January 1, 2004
Mitch Berg's 2003 Wrapup
No, thank Goodness, Mitch doesn't go the Bill McAuliffe route and wax poetic in his EOY post, but instead Mitch focuses on what didn't happen, contrary to all predictions from the left: The Battle of Baghdad didn't turn into Stalingrad. Lack of UN support didn't render the liberation untenable. Hussein didn't nuke or gas Israel when he was up against the wall (hee hee. Remember when that was the left's big bleat?) Tens of thousands of Iraqis did not die. Mitch also was kind enough to add me to his blogroll and he recommends to the Northen Alliance that we look at Jay Reding. Jay posted a thoughtul piece yesterday as to why he thinks Dean is unstoppable, despite his tendency to be his own worst enemy: My guess that Dean has the nomination is based on my own experiences as a political footsoldier. As a former Republican campaign strategist...
Patterico: LA Times Roll of Shame
Man ... I spend yesterday and today watching the granddaughter, and when I come back, one of my blogfriends writes a killer article taking it to the Los Angeles Times. Patterico spent a lot of time and effort researching the foibles of the West Coast's leading newspaper (which he calls the Dog Trainer), and the result is a long list of embarrasments, mistakes, and flat-out lies that you would imagine should qualify John Carroll, the editor-in-chief, for a spot on Monday's unemployment line. Take the time to read through the entire post, and if you haven't already done so, add Patterico to your blogroll. Great start to the new year! (New resolution: go through my blogroll more often ...)...
International Flight Cancellations Due to Intelligence
The US, in cancelling at least one of the several international flights grounded during the holiday, acted on specific intelligence and not just names from passenger manifests, national security sources told the AP: U.S. authorities were acting on intelligence information — and not just suspicious passenger names — when they boarded a British Airways jet on New Year's Eve at nearby Dulles International Airport, a national security official said Thursday. Meanwhile, the security concerns affected the same British Airways scheduled flight again on Thursday, when the airline canceled one of its three daily flights from Heathrow Airport to Washington. Thursday's decision was based on security advice from the British government, a spokesman for the airline said. I think terrorist groups were either trying very hard to make a statement over the holidays, or they were engaging in a counter-intelligence mission to uncover spies and moles within their organizations. Regardless of...
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Anything But
Quite frankly, Twin Cities residents take a perverse pride in the editorial idiocy of our leading newspaper, the Star Tribune. My neighborhood bloggers all have recurring examples of the foolishness that the Strib regularly publishes in its news and op-ed sections, and at least for my part, I'm happy to remain well-informed and reasonably rational in spite of the Strib. So when another major city lays claim to the Strib's championship of lunacy, we all feel a bit resentful. Yesterday, unfortunately, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer tried to make its name ironic by publishing this tinfoil-hat editorial by Edward Wenk, Jr., described in the brief bio as "the first science adviser to Congress," as well as having accomplished the unusual hat trick of serving on the policy staffs for Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. These days, Wenk works as a crank, if his article gives a reliable indication: The shock and awe of...
January 2, 2004
Visit North Korea -- See Our Lovely Bombs
North Korea has invited the US to inspect its nuclear facilities prior to the next round of nonproliferation negotiations: North Korea has agreed to allow a U.S. delegation to visit its main nuclear complex next week, the first such inspection since the isolated communist country expelled United Nations monitors more than a year ago. The visit appeared to be an effort by North Korea to prove that it has built a nuclear bomb - or capable of doing so - and strengthen its negotiating position ahead of planned talks with the United States and four other nations on ending the nuclear standoff. Pyonyang could also be signaling its willingness to allow more extensive inspections in the future - if Washington meets its demands for humanitarian aid and a promise not to attack the North. While the notion that Pyongyang can prove it has a bomb sounds unsettling, it would merely...
Damned If You Do ...
It didn't take long for Iranian expressions of gratitude for the 150,000 pounds of relief materials given by the US to quake victims in Bam to turn into this: Hardliners in Iran's government criticized U.S. relief efforts after the devastating earthquake that killed more than 30,000 people and flattened the ancient city of Bam, accusing Washington of trying to meddle in Tehran's affairs. ... Khatami has thanked Washington for its support but hardline clerics within the government expressed suspicion about the motives behind U.S. aid: State radio, a mouthpiece for Iran's clerics, on Friday charged that Bush had "once again demonstrated that America's interfering and hostile policy against Iran has not altered at all." And if we hadn't sent aid, we'd be vilified as demons who won't share our wealth to save unfortunate victims of disasters. The issue? President Bush reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring Iranian nuclear programs be brought...
The Race Education of a White Guy
Howard Dean inserted his foot yet again, this time on the subject of race, and Mickey Kaus is all over it: "Dealing with race is about educating white folks." Howard Dean seems to have said this. That'll bring in those Southern pickup guys! They love being singled out for 'education'! ... Is there really nothing in "dealing with race" that involves changing African-American attitudes along with white attitudes? Dean's comment would be more depressing if weren't also the sort of cluelessly pre-Clinton utterance that virtually guarantees he will never be president. It's the sort of mindless pandering that has become emblematic of the Dean campaign. He wants to bolster his standing among African-Americans, but in his greed, he steps on his tongue again. Dean wants to return to the demonization that has characterized race politics for decades, something that Clinton tried to change. The problem with race relations and civil...
Blog Maintenance
A bit of minor blog construction going on ... First, I'm adding a great blog that I've previously just accessed through other blogrolls. (The Captain is a lazy guy.) Evangelical Outpost, one of the new outstanding blogs, regularly writes with authority and conviction on matters of religion, politics, culture, blogging ... in fact, on almost any topic imaginable. Hugh Hewitt recommends EO as daily reading -- and what better recommendation could there be? And thanks, JP, for the kind words about this blog. Thanks to the Northern Alliance bloggers, I've added two neighbors to the Northern Fleet: Jay Reding and Spitbull. I've mentioned them earlier, but I just wanted to mention them once again and recommend you give them a read. Finally, I'd like to thank a couple of Northern Alliance bloggers for adding CQ to their rolls. Mitch Berg added me a few days back and I haven't had...
Big Trunk on the Radio
Scott Johnson, the Big Trunk of Power Line is appearing on the radio locally in Minneapolis tonight on a fascinating topic, that of the requirement of continuing legal education for lawyers in bias sensitivity, and one lawyer, Elliot Rothenberg, who is risking his license to challenge this requirement. Minnesota lawyers, like many other professions, are required to take coursework on a regular basis in order to keep up to date in changes and advancements. However, the "elimination of bias" requirement has nothing to do with the practice of law, as the qualifying classes themselves demonstrate: • A 'rally for credit' for attorney Lynne Stewart, who is under federal indictment on charges of supporting terrorist activities. • At least 20 courses beginning in April 2002 with titles like 'Understanding Islam,' which Rothenberg says promotes one religion. • A course opposing military action against terrorists. • A course condemning capital punishment as...
Electric Venom: Snark Abounds
Venomous Kate dropped me a note letting me know that she's back from her injury-induced hiatus and has a fresh Snark Hunt for the readers of Electric Venom. Not only that, but this week's snark includes an entry from CQ, the "epic" poem, The Midnight Blog-Court. She notes, with a hiss, that I didn't mention her in it. At the time, I thought I was doing her a favor ... Make sure you drop by Electric Venom to check out the snark, and all of the other great stuff that Kate posts!...
January 3, 2004
Look For The Union Parable
Los Angeles has been struggling through a weeks-long grocery strike and lockout, which was in full swing when I visited family at Thanksgiving. I've avoided writing on the subject of the strike because it only affects the people of Southern California and I'm too far away to know all of the issues involved, most of which appears to be centered around management's refusal to keep paying 100% of the union's medical insurance. Apparently, union tracts being handed out to shoppers defying the picket lines -- when strikers aren't screaming harassment at shoppers, that is -- features a parable about a man and a goat. (No, I'm not making this up, and get your mind out of the gutter.) The parable tells the cautionary tale of "a man who is granted his wish for a goat and another man who is jealous and is granted his wish to kill the goat....
Not Everyone Agrees With Me
What a shocker that headline is, eh? Jon at QandO wrote an excellent response on his blog to my analysis of the Republican ticket in 2004 and its impact on long-term strategy. He likes my analysis but disagrees with my conclusion that Condoleezza Rice will make the best VP candidate for Bush in 2004: Here's where we'll part ways. I'd agree that it would be a strategic benefit in '08 to have a VP who can run for office. But I suspect it might be a strategic blunder to switch horses in mid-stream during the '04 election. One doesn't do that without drawing a great deal of negative attention...not the sort of thing that Presidential candidates like to do. More importantly, it just doesn't seem like Bush's style. He's a loyal and "stick to the plan" sort of fellow. I just don't see him abandoning a team member in a...
PoliBlog's Toast-O-Meter
Steven at Poliblog has a funny and informative running series on the presidential election called the Toast-O-Meter, designed to predict which candidate is fresh bread goodness, and which are toast in the primaries. Check out the Toast-O-Meter and the plethora of links PoliBlog provides. Obviously, Dean's listed as the freshest bread in the bakery, while candidates like Dennis Kucinich and Carol Moseley-Braun, uh, crumble under the analysis. Steven's added Veep Toast as well, although I disagree with him on his assessment of John Edwards, both as a candidate in general and on his Veep potential. (However, the Quayle analogy crossed my mind as well.) I've also added PoliBlog to the blogroll, if for no other reason than to keep it one step ahead of Kicking Ass. Check it out!...
New York Times: Missing The Point
The New York Times ran an article today on the temperament of Democratic front-runner Howard Dean, who has caused his supporters -- and his Democratic opponents as well -- some concern with his quick temper and his manner of speaking without considering the consequences. Predictably, the Times spins this as honesty given a bit too much free reign: Friends and former employees of Dr. Dean say his temper can indeed flare, although of greater concern to campaign aides is the occasional crisis created by his speaking too quickly on the issues. Even that, he and his top aides say, is not as detrimental as his opponents might hope: as long as he talks straight and from the heart, he said in an interview in Iowa not long ago, voters will overlook a little roughness around the edges. "What people are responding to is that I believe in what I'm doing...
Secret Case Before the Supreme Court?
The California Yankee notified me of a notable development: the US Supreme Court has agreed to consider an appeal of a case that, up to now, doesn't appear to exist. California Yankee provides plenty of background on the case, discussing what is known and what isn't, and why this case involving a Muslim illegally in the US should cause us concern. Take a look at this; it certainly looks like a problem to me....
Blog Madness: A New Tournament for the Blogosphere
It seems that the blogosphere loves contests and awards only slightly less than Hollywood, and Pete and Manny have come up with a fun new contest for fans of such things called Blog Madness. They're serious about it, too -- they've even got a specific domain name for it! The idea is to select one post from 2003 that you feel best represents your blog and register it for the contest. Pete and Manny intend to use a bracket system, just like the NCAA basketball tournament, with voting to determine the winners at each stage. My entry for the contest is my "epic" poem, The Midnight Blog-Court, which I wrote in November. We'll see how far it goes in the tournament, but I think it was written in the same spirit as the contest itself -- fun, not taking things too seriously, and all about the blogging. If you want...
Vermont Yankee Reactor Safety Ignored by Dean
In Power Line's words, this will hurt Dean, but I don't think it will be as bad as some would think. I originally saw this story this afternoon but didn't give it a good read. Fortunately, Hindrocket takes a close look at the story, as reported by the AP based on documents from an undisclosed source. Dean was warned repeatedly over more than ten years that security for Vermont's nuclear reactor was substandard, and in fact was rated the worst in the nation: During Dean's final year in office in 2002, an audit concluded that despite a decade of repeated warnings of poor safety at Vermont Yankee, Dean's administration was poorly prepared for a nuclear disaster. "The lack of funding and overarching coordination at the state level directly impacts the ability of the state, local and power plant planners to be adequately prepared for a real emergency at Vermont Yankee,"...
Star Tribune Still Angry About 2000
In a typical editorial, this one "signed" by Commentary editor Eric Ringham, the Minneapolis Star Tribune castigates the Green Party and Ralph Nader for getting George Bush elected in 2000: Look at what's happened since your champion confused and divided the left in 2000. Nader, the nominal head of your party, dismissed any suggestion that he was splitting the liberal vote, sneering that the difference between George W. Bush and Al Gore was the difference between Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Later on, when the difference between Dum and Dee in deaths and deficits became all too plain, Nader and friends started arguing that if Al Gore couldn't put up a better fight, it wasn't Ralph Nader's fault. Well, no -- it wasn't Nader's fault that the race was close. It was just Nader's fault that Bush won. Without Nader, Gore would have won Florida, recount or no recount. He would have...
January 4, 2004
Pioneer Press: We're Onto You
Art Coulson, editor-in-chief of our smaller but significantly more intelligent local newspaper, the Pioneer Press, writes in today's Opinion section that they have had enough of canned letters to the editor: We welcome letters to the editor from readers on just about any topic and written from just about any perspective. ... What we don't welcome, and won't publish if we can help it, are letters signed by but not written by the sender. These include forwards of messages bouncing around the Internet, cut-and-paste jobs from political Web sites and outright frauds sent by special interest organizations over false names and addresses. For some reason during this particular election cycle, activists on all sides have discovered the Letters to the Editor section of their local newspapers and insist on filling them with all sorts of one-off blurbs for their candidate or cause du jour. Instead of featuring reader response to...
Does the GOP Have a Chance with African-Americans?
Today's Washington Post has an interesting editorial by Jonetta Rose Barras that persuasively argues that the Democrats may be losing their iron grip on a traditional base of their power: In 2002 the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a liberal think tank, asked black respondents in its national survey to identify themselves as either Democrats, independents or Republicans. Although 63 percent claimed to be Democrats, the number was down from 74 percent in 2000. The decrease occurred in nearly every age group, including among respondents 65 and older (where the drop was from 82 percent to 75 percent). There was a significant increase in those calling themselves independents, especially between the ages of 26 and 35. Respondents identifying themselves as Republicans also increased: Between ages 26 and 35, the share tripled, going from 5 percent in 2000 to 15 percent in 2002. These changes occurred during an administration...
A Giant Step For Freedom
After teetering on the brink of collapse, the loya jirga in Afghanistan has almost miraculously reached agreement on a new constitution, giving men and women equal rights and striking a balance between a strong presidency and Parliamentary oversight: Just a day after warning that the meeting, or loya jirga, was heading toward a humiliating failure, chairman Sibghatullah Mujaddedi announced that last-ditch diplomacy had secured a deal. ... The charter was amended to grant official status to northern minority languages where they are most commonly spoken, an issue which had brought the meeting close to collapse. ... After the new draft was circulated, the 502 delegates gathered under a giant tent in the Afghan capital rose from their chairs, standing in silence for about 30 seconds to signal their support for the new charter. Is it perfect? Not really; Islamist factions insisted and received provisions for Afghanistan to be an Islamic...
Power Line Hot Reads
The guys at Power Line are working hard on Sunday, posting on a variety of interesting topics. Hindrocket starts out with a look at Howard Dean's newfound evangelism on the stump, so far highlighted by misidentifying the location of the Book of Job and complaining about the ending. Deacon notes an article in National Review by Lawrence Kaplan that proposes that Dean will move to what he thinks is the center, but in reality will wind up with a McGovern-Mondale type of campaign, with similar results. Big Trunk reviews two articles today, the new Mark Steyn column about the lack of consensus on reality between the Deaniacs and just about everyone else, and an excellent overview of Bush's national security strategy and how it hearkens to the Grand Strategies of the previous century. Make sure you read everything they've got today....
Economy Coming Up Roses for Bush
It will be interesting to see how Democratic hopefuls spin this: In many ways, the economy is on a more solid footing than five years ago, as many of its excesses have been wrung out. Companies have cleaned up their balance sheets and pared their payrolls to the bone. Any upturn is flowing rapidly to the bottom line. Recent months have profited investors more than workers (the stock market posted its first positive year since 1999 in 2003, rising more than 25 percent), but that could change soon. Facing increased demand, confirmed last week in a report showing a sixth straight month of rising manufacturing activity, businesses are finally beginning to add workers. Even the "jobless recovery" is becoming no more. The Labor Department reported last week that the widely watched four week moving average of jobless claims fell to its lowest level since early in 2001. That number, 355,700,...
On The Other Hand, Maybe They Deserve Each Other
I've often taken the Minneapolis Star-Tribune to task for its editorial policy, claiming that the newspaper's knee-jerk Leftism ill serves its readership. Sometimes, however, I wonder if it's really true after reading letters printed in reaction to their articles -- letters like this one, for instance (fourth item): On Dec. 29, Native Americans commemorated the 1890 battle at Wounded Knee, where some 300 unarmed Lakota (Sioux) Indians were massacred by U.S. troops. On Jan. 2, the Star Tribune ran an article about L. Frank Baum, the "Wizard of Oz" creator, and his book on holiday window displays. Baum's masterful window decorating might merit a 24-column-inch tribute, but running it so close to the Wounded Knee anniversary is, at best, insensitive. Following Wounded Knee, Baum publicly championed the genocide of the Sioux. As editor of the Aberdeen Pioneer in South Dakota, Baum wrote of the slaughter that "our only safety depends...
January 5, 2004
AP Review of Debate: Smoke and Fog
The AP writes an unusually critical review of yesterday's Democratic debate, noting the lack of honesty and factual argument that has become the rule rather than the exception, especially in regard to Howard Dean: For a brief time in their debate Sunday, Democrats seemed to be hewing to a New Year's resolution to stick more carefully to the facts on taxes, the budget and more. But old habits die hard. ... Dean repeated his frequent claim that middle-income Americans have not seen their taxes go down under Bush: "There was no middle-class tax cut," he declared. In fact, their taxes did go down. But Dean went on to explain what he really meant — that most people are worse off because college tuition, health care premiums, property taxes and other state and local taxes or fees have gone up by more than Americans have saved under the Bush tax cuts....
Has the Democratic Establishment Thrown In the Towel?
Further confirmation of Dean's inevitability will be forthcoming as early as tomorrow, as the AP reports that former Senator Bill Bradley, who vied with Al Gore for the nomination in 2000, will endorse Howard Dean: Former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley, who lost the Democratic nomination for president to Al Gore in 2000, is expected to endorse front-runner Howard Dean, party officials said Monday. ... Dean has changed his campaign schedule to appear Tuesday in New Hampshire for a surprise announcement, state campaign director Karen Hicks said Monday. Dean can now claim endorsements from both major Democratic contenders from the last election, and even though Bradley represented the more liberal wing of the party -- until Al Gore decided to swing left over the past couple of years -- his endorsement has to be seen as an Establishment endorsement, perhaps even more than Gore's. Bradley commands respect across the political spectrum...
Seattle P-I: Stupid Is as Stupid Does
What a relief to quit writing about the Strib! Fortunately, as I wrote last week, I've discovered an even bigger example of the Tinfoil-Hat Brigade in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. As I saw on Blogs for Bush today, their Opinion section continues to attract the oddities. Today's exercise in Looneyvision comes to us via the P-I from guest columnist Neal Starkman, who claims to have discovered the reason George Bush remains popular with the electorate: The answer, I'm afraid, is the factor that dare not speak its name. It's the factor that no one talks about. The pollsters don't ask it, the media don't report it, the voters don't discuss it. I, however, will blare out its name so that at last people can address the issue and perhaps adopt strategies to overcome it. It's the "Stupid factor," the S factor: Some people -- sometimes through no fault of their own...
January 6, 2004
Boswell: Rose Has Changed Nothing
Pete Rose has written a blockbuster new book about his life in which he finally admits he gambled on baseball while managing the Cincinatti Reds, after 14 years of public denials. Charley Hustle no doubt believes that this public admission of guilt will unlock the doors of the Hall of Fame and possibly allow him to manage a team again. Initial public reaction indicates that fans hope for the same thing. Allowing Rose back in the game is a big mistake, though, and his public admission appears to be not only less than heartfelt but less than complete as well. Thomas Boswell agrees with this assessment in today's Washington Post, and Boswell reminds us that Rose strung us all along for 14 years of denials and counteraccusations, both from himself and his many proxies: "I'm sure that I'm supposed to act all sorry or sad or guilty now that I've...
