October 3, 2003
Welcome to the Captain's Quarters!
So, naturalists observe, a flea Hath smaller fleas which on him prey And these have smaller still to bite 'em, and so proceed ad infinitum. Thus every poet, in his kind, Is bit by him who comes behind. -- Jonathan Swift I love this quote, and I've had it memorized since I first read it in Tom Burnham's Dictionary of Misinformation. In fact, I think it explains blogs and their popularity, and in some degrees their incestuousness. Glenn Reynolds or Andrew Sullivan read a news story, and they post a commentary, and then other blogs post commentaries to their commentaries, and so proceed ad infinitum. Don't get me wrong - I think that's terrific! We need an open market for political discussion. Hash things out to the nth degree. Argue, bicker, and scold. The trick is to keep your head, check your assumptions, and expose yourselves to differing points of...
Ah-nold: Damage control
I have to admit, as an ex-pat Californian, even I was surprised by the success of the recall campaign. California politics has long been under thrall to a single party, and the budget meltdown over the past two years (as well as Gray Davis' lying about it during the last gubernatorial race) seemed heaven-sent for California Republicans. After all, California was the laboratory for the more radicalized elements of the Democrats, and it was turning into a quagmire. All that the Republicans had to do was to stay out of the way, and they were assured of significant gains in the next couple of election cycles. Well, as usual, California Republicans had to show that they are bested by no one in shooting themselves in the foot. After pushing through an almost-unprecedented recall of a governor, who incidentally is not accused of any special malfeasance except being an idiot and...
Damage control (cont)
The fallout continues, or sort of. Arnold's back on the campaign trail, being greeted by cheering fans -- er, voters -- but after his apology and non-acknowledgement of the Hitler reference (from almost 30 years ago!), he's keeping his mouth shut. As a strategy, this is probably as much of a winner that he'll come up with at this point of the campaign. I wonder, though, if a third shoe is being prepared for the Sunday edition... Arnold may be under attack, but the LA Times appears to be suffering the damage . Susan Estrich gets her shots in from the editorial page of the LA Times itself: So this is the October surprise? The Los Angeles Times headline that Arnold Schwarzenegger groped and humiliated women? ... But none of these women, as The Times emphasizes, ever came forward to complain. The newspaper went looking for them, and then waited...
The Franco-American War
Here's another reason to hate the French, courtesy of Merde in France. Does anyone still think that if we had just tried harder to woo the French, we could have gotten their support?...
Defending the indefensible
Allen Barra defends Rush Limbaugh in his recent contretemps over Donovan McNabb. I think Barra is all wet on this one. McNabb may not have fulfilled his potential at Philadelphia, but he's hardly to blame for being the leading rusher on a team that can't run block or pass block worth a damn. Besides, the point isn't whether McNabb is overrated; he probably was, but expectations have come down quite a bit for him. However, Limbaugh's assertion that the media deliberately overrated him as a sort of affirmative action program is just too much to swallow. There is hardly a dearth of black quarterbacks in the NFL these days, and they don't need the press to make them feel good about their performances. ESPN made a mistake in hiring Limbaugh, and Limbaugh made a mistake in taking the job. Normally I respect Limbaugh's intelligence even if I disagree with him,...
Let's piss off Glenn Reynolds
Glenn's right -- we should all be reviewing actual news sources for our blogs. But let's all go to Instapundit first just to piss him off....
David Kay's report explained in better detail
Power Line's Big Trunk has posted an e-mail he received from author Dr. Laurie Mylroie that explains more about the David Kay report. Go now and read the entire message, and while you're at it check out all of Power Line. It's a great blog. Also, they have an entry two posts below the Mylroie e-mail with a link to an article in the Sun, a British newspaper, on the Kay report....
A long shot, if you'll pardon the pun
I doubt this will pan out for the sniper suspects, seeing as how the 9th Circuit won't have jurisdiction on appeal....
Damage Control, etc
Mickey Kaus continues to have fun with this story. Unfortunately, he's probably right about the transient nature of the bounce; it's likely a result of Ah-nold trying to "terminate" the scandal with a quick mea culpa, as well as the high level of disgust at the LA Times for spending several weeks specifically to dredge up this kind of crap. It's not that I don't think that the women are lying, although the fact that four of the six won't identify themselves, and all six never availed themselves of the legal system, does not give me confidence. Arnold himself acknowledged that he's done something, after all. And the incidents in the report are all ugly. But for crying out loud, after all the screeching the Times did over the Clinton sexual peccadiloes (that occured while he was in office, with staff underlings, on the public dime) being blown out of...
Oh, here come the protests
I can see PETA protesting this -- perhaps they'd prefer Cheney or Wolfowitz take a turn as a beefeater. Or, better yet, Bush could do the tasting to keep the mice safe....
Requiem for a Dream (review w/spoilers)
I haven't absorbed the movie Requiem for a Dream in enough detail to give a thorough review, but I can give some impressions of it from two viewings. The primary feeling I got from the movie is hopelessness. There is no redemption in RFAD. From the first moments of the film, you know that the lives of its characters are sad and wretched, and the strong impression that they won't be going anywhere but down is quickly validated. This is a terrific movie nonetheless, and I think if you can handle the subject material and some graphic scenes of violence and sex (especially towards the end), you can't help but carry this movie with you. Both Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly do great work, but Ellen Burstyn really walks off with this movie. Maybe it's because hers is the most sympathetic character and her destruction is so unbearably sad, but...
October 4, 2003
Who says we ain't got couth?
President Bush surprises everyone with his deep, artistic side by writing poetry. This ought to silence those of his foes who dare to challenge his intellect, eh?...
Damage Control, etc II
Here's an AP update to all the Schwarzenonsense from the past 24 hours or so. According to an Austrian news source, California's leading candidate for Governer terminated a meeting of neo-Nazis when he was 17 years old, hunting them down and dispersing them. There's been five more women who've come forward with more groping stories, which Mickey Kaus covers in his latest entry....
Somalia Anniversary
Courtesy of Little Green Footballs -- today is the tenth anniversary of the battle in Mogadishu that became the focus of the film, Black Hawk Down. Particularly interesting are Osama bin Laden's comments from a 1997 interview with Robert Fisk....
Minnesota Politics: Down and Dirty
Hindrocket blasts off at Minnesota Democrats on the Powerline blog. It certainly looks like Mike Hatch is flailing at anything to ruin Pawlenty. Maybe he's a protege of Gray Davis....
Israel Sabotages Peace Again
Once again, those darn Israelis have sabotaged peace again by having the arrogance to die in large numbers when a Palestinian freedom fighter blows herself up in a Haifa restaurant. You can check out the blogosphere reaction at Little Green Footballs (where it's about what you'd expect), Power Line, and Roger Simon....
David Kay redux
A guest column by Andrew Apostalou puts it all into perspective. (Thanks to Roger Simon.) From what I see, we may be the first nation to have such poisonous debate over a war we won, with minimal losses on both sides, and that resulted in liberating over 20 million people (not to mention removing a dangerous regional threat). Does anyone else find this as silly as I do? We knew he was a brutal dictator; we know now that he was actively avoiding compliance with UN resolutions and the terms of the truce that left him in power. At the same time, a significant amount of our overseas military was pinned down enforcing the terms of that truce, and our presence in Saudi Arabia was not helping matters. Eventually we would have to have left, with Saddam in power, which would only embolden other dictators and bin Laden wanna-bes. The...
Twinks disappoint again
The Twins seem to have a problem hitting the ball, all of a sudden. Roger Clemens looked a bit shaky at first, but apart from a bases-empty homer, the Twins couldn't hold the Rocket down today and went down to defeat, 3-1. Now that the Twins have let the Yankees off the hook for losing home-field advantage, it doesn't look likely that they'll win the next two (one in New York) to advance this year. Lohse looked good today, but unfortunately not good enough. Ah, well. Tomorrow the Vikings play against the Vick-less Falcons. We should be able to beat them to go to 5-0. If Gus Frerotte has another game like he did against the 49ers, we may have a minor QB controversy in the Twin Cities......
Oman stages first free elections - Oct. 4, 2003
This is more good news, and a good indicator that our campaign is bearing fruit in other areas. The only way we will ever be safe is to transform dictatorships and creaky monarchies into liberal democracies......
Did he sell Gray Davis a brain?
Okay, this is just a bit grim, don't you think? I'd hate to think where all these parts eventually ended up. I do think it's interesting that this guy was sentenced to a lot more prison time for selling dead body parts than most drunk drivers get sentenced for vehicular homicide -- in fact, about six times more....
Just the facts, ma'am
Oh, yeah ... it's back!! I was a big fan of the original (through reruns, naturally, when I was a kid ... no, seriously), but even though this is quite different, I think it's captured the original's spirit. It's one of the few episodic shows I consider must-see on TV, and it has a high-priority setting on the TiVo....
The Franco-American War, part II
Paris awards honorary citizenship to activist on death row in US : HindustanTimes.com There isn't much to say about this (I got it from Merde in France), other than to point out the disgusting spectacle of the French demonstrating on behalf of a man who murdered a policeman, lionizing him and celebrating him, as an excuse to demonstrate against the "imperialist" Americans, who just liberated over 20 million Iraqis from one of the worst dictatorships in recent memory. Of course, the dictator in question was a French arms client, so you can understand the anger. Demonstrating against the death penalty is a noble thing to do if you believe it to be wrong; I don't support it either. But lionizing murderers is despicable, and now you can see why the French favor Arafat and his gang....
U.S. diabetes rate continues to rise
This is beginning to sound like a broken record, but at some point we need to take some action to reverse this trend. The problem, as I found out three years ago when I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes, is the high carb count in American diets (hell, the high everything count). Carbs convert to glucose quickly in the bloodstream, and the body responds by producing insulin. But if you do that too often, the body starts becoming resistant to the insulin, just like with most other chemicals. That is the leading cause of Type II -- weight-influenced insulin resistance. The only fix is to either supplement the insulin or to lose the weight. I was fortunate; I was able to lose the weight, but that diagnosis is the only reason why I did. I lost over 100 pounds, and have kept it off almost a year, and I...
Alex Kingston -- Airhead
I don't know who the hell Alex Kingston is, but she gets a royal Fisking over at Give War A Chance. Kingston is apparently one of those spoiled Hollywood brats who think that the First Amendment provides freedom of criticism, or in other words, free speech for me but not for thee. What a joke. I'm glad Emily had the time for this. Nice job....
Third-year slump
I'm not sure if Hindrocket over at Power Line has had a chance to read this Fred Barnes article at OpinionJournal, but maybe it would make him feel a little bit better. The impression I get so far is that the Democrats are doing all the talking, and that's accounting for the slipping numbers. As Barnes points out, that's natural; it's Presidential election season, with the first round of the primaries coming up in three or four months. When Dubya has a chance to focus on the election, the numbers will move back, probably significantly, unless something goes disastrously wrong in the war....
Head size and mental ability
I would just like to let y'all know that I wear a 7 5/8 hat size. (via Gweilo Diaries, who has something in common with me)...
Repayment? Non!
I report, you decide ... but this just feels right to me. (Winds of Change)...
Bum-Rushed
I've been trying to link to an excellent column at ESPN.com by Ralph Wiley on Rush Limbaugh's exit. Unfortunately, their pop-up ad from Orbitz keeps screwing up my browser -- I wind up having to shut all my browser windows down to make it stop. However, I was still able to read the column, and I think he's spot-on....
Opening a Window on North Korea's Horrors (washingtonpost.com)
North Korea: a horror show. Read the whole thing. (via Instapundit)...
October 5, 2003
Israel attacks training camp in Syria, IDF says
This ... is not good. No word on Syria's reaction yet, although I doubt it will be very friendly....
Jail Interrupts Their Fairy Tale
So, let me see if I understand journalism ... Arnold gets accused of groping, mostly by women who won't identify themselves and entirely by women who never took any action about it, and he's the Antichrist. However, a bank-robbing Bonnie and Clyde wind up behind bars for multiple armed robberies, and the Times does a sympathetic multiple-column feature story on them? Even though "Clyde" left his wife and kids behind to rob banks and run around with this woman? Odd set of priorities, that....
Steve Lopez again
Damn ... I still don't agree with him on everything, but you have to admit, he makes a pretty good point here. I just wish the Times covered Gray Davis like they covered Arnold. Then I wouldn't have a gripe....
Officer Charged in Sex Deal with Teen Defendant
Yeah, I know that there would be a different reaction if this involved a female defendant and a male officer, but I still can't help but have some small part of me think that this kid really lucked out. He got dinner, booze, pot, and lucky, and now as a result, he will probably wind up having the charges against him dropped or at least a very lenient sentence....
Mary Carey, uh, Enlarges Leno's Ratings
Set your TiVos -- Mary Carey has an ad that will run on Monday night's "Tonight Show". Please submit any puns this inspires!!...
Mr. Kay's Report
The Washington Post has an intelligent, measured editorial aboutDavid Kay's report. This is the best coverage yet that I've seen on the report from the major media, and it doesn't surprise me that the Post was the newspaper that got there first. It makes an important point that hasn't really gotten the attention it deserves: our prewar intelligence was faulty, not faked, but we'd better figure out how to get it fixed....
One sign of the impending apocalypse
Frog eggs fall from the sky onto home in Berlin...
Another sign of the impending apocalypse
The Vikings beat Atlanta 39-26, and go to 5-0! I don't know what Tice did in the off-season, but these guys look good, and are starting to look confident. They're still making mistakes, but they're overcoming them. Of course, their biggest test comes up after the bye next week. They play Denver, who is 4-1 and I think will be the first team with a winning record they've played. We should know a lot more about this team after that....
Makes a fella proud to be Minnesotan
Idiots. Maybe the best course of action would be to cancel next year's homecoming. It's one thing (still bad) when economically and socially repressed groups riot; while you don't condone it in any way, and you prosecute those responsible, there's some understanding of the desperation involved. What do we have in Mankato? A bunch of spoiled, rich kids who decided to piss all over their surrounding neighborhoods, beat people up, and destroy property. Everyone involved should be expelled, tried, and thrown in jail for a few weeks. It's only at times like this that I wish we had a military draft....
Gray Davis: Open Mouth, Insert Foot
Oh, man ... if you want to read why Gray is going down, just read this article from today's Times. Here's a great quote of the master at work: "We need immigrants to pick our food and put it on our tables," he said as the audience — middle-class Latinos, primarily — shifted uncomfortably. "We need immigrants to clean our hotels and office buildings and take care of the elderly." And: "That work is important.... Whether people are janitors or maids or busboys or cooks, it's all part of the experience we enjoy when we're at a restaurant or a hotel." If any of the Latinos in the studios of the Spanish-language station Univision felt patronized, they didn't say so. But the governor's words landed with a dull thud Monday night, creating one of many awkward moments as he fought for his political life in the final week of the...
Why the recall will win
Here's a great article by Daniel Weintraub about why the recall came to be, and why it will win. Money quote: Although Davis ridiculed the recall as sour grapes from sore losers and attacked it as a right-wing coup, he realized too late that it was much more than that. The movement might have begun on the far right, but it became a deep, almost cathartic expression of frustration on the part of voters who felt cheated in the 2002 election by the governor's meddling in the opposition party's primary, by two unsatisfactory candidates who ran uninspiring, negative campaigns, and by a political elite who seemed to relish leaving them out of the game. Couldn't have put it any better....
More from David Kay
Here's more from David Kay ... information that doesn't seem to be getting a lot of play elsewhere, but explains that we were right in going to war. "We now have three cases in which scientists have come forward with equipment, technology, diagrams, documents and, in this case, actual weapons material, reference strains and botulinum toxin that they were told to hide and that the U.N. didn't find," he said Sunday....
Was McNabb a ruse?
An interesting theory from Frater Libertas. Hmmmm .... Dittoheads should reserve judgment (not that I've ever been one; Rush irritates the snot out of me)....
October 6, 2003
U.S. to overhaul Iraq, Afghan efforts
Well, it's about time this administration started taking some action to win the peace. So far, while the Bush team is making all the right moves overseas, they've done a piss-poor job communicating back home. They've allowed the I-ANSWER stooges to occupy all the bandwidth, although Instapundit points out that this is now changing, too. The memo, which outlines working groups to coordinate anti-terrorism efforts, economic development, political affairs in Iraq and the creation of clearer messages to the media, is “a recognition by everyone that we are in a different phase now”, Rice told the Times in an interview Sunday....
Budweiser for Bustamante!
Let's face it, Bud sucks anyway ... but I sure as hell won't be buying any of their beer now (third item). I wonder what all the anti-globalists and anti-corporate idiots who support Gray Davis, Algore, etc think about this corporate sponsorship. Could it be that, as opposed to Republicans who actively support businessmen and job creation, these guys spout off platitudes to hoodwink socialists while selling out to the corporate interests they supposedly oppose? True. True....
The Davis Touch
Here's another article from LA Weekly -- hardly a conservative mouthpiece -- on the origins of these groping allegations about Da Tehmahnatuh. Hint: it ain't all just good investigative journalism. In fact, it looks a lot like previous Davis dirty-tricks schemes. (via Andrew Sullivan)...
Jill Stewart speaks out on LA Times, Gray, & Arnold
Jill Stewart, who wrote an article on Gray Davis that I linked a couple of days ago, puts the Times story in perspective at the LA Daily News. Main thrust: After my story ran, I waited for the Times to publish its story. It never did. When I spoke to a reporter involved, he said editors at the Times were against attacking a major political figure using anonymous sources. Just what they did last week to Schwarzenegger. Be sure to read the whole thing....
FBI Funded Hamas?
I'm wondering if someone shouldn't be losing their job over this story: While President Clinton was trying to broker an elusive peace between Israelis and Palestinians, the FBI was secretly funneling money to suspected Hamas figures to see if the militant group would use it for terrorist attacks, according to interviews and court documents...Several thousand dollars in U.S. money was sent to suspected terror supporters during the operation as the FBI tried to track the flow of cash through terror organizations, the FBI said in a rare acknowledgment of an undercover sting that never resulted in prosecutions. "This was done in conjunction with permission from the attorney general for an ongoing operation, and Israeli authorities were aware of it," the bureau said. One of the FBI's key operatives, who has had a falling out with the bureau, provided an account of the operation at a friend's closed immigration court proceeding....
The world's smallest violin ...
CNN.com - WTC bomber loses appeal - Oct. 6, 2003 I have nothing to add here....
October 7, 2003
He was running?
Bob Graham drops out of presidential race; polls show no one knew he was in it to begin with....
Yet another sign of the impending apocalypse
Both the Cubs and the Red Sox make it to the championship round. The Red Sox come back from two games down to beat the A's (but who hasn't?), but now have to face the Yanks without home-field advantage. If the Cubs and the Red Sox both make it to the World Series, which jinx will be the strongest? Or will the world end during Game 7?...
Repent Now!
Indianapolis scores 28 points in the 4th quarter to beat the vaunted Tampa Bay Bucs defense in overtime on Monday Night Football last night. This was unbelievable! The Bucs had them by the throat all game long, and in fact had a 21-point lead with less than 4 minutes to go. To give you an idea of the magnitude of the Colts' victory (or Bucs collapse, whichever you prefer): Indianapolis became the first team in NFL history to win after trailing by 21 or more points with less than four minutes to play in regulation. Wow! Too bad all of you turned the game off in the 3rd quarter ......
Gary Davis and his supporters in the home stretch
Daniel Weintraub has a hilarious bit on last minute campaigning by Gray Davis and his supporters. This, of course, could only take place in San Francisco: As [Mayor Willie] Brown spoke, a man with an oversized Arnold Schwarzenegger mask strapped to his face, money in his hands and a large blue E symbolizing Enron pursued a woman dressed in pink around the plaza, groping her between faux slaps in the face. And here's something that will make Davis sleep easier: Charles Duff, 24, a student at San Francisco State University, sat with his back to the rally. I asked him what he thought of the recall. “Crazy,” he said. “It’s crazy.” What’s crazy about it? I asked him. “The idea that you can take out a guy and have all these people running to replace him.” So you’re going to vote against the recall? “When’s the election?” he asked before...
LA Times Blows Its Credibility
If anything should finally underscore the fact that the LA Times has become a Democratic Party shill, this ought to do it. Bill Bradley at the LA Weekly (as mentioned before, no friend to conservatives) reveals a pre-publication leak of the Ah-nuld hit piece to the Davis campaign, who took the ball and ran with it with suspicious "alacrity". More: [T]he paper Monday backed off its previous contention that none of the women in subsequent stories came forward at the urging of Schwarzenegger’s opponents in the wake of the Weekly’s revelation that Jodie Evans, who pushed one of the women to come forward, is not merely the peace activist described by the Times but also a former close colleague of Governor Davis and longtime friend of chief Democratic hit man Bob Mulholland. This is, of course, what the LA Weekly has reported before, and is finally getting out to the...
Ambivalence
Chris Muir captures my own ambivalence perfectly....
Dionne's Take in the Post
I have to admit, at first this pissed me off, and it's still irritating me. However, it is worth a read, and Dionne is trying to introduce constructive criticism, which is encouraging. I think this is based on a couple of mistaken notion, however, chief among them that there actually was a post-9/11 consensus. Domestically, that may have been true -- maybe. If so, it was short-lived. Dionne is incorrect to say that the Afghanistan phase of the war received near-unanimous support, however. We were regaled with history lessons about how the British became lost in their Afghanistan entanglement, and how it was the Russian version of Vietnam in the 1980s. World reaction was decidedly more mixed. As Merde in France has repeatedly documented, French opinion was that we got what was coming to us, and our focus on Afghanistan should have been diplomatic rather than military, and our approach...
Gay marriage: What's the problem?
Here's where I part company with the Right, and my annoying libertarian streak comes out. AndrewSullivan covers this topic in great detail, as he should; he's got a much larger stake in this than I do. (Full disclosure: I'm hetero, married, Catholic, pro-life, anti-death penalty.) He covers a USA Today poll showing the public is evenly split over this topic. And here's my take on this. Marriage, in my faith, is considered a sacrament between a man and a woman which exists for the glory of God and the perpetuation of God's primary creation, etc etc etc. That is my faith, and I subscribe to that view. However, the Church is perfectly free to set those rules for itself and its members, and it's perfectly free to tell members who don't comply to take a hike. Most Christian denominations view marriage in a similar, but not exact, way. Civil marriages...
Project BotWT Still a Failure
Still haven't gotten a link from Best of the Web Today -- I'll keep trying. They did mention my name in the credits, though, and a lot closer to the top than ever before ......
Just takin' it Day by Day
How cool is it to have a comment on your blog from Chris Muir, the artist behind Day By Day? It's this cool! Thanks for dropping by, Chris! I am so jazzed ... now go read Chris' comic strip, and you'd better read the entire archive....
The first clue that your doctor isn't qualified ...
... is probably when he offers to slice off your testicles in the comfort of your own home. I mean, how difficult is it to figure this out? They should prosecute the doctor to the full extent of the law, but maybe the victim's family needs to set up a conservatorship on her behalf....
Playing Keep-Away from Chads
Here's a good interim report on Recall Day in California from the Post. The post I'm reading is from 2:30 PM, and it looks like a heavy turnout in California. Terry Neal points out that there's been some efforts to educate voters on the punch-card ballot process, but I voted in California for almost 20 years and I can tell you that every ballot I every used was punch-card, and most of those were of the notorious butterfly configuration. Californians aren't as stupid as Democrats would have you believe Floridians are. There's an interesting point in one of Neal's earlier dispatches (10/6 11:10 PM): Davis, the final speaker, was introduced by his wife, Sharon Davis, who alluded to the allegations against Schwarzenegger. "My husband has never been accused of anything worse than being dull," she said. Maybe Sharon hasn't read this yet....
Jesse's Ratings Weak: What a Shocker
Jesse Ventura's new TV show aired on MS-NBC this past weekend, and as Glenn Reynolds points out, the ratings were abysmal -- only an estimated 194,000 people watched it. Glenn is being generous and suggesting that MS-NBC didn't give it the proper PR support. The Post reports: Ventura fans would have had to be paying close attention to even know the show was on the air. MSNBC barely promoted it, running on-air promotions for the debut on Friday night and Saturday. The network bought no print ads and no commercials on other networks. Ventura's show was troubled almost since MSNBC hired him. It was envisioned as a daily, prime-time fixture, but after its premiere was delayed several times, the network said it would run just once a week on Saturday - generally the least-watched night of television. However, I had the opportunity to listen to the "Dork of the Week"...
Ladybug, ladybug, fly the hell away from me
Yeah, I came home from visiting my wife at the hospital tonight, and had to kill a half-dozen of these little suckers before I went to bed. I haven't been bit yet, at least not to my knowledge, but they're everywhere, and I'm surprised that it was only that many inside. These aren't the red variety; they're Asian lady beetles. Not too much difference, just the color. Lady beetles pose no danger to humans, although they do bite. "They'll land on you and taste-test you to see if you're food," Hahn said. "It's more of a pinch, although they can break the skin. There's no disease associated with them, and they're not drinking your blood. . . . They don't mean to be attacking us. They don't know any better." Well, that's comforting....
