« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 1, 2004

Democrats Discover Religion

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Homeland Security Sloppy With Wireless

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Well, I Used To Be, Anyway

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Benon Sevan Knew Of Bribery, Took No Action: Fox

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....

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Hey Diddle Diddle, The Moore Jumped Over The Shark

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Jordan Offers Troops To New Iraqi Government

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Long time, no blogging

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!...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Richardson: No Thanks

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 2, 2004

Chinese Continue Their Espionage

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

The Kiss Of Death?

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Cosby Wasn't Just Speaking To Blacks

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Poland: We Found WMD, Bought It Ahead Of Terrorists

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

It Depends -- Are We Trying A Celebrity?

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

NBC News: Self-Promotion Tops Historic Events

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Deaniacs Threaten Floor Fight

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....

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Hugh Hewitt Hacked

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Who are these idiots?

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Kerry: The VP Is In The (E-)Mail

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 3, 2004

LA Times Lacks A Research Department -- Or Even Google

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Every Little Bit Helps

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

So Much For Sadr's Political Power

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Post's Pincus Spinning Like A Top

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Hugh's Back On Line .... Thanks To Listener!

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!...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

There's No One Here To Take Your Call Right Now

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Democrats Walk The Fantasy Plank With Platform

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Militants behead Marine

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."...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Al Qaeda targets nursery schools

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....

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 4, 2004

Not Yet, At Any Rate, We Think

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Where Freedom Can't Be Taken For Granted

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Libyans Finds Al-Qaeda Base, Informs West

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Captain's Caption Contest #17: The Mother Of All Caption Contests/Benefit Edition

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Remembering on Independence Day

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 5, 2004

My Position On Abortion

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Kerry Flip-Flops On Life

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Caption Contest Winners -- All Of Us!

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!!!!"...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Long Weekends, Short Blogging

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 6, 2004

Gephardt?

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Gephardt's First Choice

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

WaPo: We Still Don't Understand Blogs

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 --...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Edwards?

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Kerry Dumps NEA Meeting For Edwards Tete-a-Tete

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....

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Business To Battle Kerry-Edwards Ticket

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Poll: Bush Gaining Among Minorities

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Leave Iraq or die

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....

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Iranian Intelligence Officers Captured In Iraq

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Economy Poised To Be Best In 20 Years: AP

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 7, 2004

The names are in

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Iranians Building Baghdad Carbombs Apparently Not News

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Ask A Question, Get An Answer

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!...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

How Many Johns Do They Need, Anyway?

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 ......

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

It's Lonely In That Crowd On The Left

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Financial Times: Iraq Tried To Get Uranium From Niger

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Filipinos Take The Spanish Approach

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

The Hassoun Hoax?

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 8, 2004

Gee, Thanks, But I Have To Wash My Hair That Night

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

How Much Does This Add To Kerry's Tuition "Burden"?

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Rall And Ehrenreich Guard The Plantation Perimeters

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

The DNC Channels John Kerry In Credentialing Bloggers

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,...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

No Genocide For Oil

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

AP: Polls Bumped Upwards -- For Bush

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,...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Riordan Embarrasses California, Dymally Embarrasses Everyone

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 9, 2004

Still At War

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Kerry: I Don't Have Time For Briefings

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Boxer: Madrid Bombings 'Rail Accident'

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Notaí Beaga ón gCeardlann Gaeilgeoirí (Small Notes From The Irish-Language Workshop)

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 10, 2004

ICJ to Israel: Tear down that wall

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Hugh Hewitt is my hero

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....

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Senator Flip-Flop Lectures Bush On Values?

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Senate Report: Wilson Lied

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Vatican To American Bishops: No Communion For Kerry, Pro-Choice Politicians

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 11, 2004

Palestinians Prove ICJ Irrelevant

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Even The Washington Post Isn't Buying The Kerry Line

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Captain's Caption Contest #18: The Unserious Edition

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Ag Seol Abhaile ón gCéardlann Gaeilge

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

NAACP Pleads For Relevance

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Calling All Upper Midwest Bloggers ...

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 12, 2004

Genocide, the UN, and "unbiased reporting"

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Stefan who?

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Ron Reagan To Speak At DNC, Rip Van Winkel Surprised

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Kerry Campaign Keeps Shooting Itself In The Foot

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Uh, Go Back To The Drawing Board, Please

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]...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Women See Progress In New Iraq

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Caption Contest Winners!

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!"...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

MoveOn Lies, Credibility Dies?

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,...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Women Progress In Iraq, Still Prey To Radicals Elsewhere

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

A White Flag, Followed By Some First-Class Asskissing

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 13, 2004

Iran: It's The Yahoods, We Tell Ya

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Winning The Peace

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Bush Makes The Case, WaPo Develops One (Of Amnesia)

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Edwards Bounce Deflates In Home State

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Dana Milbank, King Of The Non-Stories

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,...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Not A Moment Too Soon, Apparently

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,...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 14, 2004

Mexican Anti-Kidnapping Technology -- Why Not In Iraq?

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Democratic Fundraiser/Panderer Has Friends In High Places

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Profiles In Political Courage

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Hillary Snub Sparks Outrage

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Kerry's Analysis Paralysis Plan

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Clinton: No Government Could Have Avoided Iraq, Post-9/11

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. ......

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Swift Boat Veterans Aiming Low?

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Hugh's Adopt-A-Journalist Program

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Minneapolis-AQ Connection, Cont'd

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....

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

He Was Against Reading It Before He Was For It

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

She's A Loser

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Wouldn't This Be Collaboration?

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,...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 15, 2004

A New Vision Of Shi'ite Islam From Iraq?

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Lefty lunatic still digging

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

'Sex' Comes To Singapore

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,...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Kerry Campaign Pulling Ads In Key States

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

More Iraqi-AQ Connections In Butler Report

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

LA Times: Reporters Don't Need No Stinkin' Visas

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,...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

NRO: The Wilson Plague On All Their Houses

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Kerry: Let The Little Lady Introduce Her Hubby

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Afghans Overwhelmingly Satisfied With Country's Direction

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 16, 2004

Because They've Been So Helpful Before

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Finding Bobby Fischer

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,...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Taxpayers must eat the cost of obesity

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Wilson Fires Back With A Water Weenie

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

What's your state of mind?

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!...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Terror In The Skies?

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Liberal Media, Uncloaked

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

If You Think You're Having A Bad Day ...

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!...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 17, 2004

Boston Labor Dispute Worsens

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

CBS/NYT Poll: No Bounce For Edwards, Better Reporting, Same Old Methodology

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

McCain Steps Up Again

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Palestinian Authority Losing Steam

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Northern Alliance Close To Streaming Deal

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,...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Dowd: Teresa the "Stepmoney"

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,...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 18, 2004

Flip-Flop By Proxy

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Captain's Caption Contest #19: The Kiss-Off

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 19, 2004

LA Times: Bloggers Not Up To Our Standards Of Fairness?

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....

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Kerry Needs Coal Dust On His Face: Byrd

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Arafat Reeling

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

WaPo Ombudsman: Wilson, JMM Lied, Not Bush or SSCI

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Caption Contest Winners!

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!"...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Democrats Try A Little Extortion On Nader In Michigan

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Cleland Says President "Flat-Out Lied" About Iraq

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Linda Rondstadt Discovers Free-Market Economics

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

The Slippery Slope?

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Democrats Self-Destruct In Georgia

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Clinton NSA Stole Notes, Documents From 9/11 Commission

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Milbank: A Day Late And A Dollar Short

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 20, 2004

Trousergate, Cont'd

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Boston Police Plan To Picket, Regardless Of Arbitration

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Trousergate: Just An Encore?

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Kerry To Repay Self From Campaign Donations

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Why I'm So Prolific Yesterday And Today

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!...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Why Trousergate's Timing Matters, But Not How You Think

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Today's Hollywood Consistency Moment

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

It's Just Trousergate, According To Clintonites

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Tone-Deafness Continues On The Campaign Trail

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Kerry Gives Berger The Boot

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Gray Lady Spins It Hard For Kerry, Berger

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

UN Admonishes Israel Defence While Ignoring Palestinian Terror

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Democrats Outsource Effort To Discredit Nader's Petitions

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...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 21, 2004

Trousergate Timing Gets More Curious

The New York Times, in its update on the Sandy Berger debacle known as Trousergate among bloggers, raises even bigger questions regarding the timing not of the revelation of the investigation but of Berger's association with the Kerry campaign: For months, Mr. Berger has consulted regularly with Mr. Kerry on the Iraq war, Middle East relations, terrorism and other foreign policy matters, helping to formulate speeches, prepare op-ed articles and brief reporters on the candidate's positions, campaign officials said. "Sandy Berger is my friend, and he has tirelessly served this nation with honor and distinction," Mr. Kerry said Tuesday in a statement. "I respect his decision to step aside as an adviser to the campaign until this matter is resolved objectively and fairly." Associates said he would probably try to rejoin the campaign after the Federal Bureau of Investigation had concluded an investigation that began in earnest in January after...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

WaPo: Wilson Lied

Even the Washington Post, in an editorial that had to hurt, has decided that the notorious 16 words from the State of the Union speech in 2003 have turned out to be true, despite Ambassador Joe Wilson's assertions to the contrary. While the WaPo doesn't actually come out and call Wilson a liar, it comes close enough for the Kerry campaign to reassess its association with yet another embarrassment in its advisory council: A year ago this month official Washington was convulsed by a controversy over whether President Bush had knowingly twisted the truth about Iraq to persuade the country to go to war. A former U.S. ambassador, Joseph C. Wilson IV, made that charge. As evidence he cited Mr. Bush's statement in his January 2003 State of the Union address that "the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa," a finding...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Moving The Goalposts

This morning, I received an e-mail from a fairly new blogger (archives only going back a few weeks) who claims to be offering $200 for any proof that Joe Wilson lied. I won't link to him, nor will I excerpt anything from his site, but his top post expressed frustration that he had been sent nothing but unsupported assertions from other bloggers about Wilson, and that his $200 appeared safe. Scrolling down, I read his 'rules' for the contest, which insisted that anyone applying for the cash had to supply URLs from testimony under oath showing Wilson committed perjury. Nothing like moving the ol' goalposts, eh? Here's my reply: This is the weakest blog promotion I've seen yet. You want definitive proof of perjury. Great. I expect that you, then, fully supported Bill Clinton's impeachment and removal from office, since you seem to consider perjury the gold standard of disqualification....

