July 1, 2004
One of the Republican strategies for this election is to energize the chuch base, one of their weak points in 2000 when a significant portion of the evangelical voters failed to come to the polls, mistrustful of George Bush's centrism. (One of the reasons Bush chose Cheney as his running mate was to shore up his conservative credentials.) The Washington Post reports that the Bush campaign has sent support material for their volunteers to get church congregations involved, sending up wailing and lamentations from Democrats that claim, among other things, that the outreach is "sinful": The Bush-Cheney reelection campaign has sent a detailed plan of action to religious volunteers across the country asking them to turn over church directories to the campaign, distribute issue guides in their churches and persuade their pastors to hold voter registration drives. Campaign officials said the instructions are part of an accelerating effort to mobilize...
CNN reports that the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security has completed an audit of internal security and found that its own wireless communications systems leave gaping holes into their networks: Although charged with making the nation more secure, the Department of Homeland Security has not taken the steps needed to secure its own wireless communications, according to a report from the department's Inspector General. ... In some tests, investigators detected Homeland Security wireless signals broadcasting beyond the perimeters of secure facilities. "We detected wireless signals ... in the parking lot, on public roads behind the facility, and in the surrounding residences," the report says. "These wireless signals create security vulnerabilities such as eavesdropping and denial of service attacks." Investigators also detected wireless signals from surrounding residences and businesses within some Homeland Security facilities. "These signals can be used to monitor or gain access to DHS wireless networks...
Saddam Hussein made his first appearance in court yesterday, jauntily in some reports while coming across confused in others, to face charges of genocide and other assorted war crimes. The former dictator has lost weight and cleaned up since his capture, the AP notes, but has lost none of his arrogance: A defiant Saddam Hussein rejected charges of war crimes and genocide against him in a court appearance Thursday, telling a judge "this is all theater, the real criminal is Bush," according to a reporter in an official media pool. ... "I am Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq," Saddam said, according to the CNN reporter. In his first public appearance since he was captured seven months ago, Saddam refused to sign a list of charges against him and questioned the court's jurisdiction, according to a CNN reporter who was in the courtroom as part of a pool arrangement. He...
Fox News reported yesterday that they have discovered documents that show Benon Sevan, the UN Oil-For-Food program chief, was notified of illegal bribes and kickbacks in a blunt and direct letter asking for his help in getting a refund. Sevan received a letter from the Russian oil corporation Lakia informing him that Iraq had reneged on an arrangement: The Oct. 2, 2002, letter was blunt and direct. It accused the State Oil Marketing Organization (search) of "lying to us." "It is necessary for us to ask the immediate reimbursement of the sum of $60,000 which was sent to you from us on your request for a so-called necessary advance payment," said the letter, written by Gazi Luguev, Lakia's president. Upon receipt of this letter, Sevan should have immediately notified the UN Security Council of the corruption within the Iraqi agency handling OFF, and launched an investigation of other contractual engagements....
Over the past twenty-four hours, it's become obvious that the credibility of Michael Moore even among his natural allies has diminished to near zero. Last night Newsweek blew apart the central thesis of his paean to conspiracy-theory paranoia, Fahrenheit-9/11, by utterly refuting the notion that the Saudis had bought the entire Bush family in the 1990s. Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, no right-wing apologists, did that with simple research and understanding of the calendar. Now today, two major opinion columnists on the Left have shredded Moore's tactics and conclusions even more vociferously than the deferential Isikoff and Hosenball. First, Richard Cohen writes of Moore's film in today's Washington Post (via Memeorandum): I brought a notebook with me when I went to see Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" and in the dark made notes before I gave up, defeated by the utter stupidity of the movie. ... Moore's depiction of why Bush...
In a blockbuster announcement that underscores the massive political victory that the handover of sovereignty represents to the US, Jordan's King Abdullah announced that Jordan would send troops to assist the new Iraqi government if asked: Jordan's King Abdullah II said Thursday his country would be willing to send troops to Iraq, potentially becoming the first Arab state to do so. The statement marked a major shift in Jordan's position on Iraq. Abdullah had initially refused to send troops. In an interview Thursday with the British Broadcasting Corp. television "Newsnight" program, he said the new Iraqi interim government had changes his mind. "I presume that if the Iraqis ask us for help directly it would be very difficult for us to say no," he said. "Our message to the president or the prime minister is: Tell us what you want. Tell us how we can help, and you have 110...
Remember me, Ed's partner? Probably not, and I don't blame you since my posting has dwindled this summer. After a year in Asia, I will move back to the US in August, and I've been in a frenzy finishing up my work here. I plan to make up some lost blogging time over the long weekend, but it's rainy season here and the internet connection goes down when things get too wet. Please bear with me over the next few months as I make the transition back to the land of the waterproof internet!...
Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico publicly withdrew his name from consideration in the Kerry Veepstakes this evening, in a letter sent to Kerry's campaign office. Richardson, one of the most recognizable Hispanic officeholders in the nation, had originally promised to stay in office for his entire term as governor, he explained: Richardson said he wants to keep a promise to the people of New Mexico to serve a full, four-year term and noted that Kerry has "numerous experienced and talented leaders" from which to choose a vice presidential candidate. "It is with that knowledge and comfort that I must tell you that I respectfully remove myself from the selection process and withdraw my name from consideration for the vice presidential nomination," Richardson said. I was just discussing Richardson's potential with the Elder and Saint Paul at Keegan's this evening, where the duo invited me to fill in on their...
July 2, 2004
The government announced yesterday that it had arrested seven people for the illegal transfer of sensitive military technology and material to the People's Republic of China through contacts in Hong Kong. The Washington Post reports that the suspects sent systems like smart bombs and electronic warfare equipment to what the suspects had tried to pass off as an American-owned company: Federal agents arrested seven people yesterday in two suburban New Jersey towns and charged them with exporting millions of dollars' worth of sensitive military technology and components to China. The arrests were the latest in a crackdown on what authorities believe is a clandestine network purchasing weapons technology across the United States for the communist power. The men and women arrested yesterday are connected to two companies and are accused of sending the Chinese military several shipments of weapons systems, including radar, smart bombs, electronic warfare and communications equipment. According...
Kofi Annan's travels in the Sudan took him to a couple of interesting places yesterday, including a camp that disappeared and another where he gave promises that the world has heard before from UN mouthpieces: There were only donkeys milling around in a soggy, trash-strewn lot on Thursday afternoon when the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, and his entourage arrived at what was supposed to be a crowded squatter camp here in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan. Gone were the more than 1,000 residents of the Meshtel settlement. Gone as well were their makeshift dwellings. Hours before Mr. Annan's arrival, the local authorities had loaded the camp's inhabitants aboard trucks and moved them. ... "Where are the people?" Mr. Annan was overheard asking a Sudanese official who was accompanying his tour of Darfur, the region in western Sudan where the government has been accused of unleashing armed militias...
The news media was buzzing last night as Bill Cosby's caustic address to the Rainbow-PUSH Coalition conference sped around the country. Cosby, who has dropped his normally humorous approach of late and has taken to scolding and shaming audiences, told people that their problems were primarily of their own making, and to quit spouting excuses -- lessons that apply far more broadly than most analysts give Cosby credit. Like most outlets, the AP repeatedly emphasized the ethnicity of the attendees: Bill Cosby went off on another tirade against the black community Thursday, telling a room full of activists that black children are running around not knowing how to read or write and "going nowhere." He also had harsh words for struggling black men, telling them: "Stop beating up your women because you can't find a job." Cosby made headlines in May when he upbraided some poor blacks for their grammar...
More evidence that the WMD we believed existed in Iraq still waits to be discovered, this time from the Poles patrolling in southern Iraq. The AP and the BBC report that the head of Polish military intelligence revealed that Polish troops outbid terrorists for rockets laden with chemical weapons: Terrorists may have been close to obtaining munitions containing the deadly nerve agent cyclosarin that Polish soldiers recovered last month in Iraq, the head of Poland's military intelligence said Friday. Polish troops had been searching for munitions as part of their regular mission in south-central Iraq when they were told by an informant in May that terrorists had made a bid to buy the chemical weapons, which date back to Saddam Hussein's war with Iran in the 1980s, Gen. Marek Dukaczewski told reporters in Warsaw. "We were mortified by the information that terrorists were looking for these warheads and offered $5,000...
Houston may have some problems filling a jury pool, but I didn't think that they were this desperate. Harris County has served a jury summons to Nathan Dale Campbell, who may be less than an ideal candidate for most courts: Nathan Dale Campbell was first summoned to report for Harris County jury service Monday, but the date was then rescheduled to Aug. 30, said a staffer in the district clerk's office. Campbell, 30, was acquitted in 1997 after a jury found he was legally insane when he attacked girlfriend Kristen West the previous year, blinding her in one eye and permanently damaging her sight in the other. Campbell received treatment as an inpatient at the Kerrville State Hospital. The attack followed West's refusal of Campbell's marriage proposal. He said he thought her eyes were demons. ... [L]awyers say it's doubtful he'll be picked for a panel. Houston residents will be...
NBC News still may be wiping the egg off of its face yesterday, when it declined to cover the most important war-crimes effort since Nuremberg in favor of ... Katie Couric's badminton match: ABC and CNN managed to outhustle their competition yesterday morning and placed the only Western journalists, aside from a news pool reporter, inside the Baghdad courtroom where Saddam Hussein was listening to the charges he will face when he goes to trial as a war criminal. No network was more red-faced than NBC, which passed up the chance to broadcast, at the same time as every other television news outlet, the first scenes of the former dictator in the courtroom. NBC chose instead to continue a taped interview with the movie star Robert Redford, followed by a live badminton match between Katie Couric, the anchor of the network's "Today" program, and competitors from the United States Olympic...
Supporters of Howard Dean have launched a campaign to get their favorite candidate on the Democratic ticket as John Kerry's VP, and sent a message to the presumptive nominee -- pick our man or watch your unity festival dissolve into a floor fight: The National Draft Dean for VP Committee has not contacted either Dean or Kerry about its efforts, but it expects to approach the former Vermont governor before Democrats gather in Boston for the convention July 26. "Howard Dean shifts the dynamics of the race," said Michael Meurer, co-chairman of the draft committee, who argued that Dean on the ticket would stop progressives from voting for independent candidate Ralph Nader. Dean has shown up on few, if any, lists of serious contenders for the vice presidential nomination. Members of the draft committee say they believe their efforts to persuade Kerry through petitions to choose Dean will prove futile....
Someone has hacked into the Lord High Commissioner's site and replaced the index file on his server. Fortunately, they didn't do much except insert a new file that your browser hits before his index file. For the time being, use this URL to access his site: http://www.hughhewitt.com/index.htm If you just use the domain name, you will get the hacked page, which is stunning in its lack of imagination. I will make sure to keep you informed as updates occur. UPDATE: Hugh Hewitt fan Richard Shuford went the extra mile to get the problem fixed: I called the iPowerWeb technical-support line 888-511-4678 (which is claimed to be answered 24 hours a day), and after about 8 minutes of being on hold, I got to talk to a human. This support guy was able to restore the home page while I was still on the line. I asked him to have a...
AFP is reporting that several members of the House of Representatives have asked the UN to send observers to "ensure free and fair elections in America." That's right. Apparently nine representatives (the only one named is the ringleader, Florida representative Eddie Bernice Johnson) of our legislative body believe that the American election system is so flawed that we need the UN (the UN!!!) to babysit. Representative Johnson explained, "This is the first step in making sure that history does not repeat itself." The history of what? A Republican being elected president? A Democrat losing? Even if the US electoral system was as rudimentary and chaotic as that of a third world country, no rational lawmaker would believe the UN could offer any assistance whatsoever. This is just one of many preemptory moves by a certain political party to set up issues before they lose the November election. I can see...
I guess if a politician puts people to sleep with the natural force of his personality, he'll try any gimmick to spice up his campaign. That's the only explanation that makes sense for John Kerry's latest folly: Democrat John Kerry plans to announce his vice presidential running mate in an e-mail to the 1 million subscribers to his campaign Web site. But he didn't say when ... Typically, a presidential candidate announces a running mate at a carefully crafted campaign event. But Kerry told KSTP, an ABC affiliate in Minneapolis, that his Web site would be the first vehicle. "The folks who are going to learn first about my choice are going to be the people on JohnKerry.com," Kerry said. "They're the people who've helped carry this campaign. They're the folks who've been part of our effort across the nation. And they'll be the first to know what my decision...
July 3, 2004
The Los Angeles Times breaks the "big" story this morning that the American military engineered the destruction of the Saddam Hussein statue in the Baghdad square as the city fell into American hands, and used Iraqi civilians to make it look more spontaneous: As the Iraqi regime was collapsing on April 9, 2003, Marines converged on Firdos Square in central Baghdad, site of an enormous statue of Saddam Hussein. It was a Marine colonel — not joyous Iraqi civilians, as was widely assumed from the TV images — who decided to topple the statue, the Army report said. And it was a quick-thinking Army psychological operations team that made it appear to be a spontaneous Iraqi undertaking. After the colonel — who was not named in the report — selected the statue as a "target of opportunity," the psychological team used loudspeakers to encourage Iraqi civilians to assist, according to...
Coalition forces discovered a car-bomb manufacturing center and captured a number of people connected to the operation during two raids in south Baghdad, the BBC reports: A large cache of weapons and cash was also found at the unidentified site, a US military statement said. Bomb-making equipment, weapons and ammunition were found in raids at other locations - and 51 people have been taken in for questioning. ... The US said the Baghdad raid uncovered vehicles loaded with explosives for use as car bombs. ... On another raid, US soldiers found "partially assembled improvised explosive devices, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, eight RPG [rocket propelled grenade] rounds, approximately 50 pounds of C-4 explosives, TNT, five blasting caps, one detonator and other various munitions". Coalition forces think they captured most of the key people involved in this ring, including the financier, the bombmaker, and the triggerman. No one thinks that this is the...
