November 1, 2004
Former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson came by Bloggers Corner just a few minutes ago and spoke to the group about liberal Republicanism, the electoral college, the current campaign and its tone, and John Kerry's Senate career. As you might imagine from his press conferences during his tenure in Congress, Senator Simpson spoke directly and even bluntly in responding to our questions. My audio of the interview turned out poorly as Sean Hannity's show insists on blaring out their program over speakers pointed directly at our area, but I can rebuild the important parts. In response to questions regarding the Electoral College, Simpson strongly defended the current structure and explained that any attempt to eliminate it would never pass muster with enough states. Too many smaller states would lose their impact on presidential contests, and as Simpson said, no one would ever see a campaign outside of New York, Chicago, and...
General Tommy Franks announced today that he will support George Bush for president at our blog conference at the Republican National Convention. Q: General, do you support George Bush for President? A: Yes. Q: With regards to consistency, did George Bush hurt himself with his remarks on Matt Lauer that maybe we can't win a war on terror? A: Absolutely not. We won a Cold War, didn't we? And we didn't do that in 15 minutes. Q: Did Ronald Reagan show that kind of doubt in his effort to win the Cold War? A: I don't know that there was any doubt shown at all. I think that we're talking about consistency, and persistency, and anybody who looks at this thing over the last three and a half years is going to have a heck of a hard time trying to point out when he was not consistent or persistent....
John Kerry's campaign has backed off their earlier denials that Kerry was not present for the VVAW meeting in Kansas City, November 1971, where the "Phoenix Project" was brought to debate and a vote: Senator Kerry of Massachusetts yesterday retreated from his earlier steadfast denials that he attended a meeting of Vietnam Veterans Against the War at which a plan to assassinate U.S. Senators was debated. The reversal came as new evidence, including reports from FBI informants, emerged that contradicted Mr. Kerrys previous statements about the gathering, which was held in Kansas City, Mo. in November 1971. John Kerry had no personal recollection of this meeting 33 years ago, a Kerry campaign spokesman, David Wade, said in a statement e-mailed last night from Idaho, where Mr. Kerry is on vacation. The historian Gerald Nicosia, who happens to be a Kerry supporter, released the minutes of the VVAW meeting, as well...
It's Friday, so it must be time for another Captain's Caption Contest! It's the final countdown, so this contest will remain open as long as the polls do -- which means 8 PM CT on Election Night! This weekend, the candidates have to get their voters to the polls -- that means they have to get them motivated, get their energy up, and inspire them to go to the polls in unprecedented numbers. Here's an example of that Kerry/Edwards magic: As always, make sure you put your entries in our comments section -- NO e-mailed entries, please! E-mailed entries will be tied to the leg of Ohio geese and flown over John Kerry's official hunter surrogates. The contest will end on Tuesday, November 2nd at 8 pm CT, when The Anchoress will select the winners. The Anchoress is an excellent writer on Catholicism and her personal spiritual journey; make sure...
Our friend Thomas Lipscomb writes today at the New York Sun that based on records produced at the John Kerry campaign website and military regulations and practice at the time of Kerry's Navy career, John Kerry received a less-than-honorable discharge for his service. Because of Kerry's refusal to make all of his records public and the Privacy Act of 1974, Lipscomb's sources would not go on the record. However, a reserve JAG and a former Navy officer from the Bureau of Personnel have helped Lipscomb build a strong circumstantial case for the negative separation: The "honorable discharge" on the Kerry Web site appears to be a Carter administration substitute for an original action expunged from Mr. Kerry's record, according to Mark Sullivan, who retired as a captain in the Navy's Judge Advocate General Corps Reserve in 2003 after 33 years of service as a judge advocate. Mr. Sullivan served in...