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Democats Block Seventh Judicial Nominee

Senate Democrats hauled out their filibuster for the seventh time to block a Bush nominee from a fair floor vote for confirmation, this time unhappy with the nominee's environmental record. William Myers is the latest nominee sent packing by the Democrats, who this time didn't even bother arguing that Myers would endanger the Constitution, their heretofore consistent argument against Bush nominees: The vote on Myers, who was accused by Democrats of hostility to environmental causes, was 53 to 44, seven short of the 60 needed to force action on his nomination to the San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. He was the seventh Bush choice for the federal bench to be stopped by a Democratic filibuster. ... The vote was less about Myers than "a reflection of special interest group disdain for policies favored by farmers, ranchers, miners, the Bush Interior Department or anyone else who...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Unless Sandy Berger Works There, In Which Case It's All Political

The Washington Post reports that ongoing security breaches at the nation's top weapons development lab have shut down operations and may result in a criminal investigation: Failure at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to follow security procedures is widespread and the highly secretive nuclear facility lacks an effective system to prevent employees from removing classified material, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said in a toughly worded statement yesterday that threatened firings and left open the possibility of a criminal investigation. Missing computer disks, classified information sent out via e-mail and an accident involving a summer intern injured in the eye by a laser forced Los Alamos to stop nearly all of its operations over the weekend, including weapons research and field testing, as a major investigation into serious security breaches and accidents got underway. Los Alamos promises to start firing people to get the message across after several incidents at the...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Sense From The NYT's Op-Ed Section

Now that the "Bush Lied!" meme has been thoroughly debunked and its proponents running for the hills, Stephen Sestanovich, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, injects a little reality into the debate about going to war with Iraq. He uses an experience from his State Department days to show the imperfection of intelligence and how to use it strategically: When policymakers have imperfect information about a serious problem (which is almost always), what should they do? The answer, then as now, is to shift the burden of proof to the other guy. If we had been denied that meeting with Mr. Yeltsin, it would hardly have proved that he was dead. But we would have canceled the trip all the same. Russian uncooperativeness - not our poor intelligence - would have left us no choice. Going to war and canceling a trip are vastly different matters, but what...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

UN Proves Useless In Iraq -- Again

The Los Angeles Times offers an analysis of the UN's ongoing non-efforts to support the nascent democracy in Iraq. After loudly demanding an end to the CPA occupation of the country and pressing for elections at the earliest possible moment, the United Nations has not done much about getting member states to assist with electoral security: When the U.N. Security Council voted six weeks ago to authorize a protective force, it expected contributors to step forward. But countries have balked at taking part in a force expected to include 1,000 troops and several dozen bodyguards. Diplomats said many nations were hesitating because of the dangers — including a wave of kidnappings — and costs as well as the continuing unpopularity of the U.S. invasion. ... The U.S. considers a U.N. mission in Iraq an important step toward making the reconstruction a more international effort. But U.N. officials, still traumatized by...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Keep Linda Happy -- Refund Your Tickets Now!

In keeping with Linda Ronstadt's assertion that she can't enjoy her concerts whenever Republicans or "fundamentalist Christians" are in her audience, I've launched Operation Thrill Linda -- a service to keep Ronstadt's job satisfaction high as she goes through the twilight of her career. How can you help? If you have tickets to a Linda Ronstadt concert in any of these cities in the next week, be sure to cancel them and get your money refunded: 7/22 - Livermore, CA (Wente Vineyards) 7/23 - Saratoga, CA (Montalvo) 7/24 - San Rafael, CA (Marin Center) 7/27 - Seattle, WA (Summer Nights At The Pier) Don't forget, you're not just avoiding an evening of lackluster performance and forgettable music, you're helping make a less fortunate, aging, scatterbrained entertainer happy. 100 people in Los Angeles made the sacrifice for Linda -- won't you do your part, too? (Brought to you in coordination with...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Arafat's Grip On Power Slipping Away

In what could present the best opportunity to finally achieve real progress towards peace in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Parliament took an unprecedented step towards independence. The Washington Post and AP report that the assembly demanded that Yasser Arafat accept Ahmed Qureia's resignation and form a cabinet that can address the deteriorating security situation in Gaza: The Palestinian parliament passed a resolution Wednesday calling on Yasser Arafat to accept the resignations of his prime minister and Cabinet, stepping up pressure on the Palestinian leader to relinquish some of his power. In a rare show of independence, the legislature asked Arafat to form a new Cabinet better equipped to handle the internal unrest after a week of turmoil in the Gaza Strip. ... Rauhi Fattouh, speaker of the Legislative Council, said the legislature will hold an emergency session Thursday to decide on further action. Lawmakers are considering...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 22, 2004

Sloppiness Turns To Suspicion

Sandy Berger's preferred excuse, one that Bill Clinton himself has publicly endorsed, that his "sloppiness" led to the pilfering of classified documents from the National Archives takes another body blow in today's Washington Post. John Harris and Susan Schmidt report that National Archive staff had become so suspicious of Berger's conduct that they implemented a special coding system to, in effect, sting him for his repeated security violations: Last Oct. 2, former Clinton national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger stayed huddled over papers at the National Archives until 8 p.m. What he did not know as he labored through that long Thursday was that the same Archives employees who were solicitously retrieving documents for him were also watching their important visitor with a suspicious eye. After Berger's previous visit, in September, Archives officials believed documents were missing. This time, they specially coded the papers to more easily tell whether...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Hollywood To Dominate Democratic Convention

Agence France-Presse reports that the Kerry campaign has invited a number of entertainment celebrities to Boston to help John Kerry overcome his "overly intellectual and pedantic" image: US presidential hopeful John Kerry will get star backing from the likes of Ben Affleck at the Democratic Party's convention, but most activists from liberal California are saving their energy to protest against President George W. Bush. ... Some of the stars will extol the virtues of Senator Kerry and running mate Senator John Edwards to gathered party faithful, while others will simply bring glamour through their presence. ... Celebrities leaving the firmament of Tinseltown for Beantown also include Bianca Jagger, Oscar-winning actor Chris Cooper, actor Sean Astin, actresses Christina Ricci, Ellen Burstyn and Janeane Garofalo, the rock group Red Hot Chili Peppers and super producer Harvey Weinstein, according to the non-partisan industry non-profit group Creative Coalition. Bianca Jagger? Yes, the Republicans tremble...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

NY Daily News: Berger Allowed Phone Calls When Reading Top-Secret Documents

The New York Daily News reports that "Soxy Sandy" (love the tabs, man) distracted security monitors at the National Archives by taking a number of bathroom breaks and convinced them to give him more privacy: Former national security adviser Sandy Berger repeatedly persuaded monitors assigned to watch him review top secret documents to break the rules and leave him alone, sources said yesterday. Berger, accused of smuggling some of the secret files out of the National Archives, got the monitors out of the high-security room by telling them he had to make sensitive phone calls. ... Berger also took "lots of bathroom breaks" that apparently aroused some suspicion, the [senior law-enforcement] source added. ... Asked if guards left Berger alone in the classified reading room while he made calls, archives spokeswoman Susan Cooper replied, "I'm not going to say I haven't heard that." Let me get this straight. The former...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

'A Failure Of Imagination'

The 9/11 Commission report, being released today, will avoid blaming either the Bush or Clinton administrations and instead talk about a "failure of imagination" in developing new approaches to fight al-Qaeda and terrorism, the AP reports: The Sept. 11 commission concludes that a "failure of imagination," not governmental neglect, allowed 19 hijackers to carry out the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history. The panel calls for an intelligence overhaul to confront an al-Qaida organization intent on striking again. While faulting institutional shortcomings, the bipartisan report being released Thursday does not blame President Bush or former President Clinton for mistakes contributing to the 2001 terrorist attack, Bush administration officials familiar with the findings said. The report will be released at 11:30 EDT on the Commission's website, which I imagine will only rival the Starr report's bandwidth requirements today. The release will not put a halt to genuinely stupid commentary, such as...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