Moqtada al-Sadr tossed the dice again yesterday, apparently eschewing his previously-stated desire to enter Iraqi politics and calling again for armed resistance to the "occupation." The Washington Post reports that Sadr and his organization appears less coherent than ever: Moqtada Sadr, the rebellious Shiite Muslim cleric, insisted Friday that the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq had not ended with the recent handover of limited political powers to an interim government, and called on his followers to continue resisting the large presence of foreign troops in the country. "I want to draw your attention to the fact there was no transferring of authority," said Jabir Khafaji, a top Sadr lieutenant, reading from a letter from the cleric during Friday prayers at a mosque in the southern city of Kufa where Sadr commonly preaches. "What has changed is the name only." Khafaji also demanded that the new Iraqi government defer to the Shiite...
Walter Pincus keeps spinning the news for the Washington Post any way possible to make sure that the liberal meme stays afloat, and today provides a clear example of his efforts. Under the headline "Chemicals Not Found in Iraq Warheads," readers find out this in the third paragraph that Pincus negates his own lede: Sixteen rocket warheads found last week in south-central Iraq by Polish troops did not contain deadly chemicals, a coalition spokesman said yesterday, but U.S. and Polish officials agreed that insurgents loyal to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and foreign terrorist fighters are trying to buy such old weapons or purchase the services of Iraqi scientists who know how to make them. The Coalition Press Information Center in Baghdad said in a statement yesterday that the 122-milimeter rocket rounds, which initially showed traces of sarin, "were all empty and tested negative for any type of chemicals." The...
Thanks to the extra efforts of Hugh Hewitt fan Richard Shuford, Hugh's site is back on line. Read my updated post for the explanation!...
Kathryn Jean Lopez at the Corner links to an article on the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute that seems to be an object lesson in pointlessness. The Friday Fax reports that "radical feminists" in the pro-abortion group Catholics for Free Choice prayed to the Virgin Mary for legalized abortion: Many participants at the meeting now taking place in Puerto Rico, called the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Ad Hoc Committee on Population and Development, were stunned on Monday when "Catholics" for a Free Choice (CFFC) and its Latin American counterpart, "Catolicas" por el Derecho a Decidir, released a prayer card of the Virgin Mary, with the words "The love of God and of Mary of Guadalupe is greater..For women's lives, safe and legal abortion" superimposed over the image of the Virgin Mary. The back of the card says, "Dear Mary of Guadalupe, we thank you...
The Democrats have put together their platform for the 2004 election and have submitted it to the full platform committee for final approval next weekend in Miami. The Washington Post's Dan Balz was granted a look at the proposal, and in his report notes that the Democrats seem prepared to continue their assault on the truth right up to November 2nd: The 16,000-word document skirts some potentially divisive issues within the party, particularly with regard to Iraq. A strong majority of Democrats believes it was a mistake for the president to launch the war in Iraq, but the platform says only, "People of good will disagree about whether America should have gone to war in Iraq." With polls showing many Democrats want to bring U.S. forces home as quickly as possible, the draft platform declares, "We cannot allow a failed state in Iraq that inevitably would become a haven for...
The militants who captured Marine Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun have posted news of his murder by beheading, according to the AP. The group's leader Abu Abdullah al-Hassan bin Mahmoud declared, "We would like to inform you that the Marine of Lebanese origin, Hassoun, has been slaughtered. You are going to see the video with your very eyes soon." The group also claims it hold another "infidel hostage" but offers no details except that we will soon see a video of "the beheading of rotten heads."...
In yet another reminder of the true nature of our enemy, the Telegraph news reports that the Spanish Al Qaeda cell planned to target an Anglo-Spanish nursery school. Apparently, this was the work of the same terrorist cell that Spanish voters surrendered to after the Madrid train bombings....
July 4, 2004
After reports came out yesterday that captured US Marine Wassef Hassoun had been beheaded by the Islamofascist terrorists holding him, the group taking responsibility for his kidnapping now says those reports were false: An Islamic extremist group denied in a statement posted on its Web site Sunday that it had killed a U.S. Marine taken hostage last month. The Ansar al-Sunna Army issued the statement in response to reports by the Lebanese Foreign Ministry that the group killed Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, an American of Lebanese descent. ... "The media have published, quoting the Lebanese foreign ministry, that the Ansar al-Sunna Army has killed the American hostage, from Lebanese origin, who was kidnapped in Iraq (news - web sites)," the statement said. "In order to maintain our credibility in all issues we declare that this statement that was attributed to us has no basis of truth," the statement said. It...
The London Guardian reports on a story that Americans should be reading on Independence Day, to remind us that the job isn't over in Afghanistan yet and that the freedoms we take for granted can still be denied to others who crave it: Mahadad was resting on a cushion in her sitting room, with a thick bandage covering the burns on her legs. "I'm never going back," she said. "Look at my leg. How can I go back? In my heart, I never want to go again." Mahadad, 38, is one of the 12 survivors of last week's bomb attack by Taliban on a bus that was carrying women election workers and a child near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. Two of the women and the child were killed in the explosion. They had been on their way to a registration site to hand out identification cards to women which would...
Proving again that the Bush approach on Iraq integrates into the wider war on Islamofascist terror, the newly repentant Libya has discovered an al-Qaeda operations base near its border with Chad: Libyan secret services have found a desert operations camp belonging to an al Qaeda-linked group called the GSPC after "intercepting" members of the group near the border with Chad, a French newspaper said on Sunday. The paper, Le Journal du Dimanche, said that a source close to the counter-espionage services of a European country told it of the discovery by Libyan agents 10 days ago in the mountainous region of Tibesti that spans Libya's southern border with Chad. ... The French newspaper said that the GSPC -- the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat -- was recruiting actively in the Tibesti region and buying arms and vehicles with German ransom money paid for the release of tourists in the...
It's Friday, so it must be time for another edition of the Captain's Caption Contest! John Kerry's taking a couple of days off, se we're going to give him a break. After all, it's been a long week, a trial, if you know what I mean. You don't? I think this guy does: Yes, here's your opportunity to caption the Master of Disaster, The Mother of All Mother******s himself, Uncle Saddy! Our guest judge this week will be Bill from INDC Journal, an excellent blog that mixes humor with some terrific on-the-ground photojournalism (and regular journalism, too, for that matter). But there's a catch this week ... Bill is currently raising funds for the family of Captain Dan Eggers, a Green Beret that Bill knew in high school who lost his life in the effort to free Iraq from the genocidal maniac pictured above. His PayPal tip jar has stalled...
I was going to write something inspirational for Independence Day, but instead, I found this at Auterrific, a great blog run by Linda, a CQ reader who often disagrees with me here. However, her post today reminds us that even though we may all disagree with each other on politics, we are all still Americans, and we stand together in the last instance. Thoughts For The 4th I could have posted something profound. I could have posted something fun. What I am posting, is a request that when you are enjoying all of your barbeques and swim parties today, that you take a moment to remember those who can't. The recently beheaded...they won't be with their families today. The people in the twin towers...they won't be with theirs either. The people in the flights that went down in the Pentagon and PA...nope, not theirs either. The countless soldiers who have...
July 5, 2004
In order to clarify my post above on John Kerry's eye-popping statment in the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald yesterday, I will explain my position on abortion so you know where I sit. I believe that life begins within minutes of conception, and that belief is based on science, not faith, although they intersect. Eggs and sperm carry 23 chromosomes, half of the genetic blueprint for human life. Even if other primates have the same chromosome count, the DNA encoding on human eggs and sperm is uniquely human. When the sperm fertilizes the egg, the separate DNA strands combine into 23 pairs of chromosomes and a unique blueprint for a unique human being. Once the cell divides on its own -- usually within a half-hour -- that being is alive, unique, and separate from, though dependent on, its mother. Some have argued this point for decades. Phil Donahue, years ago, once said on...
Despite having a more consistent record on abortion than any other issue in his career, John Kerry yesterday tried to have it both ways again, flip-flopping on the definition of human life. Kerry tried to pander to Catholics and strict Christians but instead raised far more questions than he answered: But even as he tried to avoid making news Sunday, Kerry broke new ground in an interview that ran in the Dubuque, Iowa, Telegraph Herald. A Catholic who supports abortion rights and has taken heat from some in the church hierarchy for his stance, Kerry told the paper, "I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception." Spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said that although Kerry has often said abortion should be "safe, legal and rare," and that his religion shapes that view, she could not recall him ever publicly discussing when life begins. "I can't...
What a great caption contest we had this weekend! Even on the new abbreviated schedule, we had 91 fantastic entries ... close to a record here at CQ. Bill from INDC Journal has finished judging all of your suggestions -- and speaking of judging, even Uncle Saddy pointed out a couple of excellent captions: Here are the winners: Captain's Award (Have We Heard This Somewhere Before?) -- Kris: "We're going to invade Iran... and Kuwait... and Syria... and Saudi Arabia... and then we're going to Israel to take back the Holy Land... YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAARGH!" You Have The Conn #1 (Off His ZZ Top) -- Thief: "They come a-runnin' just as fast as they can, Baby go crazy 'bout a Sharp Dressed Man!" You Have The Conn #2 (Like No Business I Know) -- Retired Military: "What do you have to say to the charges levied against you Mr. Hussein?" "That's SHOWBIZ!!!!"...
I hope all of you had a great, long weekend this Fourth. I've had Monday off, and while I spent part of my day doing some follow-up on the First Mate's medical stuff, I've spent most of the weekend relaxing and taking it easy. (The FM is doing well and thanks all of you for your prayers and thoughts.) After the NARN broadcast Saturday we spent some time with our son, daughter-in-law, and the Little Admiral, which is always good for the soul. She's learning what "tired" means, and she doesn't much like it. Neither the First Mate nor I are much into fireworks these days -- of course, for her, all she gets to experience is one very loud explosion followed by the next. On the Fourth, we have fallen into the habit of going to the movies. Last night, however, her energy level was a bit off, so...
July 6, 2004
The New York Post has taken the first unequivocal leap for the mainstream media and claimed an exclusive on John Kerry's VP choice. In an unsigned article, the Post claims that it has learned that Kerry has selected Rep. Dick Gephardt for his running mate: John Kerry has chosen Rep. Richard Gephardt, the veteran congressman from Missouri, to be his running mate, The Post has learned. Gephardt, 63, a 28-year veteran of the House of Representatives, could be named by the presumptive Democratic nominee as the party's vice-presidential candidate as soon as today. The Massachusetts senator was set to announce the winner of the veep-stakes at a rally this morning in Pittsburgh, according to several reports last night. With the July 26 Democratic convention in Boston looming, Kerry is looking for some advantage in the polls, and is hoping his choice of running mate will be the answer. As I...
All of this VP speculation reminds people of the big effort that John Kerry made to woo maverick Republican Senator John McCain to run as his VP. The Republicans are poised, reports the New York Times, to ensure that people remember that his final selection will be nothing but a consolation prize: President Bush's campaign strategists say they are planning to attack Senator John Kerry's running mate as a second choice no matter who it turns out to be and are preparing a commercial asserting that Mr. Kerry has made clear that his first choice was a Republican who still stands at Mr. Bush's side, Senator John McCain. "We think it's important that people understand that this is a ticket of John Kerry and his second choice," Nicolle Devenish, the Bush campaign's communications director, said. The effort to turn Mr. Kerry's flirtation with Mr. McCain against him is part of...
The Washington Post reports today on the official inclusion of bloggers at the national conventions this election cycle by both Democrats and Republicans, and reporter Brian Faler manages to miss the point of blogging almost entirely: The Web sites, which are essentially online journals, have become a prominent campaign tool this election season -- ever since former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean's official blog caught on. Since then, scores of other candidates have developed similar sites. Some candidates have begun advertising on other independent blogs -- especially sites that feature commentaries, usually partisan, on the political news of the day. But neither party has ever allowed bloggers to cover one of its presidential conventions firsthand -- and the decision seems to promise a clash of two very different cultures. The conventions have become carefully staged productions intended, primarily, to reintroduce the parties' nominees to the general public. Independent blogs --...
This may be the never-ending story, but now the AP reports that John Kerry has selected John Edwards for his running mate: John Kerry selected former rival John Edwards to be his running mate, picking the smooth-talking Southern populist over more seasoned politicians in hopes of injecting vigor and small-town appeal to the Democratic presidential ticket, The Associated Press learned Tuesday. Kerry offered Edwards the No. 2 spot on the Democratic ticket in a telephone call Tuesday morning, and the North Carolina senator accepted, said two senior Democrats familiar with the conversation. I suppose that the Post may be asking its reporter for its source in the next few minutes, as putting out a massive front-page story on the wrong pick can be just a tad embarrassing. Edwards, of course, may prove more embarrassing in the long run. He's a one-term Senator with no foreign-policy experience, no great ties to...
The incompetence continues for the Kerry campaign. Fresh off of standing up the mayor of his hometown at the national Mayors' Conference and instigating an internecine feud in the city where he will receive his party's nomination, Kerry now has cancelled an appearance with a powerful union in favor of conferring with his new running mate: Word spread quickly among the NEA delegates that Kerry would not be coming to their annual meeting in the afternoon. The Massachusetts senator revealed earlier Tuesday that North Carolina Sen. John Edwards would be his vice presidential candidate, and the two planned to meet in Pittsburgh later in the day. NEA President Reg Weaver acknowledged he was angry, but he said it would not distract the nation's largest union from its business. He kept his cell phone on the podium in front of him as the convention resumed in case Kerry called to reschedule....