Power Line: CLE Test Case Continues
The Big Trunk at Power Line continues his excellent series on the continuing legal education requirement for Minnesota lawyers on "elimination of bias" today with a recap of Eliot Rothenberg's hearing before the state Supreme Court: My day-job colleague and Power Line reader Peter Swanson attended the Minnesota Supreme Court hearing in the Elliot Rothenberg case yesterday. ... Peter has kindly forwarded us his notes on the hearing, in bullet point form organized by topic. Swanson's notes make for fascinating reading. It becomes apparent that Rothenberg cuts an impressive figure before the bar, and the justices are loath to revoke or suspend his license for his principled stand. Nevertheless, they interrogate him and opposing counsel Assistant Attorney General Ruth Flynn thoroughly, if professionally and politely. Read all of Swanson's bullet-point notes, but the conclusion is certainly a bit breathtaking, considering Rothenberg's livelihood is on the line: · The final question...
Don't Let The Cabin Door Hit You On The Way Out
Two international air carriers insist that they will not comply with US requirements to have armed sky marshals on board designated flights: The decisions by South African Airways and Thomas Cook Airlines, the charter flight arm of Europe’s second biggest travel firm, deepened a dispute over a move Washington sees as essential to outwitting al-Qaida and other extremist groups. ... German-owned Thomas Cook Airlines, which flies to Orlando, Fla., from Britain and also flies through U.S. airspace to the Caribbean, ruled out using marshals in any circumstances. “Thomas Cook Airlines has not changed its policy that if presented with a sky marshal on any of our routes, the flight would be canceled,” it said in a statement. South African Airways, which has 28 return flights a week to Atlanta and New York, also said it would not for the time being meet U.S. demands. Without trying to sound too jingoistic...
Israel and Libya: Together Again For The First Time?
The Jerusalem Post is reporting in its latest edition that diplomatic talks have quietly begun between Israel and Libya aimed at normalizing relations (may require free registration): Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom's bureau chief, Ron Prosor, met with a Libyan representative in Paris two weeks ago to talk about opening a dialogue between the two countries, Channel 2 reported Tuesday night. ... Kuwati newspaper A-Siyasa, meanwhile, reported Tuesday that a high-ranking Israeli delegation is expected to visit Libya in the near future with the aim of laying the ground for the signing of a peace agreement. According to the paper, Israeli and Libyan officials met last Friday in Vienna in the presence of a senior American diplomat and agreed to send an Israeli delegation to Libya in the near future. If true -- and the Kuwaiti newspaper seems to be confirming it -- this could be a blockbuster development for a...
Texas Redistricting Upheld by Federal Court
This bodes well for the Republicans in the next Congress: A three-judge federal panel Tuesday upheld a new congressional map for Texas that the Republicans pushed through the Legislature after months of turmoil and two walkouts by the Democrats. he decision followed a December trial in which Democrats and minority groups argued that the new map tramples the rights of Hispanic and black voters. But the judges said Democrats failed to prove the plan violates the Constitution or the Voting Rights Act, designed to protect minority voters. The opinion also noted that the judges ruled simply on the legality of the Republican plan — not its "wisdom." The Texas delegation to Congress consists of an even split between Democrats and Republicans after Rep. Ralph Hall switched to the GOP this week. Republicans may take up to six more districts in the next election, making a switch in control of the...
Saudi Arrested with Firecrackers in Boston Airport
German air security seems questionable after a Saudi man was arrested after arriving in Boston with firecrackers in his carry-on luggage: A Saudi man was charged yesterday for having firecrackers in carry-on luggage on a plane from Germany to Boston amid United States warnings of a possible attack bigger than the September 11, 2001, hijacked plane strikes. US officials in Boston said that Essam Mohammed Almohandis, 33, of Riyadh had "three small firecracker-type explosive or incendiary devices" in his carry-on luggage on a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt on Sunday. The Saudi first told authorities that the tubes in his bag were "artist's crayons," then claimed not to know what the devices were and said that his wife had packed his bag. He is being held for arraignment and faces 10 years in prison. What could the man have done with firecrackers? Depending on the size of the charge, he could...
January 7, 2004
Poll: Dean Losing Ground, Bush Approval Ratings Up Again
A new poll from CNN, USA Today, and Gallup shows that while Howard Dean's plurality in the Democratic race is holding steady, the campaign of former Gen. Wesley Clark has emerged as the closest challenger, now polling within 4 points of Dean: He has the support of 24 percent of registered Democrats who responded. In December, Dean had 27 percent. The difference, however, is within the poll's margin of error of plus-or-minus 5 percentage points. Clark had the support of only 12 percent of registered Democrats in December and is now within 5 percentage points of Dean, with 20 percent. "Clark is the only Democratic candidate to show momentum in the past month," Schneider said. "The attacks on Dean from his fellow Democrats could be taking a toll on the front-runner." The numbers seem to show that Dean's support isn't wavering as much as Clark has drawn support from other...
Broder on Dean
David Broder, in today's Washington Post, makes the same point as I did in my previous post -- that Dean is fortunate to still be running against eight other candidates: With nine candidates contesting for votes, he doesn't have to persuade a majority to support him. He just has to turn out the true believers. Even modest plurality wins in those races would translate into a wealth of favorable publicity, and with more money to spend than any of his opponents, Dean could well run the table of the early February contests before anyone else effectively mobilizes a counterattack. Eventually, of course, Dean will have to expand his support beyond the "true believers" that have lifted him to the top of a very crowded race, a campaign that seems stuck around the 24-27% mark amongst Democrats alone. As other candidates drop out, Dean has to find a way to attract...
Dean Gathers Some Establishment Momentum
The AP published a poll of Democratic "superdelegates" -- those electors who by Democratic Party rules are free to vote their own mind regardless of primary/caucus results in their state -- and Dean has done surprisingly well, capturing 31% of those who have decided on a candidate: In the first "ballots" cast of the 2004 race, the former Vermont governor has endorsements or pledges of support from 80 Democratic "superdelegates" — elected officials and other party officials who will help select a nominee at this July's convention. Rival Dick Gephardt, the former House Democratic leader who has served as Missouri congressman for 28 years, has the backing of 57 superdelegates. Four-term Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts has the support of 50. Among the remaining candidates, three-term Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the 2000 vice presidential nominee, has 25 superdelegates, while Wesley Clark, the retired general who has never held elected...
Joan Crawford's Missing Daughter?
This is just ... uncanny: (thanks to my buddy, Steve)...
The Universe Is Male
AP Headline: Universe Lifeless After Big Bang I'm linking this back to Electric Venom: the Letter of the Day is T!...
Sailing Through the Blogosphere
Sailing, sailing, over the bounding Main... Patterico proudly informs his readers that he's cutting back on his blogging by not increasing his time as much as he wanted. If you are as confused about that as his wife, then you don't read the Los Angeles Times. Read about "The Jump" and make sure you check back often with Patterico on media-bias topics especially ... Jon at QandO dissects the latest David Brooks column on the hidden anti-Semitism in the term neo-con, and wonders why other bloggers can't give Brooks credit for seeing some truth in his column ... If you've got the bandwidth, Allah's got the pictures. Again. How does he get this great background stuff on the candidates? Oh, yeah, I forgot -- he's Allah ... DC at Brainstorming has, with the help of NASA, solved one of our most enduring mysteries. If mine are nearby, then perhaps there...
January 8, 2004
Immigration Reform
George Bush took another bold and controversial step, this time challenging his base on the subject of immigration reform: Saying the United States needs an immigration system "that serves the American economy and reflects the American dream," President Bush Wednesday outlined an plan to revamp the nation's immigration laws and allow some eight million illegal immigrants to obtain legal status as temporary workers. "Over the generations, we have received energetic, ambitious optimistic people from every part of the world. By tradition and conviction, our country is a welcoming society," he said. "Every generation of immigrants has reaffirmed the wisdom of remaining open to the talents and dreams of the world. As a nation that values immigration and depends on immigration, we should have immigration laws that work and make us proud," he said. "Yet, today, we do not." So far, what I've seen and read on Bush's new immigration initiative...
Blog Update: Iraq War Casualties Website
A new reader of CQ in San Diego sent me an e-mail that asked if I had a link to a website that had updated casualty counts. I didn't, but it seems to me that I should -- so, in the Battleships section, I've added a link to this site at Lunaville. The data appears correct and the sources are solid....
Mexico's Fox Pleased with Immigration Initiative
Mexican President Vicente Fox expressed his pleasure with George Bush's new immigration initiative today: President Vicente Fox on Thursday praised the immigration reform proposed by President Bush and claimed it as an achievement for his own administration. But Fox and other Mexican officials indicated the new American proposal did not meet all their goals. "We're going for more. We're going for more," he told reporters during a visit to a shelter for street children. Fox has repeatedly urged Bush to legalize the millions of Mexicans who cross the border illegally to work in the United States. The money they send home is Mexico's second-largest source of foreign income, behind oil. No one will be surprised to hear that Fox is happy; almost any change from the status quo has to be an improvement, with the exception of mass expulsion. Fox probably would prefer an amnesty program, but he's not going...
Immigration Reform Opponents Have Questions to Answer
George Bush, in his proposal to reform the issue of illegal immigration, seems to have done what the election and the Nine Dwarves couldn't -- split the right and shake his base with an outbreak of pragmatic centrism. The day after Bush's proposal for a new guest-worker program and its extension to illegal workers already in the US, the conservatives are lighting up the Internet with dissension and outrage. For instance, the Corner at NRO has several voices all sounding the same alarms: amnesty and surrender, and they're not at all happy about it. So far, very little objection has been made to the concept of a guest-worker program; most of the bandwidth is being eaten up by the idea of allowing those already here to enter the program as a sort of fait accompli. It's time for a reality check, folks. We have somewhere between 8 to 10 million...
Bush To Issue New Lunar Challenge
George Bush intends on challenging America to return to the moon, this time to establish a permanent presence: President Bush will announce plans next week to send Americans to Mars and back to the moon and to establish a long-term human presence on the moon, senior administration officials said Thursday night. ... Three senior officials said Bush wants to aggressively reinvigorate the space program, which has been demoralized by a series of setbacks, including the space shuttle disaster last February that killed seven astronauts. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Bush's announcement would come in the middle of next week. As someone who grew up with the space program, with a father who worked on the Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle programs, the prospect of another bold new goal in space travel excites me. It will be interesting to see if it excites many others, as times have...
Did Angelina Jolie Get Duped By Adoption Scam?
This story is disturbing: HOLLYWOOD actor Angelina Jolie may be forced to hand her adopted son back to Cambodian authorities if claims he is not an orphan are true, it was reported today. The Sydney Morning Herald reported Cambodian child welfare workers as claiming that Maddox, the son Jolie and her former husband the actor-director Billy Bob Thornton adopted two years ago, was sold by his poverty-stricken mother. The agent that arranged the adoption, Lauryn Galindo, is facing charges in the United States of visa fraud and money laundering amid claims that Maddox's mother sold him for $US100 ($130). Jolie has said that she would never rob a mother of her child. There's more details at this link. It doesn't appear that Jolie was aware of the scams allegedly run by Galindo, which will make this case doubly tragic if the child is removed from her custody. On the other...
January 9, 2004
Qureia: We Want One Middle-East State
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia threatened Israel with the bomb -- the population bomb, that is: Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said Thursday that if Israel unilaterally imposed a new boundary with Palestinian areas he would respond by pushing for a single Arab-Jewish state — a move that could spell disaster for Israel. A single country including Gaza, the West Bank and Israel would mean that the Jewish state would soon have an Arab majority. That would force Israel to choose between giving Palestinians the right to vote and risk losing the country’s Jewish character, or becoming a minority-ruled country like apartheid South Africa. Of course, this has always been the idea behind the Palestinian offensive against the existence of Israel. The Palestinians have a higher birth rate and at some point will outnumber the Israelis. When that happens, all they need to do is recognize Israel not as...
And Escape Dean's Paradise?
A border town in Vermont wants to change addresses: Officials in the popular ski resort area of Killington want the town to secede from Vermont and join neighboring New Hampshire in a dispute over taxes. They say the town's restaurants, inns and other businesses send $10 million a year to the state capital in sales, room and meal taxes, but the state returns just $1 million in state aid to Killington. Even more galling to the town is a statewide property tax imposed in 1997 to fund schools. The town of 1,092 won a Superior Court order that called the state's method of assessing local properties "arbitrary and capricious," but the state Supreme Court reversed that decision. After twelve years of Dean's administration and tax policy, the town of Killington is so fed up they'd rather be annexed to New Hampshire. Not much chance of that, according to Vermont's Secretary...
Clues For The Clueless
The AP and the Star-Tribune provides another example of the mass media's cluelessness in dealing with matters of religion. Today's entry involves a study of sexual practices in urban areas from the University of Chicago. For the most part, the story remains mildly interesting, as much as it can be when it's mostly telling us what we already know about sexual relations these days -- people wait longer to get married and have more sexual partners than they did before, men have more partners than women, women want "relational" sex and men want "transactional" sex regardless of sexual orientation. (In fact, it sounds to me like they haven't changed much in 20 years.) Towards the end, reporter Martha Irvine makes the following statement: Still, Laumann and his staff found that social services, the church and law enforcement have been slow to address this latest sexual revolution. ... And most churches...
Hell, I'll Take the Job
Glenn Reynolds, the indispensable Instapundit, writes in his MS-NBC column that the New York Times needs an editorial transfusion: And if you read the Times oped page regularly, as fewer and fewer people seem to do these days, you'll notice a distinct staleness about many of the columnists. The Times oped page needs turnover -- either permanent, or temporary, with columnists sent off to do actual reporting, or something, for six months or a year while they regain their edge. But who would fill the gaps? Reynolds then discusses a couple of options available to the Gray Lady, including giving occasional guest columnist Dan Savage a regular run while Dowd and Krugman go on an extended vacation. (Maybe Krugman can write another book to follow up The Great Unraveling? He can write about trying to unravel during a record growth period.) Reynolds notes that Savage isn't even outside of the...
To Our Friends Down Under: We're So Sorry
It's events like this that cause other countries to decry American cultural imperialism and make us look like a bunch of mouthbreathing morons: Barry "I still look like Greg Brady" Williams will be touring NSW in March with his more-than-just cabaret show, in which he sings, "teaches Brady Bunch choreography to audience members" and recounts stories from the show. "Brady Bunch choreography"? Does he mean like the dancing featured on the disastrous Sid & Marty Krofft variety TV series, The Brady Bunch Hour? Perhaps he means the choreography he demonstrated as Danny Partridge was kicking his ass on Celebrity Boxing. Or he could be referring to the moves he tried putting on Florence Henderson while appearing as her son on the original series. When Williams sticks to telling stories, he can be entertaining and self-deprecating, but Aussies aren't going to be that lucky: "Barry Williams raps, rocks, belts, sings ballads...
January 10, 2004
This Is How Dean Can Win
I don't recall a primary season starting with so many players getting double-digit support: In Iowa, the former Vermont governor was at 30 percent, with Dick Gephardt at 23 percent and John Kerry at 18 percent, according to the Los Angeles Times poll of likely Iowa caucus goers. John Edwards, a North Carolina senator, was the only other candidate in double digits, at 11 percent. ... A New Hampshire poll showed Dean holding a lead of about 20 points over his closest competitors. The poll done for the Concord Monitor by Research 2000 found Dean with the support of 34 percent, with Clark at 14 percent and Kerry at 13 percent. Others were in single digits. Normally at this point in a presidential election cycle, the party running against an incumbent has already eliminated all but two or maybe three choices. In Iowa, you would expect the two choices to...
Colbert King: Dean's a Fraud
Colbert King, the Washington Post columnist and no friend to Republicans, excoriates Howard Dean's attempt to suck up to the religious: Dean captured the suck-up prize with his revelation that -- praise the Lord -- he has finally found a way to talk about his deeply held religious faith. Most remarkable, and the reason he won going away, was his explanation for how he reached this exquisite moment of sudden understanding. Was it a particular scene, some road-to-Damascus experience, that occasioned such a flash of insight in Dean? What, pray tell, set off Dean's new compulsion to openly discuss Jesus and his mastery of the Bible? Dean disclosed that his willingness -- no, make that eagerness -- to start sharing his faith with any reporter, microphone or voter within the sound of his voice comes as a result of his travels on the campaign trail. Yes, credit Dean's journey --...
Electric Venom's Snark Hunt Goes To Brazil
Venomous Kate, always on the prowl for prime snark, has posted a treasure trove of it just in time for the weekend. She links to my story about Nazi-analogy-spouting Brazilian judges, too, and if you read it make sure you catch the comments as well. While you're at Kate's, check out these posts on the new non-smoking policy in Riverside County, and a practical joke that took a lot of time and effort, as well as depriving the Tinfoil Hat Brigade of its primary mineral resource....
Bush Continues to Build Strength in the 'Religious' Vote
Continuing the discussion below, the Religious News Service reports that George Bush has built a considerable strength among those voters who consider themselves religious, as reprinted in the Star Tribune: Polls indicate Bush holds a commanding lead among the most religious voters, a 2004 advantage he did not enjoy over 2000 Democratic nominee Al Gore. In a Gallup Poll conducted Nov. 10-12, Bush held a 67 to 30 percent lead among religious voters over the Democratic front-runner, former Vermont Gov. Dean. In hypothetical head-to-head races with Gephardt and Clark, Bush's lead was 65 to 33 percent. ... The shift could be significant, particularly in the South and Midwest, where religion can spell the difference in a close election. According to Gallup polls, religion is "very" or "extremely" important to the voting decisions of about one in three nationally. And among these Americans, it's advantage Bush. The article reviews the controversy...
Danes Find Liquid-Filled Mortars in Iraq
If it does turn out to be chemical or biological weaponry, however, it won't make a bit of difference if it dates back to the Iran-Iraq War of the 80s. The UN resolutions required Iraq to account for and destroy all nuclear, chemical, and biological weaponry, not just those created after 1991. These mortars, if proved to be WMDs, would prove that Iraq continued to possess and hide prohibited weaponry in defiance of the UN.
Bush Planned Iraq Invasion -- So What?
In a 60 Minutes interview to be aired tomorrow, former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill alleges that the Bush administration planned the invasion of Iraq in early 2001: "From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go," O'Neill told CBS, according to excerpts released Saturday by the network. "For me, the notion of pre-emption, that the U.S. has the unilateral right to do whatever we decide to do, is a really huge leap." ... In the book, O'Neill is quoted as saying he was surprised that no one in a National Security Council meeting asked why Iraq should be invaded. "It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying 'Go find me a way to do this,'" O'Neill said. Of course, this being an election year, Democrats have something...
Infinite Monkeys: The Democratic Dirigible
RB at Infinite Monkeys posted an interesting analogy about Howard Dean and the Democratic Party, based on a comment made by Hugh Hewitt on his radio show: The Hindenburg went into service on March 4th, 1936. It met its fiery end on May 6th, 1937, only 14 months later. About the same length as a political campaign. Read the rest of RB's brilliant post to find out exactly how that all plays out and how Dean figures into it. The Elder at Fraters Libertas also thinks you should read this, and please note that I've added Infinte Monkeys to the Battleships section....
January 11, 2004
Iowa: Patron State of Lost Causes?