9/11 Download Complete

I've downloaded my copy of the 9/11 report and will read it in its entirety before commenting on it in my blog. However, if you'd like to see some interesting commentary on the report, check out The Corner at NRO, as they are tearing through it right now. One passage that they excerpt seems to demolish Richard Clarke as a credible commentator on security issues: We apparently identified bin Laden at a camp, but held off an attack partly because of worries that a member of the UAE royal family was there too. But we hoped bin Laden might return to the camp and we would be able to target him then. Enter Richard Clarke and here is the commission's narrative: “Even after bin Laden’s departure from the area, CIA officers hoped he might return, seeing the camp as a magnet that could draw him for as long as it...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Kerry Demands Security Leadership While Oblivious To Berger's Status

Short take on a John Kerry hypocrisy of the day ... Kerry, approached today on the 9/11 Commission Report, had this to say about his proposed approach on terrorism and security (via Drudge): "If I am elected president and there has still not been sufficient progress on these issues, I will not wait a single day more. I will lead," he said in the statement. John Kerry, last night with Tom Brokaw (via Hugh Hewitt [buy his book]): John Kerry to Tom Brokaw tonight: Brokaw: "Did you know that [Berger] was under investigation?" Kerry: "I didn't have a clue, not a clue." Brokaw: "He didn't share that with you? Kerry: "I didn't have a clue." John Kerry in May, regarding executive responsibility and Bush's supposed inability to acknowledge mistakes: "The chain of command goes all the way to the Oval Office," Kerry said. "Harry Truman did not say 'the buck...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Executive Summary: 'We Believe We Are Safer. But We Are Not Safe.'

For those who wish to review the 9/11 Commission's work without immediately tackling the 500+ pages of the full report, I would recommend reading the Executive Summary. Most of the gist of their work, and all of their recommendations, can be found in there. I spent my lunch break reading through it but do not have time to break it down at the moment. I will say that the summary seems to be an evenhanded and sober product, and its recommendations appear sound. Just before it launches into recommendations for "unity of effort", it makes this statement which should resonate with Americans everywhere: Because of offensive actions against al Qaeda since 9/11, and defensive actions to improve homeland security,we believe we are safer today. But we are not safe. Both parties and all branches of the government intend, and have worked, to make this country safer, but anyone in their...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Lehman: 9/11 Commission "Mugged" By Viacom, Richard Clarke

Now that their work has been completed, 9/11 Commissioners will hit the road to promote the publication of their report, although none of them will profit from its release. One of the first revelations from the freedom of commissioners to speak out comes from former Navy Secretary John Lehman, and he wasted no time singling out the culprits who politicized the Commission's work -- Richard Clarke and Viacom, parent of CBS and publisher of Clarke's book: It is a day of 9/11 Commission unanimity, but one commissioner, looking back at its public work, is remembering the partisan past. "We were mugged by Viacom," Republican commissioner John Lehman says, referring to the owner of the publisher of Richard Clarke's book, Against All Enemies, and the owner of CBS, which broadcast a long, loving segment devoted to Clarke just prior to the release of his book. "I think we were mugged by...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Executive Summary: Balanced And Disappointing

In reading the Executive Summary, one gets the impression that a lot of effort went into writing a document that maintained a level of professional detachment that, unfortunately, gets a bit lost in the earnest but often odd recommendations at the end. The recommendations start off by defining the enemy a bit more clearly than others have, but not quite as clear as one would hope from a commission that has studied this problem so thoroughly: The enemy is not just “terrorism.” It is the threat posed specifically by Islamist terrorism, by Bin Ladin and others who draw on a long tradition of extreme intolerance within a minority strain of Islam that does not distinguish politics from religion, and distorts both. The enemy is not Islam, the great world faith, but a perversion of Islam. The enemy goes beyond al Qaeda to include the radical ideological movement, inspired in part...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 23, 2004

Watcher's Council Picks CQ Post Weekly Winner

The Watcher's Council has spoken this week ... and they've selected my post, Gray Lady Spins It Hard For Kerry, Berger as the non-Council post of the week! I was up against some tough competition from Allah and Michelle Malkin (in fact, how the heck does anyone top those two?), among other great selections. The Council winner was Smarter Cop for Government Health Hell Care, which edged out entries by Patterico and Four Right-Wing Wackos. Make sure you check out all of the nominated posts at the Watcher of Weasels ......

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Height Of Hypocrisy

The press continues to focus on the least egregious leak in the entire Trousergate scandal surrounding Sandy Berger, as the Democrats play a little sleight of hand in pushing the focus onto the White House instead of Sandy Berger: A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that some National Security Council officials knew Berger -- who has resigned from his position as informal adviser to Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry -- was suspected of mishandling National Archives documents that were being sought by the commission. ... Former Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart, who is serving as a spokesman for Berger during the controversy, said the expanding circle of officials who the White House acknowledges knew of the criminal investigation heightens his suspicion about the timing of the disclosure that Berger is under investigation. "This is the third day in a row that the story...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Kerry/Edwards Flip-Flop On Edwards' Looks

The Kerry/Edwards campaign would like all of us to quit focusing on John Edwards' fabulous good looks and focus on his qualifications, while promoting their VP candidate as the nation's sexiest politician. Connie Cass reports for the AP that the campaign seems of two minds on the one-term politician's looks and its affect on their electoral chances: [I]t appears Edwards isn't above capitalizing on sex appeal. At campaign rallies, he often walks on stage in a suit, then slowly removes his coat and proceeds to roll up his shirt-sleeves slowly, almost teasingly, drawing "ooohs" of approval from women in the audience. "He's hot!" is a commonly heard phrase. At a joint appearance, Kerry followed Edwards on stage and mimicked his coat-off, sleeves-up routine, to hearty laughter from the crowd. ... Edwards sometimes acknowledges the issue with self-deprecating humor. He opened his remarks to a dinner for journalists and politicians with...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

9/11 On Iraq: A Lot More Than You've Heard

I wanted to peruse the full report from the 9/11 Commission to check out their final say on Iraq and how that compared to all of the rhetoric during the past year, while the Left did their best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Fortunately, Jon from QandO (one of the best blogs out there) has already done his homework. What he's found in the 9/11 report should devastate the memes repeatedly pushed from the left. For instance, did you know that Bush is the one who took Iraq off the table following 9/11 (page 335)? President Bush told Bob Woodward that the decision not to invade Iraq was made at the morning session on September 15. Iraq was not even on the table during the September 15 afternoon session, which dealt solely with Afghanistan.69 Rice said that when President Bush called her on Sunday, September 16, he...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Bush Guard Records Found: AP

One more Leftist meme may have bitten the dust this afternoon, as the Pentagon resolved a numbers-index confusion and found George Bush's National Guard payroll records, the AP reports: The Pentagon on Friday released payroll records from President Bush's 1972 service in the Alabama National Guard, saying its earlier contention the records were destroyed was an "inadvertent oversight." The two computerized payroll record sheets cover July through September of 1972, when Bush was working as a campaign volunteer in Alabama. The future president had been transferred from the Texas Air National Guard to the Alabama unit so he could stay in Alabama. ... The Pentagon had said that the payroll records for that time period had been inadvertently destroyed. "Previous attempts to locate the missing records at the Federal Records Center had been unsuccessful due to the incorrect records accession numbers provided," the Pentagon's Office of Freedom of Information chief...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

John Kerry, Jet-Set Deadbeat

I'm sure you've all heard that when royalty travels, they never carry cash and in most cases assume that the honor of serving them compensates the peasants in full. Either John Kerry considers himself royalty, or his campaign fundraising hasn't gone as well as he says: When the biggest plane to ever land on the island touched down with U.S. Sen. John Kerry and his entourage, airport manager Al Peterson never imagined he would have trouble getting paid. ... But a caterer who bought food on the island for Kerry's campaign jet ducked one bill and haggled over another. "Apparently they don't feel like he needs to pay fees to the airport," Peterson said. "I gather the senator objects to that because his aide quoted him as saying that he already pays taxes on the island." Peterson is out $847 from the two visits Kerry has paid to the island...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Terror Or Panic On Northwest 327?

Anne Jacobsen turned the blogosphere upside down one week ago with her harrowing recounting of her flight from Detroit to Los Angeles on Northwest 327. At the time, I remarked that I felt that cold nugget of fear in my guts, telling me that this flight was fortunate to have arrived at its destination. However, several details about the story bother me. For one, the flight attendants shouldn't have acted the way the did in Jacobsen's account, especially divulging the air marshals' presence on the plane. I also doubt that there were "several" air marshals on one flight. Lastly, if the pilots knew of the disturbances early in the flight, they should have put the plane on the ground immediately, not risked the long journey to LAX (especially LAX, as the potential for ground destruction is more pronounced). Nor was I the only one who questioned some of the details...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 24, 2004

A Premonition Of Things To Come?