The Center for Media and Public Affairs conducted a study confirming what everyone already knew -- the mainstream media gave John Kerry the kid-glove treatment this year, while being unusually harsh to George Bush. What most of us didn't realize is that the amount of positive press given to Kerry set a new record for media brown-nosing, the Washington Times reports: "It's not just that John Kerry has gotten better press than President Bush before this election, he's gotten better press than anyone else since 1980. That's significant," said Bob Lichter, director of the D.C.-based nonpartisan research group. "Kerry also got better press than anyone else in the days before the primaries as well," Mr. Lichter added. In October alone, Mr. Kerry had a "record-breaking 77 percent positive press evaluations," compared with 34 percent positive for Mr. Bush, the study states. The overall treatment of Kerry broke the record of...
The AP reports that Democrats running for state offices around the nation have one thing in common -- a desire to put as much distance between themselves and John Kerry as possible: Democrats running for the Senate in Republican-leaning states want to be more like President Bush clearing brush in Crawford, Texas, than John Kerry windsurfing off Nantucket Island, Mass. Democratic chances of regaining control of the Senate may depend on candidates who run away from their party platform and their presidential contender. "We've got eight or nine really competitive races and just about all are in strong Bush states," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. "Democrats have some bad luck here." I'd argue that it has less to do with bad luck than it does from the obstructionist tactics of the Democratic Senate contingent the past four years. Obviously, Democrats got...
John Kerry continues his quest towards self-destruction today in an NPR interview this morning, as he described a radical Islamist currently attacking American troops in Iraq as a "legitimate voice" who shouldn't necessarily be arrested if encountered: In an interview broadcast Wednesday morning, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry defended terrorist Shiite imam Moqtada al-Sadr as a "legitimate voice" in Iraq, despite that fact that he's led an uprising that has killed nearly 20 American GIs in the last two days. Speaking of al-Sadr's newspaper, which was shut down by coalition forces last week after it urged violence against U.S. troops, Kerry complained to National Public Radio, "They shut a newspaper that belongs to a legitimate voice in Iraq." Never mind that this "legitimate voice" used that newspaper to call for an armed revolt against the Coalition and the Iraqi provisional government. John Kerry isn't concerned with that. John Kerry sounds...
Senator John Kerry continues to make odd statements about the Iraq war, trying to reconcile his vote authorizing it with his current anti-war platform: Kerry said that the administration had promised to go through the United Nations first, and then didn't do it, but he added that at the time Saddam Hussein constituted a threat. “From 1991 to 1998, we had inspectors in Iraq blowing up weapons of mass destruction,” Kerry said. “A lot of people seem to have forgotten that. We destroyed plenty of weapons of mass destruction in those 7½ years. We found more weapons than we thought Saddam had, and evidence of a nuclear program. " Kerry is either lying or being deliberately obtuse. Bush went to the UN twice. In December, he pushed through UNSC resolution 1441, demanding immediate and full compliance from Saddam Hussein with the previous 16 UNSC resolutions. Inspectors were supposed to report...
John Kerry, when he first ran for elective office in 1970, told the Harvard Crimson that he was an "internationalist" who felt that the UN should retain command of the US military: "I'm an internationalist," Kerry told The Crimson in 1970. "I'd like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations." Kerry said he wanted "to almost eliminate CIA activity. The CIA is fighting its own war in Laos and nobody seems to care." The Kerry campaign, celebrating primary victories in Virginia and Tennessee last night, declined to comment on the senator's remarks. As a candidate for president, Kerry has said he supports the autonomy of the U.S. military and has never called for a scale-back of CIA operations. When a candidate takes elective office, they swear to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. Nowhere in that document does...
Senator John Kerry revealed an ugly and poorly controlled side of himself when he thought he was off-mike this afternoon while speaking with AFL-CIO union workers in Chicago: Sen. John Kerry, all but officially the Democratic presidential nominee, called Republicans he is battling "crooked" Wednesday. ... "Keep smiling," one man said to him. Kerry responded, "Oh yeah, don't worry man. We're going to keep pounding, let me tell you -- we're just beginning to fight here. These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group of people I've ever seen." Simply appalling. In the picture above, you can see a Kerry aide hurriedly trying to disconnect the microphone, to no avail, which leads me to wonder what else John Kerry says when he thinks the mikes are off. Does he speculate on Roswell? Discussing alien abductions? Kerry's campaign immediately retreated into damage control, saying that Kerry was referring to...