Iowa's major newspapers published their endorsements today -- and they neatly managed to avoid picking a winner: Iowa's largest newspaper endorsed North Carolina Sen. John Edwards for the Democratic presidential nomination while three other Iowa newspapers went for Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry in weekend editions. Note the complete absence of names like Dean, Clark, Gephardt -- it seems that Iowa newspapers are determined to extend this primary race as much as possible. It's very surprising that none of the broadsheets saw fit to endorse Gephardt, a progressive Midwestern who has a strong record of supporting labor and a centrist national-security outlook. It's almost as if they deliberately chose lost causes to keep some hope alive for these stumbling campaigns. After all, four Democrats are polling in double digits, and Edwards isn't even one of them. Remember -- the longer that there are more than two or three viable candidates in...
It's Not Difficult At All
The Star Tribune asks the wrong question in a featured article today about the disposition of released, high-risk sex offenders, titled "Is it too hard to commit dangerous sex offenders?" The case of Alfonso Rodriguez, who allegedly kidnapped the still-missing Dru Sjodin last year, has made the question of civil commitment for high-risk sex offenders a hot topic in Minnesota: The Rodriguez case has horrified the public, putting the commitment process under the spotlight and making it an explosive political issue. The public attention prompted the Corrections Department to send 145 new commitment cases to county attorneys for review. If, as expected, that review increases the number of sex offenders who are committed, taxpayers will have to pay millions more every year for their treatment in secure psychiatric facilities. There are now some 200 sex offenders held at secure psychiatric facilities in Moose Lake and St. Peter. Each costs state...
Stiff Sentences for Hardened Criminals?
Okay, if I am a firm believer in tough sentencing laws for sex offenders (see my previous post), then these guys need to be given some stiff penalities for smuggling: A federal grand jury on Friday indicted a Los Angeles man on charges of trafficking in counterfeit tablets of the anti-impotence drug Viagra that he purportedly obtained from a drug company in China, a U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman said. ... Agents seized about 10,000 blue pills stamped with the same markings as Viagra tablets, including the name of Pfizer Inc., the world's largest pharmaceutical company and the maker of Viagra. ... The charges of conspiracy, trafficking in counterfeit goods and selling a counterfeit drug carry a potential maximum penalty of up to 18 years in federal prison and a $2 million fine. Please feel free to come up with your own puns and drop them in my comments section. However,...
Sympathy For The Pimp Family
Patterico has a terrific post about the LA Times and its deceptive headlines and editing, continuing his critical series on bias at the West Coast's biggest newspaper, to which he affectionately refers as the Dog Trainer: I urge you to read the following hilarious article in yesterday's Dog Trainer titled South Bay Couple Plead Not Guilty to Running Call-Girl Ring From Home. My suggested headline would have been: "Clearly Guilty Couple Asserts Lame Defense." My headline would confuse you if you read only the information contained on the front pages, which makes the couple sound like very nice people being persecuted by misguided law enforcement officials. The details supporting my suggested headline all come -- after the jump. "The jump" is the difference between the featured paragraphs of a story on the front page and the Paul Harvey portion stuck in the back of the section. This is somewhat less...
Power Line Puts O'Neill in Perspective
Deacon at Power Line writes an excellent post putting former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's comments on George Bush and his administration in perspective: Bush was under no obligation to allow O'Neill to read him and, in fact, O'Neill admitted to Time that it may have just been Bush's style to keep his advisers guessing. Moreover, it seems rather odd to expect Cheney not to have adjusted his economic views in light of developments since the heady days of Gerald Ford (for example the success of the economy under Ronald Reagan, about which Cheney tried to remind O'Neill). O'Neill's underlying complaint seems to be that Bush and Cheney favored Reaganomics over the economic policies of Ford (remember "whip inflation now?"). Whether one adjudicates between these competing approaches through ideology, expediency, or "evidence and analysis", it is difficult to dispute the administration's preference. Besides offering this election's strangest metaphor ("like a blind...
What's The Rush?
Over the past four decades -- from the Summer of Love to the Bratz Kids -- our children have been under increasing pressure to become aggressively sexual earlier and earlier. Little girls who aren't even in middle school start wearing makeup and getting expensive hairdos, and now parents are taking it to another level: To celebrate her birthday, Lauren Potter decided to spring for a day at the spa. She and a friend, Ana Zdechlik, spent an afternoon getting facials, manicures and pedicures. They ended the day by having their hair spiked. Such birthday luxuries are not uncommon, except for one thing: Both girls are 11. ... [T]eens and "tweens" (10-to 12-year-olds bursting to be older) can get a French Upgrade or Glitter Topcoat for their nails, a chin wax job, Blemish Blaster Facial, eyelash and eyebrow tint or paraffin foot dip. They can also get a temporary henna tattoo...
Post the Tape!
Comrade Commissar at the Politburo Diktat has a transcript from an underground video that may prove rather popular once it makes its way onto the Internet. In fact, it gives a new meaning to the phrase, "Move On": Iowa Hilton: Ahhh. Ahhh. Some Stud: Ohhh. Vohhh. Your votes. I want your votes. IH: (looking at network news cameras): Hi [giggles]. SS: What do you say? I can save you. Come here. Caucus with me for eight hours. IH: I don't wanna vote this way. I got to work for a living, and I've got kids. SS: How do you wanna vote? It'll only take 15 minutes. IH: This way. SS: You're not gonna be able to hear my opinion good from there. IH: Yeah I can. SS: Here. Read the rest, but be aware that it contains certain bourgeois expletives and decadent references to body parts that Young Communists should...
January 12, 2004
In A Rational World ...
... Howard Dean would have already dropped like a rock in the polls, based on the extraordinary number of gaffes he's already committed, such as his remarks after Saddam's capture. So far he's had a Teflon candidacy, but a couple of incidents yesterday may have put a big dent in his shields: Under fire in a campaign debate, Howard Dean conceded Sunday night that he never named a black or Hispanic to his Cabinet during nearly 12 years as governor of Vermont. "If you want to lecture people on race, you ought to have the background and track record to do that," Al Sharpton snapped at the Democratic presidential front-runner in an emotionally charged exchange in the final debate before next Monday's Iowa caucuses. ... "You keep talking about race," the former street activist chided Dean when he had a turn to ask a question. He said that not one...
Power Line: O'Neill and Suskind Deception
Hindrocket at Power Line reports on an e-mail from Laurie Mylroie exposing a deception on the part of former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and his cowriter, Ron Suskind, on evidence of a conspiracy to invade Iraq: "Suskind claimed he has documents showing that preparations for the Iraq war were well underway before 9-11. He cited--and even showed--what he said was a Pentagon document, entitled, 'Foreign Suitors for Iraq Oilfield Contracts.' He claimed the document was about planning for post-war Iraq oil (CBS's promotional story also contained that claim)[.] "But that is not a Pentagon document. It's from the Vice-President's Office. It was part of the Energy Project that was the focus of Dick Cheney's attention before the 9/11 strikes. "And the document has nothing to do with post-war Iraq. It was part of a study of global oil supplies. Judicial Watch obtained it in a law suit and posted it,...
Secret Documents Inquiry Launched
After Paul O'Neill's appearance on 60 Minutes included a document labeled "SECRET," Treasury officials have requested an investigation into its release: The U.S. Treasury requested a probe on Monday of how a possibly secret document appeared in a televised interview of Paul O'Neill, as a book criticizing the Bush administration that uses material supplied by the ex-Treasury secretary hits the stores. ... "It's based on the (CBS program) '60 Minutes' segment, and I'll be even more clear -- the document as shown on '60 Minutes' that said 'secret,"' Treasury spokesman Rob Nichols told reporters at a weekly briefing. Nichols said the probe will focus on how possibly classified information appeared on a television interview as one of O'Neill's papers. While this is going to look vindictive, no matter what Nichols says, once that document appeared on TV, an investigation cannot be avoided. Classified information can't just be tossed around, and...
Sympathy For The Devils
I'm puzzled by this piece in tomorrow's Washington Post that tells the story of former Ba'athists in Iraq and how difficult life has become, now that their privileges have been revoked: Less than a year ago, Ismael Mohammed Juwara lived high in the food chain of President Saddam Hussein's Iraq. He was a secret policeman feared and respected among his comrades and in his hometown, enjoying a cornucopia of privileges from the government. ... Now, as he scrapes out a living by selling diesel fuel illegally, he is a pariah in the new Iraq. "We were on top of the system. We had dreams," said Juwara, a former member of the Mukhabarat, the intelligence service that reported directly to the now-deposed president. "Now we are the losers. We lost our positions, our status, the security of our families, stability. Curse the Americans. Curse them." The entire article consists of several...
January 13, 2004
Max Boot: Don't Break Out The White Cane Yet
Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, provides an amusing and trenchant response to former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's weird comment that George Bush is like "a blind man in a roomful of deaf people": The breathless revelation from former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill that the president was disengaged at Cabinet meetings — like "a blind man in a roomful of deaf people" — reinforces the old stereotype that George W. Bush is a taco or two shy of a combination platter. And, in a way, the charge is warranted. Bush definitely must have been asleep on the job to have hired a whiny back-stabber like the former Alcoa chief as his Treasury secretary and have waited two whole years before canning him. Boot continues by looking at the oddly partisan charge of stupidity, noting as I did two days ago that the Left loves to...
It's Your Fault I Was An Idiot
Sometimes I wonder what attraction a nanny-state society holds for people who think for themselves ... and then I'm reminded that some people don't think things through at all, and want a big mommy to make everyone give you do-overs: A 55-year-old man is suing a local church because it won't give back a $126,000 donation he gave during a deep depression five years ago. ... After five months of antidepressants and counseling, Mager said he asked for the money back. But leaders at the Cloquet Gospel Tabernacle church said no. They had already used the money for new family ministry space. ... Mager's change of heart is confounding to church leaders because the letter he sent with the cashier's check seemed so genuine, Doebler said. "He felt some remorse for some past actions and he wanted to make it right with God,'' Doebler said, recounting the letter. "At the...
Whither the Dean Angst?
Hugh Hewitt had a fun time on his show tonight discussing the source of all the Dean rage after reading this article in the Los Angeles Times today: Dean bristled at those who questioned his motives. He had long had a habit of popping off in public, but until he became governor, no one paid much attention. Now they did. Wisecracks lightened the mood during Dean's drawn-out news conferences, but on occasion, his flippancy curdled. An avid radio listener, he would phone talk show hosts from his state-issue car, raining instant responses on surprised critics. He traded barbs with a welfare mother who had called in to complain about his policies, Hogan recalled. When a station in the town of Waterbury ran a Republican legislator's rebuke of a visit by Hillary Rodham Clinton, Dean called in, angrily comparing him to a barnyard animal, recalled the offended politician, J. Dennis Delaney....
Another Time Round the Blogosphere
Since I'm not feeling too much like doing any original writing so far this evening, I'll point you to some good work being done by others with more to say ... Power Line gets to be the first port in the storm, with a terrific series of posts on Paul O'Neill and Ron Susking, and their new book and interview tour. Hindrocket broke the story about the true nature of the documentation used by the pair in asserting a conspiracy to invade Iraq -- documents which turned out to be normal energy-policy data. Today, the Big Trunk posts the entire transcript of Katie Couric's interview with O'Neill (primarily) in full retreat: O'NEILL: Yeah, and the other thing that's good, today the book is going to be available, and this red meat frenzy that's occurred when people didn't have anything except snippets -- as an example, you know, people are trying...
Democrats: Feel The Love
MoveOn finally held its awards presentation last night, and the Drudge Report has a partial transcript from the event. The Democrats apparently intend on cornering the election market in hate this year: MARGARET CHO (Comedian) -- * "Despite all of this stupid bullsh-- that the Republican National Committee, or whatever the f--- they call them, that they were saying that they're all angry about how two of these ads were comparing Bush to Hitler? I mean, out of thousands of submissions, they find two. They're like fu--ing looking for Hitler in a hawstack. You now? I mean, George Bush is not Hitler. He would be if he fu--ing applied himself." big, extended applause) "I mean he just isn't." CHUCK D (Rapper -- Public Enemy) * "But truly, seriously, quite frankly, the people are smart enough to realize that the world is important and we only have one life [or right,...
January 14, 2004
Socialism: The Minnesota Explanation
Yesterday I did some driving around in the afternoon when I'd normally be working and I caught a little bit of Michael Medved on the radio. I'm not a big fan of Medved's show, but yesterday he had a pretty provocative subject: Who voted for Bush in 2000 that won't vote for Bush in 2004? After all, polls among major demographic groups all show Bush and Republicans making inroads, some pretty significant, over the past three years, and if that's true, the Democrats have to find people switching the other way. Alternately, they could claim to be energizing a large group of people who didn't vote at all -- that's Howard Dean's claim -- which theoretically could counterbalance these Republican gains. Those would have been intelligent answers. What Medved got was a procession of silliness: callers mouthing empty slogans like "Bush lied, people died," with no discussion of policy at...
The Commissar Smokes Out a Ringer
The KGB had nothing on the Commissar from the Politburo Diktat. (In both meanings of the phrase.) Comrade Commissar, using his secret network of spies, has discovered a plot amongst Agonist readers to funnel global resources into the fight to remove Goerge Bush. It's unclear from the message whether that relates to financial resources, which would be illegal, but it certainly does not rule them out: I further believe that the present Bush administration poses a serious threat to world peace and is incapable of doing other than "stirring up the pot" by its involvement. ... During the past months I have studied both the history and activities of both George W. Bush, and his administration, and have come to the conclusion that they are dangerous to world peace, and should either be impeached or voted out of office a.s.a.p. Being a non-American, you may wonder at my audacity; yet...
Dean: Unilateralism Sounds Great To Me
Howard Dean has castigated George Bush endlessly over "unilaterally" going to war in Iraq -- even though we were joined by several nations in actual combat and many more in diplomatic and/or material support -- but unilateralism used to sound really good to the combative Vermont governor, regarding Bosnia in 1995: After long and careful thought, and after several years of watching the gross atrocities committed by the Bosnian Serbs, I have reluctantly concluded that the efforts of the United Nations and NATO in Bosnia are a complete failure. ... Since it is clearly no longer possible to take action in conjunction with NATO and the United Nations, I have reluctantly concluded that we must take unilateral action. While I completely agree with you that no ground troops should be committed for other than humanitarian purposes in Bosnia, I would ask that you take the following steps in Bosnia. First,...
Did Dean Cover For Abusive Staff Member?
Howard Dean, who has accused George Bush of waffling on domestic abuse -- as if the federal government had jurisdiction anyway -- wrote a supportive affadavit for a state trooper on his security detail who later was discovered to be a wife beater, according to ABC News: In his presidential campaign, and as governor of Vermont before that, Howard Dean has taken a tough, zero-tolerance stand on domestic violence, accusing the Bush administration of not being committed to the issue. Yet Dean said he had no idea that one of the men closest to him was repeatedly abusing his wife. Dennis Madore, the state trooper who headed Dean's security detail for nine years, was "a classic abuser," according to Jerry Diamond, a Dean supporter and former Vermont attorney general who was the lawyer for Madore's wife, Donna, when she filed for divorce in 1997. ... Court records show that Madore's...
January 15, 2004
Braun To Quit Race, Endorse Dean
Carol Mosely-Braun, the former ambassador to New Zealand and one-term senator who struggled with ethics issues, will drop out of the Democratic primary race and give her support to Howard Dean: Braun was to officially endorse the former Vermont governor Thursday afternoon during an appearance at Carroll High School in Carroll, Iowa, said Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi. Dean said Wednesday that he welcomed the endorsement of the former senator from Illinois. "She's a principled person. We just hit it off. I like her a lot," Dean told reporters at a hotel in Fort Dodge, where he was spending the night after starting a statewide bus tour. "It's going to be a big help to us," he said. Mosely-Braun's help will be hard to gauge. On one hand, Braun had received endorsements from NOW and the National Women's Political Caucusa and of course could provide more of an entree to...
Chafets: Sharpton Skewers Dean for Payback
According to Zev Chafets, the "race harpoon" that Rev. Al Sharpton tossed with such effectiveness at Howard Dean was no spontaneous target of opportunity, but a well-planned revenge for ignoring the Reverend on his home turf -- and the fun may have just begun: A month ago, when Howard Dean came up to Harlem to get himself endorsed by Al Gore, Al Sharpton, the political proprietor of 125th Street, was not invited to the ceremony. It was clear even then that Dean would pay for disrespecting the Rev. On Sunday night in a nationally televised debate in Iowa, he got the bill. ... This time, he called Dean on it. How many blacks and Hispanics, he asked, did you appoint to your Cabinet in Vermont? The answer, of course, is none. Dean was forced to admit this sin against diversity, and he did it with a moose-in-the-headlights expression. Not since...
City Pages Attacks Lileks -- He Barely Notices
First, let me apologize for being late. If I am the Navy of the Northern Alliance, as the good folks at SCSU Scholars say, then perhaps I am the French Navy at Yorktown -- arriving just in time to celebrate the victory, but not much else. Yesterday, City Pages published a bizarre attack on James Lileks for daring to express his actual opinions on his own blog: Lileks wasn't as bad as some of the keyboard warriors I'd read, but there was that gloat and strut, as if Lileks had personally captured Saddam. (Lileks has written of dreams and fantasies where he kicks terrorist ass, and I was somewhat let down that he didn't sketch out a scenario where he grabbed Saddam by the beard and gave the Beast an Adam West Batman thrashing: "All right, you Mesopotamian ruffian, where are the WMD!?" SOCK! POW! "C'mon! Out with it, desert...
Clark Testified For Iraq War Before Congress
Despite basing his campaign on his anti-war stance, General Wesley Clark told Congress in 2002 that the war was justified while they debated the resolution that gave Bush authority for armed action: Less than 18 months ago, Wesley Clark offered his testimony before the Committee On Armed Services at the U.S. House Of Representatives. ... "And, I want to underscore that I think the United States should not categorize this action as preemptive. Preemptive and that doctrine has nothing whatsoever to do with this problem. As Richard Perle so eloquently pointed out, this is a problem that's longstanding. It's been a decade in the making. It needs to be dealt with and the clock is ticking on this." Clark explained: "I think there's no question that, even though we may not have the evidence as Richard [Perle] says, that there have been such contacts [between Iraq and al Qaeda]. It'...
Oh, Those Training Camps!
It's amazing what you find when you start looking around the home ... dustbunnies, missing socks, and terrorist training camps: Saudi authorities have discovered a number of camps outside Saudi cities used for training al-Qaida militants to carry out terror operations, an Interior Ministry official said Thursday. Two militant figures killed in terror sweeps last year — Turki Nasser al-Dandani and Yosif Salih Fahd Ala'yeeri — commanded the camps, the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. More camp leaders are being sought, the official said. The Saudis, who at first kept minimizing Saudi involvement in 9/11 and al-Qaeda, changed their tune dramatically last May when al-Qaeda killed dozens of Saudis in a car-bomb attack. Since that time, they've been motivated to actually look around for the terrorists. I imagine that they were shocked, shocked! to find terrorist infrastructure right there in the heart of radicall Wahhabi country....
Kinsley: O'Neill A Lame Man In Room Full Of Heavyweights
While I am not normally a fan of Michael Kinsley, today's review of Paul O'Neill's book at Slate made me laugh out loud: O'Neill, according to O'Neill, is a man on whom praise and compliments fall thick as a winter snowstorm. "Paul, you have the balls of a daylight burglar," he quotes a subordinate as telling him years ago. He also quotes himself telling the story to another subordinate. Elsewhere he recounts, with prim disapproval, watching George W. Bush call on White House Chief of Staff Andy Card to rustle up some cheeseburgers. O'Neill believes, he says, that a CEO should be judged by how he treats "whoever is at the very bottom," a remark Card may find somewhat more insulting than the cheeseburgers that inspired it. Later, with characteristic subtlety, O'Neill quotes himself offering to get his secretary a cup of coffee. Very nice. But she might be thinking...
January 16, 2004
Was This At The MoveOn Awards?