Dan Barreiro: Cubs fans need (and fear) a Series victory
Sorry, Dan, but this is an indication of psychosis. Are you going to tell me that if the Cubs actually win a World Series, all you Cub fans will suddenly start cheering for the Cincinatti Bengals? Of course, you still have the possibility I mentioned yesterday ......
Fox News Predicts Possible Landslide in Recall
No link -- I'm watching Fox News, and Brit Hume used the phrase "possible landslide" for the recall. Interesting. They're predicting Ah-nuld the winner, based on exit polling. 69% of voters opposed giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Oops!...
Heavy Voter Turnout Marks Historic Election
Maybe the ACLU can explain why this is undemocratic: The secretary of state said that turnout by late afternoon was running on target at about 60%, according to department official Terri Carbaugh. That turnout is consistent with earlier predictions that the rate would fall roughly between the 70.94% turnout in the last presidential election and the 50.6% turnout in the gubernatorial election last November. The high turnout indicates that "voters are highly attentive and highly engaged," Carbaugh said....
CNN projection: Davis out, Schwarzenegger wins
CNN projection: Recall wins by 15 percentage points. It looks like it may well be a landslide....
Trouble Already??
This didn't take long. Wesley Clark's presidential campaign is already in disarray: Wesley K. Clark's campaign manager quit yesterday in a dispute over the direction of the Democratic presidential bid, exposing a rift between the former general's Washington-based advisers and his three-week-old Arkansas campaign team. Donnie Fowler told associates he was leaving over widespread concerns that supporters who used the Internet to draft Clark into the race are not being taken seriously by top campaign advisers. Fowler also complained that the campaign's message and methods are focused too much on Washington, not key states and the burgeoning power of the Internet, said two associates who spoke on condition of anonymity. Keep in mind that this organization is only three weeks old, at least officially. If he can't avoid this kind of chaos in his own organization in that period of time, what does that say for his ability to manage...
Numbers holding for a landslide
With 13% of precincts reporting, CNN reports that the recall is winning by 12%, and Arnold leads Cruz Bustamante by a margin of almost 2-1. I wouldn't get too complacent yet, but this is looking pretty darn good for the Terminator -- excuse me, the Governator....
October 8, 2003
Recall Results
With 94% of all precincts reporting, the results are clear -- Californians spoke clearly for a sea change in state government. Recall: 54% Yes, 46% No Part B: Schwarzenegger 48%, Bustamante 33%, McClintock 14% This means that in a statewide election, where Democrats have a registration lead of at least 10 percentage points, 62% voted Republican and only a third voted for the only major Democratic choice. Granted, Republicans may have been more motivated to go to the polls, but that excuse only flies if the overall turnout was low; instead, it was a record high for a non-presidential election. The state Legislature has to be very, very nervous now. Wait for the elections next year -- we'll see how pissed off the electorate is and will remain....
Many Democrats Vote Against Davis and for a Republican
The LA Times is all over this trend. They're so ahead of the curve! This is the same paper that just a couple of days ago was insisting that the recall was trending Davis' way. It's hard to remember when a major news outlet was so wrong (like here). Dissatisfied Democrats showed their displeasure with Gov. Gray Davis on Tuesday, with about a quarter each breaking ranks to vote for the recall and for a Republican candidate to replace him, according to a Times exit poll. Despite the governor's efforts to rally Democrats to his side, a quarter of liberals and at least 3 in 10 moderate Democrats voted "yes" on the recall, according to the survey of voters. And here's an odd fact: Meanwhile, McClintock, who made a strong appeal to the right wing of the GOP, won support from only about a fifth of conservative Republican voters. Some...
At least they're leaving ...
... even if they couldn't leave with a vestige of class and grace. (via California Insider) This type of insult-based dirty campaigning explains why Gray Davis' approval ratings are below Richard Nixon's post-resignation ratings. Good riddance. Take Cruz with you....
Dan Barreiro Must Be Happy
Do you think Dan Barreiro is celebrating this, or crying in his beer? If his earlier column is any indicator, probably both....
Day By Day again
Another good point made by Chris Muirabout the Big Lie of dissent-crushing in America these days. I get so tired of people screaming in the streets and all over television that the Bush administration is forcing them to stay silent, without any sense of irony whatsoever. Quick way to see if you live in a free society: If you call the leader of your country a Nazi, which happens in a fascist state? 1: You're arrested and spend 20 years in a prison or mental facility; 2. You get put on TV and Hollywood sends you cash. If you're too dense to pick Option 1, perhaps you aren't qualified to speak to any other issues....
Chocolate HQ No More
The "chocolate makers" have dropped their plans to create a military organization outside of NATO. Apparently, France, Germany, Beligium, and that military powerhouse Luxembourg decided that their combined might would only challenge the Junior ROTC in Berkeley. Instead, they plan to create a military "planning" cell. Do these guys have any clue about how that sounds during a war on Al Qaeda? No, apparently not. (Via Merde in France)...
Numbers firming up
It looks like a ten-point margin of victory for the recall, and Arnold took 46.4% of the second part, against 31% for Bustamante and 12.8% for McClintock (99% of all precincts reporting now). This means that slightly under 60% in a record turnout voted Republican against a lone Democrat. Also, since Proposition 54 went down in flames (64% no), you can't chalk it up to a conservative turnout. If anything, Prop 54 turns out to be the bellwether, the control group if you will, on who voted in this election. The 7.7 million people who voted were completely representative of Californians statewide, and they enthusiastically rejected Gray Davis and the Democrats. Unless Arnold [that's Governor Arnold to you, ex-pat boy!] screws up, this is trouble for the Democratic visegrip on California politics....
Gunman's Mom Wants Worker Compensation
This is the new dictionary definition of chutzpah. Let's see -- did his job description include the following task: "May be called on occasion for some lightweight slaughtering of defenseless and terrified co-workers"? No? Then someone needs to tell this lady to shut the **** up and have the decency to hide in shame for the rest of her life....
Steve Lopez crosses the line
Roger Simon is right about this title and article; Steve Lopez takes a cheap shot (specifically about the Fuhrer part of it). Otherwise, bitter as it may be, it's still a pretty good article. I'm happier about the outcome than Lopez, but he is right in that the situation that created the recall in the first place -- gridlock, Gray Davis in office, mandated spending -- was created by California voters in the first place. Gray Davis only made it a hell of a lot worse than it had to be....
Doesn't anyone in Europe believe in enforcing treaties?
The Euro took another baby step towards oblivion by ignoring France's economic violations of its underlying agreements. Isn't this the same country that insisted that countries could not act unilaterally in defiance of the community of nations? Sweden's looking smarter and smarter every day....
Wasn't this guy supposed to be the competent Democrat?
Just three weeks into his campaign, and Wesley Clark is already self-destructing. First his campaign manager quits after three weeks on the job, and now it looks like the General is breaking federal election laws: Under the laws governing the financing of presidential campaigns, candidates cannot be paid by corporations, labor unions, individuals or even universities for campaign-related events. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) considers such paid political appearances akin to a financial contribution to a candidate. Clark is getting paid as much as $30,000 for speeches, according to people familiar with his arrangement. He has two more scheduled for next week. Clark, like any other candidate, would likely be permitted to deliver the paid speeches only if they did not "expressly" cover his campaign or his political opponents, the experts said. But in his speeches, Clark has talked about his campaign positions and criticized President Bush's policies. At DePauw,...
Strib idiots strike again
Comparing California voters to unruly toddlers, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune spouts off again on a subject about which they know little. Most parents have witnessed a version of the Toys "R" Us scene in which a child, caught up in the frenzy of toy overload, cries out, "Mommy, I want it, and I want it now!" California politics, always a raucous affair, has become over the last 30 years more shrill, impatient and petulant, more of a toy-store experience. This may be a funny metaphor but sells voters short. California didn't get rid of Gray because of shiny, cool Arnold: they got rid of Gray because Gray has repeatedly sold out Californians to his contributors, and Californians got tired of it. Or perhaps the Strib never bothered to research sweetheart deals like the Oracle contract. Voters in the largest state knew what they didn't want -- more Gray Davis, whom they...
October 9, 2003
Yanks decked by knuckle sandwich in Game 1
The fans in Boston must be happy with this -- the Red Sox just negated the Yankee's home-field advantage in this round of the playoffs. I'd love to see that Cubs-Red Sox series, and while the Cubs also lost their home-field advantage, at least they evened the series last night....
Judge: Minnesota Internet phone company not bound by telecom regulations
This seems intriguing, although until the written decision is released, it will be difficult to determine how far-reaching the effects will be. If the states are not allowed to regulate voice-over-IP, start putting some money into these companies, and divest from any long-distance carriers you may have money in. The utilities commission wants Vonage -- which charges $34.99 a month for unlimited calling in the United States and Canada -- to be certified as a local phone company. Among other things, Haar said, that would require it to file a complete listing of its various offerings to consumers, a description of its plans for offering emergency 911 service and a plan for participating in a state program than subsidizes phone service for poor people in Minnesota. Vonage believes that the judge, Davis, agreed with its argument that the state lacked regulatory authority in this case because the Constitution prohibits states...
Omission Impossible but True for O'Malley
It's a shame that a story like this is even necessary. I didn't know that Walter O'Malley wasn't in the Hall of Fame....
Mickey Kaus' suggestion for Davis
I have to admit, I never thought about this, but if Davis wanted retribution for Bustamante's defection, this might just work!...
Sasha Volokh discusses "blue laws"
Sasha Volokh discusses "blue laws" and their possible change in Massachussets. We have blue laws in Minnesota as well, on the sale of alcohol and (oddly) automobiles on Sundays. Sasha argues for efficiency; I would argue that government really has no business regulating sales of legal products based on the day of the week. Regulating alcohol sales by the hour of the day, on the other hand, has an overriding safety concern that makes government intervention appropriate. I'm not inclined to fix it if no one's complaining, though....
Diva alert
Ever wonder what it takes to get someone fired? If you're Deborah Norville, not much, although it's not clear if she actually initiated the termination. Last week, [Norville] was in town and had to stop by the KTVT-Channel 11 Dallas studios to do a live spot at 2 p.m. For the past year, Richard Daniels, 72, has been the front desk security guard in Dallas. At about 1:45, he looked into his monitor and saw Norville hurriedly approaching, assistant in tow. Daniels went to meet Norville--whom he did not recognize--at the door, which stays locked. According to Daniels and another Channel 11 employee who witnessed the following, Daniels began to say, "May I help you?" At this point, they say Norville--lessee, how would Inside Edition put this?--[deep baritone] they say Deborah Norville began acting more like Diva Norville. "I'm Deborah Norville!" Daniels said she screamed. "I'm late!" According to Daniels...
One large helping of grapes, extra-sour please
California Democrats are mighty grouchy today. It's like waking up with a huge hangover, I guess. (via California Insider) Aides to Sen. John Vasconcellos confirmed the liberal San Jose Democrat called Republican Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger "a boob," said voters "made a mistake," and announced that when the Legislature reconvenes in January, "I'm not sure I'll go back... If people want this actor to govern ... they don't need or deserve me." Which just goes to show you that Arnold really does get results. Is this what the Democrats has picked as a new strategy? Picking up their ball and going home? Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, said he will introduce legislation he dubbed "Arnold's Law" to increase the penalty for sexual battery in the workplace. At least that has some wit to it. In what would be a pointed show of dissatisfaction, some Democrats may boycott Schwarzenegger's State of the...
Strange Bedfellows
Arnold the Governator has picked his transition team, and it's certainly unusual. There will be 65 people from such diverse viewpoints as Mayor Willie Brown, the former King of the Assembly (I'm not kidding about that), Bill Simon Jr, Susan Estrich, and Rep. David Dreier, a well-connected Republican with close ties to the Bush administration: Today, he characterized the transition team that he will head as widely varied, made up of people who are both "very liberal and very conservative." "I will tell you this will be a somewhat unusual group," Dreier said. "The reason I'm so convinced we can have a diverse group is the strength of Arnold Schwarzenegger. He's in a position where he will get a wide range of recommendations from people throughout the state and from around the country." Arnold obviously wants to project an inclusive, healing image for his new administration, and I'm sure Willie...
This boosts my confidence in air travel
I'm sure this all started with a directive that a certain percentage of all screeners had to pass their tests. From there, it's easy to get to this point. I mean, even if they weren't given most of the answers, how hard is it to answer questions like these: One question asked "How do threats get aboard an aircraft?" The possible answers were (a) In carry-on bags; (b) In checked-in bags; (c) In another person's bag; and (d) All of the above. The correct answer is (d). A second question asked why it is important to screen bags for improvised explosive devices (IEDs). A possible answer: "The ticking timer could worry other passengers." The right answer: "IEDs can cause loss of lives, property and aircraft." Chuck Schumer said that the questions "appear as if they were written by Jay Leno's gag writer," but that seems unduly harsh ... to Jay...
Has the LA Times No Shame?
Seldom do you see a major news outlet sell itself out so completely, but the recall seems to have unhinged the editors of the Los Angeles Times. I read the Times on the Internet, as you will see if you scroll through my archives, but I do so with the knowledge that this newspaper has almost no credibility in its news coverage. Consider the following: The Los Angeles Times said it "corroborated" its stories that Schwarzenegger groped or humiliated more than a dozen women over a nearly 30-year period. But in no case did an eyewitness substantiate for the Times any of the tales despite the fact that the alleged incidents took place while hundreds of crew members on movie sets were present. As for the important "second source" news organizations often require on sensitive stories, the Times usually used a friend or relative who heard about the incidents afterward...
October 10, 2003
This is what happens when people don't learn history
Power Line features an excellent essay on the history of the Liberty Bell, and how the historically ignorant are misrepresenting it in its new setting.
Heh heh heh ...
I'm more a fan of green, myself ......
Kobe plays a nasty defense
Lawyers, as officers of the court, are expected to play by the rules. One or two slips is forgivable, but six times should have resulted in a contempt charge. Kobe's lawyers knew that they weren't supposed to identify the alleged victim by name during the hearing. It looks like this will be going to trial soon. Let's hope the judge gets more control over the court. Kobe's going to have enough problems as it is; if he's really innocent, he won't want a OJ-style circus that will undercut the validity of an acquittal with the general public....
Go Gophers! (to the bank?)
Tension mounts as perennial football power Michigan comes to Minneapolis to play against the undefeated Minnesota Golden Gophers tomorrow at the Metrodome. So far, this is Minnesota's best season in 40 years, and if they beat the Wolverines, they have a shot at a national title. Of course, at the same time we have to get a lecture on econmics: Exhibit A: At the start of 1993, when Maturi was assistant athletics director at the University of Wisconsin, the Badgers' athletic department was $3 million in debt. Then the football team went to the Rose Bowl. "We went from $3 million down to a million in reserves almost overnight,'' Maturi said. While Minnesota's $47 million athletics budget is not currently in the red, it definitely could use a cash infusion as it attempts to raise money for an on-campus football stadium. C'mon, guys, this is supposed to be fun!...
Let Immigrants Run?
Despite the results of the recall, letting foreign-born citizens run for President is a bad idea. As the descendent of immigrants -- I am third-generation on my mother's side -- I do not see the need or the benefit of a foreign-born citizen filling the role of head of state. The Washington Post editorializes: The nation has profited from the service of naturalized citizens in sensitive posts such as secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and American public life is rife with people whose commitment to this country is one of choice, rather than birth. In every other sphere, American law welcomes such citizens and acknowledges parity between them and the native-born. Yes, I agree, although Kissinger's loyalties were often questioned during and after his tenure. Look at the vitriol thrown at American-born Jews in the Bush administration, such as Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle....
Steve Wynn explains tiger "attack"
I have to admit, what Steve Wynn says about the tiger "attack" makes sense. It's a real shame that it happened, but it appears to be an outrageously unlikely fluke. One question, though: if your tiger is going to be distracted by "big hair", why would you use that tiger in Las Vegas? Have you ever seen the women in the audience for these shows?...
Have a drink at the Twilight Cafe
Too often, blog readers tend to focus on those sites where they expect to find no disagreement with their own opinions and prejudices. When I started this blog, I took a quick look around at a few other TypePad blogs, and I stumbled across the TwilightCafé. (Literally stumbled, by the way; I still have a Band-Aid on my elbow.) The next day, Alicia was the first person to post a comment on one of my posts, and I added her to my blogroll, and now she's done the same for me. My first link! We probably don't agree on a lot, as Alicia acknowledges: Since I started this weblog on TypePad, I have found lots of interesting people's sites. I have finally found a conservative (that is safe to say, I believe) whose arguments are well thought out and logical. (I am sure there are more out there, but I...
Little Brown Jug status
At the end of the third quarter: Minnesota Golden Gophers 28, Michigan Wolverines 7. Go Gophers! Take back the Little Brown Jug!...
Dodgers sold to Boston real estate man
My beloved Dodgers have been sold to Frank McCourt, who has been trying to buy a major-league baseball team for years. He finally succeeded with one of MLB's crown jewels, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Dodger Stadium, which comes as part of the deal. Frank McCourt, a Boston real estate developer who failed in two earlier attempts to buy major league teams, has reached an agreement to purchase the Los Angeles Dodgers from News Corp., both parties said Friday. McCourt will head an investment group that reportedly has offered more than $400 million for the team, Dodger Stadium and adjoining real estate, plus training facilities in Vero Beach, Fla., and the Dominican Republic. Tommy Lasorda, the legendary Dodgers' manager for 20 years (and the winner of two World Series championships, four National League pennants, and I believe seven division titles), waxes optimistic about the sale: "It's been an organization of...
Final note for tonight
I don't know if you are a praying person, but if you are or aren't, send up a good thought for my First Mate. She's in the hospital for the fourth night in a row, struggling with some of the more unpleasant effects of chronic Type 1 diabetes. I spent five hours there tonight (thankfully, my bosses are very understanding family types) and she had a rough day. We're turning the corner on it, but it'll be another couple of days before she'll be able to come home. Thank you....
Ugh ...
Okay, just as I was posting that last one, the Gophers just allowed the Michigan Wolverines to score 31 points in the fourth quarter to come back and win the game, 38-35. I stayed up for that? Long day ... I'm gonna go to bed....
October 11, 2003
"Zero tolerance" rules make zero sense
I understand the motivation behind dress codes such as this, but when they're implemented in an inflexible manner, it makes everyone look ridiculous. An 11-year-old Oklahoma girl has been suspended from a public school because officials said her Muslim head scarf violates dress code policies. Board officials met Friday to discuss the fate of suspended sixth-grader Nashala "Tallah" Hern, who was asked to leave school in the eastern Oklahoma town of Muskogee on October 1 because she refused to remove her head scarf, called a "hijab." "Zero tolerance" rules really mean "zero thinking", and this is a great example of it. Gang members do identify themselves through clothing, including headgear, usually with professional sports merchandise. Prohibiting such displays makes sense, and public schools should try to eliminate them. However, instead of exercising some judgment or making the effort to determine what is and is not acceptable to wear, administrators take...
Lawyers outta control
I'm sorry that this little girl got paralyzed, but I fail to see how you can blame it on anyone but the drunk driver. The parents of a girl paralyzed in a car wreck caused by a drunken football fan have sued the National Football League, claiming it should be held responsible for the girl's injuries. The lawsuit, filed Thursday, contends the league promotes the type of behavior that led the fan to drink 14 beers at a New York Giants game in 1999 and then drive home. Why include the NFL? Because you won't get that much money out of a guy who's serving several years in prison for the crime. Tailgating is not inherently a bacchanalia; most people handle their alcohol respectably, and there's a lot of other things that go into tailgating, like grilling food, etc etc. It frustrates me when lawyers attempt to hold people responsible...
Next up, on America's Most Wanted ....
How the heck do you let a guy like this escape? A suspect in the murders of five people whose bodies were unearthed from his backyard escaped Friday night from the jail where he was awaiting trial, officials said. Hugo Selenski, who was charged Monday in two of the deaths, and another inmate used bedsheets to escape from the Luzerne County Correctional Facility around 9:30 p.m., officials said. I'm thinking about Ted Bundy, and what happened when he escaped ... I hope they catch this guy quick. I hope that the Luzerne County Correctional Facility changes its security procedures ASAP....
Priests Want Married Clergy Discussed
This has been bubbling under the surface for some time, and apparently is about to break into the open: Some Los Angeles area Roman Catholic priests are urging an open discussion on whether to allow married clergy as one solution to the growing priest shortage, and say they hope Cardinal Roger M. Mahony will raise the issue to church authorities nationally and in Rome. For those who are not familiar with the history of the Church, married men were allowed to be priests for the first thousand years of the Church's existence, although celibacy was the preferred state. It did not become a rule until around the time of the schism between Rome and the Eastern church. It is still considered a rule, not a doctrine, which means it is open to change by the Church hierarchy if desired. (Restricting the priesthood to men, on the other hand, is considered...
Haunted House of Ill Repute?
Here's an idea whose time, apparently, has not quite come -- an adult haunted house, complete with simulated genital mutilation and lesbian scenes: To open, a couple of exhibits had to be toned down, including a mock mutilation of male genitals, as well as a couple of women kissing. Says one performer, "They've completely violated our right to free expression." But due to the adult content, and the fact that many of the actors are minors, Wentzville city officials decided the haunted house needed an adult entertainment permit. I suspect it was the lesbian kissing scene (oh! I'm so shocked!) that really got panties in a twist, but the simulated male genital mutilation certainly seems beyond the pale and qualifies the exhibit as adult entertainment. I certainly can't imagine allowing kids to work there or go through the house, but not everyone agrees: A much different opinion comes from event...
Robertson Declares 700 Club as a Nuclear Power
If there was still any doubt at all, Pat Robertson has made it clear that he is a dangerous lunatic with no credibility at all to speak on issues. Last seen exhorting his mindless sheep to pray for the deaths of certain Supreme Court justices, now Robertson has decided that it's quicker to nuke the State Department rather than praying for the 10,000 or so heart attacks it would take: "I read your book," Robertson said, according to a transcript of the interview posted on his Christian Broadcasting Network's website (www.cbn.com). "When you get through, you say, 'If I could just get a nuclear device inside Foggy Bottom, I think that's the answer'," he said. "I mean, you get through this, and you say, 'We've got to blow that thing up.' I mean, is it as bad as you say?" Robertson asked. The State Department, oddly, takes offense to suggestions...
Fighting Irish Fight Back
Notre Dame, who has had two losses already this season, goes on the road and upsets 15th ranked Pittsburgh, 20-14. The Fighting Irish played tough defense and relied on their traditionally strong running game, rather than the new West Coast offense of Ty Willingham. It wasn't exciting, but it was convincing. Go Irish! (and note that I didn't post a damn thing until the game was over this time!)...
First Mate much improved
Just wanted to post a note thanking everyone (especially Alicia) for your kind thoughts -- my wife is feeling much better. If she continues to improve and tolerate her new medication, she should be out of the hospital in a couple of days....
Told you I was mostly right
OK, now it's confirmed ... I'm 62% good: ... which means, of course ... These calculations come to me via the Gematriculator, using arcane mathematics to analyze word and phrase patterns on the website. How does it work? Haven't got a friggin' clue, even (and especially) after reading through the explanation on their website. Thanks to Alicia over at Twilight Café for the link! (I'm 6% more good than Twilight Café ... just for the record.)...
Rating the other blogs
Here's how other blogs rate on the ol' Gematriculator: Instapundit: 74% good Daily Dish (Andrew Sullivan): 73% good Power Line: 71% good Meaningful Media: 70% good (how did Steve get ahead of me??) hmmm ... I was on board with this until I saw Steve's ratings ... lemme see who else scores high: NakedJen: 65% good (ahead of me, too!) Merde in France: 62% -- a tie! But something tells me that this is not terribly accurate. For instance: Michaelmoore.com: 82% CBC.com (Pat Robertson's website): 96% good These two are deal-killers, I'm sorry to say ......
October 12, 2003
A Winning Strategy in a Fractured State: Unite and Conquer
Steve Lopez, in today's LA Times, nails the recall election in another funny column: Conservatives eagerly abandoned sacred covenants and joined moderates — and even some liberals, for God's sake — in voting for a serial groper who smoked dope, skipped elections and was a poster boy for Hollywood's gun violence and mayhem. Who would've thunk it? Lopez not only notes that, but actually understands what this means for the California electorate: We're politically polarized beyond caricature, undermining any useful problem-solving, and great hordes of people need to be locked in their rooms. But as far as anyone can tell so far, Arnold appears to be somewhere in the middle — a fiscal conservative and social moderate. If so, that would put him more in touch with California than Gray Davis, who pumped helium into the state budget, or any of the knuckle-draggers the GOP keeps sending into the game....