Alert CQ reader -- do we have any other kind? -- William Sauer sent me this item earlier today on Clinton-era efforts to safeguard national-security data. In a foreshadowing of events to come with his NSA, Sandy Berger, Clinton forced Congress to remove key language from a bill in November 2000 that made leaking government secrets a felony: The House gave in to President Clinton on Monday and removed language from a major intelligence spending bill that would have made leaking of government secrets a criminal act. The president vetoed the bill, which authorizes an estimated $30 billion in spending by the CIA, National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies, because he disagreed with the provision on classified data leaks. ... The crackdown on government officials' leaking of classified material had some support within the administration. Attorney General Janet Reno said it would have no dramatic increase in the number...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Genocide, Genocide, Who's Got The Genocide?

Two stories at CNN this morning make it clear that we have a real problem defining genocide in our world today, and that the word itself has become little more than a political tool -- a shameful legacy that demeans the millions of victims that died at the hands of true genocidal maniacs. First off, Mexico wants to prosecute its former president for genocide stemming from a single incident, where troops shot and killed eleven student protestors: A special prosecutor has requested the arrest of former President Luis Echeverria and other senior officials accused of genocide for allegedly ordering the killing of student demonstrators in 1971, Echeverria's attorney said Friday. ... In the June 10, 1971, attack a government-organized group attacked student protesters and 11 people died. I am not minimizing the mass murder of eleven students, but unless the eleven were a significant percentage of an ethnic enclave or...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

And They Should Know

Reader Mark Warner points me to this Washington Post article that details the Polish reaction to the launch of Fahrenheit 9/11 in their country. [Lazy day, today, Captain? -- I prefer to think of it as being responsive to the CQ community...] The Poles are unimpressed with Michael Moore's film, as they get a strange sense of deja vu: "Fahrenheit 9/11" opened Friday in Poland - a U.S. ally in Iraq - with some critics comparing director Michael Moore's style to totalitarian propaganda. ... A critic for Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's largest daily newspaper, condemned the movie as a "foul pamphlet" too biased to be considered a documentary and said it reminded him of methods used by Nazi propaganda filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. "In criticizing Moore, I have to admit that he has certain abilities - Leni Riefenstahl had them too," reviewer Jacek Szczerba said. The Rzeczpospolita newspaper wrote that, "Michael Moore...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Meet The Whole Northern Alliance Gang Tonight!

One more reminder for everyone about tonight's social hour with the Northern Alliance at Keegans, tonight at 5 pm in Minneapolis! If you're a blogger, a blog reader, or even someone who's reading this because someone played a joke on you, you're invited. It doesn't matter what your political affiliation is -- so I expect to see Miles and Arne there ... right, guys? Let me put it to you this way -- if you keep me occupied there, I can't be here converting liberals to conservatism, can I? Can you resist that challenge? Come on by and meet the crew. Let's take an evening off and have a few laughs together. When you see me walking this afternoon, I guarantee the first chuckle....

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

North Korea: We're Not Libya

North Korea rejected an informal proposal by senior US officials that Pyongyang could enjoy economic aid and better relations if it gave up its nuclear ambitions as did Libya: Senior US officials have urged North Korea to follow the example of Libya, which has seen most sanctions against it lifted after it gave up its weapons of mass destruction. But Pyongyang dismissed the US proposal as "a sham offer not worthy of further discussion". "The US is foolish enough to calculate that such mode imposed upon Libya would be accepted by [North Korea] too," a spokesman was quoted as saying. Pyongyang has said it will freeze its nuclear facilities, perhaps leading to their eventual dismantling, but only after the US provides energy aid, lifts economic sanctions and stops accusing it of sponsoring terrorism. In other words, Kim Jong-Il is determined to play chicken right down to the inevitable crash. Faced...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Captain's Caption Contest #20 - Hard/Soft Edition!

It's Friday, so it must be time for another Captain's Caption Contest -- our 20th edition! It's getting pretty danged hard to keep up with John Kerry's flip-flops. This morning, Kerry's campaign is pushing the notion that they'll sell a softer, gentler Kerry in the leadup to the convention: This is an emotional side of Kerry that he rarely shows publicly. At campaign stops he often asks voters personal questions about their health, their age and even their income, but he doesn't reveal much about his own feelings or share personal stories. He usually leaves that duty to people who campaign with him, including his children, his wife and his former Navy crewmates from the Vietnam. But don't think he's gone all wussy on us, either (thanks to my partner Whiskey, who sent this ahead of a half-dozen others): Guest judging this week will be Chumley Wonderbar from Plastic Hallway,...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Northern Alliance Get-Together A Rousing Success!

The first Northern Alliance social get-together at Keegan's Pub in Minneapolis was an absolute blast! We were fortunate enough to have James Lileks join us and the rest of the Twin Cities blogging community this evening. I got to meet Jay Reding, DC from Brainstorming, as well as some great CQ readers such as Pinkmonkeybird and Don. I met Dave from Dave's Picks for the first time -- he's one of the original Twin Cities bloggers, and he and I kept the bar from falling down for a while. Thorley Winston from Tacitus was there, as well as the Warrior Princess, whose link escapes me at the moment. I couldn't stay long -- the back was killing me -- but I did get some pictures, which I will post later. I'm probably going to take the rest of the evening off to rest it. Don't forget that next week we'll...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

9/11 Suspect, On The Run, Surfaces Via E-Mail

The London Telegraph reports that the last of Mohammed Atta's Hamburg al-Qaeda cell to be alive and outside of custody has surfaced long enough to e-mail his wife in Germany, prompting a new effort to track him down: Said Bahaji, 29, a German of Moroccan origin who is alleged to have been the link between the Hamburg al-Qaeda cell - which masterminded the attacks - and Osama bin Laden, is believed to have been hiding in Pakistan and Afghanistan ever since the attacks. In an email to his wife, Nese, who still lives in Germany, Bahaji revealed that he was being well looked after despite being on the run. Addressing her as "My Rose", Bahaji wrote: "The people here love Arabs. The simplest of people welcome us. Their wives can't wait to cook and do our laundry for us." German Federal Police (BKA) revealed last week that they have intercepted...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 25, 2004

A Blognote For All You Whiskey Fans Out There

I just received a hot news flash from my partner, Whiskey -- she will be outside of the reach of the Internet most of the next month or so. When she returns to normalcy, she will make the Internet access her first priority (so she says) and will start posting again. In the meantime, you're all stuck with the Captain. All right, all right, pipe down ... I said she's coming back. I'm not at liberty to explain her absence in detail, but she will be traveling most of this period, and through some fabulous areas. I, on the other hand, will be ... here....

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Gray Lady Is A Liberal: Okrent

In an admission that only shocks because it was made, the New York Times' ombudsman, Daniel Okrent, came out and told us what we already know: Is The New York Times a Liberal Newspaper? Of course it is. Okrent's confession provides a relief to those of us who have chronicled its overtly leftist bent in every section of its newspaper. In this case, Okrent also delivers, as he has a quip for almost every department: In the Sunday magazine, the culture-wars applause-o-meter chronically points left. On the Arts & Leisure front page every week, columnist Frank Rich slices up President Bush, Mel Gibson, John Ashcroft and other paladins of the right in prose as uncompromising as Paul Krugman's or Maureen Dowd's. The culture pages often feature forms of art, dance or theater that may pass for normal (or at least tolerable) in New York but might be pretty shocking in...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

But We're Appeasers!

Kenyans have reacted in shock to find out that their pro-appeasement stance regarding Saddam Hussein and Iraq has not shielded them from terrorism, as Islamofascists kidnapped three Kenyan hostages: The capture of three Kenyan hostages in Iraq has bewildered newspapers back home, who demand to know why the insurgents have picked on a country that refused to join the US-led invasion. "Spare Kenyans, we were not in the war," the East African Standard cries in a headline, and says Iraq is now "scary" even for those not directly involved in the conflict. Unfortunately, Kenyans have not taken the proper lesson from this, nor from the 2002 Mombasa bombing that destroyed an Israeli-owned hotel. Their media now urges their government to negotiate directly with the terrorists in order to magnify their appeasement policies: Pointing out that Kenya was one of the first to condemn the decision to invade Iraq, the paper...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

History Repeats Itself In Palestine

Yasser Arafat faces even more questions in his reign as Palestinian dictator, as a Palestinian legislative analysis shows that the cement for the Israeli security wall came from Palestinian sources. Arafat himself saw the contracts even as he called for demonstrations against the construction: Palestinian businessmen have made millions of pounds supplying cement for Israel's "security barrier" in the full knowledge of Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader and one of the wall's most vocal critics. A damning report by Palestinian legislators, which has been seen by the Telegraph, concludes that Mr Arafat did nothing to stop the deals although he publicly condemned the structure as a "crime against humanity". The report contains testimony that the cement originated with the Egyptians, who sold it at a discount to the Palestinians in order to help rebuild the homes of those displaced by Israeli demolitions of terrorists' houses. Instead of making use of...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Edwards Returning Tainted Donations From Longtime Trial-Attorney Supporter

In a pre-convention embarrassment, John Edwards announced that he will return over $40,000 in donations bundled by longtime supporter Pierce O'Donnell, who faces election-fraud investigations by federal and California law enforcement: John Edwards is returning $44,035 in contributions raised by a wealthy Los Angeles lawyer for his presidential primary campaign. The decision to return the money was made because the fund-raising activities of lawyer and longtime Edwards supporter Pierce O'Donnell are being investigated by federal and California elections officials, the Kerry-Edwards campaign said Sunday. Newsweek first reported the story. ... Some of the suspect contributions were made in the name of persons associated with O'Donnell's law firm, including one person who was not registered to vote and two who had filed for bankruptcy, Newsweek reported. The magazine said that some of the same purported contributors were listed as $2,000 donors to the Edwards' campaign. It appears as though O'Donnell ran...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

The Trojan Berger -- What Did Sandy Bring To The Archives?