It's good to know that stupidity and vulgarity aren't limited to just the American left: Tony Blair has been called "a complete dickhead" by a leading Spanish politician live on television. The comment was made by Jose Bono, one of the three most powerful figures in the Socialist Party. His remarks were not intended to be heard, but were recorded by a television team while he was talking to Joaquin Almunia, a former Socialist leader. Mr Bono said: "Hey, and our colleague Blair? He's a complete dickhead (un gilipollas integral). He's an imbecile." Mr. Bono was foolish indeed, at least in that he didn't attempt to reach for Margaret Cho levels of obscenity. C'mon, Jose! If you're going to toss them out there, you owe it to yourself and your movement to at least make it more memorable than "dickhead". Doesn't that sound so childish -- something that an eight-year-old...
Tekela Will Get Another Shot
Local prosecutors resolved a tragic and infuriating case yesterday by virtually guaranteeing a vicious murderer gets out of prison in less than 20 years: Tekela L. Richardson, accused of beating a 79-year-old St. Paul woman to death June 17 while stealing her vehicle, pleaded guilty Thursday to intentional second-degree murder. ... Under a plea agreement, prosecutors will recommend that Richardson receive a 25 1/2-year prison term as called for by state sentencing guidelines. That would require her to serve at least 17 years. However, District Judge M. Michael Monahan reminded Richardson that he is not bound by the plea agreement, and that she cannot withdraw her guilty plea if he decides to give her a longer sentence. She will be sentenced March 15. In my native California, murder during a robbery is automatically first-degree murder, and the only two options are death or life without parole. California has many issues,...
Bush Appoints Pickering To Court, Bypasses Senate
George Bush took the long-overdue step of bypassing the obstructionist minority in the Senate and gave federal Judge Charles Pickering a spot on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals: Bush installed Pickering by a recess appointment, which avoids the confirmation process. Such appointments are valid until the next Congress takes office, in this case in January 2005. … Pushing for Pickering's confirmation last year, Bush said, "He is a good, fair-minded man, and the treatment he has received by a handful of senators is a disgrace. He has wide bipartisan support from those who know him best." Pickering has been a target in the Democratic campaign to curtail Bush’s prerogative in appointing federal judges and appellate justices, and Pickering may have been the most ill-treated of them all. Democrats accused Pickering of being a racist – a characteristic hotly disputed by colleagues of all backgrounds, including James Charles Evers, the...
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Power Line Explains Where All The Hippies Have Gone
The Big Trunk at Power Line relates a great e-mail from one of their regular readers, Dan Freeborn of the Star Tribune, who has listened to the Iowa caucus debates and found them all too familiar: It's all clear to me now. These guys are 1960s re-enactors but they have the ethos all wrong. Instead of the summer of love, they're promising the summer of crankiness. Call them The Unmerry Cranksters. With his shallowness and frequent fits of girlish pique, Howard Dean is their Un-Kesey. One pill makes you angry and one pill makes you small and the things that Howard tells you make no sense at all. Read the whole thing, and if you're not reading Power Line regularly, you should be....
Of Course We're Not Offended, You Sexist Pig
Women's professional sports, with the possible exception of tennis, have always struggled to find a wide audience. The problem goes back as far as the defunct professional women's baseball league featured in the excellent movie A League Of Their Own right through today's WNBA and LPGA. It seems that every time league executives address this problem, some idiot comes up with solutions like the one offered by FIFA president Sepp Blatter for women's soccer: FIFA president Sepp Blatter has caused an uproar by suggesting women soccer players should wear tighter shorts to bring more attention to their sport. Blatter said women's soccer needed different sponsors from the men's game and should seek to attract fashion and cosmetics companies by featuring "more feminine uniforms." "Tighter shorts, for example," Blatter told the Swiss newspaper SonntagsBlick. "In volleyball the women also wear other uniforms than the men. Pretty women are playing football today....
Is Dean Melting Down Under Pressure?
Blogs for Bush posts today on the strange interview in People magazine with the Doctors Dean, zeroing in on what has to be the most unusual campaign admission since Jimmy Carter revealed the lust in his heart: Howard: I'm not a big fan of most anti-anxiety drugs, just because they have addiction potential and things like that. You know, once in a while, I take stuff for sleep. That makes sense. But, listen, I don't want to dispense medical advice in PEOPLE magazine. The anti-anxiety drugs are very good for people who — Judy: And a lot of them are NOT addictive these days. Howard: Right. And you know anti-anxiety drugs and sleep drugs were essentially the same thing when I was practicing. And my experience was whenever I took a sleeping pill, there would be rebound insomnia and so I didn't like to take them. I'm not really sure...
January 17, 2004
Pickering: The Smear Continues
After my post yesterday on the recess appointment of Charles Pickering to the Fifth District Court of Appeals, a lot of the buzz from the left side of the blogosphere has been about Pickering's purported "perjury" in 1990 while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee. So far, this has mostly manifested itself in the comments section at various blogs, including at Blogs for Bush, but most of the impetus comes from People For The American Way, a radical and hysterical leftist political action group: Moreover, evidence indicates Judge Pickering did have contact with the Sovereignty Commission. At the time of Judge Pickering's 1990 confirmation hearing, the records of the Sovereignty Commission were still sealed, pursuant to the legislature's directive. However, several years ago, in response to litigation, the courts in Mississippi ordered that the Commission records be made public. A review of those records has uncovered documents indicating contact between...
Just Because He's Crazy Doesn't Make Him Stupid
... but it does make the Missouri legislature look foolish: A convicted sex offender says he broke out of a sexual-predator unit in 2001 knowing that a legal loophole would prevent Missouri authorities from charging him with escape. ... Under the civil commitment programs in Missouri and 15 other states, sex offenders who complete their prison sentences can be held indefinitely in a mental hospital if they are deemed likely to commit new sex crimes. But when Missouri enacted the program in 1998, it did not specify that escaping from a civil facility was a crime. As a result, authorities could pursue Ingrassia only on a charge of felony property damage, for cutting the fence. The crime carries up to seven years in prison. Thomas Ingrassia had been convicted of four sexual attacks in the 70s and was released from prison in 1997. He had to be committed because he...
Weekly Snark Attack!
Venomous Kate at Electric Venom has posted her weekly Snark Hunt, and once again I have engaged in shameless self-promotion. Kate was kind enough to include this post about the man who sued his church for spending his donation, a man to whom Kate accurately refers as "asshat." Make sure you check out all of the snark for this week!...
Does This Sound Anti-War To You?
General Wesley Clark has spoken many times during the campaign, especially recently, regarding his opposition to the war in Iraq. On Thursday, Clark's testimony before Congress on Iraq in 2002 surfaced, testimony which hardly seemed at odds with the Bush Administration's own position: attempt to get the UN to finally enforce its own resolutions after 12 years, and if not, get as many nations together as possible and take action outside the UN. Clark's representatives deny this, claiming that there is nothing in Clark's testimony that demonstrates anything except his opposition to the war. They must not have read the general's own article, published after the fall of Baghdad in the London Times: Can anything be more moving than the joyous throngs swarming the streets of Baghdad? Memories of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the defeat of Milosevic in Belgrade flood back. Statues and images of Saddam are...
January 18, 2004
A Bit of Journalistic Irony
As I read over the main web page of today's Minneapolis Star Tribune, I noticed a link titled "Editor's Note: Why we pulled USA Weekend from Sunday's Paper." Certainly a provocative invitation, I began to wonder why: Financial disagreement? Offensive material? A Bush endorsement? When I clicked on the link, however, I found that even the explanation had been pulled from the paper. It looks like some sort of conspiracy! I'm sure that a portion of the blogosphere will assign deep and sinister intent to this, just like they do every time a 404 comes up on the White House web site. Those of us who live here will just continue to be amused by the parochial nature of our largest hometown daily....
Ted Kennedy Loses His Mind
Ted Kennedy writes a puzzling and dishonest column in today's Washington Post, ironically entitled, "A Dishonest War." The long-time Senator from Massachussets takes Paul O'Neill's recent memoirs and goes the full tinfoil-hat monty: Of the many issues competing for attention in this new and defining year, one is of a unique order of magnitude: President Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq. The facts demonstrate how dishonest that decision was. As former Treasury secretary Paul H. O'Neill recently confirmed, the debate over military action began as soon as President Bush took office. ... The events of Sept. 11, 2001, gave advocates of war the opening they needed. They tried immediately to tie Hussein to al Qaeda and the terrorist attacks. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld created an Office of Special Plans in the Pentagon to analyze the intelligence for war and bypass the traditional screening process. Vice President...
Memo to Telegraph: It's Not All Carrot, No Stick
The Daily Telegraph, normally a sensible if not terribly supportive newspaper, gets itself curiously confused on the meaning of diplomacy: The capture by the United States of thousands of centrifuges on board a German-owned vessel, the BBC China, en route to Libya has raised suspicions in Washington and London that Col Gaddafi offered to abandon his weapons programme after threats from America, rather than the lengthy British and American diplomacy vaunted by Tony Blair. The Telegraph story focuses more on the refusal of Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to answer questions about the seizure, but its recitation of a false tautology is a little disappointing. Gaddafi responded to both threats and promises, because that's what diplomacy entails. If the Telegraph feels that diplomacy is only showering money and compliments on other nations that express desires to kill you by, say, bombing your airlines and nightclubs frequented by your military personnel, then...
The Iowa Hokey Pokey
Ever wonder how the Iowa Caucuses work? So have I; they aren't elections in which people vast secret ballots. Instead, as CNN explains, it's more like musical chairs, where caucusers walk around in each precinct until the music stops, forming groups that indicate support for each candidate (except maybe Kucinich). Those candidates who do not have at least 15% of the entire caucus must release their caucusers for the next round of the game. In between rounds, the candidates and their representatives harangue the participants with speeches, pleas, and promises in order to get already-committed caucusers to change their minds -- which they can do at any time. Only when all caucusers are committed to "viable" candidates do the precincts send these representatives on to the county conventions, which aren't held until the middle of March. In fact, Iowa doesn't actually decide on its final slate of delegates until the...
Iran: Tipping Point Coming Soon?
The political crisis facing the Iranian government deepened today as the clerics in the Guardian Council refused to back down from disqualifying thousands of reformist candidates: Iran's hard-line Guardian Council on Sunday defended its disqualification of prospective candidates for next month's parliamentary elections, further deepening a political crisis. The Guardian Council, an unelected body controlled by hard-liners, has disqualified more than a third of the 8,200 people who applied to run in the Feb. 20 elections. ... The comments dashed hopes of a breakthrough after Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the Guardian Council on Wednesday to reconsider the disqualifications and laid down criteria that appeared to be easier to meet. The unelected Iranian mullahs who sit on the Guardian Council for life apparently feel that any attempt at compromise undermines their claim to protect the Islamic nature of Iranian government as envisioned by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the...
Media and Political Notes
A few items from the media that probably don't measure up to a full post on their own, but still seem interesting ... First this story from the AP regarding comments by Dan Rather on coverage for nominating conventions: CBS anchor Dan Rather says the day is coming soon when there will be virtually no live coverage of political conventions on television networks. The Democrats and Republicans are to blame for scheduling four-day conventions that do little except advertise their established positions and candidates, he said. This actually makes sense and it's one of the few times I'll agree with Rather. Modern nominating conventions only serve to anoint predetermined winners and so generate very little in terms of real news. Only the keynote and acceptance speeches have any significance, and networks generally still carry those live (and should continue to do so). They also fail miserably as entertainment, making them...
January 19, 2004
Carter Plays Coy
Today's Washington Post describes in detail Howard Dean's trip to Plains, GA to meet with the man who has spent the last two decades as a pariah in his own party come Presidential election time -- and who oddly feels the need to play coy: Jimmy Carter spent much of the past quarter-century as a pariah among fellow Democrats. ... But presidential reputations move in cycles. Today, the former outcast was hailed as a hero by former Vermont governor Howard Dean. No longer shunned by politicians, Carter said he was flattered by the attention for a "has-been politician" -- but he also seemed eager to ensure that Dean did not take liberties in his pursuit. ... Pressed in recent interviews about why he would leave Iowa at crunch time, Dean said he could not turn down an invitation to appear with a former president he admires. But when a visitor...
Reiner and Sheen Write Another Comedy
Hollywood heavyweights Rob Reiner and Martin Sheen wrote an opinion piece in today's Boston Globe in support of Howard Dean in New Hampshire's upcoming primary: AS THIS PRESIDENTIAL campaign began, we knew that something fundamental was at stake: Our country faces a growing threat to our liberty and justice in America. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison spoke of the fear that economic power would one day seize political power. That fear is now being realized -- under the Bush administration, pharmaceutical companies draft our Medicare laws. Oil executives sit in the vice president's office and write energy bills. A majority of the reconstruction contracts in Iraq have gone to the president's campaign contributors. This president has squandered the goodwill of the world abroad while pursuing reckless fiscal policies here at home all for his personal agenda and that of his campaign contributors. Those zany Hollywood limousine liberals! They're experts because...
Prove It! ... er ...
Rumors have been spread among Northern Alliance blogs, and I want to clear something up with the American people right now: Despite what you may have heard, I did not have lunch with other NA bloggers last Friday. I did not have an enjoyable break from work with two intelligent and witty guys at a nice and affordable chain restaurant. I didn't share some great stories about our personal lives and blogging experiences. No siree. Not at all. Most of all, I did not have in my possession any kind of object that represents the Lord High Commissioner, one that reportedly travels more than I do. I categorically refute all allegations to the contrary. If those who would target me for such libel had any proof, any proof at all, I challenge them to produce it! Oh, crap. Uh ... it all depends on your definition of possession ......
Iowa Predictions
Okay -- even though I could just post this tomorrow with a publish date of today and try to get a reputation as a Carnac the Magnificent, I'm going to make my prediction now about the Iowa caucus results ... Here's how I see it panning out tonight: Dean - 27% Kerry - 23% Edwards - 21% Gephardt -18% And what would this result mean? Dean's organization will ultimately be strong enough, I think, to win the day in Iowa -- but his stumble here will reverberate throughout the first part of the primary season. That will keep more candidates in the race for a longer period of time as they feel that Dean can be beat. However, that will eventually help Dean in the long run. His nationwide organization is too strong and already too entrenched, and as Professor Bainbridge noted earlier, his fundraising allows Dean to run a...
Edwards = Kucinich?
Senator John Edwards, making a surprisingly strong showing in the Iowa caususes thus far, made an odd statement to the press as he and Rep. Dennis Kucinich made a strategic alliance to share caucusers this afternoon: "Both of us believe in a lot of the same things, and we like each other very much," Edwards said. "But both of us also recognize at the end of the day, caucus-goers will have to make their own decisions about this." Edwards seems to just be after the all-important children's book endorsements that Kucinich has monopolized thus far. More on the Blogs for Bush website....
Iraqis Tiring Of Foreigners (But Not The Ones You Think)
MS-NBC reports that the Coalition continues to make progress with gathering cooperation from Iraqi citizens, who are tiring of the insurrection: For six months, the Arab foreigners lived quietly in a Baghdad neighborhood with their wives and children, until neighbors tipped off U.S. forces they could be insurgents. On Monday morning, American soldiers came to the door of a brown-brick house and — speaking in Arabic over a loudspeaker — ordered those inside to surrender. When the raid was over, three men were dead, a Syrian and two Yemenis. Two of the men were shot trying to escape; the other blew himself up in the front yard. Inside the house, U.S. troops found a weapons cache. The U.S. military had no comment on the incident. But witnesses and Iraqi police described how Iraqi civilians, increasingly frustrated with guerrilla violence, are cooperating with the U.S.-led coalition to catch suspected rebels. Other...
Iowa Stunner
Howard Dean laid an egg: Shaking up the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts won the Iowa caucuses Tuesday night, according to CNN projections. John Edwards, a first-term senator from North Carolina whose once listless campaign gained new life in Iowa, was in second place, according to initial party results. Howard Dean, a former governor of Vermont and presumed front-runner in the Democratic race, was in third place. Iowa normally favors the strongest organization, which undoubtedly Dean brought, but coming in at less than half of Kerry's turnout. Dean could have escaped with little or no damage with even a strong second-place showing, but a distant third suddenly spotlights all of Dean's weaknesses. Iowa, in general, is overrated as an indicator and most of the time Iowans get it wrong. As former DNC chair and current Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell just said on Fox News,...
January 20, 2004
McSnake!
From the land of blue-sky lawsuits, the Pioneer Press reports on one of the sillier examples to grace our court system: Joanne Borgerding was sitting in a packed Eagan McDonald's at lunchtime, eating a chicken sandwich and reading a book when something moved beneath her booth. Dancing in the air by her legs were "little movable eyes" that were attached to a dark, 2-foot-long snake. "I looked face to face at it," Borgerding said. "I know people in the drive-up heard me — I screamed that loud." Borgerding also flew out of her booth and in the process injured her foot so badly that she says she has permanent nerve damage. She asked McDonald's insurance company to pay her medical bills, but the company denied her claims, she said. Now she is seeking in excess of $50,000 in a personal injury complaint that she expects to file in Dakota County...
Clark: The Big Iowa Loser
Evangelical Outpost lists five reasons why Clark was the big winner in Iowa, and I'm all wet. Fair enough! His track record's better than mine this week.
Milestones
I noted earlier today that Captain's Quarters has just exceeded 50,000 visitors one week shy of four months after I began. Almost 35,000 visitors have come in the last month! I've had an absolute blast, still can't believe I get all the great visitors I do, and I'm lucky enough to receive some of the brightest commentary in response as anyone else's blog I've read. (The readers are smarter than I am!) I wanted to come up with a way to express how I feel about the wonderful experiences I've had with CQ and interacting with all of you. I think this expresses my outlook and my future plans better than anything. (You may think I need medication after you hear it, though ...) Note: QandO, which has helped me out tremendously, has recently switched to Movable Type and has its own domain now: http://www.qando.net/blog/. If you haven't blogrolled or...
State of the Union Address Tonight
President Bush delivers his State of the Union address to Congress tonight, starting at 9 pm EST. I'll be watching tonight on C-SPAN and intend on posting stream-of-consciousness commentary during the speech and a wrap-up at the end. I hope you'll drop by and check it out. Assuming, of course, that I can stay awake ... it's been a long day....
The Captain, Unedited: Thoughts on the SOTU Speech
For tonight, I will be posting as I watch the State of the Union address President Bush will give to Congress. I'll update this particular post as the coverage on C-SPAN continues, perhaps even mixing in comments from the First Mate, who will try her best to stay awake for the entire event ... NOTE: You can read the entire speech at Blogs for Bush. And welcome to all Instapundit readers. 7:34 - Oddly, a former Congressional clerk, Donnald Anderson, is being interviewed by the CSPAN hostess, explaining the layout of Capitol building. Fascinating (yawn) stuff! No wonder C-SPAN tops the prime-time ratings. At least it's not Peter Jennings. 7:41 - They're filing into the Senate, slowly, mostly dawdling by the door. Or maybe they're filing out. Yep, they're leaving ... well, that was really fascinating, too. 7:45 - They're now filing into the House chamber, and Cheney and Hastert...
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January 21, 2004
The Suddenly Rudderless Dean
Howard Dean, still smarting from the thumping he took in Iowa this week, shifted strategies for the second time in two weeks, according to the Washington Post: Former Vermont governor Howard Dean shifted his campaign strategy Tuesday to emphasize domestic issues over the war and temper the red-faced outbursts like the one he delivered after losing Iowa, the candidate and his advisers said. Dean, after huddling with top aides to regroup from the stinging loss in the Iowa caucuses, sought to portray himself here as a more traditional policy-minded candidate focused on education, health care and jobs. The front-runner for much of the 2004 Democratic campaign suggested he would ease up on his year-long crusade to change the Democratic Party. ... Dean's strategy shift, the second in as many weeks, comes as the onetime front-runner is fighting to regain momentum. A loss in New Hampshire could signal the beginning of...