Even before John Kerry announced John Edwards as his running mate for this election, the Wall Street Journal reported that the US Chamber of Commerce will go on the partisan attack now that Edwards is on the ticket: Tom Donohue, head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has made a public vow: If John Edwards is chosen as John Kerry's running mate, the chamber will abandon its traditional stance of neutrality in the presidential race and work feverishly to defeat the Democratic ticket. "We'd get the best people and the greatest assets we can rally" to the cause, he says. Other business leaders in Washington have been less public and less precise, but no less passionate. Reviewing the candidates in the Democratic primaries earlier this year, a Fortune 100 chief executive who is active in Washington told me that Mr. Edwards, the North Carolina senator, "is the one we fear...
In a poll that will likely go unnoticed today with all of the VP hoopla, CNN reports that Bush has gained in popularity among minority voters since the 2000 election, making headway among demographics that Kerry needs to have any chance of winning: Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry holds wide leads over President Bush among black and Latino voters questioned, but Bush runs slightly stronger among minority voters than he did four years ago and has a double-digit lead among white voters, according to the results of a new Gallup poll looking at racial contrasts in the presidential race. The poll, released Tuesday, found that in a two-way race between Bush and Kerry, 53 percent of white registered voters supported Bush, while 41 percent supported Kerry. Among black voters, Kerry led Bush 81 percent to 12 percent, and among Latinos, the Massachusetts senator led 57 percent to 38...
In a bit of interesting news from Iraq, the BBC reports a group of masked men publicly accused Abu Musab al-Zarqawi of killing innocent Iraqis and defiling the Muslim religion. They warned he would be hunted down and killed if he did not leave Iraq immediately. According to the BBC, the men called themselves the Salvation Movement and told Zarqawi, "We will do to you what the coalition forces have failed to do." If true, it seems to represent another element of the Iraqification of the war against the foreign terrorists, which began with the government's offer of amnesty to Iraqi insurgents....
In a development certain to embarrass the Iranian government and possibly bring the West to the brink of war against the mullahcracy there, Fox News reports that joint US-Iraqi patrols have captured admitted Iranian intelligence officers in Baghdad -- carrying explosives: American and Iraqi joint patrols, along with U.S. Special Operations teams, captured two men with explosives in Baghdad on Monday who identified themselves as Iranian intelligence officers, FOX News has confirmed. Senior officials said it was previously believed that Iran had officers inside Iraq stirring up violence, but this is the first time that self-proclaimed Iranian intelligence agents have been captured within the country. ... The arrest of the two Iranians suspected of attempting to carry out a vehicle bombing has focused new attention on how Tehran is trying to protect its interests in the country it fought for eight years in a devastating war. So far, Iran is...
In a major boost to George Bush's re-election bid, the AP's Martin Crutsinger reports that the economic expansion may be the best since 1984: The economy appears headed for a banner year despite a springtime spike in energy prices and a recent increase in interest rates. In fact, many analysts are forecasting that the overall economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, will grow by 4.6 percent or better this year, the fastest in two decades. There were strong 4.5 percent growth rates in 1997 and 1999, when Bill Clinton was president and the country was in the midst of a record 10-year expansion. But if this year's growth ends up a bit faster than that, it will be the best since the economy roared ahead at a 7.2 percent rate in 1984, a year when another Republican president — Ronald Reagan — was running for re-election. Kerry and...
July 7, 2004
While the rest of us celebrated our nation's independence, nine congressmen collaborated to secure UN involvement in the November presidential election. I promised to post the names of these representatives but was unable to find any mention of them in the relevant news articles. Thankfully, the National Review's Jed Babbin did the research, and here are the names: Eddie Bernice Johnson (Tex.) Joseph Crowley (N.Y.) Raul Grijalva (Ariz.) Danny Davis (Ill.) Corrine Brown (Fla.) Carolyn Maloney (N.Y.) Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.) Michael Honda (Calif.) Elijah Cummings (Md.) Julia Carson (Ind.) Edolphus Towns (N.Y.) They are all Democrats. (So much for the "bipartisan" aspect of the group which was originally reported.) Mr. Babbin finds the notion of UN involvement just as ridiculous as I did: America — in our Constitution and in every state — has laws that protect the voters from interference with their right to vote. Any U.N. monitoring would...
Yesterday's revelation that US and Iraqi joint patrols had captured two Iranian intelligence officers with explosives and building car bombs sounded to me like important news. Here, after all, is proof that the so-called insurgency is not only supported by outside forces but contains active elements of official outside governmental agencies. As the Bush Doctrine states, any government engaging in terrorism or supporting terrorism against the US has made itself a target in the war on terror -- and this shows that Iran does both. Big news, right? Not in America, apparently. The World section at the Los Angeles Times: nothing. The World section at the Boston Globe: nothing. The Minneapolis Star Tribune (AP) reports the story with the headline, "Iran treading lightly in trying to influence Iraq," which contains the following assertion: Monday's announcement of the arrests by the Iraqi Interior Ministry was a rare instance of tying Iranians...
Jon Henke at QandO sends me this humorous heads-up this morning. What happens when you google "liberal media"? Well, at least today, you get a question and an answer: What Liberal Media? --Eric Alterman Continue... "'What Liberal Media' is bold, counterintuitive and cathartic." --The New York Times Book Review. ... What Liberal Media? ... www.whatliberalmedia.com/ - 23k - Cached - Similar pages Oh, That Liberal Media Oh, That Liberal Media! ... Allawi at least demonstrates much more intelligence than the empty suit Brokaw has become, parroting this liberal-media urban legend. ... www.thatliberalmedia.com/ - 90k - Cached - Similar pages The second entry is a blog to which I occasionally contribute. If you haven't checked it out yet, you should do so often, as it contains media critiques from Xrlq (who first noted this Google result), Patterico, Shark, and many other excellent bloggers. Be sure to blogroll it!...
The Admiral Emeritus sends me this question from the golf course regarding John Kerry's choice of running mate: I just heard that Kerry has picked Edwards for his running mate. They were saying on the news that it would be John-John in the White House. I don't understand their thinking. We currently have several johns in the white house and they all function quite well. At least the current johns don't change directions when confronted by people from different parts of the country. Although it would work pretty well as a campaign motto: "What this country needs is two Johns for every houshold". Dad And with that biting wit, its hard to understand why he isn't blogging himself ......
My friend and colleague John "Rocket Man" Hinderaker at Power Line notes that Robert Byrd, the most senior Senator in years and tenure, has a new book coming out titled Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency. The Amazon listing for the occasionally coherent West Virginian's lonely challenge to the Bush administration includes this classic from the book publisher: In the months and years following September 11, Senator Robert C. Byrd has viewed with alarm what he considers to be a "slow unraveling of the people's liberties," when all dissenting voices were stilled and awesome power swung suddenly to the president to fight a "war on terror." "Awesome power swung"? I assume that Byrd's publisher may refer to the Patriot Act and the authorization for the use of force in Iraq. In both cases, power didn't "swing", Congress voted both bills into law. The Patriot Act simply allowed law-enforcement...
In a further repudiation of the "Bush Lied!" meme, the Financial Times in London reports that Lord Butler's investigation into prewar British intelligence confirms that Iraq did attempt to get uranium from Niger in defiance of cease-fire agreements and UN resolutions: A UK government inquiry into the intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq is expected to conclude that Britain's spies were correct to say that Saddam Hussein's regime sought to buy uranium from Niger. ... The UK government has remained adamant that negotiations over sales did take place and that the fake documents were not part of the intelligence material it had gathered to underpin its claim. The Financial Times revealed last week that a key part of the UK's intelligence on the uranium came from a European intelligence service that undertook a three-year surveillance of an alleged clandestine uranium-smuggling operation of which Iraq was a part. Intelligence...
Islamofascist terrorists abducted another foreigner in Iraq today, a Filipino civilian working for a Saudi company. In an action certain to encourage the kidnapping of more foreigners, the Filipinos have run up the white flag, at least for the moment: Armed Iraq insurgents threatened to kill a Filipino hostage if his country does not withdraw from Iraq, according to a video that aired Wednesday. ... Three armed and masked men stood behind the seated hostage, threatening to kill him if the Philippines doesn't pull out within three days. A banner on the wall behind them identified the captors as a previously unknown group, the Iraqi Islamic Army-Khaled bin al-Waleed Corps. Thursday, the Philippines government suspended further deployment of Filipinos to Iraq. Philippines officials did not provide details but said the Cabinet would meet later in the day to discuss the situation. I understand the need to review policy as situations...
MS-NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports tonight that the Pentagon is now investigating what exactly happened to Cpl. Wassef Hassoun, a Marine supposedly kidnapped by Islamofascist terrorists. Now, however, military sources say Hassoun may have hoaxed the world: Late Wednesday, FBI agents showed up at the Hassoun family home in West Jordan, Utah. And Pentagon officials tell NBC News that the Navy has now launched a criminal investigation into Hassoun's disappearance, and the possibility that his kidnapping may be part of an elaborate hoax. Hassoun disappeared from his Marine unit on June 20. He showed up a week later in a hostage-style video, with a sword held over his head and his alleged captors threatening to kill him. Terrorist experts say, however, the group said to have held Hassoun is unknown. "We don't know whether this group is simply an Internet address. ... We don't know if they were simply fabricated. We...
July 8, 2004
The AP reports that George Bush has turned down an NAACP invitation to speak at their annual convention, making Bush the first president since Hoover not to attend at least one during his term in office: Bush spoke at the 2000 NAACP convention in Baltimore when he was a candidate. But he has declined invitations to speak in each year of his presidency, the first president since Herbert Hoover not to attend an NAACP convention, John White, a spokesman for the group, said Wednesday. ... Democratic challenger John Kerry accepted an invitation to speak next Thursday on the final day of the convention, the NAACP said. I expect this story will get more play in the media than, say, the arrest of two Iranian intelligence agents building car bombs in Iraq or the confirmation that Saddam tried to buy uranium from Niger. However, what they won't report, and which the...
College admissions offices have begun courting high-school counselors in new -- and expensive -- outreach programs that appear to border on corruption, if they don't cross the line entirely. The New York Times looks at some of the efforts made by more obscure universities to attract the "best" candidates: Though the image of the admissions process is often one of high school guidance counselors sidling up to colleges in hopes of gaining an advantage for their students, the reality is sometimes the other way around. Colleges are so intent on getting not just enough applicants, but the best ones, that some are lavishing perks on guidance counselors, raising questions about the difference between merely promoting a university and currying favor with those who speak directly into the ear of students and parents trying to evaluate it. ... When Centre College in Danville, Ky., invites counselors to visit, for example, it...
Michelle Malkin erupts in fury to the latest Ted Rall outrage, in which he calls Condi Rice George Bush's "house n***a" and has another African-American character demanding that she surrender her hair straightener. Rall, whose idiocy is so well-documented that it's almost not worth this much commentary, takes it upon his own lily-white tucchus to determine the authenticity of Rice's blackness, simply based on her political point of view. He calls her a hypocrite, which is pretty damned funny coming from an unreconstructed Marxist who nevertheless makes himself a good living selling his intellectual property. In Rall's world, apparently African-Americans are only honest if they adhere to the radical-leftist line. Michelle gives Rall both barrels: Show us more of your assininity, Ted. Keep dropping your rhetorical pants. Which other minority public figures do you want to mock for having straightened hair? Colin Powell's wife? Beyonce? Coretta Scott King? Which other...
Bill from INDC Journal was surprised to receive a letter from the Democratic National Convention credentialing him as a journalist under its blogger program. Bill openly speculated that they hadn't really checked out his website and wondered whether to spend the money on travel, especially since the DNC waited until the last minute to inform him of his acceptance, but decided to go despite the added expense the delay cost him. That's when the other shoe dropped ... Last night, I received the following e-mail: Dear William: Last week you were sent a credential allocation letter not properly authorized by the DNCC for press coverage of the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Upon further review of the overall site capacity at the FleetCenter, we are no longer able to issue your organization a DNCC Press Gallery Credential. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. ... If my guess is correct,...
During the run-up to the Iraq phase of the war on terror, while France actively undermined US efforts to create a unified coalition of Western nations, people throughout Europe and the US protested against the war, chanting, "No War For Oil". The BBC now reports that the Sudan, like Saddam's Iraq, is experiencing genocide while the global community dithers. The US and British are working the UNSC for a resolution that would try to stop the Sudan from becoming another Rwanda, but have run into a familiar stumbling block: France says it does not support US plans for international sanctions on Sudan if violence continues in Darfur. The UN Security Council is debating a US draft resolution imposing sanctions on militias accused of "ethnic cleansing" against non-Arabs. ... Some one million people have fled their homes and at least 10,000 have been killed in what the UN calls "the world's...
A new poll of registered voters conducted earlier this week shows new movement in the polls as John Kerry selected John Edwards as his running mate -- but the momentum went to George Bush (also here): The AP-Ipsos poll found Bush leading Kerry just outside the margin of error, with the president's support at 49 percent, Kerry at 45 percent and independent candidate Ralph Nader at 3 percent. The Bush-Kerry matchup was tied a month ago, when Nader had 6 percent. The three-day survey began Monday, the day before Kerry tapped Edwards as his running mate, and asked registered voters about the newly minted ticket on Tuesday and Wednesday. Half supported the Republican tandem of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney while 46 percent backed the Kerry-Edwards ticket, just within the question's margin of error. AP/Ipsos showed some boost in Kerry's support in the South after the selection of Edwards,...