Jon Henke at QandO, the essential neolibertarian blog, does some research on John Kerry's oft-repeated assertion that the US "outsourced" its efforts at Tora Bora in order to do war on the cheap. Despite the vehement denials by General Tommy Franks and others within the Afghan operation and the detailed explanations as to why our strategy not only made sense but paid off, Kerry continues to use this canard as a major part of his stump speeches. It should surprise no one at this date that Kerry's position represents a complete reversal from what Kerry advocated at the time of the Afghan operation. Jon notes Kerry's appearance on the Bill O'Reilly show for December 11, 2001, where Kerry not only approved of the Afghan operation as implemented but called for moving our focus to militarily removing Saddam Hussein and leaving the liberation of Afghanistan to the Afghanis. He also made...
In words that echo his 1971 Senate testimony on the Vietnam war, John Kerry told the Washington Post that establishing democracy would not be a priority of a Kerry administration, preferring to work on more pressing issues other than liberty and freedom: Sen. John F. Kerry indicated that as president he would play down the promotion of democracy as a leading goal in dealing with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, China and Russia, instead focusing on other objectives that he said are more central to the United States' security. ... In many ways, Kerry laid out a foreign-policy agenda that appeared less idealistic about U.S. aims than President Bush or even fellow Democrat former president Bill Clinton. While Kerry said it was important to sell democracy and "market it" around the world, he demurred when questioned about a number of important countries that suppress human rights and freedoms. He said securing...
Hindrocket at Power Line directs our attention to a story, with accompanying photograph, from the Cincinatti Enquirer about a moment on the campaign trail where we can remember that despite all of the partisan vitriol and rhetoric, we are all Americans. George Bush, making a campaign appearance in Lebanon, OH, shook hands with the crowd who had gathered to enthusiastically greet him. As he did, the following incident briefly made everyone forget about campaigns and speeches: Lynn Faulkner, his daughter, Ashley, and their neighbor, Linda Prince, eagerly waited to shake the president's hand Tuesday at the Golden Lamb Inn. He worked the line at a steady campaign pace, smiling, nodding and signing autographs until Prince spoke: "This girl lost her mom in the World Trade Center on 9-11." Bush stopped and turned back. "He changed from being the leader of the free world to being a father, a husband and...
Matt Drudge has posted a transcript of the new OBL tape. I'm with my partner on this: OBL has definately been watching too many Michael Moore videos in his cave. As Captain Ed also noted, the emergence of two AQ tapes signals something very, very bad. Apparently federal officials agree. On Fox News, Shepard Smith is reporting that analysts believe the first tape symbolizes brute force and AQs presence in the US while the tone of the OBL video justifies killing of innocents. While that's a plausible analysis, it is also possible (knock on wood) the videos were made because AQ no longer has the ability to attack us here and hopes to influence the election via propaganda. I think it must come down to either of those scenarios. Or maybe he's seeking a larger speaking part in the next Michael Moore mockumentary. UPDATE: Aljeezera has posted the full transcript....
John Kerry has taken to pleading for a return to debate on current issues and more relevant qualifications for the presidency in a bid to bury the debate on his Viet Nam record, which at one time was all Kerry would discuss on the stump. Speaking in New York, Kerry told a crowd that all the Bush campaign had was fear, while he wanted to talk about how he could outperform Bush in areas such as foreign policy. So let's talk foreign policy, as practiced right here at home, by Senator Kerry. Earlier this evening, I had the pleasure of speaking with Bradley Clanton of the law firm Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC, in Jackson, MS and Washington, DC. Brad represents several Vietnamese-Americans who came to the US as refugees of the Communists in their native land. Some of his clients have names that students of the era...