Nancy Pelosi Frightens A Nation
From the reaction around the blogosphere, you'd think that President Bush's State of the Union address was simply a crowd-warmer for the real entertainment of the evening -- Nancy Pelosi's performance in the Democratic response that almost immediately followed. While both Daschle and Pelosi were both devoid of any specifics, at least Daschle looked like he liked being there; Pelosi's face was frozen into a mask of terror, with wide bulging eyes that seemed to be saying, "Stop me before my face shatters!" Nor was I the only one who noticed Pelosi's odd facial expression. The Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds, said: "Bush looks better now that the Democratic reply is on. Nancy Pelosi's unblinking, wide-eyed stare-into-the-camera delivery is just creepy. ("Please meet my captors' demands.")" Roger Simon's wife, screenwriter Sheryl Longin, has another reaction: "Botox." In fact, a number of Simon's readers said the same thing in his comments section along...
Le Taliban, C'est Nous
Does anyone remember the stories of Taliban-led Afghanistan, where kites were outlawed and officials roamed the streets looking for men with no beards? Apparently the French remember them all to well and are about to adopt some of the same tactics: France’s plan to bar religious symbols from state schools took a further confusing turn by Wednesday after the education minister said a proposed ban on Muslim veils could also outlaw beards and bandannas if they were judged to be a sign of faith. ... Education Minister Luc Ferry made the surprising statement about disciplining bearded students on Tuesday in a National Assembly legal committee hearing about the draft law on the ban due to be debated next month. Discussing the plan to remove Islamic headscarves from state schools, he told a communist deputy who asked about a pupil with a beard, “As soon as it becomes a religious sign...
9/11: An Iranian Operation?
A German trial of an alleged al-Qaeda accomplice was halted when a surprise witness implicated the Islamic government of Iran in the 9/11 attack on the United States: On what had been the eve of his widely expected acquittal, the trial of the second person charged by German authorities as an accomplice of the Sept. 11 hijackers was thrown into turmoil Wednesday after prosecutors disclosed the existence of a surprise witness purporting to link Iran to the hijackings. The mysterious witness, who goes by the name Hamid Reza Zakeri and claims to have been a longtime member of the Iranian intelligence service, is said to have told German investigators that the Sept. 11 plot represented what one termed a "joint venture" between the terrorist group al-Qaida and the Iranian government. German authorities are skeptical of this assertion, according to the article, saying that the two-year delay in relating this connection...
Dead Scientist Believed Iraq Had WMDs
Months after the suicide of a British government scientist threw into doubt Anglo-American claims of WMD possession by the Iraqis and touched off accusations of a murder conspiracy to silence the analyst, the BBC admits that it has an unbroadcast interview with the late David Kelly in which he insists that Iraq had WMDs and posed an immediate threat: The weapons expert slashed his wrists near his home in Oxfordshire, southern England, in July 2003 after being exposed as the source of a claim by a BBC reporter that the prime minister's team inflated the threat posed by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, to justify war. One week before senior judge Lord Hutton delivers his report on Kelly's death -- a judgment that could be critical of ministers -- the BBC said it would broadcast later Wednesday an interview it recorded with Kelly in October 2002, which it has never shown....
January 22, 2004
Hoist Upon His Own Petard?
Howard Dean, who pioneered the national Internet campaign, is finding out that the Internet is a double-edged sword, as reported by Newsweek and MS-NBC: You live by the Internet, you die by the Internet. Just ask Howard Dean. One minute, the Democratic presidential hopeful is harvesting new voters, and campaign contributors, online. The next, he’s being haunted by tech-savvy turntablists. Since his kinda-crazy concession speech in Iowa on Monday night, a bunch of audio files mixing music to his exhortations have been circulating on the Web. “We’re going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico. We’re going to California and Texas and New York!” It's the type of stuff you’d hear at nightclubs, not political rallies. The highlight? Repeated splicing and dicing of Dean’s “Yeagh!” outburst. ... Thanks for inventing the Internet, Al! Fellow Northern Alliande blogger James Lileks gets a big mention and...
Interviewed by Jennifer's History and Stuff
I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by the readers of Jennifer's History and Stuff, an excellent blog. Jennifer also notes that we both love Bayfield, Wisconsin -- cool coincidence! Make sure you check out the interview and everything else at Jennifer's....
NY Times: Choice Is Bad
Barry Schwartz, a professor of psychology at Swarthmore College, penned an article for today's New York Times op-ed section warning against the pitfalls of too much choice: [T]here is growing evidence that the emotional logic (the psycho-logic) is deeply flawed. Indeed, for many people, increased choice can lead to a decrease in satisfaction. Too many options can result in paralysis, not liberation. You may want to think of this as the "Moscow on the Hudson" syndrome; in that movie, a Russian refugee has an anxiety attack when asked to go to an American supermarket for coffee ... and sees an entire aisle of choices. In fact, Schwartz uses similar examples when making his case: • Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper, psychologists at Columbia and Stanford respectively, have shown that as the number of flavors of jam or varieties of chocolate available to shoppers is increased, the likelihood that they will...
Iran: Political Violence Begins
The political clash between the rigid, ultraconservative mullahs of the Guardian Council and Iranian reformers escalated into violence today, thanks to Hezb' Allah and their allies: A 200-strong gang of political radicals attacked a meeting of Iranian reformists yesterday in the first outbreak of serious violence since moderates were barred from forthcoming elections. Members of the radical Islamic Hezbollah movement burst into a hall in Hamedan, western Iran. They disrupted a meeting called to discuss the disqualification of 3,605 predominantly reformist candidates from next month's general elections. The violence erupted after a speaker accused the Guardian Council, the unelected clerical body that vetoed the candidates, of disregarding an order by the supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for the disqualifications to be reviewed. "Some 200 people attacked the podium, broke the microphone and beat people," said one witness. The aggression of Hezb' Allah reveals true nature of the Iranian regime....
UK: Anti-War Demonstrators Caused Materiel Shortages in Iraq
Anti-war demonstrators claiming to "support the troops" despite their protests may have trouble explaining this report from the UK's Black Watch: The commanding officer of the Black Watch yesterday blamed the Government's reluctance to be seen preparing for war for equipment shortages suffered by troops in Iraq. While careful to make clear that the Government's decision to wait until the last minute was understandable, Lt Col Cowan said it was partly forced on it by anti-war feeling among its own backbenchers. "As a result, many items of equipment were not available in the right numbers, in the right place, in the right working order at the time they should have been and I think that is widely acknowledged," he said. London, you may remember, hosted several large anti-war demonstrations in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Due to a certain lack of intestinal fortitude among members of Tony Blair's...
January 23, 2004
US Battles Al-Qaeda Cell in Fallujah
The US has discovered an al-Qaeda cell in the troublesome city of Fallujah, and is rounding up as many of its members as it can find: The U.S. military is fighting to uproot a suspected cell of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network in the staunchly anti-American town of Fallujah, a military official said Thursday. Two Egyptians and an Iraqi, all believed to be couriers among al-Qaida terrorists and financiers, were arrested Sunday in a Fallujah apartment building where slogans supporting bin Laden were written across a wall in sheep's blood. Capt. Scott Kirkpatrick, of the Army's 10th Mountain Division, who led the raid, said the men were found with al-Qaida literature and photos of bin Laden, believed to be the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed roughly 3,000 people. Kirkpatrick said the U.S. military doesn't know how big the al-Qaida cell in Fallujah is, "but...
Berkeley Supports Kucinich!
Hugh Hewitt had a caller last night from Berkeley who complained about Hugh's treatment of Dennis Kucinich. After assuming that Hugh would cut him off after declaring his support for Kucinich -- as if Hugh could pass up such an opportunity for radio comedy -- he challenged Hugh to say why he was so dismissive of Kucinich. Hugh told him that Kucinich was "loopy," which to anyone outside of Berkeley is fairly self-evident. Predictably, this infuriated poor Peter from Berkeley, who carried on about Hugh's lack of qualification for this judgment. Hugh treated the caller politely and indulgently ... which made it all the more hilarious. However, as a public service to all of our friends in Berkeley -- all two of them -- I will be happy to explain Why Kucinich Is Loopy, a handy guide to the Quixotean candidacy of the diminutive Ohioan. * A poem once said,...
Clark Stumbles Again
General Wesley Clark continues to turn this election into an emulation of the Little Bighorn by heedlessly charging into hostile territory without a clue as to what he's doing, and then expecting to succeed on sheer personality alone. (Talk about being unarmed!) Yesterday, Clark attempted a full-speed retreat on his previous statements on abortion: In his latest statement, Clark reaffirmed his support for abortion rights during an appearance at a Planned Parenthood conference timed to coincide with the 31st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling upholding a woman's constitutional right to an abortion. ... Asked when Roe v. Wade stipulates that life begins, Clark said: "I'm not going to get into a debate on viability. . . . Viability is a standard determined by a doctor, and I'm not going to get into a specific time frame." When asked to explain Roe v. Wade, Clark said, "I...
Power Line: Battle of the Mosque
Big Trunk from Power Line has an outstanding post based on a report of a little-known Marine battle in Baghdad. If you don't get goose bumps thinking about the heart and courage of these Marines, check for a pulse. You may be dead.
Saluting A Better Captain, Gone To a Better Place
Sadly, an icon of children's entertainment has passed away; Bob Keeshan, better known as Captain Kangaroo, died at age 76: Bob Keeshan, the television producer who created and ultimately became beloved children's personality Captain Kangaroo, has died. Keeshan, who was born in Lynbrook, Long Island, was 76. Keeshan began his career by creating the character of Clarabell the Clown for the 'Howdy Doody Show.' He used that children's show experience to mold Captain Kangaroo, winning over generations of children and their parents through innovative approaches to interesting topics. As the easy-going Captain with his big pockets and his bushy mustache, Keeshan lured children into close engagement with literature, science and especially music, adopting an approach which mixed pleasure and pedagogy. Keeshan's approach represented a rejection of pressures towards the increased commercialization of children's programming as well as a toning-down of the high volume, slapstick style associated with earlier kid show...
US Captures Key Al-Qaeda Figure
US forces in Iraq captured a key al-Qaeda associate and a leader in Ansaar al-Islam and the Iraqi insurgency: U.S. forces in Iraq captured a leader of the insurgency who is believed to be a close associate of Abu Musab Zarqawi, described by some as a key link between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein, a senior American official said in Washington on Friday. U.S. troops captured Husam al-Yemeni Thursday, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. He is described by U.S. officials as a top member of the al-Qaida linked Ansar al-Islam group and the leader of an insurgency cell in Fallujah, west of Baghdad. As in earlier events, US forces gave no details of the capture, nor have they made an official statement, but this looks like a fairly significant win for the Coalition. They've been battling an insurgency cell for a while in Fallujah, and capturing its leader,...
French Intelligence: Al-Qaeda Severely Damaged, Not Destroyed
The head of French intelligence substantiated George Bush's State of the Union contention that al-Qaeda has been significantly damaged but remains a threat against American and Western interests: The al-Qaida network has been severely destabilized but not destroyed by the war on terror and still represents a "very motivated and very dangerous" threat, the head of France's domestic intelligence agency said Friday. ... Bousquet de Florian said it "has been destabilized to a large extent" but "retains a capacity to carry out operations." "Very apparently," November's suicide bombings in Istanbul, Turkey, were, if not ordered by al-Qaida, then "validated by the heads of al-Qaida or by Osama bin Laden himself," he said, referring to the terror network's fugitive leader. Despite losing leaders, fighters, training camps and financing to the war on terror, al-Qaida "remains a structure that is very motivated and very dangerous," said Bousquet de Florian. President Bush warned...
Power Line Dissects the Washington Post
Here in the Twin Cities, we are accustomed to our leading newspaper's overt and covert anti-Republican bias, especially when the subject is the Bush administration. Other major broadsheets have similar problems, especially the Los Angeles Times (covered brilliantly by Patterico's Pontifications) and the New York Times. Editorial page preferences don't bother me; the op-ed section is where editors are supposed to take sides. These newspapers allow their editorial bias to inform their supposedly straight news reporting, and that serves no one well. One newspaper that had been fairly good at separating news from opinion was the Washington Post, which has been fairly straightforward during the Iraq war. Unfortunately, that seems to be changing now that the primary season is in full swing. Hindrocket at Power Line writes a devastatingly detailed critique on the work of the Post's Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus, two reporters whose bias had been at issue...
McJesus?
London's Daily Telegraph publishes an article about the latest spiritual fad sweeping the US -- the megachurch: An advertisement for the Saddleback Church invites congregants to attend "God's Extreme Makeover" - a revival of Christ in their hearts named after the latest television fad, in which volunteers undergo plastic surgery. Leaflets at the door to the main hall proclaim "You Can Bring Your Coffee Into Any Venue". Children run around in baseball shirts proclaiming that they are part of God's own squad. The thousands inside are able to sing along to spiritual songs - not traditional hymns - from the words on giant karaoke screens suspended above a light rock band. This is the United States' latest religious phenomenon. As Americans like going to shopping malls for all their consumer needs in one spot, so self-styled "megachurches" are the fastest growing form of service in the country. Ah, yes, we...
January 24, 2004
Clark Tanks in Debate, Blames ... Republicans
General Wesley Clark, after his mediocre showing in Thursday's debate, blamed the alleged Republican bias of the moderator for his performance: Presidential candidate Wesley Clark on Friday complained that one of the moderators in Thursday night's debate was carrying out a Republican agenda by questioning his Democratic credentials. Brit Hume of Fox News Channel, who worked as both moderator and questioner during the two-hour debate with the seven candidates, pressed Clark about when he had first realized he was a Democrat. Clark told reporters Friday, "I looked at who was asking the questions, and I think that was part of the Republican agenda in the debate." Perhasps Clark hasn't realized this yet, but the office for which he is running is President of the United States, not DNC party chairman. That means that everyone has a stake in finding out as much as possible about the philosophy and policy goals...
I'm Not Complaining, But Those Grapes Did Taste a Bit Sour
Governor Howard Dean, until two weeks ago considered all but a lock for the Democratic nomination for President, explains his stunning defeat in Iowa: Howard Dean said Saturday he was surprised by the "under the table" campaigning he faced during the Iowa caucus and said the state needs to prevent such negative attacks if it wants to keep the nation's leadoff presidential vote. Dean said his rivals "had their folks really beating up on the people who went in, trying to get them to change their minds in caucus." ... Asked Saturday for specifics about the negative attacks, Dean pointed to a book distributed by North Carolina Sen. John Edwards' campaign that instructed supporters how to attack other candidates during the caucuses. For example, it told campaign captains in Iowa to describe Dean as an "elitist from Park Avenue in New York City." "I never dreamed that would happen," Dean...
Aussies Want Republic, Not Monarch
A poll by the Australian newspaper Daily Telegraph finds that a 2-1 majority favors eliminating the British monarch as head of state and officially becoming a republic: Fewer than one in three (30 per cent) believe the Queen should remain as head of state while 64 per cent favour an Australian in the position. The national poll of 1200 people shows that support for removing the Queen has grown significantly since the referendum on the Republic in 1999, which was defeated 55 to 45 per cent, and a Newspoll in December 1995, when 56 per cent supported the change. Most Americans may not even be aware that Queen Elizabeth is the official head of state for Australia as well as the UK. Five years ago, Australia held a referendum on the continuance of this tradition, which was approved by 10 points. The public mood has shifted considerably in the past...
Kerry's Long Record His Biggest Liability
Now that he has moved to the front of the pack, Senator John Kerry's long record of service in the US Senate may be both his biggest qualification and his greatest liability, according to a story in tomorrow's New York Times: The sheer length of Mr. Kerry's service means that he has built a paper trail of positions on education, the military, intelligence and other issues — stands that might have looked one way when he took them but that resonate differently now. For example, at the end of the cold war, Mr. Kerry advocated scaling back the Central Intelligence Agency, but after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, he complained about a lack of intelligence capability. In the 1980's, he opposed the death penalty for terrorists who killed Americans abroad, but he now supports the death penalty for terrorist acts. In the 1990's, he joined with Republican colleagues to sponsor...
January 25, 2004
New Hampshire Prediction
Because I did so well predicting the Iowa Caucuses (ha!), I'll take a whack at New Hampshire to see how badly I can humble myself: Kerry: 28% Dean: 24% Edwards: 19% Clark: 15% All four will get delegates, Dean will claim rebound momentum, and Edwards will remain alive for South Carolina. Clark's campaign will begin to stall out, but he will stay in the race. Lieberman will withdraw, along with Kucinich if the Ohioan manages to get a moment of lucidity. UPDATE: Other bloggers are starting to line up as well. Check out the predictions at the Evangelical Outpost, who managed to predict an upset in Iowa. He's predicting a solid Kerry victory by 15 points. (Gulp!) Dan at California Yankee agrees with me on the order, but he's not predicting percentages ... wise man that he is. He's got tons more links to blog predictions. The Commissar at Politburo...
Is Kerry's Radical Past Fair Game?
Joe at the Evangelical Outpost, via the Sophorist, pointed out that Senator John Kerry wrote a book outlining his opposition to the Vietnam War, The New Soldier. Evangelical Outpost has a B/W picture of the cover on its post; the cover is dominated by a mockery of the Iwo Jima flag-raising, complete with an upside-down American flag, held by men trying their best to win Che Guevara look-alike contests. No doubt this image will resonate negatively with most Americans, and fortunately for John Kerry the book is out of print, or else all of his opponents would be tripping over themselves to produce the juiciest quotes possible. But this raises a troubling question: just how germane are Kerry's political views from over thirty years ago to this Presidential campaign? Aristide Briand once remarked that anyone who wasn't a Socialist at 20 had no heart, and anyone who is a Socialist...
Hugh Hewitt Reviews 'The Passion of the Christ'
Hugh Hewitt posts a lengthy review of the new and controversial Mel Gibson movie, The Passion of the Christ (no permalink yet). Hugh's enthusiasm for this film is evident in this review, as it was in his radio show on Friday night: The Passion of the Christ is a phenomenal work of art; a moving and inspiring film that will certainly be shown again and again for generations to come. Though I am a follower of Jesus Christ, I do not believe that one needs to be a believer in the divinity of Christ to appreciate the majesty of the movie and its extraordinary commitment to authenticity and an objective recounting of the story of the passion and death of Christ as relayed through the Gospels. I have wondered how well Gibson would adhere to history in the Passion story. After all, his previous efforts at historical cinema fell somewhat...
What Color Is The Sky In Dean's World?
Just when you thought that Howard Dean might have figured out that his mouth is his own worst enemy, the diminutive governor lets it get away from him again: Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean said Sunday that the standard of living for Iraqis is a "whole lot worse" since Saddam Hussein's removal from power in last year's American-led invasion. "You can say that it's great that Saddam is gone and I'm sure that a lot of Iraqis feel it is great that Saddam is gone," said the former Vermont governor, an unflinching critic of the war against Iraq. "But a lot of them gave their lives. And their living standard is a whole lot worse now than it was before." The Iraqi quality of life was better under Saddam Hussein? Under a regime that may have killed over 300,000 people and stuck them into mass graves? A regime where torture...
BlogMadness: A New Contest!
I'm entered in a new blog contest -- this one called BlogMadness 2003, designed to emulate the March Madness NCAA basketball tournament. It consists of rounds of single-elimination, head-to-head contests, where a blogger wins by getting the most votes and moving into the next bracket. BlogMadness explains: A few weeks ago Manny and I stumbled upon a little idea: what would happen if you combined the fun and excitement of March Madness with the writing (brilliant and otherwise) which abounds in the blogosphere? The result of our discussion was the creation of a Blog Tournament. Everyone would go through their 2003 archives (which is fun in and of itself), pull out their very best post, and enter it in the tournament. We'll throw together a bracket, everyone will vote, and in the end the winners will be crowned King or Queen of some small portion of Blogland. Hopefully, along the...