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review gives a new twist to Trousergate today, reporting that Sandy Berger may have not only taken top-secret information out of the National Archives, but also may have acted as a Trojan Horse for disinformation getting in (via Instapundit): What was Sandy Berger up to when he "inadvertently" removed versions of a classified National Archives memo that critiqued Clinton administration intelligence and security efforts regarding the millennium celebrations? We still don't know. But a bigger question is being posed by some of the well-sourced wags with whom we regularly converse. In fact, one says the thrust of the federal investigation now looking into Mr. Berger's actions should center not necessarily on what was taken from the archived files but what was placed in them [emph in original]. ... And adding an entirely new layer of intrigue to the story is word that telephone calls made by Berger during...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Caption Contest Winners!

I know it's still Sunday evening, but we've already received the list of winners from this weekend's Captain's Caption Contest! You may think that with results this quick that guest judge Chumley Wonderbar from Plastic Hallway has jumped the gun. Well, if so, he's not the only one: Here are Chumley's picks: Captain's Award ("I'm Perfect" Kerry) -- Steverino: I didn't miss that clay pigeon. I don't miss. That son-of-a-bitch Secret Service agent got in my way. You Have The Conn #1 ("Whiny Bitch Injury Faker" Kerry) -- Jim S: Ouch! Hammer hurt my thumb. Purple Heart! Purple Heart! You Have The Conn #2 ("Flip Flop" Kerry) -- Duke DeLand: I actually DID vote for gun control... Before I voted against it! You Have The Conn #3 ("Vietnam Hero" Kerry) -- Thief: News Media: "How can you shoot women and children?" Kerry: "Easy! You just don't lead 'em as much!"...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Saddam Hussein Poetry Festival

The London Guardian reports on the captivity of Saddam Hussein in tomorrow's edition, a "dejected" and dispirited prisoner of the US military that holds him for the new Iraqi government. Michael Howard notes Saddam's new routine in his more modest digs: Mr Amin, a longtime Iraqi human rights campaigner who had family members killed by the former regime, said he could not bring himself to speak to Saddam but observed that he was "in good health and being kept in good conditions". However, Mr Amin said the former president "appeared demoralised and dejected". Saddam is being held in a white-walled air-conditioned cell, three metres wide and four metres long, Mr Amin said. He is kept apart from the other prisoners, who can mix freely with each other during the daily three-hour exercise periods. Lest anyone think that it's all bad for Saddam, he also has access to a library of...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

The Biased (Or Attention-Deficit) Media

Howard Kurtz notes a disconnect in the coverage of Joe Wilson's disintegrating credibility. In a secondary article of his Media Notes column, Kurtz has the numbers to demonstrate either a leftist bias or simply lousy and lazy journalism in the mainstream media, especially broadcast outlets: Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV's allegations that President Bush misled the country about Saddam Hussein seeking uranium from Africa was a huge media story, fueled by an investigation into who outed his CIA-operative wife. According to a database search, NBC carried 40 stories, CBS 30 stories, ABC 18, The Washington Post 96, the New York Times 70, the Los Angeles Times 48. But a Senate Intelligence Committee report that contradicts some of Wilson's account and supports Bush's State of the Union claim hasn't received nearly as much attention. "NBC Nightly News" and ABC's "World News Tonight" have each done a story. But CBS hasn't...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 26, 2004

We're Here To Restore Civility, You %$#*&@%

Teresa Heinz-Kerry strkes again! The woman who wants to replace Laura Bush at the White House urged her home-state Massachussetts delegates to help the Kerry/Edwards ticket replace the "un-American" Republicans and restore civility to politics, and then within minutes told a reporter to "shove it": "We need to turn back some of the creeping, un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics," the wife of Sen. John Kerry told her fellow Pennsylvanians on Sunday night at a Massachusetts Statehouse reception. Minutes later, Colin McNickle, the editorial page editor of the conservative Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, questioned her on what she meant by the term "un-American," according to a tape of the encounter recorded by Pittsburgh television station WTAE. Heinz Kerry said, "I didn't say that" several times to McNickle. She then turned to confer with Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and others. When she faced McNickle again a...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Good News/Bad News

The good news for today is that we have an Arroyo who is willing to fight. The bad news: it's the wrong Arroyo: A bench-clearing brawl broke out between the Yankees and Boston Red Sox yesterday after Bronson Arroyo hit New York's Alex Rodriguez with a pitch in the top of the third inning. Rodriguez stared down Arroyo as he started walking toward first. Catcher Jason Varitek, still wearing his mask, got between them as the AL MVP walked up the baseline and, after some jawing — of the distinctly unprintable variety — pushed the Yankees star in the face. The dugouts emptied. On the other hand, perhaps A-Rod merely put into practice what Teresa Heinz-Kerry urged from all of her fellow Beantowners -- a little more %$#@*&% civility, damn it!...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

PETA-Endorsed Speaker Urges Murder Of Scientists

The British newspaper The Observer reported yesterday that a prominent animal-rights activist called for the murder of scientists as a means to end scientific research using animal test subjects: To the fury of groups working with animals, Jerry Vlasak, a trauma surgeon and prominent figure in the anti-vivisection movement, told The Observer: 'I think violence is part of the struggle against oppression. If something bad happens to these people [animal researchers], it will discourage others. It is inevitable that violence will be used in the struggle and that it will be effective.' Vlasak, who likens animal experimentation to the Nazis' treatment of the Jews, said he stood by his claim that: 'I don't think you'd have to kill too many [researchers]. I think for five lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, 2 million, 10 million non-human lives. Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac), which campaigns for...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Say It Loud, I Aborted And I'm Proud

Bill at INDC Journal rescues this notable web page from the depths of Google that demonstrates the political idiocy of Planned Parenthood leadership. Until earlier today, the fine folks at PP promoted this t-shirt ($15) with the slogan "I Had An Abortion": They have finally arrived! Planned Parenthood is proud to offer yet another t-shirt in our new social fashion line: "I Had an Abortion" fitted T-shirts are now available. These soft and comfortable fitted tees assert a powerful message in support of women's rights. I understand that some people do not consider an embryo to be human life, although any understanding of science leads to that conclusion. I know people who honestly believe that an embryo does not become human until viability or birth. While I disagree with them, I respect their integrity. However, this sloganeering does nothing but repulse me, as it celebrates the destruction of embryos as...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

First Mate Update

I had to take the First Mate in for outpatient surgery this morning as she has developed some complications with her kidney transplant. The details are pretty technical, but essentially what happened is that fluid began to build up around the kidney and at the same time, the doctors suspect that an obstruction may have formed inside the kidney. It isn't a rejection episode, as we originally feared, but she has to go back to having the kidney shunted to the outside, probably for the next six weeks. We're hoping that the shunt will take some of the pressure off the kidney and reverse some of the suppressed function we've been seeing in the lab results. She's also fighting a CMV infection, which is not uncommon for transplant patients, especially in the first couple of months. That causes flu-like symptoms, exhaustion, and a lack of energy, and it takes a...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

His Uncle Would Have Been Proud

Tom Burnett, Jr died on 9/11, fighting to regain control of a jet from lunatic terrorists, and his efforts and that of the heroic passengers on Flight 93 saved the lives of many more Americans. The patriots on 93 made the ultimate sacrifice in order to foil al-Qaeda's plans, even though they were unarmed civilians and didn't even know the nature of the enemy they faced so bravely. Now, Burnett's nephew is about to pay homage to his uncle by entering public service, right here in the Twin Cities: A family tragedy means a call to action for one young Minnesota man. Devin Burnett O'Brien is Tom Burnett Jr.'s nephew. Tom Burnett Jr. grew up in Bloomington and died when United Airlines Flight 93 went down in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11 Nearly three years later, Devin O'Brien is running for the Minnesota Legislature. He says his sense of civic duty...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Labor Bailing On Kerry/Edwards At Opening Of Convention?