While some voters get calls from an ersatz Norman Schwarzkopf or from the real Bret Favre or Curt Schilling, I've only been fortunate enough to get one call tonight from the GOP. After hearing someone grunt "Please listen," I got this recorded message with a female voice: "Democrats keep accusing Republicans of secretly planning on reinstating the draft. But Democrats are the only ones who have proposed a new military draft ..." It would have been all right if someone like the Bush twins had done the commercial. Heck, since Pete Coors is running for the Senate, maybe they could have had the Coors Twins record it. But no -- all I get is the gosh-darned generic message. I'm already supporting the GOP, of course, but I did feel a twinge of resentment that I didn't get to be phone-spammed by a really cool celebrity. I'd even have settled for...
Who wrote these words about education reform? "It bothers me," the reformer wrote, "that some Democrats have resisted the idea of making educational outcomes the skills and knowledge our kids obtain from the educational system as important as educational inputs the adequate funding, the good facilities and the higher teacher pay we all want." The answer? John Kerry, in his campaign book he published just last year. However, Kerry the Candidate has reversed course and now campaigns against No Child Left Behind because of its "punitive" provisions for schools that fail to raise educational outcomes. The Los Angeles Times' Ronald Brownstein -- who usually acts as a reliable spin doctor for the Democrats -- unspins Kerry on this issue: After voting for President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, Kerry, during his race to the nomination, joined the mob of Democrats condemning the education reform...
I had an opportunity to interview my friend "Mike", the Navy SEAL and private contractor who spent the last three years in Iraq. I wanted to get his perspective since the Al Qaqaa story broke, since part of Mike's work as a private contractor dealt with explosives demolition. Part I of the interview focuses on that issue. Q. What do you know about the ASP at Al Qaqaa and the missing 380 tons of explosives? A. Not much first-hand knowledge That was not one of the sites I was sent to blow anything up or acquire any of the explosives that were there. I had access to a lot of different site maps, and I dont remember seeing it on a site map. It may have been there, but I dont remember it. If it was the size they say it is, I cant imagine that we need to...
A few days ago, John Kerry tried on the Bill Clinton approach to civil rights, noting that Clinton had sometimes been called the nation's "first black President" for his humble Southern beginnings as well as his affinity to African-American leadership, and said that he wouldn't mind being known as the second black President. Oddly enough, having a rich, white, power-born politician describe himself as black didn't sit to well with those who actually are black -- and they're not just giving Kerry disapproving glances: The head of a civil rights and legal services advocacy group wants Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry to apologize for saying he wouldn't be upset if he could be known as the second black president. "John Kerry is not a black man he is a privileged white man who has no idea what it is in this country to be a poor white in this...
November 2, 2004
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...
John Kerry continued his attempt to differentiate himself from George Bush on Iraq policy yesterday in a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, following Dick Cheney's widely-criticized political speech last week at the same venue. The Los Angeles Times reports that Kerry continues to expound on "international cooperation" without explaining how that differs from what the US is doing now: Sen. John F. Kerry challenged President Bush on Friday to engage in personal diplomacy to try to repair relationships with other influential nations and gain their support for an international mission in Iraq. During a 30-minute address at Westminster College here, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee pledged to support his rival's policy in Iraq if Bush pursued that effort. ... He urged the president to form a political coalition with the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and other nations to endorse the effort to stabilize Iraq and back the...
John Kerry talks about strengthening security and fighting terrorists, saying earlier this week that those who plan to attack us should understand that he would hunt them down and kill them, if he became president. However, The New York Times reports today that the foreign policy/national security team he has assembled for his campaign represents a flashback to eight years of the so-called "law-enforcement approach" that culminated in the 9/11 attack: Seated in leather swivel chairs in the glass-walled conference room at Senator John Kerry's Washington campaign headquarters two Fridays ago was a veritable reunion of President Bill Clinton's national security team: Madeleine K. Albright, Samuel R. Berger, William J. Perry and Gen. John M. Shalikashvili. Richard C. Holbrooke joined his former colleagues via conference call from Tokyo. ... Besides the Clintonites and Mr. Biden, those in the loop or on its fringe include former Senator Gary Hart, who ran...