PETA: People Empty of Tact and Aptitude
I'm surprised it took PETA this long to take a life-threatening tragedy and crassly use it for their own purposes. The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals held a rally Saturday outside the Mirage hotel-casino to urge entertainers Siegfried & Roy to retire their felines after Roy Horn was nearly killed by a tiger during a performance. Carrying signs reading, "The Strip Is No Place for Tigers" and "Big Cats Big Danger," about two dozen demonstrators gathered near the entrance to the resort's large Siegfried & Roy marquee. It's understood that PETA opposes animals in entertainment, or in almost any other contact with humans, so it's not surprising that they want Siegfried & Roy to eliminate the tigers from their act. In fact, I believe they've protested the act several times previously. But since it's pretty clear that the act will be off the stage for a long...
Longer Ambulance Ride Could Save Lives
If you are at risk of a heart attack, make sure you read this article -- and then make sure you know which of your local hospitals perform primary angioplasties. [H]eart attack treatment has undergone a quiet revolution, one that ambulance services and small hospitals have largely ignored. Many heart specialists now agree that the clot-dissolving drugs are passe, or should be, and large hospitals have generally stopped using them. Instead, the best treatment is an emergency procedure called a primary angioplasty. Even more reliably than clot drugs, it can stop a heart attack cold if done within the first two or three hours. But it is available only at major hospitals with top-tier cardiac centers. So the little community hospital is no longer the ideal place to treat a heart attack, especially if it occurs within driving distance of an angioplasty center, as the vast majority do. Nevertheless, specialists...
The Post gets it
The Washington Post proves that it is the leading voice in American politics in a well-written, thoughtful analysis of the Iraq front of the war on terror. The debate over intervention was fraught precisely because many people understood that Saddam Hussein was not an imminent danger. We argued nonetheless that the real risk lay in allowing him to defy repeated U.N. disarmament orders, including Resolution 1441, the "final opportunity" approved by unanimous Security Council vote. As noted endlessly in the blogosphere, and acknowledged in the Post's editorial in a more passive way, the Bush administration never argued that Saddam represented an "imminent" threat. In fact, in Bush's State of the Union speech earlier this year, and in the speech he delivered to the UN, he argued that the United States and the civilized world could not afford to wait until the threat was imminent. That was the whole "preemption" controversy....
The Least Bad Option
Even the New York Times is starting to get it, although Thomas Friedman is normally fairly sane on foreign policy anyway. Friedman argues against letting the UN dictate the timetable for Iraqi sovereignty as thoroughly impractical: Would the U.S. handing power to an interim Iraqi government really stop the attacks on U.S. forces, Iraqi police, the U.N. and Iraq's interim leaders? I doubt it. These attackers don't want Iraqis to rule themselves, these attackers want to rule Iraqis. Why do you think the attackers never identify themselves or their politics? Because they are largely diehard Baathists who want to restore the old order they dominated and will kill anyone in the way. Will the U.N., which has basically left Iraq, not flee again when its officials get attacked again — which will happen even after Iraqis have sovereignty? Could the Iraqi Governing Council agree now on who should lead an...
Islamic states to welcome new Iraq
More good news, this time from an unlikely source: Islamic states to welcome new Iraq. I had thought they would try to exclude the Iraqi Governing Council, but it appears that the Organization of the Islamic Conference is about to take a more pragmatic view: The status of Iraq since Saddam Hussein was toppled six months ago had led to disagreement in the OIC, with summit host Malaysia contending that no Iraqi government should be seated with the country under U.S. occupation, and the powerful Arab bloc saying that the Governing Council is transitional and legitimate enough, for now. The Arab view prevailed, and Iraq will be represented by Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, and by Ayad Alawi, current holder of the council’s rotating leadership. Delegates said that a resolution would likely welcome the Governing Council but be balanced with calls for Iraq’s return to full independence and sovereignty...
Arnold Uber Alles
Here's a funny recollection of the last days of Arnold's campaign, from the October 30 issue of the Weekly Standard: IT SEEMS LIKE ONLY YESTERDAY that I was jetting around California with Arnold Schwarzenegger, enjoying one-on-one access, eating Arnold's food, laughing at Arnold's jokes, choking on Arnold's cigar smoke. In fact, it was a year ago, when Arnold was campaigning for his ballot initiative promoting after-school activities. Back then, he was running a modest little jobs program for former Pete Wilson aides. Now, five days before the 2003 recall election, at the kickoff of his home-stretch bus tour at the San Diego Convention Center, it's apparent that Schwarzenegger has gone Hollywood. There are so many staffers on the ground that it's hard to know who to suck up to. It's long but entertaining, sort of like the recall election....
First Mate back on board
The First Mate is home from the hospital, with four fresh prescriptions to fill and a tired smile on her face. She's looking and feeling much better, but I'm going to stay home from work tomorrow to keep an eye on her. Big grins!...
Why We Went to War
William Kristol and Robert Kagan have written a lengthy, detailed article covering the reason for the Iraq war in-depth. Kristol and Kagan take us back through the history of the UN inspections and Saddam's weapons programs, including statements by the Clinton administration, the UN, and Saddam: Here is what was known by 1998 based on Iraq's own admissions: * That in the years immediately prior to the first Gulf War, Iraq produced at least 3.9 tons of VX, a deadly nerve gas, and acquired 805 tons of precursor ingredients for the production of more VX. * That Iraq had produced or imported some 4,000 tons of ingredients to produce other types of poison gas. * That Iraq had produced 8,500 liters of anthrax. * That Iraq had produced 500 bombs fitted with parachutes for the purpose of delivering poison gas or germ payloads. * That Iraq had produced 550 artillery...
A breath of fresh air from the Democratic Leadership Council
For those who may not know, the DLC is the centrist Democrat group that promoted Bill Clinton as a potential party leader as early as 1988. Now they're trying to keep California Democrats from going off the rails by giving them a major reality check. After acknowledging the right-wing origins of the recall, it tells them [I]t's clear the success of the recall effort was no mere right-wing conspiracy. Californians are deeply frustrated by what they perceive as a political establishment -- in both parties -- that's not listening to their concerns, acting on their needs, or paying much attention to anyone who does not belong to a bedrock partisan constituency group. Then they warn some of the radical elements of the party against following through on threats made on Election Night: There's already talk of Democrats going to the mattresses, denying cooperation to the Governor-elect, or even launching petitions...
October 13, 2003
Fisking the Whistleblower
Colleen Rowley, the FBI agent who blew the whistle on the bureau's lack of follow-up before 9/11 -- mostly due to political correctness concerns -- wrote a tedious and silly op-ed in Sunday's Star Tribune. James Lileks, who has a regular column and feature in the Strib (the Back Fence), fisks the hell out of Rowley. Rowley's article is another of those vague, unsupported complaints about how dissent is being stifled in John Ashcroft's America that seem to find themselves on the pages of major newspapers on almost a weekly basis. It would be delicious satire if these idiots actually had a sense of humor. (via Instapundit)...
Coleman straddles the fence
Sen. Norm Coleman tries to eat his cake and have it too on the issue of school vouchers. He proposes putting a school voucher plan in place for Washington DC schoolchildren, but tries to claim he's not considering any application to any other state, including Minnesota: "I'm not going to push for vouchers for Minnesota kids," Coleman said in an interview. "I'm not going to push for a national program. But I will certainly support the local mayor in his effort to provide greater opportunity for his kids." Well, why not? I understand that DC schools are especially poor performers, but there are certainly schools like that in Minnesota, too, and elsewhere. Are those schoolchildren any less trapped by the educational monopoly? Why are DC schoolchildren special cases? I suspect it has a lot less to do with geography than with mollifying Education Minnesota, the state NEA outfit, who weighs...
What would Winston do?
Today's Strib features a column by Isaac Cheifetz titled "What would Winston do?" It doesn't give any answers to that specific question but instead talks about a little-discussed side of Winston Churchill: the accomplished manager. I found it interesting, since Churchill is one of my favorite historical figures, and I believe his life and philosophy are so applicable to today's global issues. Afterwards, check out the post that pointed me to it at Power Line....
Man Attacks Stain in Trousers...Destroys Apartment
Or, you could say he was really washing with gas!...
The Top 10 Most Dangerous Jobs in America
No, this is not a David Letterman list, but it's really the most hazardous jobs in America, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The top 10 most dangerous jobs are: 10. Truck drivers 9. Construction workers 8. Farm occupations 7. Electrical "power installers" (as opposed to workers?) 6. Roofers 5. Drivers - Sales Workers (incl. pizza delivery, vending machine workers) 4. Structural metal workers 3. Pilots and navigators 2. Fishers And the most dangerous job in America is ... 1. Timber cutters!...
Saudi Arabia to Hold First Elections
In a move that indicates the US is beginning to make a major impact on the Arab world, Saudi Arabia announced its first ever free elections: Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy, announced Monday it would hold its first elections to vote for municipal councils, seen as the first concrete political reform in the Gulf Arab state. ... Since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States -- in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis -- Riyadh has come under intense pressure by key ally Washington to implement social and political reform in the kingdom which is the cradle of Islam and the world's largest oil exporter. ... "The council of ministers decided to widen participation of citizens in running local affairs through elections by activating municipal councils, with half the members of each council being elected," the state news agency SPA said. It's not just the election,...
Ed Asner: Historical Idiot
I don't know what's more disturbing about this story on Ed Asner: his predilection for mass-murdering tyrants, or his swollen ego regarding Rush Limbaugh, or just his entire, pathetic schtick ever since he started taking himself seriously after Lou Grant was canceled. I first read this story at Andrew Sullivan's site this morning, and it's been picked up by Instapundit (who discussed it in his MS-NBC column, too), but here's the original story, from Kevin McCullough at WorldNetDaily: "Mr. Asner, I do have a question ... if you had the chance to play the biographical story of a historical figure you respected most [emphasis mine] over your lifetime, who would it be?" "I think Joe Stalin was a guy that was hugely misunderstood," said Asner. "And to this day, I don't think I have ever seen an adequate job done of telling the story of Joe Stalin, so I guess...
Dean's 'Urban Legend'
I recall when this happened, and how the Dean campaign tried backing away from it at warp speed. Quite frankly, I just considered it to be a typical reaction from the no-war-for-any-reason set, and in that context it makes perfect sense: "Questioned about the deaths of Saddam's sons, Odai and Qusai, in Iraq, Dean dismissed suggestions that it was a victory for the Bush administration. `It's a victory for the Iraqi people . . . but it doesn't have any effect on whether we should or shouldn't have had a war,' Dean said. `I think in general the ends do not justify the means.' " Nevertheless, when challenged on this, Dean has gone on the attack rather than explain what he meant, or more likely, that he forgot he said it because he shot his mouth off without thinking about it at the time: "I never said that. I never...
Israeli raid on Syria alters a 30-year-old 'proxy game' in the Mideast
I found an interesting article on the decades-long proxy game between Israel and Syria, and how Israel is looking to change the rules, with the first gambit being the attack on the terrorist training camp last week: No matter how much violence raged around it, the Israeli-Syrian border has been quiet since the armistice following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. If the bitter foes wanted to fight, they squared off on the battlefield called Lebanon, or deployed various proxy forces. The attack a week ago Sunday on what the Israelis said was a Palestinian terrorist training camp changed that formula, perhaps forever. This article gives a much clearer explanation of what the attack means to both Israel and Syria and what Israel hopes to gain from the escalation: The Syrians say they give no logistical support to the Palestinian groups, but cannot expel Palestinians who have lived legally here for decades....
Gun Control Fails Miserably in Great Britain
Good luck on reading anything about this in the New York or LA Times, but Strange Women Lying in Ponds (a cool Monty Python reference, for those who don't know) picked up on a story in the Guardian which details the effects of banning all handguns: Handgun crime has soared past levels last seen before the Dunblane massacre of 1996 and the ban on ownership of handguns introduced the year after Thomas Hamilton, an amateur shooting enthusiast, shot dead 16 schoolchildren, their teacher and himself in the Perthshire town. It was hoped the measure would reduce the number of handguns available to criminals. Now handgun crime is at its highest since 1993. SWLIP reacts: Let's see, when Britain passed the handgun ban, many pro-gun ownership types predicted that Britain would eventually see a rise in violent gun crimes as guns became readily available on the black market for criminals, and...
Return of the Road Map
I don't know if I agree that the Middle East Road Map is the evil clone of this historical document -- the argument can be made -- but at least this is pretty darned funny, and well-written, too....
You have got to be kidding me ...
I'm not even going to try to introduce this. I'll just let this speak for itself. (Caution: May be disturbing to some readers.) Have a nice night, folks. Sweet dreams. Heh heh heh....
October 14, 2003
Like Father, Like Son
Osama's son plays an increasignly important role in al-Qaeda, according to today's Washington Post, and is being protected by Iran: Saad bin Laden, one of Osama bin Laden's oldest sons, has emerged in recent months as part of the upper echelon of the al Qaeda network, a small group of leaders that is managing the terrorist organization from Iran, according to U.S., European and Arab officials. The younger bin Laden speaks English and is computer literate, two rare qualities among al-Qaeda, and so his influence is even more pervasive than his family name would indicate. Saudi Arabia wants him extradited from Iran, but negotiations have gone nowhere: Similarly, Saudi Arabia, which in recent years has tried to thaw relations with its larger and more powerful neighbor across the Persian Gulf, is trying, unsuccessfully, to persuade Iran to extradite Saad bin Laden and others suspected in the Riyadh bombing. Saudi officials...
The Soviet Republic of Texas (washingtonpost.com)
The Washington Post rails against the latest redistricting plan in Texas, but misses an important point. The current district plan was not implemented by the Texas Legislature but was imposed as a temporary plan by a federal court. Districting is a function of the Legislature and not the courts and it was entirely appropriate for Texas to redistrict, even if it was oustide the census cycle. That being said, the Post has a point about the results of the plan, and ultra-partisan districting plans in general: YOU MIGHT THINK America's rigged system of congressional elections couldn't get much worse. Self-serving redistricting schemes nationwide already have left an overwhelming number of seats in the House of Representatives so uncompetitive that election results are practically as preordained as in the old Soviet Union. In the last election, for example, 98 percent of incumbents were reelected, and the average winning candidate got more...
Unofficial diplomacy reaches agreement -- but who will implement it?
Negotiators from outside the governments of both Israel and the Palestinian Authority reached a peace agreement, but one with no weight whatsoever as Israel strongly denounced the effort: Coming at a time when Middle East peace prospects are at a low ebb, the 50-page draft agreement was reached during the weekend in Jordan by the two delegations, which include current Parliament members and former cabinet members from both sides. But the proposal has no official blessing, and the Israeli government immediately denounced it, calling it irresponsible freelance diplomacy. "The public rejected these same political figures," Limor Livnat, Israel's education minister, said of the Israeli delegation, led by left-wing politicians. "In no democratic country would this be acceptable." The Palestinian Authority did not immediately comment, though the Palestinian team included senior political figures with close ties to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Put into terms that we might relate to, it would...
Someone finally bothered to ask the Iraqis
With all of the debate about how long we should be staying in Iraq, and the UN demanding that we leave so that the Iraqis can take care of themselves, Gallup cut out the middlemen and just asked the Iraqis what they want. A novel approach, to be sure, but one that the UN apparently never bothered to try. The Gallup poll found that 71 percent of the capital city's residents felt U.S. troops should not leave in the next few months. Just 26 percent felt the troops should leave that soon. Bear in mind that Baghdad is part of the Sunni Triangle, where you could expect to find significant hostility to the US presence that eliminated the Sunni minority's hold on power (to the extent it was Sunni-based, anyway). Gallup's polling did not include areas outside the Sunni Triangle, where you would expect approval for the US occupation to...
The President's End Run
The Washington Post reports that President Bush will start bypassing the national, traditional media and start focusing on regional and non-traditional media in order to get his message out more clearly and with less editorial filtering. Power Line links the story in its essay on the decision and its possible impact. Read the entire essay; it's excellent, although I disagree with it in one respect: And he and other administration officials should criticize Democratic jounalists and news outlets by name. The Democratic news media have overplayed their hand, and everyone knows how biased they are. (I'll link to a recent Gallup poll on this issue later in the day.) Why should hacks like Dana Milbank get a free pass to attack the administration on behalf of the Democrats, in the guise of objective journalism? I'll have to disagree with Hindrocket on taking such a confrontational strategy. Bush and the senior...
Study surprise: Low-carb dieters eat more, lose weight
It took the medical/dietary establishment about 30 years to check this out, but it seems that they may have been wrong all along: Now, a small but carefully controlled study offers a strong hint that maybe Atkins was right: People on low-carb, high-fat diets actually can eat more. While I do not think that the Atkins plan is all it's cracked up to be -- any diet that severely limits fruits isn't going to be terribly healthy -- the philosophy is very sound. I lost a lot of weight and kept it off by eliminating "unneeded" carbs from by diet, as well as eating less and exercising regularly. It's a life change, though, not a "diet" in the popular sense; I won't be eating pizzas and burgers and fries except on very rare occasions for the rest of my life. Over the course of the study, they consumed an extra...
What did the coach put in their Gatorade?
Let's see ... you're a football player at a major football college, and you've just been humiliated on national TV by an unranked team. What's your first instinct when you come across a rival fan? If it's decking the guy while the cameras are rolling, either you've taken a wee bit too much Testosterone or you're on the SpongeBob Squarepants academic track. I report, y'all decide....
A Hope for France?
I'm not shy in sharing my views on France, but this article in Reason gives hope that change may be coming in the person of Sabine Herold, a 22-year-old Opposition leader in Paris: Herold, the 22-year-old leader of Liberté, J’ecris Ton Nom (Freedom, I Write Your Name), has in the last few months emerged as the massively popular and highly photogenic leader of -- zut! -- a burgeoning pro-market, pro-American counterculture in France. Earning comparisons to Joan of Arc, Brigitte Bardot (!), and Margaret Thatcher in the panting British press, she represents something French politics hasn’t seen in years: a public figure eager to take on the country’s endlessly striking unions. Herold's youth, passion, and eloquence earned her enough of a following that she was able to draw 80,000 to a protest against union strikes early this summer in Paris. I've read about her before, mostly through Merde in France...
Pledge to be Reviewed by Supreme Court
The Volokh Conspiracy has an excellent series of posts on this subject, starting (or ending, I suppose) with this one. I hadn't heard that Justice Scalia had recused himself, but considering his ill-advised commentary, it's probably for the best. It's not the content of the commentary that is a problem; he shouldn't have been commenting on the case at all, since it was always likely to be reviewed by the Supreme Court. It was a rare example of bad judgment on his part....
Pawlenty to Tie Drivers Licenses to School Performance
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has proposed making underage drivers licenses dependent on school attendance. Pawlenty describes the link between truancy and criminal behavior and says: "I have no hesitation linking expectations around school attendance and the privilege of driving," Pawlenty said. "We need to make sure we have the horse before the cart." "Students need to understand the importance of education and that there are consequences if they don't take it seriously," Pawlenty said in a statement. "Chronic absenteeism is one step away from crime and we need to do everything we can to stop it." Right now, the only consequences of truancy are borne by the parents; if the truancy becomes chronic, the parents can be taken to court to correct the situation. Truancy undoubtably underlies a significant part of teen crime, and the failure of the system to provide any significant consequences to the teens themselves doesn't do...
We're Winning, part 37b
The AP reports that the coalition has captured another senior terrorist in Iraq, this time from Ansar al-Islam, which is tied to al-Qaeda: The arrest of Aso Hawleri, also known as Asad Muhammad Hasan, late last week in the northern city of Mosul has not been announced. Larry Di Rita, chief spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, told reporters, "I'm not in a position to confirm" Hawleri's capture. Hawleri was taken by soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division, said a defense official, who discussed the matter on condition of anonymity. The officials said Hawleri is thought to be the third-ranking official in Ansar al-Islam, most of whose fighters were believed to have fled their stronghold in northern Iraq before U.S. forces invaded in March. U.S. and Kurdish forces destroyed the group's main base in the early weeks of the war. Ansar al-Islam claimed responsibility for the car bombing in...
The Blogging Iceberg
Here's an interesting article on blogs, and the blogging bloggers who blog them. I saw this yesterday at Amygdala but didn't get a chance to post on the article. Like Amygdala, I am in the 1% demographic, although I just started there. Not to rub it in or anything. Perseus Development Corp. estimates that there are 4.12 million blogs out here in the blogosphere, but 2.72 million have been abandoned, either temporarily or permanently. Over a million of these were one-day wonders. (Guess I've surpassed that threshold; I believe this is my 140th post.) There's lots of interesting data here for bloggers who like a bit of navel-gazing....
Name-calling as political discourse
Speaking of Amygdala, I noticed that he has posted (way down the left column) Farber's First Fundamental of Blogging: If your idea of making an insightful point is to make fun of people's names, or refer to them by rilly clever labels such as "The Big Me" or "The Shrub," chances are high that I'm not reading your blog. On the way home from work this afternoon, I listened to The Patriot, the conservative talk-radio outlet here in the Twin Cities. At my drive-time, Michael Medved is on the air, and I have enjoyed Medved from when he wrote The Golden Turkey Awards back in the 70s. It's out of print now, but it's hilarious. Anyway, unlike some of the other hosts on the Patriot, such as the screechy and utterly reactionary Michael Savage, Medved is thoughtful to his callers and encourages those who disagree with him to give him...
Can't we all just ... get lost?
Guess who's back in the klink again: Rodney King. He should have been using that well-deserved settlement (I can watch videotape, but juries seem to have a problem with it) on some psychological help. I'd be happy if his name never popped up again in the news. I suspect he'd be happier, too....
Minneapolis officers accused of assaulting suspect
On the day that Rodney King gets back in the news, this story makes me more than a tad bit nervous. The Minneapolis Police Department is taking great pains to handle this by the book and to make sure everyone sees that. Either they are very confident that these charges won't hold up, or something serious really did happen and CYA mode is kicking into high gear....
October 15, 2003
Jill Stewart's Rebuttal to John Carroll
Jill Stewart has penned an extensive and detailed rebuttal to John Carroll's "explanation" of the groping stories at the LA Times and how they were nothing more than good journalism. (John Carroll's editorial had been listed in a featured position at the top of the Times' web site for several days; today is the first day it's gone.) Stewart writes: Carroll claims that the groping story was published as soon as it was done. In fact, in journalism, a story is done when the boss says turn it in. Carroll himself saw to it that the story was strung out until the last. That is why some staffers continue to insist to me that the story was sufficiently nailed and should have run two weeks beforehand. One of Carroll's major gripes with Stewart -- whom he never bothered to name -- was that she claimed he held the story back...
Gaza blast kills 3 Americans
Breaking news: a bomb attack in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 3 American officials who were apparently touring to monitor progress on the peace process. [Saeb] Erakat offered his condolences and condemned the attack. "These people were here to help us," Erakat insisted, saying an attack on what he described as U.S. monitors was not in the interest of the Palestinian people. "I don't think this was a deliberate attack against the Americans." Obviously, some of the "Palestinian people" felt it was in their interest to attack Americans. Would that be the Hamas-led "Palestinian people"? The Islamic Jihad "Palestinian people"? Or the al-Fatah "Palestinian people" who report to Yasser Arafat and blow people up as a sideline? "We offer to have an immediate, joint Palestinian-American investigation committee to investigate the matter," Erakat said. Perhaps we should have a US delegation meet up with Erekat and Arafat. I nominate...
UN Security Council Caves
There is no other way to describe this but as a diplomatic victory for the Bush administration: France, Russia and Germany on Tuesday dropped their demands that the United States grant the United Nations a central role in Iraq's reconstruction and yield power to a provisional Iraqi government in the coming months. The move constituted a major retreat by the Security Council's chief antiwar advocates, and signaled their renewed willingness to consider the merits of a U.S. resolution aimed at conferring greater international legitimacy on its military occupation of Iraq. If passed, the new Security Council resolution would effectively reject the obstructionism of Kofi Annan and the French. Jacques Chirac seems to have gotten the message that France, if the US ceased negotiating, would be revealed as a pretender to real power. The Bush administration refused to incorporate the French, Russian and German demands for a timetable for the transfer...
Woman Gets Jail In Assault On Boy, 4 (washingtonpost.com)
Who wants to keep tabs on this woman's baby for the next 18 years? A woman who chased a 4-year-old boy through a McDonald's restaurant in Montgomery County, pinned him in a headlock and screamed obscenities as she smeared his face with hot french fries was sentenced yesterday to four days in jail and ordered to attend anger management and parenting classes. Milikia Hayes, 18, of Gaithersburg was nearly nine months pregnant with her first child when the incident took place in May. The boy, whom Hayes did not know, accidentally smeared ice cream on her clothing at a McDonald's in Germantown, authorities said. She should be getting lots of follow-up visits from Children's Services as well....
More on the Gaza bombing
Via Oxblog, more on the bombing from Haaretz: The blast went off around 10:15 A.M. Wednesday as a three-car U.S. diplomatic convoy drove near a gas station on the outskirts of the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, along the main north-south road. Both the militant Islamic Jihad and Hamas movements denied responsibility for the attack. Witnesses at the scene said a silver Cherokee jeep used by American diplomats was completely destroyed by the blast. Parts of the vehicle were strewn in a 30-meter radius around a crater created by the explosion. If Islamic Jihad and Hamas are denying responsibility, what about the al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade, a division of Yasser Arafat's al-Fatah faction? They've been known to plant bombs as well. My guess is that, unlike other attacks in the area, no one will be in a rush to claim this one as their own. As Oxblog...