While partisan politics occasionally inspires some raw remarks from elected officials, such as the Cheney-Leahy contretemps last month, the venom stays between the principals and usually avoids outsiders. Former Los Angeles mayor and current California Education Secretary Richard Riordan scored some collateral damage last week, insulting a schoolgirl over her name and giving Governor Schwarzenegger a headache he didn't need: The conversation, videotaped by KEYT-TV, took place Thursday at a promotional event for summer reading at Santa Barbara's central library. The unidentified girl, who appeared to be a preschooler, asked Riordan if he knew that her name meant "Egyptian goddess." Riordan replied, "It means stupid dirty girl." After nervous laughter in the room, the girl again told Riordan the meaning of her name. "Hey, that's nifty," he said. Not as nifty as sticking his foot squarely in his mouth on television, and not surprisingly, Riordan and Schwarzenegger are taking some...
July 9, 2004
The Bush Admninistration warned yesterday that intelligence services have received a stream of non-specific data indicating that al-Qaeda intends on disrupting the upcoming election with a "catastrophic" attack -- perhaps more than one: Osama bin Laden and his chief lieutenants, operating from hideouts suspected to be along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, are directing a Qaeda effort to launch an attack in the United States sometime this year, senior Bush administration officials said on Thursday. ... Counterterrorism officials have said for weeks that they are increasingly worried by a continuing stream of intelligence suggesting that Al Qaeda wanted to carry out a significant terror attack on United States soil this year. But until the comments of the senior administration officials on Thursday, it was not clear that Mr. bin Laden and top deputies like Ayman Zawahiri were responsible for the concern. Another senior administration official said on Thursday that the intelligence reports...
On CNN last night, Larry King interviewed John Kerry on the status of his campaign for president. On literally the first substantial question of the interview, Kerry demonstrated why he is unfit for the presidency during a time of war: [KING:]Let's get to, first thing's first, news of the day. Tom Ridge warned today about al Qaeda plans of a large-scale attack on the United States, didn't increase the -- do you see any politics in this? What's your reaction? KERRY: Well, I haven't been briefed yet, Larry. They have offered to brief me; I just haven't had time [emph mine -- CE]. But all Americans are united in our efforts to defeat terrorism. I believe that John Edwards and I can wage a far more effective war on terror than George Bush has. I think we can do a better job of making America safe. But in these days...
Continuing our series on the unseriousness of Democratic leadership, last night our friend and mentor Hugh Hewitt played a clip of California Senator Barbara Boxer delivering a speech on ... whatever Boxer happened to bloviate on. In the middle of this speech, Boxer referred to the al-Qaeda bombings in Madrid not as an act of war, not even as a crime -- but as a simple mistake: Today, on the floor of the United States Senate, Barbara Boxer referred to the Madrid bombings as a "rail accident." Honest. A rail accident. Boxer is a Senate accident. What an embarassment. A caller got us all laughing when he said that had Boxer been in the Senate in 1942, she would have demanded that the US apologize to the Japanese for overreacting to a mishap at a boating and flying exhibition off the shores of Pearl Harbor. I'm surprised she hasn't asked...
As you'll see by the time on this post, I'm getting back to my room at a pretty late hour -- and I discovered I'm buried in e-mail. I can read everything people send me, but for some really strange reason, I cannot send outbound e-mail. If you've sent me e-mail and haven't heard back, that's why. (Kenneth -- LOL!) The Irish language workshop is terrific, the poitín is tremendous (Irish moonshine, and I ain't kidding), and the people are all having a blast. If you're curious about the Irish language, our organization's website is a good place to read a bit about it, and we have links to plenty of other resources. I have missed most of today's news, but I plan on posting a couple of items in the early morning tomorrow. A couple of items to note tonight: * Hugh Hewitt is celebrating 22 years of marriage...
July 10, 2004
The International Court of Useful Idiots . . . I mean the International Court of Justice ruled on Friday that Israel's security fence is a violation of international law and must be torn down. The court also demanded Israel compensate “natural or legal persons having suffered any form of material damage as a result of the wall’s construction.” Exactly what international law did the wall violate? I suffered through the court’s opinion (linked above) and am still trying to answer that question. The court gives a laundry list of treaties and conventions and even cites letters from Israel to Yasser Arafat in its wordy but mostly incoherent discussion. Apparently, the fools . . . I mean jurists . . . consider the wall a threat to the self-determination of the Palestinians and a pseudo permanent border between the hoped for Palestinian state and Israel. The court takes note of the...
I just placed my order on Amazon for Hugh Hewitt's new book If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat. But for Hugh's emails to a discouraged young attorney, Ed would still be manning this great blog all by his lonesome. Thanks, Hugh! To order your own copy from Amazon click here. If you are a Barnes and Noble shopper, then click here. Since I'm in Asia, I expect I won't have my copy for several weeks but will post a review when I finish it. UPDATE: Hugh's book is already #78 on amazon.com's top seller list. It's rated smack in between The Catcher in the Rye (a longtime favority of yours truly) and The Thyroid Diet, which I haven't read. It beats out Richard Clarke's former bestseller Against All Enemies, which only rates 81....
I guess it didn't take me too long to find my post for the day -- in today's New York Times, Jodi Wilgoren and Richard Stevenson report on the "full-throated battle" between the major party nominees after Thursday evening's Democratic fundraiser: A day after a $7.5 million Democratic fund-raiser in New York at which an array of stars harshly ridiculed President Bush, the Bush campaign criticized Senator John Kerry for what it called a "star-studded hate fest." Mr. Bush's campaign manager, Ken Mehlman, demanded that the Kerry campaign release a videotape of the event at Radio City Music Hall, which featured performers including Chevy Chase, Whoopi Goldberg and Jessica Lange. Although Mr. Kerry had told the crowd at the New York fund-raiser that "every single performer" on the bill had "conveyed to you the heart and soul of our country," his campaign on Friday sought to distance Mr. Kerry and...
One of the supposed martyrs of the Left in the war on terror, former Ambassador and newly-minted author Joseph Wilson, lied to the public about how he got that questionable assignment to Niger, according to a Senate report: Wilson's assertions -- both about what he found in Niger and what the Bush administration did with the information -- were undermined yesterday in a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report. The panel found that Wilson's report, rather than debunking intelligence about purported uranium sales to Iraq, as he has said, bolstered the case for most intelligence analysts. And contrary to Wilson's assertions and even the government's previous statements, the CIA did not tell the White House it had qualms about the reliability of the Africa intelligence that made its way into 16 fateful words in President Bush's January 2003 State of the Union address. So Joe Wilson came back from Niger and...
In a secret memo to American Catholic bishops, papal doctrinal advisor Cardinal John Ratzinger has firmly stated that pro-choice politicians are to be refused Communion, even at the altar rail if necessary. The strongly-worded instructions appear to be aimed at renegade Catholic John Kerry, who last weekend attempted to head off this controversy by claiming to believe that life begins at conception -- a stance that may hav worsened his position with the Church hierarchy: The memo was sent to the US Catholic Bishops' conference last month. With formidable clarity and force, it states that pro-abortion Catholic politicians should be warned by priests that they are not eligible for Communion. If the politician then "shows an obstinate persistence in grave sin", writes Cardinal Ratzinger, he or she should be turned away at the altar rail. Mr Kerry has consistently voted in favour of maintaining abortion rights during his 30-year senatorial...
July 11, 2004
Just two days after the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel had to tear down its wall between Israel and the Palestinians, a terrorist group with ties to the Palestinian Authority has bombed downtown Tel Aviv, proving the ICJ irrelevant at best, and dangerous: Palestinian militants detonated a bomb near a Tel Aviv bus stop early Sunday, killing a woman and wounding more than 20 other people, police and Israeli media said. The explosion shattered a period of relative quiet inside Israel and came two days after the U.N. world court ruled that Israel's West Bank separation barrier is illegal. Israel says the barrier is meant to block Palestinian attackers. The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a Palestinian militant group loosely linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, claimed responsibility, saying the attack was in revenge for Israeli army operations in the West Bank city of Nablus. Israel recently killed the...
In an article headlined "Kerry Vows To Restore 'Truth' to Presidency," the Washington Post manages to highlight at least two lies Kerry and Edwards push in just this one story: President Bush has governed in a dishonest fashion, trampling values on every issue except fighting terrorism and leaving voters "clamoring for restoration of credibility and trust in the White House again," John F. Kerry and John Edwards said in an interview. ... "We have not stood up and attacked our opponents in personal ways," Kerry said. This week alone, Kerry has criticized Bush personally in speeches for lying, professional laziness, waiting until right before the election to indict Enron Corp.'s former chief executive, Kenneth L. Lay, lacking values and even having worse hair than the two Democrats. Some advisers are privately counseling Kerry to tone down his attacks on Bush. Kerry can't even get out of an interview about honesty...
We take a break from all of this serious talk to get down to serious Friday business -- the relentlessly unserious Captain's Caption Contest! Yes, we all have to take a break from the rigors of our daily, serious tasks ... but in some cases, it's really hard to tell the difference: Guest judging this weekend will be my good friend and colleague from Fraters Libertas, the seriously unserious Saint Paul. The Fraters guys are raising funds for a worthy cause -- an inline skate rally for Multiple Sclerosis. (They're against it.) If you can drop a few coins in the jar, they'd certainly appreciate it. As always, leave your comments on the comments page, and as always, put your best caption entries in the comments section -- NO e-mail, please! (E-mailed entries will be sealed in an empty French wine bottle and placed under the rear tires of Barbra...
Alas! Our weekend workshop for the Irish language has come to an end, along with the embargo on outbound e-mail. I'll be heading home shortly, after having taken upon myself the role of official historian of this year's event. When I have some time, I'll put together a slide show for the participants, complete with music and the 100+ pictures I took with my digital camera. The workshop itself was a blast, even if I have neglected my language studies due to my blogging of late. I found I hadn't lost much from my skills ... not that there was that much to lose, of course. I even led a halting and somewhat off-key rendition of 'Whiskey In The Jar' (no offense to my partner here, of course) and a somewhat more confident version of 'Molly Malone' at the traditional Saturday-night céilí. I found time to go on a couple...
Kweisi Mfume, president of the NAACP, publicly re-invited George Bush to speak at their annual convention, promising that he will be treated with respect if he returns. Bush, so far, isn't biting at the bait: Kweisi Mfume, president of the NAACP, said it was "unbelievable" that Bush had declined an invitation to speak at the organization's annual meeting for the fourth consecutive year. "When you are president, you are elected to be president of all the people," Mfume said at a news conference as the convention opened. "You won't do that if you refuse to talk." He asked Bush to change his mind and promised that the Republican president would be treated with respect at the Philadelphia event this week even if many delegates oppose his politics. Mfume sees his organization losing its relevance in electoral politics under his leadership, and he's panicking. Bush went out of his way to...
If you're a blogger in Minnesota (or anywhere within driving distance of the Twin Cities), we really should get together sometime. There are a lot of cool people writing blogs - or even just reading them - in the Upper Midwest, and we should definitely try to meet sometime. So the Northern Alliance is throwing a shindig - a non-political, ecumenical one - for bloggers in the area, and we'd like all you bloggers to be there! Here's the deal: We'd like to meet at Keegan's Irish Pub in Northeast Minneapolis, on Saturday, July 24, at 5PM. We'd like to spend a few hours hanging out, meeting other bloggers, and just having some fun. Cash bar? The whole place IS a cash bar! By the way - this is not a "Northern Alliance" event, just a random social thang. Interested in being there? We'd love to get a headcount. Please...
July 12, 2004
More than 20,000 mourners gathered in Srebrenica on Sunday bury the remains of 338 victims who were exhumed from mass graves and identified. The AP reminds us that more than 5,000 Muslim men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serbs in the worse case of genocide in Europe since the Holocaust. Actually, the AP refers to the murders as a “massacre” and never mentioned the Holocaust. The “unbiased” description used: “Europe's worst massacre since World War II.” One wonders whether the AP intended a reference to the Holocaust or was instead commenting upon Stalin’s infamous purges. Or perhaps the AP reporter was merely alluding to the Second World War in a general sense meaning that a lot of people died . . . Who knows what the AP really meant since everything is so politically neutral except when it’s not. Case in point: UN duplicity in the Bosnian genocide. It...
The AP jubilantly reports that key conservatives have become critical of the Bush administration. Reading the article, one learns that it is really only one “conservative” who has joined the Bush bash, some former bureaucrat named Stefan Halper who made a few “blistering” comments about the situation in Iraq in front of a crowd of 150 (150!) Washington insiders. Lack of evidence doesn’t prevent the AP from smugly “reporting” that “anger is simmering among some conservatives.” Who are these conservatives who are just smoldering with ABB anger? Well . . . . there is a Mr. Hutchinson from Sturgeon, MO, a retiree who might just not cast a vote come November. And wait . . . there’s another: a Mr. Walters from Columbia, MO who calls himself a “classical conservative” but hasn’t made his presidential pick. (BTW Mr. Walters served in Vietnam.) There you have them, two more “key” conservatives...
To anyone who actually remembers the Reagan presidency, the news that President Reagan's youngest son Ron disagreed with his policies and his political philosophy will hardly be shocking. However, Knight-Ridder newspapers and some apparently young punditeers are squealing with delight to have Ron the Lesser speaking at the Democratic National Convention as an expert on stem-cell research: In a move sure to embarrass Republicans, Ron Reagan will address the Democratic National Convention this month. Reagan, son of former President Ronald Reagan and an outspoken critic of the Bush administration, will be at the podium on the second night of the four-day event in Boston, July 27, in support of stem-cell research, he said Sunday in an interview here. ... "This gives me a platform to educate people about stem-cell research," Reagan said. "The conservative right has a rather simplistic way of characterizing it as baby killing. We're not talking about...