CQ reader Mike Maerten noticed this analysis from the Small Business Survival Committee over at Townhall.com regarding John Kerry's voting record on small-business issues over the past 10 years. Bear in mind my earlier analysis of National Journal's ratings of John Kerry during the Clinton Administration, where his votes skewed more conservative when Bill Clinton occupied the White House than when Republicans held executive power. Even during this more conservative period, John Kerry's voting record displays a remarkable hostility to small businesses: Of the 101 votes in the U.S. Senate that SBSC has rated since the 103rd Congress Senator Kerrys record is unsettling. He has voted on the side of small business a mere 13 times out of the 101 votes that SBSC rated during the past decade giving him a weak 13 percent rating on key small business issues. Senator Kerry voted against small business 94...
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...
The French press service AFP reports that George Bush has won the traditional Dixville Notch vote at midnight, while Daschle v. Thune liveblogged Senate minority leader Tom Daschle's strangulation of the remnants of his credibility and dignity. From Dixville Notch: A tiny population of 26 registered voters backed Bush by a comfortable 19-7 margin over Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry, according to a tally by the town clerk's office. ... The settlement's 26 voters trooped into the luxury Balsams hotel just after midnight local time (0500 GMT) Tuesday to cast some of the first votes in the 2004 election. Almost half were registered Republicans. The 26 voters included 11 registered Republicans, two registered Democratic voters and 13 independents, according to the town clerk's records. Bush won the key Dixville Notch vote in 2000, but Bill Clinton won it twice before that. As portents go, I'd rank it right up there...
In what must be a crushing blow to those on the Left who crowed about the positive Zogby numbers from the weekend for John Kerry, Zogby revised the numbers last night -- and put the states right back to where they were in 2000: Last night, habitual poll-watchers had new numbers to digest when John Zogby released results for a four-day poll that included some voters surveyed yesterday. That poll showed Mr. Bush with a solid lead in Ohio (49 percent to 43 percent) and also ahead in Nevada (50 percent to 45 percent) and Colorado (49 percent to 47 percent), while Florida was a tie at 48 percent each. According to the final Zogby pre-election survey, Mr. Kerry was leading in Pennsylvania (50 percent to 46 percent), Wisconsin (51 percent to 45 percent), Iowa (50 percent to 45 percent), Minnesota (51 percent to 45 percent), Michigan (52 percent to...
Staff Mate Joseph tipped me off to this early and more significant election result from Ohio (also at Megapundit, if the SoS's site is down). According to the Secretary of State, George Bush has a slim lead over John Kerry in early and absentee voting: Bush: 49.87% with 800,950 votes. Kerry: 49.12% with 788,799 votes The Democrats have made a huge effort into getting their voters to go early or vote absentee, and the fact that Bush still leads after all that effort has to be encouraging. As Megapundit notes, that represents 34% of the Ohio popular vote in 2000. We're not talking Dixville Notch here, and when the rest of Ohio's voters go to the polls today, we can presumably expect a greater share of Republicans than Democrats remain....
Foreign election monitors complained yesterday that they had been assigned to overwhelmingly pro-Kerry events, calling their neutrality into question even as their members lobbied John Kerry to make changes in electoral law: European election monitors touring central Florida were dismayed yesterday at their local hosts' emphasis on Democratic events, saying their schedule of pro-Kerry and left-leaning themes has left little time for similar Republican visits. The day started with a small airport rally for Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry, who appeared to promise a senior member of the delegation that he would commit to reforming federal election processes. The four-member delegation of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) also listened to filmmaker Michael Moore address the League of Conservation Voters and visited a polling station in Sanford, Fla., which was the site of voting irregularities four years ago. "I would say we are dismayed," said Bart...