Day by Day - 'Covering' the election
Chris Muir makes another pithy but pointed statement on newspaper 'coverage' in recent elections. Gee, I wonder what he may mean by that? Perhaps we should ask Jill Stewart ......
I Owe Ed Asner a Partial Apology
This demonstrates a problem with blogging -- when a source turns out to be incorrect, you wind up having to apologize to people you'd rather not. If you scroll to the bottom of Kevin McCullough's partial retraction, you'll see that Ed Asner was not expressing admiration for Stalin and was in fact quite open about putting him on the same plane as Hitler: "Well, you know something, they've played Hitler, nobody has ever really touched Stalin, it just occurred to me. It's not because I am a liberal or anything like that. Stalin is one big damn mystery, I wonder why nobody has tried it? Many people, you know, speak of the fact that he killed more people than Hitler – why does nobody touch him? It's strange. So, and he was about my size, my height – with a wig I probably could do it." In fact, in his...
Captain's Quarters Undergoing Minor Renovations
I'll be making some tweaks tonight -- the three-column format doesn't quite work for me, so I'll be playing around with some other options ... let me know what you think!...
Another take on my post on name-calling
OxBlog has an essay which, unbeknownst to Oxblog, expands on my post yesterday about name-calling and elevating political discourse: Are people really so sure of themselves that they simply cannot acknowledge that anyone who disagrees could be intelligent? Have they no humility whatsoever? Of course we all think we're right -- if we didn't think we were right, we'd change our opinions until we did. Maybe I'm just naive, but it really does amaze me when people claim that everyone who disagrees with them (on topics where general opinion is relatively divided -- I'm not talking about largely uncontroversial opinions like "slavery is wrong") is either malevolent, stupid, or both. This attitude exists in a lot more places than in the blogosphere, although Josh Chafetz understandably focuses on that area of debate. I mentioned talk radio in yesterday's post, of course, but it wouldn't exist in the blogosphere or on...
CBS News: The Dark Side
CBS has run a truly egregious hit piece on home schooling, which is also posted to their web site: "I think there's so little supervision that they really are not protecting those kids," Marcia Herman-Giddens, of the North Carolina Child Advocacy Institute. Herman-Giddens is on the state task force that reviewed the Warren case. The conclusion: home school laws "allow persons who maltreat children to maintain social isolation in order for the abuse and neglect to remain undetected." Let's see ... because of the three or four cases of child abuse (including murder and suicide) of home-schooled kids they found, this is supposedly an evil trend, a conspiracy of child abusers to keep their victims from being noticed. Where is any mention of the hundreds of thousands of abuse cases that occur with children taught in public schools? Or, perhaps, a litany of children assaulted, molested, and murdered in public...
Rounding up the usual suspects
The Palestinian Authority began rounding up the usual suspects in the wake of the Gaza Strip bombing that killed 3 Americans and critically wounded a fourth: Palestinian police started rounding up suspects in a dragnet expected to last through the night, security sources said. The action followed word that Arafat had reappointed a law and order general, Gazi el-Jabali, to command Palestinian police forces -- a man he had previously fired from the job. The US position is that the bombing specifically targeted Americans, according to CNN: In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that "in the absence of information" on who did it, "the assumption one has to make, given the nature of the attack," is that Palestinians targeted Americans. That would tend to implicate the PA itself, given that the PA was responsible for the security arrangements and the route of the caravan. How else could the...
Demosophia: Mr. Moore's Neighborhood
I avoided commenting on the latest foolishness spewing forth from Michael Moore during an appearance on CNN's Crossfire, with Robert Novak and Julian Epstein, who sounds as if he couldn't suck up enough to the pseudodocumentarian. EPSTEIN: And, in your book -- I love you. I think you say a lot of useful, important things that need to be said to shake the system up. Yeah, well. Anyway, Moore said in the course of the interview: MOORE: I'd like to ask the question whether September 11 was a terrorist attack, or was it a military attack? We call it a terrorist attack. We keep calling it a terrorist attack. But it sure has the markings of a military attack. And I'd like to know whose military was involved in this precision, perfectly planned operation. I'm sorry, but my common sense has never allowed me to believe since that day that...
October 16, 2003
That's okay, he can inspect home-schooling parents
It's decisions like this that make an even bigger joke of scare stories like the one from CBS News that argues that home-schooling is dangerous because there is no government oversight: At the same time that Donald Leonard Keys was being investigated on suspicion of having an illegal sexual relationship with a 16-year-old Woodbury boy, he was granted a renewal of his social worker's license. The renewal was approved by the Minnesota Board of Social Work despite knowledge that the 58-year-old St. Paul man had convictions for attempted sodomy with a child in 1971 and for fraud, for bilking an elderly man in Hennepin County in 1996. But it's okay, really, he's had a criminal background check .... he's licensed ......
The Responsibility Gap
The Washington Post excoriates Democrats for their irresponsibility regarding the rebuilding of Iraq and their intransigence in supporting proper funding: But political pressure doesn't excuse irresponsibility, and what's emerging in the Democratic Party is a gaping responsibility gap...On the wrong side is the rest of the Democratic field. Sens. John F. Kerry (Mass.) and John Edwards (N.C.) say they won't vote for the funding because Mr. Bush hasn't come up with enough of a long-term plan or done enough to get allies on board. This righteous position may make them, or their voters, feel better, but the security of U.S. troops and the long-term interests of both Iraq and the United States still depend on improving Iraqi daily life. The candidates do not seem to realize that the rebuilding of Iraq is crucial to the overall effort to eliminate terrorism, and that trying to do it on the cheap will...
Yahoo! News - U.N. Unanimously Adopts Iraq Resolution
In case anyone is confused, this is what a stunning diplomatic victory looks like. Notice that this was a unanimous vote recognizing the legitimacy of the Coalition in Iraq, with no requirement to stick to a specific timetable for withdrawal, only for the Iraqi Governing Council to have a plan ready by December 15: The United States and Britain never wavered in their assessment that sovereignty can't be relinquished until Iraq drafts a new constitution and holds elections. They agreed, however, to include new provisions urging the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority "to return governing responsibilities and authorities to the people of Iraq as soon as practicable" and calling on the Iraqi Governing Council to provide the Security Council with a timetable for drafting a new constitution and holding elections by Dec. 15. In the end, there were no nays and no abstentions, not even from Syria, who must have figured...
Kofi Annan Blathers On
The UN Secretary General tells the West to address the grievances of Muslims: "We must unite our efforts to address the extremism that is, alas, on the rise, not only in Islam but among many faiths," said Annan, who withdrew from the summit after the Iraq (news - web sites) issue was taken back to the UN Security Council. He said Western governments must match their rhetoric of respect for human freedom with action to promote development, including a fair world trading system. Okay ... we should therefore try a dialogue with this Muslim leader: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday told a summit of Islamic leaders that "Jews rule the world by proxy" and the world's 1.3 billion Muslims should unite, using nonviolent means for a "final victory." ... The prime minister, who has turned his country into the world's 17th-ranked trading nation during his 22 years in...
$5000 and France's Sympathy
The Dissident Frogman, an excellent bilingual blog, has an outstanding post about what's happening in Iraq, and how little of this gets out via the traditional, "independent" media: At the risk of repeating myself, I heard almost daily on France-Info's broadcast: "Yet another US casualty in Iraq." The Coalition is wiping out Saddam's SS and the Al-Qaeda skuzzballs by the hundreds. I never heard : "Yet another hundred of SS and terrorist skuzzballs eliminated in Iraq." The Coalition has completed 13,000 reconstruction projects, including 1,500 schools as of October the first -- and I'll assume this number includes the 330 that were rebuilt by the 101st Airborne with Saddam's money -- and "the teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former salaries." I never heard: "Yet another school rebuilt and reopened in Iraq." There are 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics open, a pharmaceutical distribution that has gone...
Leaks, and the leaking leakers who leak them ...
Man, I had a tough time trying to decide whether this White House leak qualified as Current Affairs or Humor: Concerned about the appearance of disarray and feuding within his administration as well as growing resistance to his policies in Iraq, President Bush - living up to his recent declaration that he is in charge - told his top officials to "stop the leaks" to the media, or else. News of Bush's order leaked almost immediately. I feel bad for Bush, I really do. I can just imagine the scene in the Oval Office this evening: Bush has his staff gathered around him in the Oval Office, chewing them out for allowing this last leak to occur, and soon as he turns his back to face one person, all the others grab notepads and scribble furiously until he turns around again. Every modern President has had to deal with leaks,...
Pizza Hut offers lower-fat menu items
"Honey, why don't we eat out tonight?" "Sure, but you know I'm on a diet... I know -- how about Pizza Hut?" "That's a great idea, honey! That's why I love Pizza Hut, because I'm so concerned with my health!"...
Finally, the truth comes out ...
... it was all Steve's fault. Bad blogger! Bad, bad blogger!...
Isn't this the ultimate goal of the nanny state?
It looks like the jig is up for an ex-patriate German just trying to make ends meet on a German disability pension in Florida: Maybe it is the image of a German pensioner, deeply tanned and dipping his toes in the surf on Miami Beach, while retired people here trudge windswept streets in dismal German burgs. Or maybe it is the notion of a housekeeper, paid for by the German government, to keep the fellow's apartment tidy. Whatever the reason, the curious case of Rolf John, a 64-year-old former banker who is living a sun-dappled retirement in Florida on $2,200 a month in German welfare checks, has driven people here batty. Germany currently pays over $6 million a year in pensions and benefits to just over a thousand German citizens living abroad in 88 countries. Rolf John's monthly benefits include: * $1,023 for rent * $854 as a "living allowance"...
Breaker, breaker ... any takers?
USC's Online Journalism Review has an interview with NY Times technology reporter John Markoff, written by Adam Clayton Powell. Markoff has been covering technology since the year after two guys named Steve came up with a computer named Apple, and he gives an interesting but somewhat bleak picture of the future: I certainly can see that scenario, where all these new technologies may only be good enough to destroy all the old standards but not create something better to replace them with. I think that's certainly one scenario. The other possibility right now -- it sometimes seems we have a world full of bloggers and that blogging is the future of journalism, or at least that's what the bloggers argue, and to my mind, it's not clear yet whether blogging is anything more than CB radio. And, you know, give it five or 10 years and see if any institutions...
Major blogs off-line tonight
It looks like HostingMatters has crashed for some unknown reason, and some major blogs seem to be down with them. Instapundit is definitely one who is affected -- you can hit the backup site here, but so far the only post is from Glenn confirming that the servers are down. Power Line isn't responding, and neither is Little Green Footballs or Dissident Frogman. I hope the problem gets corrected soon, so I can continue to avoid commercials between innings. (Score so far: Red Sox 4, Overhyped-Babe-Curse Bronxies 2.) If nothing else, take a look at James Lileks today, who's in fine curmudgeonly style. He's ranting about Kill Bill and rooting for Agent Smith. Ortiz just went yard on David Wells' first pitch, so it's Red Sox 5, Crushing Monotony in Pinstripes 2....
This game's a classic .... so I'm going to bed
The Corporate Juggernauts tied the score up, we're going to extra innings, and Instapundit is still off line ... I'm watching the rest of the game in bed. G'night, y'all....
October 17, 2003
All Curses Will Remain Valid until Further Notice
So much for living in the Age of Freakin' Reason ... both "cursed" teams manage to promote their long-term images by choking in game 7 of their respective series. The Red Sox actually deserve a lot of credit; they went back on the road down 3-2, and won the first game and came close to winning the second. The Cubs, on the other hand, were up 3 games to 1 with home-field advantage, and managed to lose three games in a row, including two in Wrigley Field. [sigh] So instead of a World Series with the promise of real historical significance, which would have been true if either the Red Sox or Cubs had made it alone, we get the Marlins who won less than a decade ago, and New York for the fifth time in six years. Fabulous, simply fab-oo. I'll make sure I set the TiVo, with a...
We're Sorry You Can't Comprehend Our Genius
The Malaysian government, after being scolded for the remaks of its Prime Minister at the OIC the day before, tries a little bit of damage control: "I'm sorry that they have misunderstood the whole thing," Syed Hamid, the foreign minister, told The Associated Press. "The intention is not to create controversy. His intention is to show that if you ponder and sit down to think, you can be very powerful." If that was his intention, then I suppose he failed miserably, considering this: Mahathir said the world's "1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews," but suggested the use of political and economic tactics, not violence, to achieve a "final victory." Final victory, final solution, Jews running the world ... they didn't ponder or sit down to think, they're just channeling the Nazis. "Please forget about anti-Semitism," Syed Hamid told reporters. No, we wish you Muslims would...
Denial-of-Service attack at Hosting Matters
Ever see what a denial-of-service attack looks like from the server side? Check out this graph of server traffic at Hosting Matters last night. (via Instapundit)...
Blogosphere Goes Once Around the Diamond
A bit of of reaction this morning to a curseless World Series ... Over at OxBlog, David waxes biblical, invoking Lamentations (how appropriate!), while Josh simply asks why anyone will care ... Jacob Levy over at the Volokh Conspiracy decides that discretion is the better part of rage ... Strange Women Lying in Ponds expresses sympathy to Cubs fans, but doesn't seem 100% sincere ......
We could always rename it Wanker
Let's hear it for GM's marketing folks: their new name for the Buick Regal certainly has instant recognition, if nothing else: General Motor's plans to rechristen the Canadian-built Buick Regal passenger car as the Buick LaCrosse have hit a snag: In Québécois youth culture, the word is slang for masturbation, among other things...Stew Low, a GM Canada spokesman, said in Quebec youth culture the word is a slang term "that means a couple of things, either to masturbate or 'I just got screwed,' or 'I just got taken.' " I can't think of anything that would help sell cars better than to pick a name which either reflects that the owner has no (binary) social life, or is a complete tool just waiting to be taken. Here's a few more names GM may consider in coming months: * Chevy Schlemiel * Cadillac Bunko * Pontiac Pudwhacker (Pee Wee Herman Select...
The LA Times Unleashes Another Firestorm
As if it hadn't been burned enough with the 'get-Arnold' campaign John Carroll waged the past few weeks, the LA Times has demonstrated atrocious journalistic standards in its editorial section yesterday. The story concerns General Jerry Boykin, the man in charge of finding al-Qaeda leaders and Saddam Hussein, and the man Rumsfeld just nominated as deputy undersecretary of Defense for intelligence. General Boykin is a fervent Christian who feels God is calling the US to fight against Satan, and who regularly shares this opinion with others, when asked to do so. For instance, according to William Arkin, the Times' military affairs analyst, Boykin has been quoted as follows: In June of 2002, Jerry Boykin stepped to the pulpit at the First Baptist Church of Broken Arrow, Okla., and described a set of photographs he had taken of Mogadishu, Somalia, from an Army helicopter in 1993. The photographs were taken shortly...
Thank you, Alicia!!!
It's not often that you run across people who do thoughtful things just because they're truly nice people. I'm lucky to have "met" Alicia through our efforts at blogging on Typepad. Alicia runs the excellent and intriguing Twilight Café, where I encourage you all to visit any chance you get. She's been kind enough to surprise me with a new banner, which is now posted proudly at the top of my blog here. Isn't that great? Thank you, Alicia -- I feel like a real blog now!...
You can add me to the list
Instapundit directed me to a Balloon Juice post about the Senate conversion of $10 billion in Iraqi reconstruction into a loan. A loan. Iraq currently struggles under almost $200 billion in debt, most of it to France and Germany for Saddam's military hardware. Prior to this, the Bush administration had been working towards agreements to retire some or all of this debt, efforts which may or may not have ever been successful. They would have allowed the Iraqi people to avoid shouldering the cost of their own prison and bleeding themselves dry to pay back Saddam's enablers and co-conspirators. The 51 senators who committed this embarrassment have made this nightmare a certainty now. Not only that, but now they will have to pay for their own liberation, after 12 years of being starved almost into genocide by the Western nations, ahead of investing in their own indepedence, their own security,...
Who voted for this idiotic amendment?
Votes > Roll Call Vote" href="http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=108&session=1&vote=00389">Find out who voted for oppressing the Iraqis and undermining our efforts to get their debts forgiven....
Hugh Hewitt links to the Captain's Quarters
I'd like to give a salute to any visitors being referred from Hugh Hewitt's excellent story on the General Boykin/LA Times scandal. Welcome aboard!...
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes ...
Over the weekend, I'll be testing some design changes, some of which you may have already seen -- I've switched fonts from Palatino to Arial in my posts for better readability, and to Geneva on the sidebar items to be able to read them at all. This makes the page longer, but I've cut the numbers of days displayed to three now. I will be switching between two- and three-column layouts and two different, very cool Alicia-designed logos, so be sure to let me know what you think!...
Oh, please
In the middle of this story about General Boykin apologizing for offending Muslims, a Saudi official makes the following statement: Asked about the general’s church comments, Adel al-Jubeir, the foreign affairs adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, told reporters Friday: “If true, outrageous. I thought they were insensitive. I thought they were unbecoming of a senior military official, and certainly unbecoming of a senior government official.” Of course, there has been no comment forthcoming, other than participating in a standing ovation, for these comments from a Prime Minister of an Islamic nation: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday told a summit of Islamic leaders that "Jews rule the world by proxy" and the world's 1.3 billion Muslims should unite, using nonviolent means for a "final victory." ... The prime minister, who has turned his country into the world's 17th-ranked trading nation during his 22 years in power, said Jews...
October 18, 2003
Man who accused officers of assault denies he's an informant
A journalistic kerfluffle of another sort has erupted in Minneapolis, as the man who has accused Minneapolis police officers of sodomizing him with a toilet plunger denies that he is a police informant: "I'm not an informant, never will be," Stephen C. Porter said, responding to a story in the Star Tribune that reported he'd worked for the police. He asked his friends to believe his word. "Stick with me, I need you," he said. He added that his friends no longer talk to him. Members of the community were outraged that the Star Tribune printed the story that Porter worked with police in the past, and questioned the motivation of both the newspaper and its sources: Spike Moss, vice president of The City Inc., lambasted the media for reporting that Porter was a confidential informant for Jindra. "Why would you participate in a setup to get him killed?" Moss...
Saudis may be feeling the crosshairs
Recent public statements seem to indicate that the Saudis may increasingly be specifically targeted in the war on terror, as the FBI starts talking about the Saudis more as suspects than allies: John Pistole, assistant director of the FBI's counterterrorism division, told a Senate hearing recently that the bureau has raised concerns with the Saudi government that paying legal bills and bond for Saudis being questioned in the terror probe could influence their testimony. ``To us, that is tantamount to buying off a witness, if you will. So that gives us concern if the government is supplying money for defense counsel,'' Pistole said. A year ago, this probably would have been buried ... the fact that the FBI has started talking about this tells me that the Saudis aren't cooperating as much as the government would like. If more stories such as this start popping up in the news, it...
Three Americans Jailed in Bizarre Mexican Land Dispute
This story underscores the difficulty in doing business with Mexico, a country that has never fully respected private property rights and whose law enforcement efforts have always been a bit questionable: Three U.S. citizens, including a man dying of cancer, have been jailed here and face up to 14 years in prison in a land dispute involving a member of President Vicente Fox's cabinet. ... Ames and his wife lived together on the land until Jean Ames died in 2000 at age 92. Then, in May of this year, Ames was served with an eviction notice by the university, giving him nine days to vacate the property and ordering him to pay nearly $40,000 in back rent -- $1,000 a month since the death of his wife. Ames said he was stunned and angry. In this case, a 92-year-old widower has been ordered off of his land by the Mexican...
A reply to Roger Simon
I read an excellent and, as advertised, depressing short essay by Roger Simon titled Could It Be More Depressing? I wrote this back in response. As a 40-year-old man who has studied 20th century history, I had always felt that the world in general had learned its lesson about anti-Semitism, and while general hatred of Jews may exist, it mainly existed in repressive Muslim societies. One of the benefits of liberating Iraq would therefore have been an opportunity for Arabs and Jews to work together in a mutually beneficial relationship, as a model for the region that could transform the Middle East. Unfortunately, while the radicalization of some moderate Muslims was to be expected, the Western response to anti-Semitic actions and speech has left me profoundly disappointed. Jacques Chirac blocks an EU resolution protesting Mahathir's remarks, while France convulses with more anti-Semitic violence than its seen since WWII. American media...
The Game
Normally, I'd describe the game between Notre Dame and the University of Spoiled Children as the Annual Battle of Good versus Evil, but with so much real evil in today's world, I'm just calling it The Game this year. Anyway, it's not looking good for the Irish so far. The Condoms just scored a touchdown, going 80 yards in 2:35, to take the lead 7-0. [sigh]...
The Three Faces of the Democrats (or Four)
David Brooks has an excellent editorial in today's New York Times regarding the reconstruction loan. He separates the Democrats into three groups, and suggests a fourth for a man who's in a class all to himself: First, there are the Nancy Pelosi Democrats. These Democrats voted against Paul Bremer's $87 billion plan for the reconstruction of Iraq. ... Their hatred for Bush is so dense, it's hard for them to see through it to the consequences of their vote. ... Saddam Hussein would be jubilant in Pelosi's Iraq. He has long argued that America is a decadent country that will buckle at the first sign of trouble. If the Pelosi Democrats had won yesterday's vote, the Saddam Doctrine would be enshrined in every terrorist cave and dictator's palace around the world: kill some Americans and watch the empire buckle. The second group would be the Evan Bayh Democrats, who would...
Forgive the Iraqi Debt
Some facts about the massive amount of debt facing the Iraqi people underscore the despicable nature of the Senate decision to convert reconstruction funds to further debt: Iraq's overall financial burden, according to the CSIS figures, is $383 billion. Based on these figures, Iraq's financial obligations are 14 times its estimated annual gross domestic product (GDP) of $27 billion--a staggering $16,000 per person. Measured by the debt-to-GDP ratio, Iraq's financial burden is over 25 times greater than Brazil's or Argentina's, making Iraq the developing world's most indebted nation. Bear in mind that all of this debt was accumulated under the auspices of Saddam Hussein, a great deal of it was accumulated during the sanctions, and a lot of it is owed to Arab nations. These governments, who have protested the war by loudly proclaiming brotherhood with the Iraqis, have been curiously silent on debt forgiveness for their brethren. (Also, as...
A New Neighbor
I've found a new neighbor, or rather she's found me! Brainstorming is a fairly new Typepad blog, with an easygoing nature but some smart commentary. Definitely drop by and check out what DC's brainstorming on now!...
Prophylactics Win The Game
[sigh] The University of Spoiled Children managed to just squeak by the Fighting Irish ... uh ... 45-14. The Trojans eased more than two decades of frustration by cruising to a 45-14 victory before a sellout crowd of 80,795. The victory was USC's first here since 1997 and the Trojans' second since 1981. USC's 45 points were the most the Trojans have scored at Notre Dame Stadium, and the second-most ever scored by any Fighting Irish opponent here. The Irish stayed with the Condoms through the first quarter, but after that it was all USC, otherwise known as The Best College Team Money Can Buy. (don't ya just love good sportsmanship?) [double sigh]...
Fence-Mending, Syrian Style?
The AP attempts to explain Syria's UN vote supporting the latest resolution on Iraq: The Syrian vote was "to ease the atmosphere with America and to be in harmony with the European position," said Syrian analyst Jad al-Karim Al-Jubai. He added the U.N. vote could win Syria support from Europe in the event of a confrontation with Israel and the United States. Syria, whose army is considered weak in the face of advanced Israeli weaponry, has not responded with force to the Israeli air raid on what Israel said was a Palestinian militant base. Syria complained to the U.N. Security Council, where any response is stalled because of the threat of an American veto. Al-Jubai said Syria did not seek a military confrontation with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites), and "went to the United States primarily to circumvent the possibility of military escalation" by Israel. Syria,...
Annan Won't Send U.N. Staff Back to Iraq
What a surprise -- Kofi Annan won't send more staff to Iraq: A day after the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted the U.S.-backed resolution, spokesman Fred Eckhard said Secretary-General Kofi Annan isn't prepared under current conditions to send back more than 500 international staffers who were ordered to leave after the bombings in August and September. "The security situation does not permit us to send any additional staff into Iraq," Eckhard said. What do you think of the UN's service to the Iraqis so far? After one bombing -- to which they were vulnerable because they hired former [heh] Baathists as security guards for their compound -- the UN mission packed up and went home. The terrorists chased Kofi Annan out of Iraq once before, and yet we still hear protests that we should let the UN run the reconstruction. And now they won't come back because of the "security...