The USA Today, in an analysis of the Kerry/Edwards campaign, concludes that their consistent gaffes have given the Bush campaign plenty of material from which to attack them, underscoring their lack of competency at running national election campaigns. Readers of this blog will hardly be surprised at this analysis, but Jill Lawrence puts a number of recent stumbles into a broader context, as well as reports on some that haven't quite made it into the mainstream yet: Amid a series of feel-good events that would have made Cecil B. DeMille proud, Kerry said on national TV that he hadn't had time for a national security briefing on a new al-Qaeda threat. He praised celebrities who had made nasty, vulgar remarks about President Bush. His wife offered feminist musings at the North Carolina finale of the new ticket's "mainstream values" tour. And while voters wondered about John Edwards' experience and foreign...
I understand the need to think out of the box in terms of national security in time of war. I know that terrorists would like nothing better than to disrupt our elections this November, and maybe some other events previous to that as well. Given all of that, you can understand why this idea would be inevitable -- and it's still tremendously foolish (via Power Line): U.S. counterterrorism officials are looking at an emergency proposal on the legal steps needed to postpone the November presidential election in case of an attack by al Qaeda, Newsweek reported on Sunday. ... The magazine cited unnamed sources who told it that the Department of Homeland Security asked the Justice Department last week to review what legal steps would be needed to delay the election if an attack occurred on the day before or the day of the election. The argument that "if [X]...
One of the subtexts of the war on terror is the liberation of women from the oppression to which radical Islamists wish to condemn them. Even in more open-minded Muslim societies such as Egypt, women have faced increasing pressure to cover themselves while in public and curtail their efforts towards economic independence. In Iraq, meanwhile, the new interim government has hired over one hundred women into highy public roles -- as police officers: Whipping out her handgun and slamming a magazine into the grip, 20-year-old Hadeel Alwan can't wait to start catching criminals. "My biggest wish is to destroy terrorism," said Alwan, one of the youngest of Iraq's new women police recruits. "I want to go out on the streets and do everything a man does." ... Iraq has not hired women recruits since the force experimented with the idea in the 1960s, according to senior officers, but that changed...
The entries have finally been judged, the winners have been chosen -- and let me tell you, it wasn't easy for Saint Paul from Fraters Libertas. He wound up having to check in with John Fogerty, who finally gave him the approval sign on his slate of winning entries: Here are the John Fogey Fogerty-endorsed winners: Captain's Award (Manly Men Doing Manly Things) -- Kimmber: It's been 5 minutes since I've hugged a caucasian male with great hair. Come here little fella........." You Have The Conn #1 (Can't Find Good Help) -- King: When is the butler going to come get this thing off me?" You Have The Conn #2 (First Things First) -- CCWBass: ". . . and I figured, the hell the terrorists! I'm not going to let them keep me from rockin' on, and so I ditched the briefing and grabbed my guitar, and here I am!"...
MoveOn's contest for political commercials generated a submission that used Hitler imagery to imply Bush is a Nazi. After the storm broke, MoveOn issued a statement disavowing any responsibility for the ad, saying it was an open contest, and claiming to have removed the ad from their servers. Matt Drudge reports that not only was the offending file never removed, it was renamed to keep it hidden from prying eyes: Bush Haters worldwide are still watching the famed 'Bush is Nazi' add on MOVEON.ORG -- despite repeated claims by the site's founders the short had been removed more than six months ago! As of Monday morning [11 am Eastern] -- the ad was still carried on MOVEON's website -- under the curious file name "renamed.again.renamed.mov.FKbxnT3hzaHCcOR7vWvRYmZpbGUtMTM4OQ--.mpg" The ad shows images of Bush with text saying, "God told me to strike at al-Qaida," before turning to images of Hitler with the words,...
While the new Iraqi nation progresses by including women in its security infrastructure, radicals reminded the world today why the Iraqis are so singular in this accomplishment. The AP reports that "guerillas" -- assuredly Islamofascist militants -- have mutilated a teenage girl for cooperating with authorities in the disputed Jammu-Kashmir state in India: Guerrillas on Monday chopped off the ears, nose and tongue of a teenage girl they suspected of helping police, while at least nine other people were killed in separate violence in Indian-controlled Kashmir. The girl was held captive for eight days before the rebels abandoned her in a field outside the village of Manoh, 190 miles southwest of Srinagar, the capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state, police said. It's helpful to understand the type of people who wish to impose their radical version of Islam on others. Regardless of motivation, people who would commit such an act on...
The Philippines ran the white flag up to Islamic terrorists today, caving in to the demands of kidnappers to expedite their scheduled withdrawal from Iraq: The Philippines said on Monday it would withdraw its troops from Iraq as soon as possible to save a Filipino hostage threatened with death by militants. CNN quoted unidentified Philippine officials as saying they expected truck driver Angelo de la Cruz to be released on Tuesday, but no independent confirmation was available. Al Jazeera broadcast footage of Philippine deputy foreign minister Rafael Seguis reading out a statement, which the television station translated into Arabic, shortly after the expiry of a new execution deadline set by the militants. "In response to your request, the Philippines ... will withdraw its humanitarian forces as soon as possible," Seguis said according to the translation of the statement, addressed to the Islamic Army in Iraq group holding 46-year-old de la...
July 13, 2004
The Iranian mullahcracy injected a little conspiratorial nonsense into the diplomatic debate over terrorism this morning with an assertion that Muslims couldn't possibly be capable of kidnapping and beheading foreign nationals in Iraq. However, they do claim to have solved the mystery: Iran's Supreme Leader said on Tuesday he believed the United States and Israel, rather than Muslims, were behind the kidnapping and killing of foreign nationals in Iraq. "We seriously suspect the agents Americans and Israelis in conducting such horrendous terrorist moves," the official IRNA news agency quoted Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying in a meeting with visiting Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. "(We) cannot believe that the people who kidnap Philippine nationals, for instance, or beheaded U.S. nationals are Muslims." That must be it! The Jews and the Americans --who, after all, are nothing but puppets of the Jews -- must secretly be forming their...
The AP makes a rare report of some good news from Iraq, filing a story today on the hard work of the civil affairs soldiers in the US Army and their function in rebuilding the nation, one piece at a time: Sgt. Abubakar Senge walks through the secondary school with his rifle slung across his chest, his helmet hanging off his arm and a notebook in his hand, inspecting the work he hired an Iraqi builder to perform. Checking every room, he wants to make sure everything is perfect before the students return at the end of August. "I'm not that much older than the guys going to school, so I know how they feel," said the 21-year-old college student from Portland, Ore. ... The Army has assigned a civil affairs team to almost every battalion to take charge of reconstruction projects and set up neighborhood councils to get Iraq...
George Bush, in remarks at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, gave an impassioned defense of the Iraq war, arguing that the result has made America and the world safer due to subtraction: Although we have not found stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, we were right to go into Iraq. We removed a declared enemy of America who had the capability of producing weapons of mass murder and could have passed that capability to terrorists bent on acquiring them. In the world after September the 11th, that was a risk we could not afford to take. Today, the dictator who caused decades of death and turmoil, who twice invaded his neighbors, who harbored terrorist leaders, who used chemical weapons on innocent men, women and children, is finally before the bar of justice. Iraq, which once had the worst government in the Middle East, is now becoming an example of reform to...
USA Today reports (via Drudge) that John Edwards has actually damaged John Kerry's standing in Edwards' home state of North Carolina, negating one of the supposed advantages of selecting the single-term Senator as his running mate. Among likely voters in the poll, Bush/Cheney outpaces Kerry/Edwards 56-41, and even among registered voters the President outpaces Kerry by seven points. USA Today does not provide any historical context for these standings, as Edwards wasn't on the ticket until last week. However, if you check out question 4B ("Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the following people?"), you see where Kerry has dropped significantly in the last two weeks: Date............Fav.Unfav..Unk..No Op 2004 Jul 9-11....49....43....2....6 2004 Jun 21-23..58....35....2....5 Kerry has lost nine points off of his positives and gained eight points on his negatives in two weeks where he has blitzed the area with campaign advertising. The only significant changes during...
The Washington Post's Dana Milbank continues his ongoing sniping at the Bush administration today by revealing the salaries of the entire White House staff and attempting to spin them into a gender-bias story: The president's men are doing very well. The president's women are doing slightly less well, but still not bad. With new White House salary figures leaked to The Washington Post and an Excel spreadsheet, crack researcher Margot Williams determined that men in the Bush White House earn an average of $76,624 a year. Women earn $59,917 on average. That means Bush women earn about 78 percent of what Bush men earn. Wow -- Bush's White House must hate women, right? They only pay them 78% of what they're worth! However, if you read the next paragraph, the picture changes somewhat: As it happens, that's almost exactly the national average for the gap in pay between the sexes,...
This afternoon, the Washington Post reported more good news from their pollsters. Bush has worked back to a tie with Kerry in the WaPo poll, 46-46, erasing a four-point gap in the same time period when John Kerry selected John Edwards as his running mate. Bush has also reclaimed his advantage in fighting the war: Despite growing fears that the United States is losing the war on terrorism, President Bush has reclaimed the advantage over his Democratic challenger John F. Kerry as the presidential candidate best able to deal with the international terrorist threat, according to the latest Washington Post poll. The survey found that 55 percent of all Americans currently approve of the way Bush is handling the campaign against terrorism, up 5 points in the past three weeks. Slightly more than half -- 51 percent -- also said they trust Bush more than Kerry to deal with terrorism,...
July 14, 2004
CNN reports on a new development for Mexico's war on internal terror, as it has started inoculating its political class against abductions: Mexico's attorney general said on Monday he had had a microchip inserted under the skin of one of his arms to give him access to a new crime database and also enable him to be traced if he is ever abducted. ... "The system is here and I already have it. It's solely for access, for safety and so that I can be located at any moment wherever I am," he said, admitting the chip hurt "a little." The chips would enable the wearer to be found anywhere inside Mexico, in the event of an assault or kidnapping, said Macedo. And kidnapping is a huge problem here. From 1992 to 2002, Mexico saw some 15,000 kidnappings, second only to war-torn Colombia, according to the Inter-American Development Bank. The...
Some people consider politics to be little more than prostitution -- the selling of one's self for campaign financing and the votes of the electorate. Unfortunately, when faced with a federal investigation of his campaign contributions, real-estate entrepeneur Charles Kushner relied on his political pimping skills for Democrats, attempting to thwart the probe by literally screwing the feds out of a witness: Real estate developer and political fund-raiser Charles Kushner of Livingston, New Jersey, was charged by federal prosecutors Tuesday with conspiracy, obstruction of justice and interstate promotion of prostitution. ... In February 2003, Christie's office began investigating Kushner for alleged violation of federal tax and fraud statutes and for purported violation of federal campaign contribution laws. According to the indictment, two of the cooperating witnesses in the investigation -- a married couple described as close relatives of Kushner -- provided information against him to federal investigators. The indictment alleges...
The New York Times reports this morning that the Democrats have left Hillary Clinton off the speaker list for their nominating convention, even though she plans on being in Boston: The Democratic National Committee released on Tuesday its lineup of the big-name politicians speaking at the convention this month, and it included every major Democratic star except one. There were Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, near the top of the list. Al Gore was there, too, and so was Edward M. Kennedy. Even the wife of the Iowa governor made the cut. But Hillary Rodham Clinton, the junior senator from New York and one of the most prominent names in the party, was nowhere to be found. ... "She never asked," said Stephanie Cutter, a spokeswoman for the Kerry campaign. "Obviously, Hillary Clinton is a leader in the party and is working hard to elect John Kerry." But Ms. Cutter...
The Kerry campaign's ham-handed attempt to shove potential rival Hillary Clinton into the shadows during the nominating convention may be backfiring already. The AP reports that Democratic officials are voicing "outrage" that Sen. Clinton has been denied a speaking role at the convention, while Gov. Tom Vilsack's wife -- not an officeholder -- has been given time instead: The former chairwoman of the New York State Democratic Party on Wednesday called it "a total outrage" and "very stupid" that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has not been offered a prominent speaking role at the Democratic National Convention. "It's a slap in the face, not personally for Hillary Clinton, but for every woman in the Democratic Party and every woman in America," said Judith Hope, a major party fund-raiser. Hope said she would appeal to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry to "correct this omission" and would send an e-mail message to more...
The proverb, "Too many cooks spoil the broth" comes to mind while reading the Washington Post article on the Kerry campaign's policy structure. While intending on casting a broad net to display inclusiveness, the nominee instead teeters on the edge of an unmanageable mess: From a tightknit group of experienced advisers, John F. Kerry's presidential campaign has grown exponentially in recent months to include a cast literally of thousands, making it difficult to manage an increasingly unwieldy policy apparatus. The campaign now includes 37 separate domestic policy councils and 27 foreign policy groups, each with scores of members. The justice policy task force alone includes 195 members. The environmental group is roughly the same size, as is the agriculture and rural development council. Kerry counts more than 200 economists as his advisers. In contrast, President Bush's campaign policy shop is a no-frills affair. Policy director Tim Adams directs about a...