January 26, 2004
Kerry: I Vote In Bizarro World
On the eve of the New Hampshire primary, John Kerry's inconsistencies seem to be catching up to him on the stump, if not quite yet in the polls. Facing a challenge from Howard Dean on his votes in 1991 against military action in Kuwait and in 2002 to authorize military action in Iraq, Kerry has come up with a novel explanation -- his votes meant the exact opposite of what they were: Kerry said Sunday that he supported the Iraq resolution 15 months ago because he believed President Bush would use force only as a "last resort." "The vote I cast was not a vote to go to war immediately," he said. ... Although Kerry said he "believed we ought to kick Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait," uppermost on his mind in 1991, he said, was public ambivalence about sending U.S. troops to the Persian Gulf. "I said we ought...
Union Leaders Paid Like CEOs
The Southern California region has suffered through a 15-week-long grocery worker's strike/lockout which has damaged everyone concerned -- the workers, the stores, and the customers. Michael Hiltzik at the Los Angeles Times notes that the group shouldering the most blame for the current stalemate receives eye-popping compensation for their recent mediocrity: Take Rick Icaza, the head of Los Angeles-based Local 770, which has 30,000 members. Icaza earned $273,404 in 2002, the latest period for which the figure is available. That was nearly a 10% raise over the prior year. Icaza, 69, out-earned even John Sweeney, the national president of the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor organization. Sweeney earned a salary of $247,500 that year. ... The phenomenon of overripe compensation at the UFCW starts with International President Douglas Dority, whose $329,792 made him the best-paid president among the AFL-CIO's 64 member unions in 2002. That's the case even though the...
Lt. Smash: What Is Terrorism?
Lt. Smash -- now Citizen Smash after courageously serving his country -- asks a good question in today's Open Thread: what is terrorism? I've included my answer in the comments. It just got started, but I will bet that this will become a very interesting debate. Check it out and leave your own thoughts on terrorism....
Dean: National ID-Card Requirement For Internet Access, Gov't Programs
The Drudge Report found a commentary from CNET News by Declan McCullagh asserting that Howard Dean actively supported a national ID card as recently as 2002. Not only that, but Dean wanted the ID card to be a requirement for Internet access so that identification information could be tracked on line: Fifteen months before Dean said he would seek the presidency, however, the former Vermont governor spoke at a conference in Pittsburgh co-sponsored by smart-card firm Wave Systems where he called for state drivers' licenses to be transformed into a kind of standardized national ID card for Americans. Embedding smart cards into uniform IDs was necessary to thwart "cyberterrorism" and identity theft, Dean claimed. "We must move to smarter license cards that carry secure digital information that can be universally read at vital checkpoints," Dean said in March 2002, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. "Issuing such a...
CIA and FBI Missed Clues to 9/11 Hijackers: Panel
The LA Times reports that the federal 9/11 commission has concluded that the CIA and FBI missed opportunities to recognize the hijackers as a threat: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 plot, obtained a visa to come to the United States just weeks before the attacks despite being under a federal terrorism indictment, a report by the federal commission investigating the attacks revealed Monday. As many as eight of the hijackers entered the United States with doctored passports that contained "clues to their association" with al-Qaida that should have been caught by immigration authorities, commission investigators said. The newly disclosed findings challenge previous claims by top CIA and FBI officials that the hijackers' records and paperwork were so clean that they could not have aroused suspicion. The commissioners heard testimony all day on improvements made to the security system of the US, including technological as well...
Al-Qaeda WMD Project Stopped By Afghan Invasion
The AP reports that the US invasion of Afghanistan put an end to a nascent al-Qaeda WMD program: An Al-Qaida program to develop chemical and biological weapons was in the early "conceptual stages" when it was cut short by the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, U.S. and Malaysian security officials said. The information on the state of Osama bin Laden's weapons plan came from [interrogations] of terrorist suspects captured in Southeast Asia and from clues gathered in the Afghan battlefield, the authorities said. And where did these people come from? One of them studied in the US as a biochemist: Yazid graduated from the University of California, Sacramento, in 1987. But after returning to Malaysia, he began attending classes run by Hambali, a charismatic preacher, and became one of scores of Malaysians and Indonesians recruited to his radical form of Islam in the mid-1990s. Yazid, 40, spent time in an Al-Qaida...
January 27, 2004
Enjoy It While You Can, General
General Wesley Clark was pleased that he won the first primary in the nation ... in the tiny New Hampshire town of Dixville Notch: Of the 15 people casting ballots in the Democratic primary, eight voted for Clark. Sen. John Kerry collected three, Sen. John Edwards had two and Sen. Joe Lieberman and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean had one each. "This is a great way to begin the next day," said a smiling Clark in Dixville Notch at about 12:15 a.m. "This is the first election I've had since homeroom student council representative. This is a big step for me." Yeah, well ... he has nowhere to go but down the rest of the day, and I predict he'll go there rather quickly. Fourth place and out of the money. He'll be battling with Lieberman to hold onto that position, too....
NH Absentee Ballots Average, No Help to Dean
The New Hampshire Union-Leader reports that there has been no unusual demand for absentee ballots for this primary: Election officials from around New Hampshire have received an average number of requests for absentee ballots this primary season. ... “I would typify it as average,” Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan said, regarding the number of requests for absentee ballots. Why does this matter? Absentee ballots are immune to last-minute eruptions, even going back a week or more, as voters complete them and mail them in early to assure their acceptance. Presumably, a large number of absentee voters marked their ballots prior to Dean's meltdown in Iowa and his odd acceptance speech. Since support ran stronger for Dean in the Granite State at that point, a high number of absentee ballots would have helped Dean. As it is, he can probably count on a small boost from absentee voters when they're...
Kerry: We Should Have Waited For Saddam Attack
Senator John Kerry continues to make odd statements about the Iraq war, trying to reconcile his vote authorizing it with his current anti-war platform: Kerry said that the administration had promised to go through the United Nations first, and then didn’t do it, but he added that at the time Saddam Hussein constituted a threat. “From 1991 to 1998, we had inspectors in Iraq blowing up weapons of mass destruction,” Kerry said. “A lot of people seem to have forgotten that. We destroyed plenty of weapons of mass destruction in those 7½ years. We found more weapons than we thought Saddam had, and evidence of a nuclear program. " Kerry is either lying or being deliberately obtuse. Bush went to the UN twice. In December, he pushed through UNSC resolution 1441, demanding immediate and full compliance from Saddam Hussein with the previous 16 UNSC resolutions. Inspectors were supposed to report...
Lord of the Rings Gets 11 Oscar Nominations
Now onto the real election news -- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King has snagged 11 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director: Along with best picture and director, the nominations for "Return of the King" included original score and song, visual effects, film editing and adapted screenplay for the script based on J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy classic. "Return of the King" led last weekend's Golden Globes with four wins, including best dramatic picture and director, and its broad critical and fan support give the film the inside track at the Oscars. No word on acting nominations as yet. To no one's surprise, however, Renee Zellweger received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her terrific performance in Cold Mountain, one that likely will be rewarded with a win. UPDATE: No acting nominations, despite great performances in supporting roles. I guess a picture gets to be considered...
Live Blogging New Hampshire Results
As Professor Bainbridge will attempt to do, I will be live blogging during the New Hampshire primary results once the polls close. I'll probably concentrate on media reactions and coverage (my channel-flipping skills will be put to the test tonight). The wise Professor also has his predictions and a list of others, including mine....
Al Franken, Free-Speech Thug?
Al Franken thinks of himself as a free-speech advocate. In fact, he's so determined to allow candidates the right to speak that he'll assault anyone who pipes up around them: Wise-cracking funnyman Al Franken yesterday body-slammed a demonstrator to the ground after the man tried to shout down Gov. Howard Dean. ... Franken emerged from the crowd and charged one male protester, grabbing him with a bear hug from behind and slamming him onto the floor. Why has the normally pacifist, anti-war Franken suddenly taken to unilateral attacks? "I'm neutral in this race but I'm for freedom of speech, which means people should be able to assemble and speak without being shouted down." Oh, so Franken is for freedom of some speech, and also for vigilantism. I certainly hope Al's available to work security for the protest area during the Republican convention. Oh, wait, he'll probably be one of the...
Captain's Log: New Hampshire Primary
All times CST... 6:56 - I've got Fox News on the TV and on the computer, getting set up to flip around and open several browser windows. I'm also hoping that Saint Paul comes around again to satirize me while I'm doing this. It's too self-important to resist. Anyway, on Fox News, I've already found what may wind up being the funniest line of the night: Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich (search), who has been polling at 1 percent in most polls, said Tuesday his campaign has the money to carry beyond New Hampshire and insisted he won't drop out of the race. "We're going to do our best here and go on to the next state and the next state," Kucinich said while in Maine. "I haven't discounted the possibility of a surge in some of these other states." Stop it, Dennis, you're killing me. What qualifies as a Kucinich...
Someone Stop Sandler!
Lovers of classic 1970s films, especially sports films, may need extra blood-pressure medicine after reading this item on Adam Sandler's latest project: Adam Sandler will star in a remake of the 1974 Burt Reynolds comedy "The Longest Yard," the story of a former football player turned convict who challenges prison guards to a game. Adam Sandler -- remaking one of the icons of men's films? I ask you, how many of you can see Sandler as even an adequate replacement for Burt Reynolds? Sandler must be hallucinating, which would explain his Mr. Deeds remake, too. I don't believe that someone can ruin a classic movie by remaking it poorly -- after all, the original movie still remains -- but you can certainly insult its standing by making stupid casting decisions. One could hardly get more foolish than by casting Sandler as a hardened and corrupt NFL quarterback who stands up...
January 28, 2004
Blair Cleared In Scientist's Suicide
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, under fire and accused of releasing the name of the scientist that was the source of a discredited BBC report, has been cleared of any wrongdoing according to a leaked copy of the investigation's final report: A judge's probe into an Iraq weapons expert's suicide has cleared Prime Minister Tony Blair of blame, according to the Sun which has published what it says is a leak of the report. ... The Sun said the BBC, which had asserted in a report that Blair's government "sexed up" intelligence about Iraqi weapons to make its case for war last year, was accused of being "at fault" over a story that should have been checked more closely. "The document...is a devastating indictment of the BBC and its defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan," wrote the Sun's political editor Trevor Kavanagh. "Tony Blair is sensationally cleared of any 'dishonourable or underhand'...
How Can You Keep Them On The Farm ...
Apparently, in the eyes of Minnesota Golden Gophers athletes, Minnesota's natural beauty is a terrific attraction for high school recruits. Unfortunately, some of the student hosts gave recruits too close a look at some of our beauties: Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi said he will investigate recruiting practices within the football program after learning that high school prospects went to several Minneapolis bars and a strip club during an official recruiting visit in December. Three prospects acknowledged Tuesday that they were part of a group that visited bars as minors and that several were served alcohol. A group also went to Deja Vu, a downtown strip club that admits patrons 18 and older and does not serve alcohol. I am certain that high-school prospects would like nothing better than to go to strip clubs and get tanked, but the question is how a public university allowed such a thing to...
Edwards: I'm No Second Banana
Senator John Edwards, who finished in a virtual dead heat for third place in New Hampshire with General Wesley Clark, categorically rejects the idea of running in the #2 slot in November: Presidential candidate John Edwards (news - web sites) on Wednesday rejected any notion of sharing the Democratic ticket with front-running rival John Kerry (news - web sites) — unless he is at the top. Asked on NBC's "Today" show if he would accept second place on the Democratic slate to face President Bush (news - web sites) in the fall election, Edwards said: "I think you've got the order reversed. I intend to be the nominee." Edwards said he would not be willing to be No. 2. "No, no. Final. I don't want to be vice president. I'm running for president," he said. While candidates often pooh-pooh the idea of being a VP, this is the second time...
Our Friends, The French
UPI and the UK Independent report that official Iraqi government documents show that Saddam Hussein engaged in a series of bribes of high-ranking European officials: Documents from Saddam Hussein's oil ministry reveal he used oil to bribe top French officials into opposing the imminent U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The oil ministry papers, described by the independent Baghdad newspaper al-Mada, are apparently authentic and will become the basis of an official investigation by the new Iraqi Governing Council, the Independent reported Wednesday. "I think the list is true," Naseer Chaderji, a governing council member, said. "I will demand an investigation. These people must be prosecuted." If true, these documents would explode the Presidential race. Democrats consistently attack Bush for "unilateralism" and, in John Kerry's words, building an "illegitimate" coalition because the French opposed the US. Chirac even reversed course and stabbed Colin Powell in the back by reneging on an agreement...
BlogMadness Continues
Thanks to a boost from Hugh Hewitt, the Lord High Commissioner of the blogosphere, I'm ahead in the first round of the BlogMadness contest, 24-11, with 8 hours left to go. If you haven't been by there yet, please visit the bracket and cast your vote. Other CQ brethren need some attention as well: California Yankee is down 9-6. Patterico's Pontifications is behind 17-12 against terrific competition from The American Mind. King of Fools, Evangelical Outpost, and Wizbang are all ahead, but vote for them for insurance -- standings can change fast!...
Dean On The Ropes
Governor Howard Dean's sputtering campaign hit more bumps in the road today: Democrat Howard Dean shook up his faltering bid for the White House on Wednesday, replacing his campaign manager with a longtime associate of former Vice President Al Gore [Roy Neel]. In a further sign of distress, the one-time front-runner implemented cost-cutting measures as he looked ahead to a series of costly primaries and caucuses, asking staff to defer their paychecks for two weeks. Management changes and budget cuts do not indicate a campaign firing on all cylinders; it demonstrates the extent of the problem Dean now faces. With his opponents raising more cash and with seven states voting on Tuesday, Dean has to spend a ton of money and needs a steady hand at the rudder. I'm not sure why outgoing campaign manager Joe Trippi suddenly lost Dean's confidence. Most of the problems Dean has he brought on...
The French Exodus
French Jews no longer have confidence in France to protect them, and immigration to Israel has almost tripled: Growing anti-Semitism in France has prompted a big rise in the number of French Jews emigrating to Israel. Figures released in Israel yesterday showed that 2,380 moved last year and 2,556 the year before. In the 1990s only about 800 French Jews emigrated to Israel each year. One suspects that this presents a bit of a mixed bag to the Muslims responsible for attacks on Jews in France. On one hand, forcing Jews to leave must delight them, but I doubt they're happy to see them go to Israel. What exactly is driving France's Jews out of Europe? Natan Sharansky, an Israeli minister, said on Sunday: "Last year the number of anti-Semitic incidents in France doubled and 47 per cent of all anti-Semitic attacks in western Europe occurred there." ... He said...
January 29, 2004
BlogMadness, Round 1: Movin' On Up!
The voting is over for Round 1 in the BlogMadness tourney, and Captain's Quarters is moving onto the next round, thanks to all of you who voted for me. My "epic" poem, The Midnight Blog-Court, topped d-42's entry on pornography. California Yankee also won in my bracket. Next up, round 2, where voting starts tonight at 11PM EST. I'm up against some pretty stiff competition this time: a grandmother writing about her grandchild's birth and difficult first few days (an excellent post, really). Hope you'll all continue to participate!...
Arts Funding Increase? Why?
The New York Times reported yesterday that President Bush will request a substantial increase in funding for the National Endowment of the Arts: President Bush will seek a big increase in the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts, the largest single source of support for the arts in the United States, administration officials said on Wednesday. The proposal is part of a turnaround for the agency, which was once fighting for its life, attacked by some Republicans as a threat to the nation's moral standards. I don't think it's a threat to the nation's moral standards; daytime soap operas present more of a threat than art-house displays of Robert Mapplethorpe's rear end ever could. It's a nonproductive waste of money and it's completely unnecessary. Artists sell their wares in a free market here in the US. Artists who can't make a living out of it on their own...
What Happened To The Left?
Dissent Magazine published an excellent essay on the moral abdication of the Left in the fight against fascism. It's written by a Leftist who is dismayed by his sudden isolation: "And yet," I insisted, "if good-hearted people like you would only open your left-wing eyes, you would see clearly enough that the Baath Party is very nearly a classic fascist movement, and so is the radical Islamist movement, in a somewhat different fashion-two strands of a single impulse, which happens to be Europe's fascist and totalitarian legacy to the modern Muslim world. If only people like you would wake up, you would see that war against the radical Islamist and Baathist movements, in Afghanistan exactly as in Iraq, is war against fascism." I grew still more heated. "What a tragedy that you don't see this! It's a tragedy for the Afghanis and the Iraqis, who need more help than they...
Limited Blogging Today
I will not be doing too much blogging today, as the First Mate and I will be attending the Patriot Forum tonight in St. Paul, featuring Hugh Hewitt as guest speaker. Hugh and Duane will be visiting us just in time to see the physical proof of Al Gore's theory of global warming; as I write this, it is 15 degrees below zero. (I'm actually surprised the former Vice President isn't speaking in the Twin Cities this week to continue his "Bitter Cold of Global Warming" series of lectures. We could use the hot air.) We'll be dining with our fellow bloggers of the Northern Alliance, such as the gang at Fraters Libertas, Mitch Berg at Shot In The Dark, Big Trunk at Power Line, and many more. If you are a listener of Hugh's show, James Lileks will be guest-hosting live from our own Patriot station here in town,...
Dean Flounders, Pulls Back Advertising
In what looks suspiciously like capitulation, the Howard Dean campaign has suddenly canceled its advertising in the seven battleground states voting next week on the Democratic nomination for President: Howard Dean will not air ads in any of the seven states holding elections next week, officials said Thursday, a risky strategy that puts him at a distinct disadvantage with high-spending rivals for the Democratic nomination. With his money and momentum depleted, Dean decided to save his ad money for the Feb. 7 elections in Michigan and Washington state and, 10 days later, the primary in Wisconsin, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. One of the stories on Joe Trippi's departure published yesterday reported on strategic differences between trippi and Roy Neel, who took his place. If surrendering on Tuesday is part of the strategic realignment of this campaign, why did Trippi need to leave? I assume that Trippi...
Why I Missed the Patriot Forum Tonight
I am so pissed -- at no one in particular, but I'm still pissed. As I blogged earlier, my wife and I planned on going to the Patriot Forum, a dinner and discussion with Hugh Hewitt, an event I have been looking forward to attending for over a month. I got stuck in a meeting at work and couldn't escape until 4:45, although I made it home in a half-hour, something of a record for this time of year. I had originally planned to leave the house about that time, but I got ready as quickly as I could and started to head out the door. I asked the First Mate to check with the hotel to see if they had valet parking, for which I would gladly pay a small fortune on a -15-degree night. (There are other reasons, which will come into play later.) The hotel confirmed that...
January 30, 2004
Poll: Kerry Edging Bush Among Minnesotans
A poll by the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Minnesota Public Radio shows John Kerry slightly ahead of George Bush among Minnesotans, and the only Democrat who would beat him at this point in the race: The poll, commissioned by the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Minnesota Public Radio, puts Kerry at 43 percent, Bush at 41 percent and undecided Minnesota voters at 16 percent. The poll was taken shortly after Kerry's victories in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, which have given him momentum versus the rest of the field. ... In Minnesota, Bush would defeat Gen. Wesley Clark by a 5-point margin, Sen. John Edwards by a 6-point margin, Sen. Joseph Lieberman by an 8-point margin and Vermont Gov. Howard Dean by a 14-point margin. Among women, however, Democrats would defeat Bush — except Dean, who lagged by 1 point with a margin of error of...
ABC: Saddam's List
ABC News reports further on the list of global government officials on Saddam's bribe list: All of the contracts were awarded from late 1997 until the U.S.-led war in March 2003. They were conducted under the aegis of the United Nations' oil-for-food program, which was designed to allow Iraq to sell oil in exchange for humanitarian goods. The document was discovered several weeks ago in the files of the Iraqi Oil Ministry in Baghdad. According to a copy obtained by ABCNEWS, some 270 prominent individuals, political parties or corporations in 47 countries were on a list of those given Iraq oil contracts instantly worth millions of dollars. These bribes worked by assigning barrels of oil to people at a rate 50 cents below the market value as a commodity, which allowed the recipients to sell the oil to legitimate brokers for a a profit, without ever touching a barrel themselves....