The Washington Post files the kind of report that the Kerry/Edwards campaign didn't anticipate at the start of their four-night love fest. The head of the largest AFL-CIO union, representing government workers, openly speculated that unions would be better off if the Democrats lost in November, sharply criticizing the party for its intellectual bankruptcy: Breaking sharply with the enforced harmony of the Democratic National Convention, the president of the largest AFL-CIO union said Monday that both organized labor and the Democratic Party might be better off in the long run if Sen. John F. Kerry loses the election. Andrew L. Stern, the head of the 1.6 million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), said in an interview with The Washington Post that both the party and its longtime ally, the labor movement, are "in deep crisis," devoid of new ideas and working with archaic structures. Stern argued that another four years...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Bush Steps Ahead Of Kerry Even As Convention Opens

More bad news from the Washington Post for the Kerry/Edwards campaign -- the Democrats have fallen behind the Bush/Cheney ticket for the first time, 48-46, in the WaPo/ABC poll (via Hugh Hewitt): A growing proportion of voters say Bush and not Kerry is the candidate who most closely shares their values, and four in 10 believe the Democrat is "too liberal." Bush has even narrowed the gap on which candidate better understands their problems, an area in which Kerry has led. ... The survey found that Kerry and Bush remain virtually deadlocked, with 48 percent of registered voters supporting Bush and 46 percent Kerry. Independent candidate Ralph Nader claims 3 percent of the hypothetical vote. Kerry held a four-point lead over Bush in mid-June and was tied with Bush in a Post survey two weeks ago. So much for the Edwards bounce. In fact, another finding of the poll may...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 27, 2004

George Bush: Dances With Bears

Instapundit and Memeorandum both point out a strategy analysis from Asia Times published yesterday, which claims that sources reveal that George Bush and Vladimir Putin have made a deal to bring 40,000 Russian troops into Iraq. The Russians would be given the free hand in Fallujah that domestic politics withheld from American Marines, and in return, Putin plans to pay back the architects of the war on Serbia: Do not be surprised to see three or four divisions of the Russian army in the Sunni triangle before year-end, with an announcement just prior to the US presidential election in November. Long rumored (or under negotiation), a Russian deployment of 40,000 soldiers was predicted on July 16 by the US intelligence site www.stratfor.com, and denied by the Russian Foreign Ministry on July 20. Nonetheless, the logic is compelling. Russian support for US occupation forces would make scorched earth of Senator John...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Christie Vilsack Responds

Howard Kurtz notes the laughable response of Christie Vilsack, wife of Governor Tim Vilsack of Iowa, to the surfacing of a column she wrote complaining of the way minorities and regional populations in America speak English. In her column, the Boston Herald noted that Mrs. Vilsack tore into African-Americans as hypocritical: "I am fascinated at the way some African-Americans speak to each other in an English I struggle to understand, then switch to standard English when the situation requires,'' Vilsack wrote in a 1994 column in the Mount Pleasant News, while her husband, Tom, was a state senator. She also took "non-Midwesterners" to task for their slang and loose enunciation, complaining that well-meaning Southerners during the 1992 Olympics could not make themselves understood for all their "slurred speech". So what did Mrs. Vilsack have to say for herself when confronted with her column? Vilsack, who is slated to address the...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Democrats Run From Their Own Convention

Despite the fact that the Democratic Nominating Convention reaches its planned climax on Thursday night, with cheering crowds hailing John Kerry as their standardbearer, some Democrats will have already skulked out early, the Washington Post reports -- and some may not even have come at all. Rather than be seen with their nominee, some Democrats want to put as much distance as possible between themselves, Kerry, and the people surrounding him on the dais: Boston is the place for Democrats this week, but some will be conspicuous by their absence Thursday night, when John F. Kerry accepts the presidential nomination. The top Democratic candidates from seven of the eight most competitive Senate races will be back home, as will dozens of House candidates. ... The list of who's going and who's not is telling: Democratic candidates from states that look strong for Kerry generally plan to attend the convention, while...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Captain's Quarters Invited To Republican Convention!

I am thrilled to announce that I received an invitation from the Republican National Convention to represent the blogging community when George Bush is nominated for a second term! The Committee on Arrangements sent out the invitations this evening: For the first time, bloggers will hold an on-site presence at the Republican National Convention called "Bloggers Corner." Positioned near Radio Row, credentialed bloggers will have the opportunity to connect with delegates, guests and other surrogates for interviews, and to provide original content, including multimedia, to their audiences. Through this behind-the-scenes look at the convention's proceedings and events, bloggers will play an important role in telling the story of the 2004 Republican Convention. Bloggers Corner will be located in Madison Square Garden's Theater Lobby in the corridor adjacent to Radio Row. Electrical outlets, tabled work stations and necessary hook-ups for laptop and other portable computers will be available for high-speed Internet...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

ABC: Kerry Losing Momentum

As a follow-up to the post I wrote last night on the Washington Post report on the WaPo-ABC poll, ABC's analysis goes even further in clearly defining the results as a potential disaster for the Kerry/Edwards campaign. Unlike the Babington article, Gary Langer's report points out all of the weaknesses that Kerry's campaign now shows precisely when they should be riding a wave of enthusiasm leading to his anointment on Thursday: The critical convention season begins with John Kerry losing momentum at just the hour he'd like to be gaining it: President Bush has clawed back on issues and attributes alike, reclaiming significant ground that Kerry had taken a month ago. Kerry has lost support against Bush in trust to handle five of six issues tested in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, including terrorism, Iraq, taxes and even health care. And Kerry's ratings on personal attributes — honesty, strong...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

CQ Cited In IBD Article Demanding More Wilson Coverage

An anonymous commenter pointed me towards an article appearing today at Investor's Business Daily, reviewing the abdication of the mainstream media on the Joe Wilson story once it became apparent that Wilson lied: Media Bias: When ex-diplomat Joseph Wilson said President Bush lied, it set off a media stampede. When he turned out to be wrong, the hoofbeats fell silent. In fact, as the chart below shows, that might be an understatement. The coverage is so one-sided that you might think something was at work here — something like, say, extreme media bias. ... But in the past month, two reports — one from the Senate Intelligence Committee, the other from Britain's so-called Butler Report on intelligence leading up to the Iraq War — both concluded Bush was right. Saddam sought uranium in Africa to make WMD. Big news, right? It wasn't treated that way. It got cursory treatment by...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Iran Defies World Community, Breaks Seal On Equipment

Iran has broken the seal on its proscribed nuclear equipment and started rebuilding the centrifuges needed to enrich uranium into weapons-grade material, according to the London Telegraph. The move comes despite the intense negotiations that European countries have used to keep the issue from coming to the UN Security Council: Teheran's move, revealed to The Daily Telegraph yesterday by western sources, breaks a deal with European countries under which Iran suspended "all uranium enrichment activity". ... America has in recent weeks renewed its call for Iran to be referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. However, diplomats said senior officials from the "EU-3" - Britain, France and Germany - would try to coax Teheran back to the path of co-operation at a secret meeting in Paris on Thursday. Anton La Guardia writes in his analysis that the Iranians have chosen this moment to press its luck as it...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Hugh Hewitt's Site Down, Will Return Momentarily

The Lord High Commissioner of the Blogosphere, Hugh Hewitt, has experienced some technical difficulties this afternoon and his site is down. I'm assured that his crack technical staff is already working on the solution and will resolve the problem very soon, so keep checking back. In the meantime -- you should buy his book! UPDATE: It's back up!...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

AP: Republicans Won't Name Credentialed Bloggers

The AP reports on what they say is the first wave of bloggers to be credentialed for the Republican National Convention next month. Anick Jesdanun writes that the GOP plans to limit credentials to 20 or less bloggers: Republican convention spokesman Leonardo Alcivar said his party plans to give media credentials to 10 to 20 bloggers. ... Though Alcivar said he did not know how many bloggers got invitations this week, he expected additional ones will be invited based on how many accept by Thursday. Alcivar refused to provide a list of invited bloggers, saying the party does not disclose traditional media who are approved for credentials, either. He said the list reflected a mix of ideologies and consisted of "those who we believe are moderate in their tone." Actually, as one of the first few bloggers to receive a credential and confirm it, the GOP reticence to disclose our...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 28, 2004

Maybe He Was 'Da Bomb'

Yesterday a United Airlines flight out of Sydney, Australia returned to the airport in mid-flight because of a bomb threat. The AP reports this morning that the problem may have been more that a bombshell was on board: A note indicating the most attractive person on board may have triggered an aviation alert that forced a Los Angeles-bound flight to turn back to Sydney, Australia on Tuesday. United Airlines Flight 840, carrying 246 passengers including a senior U.S. diplomat was turned around 90 minutes after takeoff Tuesday and returned to Sydney after a flight attendant found the letters "B O B" written on an air sickness bag in one of the Boeing 747's toilets. Flight crews commonly use the letters as an abbreviation for "Bomb On Board," and the captain decided to go back after learning of the find. However, police who searched the plane found no bomb and flight...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Playing The Smear Card Once Too Often

The Kerry campaign flamed out again yesterday after pictures showing John Kerry looking, well, geeky were released by NASA after a Kerry visit to one of their facilities. The blogosphere pounced on the photographs -- one of them will likely be our Caption Contest photo this week -- and the Kerry/Edwards campaign went into full offense, trying desperately to keep the comparisons of Michael Dukakis and tank-riding out of the public consciousness. This effort led Mary Beth Cahill, Kerry's campaign manager, to tell Fox's Brit Hume that Kerry had been set up -- by NASA! HUME: i must ask you about this photograph that suddenly turned up and fell in our laps last night nobody thought it was come. nobody had reported on the event which led to-t but there he was, the senator, on all fours in this very peculiar outfit, which i guess nasa had given him. how...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Today's Star-Tribune Breaking News Award Winner Is ...

... the Associated Press, whose crack staff came up with this headline: Republican, Democrat Win Okla. Primaries No kidding? Who would have expected a Republican and a Democrat to win Republican and Democratic primary contests? Everyone but the AP, I guess....