The BBC reports that Bill Clinton, speaking on tour while promoting his autobiography, not only says he agreed that action had to be taken against Iraq after 9/11, but that the UN Security Council's failure to approve a final resolution threatening war left no choice to Tony Blair: Bill Clinton says that no government could have failed to act against Iraq after the 11 September 2001 attacks in view of intelligence provided. The former US president told the BBC that UK intelligence on the activity of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was more "aggressive" than Washington's. He added that the world was right to demand weapons inspections in 2002. But he said war could have been avoided if the UN had passed a resolution threatening military action. ... He said that while containment of Iraq was working the situation regarding Saddam Hussein was different after the 11 September attacks. ......
It seems to me that this is a bad idea: Opponents of John Kerry have hired a Dallas-area private investigator to gather information aimed at discrediting his military service, say several veterans who served with the Massachusetts Democrat in Vietnam. Several veterans who have been contacted in recent days accused the private investigator, Tom Rupprath of Rockwall, of twisting their words to produce misleading and inaccurate accounts that call into doubt the medals Mr. Kerry received for his service. ... Mr. Rupprath was hired by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth on the recommendation of Merrie Spaeth, a Dallas public relations executive assisting the anti-Kerry group. The investigator declined to discuss his work, but Ms. Spaeth said he is a former FBI agent assigned to produce an accurate and objective account of how the Democratic presidential candidate earned his combat medals. SBVT can do whatever they like with their money, and...
Hugh Hewitt, who has been a great friend to this blog and its two authors, writes in his WorldNetDaily column about his new book and the "adopt-a-Lefty-journalist" program he's launching with it: Is it possible to penetrate the cocoons that Dowd, Krugman, Dionne, Hunt and most reporters at the bigs live within? Not if we rely on their own intellectual curiosity. They don't get out much, and when they do, they don't talk with the red state folks. So adopt a couple and begin to send them the books they need to read. Start with mine. Track down an address via the Web – most major papers have their mailing addresses pretty accessible, as do most studios – and have a book or two or 10 sent off to a national name and to a local reporter as well. Send a gift card with a note encouraging these people to...
Local television station KSTP-TV, our ABC affiliate, broke the news story that the FBI detained a traveler at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport on immigration violations, finding evidence of terrorism connections in his personal belongings (via my friend Big Trunk at Power Line): Federal sources told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS the man was arrested last Wednesday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Sources in the Twin Cities and in Washington D.C. said the man arrived on a flight and was taken into federal custody. Along the way, customs agents found disturbing items in his possession. The U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that Ali Mohamed Almosaleh is in federal custody in the Twin Cities. He was being detained on an immigration law violation, but federal sources confirmed there is much more than that to this investigation. Sources confirm Almosaleh was carrying a suicide when he was arrested....
John Kerry challenged George Bush earlier today to reveal whether Bush had read an NIE intelligence estimate before basing his request for war authorization on it. Within hours, Kerry's aides had to admit that Kerry himself never read the document before voting to authorize the war in Iraq (via Drudge): Democratic candidate John Kerry, whose campaign demanded to know on Wednesday whether President Bush read a key Iraq intelligence assessment, did not read the document himself before voting to give Bush the authority to go to war, aides acknowledged. "Along with other senators, he was briefed on the contents of the NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) by (then-CIA Director) George Tenet and other administration intelligence officials," said Kerry spokesman Phil Singer. Kerry's campaign has challenged Bush to say whether he read the complete intelligence report before deciding to go to war, or whether he just read a one-page summary, which Democrats...
The fundraising debacle last Thursday night at Radio City Music Hall has claimed its first rolling head. Slim-Fast has terminated its relationship with Whoopi Goldberg, Reuters reports (via Memeorandum): Comedian Whoopi Goldberg will no longer appear in ads for diet aid maker Slim-Fast following her lewd riff on President Bush's name at a fund-raiser last week, the company said on Wednesday. Florida-based Slim-Fast said it was "disappointed" in Goldberg's remarks at last Thursday's $7.5 million star-studded fund-raiser at Radio City Music Hall in New York. "Ads featuring Ms. Goldberg will no longer be on the air," Slim-Fast General Manager Terry Olson said in a statement, adding that the company regrets that Goldberg's remarks offended some customers. ... The New York Post said of Goldberg's appearance at the event: "Waving a bottle of wine, she fired off a stream of vulgar sexual wordplays on Bush's name in a riff about female...
The Butler Report states that Abu Zarqawi began establishing terrorist cells in February 2003 in advance of the Iraq war, to fight a rearguard action in Baghdad against the invading Coalitions forces, according to the Washington Post: In February 2003, a month before the United States and coalition forces invaded Iraq, British intelligence received reports that Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi was establishing sleeper cells in Baghdad that would attack U.S. forces after they occupied the city, according a report on British prewar intelligence released yesterday in London. In a prediction that has proved deadly accurate, the British Joint Intelligence Committee in March 2003 wrote, "These cells apparently intend to attack U.S. targets using car bombs and other weapons," according to yesterday's report by the Butler Commission. In the past year, Zarqawi has publicly claimed to have put together an Iraqi network that has committed dozens of bombings and killings,...
July 15, 2004
This report from the AP looks suspiciously like progress in the war on Islamofascist terror, if subtle progress: Now, with Shiites empowered in postwar Iraq, the gloves are off again. But this time, the antagonists are the Shiite ayatollahs of Iraq, a mainly Arab country, and Iran, formerly Persia. At stake is the leadership of the world's estimated 170 million Shiites — and the outcome will have profound consequences not only for the two nations but the entire Islamic faith. At the heart of the conflict is a rivalry between the holy cities of Najaf in Iraq and Qom in neighboring Iran. A victory by Najaf's "quietist" school of thought, which places a cleric's spiritual calling ahead of involvement in politics, could deal a serious blow to the claim of legitimacy by Iran's ruling clergy. It could also provide a counter-ideology to the militant political Islam adopted by some Sunni...
If you thought the lunatic left hit rock bottom with the “cartoon” depicting Condoleezza Rice proclaiming herself Bush's "HOUSE NIGGA,” you are in for an unpleasant wake-up call with his new piece of sludge encouraging all Americans to boycott the military. His thesis, such as it is: “There was a time when service in U.S. military was honorable and professionally rewarding. But because of politicians who use the military to pump up corporate profits instead of defending us, that was a long time ago.” Therefore, Rall doesn’t just want conscientious objectors to avoid military service, rather, his goal is that “Americans personal integrity” not volunteer and “discourage everyone they care about to do the same.” But he doesn’t stop there and instead continues to smear those who have given up their freedom to join our nation’s legion of protectors. Americans don’t volunteer out of patriotism or desire for public service...
Agence France-Presse notes the upcoming release of HBO's six-season paean to liberated single women, Sex And The City, in the ultraconservative city-state of Singapore. The Asian state, which made headlines in the US when authorities caned a young American teenager for defacing a car and which still prohibits selling chewing gum, seems an unlikely venue for the sexual adventures of four sophisticated New York ladies: US cable channel HBO took out full-page newspaper advertisements to announce the premiere of Season 5 in the late evening slot on the city-state's sole cable operator StarHub. Season 6 will premiere in August. ... The showing of 'Sex and the City' came after the government regulator introduced a new television rating system which allows programmes with mature content and themes to be aired from 10:00 pm for viewers aged 18 and over. Singaporean fans of 'Sex and the City', which has a worldwide following,...
In an interesting reversal of their stated strategy of expanding the map, the Kerry campaign has instead ceased advertising in several key states, including most of the South (via Drudge): Despite promises to expand the election playing field, John Kerry has reduced his ad spending in Missouri, Arizona and throughout the South in the run-up to the Democratic presidential convention. Kerry's advisers said they were not shrinking their political map, only saving resources for later in the campaign and redirecting ad money to hotly contested states like Florida and Ohio. President Bush's campaign called the strategy a sign of weakness in GOP-leaning territory. ... In his new round of advertising, Kerry has significantly increased his spending in several key states while slightly lowering buys for Missouri and Arizona. Voters in both states will still see plenty of ads, just relatively few compared to other battlegrounds. In Virginia, the Kerry campaign...
The Washington Times' Bill Gertz reports that the Butler Report of the British investigation into its pre-war intelligence shows previously undisclosed connections between Iraqi intelligence services and Al-Qaeda, including in chemical arms and training (via Memeorandum): A British government report made public yesterday provides new information showing that al Qaeda terrorists had contacts with Iraqi intelligence in developing chemical arms and that the group worked with a Pakistani nuclear weapons scientist. The special report by former top civil servant Robin Butler on British prewar intelligence found gaps in reporting on Iraq's weapons and also disclosed new details of terrorist activities of al Qaeda associate Abu Musab Zarqawi, who is leading attacks in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. I noted the Zarqawi connection earlier, from a Washington Post article. Gertz has more specific details about the chemical-arms trade between Iraq, Pakistan, and AQ: British intelligence assessments of connections between al Qaeda and Saddam's...
In an unsigned editorial today, the Los Angeles Times demonstrates its lack of seriousness regarding security. Any other time, laxity in visa management would raise the ire of its editorial board, but when it involves people who identify themselves as journalists, the Times inveighs against Customs officials who have the nerve to actually enforce border laws: When British journalist Elena Lappin arrived in Los Angeles in May, on assignment for a British newspaper, little did she know she would end up being the subject of her story. By her own account in The Times later that month, Lappin was interrogated for four hours, subjected to a body search, fingerprinted, photographed, handcuffed and forced to spend a night in a cell in downtown L.A. and a day as a detainee at the airport before being deported to London. Lappin's crime? Admitting to customs officials that she was a journalist. Quite frankly,...
Now that the the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on pre-war intelligence and the UK's corresponding Butler report both point to the uncomfortable conclusion that Joe "Restore Honesty" Wilson lied about his wife snagging him the Niger gig and the efforts of the Iraqis to buy uranium there, you would expect the mainstream media outlets that gave Wilson his bully pulpit would be issuing retractions, or at least covering the collapse of his story. You would be wrong: NBC was the most aggressive Wilson promoter on TV, beginning with a Meet the Press appearance on July 6, 2003 hyping Wilson's original breakout in a New York Times op-ed. On July 22, Katie Couric promoted a Today interview: "Still to come this morning on Today, a man who says he's become the target of a White House smear campaign for blowing the whistle on the president's State of the...
Really, the contretemps over the Hillary Clinton snub at the Democratic National Convention has become more humorous than anything else, especially given John Kerry's solution. The Kerry campaign announced this afternoon that it finally found a way to squeeze the Senator from New York into its speaking schedule -- she can introduce her husband: John Kerry has asked Hillary Rodham Clinton to introduce her husband, former President Clinton, on the first night of the Democratic National Convention, giving her a speaking role that Democrats had sought for the New York senator. The Kerry campaign unveiled its first set of speakers for the convention early this week, including former Presidents Clinton and Carter, Al Gore and others, but the absence of the former first lady drew criticism from Democrats, particularly women. Well, this certainly will set minds at ease among the Democratic Ladies Auxiliary! It's nice to see that Kerry has...
The London Telegraph reports more good news resulting from American military intervention in the war on Islamofascist terror. A poll conducted in Afghanistan by an American charity finds that Afghanis far prefer the current direction of their country: In the most comprehensive survey to be held in Afghanistan 64 per cent of those polled said they were satisfied with the direction the country was taking, two and a half years after the American invasion removed the Taliban. Only 11 per cent said they were dissatisfied. The survey, commissioned by the Asia Foundation, an independent, privately funded American charity, showed that 81 per cent of people planned to vote in the presidential election in October, with 77 per cent of them believing the vote, and a parliamentary poll next April, would "make a difference". So much for the argument that American indifference is causing Afghanistan to slide back into anarchy. When...
July 16, 2004
Germany has apparently been lobbying to have their country receive a permanent set on the UN Security Council since earlier this year, but have struggled to get enough support. First China gave them only a tepid response, and now the US has privately told them to pound sand: The United States opposes Germany becoming a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a German newspaper Friday quoted a U.S. diplomat as saying. "Now is not the time that Germany should apply for a permanent seat," the unnamed diplomat was quoted as telling the Financial Times Deutschland. Germany's stints as a non-permanent member of the Security Council had been "very problematic," indeed there were "more problems than ever," the diplomat said. Germany's push to remove immunity from prosecution in the International Criminal Court for U.S. peacekeepers was cited as an example. The Pentagon said earlier this month it was pulling...
Bobby Fischer, who wowed the world as a teenage Grand Master of chess and who beat Boris Spassky in one of the lamer Cold War cultural confrontations, has been arrested in Japan and will soon return to the US to face charges: Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer, wanted since 1992 for playing a tournament in Yugoslavia despite U.N. sanctions, has been detained in Japan, clearing the way for his extradition to the United States. ... Fischer became a Cold War hero in 1972 when he defeated Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union to become the first American world chess champion. But the chess prodigy, long know for his eccentric ways, stunned the chess world by refusing to play again, and had slipped mysteriously in and out of public view in the years since. "Mysteriously" is certainly one way of putting it. In 1972, when Fischer beat Spassky in 1972,...
The Department of Health and Human Services now considers obesity as an illness, and Medicare and Medicaid will cover the treatment, according to the Washington Times. The change means Medicare participants may ask for reimbursement for treating excessive weight. Anyone with a body mass index of 30 or higher is considered obese, and those with an index of 25 to 29 are considered overweight. A healthy body mass index is 19 to 25. Patients are not guaranteed automatic coverage for treatment. Medicare will review the requests, which could range from joining a weight-loss or fitness club to surgeries and counseling, and their rates of success before granting coverage. Of course, the cost of these benefits will be passed on to taxpayers and small businesses. Small businesses probably would see the largest rate increases, said Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health, a Washington nonprofit for about 219...