October 19, 2003
... and Names Can Hurt Me Too
Forget the wisdom inherent in simple children's rhymes -- it appears that hurt feelings cause the same brain reaction as physical injury: Using magnetic resonance imaging, Eisenberger and associates in Australia studied brain activity in 13 volunteers as they played a video game designed to mimic social rejection. The game involved throwing a ball back and forth. Volunteers thought they were playing with two other people. After a period of nice three-way play, the game forced the volunteers to sit on the sidelines. The other two "players," both controlled by the computer, began to throw the ball between themselves. The social snub triggered nerve activity in a part of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex, which also processes physical pain. This discovery has implications for social science, psychology, and education. The physical distress from social rejection also may help explain violent outbursts among socially isolated individuals, Eisenberger said. Pain...
The Clouds May Be Clearing for Bush and GOP
Today's LA Times practices a bit of balanced editorializing regarding prospects for President Bush and the GOP: Like the Chicago Cubs, though, the Democrats may have peaked too soon. Bush's poll numbers have stabilized. Arnold Schwarzenegger's victory in the California gubernatorial recall election has sent a thrill through the Republican Party. In Iraq, the violence continues, but the lights are now on, kids are returning to school, Turkey has agreed to send troops to the most dangerous part of the country (Sunni Iraq) — and the Bush administration won unanimous support from the U.N. Security Council for its plan for Iraq. That's not to say that Bush & Co. can expect easy sailing, either, at home or abroad: The French, Germans and Russians still steam over the U.S.-led invasion. They remain worried that a new Iraqi government, with U.S. backing, may try to repudiate some of the debt Hussein contracted...
Demosophia: Totalitarianism 3.0
Demosophia has written a series of essays this weekend that put today's struggle against "terrorism" in a historical context, and comes to a conclusion that many of us already understand: We are not fighting a "War on Terrorism," as some now call it. That's a misnomer, because suicide terrorism is not a movement, but simply a method that has always been one of the favorites of totalitarianism either seeking power, or on the verge of losing it. What we are involved in now is but the most recent stage in a war against Liberalism's ancient enemy. And it is far from won. Demosophia doesn't stop there. He predicts that the new conflict between traditional Liberalism and Totalitarianism 3.0 will create new political divisions and obscure or eliminate the old. In this there is ample precedent, at least in British politics. Prior to World War I, the Labor movement was a...
Poll: Majority of Palestinians Back Suicide Bombing
Once again, I have to ask the question: is it a smart idea to bestow sovereignty onto the Palestinians? Seventy-five percent of Palestinians support the suicide bombing at an Israeli restaurant two weeks ago in which 21 people, including four children, were killed, a Palestinian survey showed Sunday. The survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, which questioned 1,318 respondents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (news - web sites), also showed that 85 percent of Palestinians support a "mutual cessation of violence by both sides." The poll found considerable anti-American feeling among Palestinians. Just over 95 percent of respondents said the United States was "not sincere" when it says it seeks to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Unfortunately, I think we are all too sincere about the two-state solution, which after all is mandated by UN resolutions which we supported, or at least allowed...
200 Posts, Alternate Design
This is the 200th post for The Captain's Quarters, and today I'll be trying a new design. If you've seen the prior design (with the other Alicia-designed logo), let me know which one you prefer. Just drop a comment onto this post and I'll be reviewing them as they come in....
Microchip 'could do away with pills'
Big news for those who have chronic medical conditions -- American scientists have developed a microchip that time-releases medication so pills become unnecessary: This type of drug delivery could be very useful for patients who have to take many different tablets at specific times each day for instance those with HIV. It could also help patients suffering from dementia who cannot remember when to take their drugs. My wife, who has had Type 1 diabetes for almost 40 years and is blind, has also had a kidney transplant which requires a number of pills every day. Because of her blindness, I separate all her pills into four doses every day (she also has hypertension, hypothyroidism, gastroparesis ... lots of complications). She's fully capable of taking care of herself otherwise, but even she can forget a dose once in a while, and the change in blood chemistry plays hell with her...
Vikings 28, Broncos 20
The Vikings proved they can beat good teams as well by hanging on to beat the Broncos, 28-20: Minnesota (6-0) entered as one of three remaining unbeaten teams in the NFL, but the Vikings' first five victories came at the expense of opponents with a combined record of 8-20. The Broncos (5-2) nearly rallied behind third-string quarterback Danny Kanell, who went 12-for-18 for 104 yards and a touchdown in place of the injured [Steve] Beuerlein. The Vikes jumped out to an early lead, and were up as much as 28-7 in the third quarter after a Beuerlein pass was picked off and returned for a touchdown. After that, the Vikes started to stall and the Broncos kept chipping away, scoring two field goals and a touchdown before the Vikings finally stopped them for good with less than a minute remaining. Despite the fourth-quarter stall, the Vikes have to feel good...
Uh ... You're Welcome, I Think
Jacques Chirac has locked up that all-important Psychotic World Leader endorsement: MALAYSIAN Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has thanked French President Jacques Chirac for blocking a European Union declaration condemning his comments last week that Jews "rule the world by proxy," news reports said today. Chirac, backed by Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, stopped the EU from ending a summit on Friday with a harshly worded statement deploring Mahathir's speech, which also included suggestions that Jews get "others to fight and die for them." Lest we forget, Chirac is the head of state of the European nation that leads the West in anti-semitic violence. Guess he knows on which side his bread is buttered. I guess we all do. The report quotes University of Paris Professor of French Literature, Eric Marty, who wrote in LeMonde, "There has been no voice of political authority ready to say simply that there is nothing...
Who pays Joseph Wilson?
Remember Joseph Wilson? He's the one who has been screaming that top Bush officials outed his wife as a CIA covert agent. But according to Joel Mowbray, Wilson may be more connected than is known to anti-war partisans -- specifically the Saudis: The Middle East Institute, officially on the Saudi payroll, receives $200,000 of its annual $1.5 million budget from the Saudi government, and an unknown amount from Saudi individuals — often a meaningless distinction since most of the ‘‘individuals'' with money to donate are members of the royal family, which constitutes the government. MEI's chairman is Wyche Fowler, who was ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1996 to 2001, and its president is Ned Walker, who has served as both deputy chief of mission in Riyadh and ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Also at MEI: David Mack, former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and deputy assistant secretary for NEA; Richard...
Don't I Know You from Somewhere, you SOB?
I suppose when this 22-year-old man first went to jail, he felt that his life was over. However, in one of those coincidences that make you want to believe in a Higher Power, or at least in karma, he was surprised to recognize his new cellmate: Authorities say he recognized cellmate Kevin Kinder as the man who abused him and three other boys when he was 11 years old. His lawyer said the man, who is now 22, jumped on Kinder and punched him repeatedly. The former victim's mother called the encounter a "fluke" but added that it was very "therapeutic" for her son. "Therapeutic". Yeah, that's what it was. "Poetic justice" comes to mind as well. People often say, "Just lock me in a room with the guy for five minutes," but here's a man who actually got to do it. Kinder's doing 60 years for violating his probation,...
October 20, 2003
Report: Army unit massacred 100s of Vietnamese civilians in 1967
The Pentagon's investigation into Army war crimes in Vietnam in 1967 has apparently stalled out before it was made public: An elite unit of U.S. soldiers mutilated and killed hundreds of unarmed villagers over seven months in 1967 during the Vietnam War, and an Army investigation was closed with no charges filed, the Toledo Blade reported Sunday. ... The Army's 4 1/2-year investigation, never before made public, was initiated by a soldier outraged at the killings. The investigation substantiated 20 war crimes by 18 soldiers and reached the Pentagon and White House before it was closed in 1975, the Blade said. The Pentagon had a difficult task in trying to piece together a case from actions that took place 36 years ago, but the level of atrocity of which the volunteer Tiger Force is accused was disturbing: Soldiers of Tiger Force, a unit of the Army's 101st Airborne Division, dropped...
Colorado teen found after Amber Alert
Another example of how well the Amber Alert system functions: A 16-year-old girl who was apparently abducted in Denver, Colorado, early Sunday was found alive and unhurt hours later, after police issued a statewide Amber Alert, police said. ... Police were still looking for a man in a white Honda who had apparently kidnapped Mitchell, she said. Investigators said the man was 25-30 years old, about 5-foot-4, with a pot belly. He was described as having short, thinning black hair, a thick mustache and thick eyebrows. When last seen, he was wearing a light black jacket, a white shirt with stripes and jeans. Police described the vehicle as a white, 4-door Honda with a gray interior and dark-tinted windows. It has a scorpion decal in the rear window. Let's hope they catch the man responsible before he tries this again....
Two Democrats Decide Discretion Is The Better Part of Retreat
Lieberman and Clark are bailing out of the Iowa caucus: Democratic presidential candidates Joe Lieberman and Wesley K. Clark have decided not to campaign in the initial caucus state of Iowa, gambling on winning the nomination with a later surge in the primary race. Lieberman and Clark have decided not to spend their money in a state they probably have no chance of winning. Their decisions allow them to shift money to New Hampshire and other states with later contests. This makes some sense for General Clark, who just started in the race (and just started being a Democrat) and may not have a strong enough organization yet to really work the caucus. Lieberman, on the other hand, has been running or threatening to run since Bush finished saying the oath of office. He doesn't want to go up against Dean in Iowa, but feels comfortable tilting at Dean in...
A Question of Accountability
Merde in France asks a good question, in his inimitable style, in the wake of French President Jacques Chirac representing Germany and France simultaneously at the European Summit: Where certain numb minded brainwashed individuals, stuffed full of dogma through their every orifice like cheap streetwalkers, see an elegant gesture, we see further proof that the EU is nothing more than a complete con job whose purpose is to smelt national sovereignties into a bland rotten broth of concentrated non-thought served up as a snack to feed a political void. Who answers to the German people now? Schroeder or Chiraq? Did it occur to Germans when the EU was launched that their head of state would casually assign representation of their sovereignty to a French politician? It would be equivalent to George Bush telling Canada to sit in for the US at the next Security Council meeting. This was no low-level...
Why Did Willie Brown Join Arnold?
Mickey Kaus answers one of my questions regarding the Schwarzenegger transition team: Brown had been widely expected to run for the Bay Area Senate seat now held by powerful Senate President pro Tem John Burton, who will be termed out next year....But Schwarzenegger is wildly unpopular in this district--teaming up with the Governor-elect would seem suicidal for Brown. It makes sense only if you assume Brown has abandoned plans to run for the seat. Why might he do that? Perhaps because he's seen private polls like the one kausfiles just saw--showing him with an unfavorability rating in the district of 40 percent, way above that of potential rivals. Brown's no dummy, and he's not about to pick a fight he's likely to lose, but I can't help thinking that once he got serious about the race that he would win it anyway, despite the early polling numbers. This is the...
Update on War Crimes Post
I've added an update to my earlier post on war crimes in Vietnam, in order to clarify the timeline. You may want to reread the entire post with the new information in mind. Why did this come out now? I assume that one of the veterans involved had either too much guilt or too much anger to keep quiet about it and talked to the Toledo Blade, who then checked it out and discovered the Army investigation in the 70s. Now that it's out, the question is what to do about it. I think staying silent is a poor choice. If we are to lead the world militarily, we must project complete professionalism and competence, and demonstrate that we will not tolerate war crimes on anyone's behalf....
Lieberman, Clark to Skip Iowa Caucasus
In a surprise move, Senator Joe Lieberman and General Wesley Clark have declared their refusal to campaign in Iowa in order to protest Iowa's annexation of Central Asia. Hint: The plural of "caucus" is "caucuses", in English anyway. The Caucasus is an area in Central Asia that include the Republic of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. Perhaps the AP may have heard of it before. Or, perhaps not! UPDATE: They changed the headline to read "Caucases", which now doesn't mean anything....
Are German Men Really This Pathetic?
German wives who dislike having husbands in tow while shopping can instead put their hubbies in day care: For women who want to be able to shop without grumbling partners in tow, the "Men's Garden" has the advantage that they know where their men are and can limit how much they'll spend. "I wanted to shop in peace," said Jeanette Brendel after dropping her husband off, paying the 10 euro fee, collecting a "receipt" for him, and kissing her middle-aged husband goodbye for the afternoon. What a concept! How lucky for German wives that they can avail themselves of this service, since German men apparently cannot muster up the brain power to keep themselves occupied while their wives shop. Don't you love the "receipt" thing, too? As if they couldn't tell which one of the oafs still left in the romper room was the one to which they're married? And...
Monday Clarkbot?
Okay, I know I'm a novice at the whole blog thing, but what the hell is a Clarkbot? a. It's a cybernetic Clark decoy sent out on the campaign trail as a security decoy. (Would anyone be able to tell the difference?) b. It's a wind-up toy from a merchandising system gone mad. c. It's a blog program, designed to search the Internet, never sleeping, never stopping, for blog references to Wesley Clark ... it cannot be reasoned with, it cannot be reprogrammed ... it is relentless ... Yes, I guess it's Option C. If you follow the link back, you'll see two of my earlier posts about Clark listed on his campaign blog. I hope they enjoy the posts, but something tells me they won't. Hell, the second one wasn't even about them, it was about AP's inability to spell caucuses correctly....
Fareed Zakaria Loses It
Fareed Zakaria wrote an impassioned but wrong-headed essay for MS-NBC calling for the Bush Administration to fire General Jerry Boykin over the story that the LA Times gave NBC late last week: President Bush’s commission on public diplomacy recently noted that in nine Muslim and Arab nations only 12 percent of respondents surveyed believed that “Americans respect Arab/Islamic values.” Such attitudes, the commission argued, create a toxic atmosphere of anti-Americanism that cripples U.S. foreign policy and helps terrorists. To address the problem the commission suggested a major reorganization of the American government, hundreds of millions of dollars of funding and the creation of a new cabinet position. I have a simpler, more urgent suggestion: fire William Boykin. Zakaria, a writer whose work I respect, starts this essay off with the ludicrous suggestion that the only reason that Muslims and Arabs have an overwhelmingly negative view of Americans is that we...
Well, there they go again ...
According to the Drudge Report, CBS will be airing a bio-pic about Ronald Reagan during next month's sweeps. Great! It should go well with the new book of Reagan's letters: In the upcoming CBS telefilm on President Ronald Reagan producer fail to mention the economic recovery or the creation of wealth during his administration, nor does it show him delivering the nation from the malaise of the Jimmy Carter years ... It stresses Reagan's moments of forgetfulness, his supposed opinions on AIDS and gays, his laissez-faire handling of his staff members. The scenes often carry a disapproving tone. During a scene in which his wife pleads with him to help people battling AIDS, Reagan says resolutely, "They that live in sin shall die in sin" and refuses to discuss the issue further. Or maybe not ... The film's producers, Zadan and Meron, acknowledge their liberal politics, as do the stars...
Power Line: Islamofascists Strike Again?
Note to Fareed Zakaria: stifling free speech isn't the American way. That tactic is employed by others. Interesting to note where the DoS attacks originated. Do you suppose this is in retaliation for General Boykin's churchgoing activities?...
Which quote was accurate?
Yet another reason not to trust the "traditional media" outlets. This was Howard Dean, according to the Washington Post, speaking to a group of Arab Americans on October 18th: "Because John Ashcroft touts the Patriot Act around the country does not mean John Ashcroft is a patriot," Dean said to rising cheers. "That American flag over there belongs to every American -- not only to John Ashcroft, Rush Limbaugh, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson." But according to Reuters, this is what Howard Dean said: "It does not belong to General Boykin, or John Ashcroft, or Rush Limbaugh or Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson," the former Vermont governor said to cheers in the packed hotel conference room in the Detroit suburb which is home to one of the highest concentrations of Muslims and Arabs outside the Middle East. Bear in mind that the addition of Boykin is no small matter. When...
Never forget ... what?
A very intriguing Michael Ramirez cartoon about our short attention spans....
October 21, 2003
I'm Sorry You Can't Comprehend My Genius
Malaysian PM Mahathir attempts to explain what he really meant in the Bangkok Post: "In my speech I condemned all violence, even the suicide bombings, and I told all Muslims it's about time we stopped all these things and paused to think and do something that is much more productive," Mahathir told the Bangkok Post. "That was the whole tone of my speech, but they picked up one sentence where I said the Jews control the world." But just in case no one misses the point, Mahathir helpfully added: "The reaction of the world shows that they [Jews] do control the world," he told the Post. Mahathir is often described by Western leaders as a "moderate" in the Muslim world. Isn't that just peachy?...
Brian Mulroney: Replace the UN
Brian Mulroney, Canada's Prime Minister from 1984 to 1993, writes in support of US action in Iraq and the need to reform the UN: Although the reality of pre-emptive action is new, so was the terrorist strike on America. What is also new is the suggestion that Security Council approval is--and has been--a sacrosanct precondition to action against a hostile state. The historical record is to the contrary. In any event, I would never have agreed to subcontract Canada's international security decisions and our national interest to 15 members of the Security Council. This would be a surrender of national sovereignty to which I'd never consent. Mulroney strikes at the heart of the anti-war argument of requiring the UN to agree to action: it is tantamount to surrendering our sovereignty and foreign policy to Britain, France, China, and Russia. Agreement at the UN Security Council would have been wonderful, but...
St. Paul's Outreach Program Gets Results ....
... only maybe not the ones they're hoping for: Patrons at Lucy's Saloon watched in amazement around 1 a.m. Sunday when the man they say started a bar-clearing brawl began barking orders at police officers who arrived to quell it — and the officers responded. The man turned out to be St. Paul police Sgt. Jon Loretz, the son of Police Chief William Finney. On Monday, the department referred an investigation into the fight to the state's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to avoid a conflict of interest, Finney said. For Sgt. Jon Loretz, "outreach" involves "scream[ing] slurs against homosexuals" and getting into a number of "scuffles", such as these: "This guy, this big guy — he was actually swinging on women," Hill said Monday. He was choking one woman when bar security stopped him, she said. Then he began to verbally attack Noble, who was trying to kick Loretz out...
Defending the Blogosphere Front in the War on Terrorism
Here's a good idea from Irreconcilable Musings, in view of the denial-of-service attacks on the Blogosphere in recent days: Over the weekend, a number of blogs were impacted by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on a website called Internet Haganah, which monitors, uncovers, and works to shut down Islamic terrorists' online presences. They must be doing something right to draw the attention of these cyber-fascists. ... It is painfully clear that the Islamofascists will not stop in their quest to silence Internet Haganah, and that cannot happen - what they do is too valuable. The 9-11 terror attacks were plotted, in part, on the very sites that Internet Haganah tracks. Attacking the terrorists' online presence is as valuable a service as destroying their bases and freezing their accounts - it cripples their infrastructure so they cannot mount attacks on us. So I dug deep into my pockets and...
InstaBackup
Glenn Reynolds is defying the DoS attackers by continuing to blog at his backup site. I've added the link to the blogroll as well....
Blogosphere to Islamofascists: Drop Dead
The Blogosphere's most prominent citizens are back on line after another DoS attack from Islamofascists. The outage affected not just Power Line, but Hosting Matters and all of the web sites hosted by that company, a group that includes Insta Pundit, Little Green Footballs and many others. ... If Americans' news sources were limited to the network news and major daily newspapers, the Islamofascists would have a much better chance of winning the war. No doubt their first choice would be to blow up Fox News and various talk radio stations, but that is much more difficult than launching remote attacks on web sites from locations like Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. Hence their attacks on the blogosphere. Power Line makes a good point about the value of the blogosphere, and why the Islamofascists target sites like Hosting Matters. I'd expand on Power Line and say that, based on the reporting...
Joining the Axis of Naughty
I've decided to pledge my Web loyalty (bloyalty?) to Instapundit and join the Axis of Naughty. There's no sense in spending this much time and effort on something if I can't be part of something divisive, after all. As Gaeilge, I'll add: Sin Instapundit an blog is fearr sa domhain, gan dabht! In the meantime, now that I've picked sides, I've also entered the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem, and I've entered into a contest for new bloggers on the site. I had to pick a post to feature during the contest, so I picked my post on Fareed Zakaria's column on Boykin, but I probably should have picked the one on German husband day care. [sigh] Anyway, if you think about it, do me a favor and link to the Zakaria post on your own blog, even if it's to say what a dink I am for having that opinion....
Alicia pitches in -- again
Alicia pitches in again with a post about my shameless begging for trackbacks in the Truth Laid Bear contest. If you haven't visited the Twilight Café yet, go now. She designed my terrific logo (and another one, too, that I'm going to fit in here somewhere). Check out this post, too, at the Twilight Café. Who was your choice?...
Politically Incorrect Lobsters
Brainstorming has solid evidence that eating lobsters is more humane that you might think. Save them from the long-term suffering that awaits them! Contact the Attorney General! Better yet, contact Michael Cerisi ......
October 22, 2003
Just when you thought it was safe ...
Showing the wit and intelligence long associated with the white-supremacist movement, Richard Butler, the Aryan Nations founder, is running for mayor in Hayden , Idaho, where the organization used to have a large facility until they lost a $6 million lawsuit: "I'm not really anxious to become mayor," Butler, 85, said recently. ... Butler said his campaign is intended to restore Christian ideals, especially the Ten Commandments, to public life. But in truth, Butler admitted, Hayden is "running pretty well." Okay, Dick ... can I call you Dick? ... You don't want to become mayor, and Hayden's running all right without you at the helm, but you're running for mayor anyway. Do I have that right? Hmmm ... kind of plays hell with that whole "superior race" thing, doesn't it? White supremacists have not had good luck running for office in northern Idaho. Several years ago, Butler supporter Vincent Bertollini...
Evolution at the Captain's Quarters
If you scroll down through my Miscellaneous Links, you'll notice that I've evolved from an Insignificant Microbe to a Slimy Mollusc in the Ecosystem. Always the optimist, I hope to be some variety of vertebrate by the weekend. (It would, of course, be a first for me.)...
Senate Dems Fight GOP Efforts at Tort Reform
Senate Democrats are threatening yet another filibuster, this time to protect their trial lawyer constituency: Moving the cases to federal court would curb frivolous lawsuits and keep trial lawyers from getting millions of dollars in fees while their clients get little compensation, GOP senators say. Federal courts are assumed to be less likely to issue multimillion-dollar verdicts against big corporations. [In] both the House and Senate versions of the bill, class-action lawsuits in which the primary defendant and more than one-third of the plaintiffs are from the same state would still be heard in state courts. But if less than one-third of the plaintiffs are from the same state as the primary defendant, the case would go to federal court. Under the Constitution, anything affecting interstate commerce falls under the scope of the federal system, and most class-action suits have interstate impact, even if they're filed on a state-by-state basis....
Alan Dershowitz Speaks Out Against Self-Representation
Alan Dershowitz, noted appellant lawyer, Constitutional scholar, author, and a member of the OJ dream team, proposes that self-representation be banned in capital crime trials: Should a defendant facing the death penalty have the right to defend himself, even if his defense will be unprofessional and could result, potentially, in his own execution? That may be the question the U.S. Supreme Court eventually faces in the case of Virginia vs. John Allen Muhammad, the alleged mastermind of the D.C. sniper murders. Dershowitz discusses the cases of Colin Ferguson (the Subway Shooter) and Doctor Jack Kevorkian, who won in court three times while represented by counsel but lost when he chose to represent himself. There are success stories as well that Dershowitz only touches briefly on: Angela Davis and Clarence Darrow, but of course Darrow was a brilliant attorney. The only real strategic advantage of defending one's self is this: In...
Update: Sniper Defendant No Longer Acting as Attorney
According to the Star Tribune and the AP, John Allen Mohammed has ceased acting as his own attorney and rehired his "advisory" attorneys as his new counsel: Prosecutors complained about Muhammad's self-representation Tuesday and asked the judge to rescind it. They said Muhammad was receiving too much help from Shapiro and Greenspun, whose role as standby counsel was supposed to be limited. Fortunately for Mohammed, he had not had the opportunity to do too much damage to his case, and even at that point his rehired attorneys were able to reverse some of it: After today's announcement, Greenspun launched a series of objections during the testimony of Chris Okupski of Trenton, N.J., who sold Muhammad the Chevrolet Caprice prosecutors believe was the vehicle used in the sniper attacks. Greenspun won many of his objections, something that happened only rarely while Muhammad represented himself....
Power Line on Terri Schiavo
I believe Gelernter has it backwards. I believe that we became numb to the value of human life and so then supported widespread abortion, as well as capital punishment, assisted suicide, euthanasia, etc. That there are arguments, good arguments, to made on behalf of all of these to some extent is not in dispute. There are good arguments to be made for a lot of bad policy decisions based on honest and heartfelt beliefs and experience. It doesn't make the outcome any less wrong. The saying "Life is cheap" is so common and trite that is has become essentially meaningless, but was it always thus? I don't believe so, although capital punishment has certainly been around long enough. I think that in the post-Holocaust, post-nuclear world, we began to accept a fundamentally nihilistic and existential view of life. Nothing mattered when you could have 6 million people die in camps without even hearing about it until years later. Life meant nothing under the threat of nuclear annihilation. Once you accept these as everyday truths, then the litany of life-destroying policies makes sense and sounds perfectly reasonable.