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Will His Performance Lack Energy?

During most of his professional life, the world hailed Lord Laurence Olivier as one of the greatest actors on stage and screen, and Olivier remained remarkably prolific right to the end of his life. Now the London Guardian reports that he will launch a great comeback, a neat trick for a man who's been dead for fifteen years. First-time filmmaker Kerry Conran cast the dead actor in support of Jude Law and Gwenyth Paltrow as a holographic villain: In September, however, Olivier will break much more remarkable ground. Fifteen years after his death, he is due to feature as one of the billed stars of the Paramount film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. ... Law is quoted by the AP news agency: "He plays my nemesis. And he's referred to throughout the movie so you know eventually you're going to get to see this bad guy. It builds...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Did Kerry Fake His Combat Films? Does It Matter?

Just when you thought this election could not get much weirder, somehow the Democrats find themselves further into the Twilight Zone. Matt Drudge reports that members of John Kerry's "band of brothers" claim the soon-to-be nominee faked combat footage while on tour in Viet Nam, and that his staged exploits will be presented to the country as actual combat footage in a Spielberg-associated short film: A bombshell new book written by the man who took over John Kerry's Swift Boat charges: Kerry reenacted combat scenes for film while in Vietnam! The footage is at the center of a growing controversy in Boston. The official convention video introducing Kerry is directed by Steven Spielberg protégé James Moll. ... "Kerry carried a home movie camera to record his exploits for later viewing," charges a naval officer in the upcoming book UNFIT FOR COMMAND. "Kerry would revisit ambush locations for reenacting combat scenes...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Stupid Blog Tricks (Updates & News)

First things first -- I will be rearranging my work schedule for the next two weeks in order to free up my days to get the First Mate back and forth to the hospital for some treatments. I'll be working swing shifts, which may mean a bit less blogging, although I had curtailed some of the nighttime blogging of late anyway. The FM has experienced some temporary reduction in kidney function, and the doctors want to have her in for outpatient treatment for several days. We started it today, and we'll go every other weekday for the next week or so. At any rate, I'll still be blogging, but the number of posts might be a bit lower while I work swing shift. In a more enjoyable development, the Washington Post jumped on the blogging bandwagon by taking nominations for a blog contest. INDC Journal has directed his readers to...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

If I Was President, All Of You Would Kill Me

I'm watching the Democratic convention right now, and although I can hardly believe it, the Dems have presented a film ("If I Had A Minute With The President") in which children give George Bush advice on policy. It's like asking Amy Carter her advice on the most pressing issue of the day about 100 times over. No wonder they invited Jimmy Carter back to the convention this year! No, none of them identified nuclear proliferation as the biggest problem in the world, but we got to hear about animal habitats, racism, the homeless, and so on. If you're inclined to take your political advice from 12-year-olds, the Democrats are the party for you! As if that weren't bad enough, former Denver mayor Wellington Webb then introduced singer Wyclef Jean to sing a song as a companion piece. Now, I haven't paid a lot of attention to the sideshow acts at...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Kerry: A Candidate You Can't Refuse

ABC News identifies Stephen Bing, a wealthy California film producer last seen running away from his pregnant girlfriend, Elizabeth Hurley, as the single biggest contributor to Democratic candidates. ABC did a bit more digging into Bing's background than the Democrats and discovered a nasty skeleton in his closet -- or, more accurately, in federal prison: As Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards arrived in Boston today for the Democratic National Convention, so did the California man who is their single biggest contributor. He is Stephen Bing, a wealthy film producer who, with little fanfare, has managed to steer a total of more than $16 million of his money to Democratic candidates and the supposedly independent groups that support them. ... In fact, Democratic Party officials said they knew nothing about the man who law enforcement officials tell ABC News is Bing's friend and business partner — Dominic Montemarano, a New...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Al Sharpton Fires Them Up

Sharpton veers far from his approved speech to attack George Bush on prime time, continuing the Festival of Bile at the Fleet Center.

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Bob Graham Cools Them Off

Bob Graham has killed all the momentum that Al Sharpton provided with his emotional and raw attack speech on George Bush. His problem is part content and part delivery. He's almost as exciting as John Kerry, and that's no compliment. First, he compared the first 1000 days of WWII to the War on Terror, saying we have not even established a beachhead. Perhaps that's because this isn't an amphibious war, Senator. We've managed to liberate 50 million people, though, something we couldn't claim in WWII until far later. Then he said that proposals to fix security holes still haven't been implemented 1,000 days after 9/11, but he failed to mention that the bipartisan commission insisted upon by the Democrats only delivered those recommendations last week. I was going to live-blog his speech, but it's very hard to do that when I keep falling asleep. He's managed to stomp out all...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Edwards Blinks -- A Lot

I'm watching the John Edwards speech, having missed the first few minutes of it, and am not terribly impressed. He's a good speaker but not terribly energizing. He takes a more conversational approach, and the constant cheering seems a bit strained to me. Only at a few points was it matched by a high point in his speech. "Hope Is On The Way" -- are they implying that Clinton will replace John Kerry? After all, he was the Man From Hope. Maybe that's what they're hoping for from John Jr, but while he speaks more naturally than John Sr, I just don't think it's much more than a typical smooth politico's voice. And I don't know if the stagehands put a spot directly behind the camera, but whenever Edwards looked straight ahead, he either blinked constantly or squinted his eyes. It got to be distracting, as though he was either...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Here's Another Guy Who Got His RNC Credentials

CNN reports on another new-media kind of guy who got credentials to the Republican National Convention next month in New York City: [CNN's Tom] Foreman: Are you going to go to the Republican convention? [Michael] Moore: Yes, I am. I already have my credentials. Foreman: How do you think you'll be received there? Moore: I think it will be fine. Are you implying that Republicans are not nice people? Michael Moore, the auteur who brought you Fahrenheit 9/11, has been credentialed as a columnist for USA Today, who earlier felt that Ann Coulter was too incendiary for publication. I suppose they feel no reservations about Moore's well-known track record for making things up and pulling facts out of context and twisting them to his own purposes. Perhaps I'll get a chance to interview Moore. I have my copy of Michael Moore Is A Big Fat Stupid White Man; I'll be...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 29, 2004

Allawi Endorses Powell Effort To Build Muslim Coalition

Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi voiced his approval for the diplomatic efforts of Colin Powell to bring together a coalition of Muslim nations to provide security for Iraq, especially for a UN delegation to oversee elections in the winter: Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi called on Arab and Muslim nations on Thursday to join a proposed force of Islamic troops in Iraq that the United States said could provide protection to the United Nations. Allawi and Secretary of State Colin Powell met in Saudi Arabia and embraced a Saudi proposal for Muslim nations other than Iraq's immediate neighbors to contribute troops to help secure Iraq in the face of a fierce insurgency. No one doubts the brief analysis at the end by Reuters that such a coalition could boost the Bush administration's standing in global diplomacy, which is one of the reasons I think that the Islamic nations will give...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Conason, Teresa's Waterboy

Joe Conason has always believed the best defense is a good offense, and so this morning Conason goes on the attack against the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, a newspaper owned by (cue Toccata in D-Minor) Richard Mellon Scaife in defense of Teresa Heinz Kerry. This follows the "shove it" kerfuffle that Conason twists into a feminist manifesto, rather than her crude attempt to bully her way out of a lie: In the case of Teresa Heinz Kerry, many in the media determined that she was trouble long before they even had a glimpse of her. Smart and dedicated, wealthy and opinionated, globally conscious and foreign-born, Ms. Heinz Kerry isn’t the typical political spouse our parochial press is accustomed to covering. So they were waiting for her to say something like what she said on July 25, after a reception for Democratic delegates from her home state of Pennsylvania. That was when she...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Sticks And Stones Will Break My Bones, But Names Will Be Reported

In a genuinely silly piece on supposed discrimination against our beleagured Muslim population, the Washington Post reports on the results of a survey among American Muslims which indicate that their feelings have been hurt at slightly higher than the national average: Fifteen percent of Arab Americans in the Detroit area said they have experienced harassment or intimidation since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and a significant number wish other Americans understood them better, according to a University of Michigan report to be released today. Derogatory comments -- "Go back where you came from!" or "Ooh, are you a member of al Qaeda?" -- were the most common form of abuse. Others alleged job discrimination and a small number reported physical assaults, researchers said. Forty-two percent of Muslim Arabs interviewed for the survey in Detroit -- an area with one of the largest concentrations of Arab Americans in the nation --...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

I'm Still Here, But ....

I apologize for the significant downtime today. Big issues, hardware changes, and other things (not health related). May do some blogging later, but am definitely watching the convention on C-SPAN. Be sure to keep up with Power Line tonight for great convention coverage. Hope to be back with you later....