Kerry: Terrorist Threat Exaggerated
When we looked at the burning and collapsing towers behind the Statue of Liberty, the smoldering wreck of the Pentagon facade, and the pit made by the heroes of Flight 93 when they thwarted the hijackers, didn't we vow to remember? Did we vow to become vigilant and to take action to make sure that such a thing never happened again? Or did we all decide to write it off as "s**t happens" and assume that the UN will protect us from harm?
French Corruption Scandals Grow
The French just capped off a glorious week of scandal and corruption with the conviction of former PM Alain Juppé, a crony of Jacques Chirac: In a stinging reverse for President Jacques Chirac, the former French prime minister Alain Juppé was banned from office for a decade yesterday after being found guilty of corrupt party financing. ... A court in Nanterre in the Paris suburbs found him guilty yesterday of "taking illegal advantage" of public funds. He was given an 18-month suspended sentence and ordered to serve the mandatory 10-year suspension from elected office. More than a score of other serving or former party colleagues or associates of M. Juppé and M. Chirac were given suspended prison terms. ... The legal conviction of M. Juppé also amounts to a political indictment of M. Chirac. The offences of which M. Juppé was convicted - embezzling the money of Paris taxpayers by...
Al-Qaeda: Fighting On
A message purportedly from al-Qaeda states that they are still valiantly hanging on in their struggle to remain deadly: Al-Qaeda vowed in its Thursday statement to continue fighting the Saudi government and its Western supporters, swearing to "take revenge on anyone who fights the faith and its people, or stands as a line of defence for the Crusader forces". ... The alleged al-Qaeda statement, a copy of which was emailed to The Associated Press today, also said government forces detained one of its members, Khaled al-Juwaiser al-Farraj, and that al-Farraj's father was wounded in a shootout with security forces, but that the rest of the group escaped. The Interior Ministry, said, however, that al-Farraj's father was killed - but not by security agents. This statement followed either (a) a deadly shootout with Saudi security forces, or (b) an ambush on them by al-Qaeda, depending on who's doing the talking. It...
January 31, 2004
Kerry: Lobbyist Magnet
Far from being the scourge of special-interest lobbyists that he declares himself to be, John Kerry has raised more money from lobbyists than anyone else in the Senate over the past 15 years: Kerry, a 19-year veteran of the Senate who fought and won four expensive political campaigns, has received nearly $640,000 from lobbyists, many representing telecommunications and financial companies with business before his committee, according to Federal Election Commission data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. For his presidential race, Kerry has raised more than $225,000 from lobbyists, better than twice as much as his nearest Democratic rival. Kerry claims that all that money can't buy his vote, but he may have trouble explaining the juxtaposition of this: One of Kerry's biggest -- and perhaps most controversial -- donors has been the Boston-based law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo. The group, which lobbies on...
Congress: No Evidence CIA Slanted Iraq Intelligence
Despite the shrill rhetoric emanating from the Democratic primaries and certain broadsheets, two Congressional investigations have concluded that no one pressured intelligence agencies to slant their data to support the Administration's casus belli: Congressional and CIA investigations into the prewar intelligence on Iraq's weapons and links to terrorism have found no evidence that CIA analysts colored their judgment because of perceived or actual political pressure from White House officials, according to intelligence officials and congressional officials from both parties. Richard J. Kerr, a former deputy CIA director who is leading the CIA's review of its prewar Iraq assessment, said an examination of the secret analytical work done by CIA analysts showed that it remained consistent over many years. "There was pressure and a lot of debate, and people should have a lot of debate, that's quite legitimate," Kerr said. "But the bottom line is, over a period of several years,"...
More Canceled Flights
Several international flights to the US have been canceled for the weekend: British Airways and Air France on Saturday announced the cancellation of seven flights to and from the United States because of security concerns. BA canceled four flights between Heathrow Airport and Washington on Sunday and Monday and one from Heathrow to Miami on Sunday. Air France canceled two Paris-to-Washington flights. There seems to be less information forthcoming on these cancellations than the ones over Christmas, and that's probably a good thing. The spectacular attention those received may have exposed intelligence assets and scared off the terrorists. Let's hope that security agencies have better luck this time around....
Neel's Strategy Memo to the Deaniacs
Thanks to alert reader Mark from Minnesota, we now have the latest strategy memo from Roy Neel, the new Howard Dean campaign chief. I'm posting it in its entirety. Neel attempts to explain the retreat announced this week from the February 3rd primaries, in what you could look at as the Ross Perot strategy: This campaign has always defied conventional wisdom. Our extraordinary rise last year defied conventional wisdom—so did our fall in Iowa, and so did our comeback in New Hampshire after most pundits predicted Howard Dean was finished. Conventional wisdom has been consistently wrong about this race. So when conventional wisdom says a candidate must win somewhere on February 3, or that John Kerry will have wrapped up the nomination after fewer than 10% of the delegates have been chosen, we disagree. Our goal for the next two and a half weeks is simple—become the last-standing alternative to...
My Lunch With Hugh and the Northern Alliance
Fortunately for me, after the debacle of my attempt to attend the Patriot Forum on Thursday, I received an invitation to have lunch with Hugh Hewitt and the bloggers of the Northern Alliance. As guests of The Patriot in the Twin Cities, we all met for lunch at Billy's Lighthouse in Long Lake, a terrific restaurant owned by a fan of Hugh's. It was the first chance I'd had to meet most of the Northern Alliance bloggers, as well as Hugh and the Generalissimo, Duane. I think I can speak for the group (although you can check out their blogs, as I'm sure they'll be posting on this) when I say what a blast we all had. Hugh is every bit as gracious and friendly as you'd imagine from his show and his writing, and funny as well. We all talked about Minnesota, blogging, politics ... I don't remember the...
Continue reading "My Lunch With Hugh and the Northern Alliance" »
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
My Lunch With Hugh and the Northern Alliance
Fortunately for me, after the debacle of my attempt to attend the Patriot Forum on Thursday, I received an invitation to have lunch with Hugh Hewitt and the bloggers of the Northern Alliance. As guests of The Patriot in the Twin Cities, we all met for lunch at Billy's Lighthouse in Long Lake, a terrific restaurant owned by a fan of Hugh's. It was the first chance I'd had to meet most of the Northern Alliance bloggers, as well as Hugh and the Generalissimo, Duane.
I think I can speak for the group (although you can check out their blogs, as I'm sure they'll be posting on this) when I say what a blast we all had. Hugh is every bit as gracious and friendly as you'd imagine from his show and his writing, and funny as well. We all talked about Minnesota, blogging, politics ... I don't remember the last time I had this much fun getting out for a lunch with colleagues. As you'll see in the extended post, Hugh happily posed for pictures. Duane was quite different than I imagined, and with both of us being California natives, we traded a couple of stories about the area and explained California weather and geography to the others at the table.
While I'd met The Elder and RB from Fraters Libertas, I hadn't met Saint Paul or JB Doubtless until today. They're a great group of guys, of course, but the life of the party (besides Hugh) had to be Mitch Berg of A Shot In The Dark, who towered over the rest of us. Hindrocket and Big Trunk from Power Line showed up at the same time as I did, and they were a lot of fun to talk with at the table. Eloise and the Warrior Monk from Spitbull drove quite a ways, I believe, to be there with us, as did King Banaian from SCSU Scholars. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that you'd be hard pressed to find a nicer group of people.
A couple of items to note. First, Hugh had us all predict which states would go for Bush and which would go Democrat in November, and promised to ridicule us all with the results at the appropriate time. I'm certain that if my predictive track record means anything at all, I just doomed the Bush campaign. The second item is that we have big plans for the Northern Alliance. Hugh challenged us to do something special, and we're all pretty enthusiastic. I won't say any more than that at the moment, but stay tuned.
Just click below to see some of the pictures I took of the event. (Thank goodness for digital cameras!) And once more, let me thank Hugh, Billy's Lighthouse, and The Patriot for a wonderful lunch and a great time.
Neel's Strategy Memo to the Deaniacs
Thanks to alert reader Mark from Minnesota, we now have the latest strategy memo from Roy Neel, the new Howard Dean campaign chief. I'm posting it in its entirety. Neel attempts to explain the retreat announced this week from the February 3rd primaries, in what you could look at as the Ross Perot strategy:
This campaign has always defied conventional wisdom. Our extraordinary rise last year defied conventional wisdom—so did our fall in Iowa, and so did our comeback in New Hampshire after most pundits predicted Howard Dean was finished.Conventional wisdom has been consistently wrong about this race.
So when conventional wisdom says a candidate must win somewhere on February 3, or that John Kerry will have wrapped up the nomination after fewer than 10% of the delegates have been chosen, we disagree.
Our goal for the next two and a half weeks is simple—become the last-standing alternative to John Kerry after the Wisconsin primary on February 17.
Why Wisconsin? First, it is a stand-alone primary where we believe we can run very strong. Second, it kicks off a two-week campaign for over 1,100 delegates on March 2, and the shift of the campaign that month to nearly every big state: California, New York, and Ohio on March 2, Texas and Florida on March 9, Illinois on March 16, and Pennsylvania on April 27.
In the meantime, Howard Dean is traveling to many of the February 3 states, sending surrogates—including Al Gore—to most, and conducting radio interviews in all. We believe that one or more of our major opponents will be eliminated that day, and that the others will fall by the wayside as our strength grows in the following days. As a result we have elected to not buy television advertisements in February 3 states, but instead direct our resources toward the February 7 and 8 contests in Michigan, Washington and Maine. We may not win any February 3 state, but even third place finishes will allow us to move forward, continue to amass delegates in Virginia and Tennessee on February 10, and then strongly challenge Kerry in Wisconsin.
Regardless of who takes first place in these states, we think that after Wisconsin we’ll get Kerry in the open field. Remember one crucial thing about the 2004 calendar—in previous years a front-runner or presumptive nominee would typically emerge after most of the states had voted and most of the delegates had been chosen. The final competitor to that candidate, even if he won late states, as many have done, has not been able to win a majority of delegates under any scenario.
This year is very different. The media and the party insiders will attempt to declare Kerry the winner on February 3 after fewer than 10% of the state delegates have been chosen. At that point Kerry himself will probably have claimed fewer than one third of the delegates he needs to win. They would like the campaign to be over before the voters of California, New York, Texas and nearly every other big state have spoken.
Democrats in Florida, who witnessed a perversion of democracy in November 2000, will not have a choice concerning the nominee if the media and the party insiders have their way.
We intend to make this campaign a choice. We alone of the remaining challengers to John Kerry are geared to the long haul—we’ve raised nearly $2 million in the week after Iowa, over $600,000 in the 48 hours since New Hampshire. No candidate—not even Kerry, who mortgaged his house and tapped his personal fortune to funnel $7 million into his campaign —will have sufficient funds to advertise in all, or even most, of the big states that fall on March 2 and beyond. At that point paid advertising becomes much less of a factor.
And we alone of the remaining challengers offer a clear choice to Kerry. Howard Dean is no Johnny Come Lately to the message of change—he has actually delivered change in Vermont. Howard Dean has the courage and conviction to stand up for what’s right, even when it’s not politically popular, as opposed to the cautiousness, compromise and convenience that has characterized John Kerry’s 19 years in the Senate.
We believe that when the voters of the post-Wisconsin states—which constitute 75% of the delegates that will be chosen in the states—compare Howard Dean and John Kerry, they will conclude that Dean, not Kerry, has the best chance to beat George Bush, because only Dean offers a clear vision of change and a record of results that contrasts against the rhetoric emanating from Washington. We believe they will increasingly reject the rubber stamp presented to them by the media.
Has such a strategy ever worked before?
No. It's never been tried.
But prior to this year, no candidate had ever raised $46 million dollars, mostly from ordinary Americans giving $100 each. Prior to this year no candidate for President had ever inspired the kind of grass-roots activity that has been this campaign’s hallmark. Prior to this year no candidate for President had so clearly revitalized his party, allowed it to reclaim its voice, and shifted the agenda so clearly to a call for change.
Let the conventional wisdom and the media declare this race over. We’re going to let the people decide.
Roy Neel
CEO, Dean for America
Roy Neel is not quite correct in one conclusion: this strategy has been tried, and it worked very effectively for Ross Perot in 1992. Faced with a poor organization and a chaotic third-party constituency, Perot retired from the race throughout the summer, staging a "draft" in late September to return to the national stage. While Perot didn't get elected, he did allow Bill Clinton to win with just 43% of the popular vote. Perot avoided most of the bruising trench warfare and emerged with a huge boost from the media. He played the gadfly to perfection and captured 19% of the popular vote, despite being a paranoid schizophrenic (he claimed the Bush family sabotaged his daughter's wedding).
Will this work for Dean? Maybe, although the dynamics are different. Neel proposes that after February 3 that Kerry will be the only viable candidate left. However, it's unlikely that everyone will drop out after the first Super Tuesday, which means that Dean will still have to compete against Edwards and possibly Clark in Wisconsin, where Neel proposes to make his stand for Dean. Neel is also mistaken in thinking that the media will be anxious to anoint a clear winner by next week. Where's the news in that? The media will be looking for ways to make sure that Kerry doesn't have it locked up. They want conflict and tension as long as possible to keep people tuning in and buying newspapers and magazines.
At best, this is a "strategy" borne of practical necessity. The Dean campaign has run through their money faster and to less effect than they planned, and with Dean taking an unexpected beating early, the donations are slowing down. Money and endorsements are flowing to the candidate who's winning, not talking about moral victories in finishing twelve points back in New Hampshire. Neel doesn't have the means to run an effective media campaign for February 3rd, and so he's making its absence seem strategic. The Ross Perot strategy may work, but it's more likely to have a Ross Perot result.
UPDATE: No one caught this, but I claimed that Perot captured 19% of the electoral vote, when in fact it was the popular vote. Perot didn't win any electors. I knew that but used the wrong term. (Bad Captain! No rum for you!)
More Canceled Flights
Several international flights to the US have been canceled for the weekend:
British Airways and Air France on Saturday announced the cancellation of seven flights to and from the United States because of security concerns. BA canceled four flights between Heathrow Airport and Washington on Sunday and Monday and one from Heathrow to Miami on Sunday. Air France canceled two Paris-to-Washington flights.
There seems to be less information forthcoming on these cancellations than the ones over Christmas, and that's probably a good thing. The spectacular attention those received may have exposed intelligence assets and scared off the terrorists. Let's hope that security agencies have better luck this time around.
Congress: No Evidence CIA Slanted Iraq Intelligence
Despite the shrill rhetoric emanating from the Democratic primaries and certain broadsheets, two Congressional investigations have concluded that no one pressured intelligence agencies to slant their data to support the Administration's casus belli:
Congressional and CIA investigations into the prewar intelligence on Iraq's weapons and links to terrorism have found no evidence that CIA analysts colored their judgment because of perceived or actual political pressure from White House officials, according to intelligence officials and congressional officials from both parties. Richard J. Kerr, a former deputy CIA director who is leading the CIA's review of its prewar Iraq assessment, said an examination of the secret analytical work done by CIA analysts showed that it remained consistent over many years."There was pressure and a lot of debate, and people should have a lot of debate, that's quite legitimate," Kerr said. "But the bottom line is, over a period of several years," the analysts' assessments "were very consistent. They didn't change their views."
In other words, both investigations have confirmed the obvious. If you read the newspapers from 1991 forward, the intelligence data on WMDs has remained consistent, and in fact the UN and all of its Security Council members have operated from the same understanding of Saddam's weapons programs. Not only has there been no change in the intelligence, there was no change in the conclusions between the Clinton and Bush II administrations: regime change was the only way the WMD question (and Saddam's oppression and aggression) could be resolved. The only difference was in strategy, and that didn't change until after 9/11. Just before that, Bush and Powell were about to roll out a new plan for "smart sanctions" that would more effectively target Saddam's personal and military interests.
Democratic insistence that some unholy cooking of intelligence occurred when the exact same allegations, figures, and conclusions were operative during the Clinton administration makes them look extremely desperate and not terribly honest. The real question should be how the American and international intelligence communities could have been so far off, if indeed we never find WMDs, which may still be an open question. Two changes in American intelligence strategies contributed to the problem: the Carter administration's insistence on curtailing human intelligence assets and the Clinton administration's order to refuse association with field assets that don't support our human-rights values, as if the people who present a danger to us only associate with Boy Scouts. On top of that, Senator John Kerry led the fight to cut CIA funding in the 1990s as part of the so-called "peace dividend" (see this for an interesting perspective). You can't tie blinders onto a horse and then beat him for wandering off the road.
If Americans want their intelligence services operating correctly, it seems to me that the solution isn't to let the people who caused the problems dictate the solutions. Instead of making ludicrous claims that the Bush administration twisted intelligence so much that it was identical to what Clinton produced, Democrats should be addressing their plans to reinvest in humint and taking the shackles off of the CIA. Their rhetoric demonstrates that they do not intend on fixing the problem and instead want nothing more than to score political cheap shots.
UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers, and a big thanks to Glenn! I hope you take a look around and make Captain's Quarters a regular read.
Kerry: Lobbyist Magnet
Far from being the scourge of special-interest lobbyists that he declares himself to be, John Kerry has raised more money from lobbyists than anyone else in the Senate over the past 15 years:
Kerry, a 19-year veteran of the Senate who fought and won four expensive political campaigns, has received nearly $640,000 from lobbyists, many representing telecommunications and financial companies with business before his committee, according to Federal Election Commission data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.For his presidential race, Kerry has raised more than $225,000 from lobbyists, better than twice as much as his nearest Democratic rival.
Kerry claims that all that money can't buy his vote, but he may have trouble explaining the juxtaposition of this:
One of Kerry's biggest -- and perhaps most controversial -- donors has been the Boston-based law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo. The group, which lobbies on behalf of the telecommunications industry -- and employs the senator's brother, Cameron -- is his single largest contributor over the course of his Senate career. David Leiter, Kerry's former chief of staff, is vice president of a lobbying company affiliated with the Boston-based law firm.The Center for Public Integrity criticized the senator's relationship with the firm in a little-publicized report released last year, accusing him of pushing the agenda of those helping to pay his bills.
"Kerry, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, has sponsored or co-sponsored a number of bills favorable to the industry and has written letters to government agencies on behalf of the clientele of his largest donor," the report said. The Boston law firm's client include the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA), an umbrella group for telecommunications companies.
Since 1999, Kerry has sponsored at least two bills and co-sponsored half a dozen that were sought by the CTIA, including industry-backed plans for winning lucrative auctions of spectrum, or airwaves. Thomas Wheeler, the former chief executive of the CTIA, and Christopher Putala, a lobbyist for the group, are both among Kerry's biggest presidential fundraisers.
Let's not kid ourselves; lobbyists give money to everyone. The problem here isn't that Kerry takes lobbyist money, it's that he claims to be the champion of the anti-lobbyists while raking in the money. It demonstrates his hypocrisy and his willingness to say anything to get elected. He voted against military action in 1990 because he supported military action to eject Iraq from Kuwait. He voted to authorize military action in 2002 because he didn't support the use of force in Iraq. He's taken more money from lobbyists than anyone else in the Democratic primaries because he wants to kick the lobbyists out of Washington, saying at one stop, "Don't let the door hit you on the way out."
Kerry will take both sides of any position and feign as much passion as he can to convince you that the earth is round, but in a really flat way. Or, to put it another way -- he's the kind of man who makes a public spectacle of excoriating the influence of lobbyists while writing and sponsoring bills for the benefit of his brother and his lobbyist cronies. He's a hypocrite, and a blatant one at tha. Is that what Democrats propose for the nation? Is that the best they can do?
