s continues," says NYDB, "with predictable higher welfare spending, higher taxes, accelerated flight of young workers and families, a laggard economy, and a growing drug trade (thanks, Rockefeller drug law 'reforms')." Since we have been accustomed to think New York was actually going back to the 1930s, we have to consider this a step forward. Image via The Onion.

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DATE: Saturday July 4, 2009, 5:06 a.m.
LOCATION: 1306 Loring Avenue, Brooklyn

A 23-year-old man was shot and killed outside 1306 Loring Ave. in the East New York section of Brooklyn early July 4. He was declared dead at Brookdale Hospital. No arrests. The victim's name still hasn't been released by the police.

Know anything about this case? Drop us a line at grayman@villagevoice.com.

Here is New York Republican Congressman Peter King telling us what a disgrace it is "this lowlife Michael Jackson" is "all over the newspapers, television, radio... this guy was a pervert... to be giving this much coverage to him day in and day out, what does it say about us as a country?" Lest his constituents think he is criticizing them personally for lapping up MJ coverage, King takes care to blame the media, who have "disgraced themselves," and demands they cover instead our soldiers, policemen, firefighters, etc., though a quick look at the TV listings indicates that these people all have their own series. King has a lot of other YouTube videos, including one in which he says Homeland Security "should be targeting mosques, not veterans" and, of the then-upcoming 2004 Presidential election, "It's all over but the counting, and we'll take care on the counting."

"BROOKYLN might soon get the "Sex and the City" treatment," says Page Six. "Author Amy Sohn got an early publicity bump for her upcoming novel, Prospect Park West, after Sarah Jessica Parker's Pretty Matches production company optioned the story in conjunction with HBO for a half-hour series . Says an insider at Simon & Schuster, 'It's got sex, parenthood, and celebrity. Brooklyn is about to blow up nationally.'"

Christ Jesus no. You know what's worse than out-of-town friends and family reacting to "I live in Brooklyn" as if you'd told them, "I live on an ash-heap striated with vomit"? Telling them you live in Brooklyn and having them think you hang out with Sarah Jessica Parker at Studio B. Imagine how disappointed they'll be when they come to visit and you take them to "your" diner and it isn't filled with Interesting Characters, and your neighbors are dressed in Old Navy, Rocawear and doo-rags.

Besides, we already specced this story line out and it doesn't end well. Image (cc) Christopher Peterson.

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DATE: July 4, 2009, 12:40 a.m.
LOCATION: 17 Midwood St., Brooklyn

The police arrived early on Independence Day outside 17 Midwood St. in Brookyn to find a man shot. He was 19 years old. He had been shot once in the chest. He was declared dead at Kings County Hospital. The police still have yet to release his name.

Know anything about this case? Drop us a line at grayman@villagevoice.com.

Perhaps it's appropriate you hear it from the Lansdowne, PA Reporter: "The Phillies were a dead team walking. They were in a tailspin... But the perfect remedy for the Phillies, as has been the case in each of the last two Septembers, is a stumbling, fumbling New York Mets team in worse shape." The Mets lost three games to Philadelphia, the last 2-0 with Johan Santana on the mound and David Wright hitting into a double play with the bases loaded in the sixth. (On Thursday Wright announced that former Mets captain John Franco had apologized to him for questioning his leadership. The apology came by voice mail.) The Mets have lost eight of their last 11 games. On the bright side, four Mets -- Wright, Carlos Beltran, Francisco Rodriguez and Johan Santana -- have been named to the National League All-Star Team.

Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archives

April 16, 1964, Vol. IX, No. 26

Is Architecture Totalitarian?

Is contemporary architecture totalitarian? The eminently professional Architectural Forum in its April issue spread out before the readers the bitter words of an outsider. A Yale pro blasted back. The Forum picked up the attack on modern architecture by Norman Mailer that appeared in an old issue of Esquire and then asked Vincent J. Scully, professor of art history at Yale, to answer. Mailer was allowed the last word.

Thank God Paterson made them work through the holiiday! On Saturday and Sunday New York's state senators came in, gaveled, postured, and finished in about three minutes, achieving nothing. But at least they can say they worked, which is more than we bums who pay taxes can say. Casey Seiler of the Albany Times-Union, who attended one such session "wearing cargo shorts, a Stax Records T-shirt and flip-flops," thinks the Governor missed an opportunity by staying in Albany to watch the magic happen: "Imagine the public response if the governor were to beam in his scolding/proclamation while strolling along the sweeping lawns of Hyde Park, or fishing in the Finger Lakes, or rafting through Ausable Chasm. Places, in other words, that our senators won't be going to as long as gridlock continues."

Paterson's next trick is to ask the comptroller to freeze the senators' salaries; the comptroller's is to ask a judge whether he's allowed to do that. Oh, and our public servants say they expect a break soon in the nearly month-long deadlock.

Amazing. An ATM in DUMBO is charging an exorbitant $3.99 to withdraw money. Mike McLaughlin of the Brooklyn Paper pegs the ATM machine as at the foot of Old Fulton Street in DUMBO -- with its delightful panoramic view of the Brooklyn Bridge -- as one of the city's more egregious tourist traps.

Is this the most expensive ATM in the city? If you know of one that's more expensive, please let us know (though apparently ATMs in New Orleans daquiri bars charge slightly more, though you'd probably be too drunk to notice at that point).

How do they got off charging that much money? Even the vice president of the city's tourism agency, Kimberly Spell, called the fee, "A little disconcerting." Meanwhile, some economic researchers have pointed out that ATM fees in general are a big ruse. Image (cc) catatronic.