The Shining Wire
"Do I wake or do I sleep?" With those words, David Gelernter expresses his fundamental disconnect with a society that seems to obsess with nightmares, especially the kind from which it feels impossible to wake. He recalls the Roe v. Wade decision to legalize abortion and deduces that the various ways that followed in which we dispose of life in an ever-easier fashion all spring from this historical point. While I agree with a lot of what Gelernter wrote -- and I have tremendous respect for his opinions -- I disagree with this conclusion. As I wrote in my last post, all of these are symptoms of the existentialism and nihilism that has plagued the world since at least the aftermath of World War II, and perhaps World War I. I felt that my post was incomplete, however, in that I didn't explain the link fully how they are linked...
October 23, 2003
British Patrols Walking Tall in Basra
Here's an update on our staunch British colleagues, winning hearts and minds in southern Iraq: Battersby's men here in the nation's second-largest city wear soft berets and patrol neighborhoods at a leisurely pace, enjoying a level of contact and trust with residents that still eludes many U.S. units in and around Baghdad. ... But unlike the areas west and north of Baghdad — heavily populated by minority Sunni Muslims, who dominated Iraq under Hussein — there is little public sympathy for the resistance here. Many of the city's residents are Shiite Muslims, who suffered under the former regime and say they are grateful that U.S. and British troops chased Hussein from power. "We don't say 'leave,' we say 'thank you,' " said Wael Abdulatif, governor of Basra province. Basra has always been a center of anti-Saddam sentiment, and of course Basra is also where an insurrection was attempted after the...
Senate: White House didn't pressure CIA on Iraq findings
I assume the apologies will be forthcoming: A Senate investigation has found no evidence that the Bush administration pressured CIA analysts to tailor their intelligence to suit the White House's views on the threat posed by Iraq. ... However, no current intelligence analysts came forward to the committee to back up that charge. And the White House says the intelligence it received on Iraq was unbiased and accurate. "None (of the analysts) have indicated any intimidation," said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. As QandO observes, we still need to find out why our intelligence data was off, and how we can improve it in the future. Maybe now that the finger-pointing and screeching can come to a close, we can move forward in that area....
People For the American Way Fights Free Speech?
People for the American Way, a leftist group that is "fighting to maintain and expand 50 years of legal and social justice progress that right-wing leaders are trying to dismantle," weighs in against free speech in their campaign against Janice Rogers Brown, the latest Bush judiciary nominee. While there are reasonable limits to free speech in a workplace, it's up to the employer to set them, not the state, and I think Eugene Volokh is dead on with his excellent post today. Read through Justice Brown's opinion in the case PFAW cites and see what, if anything, you find "very disturbing". Remember this when you hear about PFAW and its allies screeching about the stifling of free speech in John Ashcroft's America....
Have They Finally Gone Too Far?
Make sure you read this post from Power Line as soon as possible. Ask yourself if the cartoon used by the Black Commentator, the NAACP, and PFAW were used by conservatives to protest a Clinton judicial nominee (or hell, in any context) what the scope of outrage would be amongst the Left. Every physical stereotype of African-Americans are included in this depiction of Justice Janice Rogers Brown. It's crude, it's disgusting, and it should be unacceptable for anyone interested in fair-minded debate. I'm not saying it should be outlawed -- they have a right to create this -- but it should generate outrage from the same people who are using it to further their purported political goals of equality and fair treatment. I don't know what Justice Brown's credentials are for the position -- I haven't read enough yet to have a grasp -- but I do know that if...
What Would Winston Churchill Do?
Strange Women Lying in Ponds returns from vacation with an insightful post about Churchill as the hinge of history in the 20th century: It is perhaps easy to view Churchill's staunch leadership through WWII as an inevitability; as a case of the right man being in the right place at the right time, etc. This is Churchill the Noble, the Invincible, given moral authority by his role as leader of an island nation that was Europe's last bulwark against the successful establishment of a Nazi empire throughout the Continent. Here he is a symbol of courage under fire, of a morally ascendant Great Britain defying an evil and militarily superior invader. The irony is that, had history turned out as Churchill would have liked, this image of him never would have come to pass. SWLIP reminds us that in order to avoiding repeating history, we have to know and understand...
Where's the beef?
Check out the third item on this list of recent recalls: An Indiana company has recalled 33,000 pounds of frozen corn dogs because they contain undeclared ingredients that could cause allergic reactions in some consumers, the Agriculture Department said. The corn dogs from Olympic Food Products contained eggs, beef and whey that weren't on the label. I can understand the concern here -- I certainly wouldn't expect beef in a corn dog! My goodness, what is the world coming to, when you can find actual beef in a frozen corn dog! This ... is all Bush's fault, of course....
Iraqi official says limited German, French help won't be forgotten - Oct. 23, 2003
A free Iraq fires a warning shot acrossFrench and German bows: Ayad Allawi, the current head of Iraq's U.S.-appointed governing council, said he hoped German and French officials would reconsider their decision not to boost their contributions beyond funds already pledged through the European Union. "As far as Germany and France are concerned, really, this was a regrettable position they had," Allawi said. "I don't think the Iraqis are going to forget easily that in the hour of need, those countries wanted to neglect Iraq." Oddly enough, it turns out to be the same countries that wanted to continue to leave Iraqis oppressed and tortured in Saddam's grip, and the same countries who funneled billions of dollars in cash and equipment to sustain their prison. Who'd a-thunk it? (via QandO)...
Syria -- Ruthlessly Secular?
That this article can run in the New York Times without a hint of irony is simply unbelievable: Two decades after Syria ruthlessly uprooted militant Islam, killing an estimated 10,000 people, this most secular of Arab states is experiencing a dramatic religious resurgence. ... The widespread sense that the faith is being singled out for attack by Washington has invigorated that appeal, at a time when the violence fomented by radicals had tarnished political Islam. In Syria, some experts attribute the sudden openness of the phenomenon to a far more local fear. The hasty collapse of the Baath government next door in Iraq stunned Syria's rulers, particularly the fact that most Iraqis reacted to the American onslaught as if they were bored spectators. Maybe Neil MacFarquhar has been living under a rock for the past 20 years, but Syria hasn't been "ruthlessly secular" -- Syria has been a major sponsor...
October 24, 2003
Strib and Pioneer Press burying bad news about Dayton?
Minneapolis's local NBC led its morning news with this story, but the Star Tribune, which strongly endorsed Senator Mark Dayton last election, buries this story deep within its web site: An office manager for Sen. Mark Dayton who says he was fired after developing a heart condition was found sleeping on the job and terminated for "exceptionally" poor job performance, according to new court filings. That account, provided by attorneys for Dayton's office, represents the Minnesota Democrat's most aggressive attempt yet to head off a lawsuit brought by Brad Hanson, his former state office manager. Hanson, giving his first extensive account of the case Thursday, called Dayton's assertions "blatantly false" and an attempt to smear him in the press. It would be an attempt to smear him in the press, if the press was interested in reporting bad news about Dayton. The story, which is fair and balanced, cannot be...
Media Bias Explained (in a Fair and Balanced Manner)
OxBlog's David Adesnik posts one of the clearest definitions of media bias: The implicit premise of Matt's statement is that any factually correct statement has a legitimate place in the news. Yet surely a professional journalist such as Matt knows that editorializing is not just a matter of expressing subjective opinions, but emphasizing certain facts at the expense of others. Check out the example that David uses, and how he rewrites it in a completely factual manner but changes the entire tenor of the piece. This should be required reading for any of us who express frustration at media bias and get challenged to define it....
New Feature: Now Hear This
I've added content to the third column again -- I just couldn't leave it alone, could I? -- in order to list the posts I think best represent Captain's Quarters. The latest post is listed first, and goes all the way back [all the way back being 3 weeks!] to my first post, which explains the slogan that Alicia included in my logo. Now, if I could just figure out how to configure links in Typepad to open a new page ......
A Tale of Two, er, Three Headlines
'Tis a far, far, more biased headline the LA Times writes, than has been written before (otherwise known as It Was The Worst of Times, and the Even More Worst of Times): LA Times, 10/24/03: Immigrant Wal-Mart Janitors Arrested Reuters, 10/23/03: Feds Arrests 300 Wal-Mart Workers AP, 10/24/03: Sources: Wal-Mart Knew of Illegal Workers Aha! It took the AP to put the word "illegal" into the headline. The Times just uses the word "immigrant" as if there is no difference between legal and illegal immigration, like the government was rounding up janitors for no reason, and Reuters doesn't bother to note immigration as an issue at all in its headline. Federal agents investigating Wal-Mart seized documents from an executive's office Thursday and raided 61 stores across the country, arresting about 250 illegal immigrants working on cleaning crews, authorities said. The investigation grew out of two earlier probes into the use...
Do student loans do more damage than good?
Michael Kantor over at The Calico Cat posts an intriguing and provocative question regarding the value of students loans to our society and their effect on tuition: The article mentioned how the cost of college education has been increasing faster than the rate of inflation, but the issue of why was never addressed. I believe student loans are part of the reason. By making more money available to students, this just gives the colleges the leeway to raise tuition even more. I know it's very anti-mainstream to question the value of a college education, but I'm going to go ahead and question it anyway. My experience is that the majority of college students are just in it for the piece of paper they get at the end which they think will be a ticket to a "good job." Yet we have so many college students graduating with no job awaiting...
S.F. mayor tries to foil "coup" attempt
You can file this under No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: An outraged Mayor Willie Brown decided to cut short a trip to Asia on Thursday to contend with a coup by a city supervisor who made two key appointments in the 14 hours he acted as mayor. ... As Mayor-for-the-day Wednesday, Supervisor Chris Daly secretly appointed and swore in two environmentalists to the city’s Public Utilities Commission, then announced the appointments on official letterhead he had drawn up for the occasion. Brown is outraged by this, of course, as he should be. The transferring of mayor powers has always been a symbolic act, a gesture to reward friends and soothe ruffled feathers of opponents. Mayor Brown was said to be particularly livid because the mayor-for-the-day honors had been intended as an olive branch to Daly, with whom Brown has never gotten along. “Mr. Daly showed he is still the spoiled...
Still Evolving ...
Moving on up ... moving on up ... to that upright primate ... on la-and (oh yeah) ... I've progressed from Insignificant Microbe, to Slimy Mollusc, to Flippery Fish, and now I'm a Crawly Amphibian! [sniff] My parents will be so proud of me! Please note that if you want to see me evolve into something remotely mammalian, you'll need to keep linking to my posts and visit the Captain's Quarters regularly! If I wind up being plankton, it'll be on your heads ... eww....
October 25, 2003
Lieberman would tap McCain for administration
He later claimed he was joking, and John McCain laughed it off, but this only makes Lieberman look more attractive than any of the other defeatist Democrats: Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Lieberman said Friday that if elected president, he would tap Republican Sen. John McCain as defense secretary. Doing little to dispel the criticism that he's a closet Republican, Lieberman told Don Imus' syndicated radio program that he would want the Arizona senator, a colleague and a friend, for the Pentagon post. Such a move would attract centrist voters who want to remain strong on defense but feel that the Bush Administration have gone off the rails on other issues. In fact, despite what the White House leaks about being "scared" of Gephardt, Lieberman is the only Democrat who could seriously challenge Bush for the centrists in 2004, and the center will be critical. What this announcement will repel are...
Critical security report means U.N. must change its ways, Annan says
Instead of blaming the US, a UN panel scolds the UN for security mistakes that led to the bombing of their facility in Iraq: The panel, chaired by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, issued a report Wednesday citing extensive security failures before the Aug. 19 truck bombing that killed 22 people, including top U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello, and injured more than 150 others. ... The panel criticized the United Nations for shunning protection from U.S.-led coalition forces and for ignoring "credible information on imminent bomb attacks." Kofi hasn't quite smelled the coffee yet: But Annan -- speaking to reporters after returning from a donors conference for Iraq in Madrid -- sidestepped a question on whether he deserved blame for the security failures cited by the U.N.-appointed panel, saying he needed more time to study the report. I wonder if the report itself mentioned that employing Saddam's former security...
Arguing over the Iraqi Victory Must Be Getting Old
The LA Times revists another US military victory to question tactics, strategy, and necessity: As U.S. troops wrestle with an intervention in Iraq, the success of the Grenada invasion 20 years ago might be seen as inspiring evidence of long-term payoffs for determined campaigns to put a troubled world in order. But even here, where military action was a comparative cakewalk once troops got past 800 Cuban construction workers, deep divisions persist over the value of that Cold War-era intervention. Are we really going to argue over Grenada again? Wasn't that over in about 15 minutes? Although most Grenadians agree they are better off as a result of the American action, they tend to see the storming of their tropical shores not as a rescue mission to evacuate students from the U.S. medical school, as the Pentagon claimed, but as an aggressive strike to thwart the spread of communism in...
Chickens Coming Home to Roost Again
The British government has warned travelers to expect a fresh set of terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia: Britain raised its warning Friday against travel to Saudi Arabia, saying terrorist attacks were imminent. "We advise British nationals against all but essential travel to Saudi Arabia. We believe that terrorists may be in the final phases of planning attacks," the Foreign Office warning said. The US isn't issuing any specific warnings: A U.S. counter-terrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said American authorities were unaware of any recent intelligence that would lead to new alerts in Saudi Arabia. Instead, U.S. officials have received a steady stream of information in recent months suggesting Al Qaeda operatives in the kingdom were close to mounting an attack....
Is This News?
The Post, inexplicably, links to this two-month-old story on its main web page: Abu Shanab was killed Thursday along with two bodyguards when an Israeli military aircraft fired three to six missiles at his car on a crowded street in central Gaza City. About 30 bystanders were injured in the attack, Palestinian hospital authorities said. I gathered this was not a breaking news story when I read this: Senior Israeli military officials warned that they would continue targeting Palestinian militant leaders if the government of Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas did not move aggressively to arrest them, confiscate their arms, destroy their weapons workshops and dismantle their organizations. Oddly, if you replace Abbas with Qurei in this story, you wouldn't be able to tell this story was written August 22. By the time you read this, the Post will likely have corrected its web site, but it was strange to see...
NPR Bias on Schiavo - Mickey Kaus
Like me, Mickey is unsure how he feels about the Schiavo case, but he's sure how NPR feels about it: "Bias" isn't quite the right word, actually. A biased report might interview all sides but slant the story to favor one point of view while quoting only unconvincing generalities from the other. That was Thursday's NPR Schiavo story. Wednesday's story transcended mere bias, covering the case as if the anti-death side didn't even exist, so there was no need to even try to find out what they were thinking. All Things Considered on Wednesday covered the Schiavo story by interviewing three "experts" who were all opposed to the parents and Giv. Bush's order to restart the tube feeding, speaking to no one with an opposing point of view. Afterwards, ATC spoke at length with a Dr. Sherwin Nuland, who makes the insulting insinuation that Terri Schiavo's parents oppose her starvation...
Spain Asserts Its New Leadership in Europe
Being on the right side of history pays off for Spain (via Merde in France): All the same, until the Iraq war, Spain's notion of a New Europe - defined in cooperation rather than rivalry with the United States and reflecting loyalties, interests and instincts different from those of decades of postwar European habit - was largely talk. But in blocking, with the British and others, what it regarded as an attempt to turn the war into a European confrontation with America under a French and German banner, Spain achieved a new visibility in its effort to be seen be as a singular - even global - player. Spain has used Old World charm to vault itself into a leadership position by aligning itself as a medium between the Anglosphere on one hand and the emerging EU nations from the east, already inclined to support Anglo-American goals of democracy and...
Power Line Is Humming
Power Line has an impressive series of posts this morning on a number of issues. First, Big Trunk posts about appearing on a panel at the National Lawyers Guild convention this week in Minneapolis, and how far left this organization goes: Entering the convention precincts was a little shocking; the ambience, the displays, and the literature really marked the convention as hostile territory. Many handouts touted the cause of the only Cuban prisoners championed by the Guild -- "the Cuba five." The five, of course, are not any of Castro's prisoners, but rather are five Cuban men held in federal prison on conviction of offenses including espionage against the United States. The cause of the Cuba five is part of the Guild's old-time religion. The Guild's PATRIOT Act panel demonstrated how the Guild has moved seamlessly from defending America's Communist enemies to defending America's Islamofascist enemies. The common denominator between...
Just don't forget the Lembas
I'm telling you, these maps on the Internet get more and more accurate all the time. Just be sure to plan for a stop in Rivendell for some shopping and good food. (via Amygdala)...
Kofi Unclear on the Subject
This article on the highly critical report on UN security failures in Iraq, which led to the bombings in August and September and UN's complete retreat, contains a very revealing quote from Kofi Annan: The panel criticized the United Nations for shunning protection from U.S.-led coalition forces — the only source of security in Iraq — and for ignoring "credible information on imminent bomb attacks in the area." It also accused the United Nations of violating its own security rules. Annan said the United Nations' security system worked well for the past 50 years. "But the world has changed, and we will have to change our way of doing business to be able to protect our staff around the world," he said. Hasn't that been President Bush's argument all along -- that the security arrangements that kept the peace for 50 years won't work now and must be adapted to...
Peace And Hate
The Dissident Frogman posts on the the depravity of putting guns and bombs into the hands of your own 5-year-old and training him to kill, or especially to commit suicide: In my book, anybody putting a gun in the hands of his 5 years old son or strapping an explosive belt around her 10 years old daughter is not fighting for freedom, resisting oppression, showing resolve or absolute despair. ... For any given parents and group to successfully and repeatedly overcome this instinctive behavior and voluntarily put their offspring at risk, it does not take resolve, pride or despair but a mental pathology, a religious or political fanaticism. This is true whether you're talking about Palestinian fanatics or white-supremacist mouthbreathers in Idaho. It's bad enough that fanatics strap bombs on themselves ... but to celebrate when your 12-year-old takes out a few civilians while blowing himself to pieces is just...
Bombing brought into focus the need for a fence
Oddly enough, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune printed this heartfelt and common-sense essay on the necessity of a security fence between the Israelis and the Palestinians: In fact, it is easier to pass from the West Bank to Israel than from the United States to Canada simply because there is no border, not even a white picket fence. The Israeli public finds this lack of a border troubling, to say the least, especially because fenced areas in the Palestinian territories have been surprisingly quiet. The Gaza Strip is a case in point: No suicide bomber has ever come out of the Gaza Strip because the entire area is fenced. People who oppose the building of the fence, especially here in the US, do not really understand the political implications or the motivation for the fence: For all its faults, Sharon's government didn't want to create this border. By building this fence the...
Germany's Schroeder and SPD in Political Free Fall - Anti-Americanism Backfiring
22% ... that's Gray Davis territory, isn't it?
Your education dollars at work
Ho hum, another day, another protest staged by the last organized apologists for Stalinism. The Belligerent Bunny Blog went out and visited the vast crowd at the Washington protest and brings back pictures of the International ANSWER event. Check out all of the pictures -- they'll make your day, trust me, especially Clowns for Saddam. No, I know it could describe everyone there, but I'm talking about actual clowns. Best quote in Anna's post, under a picture of a sign that uses a swastika in Bush's name: Honestly if you're going to introduce the National Socialist trope, you could pick a better venue than a rally organized by a national, Socialist organization. Oh the irony! Somehow, I am sure the irony was lost on all of the attendees. (via Instapundit)...
October 26, 2003
North Korea Joins Iran in Acquiescing
"Speak softly, and carry a big stick." That was Theodore Roosevelt's foreign-policy philosophy, and it's paying off for George Bush in North Korea, at least so far: In its first concession after months of hostility, North Korea on Saturday signaled that it would consider President Bush's offer of written security assurances in return for dismantling its nuclear program. The conciliatory statement, first reported by the North Korean news agency, marked an abrupt about-face for the government in Pyongyang, which days earlier had ridiculed Bush's offer as "laughable" and "not worth considering." ... Iran also bowed to international pressure several days ago, saying it would suspend its uranium enrichment program and sign an agreement permitting international inspections. China put more pressure on North Korea to consider the Bush Administration's offer of written security assurances in lieu of a formal non-agression pact (which would undermine the military alliance with South Korea). Iran...
Poor Eating Habits Start Early
It's all about the carbs, I keep telling people. Who feeds pizza and hamburgers to two-year-olds as a regular diet anyway? It's a brief story, so I won't excerpt it here, but it just shows that American health problems are ingrained at an early age. If we could put off the crapola until at least school age, we'd have healtheir kids and less disease later in life....
Rocket Penguins Fisk ANSWER
I got this one from Jon over at QandO. You have to read the whole thing, but here's a couple of great ones: 1. The fact that Iraq isn't a military threat to anyone. "There is no record to support this claim. During the Gulf War of 1991, while the United States bombed Iraq with a barrage that included 110,000 sorties, Iraq did not destroy even one U.S. tank or plane." Huh guess those pilots that I saw in the first gulf war must have beaten the shit out of them selves and turned themselves in. I thought our ground troops out fought them but I guess they weren't fighting back. That certainly explains why we won so easily. 2. Sanctions have been more devastating than the Gulf War itself. "UNICEF confirms that five to six thousand Iraqi children are dying unnecessarily every month due to the impact of the...
Graduating to Land
I've managed to graduate to a land-based animal in the TTLB ecosystem. Thanks to everyone who's linking to my blog or my posts! It appears that Irreconcilable Musings and Demosophia are going to be competing for the win at the New Blog Showcase, where my post on Fareed Zakaria's column trails significantly. Both blogs are terrific and have excellent posts. Make sure you read them, and the rest of the blog entries too....
Meaningful Media Relaunched
If you get a chance, check out Meaningful Media MediaBlog, v 2.0. Steve's doing a nice job in his redesign. UPDATE: It's also in the Comments here, but don't forget to check out Steve's other blog, Indypundit, which "is more or less what Meaningful Media used to be, except with more of a cultural/newsy focus"....
Big Trunk on TV in the Twin Cities
In a common-sense way, we can view the 90% level to test its reliability. How often does a police officer pull abreast of you before pulling you over? In my experience, unfortunately in multiple experiences, never. At least half of all stops occur in night conditions, where it's impossible to see the skin color or race of a driver until you are already stopped or have lit up the interior of the vehicle with door-mounted spotlights, and that only happens when you've committed to stopping the vehicle.
The Myth Of David Broder's "Myth"
David Broder gets ridiculous in his op-ed piece in today's Post: When the Democracy Corps team asked whether voters in those three states wanted a Democratic nominee "who opposed the Iraq war from the beginning" or one "who supported military action against Saddam Hussein but was critical of Bush for failing to win international support for the war," voters in all three states chose the second alternative. Dean's position was preferred by only 35 percent of the likely voters in the New Hampshire Democratic primary -- fewer than supported it in Iowa or South Carolina -- while 58 percent chose the alternative. The myth behind this poll is that there is absolutely no practical difference between these two positions; the first is equal to the second. France (and Germany) would never have supported military action against its client-state, Saddam's Iraq. Chirac explicitly said so in February, sticking a knife into...
Welcome to Power Line Readers
A cordial welcome to all Power Line readers! I hope you enjoy Captain's Quarters, and I look forward to your comments. If you like what you read, I hope you'll blogroll Captain's Quarters. Big thanks to Big Trunk for the mention!...
Hamas Says It's Ready to Renew Talks
I'll bet they are: Hamas said Sunday it is ready to talk to the Palestinian prime minister about halting attacks on Israelis, even though the Islamic militant group participated in a deadly attack on a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip two days earlier. ... Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, who took office on Oct. 5, has repeatedly said that he wants to reach a cease-fire in hopes of ending more than three years of fighting between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel has said, however, it will not begin negotiations until all Palestinian security forces are placed under one command and begin cracking down on militants. Until the Palestinian Authority agrees to consolidate all security forces under a single government control -- in other words, no Fatah, no al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, etc -- and start taking police and/or military action against terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Israel won't...
Nancy Pelosi: Enforcing Immigration Laws "Terrorizes" People
According to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the INS and FBI are terrorist organizations for enforcing immigration laws: U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said on Friday police raids on dozens of U.S. Wal-Mart stores in the search for illegal immigrants this week amounted to "terrorizing" workers. "It instills a great deal of fear in people who are only trying to earn a living and put food on the table for their family," Pelosi, a California Democrat, told reporters on a Congressional visit to Mexico. I believe that we need to create a mechanism that will allow us to track migrant workers and still allow them to work in the US. Despite what reactionaries on the right proclaim, such workers fill a vital need in the agricultural industry, as well as some service industries. However, until Congress develops such a program, it's still illegal to come into the US without...
October 27, 2003
Why we fight, part 42d
Over 40 people died in four separate attacks overnight in Baghdad, including one particularly despicable attack using a Red Crescent vehicle: Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling of the U.S. Army confirmed that the attack on the Red Cross compound was a suicide bombing. "Initial indicators, and we're trying to confirm this, but we have eyewitnesses that say that the truck was, in fact, a Red Cross-Red Crescent truck, carrying the explosives -- like a panel van, a little bit larger," Hertling said. ... Red Cross officials vowed to continue their work in Iraq despite the attack. Good for them -- they do good work and are neutral in all conflicts. Normally this would keep them from being targeted in armed conflict, but as the UN has learned, no respect is given for neutrality: "Maybe it was an illusion to think people would understand after 23 years that we are unbiased. I...