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

The Main Event

OK, I may be taking most of the evening off, but I'm not going to miss a chance to live-blog this. Kerry just hugged a bunch of guys who look like they prefer handshakes, and now he's thanking the crowd. Here we go (all times CT): 9:12 - I'm reporting for duty? With a salute? Out of uniform? That was lame ... 9:14 - So far, he's no Barack Obama. He's home. We get it. 9:15 - Cute joke about the West Wing. Made me smile. 9:15 - "Trees as the cathedral of nature". Hug a cathedral today. 9:18 - Those of you who had the 6-minute square in the Jack Kennedy reference pool just won the kitty. So far, not too bad. He's got some energy and a bit of humor, although he just hit the trust and credibility meme. 9:21 - Now he's going senatorial ... "I will...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 30, 2004

Transgendering: No Evidence It Works

The London Guardian, normally a booster of liberal thought, reports this morning that British scientists warn that transgendering -- the act of surgically changing the sex of a person -- has no evidence of efficacy and that up to one-fifth of all sex-change patients commit suicide: There is no conclusive evidence that sex change operations improve the lives of transsexuals, with many people remaining severely distressed and even suicidal after the operation, according to a medical review conducted exclusively for the Guardian. The review of more than 100 international medical studies of post-operative transsexuals by the University of Birmingham's aggressive research intelligence facility (Arif) found no robust scientific evidence that gender reassignment surgery is clinically effective. It found no evaluation of whether other options, such as long-term counselling, might help transsexual patients or whether their gender confusion might lessen over time without treatment. The potential complications of taking sex changing...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Minnesota DFL Upholds Midwestern Values

Well, you can't say that the Minnesota delegation to the Democratic convention did anything to hurt the reputation of Midwesterners, although they may have reinforced a couple of stereotypes while in Beantown. The Star-Tribune's Kevin Duchschere reports that the Party apparatchiks were hardly party animals: Boston is one of the nation's most historic cities -- and it's apparently gone largely unseen by members of the Minnesota delegation. Unlike at other recent national conventions, it seems that most of them spent their time attending campaign training workshops, interest-group caucuses and forums, DFL spokesman Bill Amberg said. "The stakes are sky-high and people are amazingly focused," he said. "Half the delegates come back to the hotel, have a beer and go to bed." Probably at 8 pm, because Lord knows, those cows ain't gonna milk themselves....

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

On Second Thought, Maybe They're All Cheap

After the largest party that Boston's seen in decades, the Los Angeles Times reports that the hangover may be arriving -- and unfortunately for the Democrats and Mayor Thomas Menino, it will be much larger than first anticipated: In a full-page ad in the city's two major newspapers, Mayor Thomas M. Menino offered residents a weekend of free parking, free concerts, discounted shopping — even reduced rates on Boston's quirky duck tours, amphibious vessels that are a quintessential tourist attraction. ... The goodwill gesture came in response to bitter complaints about disappointing revenue and angry questions about the benefits of bringing 35,000 people to town for the Democratic National Convention. Officials Thursday stood by predictions that the first national nominating convention in the city's history would bring $154 million to Boston in a year's time. Experts on urban economics also said political conventions could be windfalls to the cities that...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

The Arabian Rumor Mill: US Got Zarqawi

We've been down this road before, but what the hell -- Arab newsline Al-Bawaba reports that Abu Musab Zarqawi has been captured along the Syrian-Iraqi border: Reports in Kuwait on Friday said a man assumed to be Al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab Zarqawi has been captured near the Syrian border. Zarqawi, whose Tawhid and Jihad group has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks in Iraq, was captured during a joint operation by US forces and Iraqi police, Al Siyasah newspaper, quoting informed Iraqi sources, said Friday. The US and Iraqi investigators are trying to identify the captive and has sent his DNA sample for testing, the unconfirmed report indicated. So far, that's all we have on the capture, but I suspect that an announcement one way or the other will be made within a few hours. If it turns out to be correct, you can expect to hear a...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

The Captain Sails Into San Diego

For CQ readers in Southern California, you get a sneak peek (or soundbite) of Captain Ed ahead of tomorrow's Northern Alliance launch of its live Internet stream tonight at 6:30 PM. I have been asked to appear on Stacy Taylor's radio program on KOGO. Stacy wants to talk about bloggers, the Democratic convention, and John Kerry's acceptance speech. This call surprised me somewhat -- I haven't met Stacy Taylor or spoken with him before, and I'm not sure where they found me. I'm happy they did, and I hope San Diego gets its money's worth from my segment. If you get a chance to listen, drop a comment on this post and let me know what you thought of it. UPDATE: It was fun, and Stacy was a gracious host to both myself and TalkLeft's Jeralynn Merritt, who talked over both of us. I'd have been more combative, but frankly,...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Maybe John Edwards Could Represent Him

John Kerry followed up a fairly successful acceptance speech at the nominating convention with a stupendously silly statement on Friday that again reveals the nature of the Democrat's thinking on terrorism. Rather than calculating the value of interrogating Osama bin Laden or the security requirements that would necessitate a military tribunal for his disposition, Kerry instead proposes to put Osama on public trial -- several times: John Kerry said Friday he would put Osama bin Laden on trial in U.S. courts rather than an international tribunal to ensure the "fastest, surest route" to a murder conviction if the terrorist mastermind is captured while he is president. "I want him tried for murder in New York City, and in Virginia and in Pennsylvania," where planes hijacked by al-Qaida operatives crashed Sept. 11, 2001, Kerry said in his first interview as the Democratic presidential nominee. So Kerry wants to create the traveling...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

July 31, 2004

Bipartisan Opposition To Key 9/11 Proposal

The 9/11 Commission recommendations took a surprise hit from bipartisan criticism of a key component -- a centralized intelligence center under the control of the White House. Not only has the Bush Administration quietly opposed it, but now key senators from both parties have voiced their concerns. Even the ACLU appears to back Bush: The White House and senators from both parties raised objections yesterday to one of the key reforms recommended by the Sept. 11 commission, even as the panel's leaders warned that the nation would remain at greater risk of terrorist attack unless the changes are enacted quickly. The criticisms from Capitol Hill and the Bush administration represent the first significant challenge to a central recommendation of the Sept. 11 commission, which argues in its 567-page final report that a single intelligence director should work out of the president's office to coordinate the war on terrorism. During the...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Marines Left Unimpressed By Kerry Reporting For Duty

John Kerry and John Edwards dropped by a Wendy's to celebrate the Edwards' 27th wedding anniversary, campaign reporters in tow, and happened upon a group of Marines having lunch at the same time. Ever the pol, Kerry took the opportunity to chat up the Marines and get a couple of pictures taken with the young men. Unfortunately for Kerry, he left them unimpressed -- and willing to say so: Kerry was treating running mate Sen. John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, to a Wendy's lunch in Newburgh, N.Y., for their 27th wedding anniversary — an Edwards family tradition — when the candidate approached four Marines and asked them questions. The Marines — two in uniform and two off-duty — were polite but curt while chatting with Kerry, answering most of his questions with a "yes, sir" or "no, sir." But they turned downright nasty after the Massachusetts senator thanked them...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Northern Alliance -- Live Streaming To The World!

Tomorrow marks two big firsts for the Northern Alliance Radio Network -- our first live remote and our launch of Internet streaming! (It requires IE 6.0 to work ...) Yes, for the first time, people around the world will be able to hear the Northern Alliance show live. We've promised it for months, and thanks to the Minnesota Taxpayer's League, it's finally here. We'll be appearing live at The Estates At Diamond Bluff, which has sponsored the First Annual Patriot Picnic, where we'll hopefully get lots of audience participation. I know the Fraters guys have something special cooked up for the third hour, especially, so if you're in the area, come on by! The food and soft drinks are free. If you're elsewhere, be sure to tune in! UPDATE: Hey, a time would be nice, wouldn't it? Sorry -- it's noon to 3 PM, Central Time. BUMP: It's today at...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Franks: Even Muslim Nations Warned Of WMD Attacks

Matt Drudge reports on an interview which will appear tomorrow in Parade Magazine with General Tommy Franks, who led the effort in Afghanistan and Iraq. Franks talked with Parade to promote his new book, American Soldier, and has a few surprises for readers: * The biggest surprise for him was that they've found no weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the "reason we went to war." He says multiple Middle Eastern leaders, including Jordan's King Abdullah and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, told Franks that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. In January 2003, Mubarak said point blank to Franks, "Saddam has WMD - biologicals, actually-and he will use them on your troops." * Franks singles out White House Counter-terrorism Czar Richard Clarke as never providing him with "a single page of actionable intelligence" and of engaging in mostly wishful thinking. Franks also believes the U.S. invested too much in electronic spy surveillance...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »

Newsweek: Kerry/Edwards Gets Smallest Bounce Ever

Newsweek did some polling late this week to determine the effect of the convention for John Kerry's candidacy. They report that even using the loosest possible polling for Democrats -- adults, rather than registered voters or likely voters -- that Kerry received the smallest bounce in the history of the Newsweek poll: Kerry’s four-point “bounce” is the smallest in the history of the NEWSWEEK poll. There are several factors that may have contributed to the limited surge, including the timing of the poll. On Thursday, Kerry had just a two-point lead over Bush (47 percent to 45 percent), suggesting that his Friday night speech had a significant impact. Additionally, Kerry’s decision to announce his vice-presidential choice of John Edwards three weeks before the convention may have blunted the gathering’s impact. And limited coverage by the three major networks also may have hurt Kerry. Kerry made one of his better speeches...

« June 2004 | August 2004 »