Ambassador Joseph Wilson has fired back across the funeral pyre of his reputation after the release of the SIC and Butler reports make clear that Iraq had approached Niger and that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, pushed for Wilson's assignment despite his earlier denials. Salon's Mary Jacoby carries Wilson's water (annoying ad required for reading) in attempting to counter the "choreographed editorials" supposedly libeling Wilson: Choreographed editorials and Op-Ed pieces on Thursday in the Wall Street Journal and National Review and by conservative columnist Robert Novak signaled the revving up of a Republican campaign to discredit former ambassador Joseph Wilson and his claims that President Bush trumpeted flimsy intelligence in the drive to invade Iraq. ... The dispute over the committee report centers on its interpretation of two facts. One is that Wilson told his CIA debriefers that during his Niger trip, he spoke to the country's former prime minister, who...
Slate has a fun quiz for you to determine whether you hail from a red or blue state. According to the author, the test will classify your state of mind, not physical location, the premise being that red/blue isn't about geography but your thought process. Take it and see for yourself. Happily, even after going to law school in New York and spending a year in Asia yours truly is still a Red State girl!...
I have been asked why I have been silent on the "Terror In The Skies, Again?" story from Womenswallstreet.com. It's a harrowing account by Anne Jacobsen, one of WWS's regular writers, and supposedly well-vetted by their editorial staff. Here's a typically chilling excerpt of Jacobsen's experience with a flight where Arabic men acted in a highly unusual manner: Suddenly, seven of the men stood up -- in unison -- and walked to the front and back lavatories. One by one, they went into the two lavatories, each spending about four minutes inside. Right in front of us, two men stood up against the emergency exit door, waiting for the lavatory to become available. The men spoke in Arabic among themselves and to the man in the yellow shirt sitting nearby. One of the men took his camera into the lavatory. Another took his cell phone. Again, no one approached the...
Capital Eye, the newsletter of the Center For Responsive Politics, last year published a chart of political contributions from the 25 largest media companies in the last two major election cycles, and the percentage of their support that went to each political party. The general results will not shock too many people, but the extent of the bias surprised me, and might surprise you too. Capital Eye based its report on public filings with the FEC in April 2003, and it shows that twice as many of the top 25 corporations gave more to Democrats than Republicans, 16-8; in fact, only one company (Hughes Electronics) managed to split their donations 50-50. Even apart from the number of companies on either side of the divide, the companies that tend to give more to Democrats tend also to do so more dramatically. Most companies (with one notable exception) managed to give some...
I won't lie to you. I've had a tough week, managing to cap it off by throwing my back out. Just when I was ready to pack it in, though, I stopped by Auterrific, which put my week in perspective: A Romanian surgeon who underwent a fit of madness while operating on a man's testicles proceeded to amputate his penis and cut it into three pieces. Yikes! Jeez, I feel pretty guilty about my petty gripes now. Read the rest of the article and Linda's post for an attitude adjustment. However, if you don't feel like that's given you enough of a lift, try Linda's other suggestion and check out this unlikely duet on "This Land Is Your Land" by George Bush and John Kerry. Take a moment out from the campaign to have a great laugh. Good night, and we'll be back tomorrow!...
July 17, 2004
In a city controlled by Democrats for decades, with its close ties to labor unions, the debacle on the horizon for the Democratic Nominating Convention continues to grow. The Washington Post reports that Republican Governor Mitt Romney had to step in to replace the head of the arbitration board, fearful that the high-risk convention would become vulnerable to attack due to police unions focusing on picketing rather than security: Both sides of the labor dispute have been meeting with the state's Joint Labor Management Committee, a mediation body, which was seeking to broker an agreement and had voted to appoint an outside arbitrator. But this week, Gov. Mitt Romney (R) intervened by replacing the acting head of the management committee, citing a concern that the dispute would not be resolved before the convention. "Public safety personnel during the Democratic National Convention should be focused entirely on security, not manning a...
The New York Times improved its polling reporting this week by having Richard Stevenson and Janet Elder write the article instead of Adam Nagourney, and the result is a more balanced look at a still-imbalanced poll. The overall result shows Kerr/Edwards leading nationwide by five points, an outlier of recent polling showing the race still a dead heat after the selection of John Edwards gave no momentum to the Democrats: But naming Mr. Edwards did not immediately win over any substantial number of voters for the Democratic ticket, and the campaign between Mr. Kerry and President Bush remains statistically deadlocked as Mr. Kerry heads toward the Democratic convention and his best opportunity to make a strong impression on the country, the poll found. ... While Mr. Kerry's selection of Mr. Edwards did not substantially alter the race, it corresponded with a deepening of the support for Mr. Kerry, though that...
Uberpolitician John McCain, the darling of the Democrats until they finally decided he couldn't be swayed onto a Kerry/McCain ticket, hit the stumps again yesterday, appearing with Dick Cheney in a key battleground state: He called Vice President Cheney "indispensable and very debonair." The vice president called him "one of the great Americans of our generation." Standing before an enormous American flag and balloons, the two white-haired politicians wrapped their arms around each other. McCain is the only Republican in Congress so far who has accompanied President Bush or Cheney to a campaign event outside his or her home turf. Even Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.) and one of Bush's closest friends in Congress, Rep. Rob Portman (Ohio), have traveled only to Bush-Cheney '04 fundraisers, not rallies. In Lansing, McCain gave a lengthy introduction of Cheney, calling him "one of the most capable, experienced, intelligent and steady vice presidents...
In a move that looks deliciously like chickens coming home to roost, Islamists have begun a string of kidnapings in the Gaza Strip, forcing Yasser Arafat to sumbit to their demands and pushing the territory Israel plans to abandon towards anarchy: Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian president, has rejected the resignation of the prime minister Ahmed Qurie, according to a cabinet minister. Mr Qurie submitted his resignation this morning after complaining of "unprecendented chaos" following series of kidnappings in the Gaza Strip. ... Earlier, the Palestinian Authority declared a state of emergency in the Gaza Strip after four French aid workers captured on Friday were released by militants. The kidnappings are linked to demands for anti-corruption reforms from Arafat. These reforms are similar to those the Egyptians demanded in return for continuing its guarantee of Arafat's life from Israeli attack. Egypt gave Arafat a deadline that quietly expired almost a month...
For those of you who have not been in the Twin Cities area during one of our Saturday afternoon Northern Alliance Radio Network shows on AM 1280 The Patriot, we may have good news in the next few days for you. We have started negotiations with a sponsor to pay the cost to retransmit our show over Internet streaming, meaning that the NARN will be heard worldwide in a short period of time. We will all announce this as soon as the deal materializes and the streaming service contract is signed. In other NARN news, we have a couple of key dates coming up. Next Saturday, July 24th, we're calling all bloggers to meet us at Keegan's, a Minneapolis pub often patronized by the Fraters Libertas gang, at 5 PM. We want to meet all of our fellow Upper Midwest bloggers, regardless of political affiliation. If you can make it,...
Normally, Maureen Dowd writes nearly incoherent and largely pointless screeds against Republicans, and normally I only give her columns a brief scan to see how many dippy names she can call Bush or Cheney this week. However, Dowd marks her return to the Times' editorial page by turning her sights on John and Teresa Kerry, and it's clear she's less than pleased with the Democratic nominee and his wife: And campaigning in Boston, her compliment for the new ticket was backhanded. "I have to say that John Edwards is very beautiful," she said in her soft accent, adding, "and my husband is very smart." Welcome to the campaign, pretty boy. ... Even in a place where everyone is constantly reinventing, people are a little stunned at the way Teresa casts herself as a "third worlder" and "daughter of Africa," a wretched-refuse-of-your-teeming-shore sort of immigrant rather than a "White Mischief" émigré,...
July 18, 2004
The London Telegraph reports that John Kerry has sent his brother out to Israel to shore up the Jewish vote, which appears to be slipping from the grasp of Democrats this election cycle. His brother delivered a message of total support for Israel, including on the security fence, despite earlier assertions by both Kerrys that it amounted to nothing more than a barrier to peace: John Kerry, the Democratic senator and presidential candidate, has sent his brother Cameron, a Jewish convert, on a delicate political mission to Israel to shore up Jewish support ahead of November's election. The visit, which was due to end last night, has delighted Israeli government officials but has dismayed left-wing Israeli peace activists and Palestinian leaders, whom Mr Kerry studiously avoided as he voiced stridently pro-Israeli views on behalf of his brother. ... He echoed the Israeli government's line on refusing to negotiate with Yasser...
It's Friday, so what time is it? Time for a kiss goodnight? Time to kiss the week goodbye? Time to kiss my -- [Sorry. That's the last time I have Whoopi Goldberg do my introductions ... CE]. No! It's time for another round of the Captain's Caption Contest! This week's entry comes to us from Chris at Candpeez, one of our regular readers. He catches Kerry in an attempt to, ah, inject a little warmth into the campaign: Another Kerry strategy down the drain! As always, leave your comments on the comments page, and as always, put your best caption entries in the comments section -- NO e-mail, please! (E-mailed entries will be shredded, tossed lightly over a double-serving Slim-Fast shake, and served to Whoopi intravenously.) The contest will remain open until 8 pm Sunday, July 18th, at which point the comments will be closed and Chris will pick the...
July 19, 2004
I'm coming to this a day late (via Memeorandum), but I couldn't let this pass from the Los Angeles Times. Alex Jones, in an op-ed piece yesterday, inveighed against bloggers, reminding us that bloggers aren't real journalists, after all: The Democrats and the Republicans are inviting a limited number of bloggers — those witty, candid, irreverent, passionate, shrewd and outrageous Internet chroniclers — to their 2004 conventions. It's a gesture of respect for the growing influence of the blogosphere, and if ever there were events ideally suited to bloggers, the heavily scripted and tensionless conventions top the list. But make no mistake, this moment of blogging legitimization — and temporary press credentials — doesn't turn bloggers into journalists. What could Jones mean? He wants people to recognize that bloggers don't uphold the traditions and standards of journalism, as taught in J-schools like Harvard, where Jones teaches on press and politics....
Someone let Senator Robert Byrd out of his cage yesterday just long enough to make another foolish statement, this time regarding his home state and how Kerry can win it. Speaking to "Meet The Press", Byrd urged Kerry to make it real in the coal mines: John Kerry can win West Virginia's five electoral votes by going there and getting coal "dust on his hands and on his face," the state's senior senator said Sunday. ... "I'm the son of a coal miner. I married a coal miner's daughter. I know a lot about coal," said the 86-year-old Byrd, whose Senate career began in 1959, the year before John F. Kennedy's evocation of the plight of the West Virginia coal miner helped him win the presidency. "I've talked with him. I've told him he should go to West Virginia. He should shake hands with the people. He should be at...
Yasser Arafat has replaced his replacement to head security in the Gaza Strip after his elevation of a close family member touched off riots and demonstrations in Gaza: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Monday reinstated a security chief whose replacement by the veteran leader's cousin touched off turmoil in the Gaza Strip, officials said. Abdel-Razek al-Majaideh was named director of General Security for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, replacing Moussa Arafat, whose appointment to the post on Saturday triggered clashes between gunmen and his loyalists. Moussa Arafat's apparent demotion seemed to be an attempt by the Palestinian president to defuse the most serious leadership crisis he has faced since returning from exile a decade ago. The Palestinians have realized, belatedly, that the intifada has failed miserably to release them from the occupation or to create a self-government that can be trusted not to exploit them. Arafat's move towards family...
The Washington Post took the unusual action of offering criticism to a blogger, although one with journalistic credentials, in its ombudsman column yesterday on the Wilson/Plame portion of the SSCI and Butler reports. Seeing that the majority of criticism towards its coverage of the SSCI report and its implications referenced Joshua Micah Marshall's Talking Points Memo blog, the Post fisked Marshall in the grand tradition of blogging (via Belgravia Dispatch), as well as Joe Wilson himself: Marshall takes issue with The Post's reporting that "contrary to Wilson's assertions . . . the CIA did not tell the White House it had qualms about the reliability of the African intelligence that made its way into the 16 fateful words in President Bush's January 2003 State of the Union address." Actually, the CIA fought hard, and successfully, to keep the material about Africa, aspects of which were a matter of dispute, out...
Well, folks, the butt-kissing is all over -- Chris at Candpeez has made his selections. He had one heck of a time getting through all of the excellent entries this weekend, but in the end he had to boil it down to just a few entries. Before we kiss this one goodbye, though, let's take a last look at the picture: Here are the winners! Captain’s Award (French Kiss) The Charles M. Jones Memorial Award: Thief [In the voice of Pepe Le Pew] "Ah, my great bun-del of sweetness...(kiss kiss)...eet ees love, love, love at sight first, no eet ees not, yes? Ah...ZE MAD RUSH OF HOT BLOOD TO THE TEMPLES...(kiss kiss)...Ah, Golden girl, you are ze corn-beef to me, I am ze cab-baj...(kiss kiss kiss)... I like eet... [Teresa escapes his embrace and runs] "Come back, small one, come back! Ze corn-beef do not run away from ze cab-baj!"...
Michigan Democrats have issued an ultimatum to the Ralph Nader campaign in car country -- either withdraw as an independent candidate in Michigan or face FEC charges, tying up the campaign in legal fees and scrutiny: The Michigan Democratic Party said Friday it would file federal election complaints against Ralph Nader over what it calls illegal and excessive contributions unless Nader withdraws from the Michigan ballot as an independent candidate. The presidential candidate hopes to get on the state ballot through the Reform Party of Michigan. But Michigan Republican Party officials handed in 43,000 petition signatures on Thursday -- far more than the 30,000 needed -- to ensure Nader can be on the ballot regardless of whether he gets the Reform Party nomination. Nader has until Monday to withdraw as an independent candidate. Democrats have a short memory. Twelve years ago, and again four years after that, Ross Perot received...