Who's Laughing Now?
New Yorkers who had a great time poking fun at the California recall have discovered that direct democracy isn't even an option in their city: It started during the summer when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a Republican in a heavily Democratic town, placed an initiative on the city's Nov. 4 ballot that would ban partisan local elections. The mayor has contributed $2 million of his own money to pass the measure, which would reduce the traditional clout of the Democratic Party in New York City politics. He also took steps to block voters from considering an initiative signed by 115,000 residents that would compel the city to form a commission on chronic overcrowding in public schools. Bloomberg, like other mayors before him, invoked a little-known state law that bars other initiatives from appearing on a municipal ballot once a charter-reform measure is placed on it. The Mayor of New York...
Hezbollah Shells Israeli Positions
Iran and Syria cranked up the proxy war in Lebanon again as Hezbollah attacked Israeli positions for the first time in two months: Lebanese security officials said Hezbollah forces unleashed a volley of rockets and mortar shells at the Israeli military outposts of Roueissat el-Alam, al-Samaka and Ramtha inside the Chebaa Farms area. Hezbollah said in a statement in Beirut that its guerrillas attacked the three Israeli positions with rockets, scoring "direct hits." ... Israeli military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Israeli fighter jets attacked Hezbollah targets in response to the attacks on the Chebaa Farms army outposts. "The jets hit several Hezbollah points," the officials said. Western nations talk about asymmetrical warfare as if the concept has just been realized in the past couple of years. Israel has been fighting asymmetrical warfare like this for decades. Note when the pious Hezbollah militants chose to stage this attack:...
South Park Republicans
In the Autumn 2003 edition of City Journal, Brian Anderson asserts that the right is no longer losing the culture wars: The Left’s near monopoly over the institutions of opinion and information—which long allowed liberal opinion makers to sweep aside ideas and beliefs they disagreed with, as if they were beneath argument—is skidding to a startlingly swift halt. The transformation has gone far beyond the rise of conservative talk radio, that, ever since Rush Limbaugh’s debut 15 years ago, has chipped away at the power of the New York Times, the networks, and the rest of the elite media to set the terms of the nation’s political and cultural debate. Almost overnight, three huge changes in communications have injected conservative ideas right into the heart of that debate. Though commentators have noted each of these changes separately, they haven’t sufficiently grasped how, taken together, they add up to a revolution:...
The Power of Modern Fads
Robert Bartley has written an excellent essay in today's OpinionJournal about instant cultural obsessions and the price paid for them: In an age of instant communications, we become members of a huge world-wide tribe, in constant contact with the thoughts and emotions of our fellow members everywhere. This carries many blessings, not least in undermining of local totalitarian regimes. But like tribal societies throughout the ages, it's vulnerable to sudden surges of emotions, to shared if unexamined assumptions that harden into instant fads. Bartley reviews two cases championed by the Wall Street Journal: the Amirault child-abuse conviction and the forced bankruptcy of Dow Corning caused by pseudoscientific hysteria about silicone breast implants. In the Amirault case, the best that Bartley can claim is a draw; Gerald Amirault is getting paroled without ever acknowledging any kind of confession in the supposed child-abuse cases for which he was convicted. Amirault and Bartley...
Well, geez ... would he lie?
Bill Clinton's idea of helping Tony Blair with his heart problem doesn't ease the angina one bit: Downing Street says it is "mystified" by reports that Tony Blair discussed his health problems several years ago with Bill Clinton. Mr Blair's spokesman insisted that his irregular heart beat, which caused him to be hospitalised briefly last week, had never happened before. But ex-US President Clinton was quoted in the Sunday Mirror as saying: "I've known about this for a long time. He told me about it quite a few years ago. As soon as I heard what happened, I called to check he was OK. We had a talk and he sounded in good shape." Excuse me for having a memory and a brain, but if anyone remembers, Mr. Clinton has a reputation for being a bit loose with the truth, and while we're at it, does anyone think this sounds...
Yo! Yasser, Ariel -- Let's Do Lunch
The problem with Hollywood stars is that they don't understand that their popularity comes from speaking words written by other people while being filmed by other people on projects that are financed by other people. Playing a doctor on television does not qualify one to perform brain surgery, even if you can say, "I need that Fleeber retracter stat!"
October 28, 2003
In case you thought City Journal is biased
Either this is the meme of the moment, or we are truly seeing a striking social phenomenom. From the Minneapolis Star Tribune: While the liberalism of young adults has long been taken for granted, there is accumulating evidence that conservatism is making inroads. Recent polls and election results show that, at the least, this group of potential voters is up for grabs, prompting Republican and Democratic strategists to scramble to win their loyalty. Apparently this has been the dirty secret of Academia, at least up to now. As I said yesterday, this threatens the leftist (as opposed to liberal) hegemony that currently exists on university campuses, as these students will eventually replace existing faculty and curriculum management. In fact, that's what they're specifically aiming to do. What reason do they give for this sea change? "As far as the baby boom generation is concerned, Vietnam demonstrated that the United States...
Clark waning, liberals waxing in primaries
Oh so predictable: supposed White Knight General Wesley Clark is sliding in the polls, while support for liberal candidates is increasing: The small boom of support for retired Gen. Wesley Clark, which pushed him to the front of national polls in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, appears to be ebbing, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll. ... Among registered Democrats queried about their 2004 choices, 15 percent chose Clark, down from 21 percent who expressed support for him in early October, when he led the field less than a month after joining the race. In the latest poll, Dean was in first place, with 16 percent support, just a whisker ahead of Clark and within the poll's margin of error. Clark, pushed into the race by the Clintons and staffed with a number of Clinton supporters, has been an embarrassment on the stump. Either he can't come up...
Gangs Won't Let You Rest in Peace
Despicable behavior by gangs is nothing new, but this has to be a new low: A shootout at a mausoleum during a funeral Monday sent hundreds of mourners and visitors at Inglewood Park Cemetery crouching or running for cover as bullets were fired by suspected gang members and police. At least two men were hit, but both appeared stable and conscious, paramedics said. Police, who were investigating the crime scene six hours later, said they had no information on the men's conditions and only sketchy details about what happened. ... The 27-year-old mourner said Bailey's chrome casket was being put into a wall in the mausoleum at the end of the burial service, and the words "ashes to ashes and dust to dust" were being recited when gunfire broke out and people began screaming. She ran outside and saw police firing their weapons, she said. Another witness, a 19-year-old man,...
A Message from the Front
I am lucky enough to know an individual who has given service to his country for decades, and is now putting his life on the line for us in Iraq. He's included me along with several of his friends and family on a broadcast e-mail list, where he periodically updates us on progress from his perspective. I'm going to modify just a couple of items in here to protect his privacy, but otherwise leave this unedited. Because of its length, you'll need to click the link below to read it. I find his courage and his faith humbling in the extreme, especially since I know what a fine human being he is. May we have faith in him and his comrades in the same measure....
The inevitable results of socialized medicine
How would you feel if the government-controlled medical care -- for which you've paid -- decides to deny you medicine based on where you live? If that sounds good, then by all means keep pushing for "universal" health coverage: The government has vowed to end so-called "postcode prescriptions" which result in some patients being denied potentially life-saving cancer drugs because of where they live. Health Secretary John Reid said on Monday he had ordered an inquiry into why some local health authorities are prescribing new drugs to combat cancer while others are not -- even though the drugs have been approved nationally. Yes, I know, the British government has vowed to end the practice of denying cancer medication based on patient location, but it's creepy that the practice exists in the first place....
How to Prove You're Not Vegetative?
Mickey Kaus describes a chilling story he heard on NPR's Day to Day: I heard an eye-opening interview on NPR's Day to Day with a woman who says she was near to being diagnosed as being in a "persistent vegetative state" and was trying desperately to signal her doctors and nurses while they debated the most convenient time to kill her--sorry, I mean, exercise her "right to die." Kaus then asks a very pertinent question: How does a) the number of innocent people who will be executed under death penalty procedures compare with b) the number of innocent, live patients who will be killed under a tendentious diagnosis of PVS? I'd guess the ratio is probably one to 100, maybe 1 to 1,000. But the American left makes a huge (and legitimate) fuss about the former while it actually promotes the latter. I doubt many will get to the heart...
Munich in 2003?
DEBKAfile postulates that certain European government officials are considering sacrificing Israel to appease the Arabs: Nineteen days before the New York article appeared, a DEBKAfile informant dining at a Knightsbridge restaurant with a highly-placed British intelligence official heard him drop this remark: “Some people in the West have come to the conclusion that the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 was a mistake.” When asked to explain whether this meant that the Jews were to be evicted from the Middle East, he replied: “Certainly. Israel has a little more than 5 million Jews. If the United States and NATO were to finance their relocation in other countries, that would solve many Middle East problems.” ... In October 2003, the same British intelligence officer once again dropped a warning of schemes being spun in secret in Brussels to de-legitimize the Israeli democracy, whittle away its independence and eventually bring...
The Left is Dazed and confused about Iraq
Michelle Goldberg tweaks the noses of her compatriots on the left for absolute incoherence and foolishness on Iraq: "We've made a giant mess," said Johnson, a handsome man who wore his long snowy hair in a ponytail and had a sparkling stud in one ear. "I would hate for the Bush administration to halfway fix things and then leave, and then blame the Iraqis if things go wrong. Once you go to somebody's house and break all the windows, don't you owe them new windows?" Why, then, was he marching at an End the Occupation rally? "I don't agree with all the people here, believe you me," he said. But his own sign? He glanced at it, startled, and explained that someone had handed it to him. "I didn't even look at it," he said. "I was just waving it." If there is a more damning anecdote regarding the knee-jerk...
October 29, 2003
Second guesses follow Wellstone memorial
As part of a fortnight-long retrospective on Paul Wellstone's death, the Star Tribune today features a story about the controversial Wellstone memorial and its impact on state and national politics. Unfortunately, it's also the cause of some blame-shifting as well: In a gathering counterattack aimed at revising the conventional views of the memorial, liberal commentator and comedian Al Franken in his recent book castigates state and national conservatives for their take on the memorial. Franken blasts Republicans from Rush Limbaugh to Peggy Noonan to former Minnesota Congressman Vin Weber for claiming that a Jumbotron screen prompted the audience (the words on the screen were closed captioning for the hearing impaired); claiming that "20,000 people" booed Majority Leader Trent Lott (only some jeered), and constantly alleging that the event was scripted. ... Nonsense, responds Weber, a key adviser to Coleman whose immediate denunciation of the event as a "complete, total, absolute...
Army files charges regarding interrogation tactics
The Army charged a colonel with assault during an interrogation of an Iraqi detainee: Lt. Col. Allen B. West says he did not physically abuse the detainee, but used psychological pressure by twice firing his service weapon away from the Iraqi. After the shots were fired, the detainee, an Iraqi police officer, gave up the information on a planned attack around the northern Iraqi town of Saba al Boor. But the Army is taking a dim view of the interrogation tactic. An Army official at the Pentagon confirmed to The Washington Times yesterday that Col. West has been charged with one count of aggravated assault. A military source said an Article 32 hearing has been scheduled in Iraq that could lead to the Army court-martialing Col. West and sending him to prison for a maximum term of eight years. Col. West's defense is that the Iraqi was never in any...
Why Condi? Why Not Condi?
Instapundit pointed out a new web site pushing Condoleeza Rice as Bush's running mate in 2004. In the Why Condi? page, the site explains its zeal to dump the current Vice President: Conventional wisdom has long held that the first woman, or first African-American in the White House, would be a Democrat. It would be the ultimate double-whammy to beat the Democrats at their own game. The beauty of it all is that she would not be not chosen because of her merely being a woman or an African-American, but rather because of her intelligence, qualifications, talents, experience and confidence of the president. I'm actually a fan of this idea, but this explanation sort of boggles the mind. On one hand, we want to "beat the Democrats at their own game", by electing a female African-American on a Presidential ticket, but, ah, not because she's a woman or an African-American....
And on the other side ...
After an attack by Al Sharpton, calling Dean's agenda 'anti-black', how can Dean respond affirmatively? Howard Dean's opposition to affirmative action, his current support for the death penalty and historic support of the NRA's [National Rifle Association's] agenda amounts to an anti-black agenda that will not sell in communities of color in this country," Sharpton said in a statement. Can this be a tripwire to the Dean campaign? After all: Until now, the Dean campaign's brushes with racial issues have been less vitriolic. Earlier this year, some critics, noting that Dean comes from a heavily white state and campaigns extensively via the Internet, questioned his ability to reach low-income and minority voters. Taking a page from my previous post, would the Dean campaign consider Carol Mosely-Braun as a potential VP choice? She's obviously not going to be a factor in the primaries and is running primarily to rebuild her reputation...
CNN Can't Understand Linear Time
In an article on a proposed new cease-fire, CNN doesn't seem to understand simple concepts of time and causality: In a previous cease-fire -- declared unilaterally by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades -- the militant offshoot of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement -- ended August 21. The groups, all of three of which have been declared terrorist groups by the U.S. State Department, declared the seven-week-old cease-fire over after a senior Hamas leader was killed in an Israeli missile attack. The Israeli attack followed a terrorist bus bombing in Jerusalem that killed 20 people. Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bus bombing. So Hamas and Islamic Jihad declared the cease-fire over after the Israelis killed a senior Hamas leader. But the Israelis killed him after the bus bombing that killed 20 Israeli civilians, and that bombing was done by ... Hamas...
But does he wear boxers or briefs?
Governor Dean apparently struggles with some confusion issues: Dean declared himself a "metrosexual," the buzz phrase for straight men in touch with their feminine sides, as he touted his accomplishments in "equal justice" for gay and lesbian couples. But then he waffled. "I'm a square," Dean declared, after professing his metrosexuality to a Boulder breakfast audience with an anecdote about being called handsome by a gay man. "I like (rapper) Wyclef Jean and everybody thinks I'm very hip, but I am really a square, as my kids will tell you. I don't even get to watch television. I've heard the term (metrosexual), but I don't know what it means." Okay, so what this supposedly razor-sharp genius says is that he hears words he doesn't understand and then likes to use them in campaign speeches to impress voters. People talk about Bushisms -- is anyone keeping track of Dean's hoof-in-mouth disease?...
Zell Miller Endorses Bush
Retiring Georgia Senator Zell Miller endorses George Bush for the presidential election in 2004: Miller said Bush is "the right man at the right time" to govern the country. The next five years "will determine the kind of world my children and grandchildren will live in," Miller said in an interview. And he wouldn't "trust" any of the nine Democratic presidential candidates with governing during "that crucial period," he said. "This Democrat will vote for President Bush in 2004." Fred Barnes writes about Miller's discontent with the Democrats, both in the Senate and as a national political party. Miller's dissatisfaction has been known for some time and was recently vented in his new book, A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat, in which, among other items, he dismisses Howard Dean as "shallow". Miller's endorsement is certain to cause problems for the eventual Democratic nominee, especially in...
Just a reminder ...
If you haven't yet had a chance to read it, I highly recommend this post from 10/28. It's an e-mail from a friend of mine serving in Iraq. It's long and detailed but highlights the successes of our mission there, as opposed to the litany of the real setbacks we hear about in the media to the exclusion of anything else....
The Politburo Diktat
Captain's Quarters has been blogrolled by The Politburo Diktat, a very clever and humorous blog with tongue impaled in cheek. Stephen, aka "The Commissar", manages to sound like a [mild?] version of International ANSWER, which in less capable hands would be frightening. Check it out!...
Don't make me pull this car over!
Seems like a squabble has erupted between the Dean and Gephardt campaigns: The incident occurred during a Gephardt speech at a Des Moines, Iowa, senior center Tuesday. A Dean campaign worker got into an altercation with members of the Gephardt staff and was escorted from the event, according to Rod Boshart, a reporter for The Gazette, of Cedar Rapids. In a letter to the Gephardt campaign late Tuesday, Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi said, "I urge you to find the staff member responsible and fire him, and send a strong signal to the rest of your staff that behavior of this kind will not be tolerated." Erik Smith, spokesman for the Gephardt campaign, said Wednesday, "this guy was belligerent and we escorted him out." He referred to the incident as political dirty tricks. Now, now, boys ... Late word out of the Dean camp says that the Gephardt people started...
300 Posts, and Some Thoughts
Tonight I'm finishing up with my 300th post in just under 4 weeks, and instead of posting on current events, I'm going to just talk a little bit about why I blog and some of the experience of Captain's Quarters and the people I've "met" as a result. Like most bloggers, I suspect, I love to write and have written for years, in several different formats. I've written short stories and three novels (all unsold), as well as quite a bit of technical documentation when I worked in the defense industry in the 80s. What I hadn't written on a regular basis was commentary, unless I was worked up enough on an issue or about a particular article to fire something off. I've written several letters to local papers, about half of which wound up being published, and even had a couple of longer-form commentaries published in the Star Tribune....
October 30, 2003
UN Bugs Out of Baghdad
The UN ... the organization that supposedly holds all international prestige in dealing with terrorism and liberation ... is bugging out of Baghdad: International organizations continued their exodus from Iraq, with the United Nations announcing it was withdrawing staff from Baghdad following this week's string of car bombings in the capital and attacks against coalition troops. ... The U.N. decision to pull its remaining international staff out of Baghdad was announced on Wednesday, two days after a deadly suicide car bombing at the Baghdad headquarters of the Red Cross. "We have asked our staff in Baghdad to come out temporarily for consultations with a team from headquarters on the future of our operations, in particular security arrangements that we would need to take to operate in Iraq," U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said. She said it was not an "evacuation" and staff in the north would remain. Saddam's Fedayeen have scored...
U.S. Slowly Scaling Back Role in Israel
The above headline is quite misleading; the US isn't pulling away from Israel, they're telling the Palestinians to start meeting their obligations before expecting anything else from us: Call us when you're serious about disarming militants — that's the message Palestinians are getting from U.S. mediators who have scaled back their presence in the region. The apparent disengagement comes amid a deadlock in the U.S.-led "road map" peace plan, Washington's growing troubles in Iraq, and the distractions of the U.S. presidential election campaign. Unless the AP defines Israel as inclusive of the West Bank an Gaza Strip. Now that would be news! Israeli and Palestinian critics warn that reduced U.S. involvement will likely lead to more bloodshed, further harm America's image in the Arab world, and in the end bring on another round of U.S. mediation. With the sides here so far apart on the issues, many previous peace moves...
Colskee's blog: Phone Jacking in London?
Colskee, a Londoner blog, mentions the latest crime wave in urban Britain: phone jacking? People pedalling up on bikes to relive unsuspecting folk of their mobile phones. This has been an increasing problem in London, especially amoungst younger teenagers (don't even ask me why a schoolkid would need a mobile phone). It's a short post, and Colskee wonders if the cell-phone manufacturers aren't encouraging this by including a lot of teenager-friendly options on the phones. Anyone hear of this in the US?...
Andrew Sullivan: The Myth of the Easy Aftermath
Read this post from Andrew Sullivan on the latest meme from the media -- that Bush promised us an easy aftermath in Iraq. For those of us who paid attention to what Bush said, this is a ridiculous idea, but it's getting play lately. I won't excerpt Sullivan's post, as it's just easier to read the whole thing there. It's good....
Let's see how long this will last
American military commanders are using confiscated Hussein funds to speed the reconstruction of Iraq: The speed and ease with which reconstruction money is being handed out by the military here contrasts sharply with the delays and controversy surrounding the handling of major reconstruction funds by the Pentagon and U.S. Agency for International Development. The fact that the money comes from seized Iraqi assets, the Saddam Hussein regime's overseas bank accounts and cash stockpiles found in palaces and the walls of government buildings in Iraq has provided a fortuitous loophole. Since the money was not appropriated by Congress, officials of the U.S.-led occupation government in Iraq believe that it does not have to be disbursed under the usual contracting regulations. The money for most military projects in Iraq goes through something called the commander's emergency response program. About $100 million has been allocated so far and the 101st Airborne Division, which...
Bad News for Democrats
The headline in today's Washington Post: Economy Grows at 7.2 Percent Rate in Third Quarter: The economy grew at a scorching 7.2 percent annual rate in the third quarter in the strongest pace in nearly two decades. Consumers spent with abandon and businesses ramped up investment, compelling new evidence of an economic resurgence. The increase in gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the economy's performance, in the July-September quarter was more than double the 3.3 percent rate registered in the second quarter, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. The 7.2 percent pace marked the best showing since the first quarter of 1984. It exceeded analysts' forecasts for a 6 percent growth rate for third-quarter GDP, which measures the value of all goods and services produced within the United States. Could it be that the tax cuts, designed to put more cash into the hands of middle-class consumers, may be working...
Even A Broken Clock Is Right Twice a Day
Normally, I'd say that anyone who has to make a public statement like this has a blinding grasp of the obvious ... but seeing as how he's French: A U.S. pullout from Iraq (news - web sites) would be "catastrophic," French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Thursday, urging countries to take a strong united stance to stabilize Iraq. ... When asked whether he could envision the United States pulling out of Iraq, de Villepin responded, "Obviously, a pullout from Iraq today would be catastrophic and would absolutely not correspond to the demands of the situation.["] De Villepin managed to say all this without his characteristic statements about unilateralism or demands that the UN be put in charge. Seeing as how the UN is high-tailing it out of Baghdad, that may be too ridiculous even for the French. (Hard to believe.)...
Well, that didn't take long
Remember that post I wrote about ten hours ago or so about the discretionary fund available to American commanders in Iraq? Well, fugeddaboutit. Instapundit reports that the program has been canceled: Yes, it was the most powerful tool commanders have had. But as of now, it has been cut off. LTG Sanchez has informed all the resource managers this past week that the funding is done and there will be no more. All of our humanitarian projects we had going are now stopped and some projects (including those in the troubled Sadr City) are put on hold. Given the utter disorganization of CPA, the battalion commanders here were making a significant impact. We fixed schools, sewage, markets, and got trash picked up. We put thousands of people to work. Now it's over, at one of the most critical times in this fight. Everyone on the line is dumbfounded over this...
Carnival Of The Vanities
I've decided to enter the Carnival Of The Vanities for next week, being hosted by Wizbang of the Axis of Naughty. I'm submitting my post on the Brad Pitt-Jennifer Aniston peace movement, as it's one of my favorites so far. This week's Carnival is up at Blogger Rabbit, with a special introduction offering readers a unique opportunity -- unique, that is, unless you have an e-mail address, in which case you've probably had this opportunity come your way once a month for a year. Here are a few I liked from this week's Carnival ... Catfish 'n Cod waxes poetic about the Rumsfeld memo ... The Smallest Minority contributes a well-written broadside against the war on drugs ... Kiril at Sneakeasyjoint explains why he's crossing the picket line in Southern California to get his shopping done ... Blogfriend DC at Brainstorming cajoles the Republicans into getting active in supporting Justice...
Wait ... Michael Moore tells lies?
Quite frankly, I'm having a little trouble deciding for whom to root: James Nichols, the brother of Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, says he was tricked into appearing in the documentary "Bowling for Columbine," according to a federal lawsuit filed against filmmaker Michael Moore. Nichols also alleges in the lawsuit, filed Monday in Detroit, that Moore libeled him by linking him to the terrorist act. Nichols accuses Moore of libel, defamation of character, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. His lawyer is asking for a jury trial and damages ranging from $10 million to $20 million on each of nine counts, the Detroit Free Press reported. It's sort of like trying to figure out, at a Oakland Raiders - St. Louis Rams game, who you want to see lose more: Al Davis or Georgia Frontiere....
Next up, we'll ask if he had a lawnmower
Does this qualify as breaking news at ABC? ABC screened the special for some reporters and religious leaders on Thursday. The program is based on the best-selling novel, "The DaVinci Code," which claims to be partly grounded on historical fact. The book asserts that Mary Magdalene was Jesus' wife — not a prostitute, as in some teachings — and that she fled Jerusalem with his child following his crucifixion. ... The show unravels like a mystery perpetuated by secondhand gossip. Vargas said ABC found no proof that Jesus had a wife, but couldn't completely discount it, either. Here's a list of other things they couldn't prove as well: * Did Jesus have an Easy-Saver card? * Did Jesus have a black-velvet painting of Elphaes ben-Presley? * Did Jesus have the heartbreak of psoriasis? * Did Jesus have a good singing voice? * Did Jesus have a wristband that said WWMD?...
October 31, 2003
Death Penalty: Reason Has Nothing to Do With It
Power Line posts a provocative essay on the death penalty, using a column by George Will as a springboard: He reaches this conclusion after juxtaposing the views of Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (pro death penalty) and attorney-novelist Scott Turow (against it). Romney cites three reasons why the death penalty should be used in some instances -- its deterrent effect will prevent some murders; it expresses and reinforces society's "proportionate revulsion" against the most heinous crimes; and its presence can induce criminals to turn state's evidence in order to avoid execution. Deacon argues, in a dispassionate and intelligent manner, that the death penalty saves lives overall. After all, murderers kill in prison, and have been known to kill when released from prison. The death penalty removes that oportunity. In Will's column, Governor Mitt Romney argues that the death penalty is a deterrent, which may have been true at one point but...