Al-Qaeda: Fighting On
A message purportedly from al-Qaeda states that they are still valiantly hanging on in their struggle to remain deadly:
Al-Qaeda vowed in its Thursday statement to continue fighting the Saudi government and its Western supporters, swearing to "take revenge on anyone who fights the faith and its people, or stands as a line of defence for the Crusader forces". ... The alleged al-Qaeda statement, a copy of which was emailed to The Associated Press today, also said government forces detained one of its members, Khaled al-Juwaiser al-Farraj, and that al-Farraj's father was wounded in a shootout with security forces, but that the rest of the group escaped.The Interior Ministry, said, however, that al-Farraj's father was killed - but not by security agents.
This statement followed either (a) a deadly shootout with Saudi security forces, or (b) an ambush on them by al-Qaeda, depending on who's doing the talking. It underscores the recent trend of al-Qaeda of focusing on governments in the near area of Afghanistan and Iraq, such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia, attacking Muslims rather than those outside the ummah. Historically, though, religious zealots always seem to save their worst punishments for their brethren who, in their judgment, fail to meet the zealots' exacting standards.
Despite their zeal, al-Qaeda has only succeeded in driving the Saudis closer to the US, especially now that our armed forces have left their country. Since the car bombing last May, Saudi security forces have been much more energized in tracking down al-Qaeda personnel and infrastructure:
In recent months, Saudi security forces have arrested scores of terror suspects and seized large caches of weapons, ammunition and bomb-making material, spurred in part by suicide bombers' attacks on housing compounds inhabited by foreigners last May and November. Both US and Saudi officials blamed those attacks on al-Qaeda.The Interior Ministry said Friday that security forces raided a home in al-Saly, east of Riyadh, and confiscated a cache of weapons. A booby-trapped pickup truck, explosives and ammunition, two automatic rifles, two pistols and a computer also were seized yesterday, it said.
In a second raid in the same neighbourhood, security agents found rocket-propelled grenades and launchers, Kalashnikovs rifles, pistols, hand grenades and explosives, the ministry said.
A year ago, the Saudis were only paying lip service about being our partner in the war on terror. Literally paying, actually, to the tune of $5 million a year, for advertising in the US about their friendship with the American people. Since May and especially since November, at least part of their government has gotten serious about the friendship. Let's hope it continues. Al-Qaeda is certainly doing their part.
French Corruption Scandals Grow
The French just capped off a glorious week of scandal and corruption with the conviction of former PM Alain Juppé, a crony of Jacques Chirac:
In a stinging reverse for President Jacques Chirac, the former French prime minister Alain Juppé was banned from office for a decade yesterday after being found guilty of corrupt party financing. ... A court in Nanterre in the Paris suburbs found him guilty yesterday of "taking illegal advantage" of public funds. He was given an 18-month suspended sentence and ordered to serve the mandatory 10-year suspension from elected office. More than a score of other serving or former party colleagues or associates of M. Juppé and M. Chirac were given suspended prison terms. ...The legal conviction of M. Juppé also amounts to a political indictment of M. Chirac. The offences of which M. Juppé was convicted - embezzling the money of Paris taxpayers by putting seven party officials on the town hall payroll - occurred while M. Chirac was mayor of the French capital. It is generally accepted that the President would also have stood trial if he had not been protected by his immunity as head of state.
After the publication of the oil-for-food bribery list, featuring prominent French politicians who made France the second-largest recipient of Saddam's generosity, this additional scandal will rock Chirac's standing in the EU. Added to Elf-Aquitaine and their insistence on getting immunity in the US for the Executive Life collapse, and it is apparent that Chirac may be running the most corrupt Western European government since the Nazis stole everything that wasn't bolted down.
This scandal-ridden administration should make clear to all, especially Americans, that France no longer has any credibility. Chirac has forfeited any claim to speak for international agreements, let alone lecture the US on morality. Their self-assigned role as arbiter of our foreign policy, and the importance that certain politicians put in their opinion and assent, clearly are discredited now. Any candidate at any level that argues for French agreement (and Russian, for that matter) before pursuing foreign-policy and national-security objectives demonstrates their lack of qualification on national defense.
Kerry: Terrorist Threat Exaggerated
Power Line picks up on an interesting Washington Times article on yesterday's Democratic debate, in which the Times manages to catch something that the NY Times buried and the Washington Post completely ignored:
Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts said during last night's Democratic presidential debate that the threat of terrorism has been exaggerated. "I think there has been an exaggeration," Mr. Kerry said when asked whether President Bush has overstated the threat of terrorism. "They are misleading all Americans in a profound way." ...Sen. John Edwards, who was born in this state and has said he must win here, took the first opportunity to disagree with Mr. Kerry, the victor in both the binding Democratic contests held so far — the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. "It's just hard for me to see how you can say there's an exaggeration when thousands of people lost their lives on September 11," Mr. Edwards said.
If there is a better argument for keeping Kerry out of the White House, I'd like to hear it. How typically left-wing is it to claim that the Republicans are exaggerating the threat of foreign attack? It takes us back to the Carter presidency, who shifted American foreign policy from Cold War containment to peaceful and friendly coexistence (famously smooching Brezhnev) -- only to see the peaceful and friendly Soviets overrun Afghanistan.
As Edwards reminded the audience, 3,000 dead Americans on 9/11 wasn't the result of exaggerated threats; it was the result of decades-long minimization of the one-sided Islamofascist war on the West in general and the US in particular. Kerry proposes to take us back to the days of minimization, where we close our eyes to the threats and insist that we spend the "peace dividend" on domestic social engineering. That thinking brought us 9/11.
When we looked at the burning and collapsing towers behind the Statue of Liberty, the smoldering wreck of the Pentagon facade, and the pit made by the heroes of Flight 93 when they thwarted the hijackers, didn't we vow to remember? Did we vow to become vigilant and to take action to make sure that such a thing never happened again? Or did we all decide to write it off as "s**t happens" and assume that the UN will protect us from harm? Kerry's message to the world appears to be the latter.
ABC: Saddam's List
ABC News reports further on the list of global government officials on Saddam's bribe list:
All of the contracts were awarded from late 1997 until the U.S.-led war in March 2003. They were conducted under the aegis of the United Nations' oil-for-food program, which was designed to allow Iraq to sell oil in exchange for humanitarian goods. The document was discovered several weeks ago in the files of the Iraqi Oil Ministry in Baghdad.According to a copy obtained by ABCNEWS, some 270 prominent individuals, political parties or corporations in 47 countries were on a list of those given Iraq oil contracts instantly worth millions of dollars.
These bribes worked by assigning barrels of oil to people at a rate 50 cents below the market value as a commodity, which allowed the recipients to sell the oil to legitimate brokers for a a profit, without ever touching a barrel themselves. If I had 1 million barrels, I would receive $500,000 for no more work than making a phone call. So let's take a look at some of the people on Saddam's list, shall we?
* Indonesia President Megawati Sukarnoputri: 10 million barrels. Spoke out against war.
* George Galloway, MP UK: 19 million barrels. Demonstrated against war.
* Patrick Maguein, French businessman and crony of Jacques Chirac: 36 million barrels.
* Charles Pasqua, former French Minister of Interior: 12 million barrels.
* Michel Grimard, French founder of French-Iraqi Export Club: 17.1 million barrels
* Head of the Russian Presidential Cabinet: 90 million barrels
* Russian Communist Party: 137 million barrels (I guess everyone's a capitalist at heart)
* Russian Orthodox Church (?): 5 million barrels
* Arthur Millholland, Canadian CEO of Oilexico: 9.5 million
Altogether, Russia received 1.3 billion barrels of oil, coming in first on the list, with France coming in second. Oddly enough, France and Russia threatened to veto any enforcement of Resolution 1441 and the 16 UNSC resolutions preceding it. The International ANSWER people were all wrong. The war for oil wasn't fought in Iraq, it was fought in the United Nations Security Council. Russia and France lost, but the oil revenue that found its way to Moscow and Paris will eventually be enjoyed by the Iraqi people instead.
Blogs for Bush also has the whole list up.
Poll: Kerry Edging Bush Among Minnesotans
A poll by the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Minnesota Public Radio shows John Kerry slightly ahead of George Bush among Minnesotans, and the only Democrat who would beat him at this point in the race:
The poll, commissioned by the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Minnesota Public Radio, puts Kerry at 43 percent, Bush at 41 percent and undecided Minnesota voters at 16 percent. The poll was taken shortly after Kerry's victories in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, which have given him momentum versus the rest of the field. ...In Minnesota, Bush would defeat Gen. Wesley Clark by a 5-point margin, Sen. John Edwards by a 6-point margin, Sen. Joseph Lieberman by an 8-point margin and Vermont Gov. Howard Dean by a 14-point margin. Among women, however, Democrats would defeat Bush — except Dean, who lagged by 1 point with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 points.
"The interesting thing there is how badly Dean does," said Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon Polling and Research, which conducted the poll. "He is clearly the weakest Democrat right now against the president."
Statistically, it's a dead heat (which the article stresses in its opening paragraph), and with 16% undecided, it would appear that the partisans have already decided and the more independent voters are keeping their powder dry. The keys among the poll demographics were the war on terror and the economy. Minnesotans approve of Bush's handling of the war on terror, 53-47, and if we can keep Iraq together and make progress against al-Qaeda, that number might go up a little more. His approval rating specifically on Iraq was 49%, to 40% disapproving and 11% undecided, an oddly high number. After the fall of Baghdad -- the last time the Pioneer Press did a poll -- Bush's numbers on the terror war were at 61%, not as high as his national numbers. The war will never show ecstatic numbers here in the North Star state.
Bush's rating on the economy came in at 47-42-11 disapproving, significantly below his national numbers, and this needs attention, quickly. It doesn't help that the major daily in Minnesota takes its economic cues from an increasingly hysterical Paul Krugman, whose columns it reprints without question. The Bush campaign should begin to advertise its economic successes and strategies for the future to Minnesotans in order to provide an alternative to the partisan volleys from the Strib. Hopefully those numbers will organically improve as more jobs open up in Minnesota.
I think that if the election were truly held today, Kerry would lose by a razor-thin difference to Bush; Minnesota went significantly to the right last election, and the pollsters missed that, too. But it would be a close-run thing, and if the Bush campaign wants a stronger result, kicking a few ad dollars this way now would be a good idea.
Why I Missed the Patriot Forum Tonight
I am so pissed -- at no one in particular, but I'm still pissed.
As I blogged earlier, my wife and I planned on going to the Patriot Forum, a dinner and discussion with Hugh Hewitt, an event I have been looking forward to attending for over a month. I got stuck in a meeting at work and couldn't escape until 4:45, although I made it home in a half-hour, something of a record for this time of year. I had originally planned to leave the house about that time, but I got ready as quickly as I could and started to head out the door. I asked the First Mate to check with the hotel to see if they had valet parking, for which I would gladly pay a small fortune on a -15-degree night. (There are other reasons, which will come into play later.) The hotel confirmed that valet parking was available. It was about 5:40, five minutes before cocktails but almost an hour until dinner.
The problems started immediately after that.
First, as we were throwing on our dressy coats, I saw that the jacket of the brand-new outfit my wife bought for the occasion still had the EAS tag on it from the store. I tried for five minutes to remove that ^&%*&% tag to no avail. She left the jacket at home while I not-so-silently cursed the sales clerks at Macy's. We went out the door and into the car, where I had to get cash for the aforementioned valet. After that, we set out for Saint Paul, and I figured it would take me about a half-hour to get to the hotel. No sweat; we'd arrive just as dinner would be served.
We drove into Saint Paul -- not reknowned for its user-friendly layout -- and promptly got diverted from our route, thanks to a combination of the Ice Palace and a Minnesota Wild hockey game that came as a surprise to me. After negotiating our way back from the river (and not really having a clue where I was going at that point), we finally rolled up in front of the hotel -- to see several large signs informing us that VALET PARKING WAS FOR OVERNIGHT GUESTS ONLY. Oh, yeah, and their lot was full, too. Welcome to the Saint Paul Hotel, and go screw yourself.
By now it was 6:30. Dinner was being served, and Hugh would begin speaking in an hour. However, I could not find a parking space close by. In fact, I could not move for over 15 minutes, as three different buses decided to turn left from the right-hand lane at the other end of the street, keeping a whole line of cars backed up. After I finally made my way past that knot -- for all I know, there's still two buses sticking halfway out into that intersection -- I found parking four blocks away from the hotel.
Here's where the rest of the problems start. To begin with, the First Mate was dressed for valet parking; it was -15, and the wind chill had to be -30 or below, and she wasn't going to do very well walking four blocks in that weather in her very elegant but thin outfit. Next, because of chronic health issues, she can't walk for long distances even in the best of weather. Third, because of her diabetes, she can't afford to skip a meal, and since it was now 7 pm, I wasn't even sure we'd get there before Hugh began speaking. We had almost certainly missed dinner, and there was no place to stop on the way there and no time to do it anyway. (I'm Type II and shouldn't skip either, but sometimes I do.) Finally, even if she managed to survive the walk to the hotel, she certainly wouldn't make the walk back, just to get into a subzero car which might finally warm up when we pulled into our garage.
So, muttering curses under my breath, we left the parking lot and went home. Which is why I'm pissed. I'm sitting here with my computer on my lap instead of sitting in an elegant ballroom at the hotel, listening to Hugh speak and meeting my Northern Alliance brethren, as well as DC from Brainstorming and a number of other people. Sorry, everyone.
Worst of all, my wife is upstairs, convinced that I'm pissed at her, when it has nothing to do with her. I gave her a hug and told her that I wasn't mad at her; I was just mad and she needed to let me be mad for a while. (If anything, I'm pissed at the hotel -- if they had told me that there wasn't any valet service except for overnight guests, I would have called a cab.) She doesn't believe me and still thinks she ruined the evening for me. But now that I've managed to get this out of my system, I'm going to go back upstairs, make a joke, eat something, and try to be a bit more jolly the rest of the night.
But you all know ... I'm still pissed.
Dean Flounders, Pulls Back Advertising
In what looks suspiciously like capitulation, the Howard Dean campaign has suddenly canceled its advertising in the seven battleground states voting next week on the Democratic nomination for President:
Howard Dean will not air ads in any of the seven states holding elections next week, officials said Thursday, a risky strategy that puts him at a distinct disadvantage with high-spending rivals for the Democratic nomination. With his money and momentum depleted, Dean decided to save his ad money for the Feb. 7 elections in Michigan and Washington state and, 10 days later, the primary in Wisconsin, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
One of the stories on Joe Trippi's departure published yesterday reported on strategic differences between trippi and Roy Neel, who took his place. If surrendering on Tuesday is part of the strategic realignment of this campaign, why did Trippi need to leave? I assume that Trippi saw this strategy as the acknowledgement of Dean's faltering appeal that it is, and Trippi knows that the image of a candidate backpedaling and downsizing holds little attraction to people concerned about electability. Kerry already held an edge among Democrats for whom electability against George Bush was the main motivation for their vote in New Hampshire, and with the turmoil in the Dean camp the past two weeks, it's sure to be more of an issue now.
Howard Dean looks increasingly incompetent as a national candidate. If he doesn't compete for next Tuesday's primaries, he will drop further off the radar screen and allow John Edwards to grab the momentum for second place. In two weeks, Howard Dean will be finished as a credible contender.
Limited Blogging Today
I will not be doing too much blogging today, as the First Mate and I will be attending the Patriot Forum tonight in St. Paul, featuring Hugh Hewitt as guest speaker. Hugh and Duane will be visiting us just in time to see the physical proof of Al Gore's theory of global warming; as I write this, it is 15 degrees below zero. (I'm actually surprised the former Vice President isn't speaking in the Twin Cities this week to continue his "Bitter Cold of Global Warming" series of lectures. We could use the hot air.) We'll be dining with our fellow bloggers of the Northern Alliance, such as the gang at Fraters Libertas, Mitch Berg at Shot In The Dark, Big Trunk at Power Line, and many more. If you are a listener of Hugh's show, James Lileks will be guest-hosting live from our own Patriot station here in town, so be sure to stay tuned.
To get us all into the mood, make sure you get a chance to read Hugh's latest column in the Daily Standard on John Kerry. Only Hugh could tie the Boer War, McCarthyism, and the UN together coherently and apply it to the primaries. In discussing John Kerry's vote against the 1991 action to eject Iraq from Kuwait with full UN blessing, Hugh notes:
But a singular focus on the war is a lesson from 1900 that the White House has no doubt already absorbed. A vote for the Democrats isn't a vote for the Baathists, but it surely is a vote for the United Nations. A solid majority of Americans aren't going to support a side which believes that legitimacy resides only in recurring consents from the Security Council and recoils from the use of force even when the Security Council is onboard.John Kerry voted against the Gulf War in 1991. Had Kerry had his way, Saddam would now be a member of the nuclear club, and the WMDs he had in '91 would have doubled and tripled in scope and lethality. Kerry was absolutely, positively, and enormously wrong about the most important vote of his public life. His judgment was flawed then and remains flawed now. A vote for Kerry is a vote for the Security Council, except in 1991 when that Council wanted war.
Make sure you read the whole thing, and then listen to Lileks tonight. We'll be at the St. Paul Hotel, if we haven't frozen to the road on the way there.
What Happened To The Left?
Dissent Magazine published an excellent essay on the moral abdication of the Left in the fight against fascism. It's written by a Leftist who is dismayed by his sudden isolation:
"And yet," I insisted, "if good-hearted people like you would only open your left-wing eyes, you would see clearly enough that the Baath Party is very nearly a classic fascist movement, and so is the radical Islamist movement, in a somewhat different fashion-two strands of a single impulse, which happens to be Europe's fascist and totalitarian legacy to the modern Muslim world. If only people like you would wake up, you would see that war against the radical Islamist and Baathist movements, in Afghanistan exactly as in Iraq, is war against fascism." I grew still more heated."What a tragedy that you don't see this! It's a tragedy for the Afghanis and the Iraqis, who need more help than they are receiving. A tragedy for the genuine liberals all over the Muslim world! A tragedy for the American soldiers, the British, the Poles and every one else who has gone to Iraq lately, the nongovernmental organization volunteers and the occupying forces from abroad, who have to struggle on bitterly against the worst kind of nihilists, and have been getting damn little support or even moral solidarity from people who describe themselves as antifascists in the world's richest and fattest neighborhoods."
Read the whole essay. (via Crossing the Rubicon2)
Arts Funding Increase? Why?
The New York Times reported yesterday that President Bush will request a substantial increase in funding for the National Endowment of the Arts:
President Bush will seek a big increase in the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts, the largest single source of support for the arts in the United States, administration officials said on Wednesday. The proposal is part of a turnaround for the agency, which was once fighting for its life, attacked by some Republicans as a threat to the nation's moral standards.
I don't think it's a threat to the nation's moral standards; daytime soap operas present more of a threat than art-house displays of Robert Mapplethorpe's rear end ever could. It's a nonproductive waste of money and it's completely unnecessary. Artists sell their wares in a free market here in the US. Artists who can't make a living out of it on their own should hardly be supported by government grants to go on being unproductive. Not only that, but the NEA is expected to supply patronage without discernment -- funding is demanded for all sorts of projects of questionable taste, such as the notorious pictures of bullwhips protruding from Mapplethorpe's ass. It's the first patronage system in history where the patron is held hostage to the artist.
One side benefit of being the NEA, I suppose, is that you can get really talented writers to produce works of fiction to support your organization, such as:
Representative Louise M. Slaughter, a New York Democrat who is co-chairwoman of the Congressional Arts Caucus, said she was delighted to learn of Mr. Bush's proposal. "There's nothing in the world that helps economic development more than arts programs," Ms. Slaughter said.
Yes, it was that all-important art industry that pulled a great nation from the Great Depression. And it was lucky, too, that it came along when it did. Why, if the great engine of the arts hadn't been around, we'd never have been able to bomb the Nazis with primitive sculptures and Cubist watercolors. Memo to Ms. Slaughter from planet Earth: There's nothing in the world that helps economic development than free-market capital. And the NEA eats up too much of that as it is.
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