Add Max Cleland to the list of lunatic conspiracy theorists. Cleland asserted in a conference call to reporters today that George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld "flat-out lied" when using the intelligence gathered and reviewed over several years by two American administrations and several Western governments in making the case for war against Saddam Hussein: US Democrats stepped up attacks on George W. Bush's anti-terror policies when an official of White House candidate John Kerry's campaign said the president "flat-out lied" over the Iraq war. ... Asked whether they were lied to by the intelligence services or the White House, he said emphatically: "By the president, by the vice president and by the secretary of defense." "Now why did Bush go to war in Iraq? Because he concluded that his daddy was a failed president and one of the ways he failed was that he did not take out...
My friend and Northern Alliance colleague Big Trunk at Power Line relates the economic education of yet another radical entertainer, this one Linda Ronstadt, who was relevant as late as 1987. Ronstadt misjudged her Las Vegas audience and tried to inject politics into her act during an encore, but the audience -- which paid to hear her sing, not talk -- gave her a rousing rendition of the Tremeloes' "Silence Is Golden": Singer Linda Ronstadt not only got booed, she got the boot after lauding filmmaker Michael Moore and his new movie "Fahrenheit 9/11" during a performance at the Aladdin hotel-casino. Before singing "Desperado" for an encore Saturday night, the 58-year-old rocker called Moore a "great American patriot" and "someone who is spreading the truth." She also encouraged everybody to see the documentary about President Bush. Ronstadt's comments drew loud boos and some of the 4,500 people in attendance stormed...
Hey, maybe we shouldn't have been so hard on Whoopi Goldberg -- it turns out that even the mighty Instapundit can't resist an R-rated pun at Bush's expense: Hugh Hewitt's new book, If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends on It, -- and, taking what I think is probably a very different view, a pre-print of Maureen Dowd's forthcoming Bushworld: Enter at Your Own Risk. (Irresistible Dowd-like observation: Bush? Enter? Sounds like a porn flick! Hey, there's a column in that, somewhere. . . .) I kid, of course -- and hope Glenn has a sense of humor. But if you haven't already done so, make sure you pick up a copy of Hugh's book, which hit #1 on Amazon over the weekend. Use the link here or the one from my Blogad in the sidebar, and pick a...
The Republicans who hope to take over retiring Senator Zell Miller's Georgia seat have to feel a bit more confident after watching the debacle of the Democrats' primary debate: In a freewheeling debate televised statewide Sunday night, the candidates mostly bickered among themselves. One even lashed out at the reporters asking the questions, and another was accused of threatening to hire a hit man to kill his ex-wife. That candidate, millionaire entrepreneur Cliff Oxford, laughed off the assertion and the moderator called it "over the line." ... Emory University political scientist Merle Black called the Democrats' chances grim for holding on to Miller's seat. About their Sunday debate, Black said, "Pathetic. That was amateur hour." So far, the best candidate for the seat appears to be current Rep. Denise Majette, best known for unseating one of the notorious nutcases of the last session of Congress, former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, who...
The AP reports that the FBI has been investigating former Clinton-era National Security Advisor Sandy Berger for theft of classified documents at the time of his 9/11 Commission testimony: President Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, is the focus of a criminal investigation after admitting he removed highly classified terrorism documents from a secure reading room during preparations for the Sept. 11 commission hearings, The Associated Press has learned. Berger's home and office were searched earlier this year by FBI agents armed with warrants. Some drafts of a sensitive after-action report on the Clinton administration's handling of al-Qaida terror threats during the December 1999 millennium celebration are still missing. Berger and his lawyer said Monday night he knowingly removed handwritten notes he had taken from classified anti-terror documents he reviewed at the National Archives by sticking them in his jacket and pants. He also inadvertently took copies of actual classified...
Dana Milbank may already be regretting the column he wrote for tomorrow's Washington Post, in which he claims that one word -- Halliburton -- will trump any argument that Bush/Cheney campaigners may put forward: "Halliburton," says Kerry spokesman Chad Clanton, "will always be the fire Dick Cheney can't put out." That is certainly the Democrats' hope, as they try to portray the oil services company once run by Vice President Cheney as a metaphor for all things anti-Bush. When Cheney spoke about health care yesterday in Toledo, Kerry forces held a counter-rally featuring signs saying "Health Care, Not Halliburton." Explaining that apparent non sequitur, the campaign said in a news release that health care costs would be lower if Cheney spent "as much energy on lowering health care costs as getting Halliburton their no-bid contracts." Likewise, when the Bush campaign last week demanded video footage of an event where Whoopi...
July 20, 2004
The Washington Post essentially recaps the AP story last night on Trousergate, Sandy Berger's theft of classified documents from a secure room last October, although they manage to leave out the trousers from their article. However, the story has shifted into a more muted tone in the hands of Susan Schmidt and Dan Eggen: The FBI is investigating Clinton administration national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger's removal of classified documents from the National Archives, attorneys for Berger confirmed last night. Berger inadvertently took copies of several versions of an after-action memo on the millennium bombing plot from the Archives last fall, said his attorney Lanny Breuer. The lawyer said one or more of the copies were then inadvertently discarded. ... Berger discovered several versions of the classified memo in a leather portfolio he had taken to the Archives, his attorney said. He returned them and papers on which he...
Yesterday's decision by the Massachussetts Labor Relations Board to fast-track Boston police and fire union issues into arbitration in order to keep the pickets from the convention backfired, with the union chief promising to picket no matter what and raising questions about collusion between national labor management, the MLRB, and the Democratic Party: The Massachusetts labor board's decision to send the city's conflict with its police union to immediate arbitration before the beginning of the Democratic National Convention reflects a schism in the previously unified labor front that has the local union president saying he is more determined than ever to picket next week's political gathering. Last week, the leader of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, Paul Birks, was the member of the board who fought most ardently against an expedited process. On Monday, Birks made the motion to resolve the conflict through arbitration by 2 p.m. Thursday. "Over...
Instapundit links to an interesting revelation in the AP update which seems to indicate that not only was this not Berger's first incident of "sloppiness", but that security officers took an unusual step in its handling of the breach: In the FBI search of his office, Berger also was found in possession of a small number of classified note cards containing his handwritten notes from the Middle East peace talks during the 1990s, but those are not a focal point of the current criminal probe, according to officials and lawyers. Breuer said the Archives staff first raised concerns with Berger during an Oct. 2 review of documents that at least one copy of the post-millennium report he had reviewed earlier was missing. Berger was given a second copy that day, Breuer said. Officials familiar with the investigation said Archive staff specially marked the documents and when the new copy and...
Today's Boston Globe reports that John Kerry has finally decided to repay last year's personal loan to his campaign using donations collected this year -- in effect, as Hugh Hewitt points out, "effectively tricking 2004 donors into paying for 2003 expenses": John F. Kerry is poised to take federal campaign money once he is nominated for the presidency next week, according to top campaign finance advisers, a move that will allow him to disburse millions of dollars in leftover campaign cash to Democratic Party operations, effectively augmenting the $75 million he will receive in federal funds. Aides expect the Kerry campaign committee to end up with enough money to make sizable transfers to the Democratic National Committee, state Democratic committees, and possibly the committees working to elect a Democratic Congress. The aim would be to have the committees, especially those in battleground states, air television ads on Kerry's behalf this...
In case you're wondering, the back is still very much out, and it's all I can do to get out of bed. Right now I'm sitting up in a recliner, doing some stretching exercises at regular intervals, and trying to get well enough to go back to work tomorrow. In the meantime, I can use my laptop and wireless connection to keep up with things. Like I said ... in case you're wondering. Thanks for the get-well messages some of you have sent -- I hope I do, and soon!...
On both this blog and on my cross-post at Oh, That Liberal Media, commenters have questioned the timing of this leak (via Jon at QandO) to the press and the seriousness of the damage done by Sandy Berger's theft. Some have suggested that Bush operatives within the FBI deliberately let this leak out just before the release of the 9/11 Commission's report in order to dilute its impact, too. Let's take the last issue first. A family friend has been visiting the past few days, and we discussed this at breakfast this morning. (Well, in between my grunts as I moved around ...) She also questioned the timing and made the same assumption about the leak. Possibly, she's right. However, let me ask this -- when would people prefer to have the information that the 9/11 Commission was denied access to highly classified material relating to the Clinton Administration's response...
The San Diego Union-Tribune brings us today's Hollywood Consistency Award Winner, Linda Ronstadt, in an article pre-dating her unceremonial boot from the Aladdin Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. Ronstadt discussed her penchant for dedicating "Desperado" to Michael Moore in her encore during her current tour with reporter George Varga, which led to this eye-crossing logic from the singer: "My career has befuddled other people, and it's befuddled me," admitted Ronstadt, 58, who finds her fans are polarized by her nightly on-stage salute to "Fahrenheit 9/11" filmmaker Michael Moore. "I've been dedicating a song to him – I think he's a great patriot – and it splits the audience down the middle, and they duke it out," she said. "This is an election year, and I think we're in desperate trouble and it's time for people to speak up and not pipe down. It's a real conflict for me when...
CNN, which had earlier reported that former Clinton Administration National Security Advisor Sandy Berger had stuffed his notes on classified documents in his socks to get them past security at the National Archives, now reports that Berger's associates vehemently dispute that detail: [L]aw enforcement sources told CNN that some of the papers he is said to have taken from the National Archives were stuffed into his socks as well as other parts of his clothing. That allegation drew sharp responses from two of Berger's associates. President Clinton's former spokesman, Joe Lockhart, said Berger "categorically denies that he ever took documents and stuffed them in his socks. "That is absurd," said Lockhart, who is now advising Berger. "And anyone who says that is interested in something other than the truth." Former Clinton aide Lanny Davis challenged any unnamed official who accuses Berger of stuffing documents into his socks to come forward...
The New York Times notes that the tone-deafness of the Kerry campaign continues even when the candidate himself is on a short hiatus. Speaking for John Kerry in New Mexico was his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, who didn't wow them down Albuquerque way: The crowd was cheering wildly as John Kerry, John Edwards and their spouses danced around one another on the open-air stage at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Then Teresa Heinz Kerry took her turn at the microphone and said, "I am an immigrant, too," clearly making a bid for the many Hispanics in the audience. This time the applause was lukewarm and there was some head-shaking; many Hispanic families have been in New Mexico for generations and some take a dim view of immigrants. The Kerry campaign's advance unit seems to be falling down on the job, or Teresa is ad-libbing on the stump again. Perhaps if...
The Kerry campaign acted with uncharacteristic haste to distance itself from the debacle of Sandy Berger's breach of security at the National Archives, as Berger announced his "resignation" from a position that both Kerry and Berger now say didn't officially exist: Former national security adviser Sandy Berger, the subject of a criminal investigation over the disappearance of terrorism documents, stepped aside on Tuesday as an informal adviser to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. The investigation had threatened to become a political problem for Kerry a week before his nominating convention in Boston in which he hopes to persuade voters that he is ready to be commander in chief. The cornerstone of Kerry's argument against Bush is that he used faulty intelligence and poor judgment in waging war against Iraq. The question now is when did the Kerry campaign find out about the security breaches at the National Archives? These thefts...
The New York Times reports on the resignation of Sandy Berger from John Kerry's presidential campaign following reports of the theft of documents from the National Archives. The Gray Lady's David Stout and Mark Glassman throw away any pretense at objectivity as they spin their article hard to port: Mr. Berger's mishandling of the documents, which were related to terrorism and which he took from the National Archives in preparation for his testimony before the 9/11 commission, seemed today to become a bigger problem for the Kerry campaign almost by the hour — and at the worst possible time, as Mr. Kerry is hoping to gain a big lift by next week's Democratic National Convention in Boston. Mr. Berger, no stranger to the knees and elbows of Washington, apparently bowed to the political reality that "if you have to explain it, don't bother." ... While Democrats had seemed inclined to...
Proving once again its uselessness as a partner against terrorism, the United Nations voted overwhelmingly to push Israel into dismantling its defensive perimeter wall, the one non-lethal tactic against Palestinian terrorists that has actually worked to reduce civilian casualties: Israel must obey a World Court ruling and tear down its West Bank barrier, the U.N. General Assembly demanded in a resolution adopted by an overwhelming vote on Tuesday. The vote in the 191-nation assembly was 150-6, with 10 abstentions, to adopt the measure aimed at dismantling the 370-mile barrier that Israel says is needed to keep out suicide bombers but Palestinians see as a land-grab aimed at dashing their hopes for eventual statehood. Demonstrating their usefulness against terrorists, the EU voted as a block for the demand that Israel strip its defense against Palestinian terrorism, all without a word of any resolution telling the Palestinians to stop bombing civilian targets...
In another twist on the Democrats' attempts to push Nader off the Michigan ballot, the AP reports that they have hired an outfit to vet the petition signatures that has outsourced the work to India: Republicans said Mark Grebner, of Practical Political Consulting in East Lansing, has sent digital copies of Nader's petitions to a data entry firm in India. Grebner declined to comment on the allegation. But Greg McNeilly, executive director of the state GOP, called the move hypocritical. "Michigan Democrats are so intolerant of minority perspectives at the ballot box that they'll outsource Michigan jobs in order to protect a two-party duopoly," he said in a statement. "They are paying a firm in India for work that could be done by Michiganders." Hypocritical? You bet. The Democrats have been inveighing against outsourcing as the evil of the new economy and part of a Bush conspiracy to dismantle American...