Video cell phones causing unforseen issues, pardon the pun
Quite frankly, this issue never occurred to me until I read this article: It's a health club patron's nightmare: Someone surreptitiously snaps a digital photo of said patron in a shower or locker room, then shares the snapshot far and wide via e-mail or by posting the picture on a Web site. The likelihood of this happening has dramatically increased in the past year or two as digital cameras have shrunk in size and become inconspicuous parts of everyday devices such as mobile phones. Now, local health-club chains are scrambling to preempt such mischief. The latest is Eden Prairie-based Life Time Fitness, which has just banned any cell-phone use in locker room areas. Northwest Athletic Clubs and the YWCA of Minneapolis also have instituted similar bans, according to a check of area clubs by the Pioneer Press. Health clubs have banned film and video cameras in the past for these...
The Definition of Insanity ...
... is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result: Senate Democrats yesterday blocked President Bush's selection of Charles W. Pickering Sr. for a federal appeals court after a two-year struggle that evoked conflicting interpretations of the past, present and future of race relations in Mississippi and Pickering's role in them. It's far past the time that Senate Republicans should have forced the Democrats to really filibuster a nominee, instead of the Filibuster Lite that they've allowed so far. Force the Democrats to shut the Senate by continuous speechifying, all the while on C-SPAN, preferably with that political cartoon of Justice Brown on the dais behind them. If the Democrats choose obstructionism, force them to do it for real. Let the country see what they are. Either that, or dump the nominees and find new ones, because this process has been grossly unfair to them....
Crime-Fighting Captain
By day, a mild-mannered blogger ... by night, a legendary crime-fighter ......
This Accident Brought To You By ...
As Warren Brown says in this column, I'm a free-market kind of guy, but there are limits: Some Internet entrepreneurs, apparently more interested in cash than in road rage, or the possibility of a fatal crash, have been offering MIRT and MIRT knockoffs for $300. Their pitches are quite tempting: "Never wait for a red light again!" and "Tired of Waiting for Red Lights?" and "Changes Stop Lights From Red to Green in Seconds." Of course, there are buyers; and at the moment, the commerce is legal. MIRT transmits an infrared beam, instead of a radio wave. The Federal Communications Commission regulates the use of radio waves. Infrared transmission falls outside of the agency's purview. As a result, currently, there are no federal laws restricting civilian use of MIRT technology. Federal regulation would help keep these off the market, but individual states can and should make sale, possession, or use...
Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
The Republican National Commitee appears ready for a public-relations disaster in demanding that CBS allow them to preview the Reagan miniseries prior to broadcast: The Republican National Committee Friday asked CBS to allow a team of historians and friends of former President Ronald Reagan and his wife to review a miniseries about the couple before it airs. ... Gillespie said that if CBS denies the request, he will ask the network to run a note across the bottom of the screen every 10 minutes during the program's presentation informing viewers that the miniseries is not accurate. Well, ouch, won't that hurt! Is the RNC the last group of people on Earth that hasn't figured out that Hollywood is almost never historically accurate? Here's a list of educational items if they've just stumbled onto this: * The British did not burn down churches full of people during the American Revolution (that...
Defector: N. Korea's Kim Is World Problem
In keeping with Roger Simon's challenge, here's what North Korea's highest-ranking defector says: The only way to combat North Korea's dictator is for the world to unite against him as it has against terrorism, North Korean's top-ranking defector said in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday. ... On his first trip to the United States, Hwang Jang Yop also said he believes North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is fully prepared to start a war and that there's no telling whether Kim will ever give up his nuclear program. "It's like ... asking whether a venomous snake will bite or not," Hwang said in the interview. Roger feels, and I agree, that the pledge made in 1945 -- never again -- has transformed definition from 'never allowing genocide to happen again' to 'never recognizing genocide again'. We missed it completely in Cambodia after the much-derided "domino theory" came...
Julie Burchill: Mind the gap
A big thank you to Glenn for pointing out this gem of a column in the Guardian, regarding the hypocrisy of the hip. You absolutely must read the whole thing; that is an order. It's impossible to excerpt this without violating all sorts of "fair use" restrictions, but I'll try: But unenlightened, repressed people have an excuse for being hypocrites - that they are unenlightened and repressed, and so presumably don't know any better. No, it's the hipocrites who fascinate and repel me; the enlightened, unrepressed, liberal thinkers whose deepest governing belief would appear to be "Do what I say, not what I do", and who seem to believe that the rest of us are too thick to notice the yawning credibility gap opening up between their feet as they pontificate. ... You expect Ms Dynamite and Justin Timberlake to mouth off against American war in Iraq/US cultural imperialism just...
About
Ed Morrissey has blogged at Captain's Quarters since 2003, and has a daily radio show at BlogTalkRadio, where he serves as Political Director. Called "Captain Ed" by his readers, Ed is a father and grandfather living in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, a native Californian who moved to the North Star State because of the weather.
My Other Blog
The Crows Nest
Julie Burchill: Mind the gap
A big thank you to Glenn for pointing out this gem of a column in the Guardian, regarding the hypocrisy of the hip. You absolutely must read the whole thing; that is an order. It's impossible to excerpt this without violating all sorts of "fair use" restrictions, but I'll try:
But unenlightened, repressed people have an excuse for being hypocrites - that they are unenlightened and repressed, and so presumably don't know any better. No, it's the hipocrites who fascinate and repel me; the enlightened, unrepressed, liberal thinkers whose deepest governing belief would appear to be "Do what I say, not what I do", and who seem to believe that the rest of us are too thick to notice the yawning credibility gap opening up between their feet as they pontificate. ...You expect Ms Dynamite and Justin Timberlake to mouth off against American war in Iraq/US cultural imperialism just before signing massive deals with Pepsi and McDonald's. You expect Catherine Zeta-Jones to say stuff like, "I find divorces repulsive. I grew up in a small, strictly Catholic fishing village on the coast of Wales. The people there have a different attitude to life than those in Hollywood - people stick together" - having left said Eden at 15 in order to fulfil a destiny that included going to Hollywood and marrying a divorced ex-sex addict. Was his divorce repulsive? Or just everyone else's?
If that's not enough to make you read this column, how about this ... the next target is Sean Penn.
Aha. Made you look.
Thanks, Glenn. Now if you'd just mention me, just once, dammit ... Good night, everyone.
Defector: N. Korea's Kim Is World Problem
In keeping with Roger Simon's challenge, here's what North Korea's highest-ranking defector says:
The only way to combat North Korea's dictator is for the world to unite against him as it has against terrorism, North Korean's top-ranking defector said in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday. ... On his first trip to the United States, Hwang Jang Yop also said he believes North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is fully prepared to start a war and that there's no telling whether Kim will ever give up his nuclear program."It's like ... asking whether a venomous snake will bite or not," Hwang said in the interview.
Roger feels, and I agree, that the pledge made in 1945 -- never again -- has transformed definition from 'never allowing genocide to happen again' to 'never recognizing genocide again'. We missed it completely in Cambodia after the much-derided "domino theory" came to pass. We missed it in Rwanda, and we're missing it in the Congo. We stopped it, eventually, in the Balkans, and we deposed Saddam but only years after his massive slaughters had begun, and even at that we're still learning just how extensive they were. Kim Jong-Il may not be killing an ethnic minority, but he is starving his own people to death in a country that is little more than a concentration camp writ large.
"Kim Jong Il has sacrificed a lot — the economy, the people," Hwang said, referring to a famine that has killed estimated millions. "And all the sacrifices were for the expansion of his military. I don't believe he was (just) trying to display them and brag about the fact that he has these things. He really intends to start a war," Hwang said.
I believe Bush can concentrate more on North Korea now that he isn't pinned down in a diplomatic stalemate with Saddam Hussein any longer. We need to pressure Russia and China, who seem open to cooperation with us, into understanding that a nutbar like Kim Jong-Il threatens their stability at least as much as Japan's, and to take action to ensure North Korea never goes nuclear. But, regarding that, we are rapidly approaching the time when we won't have the luxury of allowing possession of nuclear weapons to stalemate us. We can't let the Irans and North Koreas of the world continue to wreak havoc and support terrorism just because they have a nuke or two. We faced down the Soviets; surely we can face down a tinhorn dictator and a few mad mullahs.
Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
The Republican National Commitee appears ready for a public-relations disaster in demanding that CBS allow them to preview the Reagan miniseries prior to broadcast:
The Republican National Committee Friday asked CBS to allow a team of historians and friends of former President Ronald Reagan and his wife to review a miniseries about the couple before it airs. ... Gillespie said that if CBS denies the request, he will ask the network to run a note across the bottom of the screen every 10 minutes during the program's presentation informing viewers that the miniseries is not accurate.
Well, ouch, won't that hurt! Is the RNC the last group of people on Earth that hasn't figured out that Hollywood is almost never historically accurate? Here's a list of educational items if they've just stumbled onto this:
* The British did not burn down churches full of people during the American Revolution (that was WWII Nazis), and free blacks were illegal in South Carolina during that era, let alone them having beach villages full of laughter, dancing, and carefree moments for lovestruck lead actors. (The Patriot)
* The Americans did not secretly capture an Enigma device from a German submarine during WWII; that was the British. (U-571)
* Bobby DeLaughter did not singlehandedly convict Byron De La Beckwith of Medgar Evers' murder. (Ghosts of Mississippi)
* In JFK, ... nah, way too easy.
* Pocohantas married, traveled to London, where she died as a young woman. (Pocohantas)
* And in The Untouchables, an otherwise entertaining film is marred by the fact that Eliot Ness wasn't the man who put Al Capone away (it was an entirely different group of people), none of his men were ever killed during the duration of their task force, Frank Nitti took over for Capone instead of being tossed off the courthouse roof, and of course Kevin Costner stunk, which if you see enough of his films, qualifies as a certain sort of historical accuracy.
No one in their right mind would expect Hollywood to turn out a historically accurate film on anything -- if Warner Brothers produced a film on the Boston Red Sox, they'd show them winning the 1986 World Series. The only practical result of this RNC grandstanding is to generate a hell of a lot of publicity for what promised to be a mediocre and thoroughly forgettable effort (c'mon, it stars James Brolin, for Pete's sake), and to allow the left-wing elements associated with the film to argue that Republicans stifle free speech ... which certainly seems to be the case here. The notion that CBS will run a crawl every ten minutes explaining that the film is not historically accurate stretches the limits of credulity. What's next, a demand for equal time whenever The American President or The Contender is shown on broadcast TV?
Perhaps someone at the RNC can fill us in on the Grand Strategy at play here. Because unless the idea is to depict Republicans as tight-assed, self-defeating paranoids, they've gone off the rails. Wouldn't their time be better spent on generating support for Justice Brown and thereby promoting free speech?
UPDATE: Check out this post at Jessica's Well, a great blog, if you want information on contacting CBS to express your views on this subject. CBS management, and stockholders, will be much more impressed with howls of outrage from millions of viewers than petty and unlikely demands from the RNC.
This Accident Brought To You By ...
As Warren Brown says in this column, I'm a free-market kind of guy, but there are limits:
Some Internet entrepreneurs, apparently more interested in cash than in road rage, or the possibility of a fatal crash, have been offering MIRT and MIRT knockoffs for $300. Their pitches are quite tempting: "Never wait for a red light again!" and "Tired of Waiting for Red Lights?" and "Changes Stop Lights From Red to Green in Seconds." Of course, there are buyers; and at the moment, the commerce is legal.MIRT transmits an infrared beam, instead of a radio wave. The Federal Communications Commission regulates the use of radio waves. Infrared transmission falls outside of the agency's purview. As a result, currently, there are no federal laws restricting civilian use of MIRT technology.
Federal regulation would help keep these off the market, but individual states can and should make sale, possession, or use of these devices illegal for anyone except public-safety personnel, such as police or fire departments. Another option would be to convert existing systems to radio-wave technology, but the change would be costly, and the wider transmission pattern could set off other traffic lights accidentally.
Private use for selfish purposes causes unnecessary danger to all drivers, as Brown illustrates:
It is rush hour. Cars are stacked up waiting for traffic signals to change. Someone gets tired of waiting. He pushes a button on his dashboard-mounted MIRT transmitter, which is plugged into his car's 12-volt outlet. The device, using 15 watts of energy, sends an infrared beam 1,500 feet to a traffic-light receiver installed at the intersection. The red light facing his line of traffic instantly turns green, much to the surprise of motorists already moving through the intersection on an opposing green signal.At best, there'd be one heck of a case of gridlock. At worst, someone gets killed or injured.
Actually, it doesn't turn it instantly to green; it forces the other direction to red quickly first, but it's the same effect, and it's still very dangerous in high-volume traffic areas.
There will, of course, be a contingent of people who claim that regulating this equipment will be tantamount to government oppression and start talking about black helicopters, the UN and one-world government, and blah blah blah, but they will be few and entertaining. States shouldn't wait for Congress to act -- they should take action on their own ahead of federal regulation.
Crime-Fighting Captain
By day, a mild-mannered blogger ... by night, a legendary crime-fighter ...
The Definition of Insanity ...
... is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result:
Senate Democrats yesterday blocked President Bush's selection of Charles W. Pickering Sr. for a federal appeals court after a two-year struggle that evoked conflicting interpretations of the past, present and future of race relations in Mississippi and Pickering's role in them.
It's far past the time that Senate Republicans should have forced the Democrats to really filibuster a nominee, instead of the Filibuster Lite that they've allowed so far. Force the Democrats to shut the Senate by continuous speechifying, all the while on C-SPAN, preferably with that political cartoon of Justice Brown on the dais behind them. If the Democrats choose obstructionism, force them to do it for real. Let the country see what they are.
Either that, or dump the nominees and find new ones, because this process has been grossly unfair to them.
Video cell phones causing unforseen issues, pardon the pun
Quite frankly, this issue never occurred to me until I read this article:
It's a health club patron's nightmare: Someone surreptitiously snaps a digital photo of said patron in a shower or locker room, then shares the snapshot far and wide via e-mail or by posting the picture on a Web site.The likelihood of this happening has dramatically increased in the past year or two as digital cameras have shrunk in size and become inconspicuous parts of everyday devices such as mobile phones.
Now, local health-club chains are scrambling to preempt such mischief. The latest is Eden Prairie-based Life Time Fitness, which has just banned any cell-phone use in locker room areas. Northwest Athletic Clubs and the YWCA of Minneapolis also have instituted similar bans, according to a check of area clubs by the Pioneer Press.
Health clubs have banned film and video cameras in the past for these reasons, but cell phones have become so ubiquitous, and so necessary for those of us on 24-hour call. Pagers are nowhere near as convenient, and being out of touch for an hour or two may not be an option.
Death Penalty: Reason Has Nothing to Do With It
Power Line posts a provocative essay on the death penalty, using a column by George Will as a springboard:
He reaches this conclusion after juxtaposing the views of Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (pro death penalty) and attorney-novelist Scott Turow (against it). Romney cites three reasons why the death penalty should be used in some instances -- its deterrent effect will prevent some murders; it expresses and reinforces society's "proportionate revulsion" against the most heinous crimes; and its presence can induce criminals to turn state's evidence in order to avoid execution.
Deacon argues, in a dispassionate and intelligent manner, that the death penalty saves lives overall. After all, murderers kill in prison, and have been known to kill when released from prison. The death penalty removes that oportunity. In Will's column, Governor Mitt Romney argues that the death penalty is a deterrent, which may have been true at one point but doesn't seem like much of one in the past twenty years. Will goes back and forth but finally decides that since the system is imperfect, he cannot support the death penalty. Deacon decides that the death penalty is the lesser of two evils and supports it, but makes an excellent point when he says:
What I meant, though, is that there are reasonable policy and moral arguments on both sides of the death penalty debate, and that neither side can demonstrate that the other is morally or pragmatically wrong. Where one ends up on this issue depends on what one thinks society should look like. Reason can take us only so far in this debate.
I'm not going to make an argument stating categorically that anyone is morally wrong, but I will tell you why I believe the death penalty is wrong -- not ineffective, not arbitrary, but wrong. As I've posted in the past, it's my belief that life is holy and sacred and that most of the problems of the past century have followed from a general decline of this belief. Once we stop treating life as holy and sacred, we open ourselves up to all manner of life-disposal mechanisms: abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, pulling the plug on people like Terri Schiavo where people like the New York Times lecture us on "meaningful" lives as opposed to those not worth living, and the death penalty.
The reason people have trouble understanding the death penalty in the same context is because the people executed deserve to die for their crimes. Assuming that the system is perfect -- which it demonstrably is not -- and that the death penalty is equitably applied -- which it also is not -- these people would deserve to die for their crimes. But life isn't given by the state, and therefore should not be taken by it either. Taking on the prerogative that the state can decide whose life is worth living, no matter what the circumstances, puts the state and individual humans in that position. It opens the door to allowing individuals to decide which other lives are worth living, in other circumstances. Life isn't sacred or holy anymore; we start valuing life for its practical use only. It's like the old joke about the guy who asks a girl if she will sleep with him for a million dollars, and she says she will. He then offers her a hundred dollars for the night. She says, "What do you think I am?" He replies, "We've already established what you are. Now we're just haggling over price."
Lock them away for life, throw away the key; I have no problem with that. In those cases, we've properly judged people for their actions. Don't let them back out, build better prisons; I think incarceration is one of the few functions that governments rightly have. But if we expect society to treat life as sacred and holy in certain circumstances, then we'd better treat it that way under all circumstances. Otherwise, we've already established what we are, and now we're just haggling over preferences.
Next up, we'll ask if he had a lawnmower
Does this qualify as breaking news at ABC?
ABC screened the special for some reporters and religious leaders on Thursday. The program is based on the best-selling novel, "The DaVinci Code," which claims to be partly grounded on historical fact. The book asserts that Mary Magdalene was Jesus' wife — not a prostitute, as in some teachings — and that she fled Jerusalem with his child following his crucifixion. ... The show unravels like a mystery perpetuated by secondhand gossip. Vargas said ABC found no proof that Jesus had a wife, but couldn't completely discount it, either.
Here's a list of other things they couldn't prove as well:
* Did Jesus have an Easy-Saver card?
* Did Jesus have a black-velvet painting of Elphaes ben-Presley?
* Did Jesus have the heartbreak of psoriasis?
* Did Jesus have a good singing voice?
* Did Jesus have a wristband that said WWMD? (What Would Moses Do?)
C'mon ... you can't prove that he didn't have any of these either. In fact, you can't prove a negative, so it's a colossal waste of time and effort to debate such things. If ABC News has time for this stuff, why does their war coverage suck so much?
UPDATE: Check out Amy Wellborn's post on this topic, too.
Wait ... Michael Moore tells lies?
Quite frankly, I'm having a little trouble deciding for whom to root:
James Nichols, the brother of Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, says he was tricked into appearing in the documentary "Bowling for Columbine," according to a federal lawsuit filed against filmmaker Michael Moore. Nichols also alleges in the lawsuit, filed Monday in Detroit, that Moore libeled him by linking him to the terrorist act.Nichols accuses Moore of libel, defamation of character, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. His lawyer is asking for a jury trial and damages ranging from $10 million to $20 million on each of nine counts, the Detroit Free Press reported.
It's sort of like trying to figure out, at a Oakland Raiders - St. Louis Rams game, who you want to see lose more: Al Davis or Georgia Frontiere.
Carnival Of The Vanities
I've decided to enter the Carnival Of The Vanities for next week, being hosted by Wizbang of the Axis of Naughty. I'm submitting my post on the Brad Pitt-Jennifer Aniston peace movement, as it's one of my favorites so far.
This week's Carnival is up at Blogger Rabbit, with a special introduction offering readers a unique opportunity -- unique, that is, unless you have an e-mail address, in which case you've probably had this opportunity come your way once a month for a year.
Here are a few I liked from this week's Carnival ... Catfish 'n Cod waxes poetic about the Rumsfeld memo ... The Smallest Minority contributes a well-written broadside against the war on drugs ... Kiril at Sneakeasyjoint explains why he's crossing the picket line in Southern California to get his shopping done ... Blogfriend DC at Brainstorming cajoles the Republicans into getting active in supporting Justice Brown's nomination ... Another blogfriend, Jon at QandO, fisks ANSWER, which I'd already linked (but happy to do it again!) ... Porphyrogenitus unspins the Clinton assertion that his administration gave a terrorism plan to Bush ... Liberty Blog reveals the true quagmire in Iraq (in a very funny way) ... over at IMAO, it was all just a dream ... but hey, read them all!
Well, that didn't take long
Remember that post I wrote about ten hours ago or so about the discretionary fund available to American commanders in Iraq? Well, fugeddaboutit. Instapundit reports that the program has been canceled:
Yes, it was the most powerful tool commanders have had. But as of now, it has been cut off. LTG Sanchez has informed all the resource managers this past week that the funding is done and there will be no more. All of our humanitarian projects we had going are now stopped and some projects (including those in the troubled Sadr City) are put on hold.Given the utter disorganization of CPA, the battalion commanders here were making a significant impact. We fixed schools, sewage, markets, and got trash picked up. We put thousands of people to work. Now it's over, at one of the most critical times in this fight. Everyone on the line is dumbfounded over this decision.
This is utter foolishness. It's Murphy's Law writ large. At the very least, we should get an explanation of why it was canceled and what's to be its replacement.
Even A Broken Clock Is Right Twice a Day
Normally, I'd say that anyone who has to make a public statement like this has a blinding grasp of the obvious ... but seeing as how he's French:
A U.S. pullout from Iraq (news - web sites) would be "catastrophic," French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Thursday, urging countries to take a strong united stance to stabilize Iraq. ... When asked whether he could envision the United States pulling out of Iraq, de Villepin responded, "Obviously, a pullout from Iraq today would be catastrophic and would absolutely not correspond to the demands of the situation.["]
De Villepin managed to say all this without his characteristic statements about unilateralism or demands that the UN be put in charge. Seeing as how the UN is high-tailing it out of Baghdad, that may be too ridiculous even for the French. (Hard to believe.)
Bad News for Democrats
The headline in today's Washington Post: Economy Grows at 7.2 Percent Rate in Third Quarter:
The economy grew at a scorching 7.2 percent annual rate in the third quarter in the strongest pace in nearly two decades. Consumers spent with abandon and businesses ramped up investment, compelling new evidence of an economic resurgence. The increase in gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the economy's performance, in the July-September quarter was more than double the 3.3 percent rate registered in the second quarter, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.The 7.2 percent pace marked the best showing since the first quarter of 1984. It exceeded analysts' forecasts for a 6 percent growth rate for third-quarter GDP, which measures the value of all goods and services produced within the United States.
Could it be that the tax cuts, designed to put more cash into the hands of middle-class consumers, may be working as intended?
Near rock-bottom short-term interest rates, along with President Bush's third round of tax cuts, have helped the economy shift into a higher gear during the summer, economists say.
Next quarter, economists are predicting 4% growth, a very good number, and job growth should start appearing next quarter or the quarter after. Barring any devastating terror attacks, Bush should be riding a solid economic expansion -- one that isn't relying on a stock-market bubble -- into next year's elections. The sackcloth-and-ashes contingent on the other side of the aisle will have their legs cut out from underneath them unless they can adjust their message. Look for a renewed focus on the budget deficit, and a renewed effort by the Bush administration to force cuts to counter it, as this is one area where they are justly vulnerable to attack.
Let's see how long this will last
American military commanders are using confiscated Hussein funds to speed the reconstruction of Iraq:
The speed and ease with which reconstruction money is being handed out by the military here contrasts sharply with the delays and controversy surrounding the handling of major reconstruction funds by the Pentagon and U.S. Agency for International Development.The fact that the money comes from seized Iraqi assets, the Saddam Hussein regime's overseas bank accounts and cash stockpiles found in palaces and the walls of government buildings in Iraq has provided a fortuitous loophole. Since the money was not appropriated by Congress, officials of the U.S.-led occupation government in Iraq believe that it does not have to be disbursed under the usual contracting regulations.
The money for most military projects in Iraq goes through something called the commander's emergency response program. About $100 million has been allocated so far and the 101st Airborne Division, which oversees northern Iraq, has spent about $31 million of it. It has been used, officials said, for more than 11,000 projects such as hiring a civil defense corps, patching roads and fixing an oil refinery and a sulfur plant.
So far, according to the Post, this program has been a fabulous success, both in the speed of the reconstruction and in showing that the US military presence is intended to be helpful to ordinary Iraqis. While there is risk in this process of misdirected funds or inefficiency in effort, this is a small distribution channel and shouldn't be closed down in favor of a single, large bureaucracy. A combination of efforts will hasten the return to normalcy for Iraqis and ensure the broadest benefit of US aid. Hats off to the Post for featuring this good news from Iraq. (via Instapundit)
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