I will be live-blogging the presidential-election results tonight while Mitch Berg, King Banaian and I give quarter-hour updates on AM 1280 The Patriot, starting at 8 pm. I plan to start blogging at 7 pm or so as the Eastern time zone polls close up. Be sure to keep checking back here -- more details later!...
Two days ago, I wrote that John Kerry called John McCain (and just about everyone else at the Republican Convention) a liar, based on a press release at his website. A number of you wrote to tell me that the page had disappeared from Kerry's website, but it had mysteriously reappeared by the time I checked on it. Well, it has disappeared once more, as the Kerry campaign tries to keep its candidate from infuriating the one man who has tempered the criticism from the right in this electoral cycle. McCain, who constantly refers to his friendship with Kerry, might take the gloves off if Kerry impugns his character as he did with the Viet Nam veterans who have campaigned against Kerry. The campaign made a smart move taking down that list, especially since they never bothered to factually refute even one of the 143 statements they listed as lies,...
John Kerry told the Congressional Black Caucus that the Republicans want to suppress the black vote in November, repeating the canard that a million black votes went uncounted in 2000: "We are not going to stand by and allow another million African American votes to go uncounted in this election," the Democratic presidential nominee told the Congressional Black Caucus. "We are not going to stand by and allow acts of voter suppression, and we're hearing those things again in this election." Kerry has a team of lawyers to examine possible voting problems to try to prevent a repeat of the 2000 election disputes. He also has said he has thousands of lawyers around the country prepared to monitor the polls on election day. "What they did in Florida in 2000, some say they may be planning to do this year in battleground states all across this country," Kerry said. "Well,...
On the eve of the New Hampshire primary, John Kerry's inconsistencies seem to be catching up to him on the stump, if not quite yet in the polls. Facing a challenge from Howard Dean on his votes in 1991 against military action in Kuwait and in 2002 to authorize military action in Iraq, Kerry has come up with a novel explanation -- his votes meant the exact opposite of what they were: Kerry said Sunday that he supported the Iraq resolution 15 months ago because he believed President Bush would use force only as a "last resort." "The vote I cast was not a vote to go to war immediately," he said. ... Although Kerry said he "believed we ought to kick Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait," uppermost on his mind in 1991, he said, was public ambivalence about sending U.S. troops to the Persian Gulf. "I said we ought...
The AP reports an "exclusive" on an apparent conflict of interest involving Senator John Kerry from four years ago, when he blocked legislation and later received cash from a beneficiary of his action: A Senate colleague was trying to close a loophole that allowed a major insurer to divert millions of federal dollars from the nation's most expensive construction project. John Kerry stepped in and blocked the legislation. Over the next two years, the insurer, American International Group, paid Kerry's way on a trip to Vermont and donated at least $30,000 to a tax-exempt group Kerry used to set up his presidential campaign. Company executives donated $18,000 to his Senate and presidential campaigns. The colleague was John McCain and the project involved was the Big Dig, a highway project often cited as an example of cost overruns and government inefficiency. McCain wanted some government funding of the Big Dig stopped...
For a man who claims not to be beholden to special interests, John Kerry certainly appears to enjoy thir fruits as often as possible. The Los Angeles Times -- not exactly big boosters of the Right -- reports today that Kerry wrote 28 letters on behalf of a defense firm that filled his coffers with illegal campaign contributions: Sen. John F. Kerry sent 28 letters in behalf of a San Diego defense contractor who pleaded guilty last week to illegally funneling campaign contributions to the Massachusetts senator and four other congressmen. ... Between 1996 and 1999, Kerry participated in a letter-writing campaign to free up federal funds for a guided missile system that defense contractor Parthasarathi "Bob" Majumder was trying to build for U.S. warplanes. ... Kerry's letters were sent to fellow members of Congress and to the Pentagon while Majumder and his employees were donating money to...
Mark asked me a direct question yesterday in response to my post about the laughably transparent Iranian attempt to influence the election Friday: And what do you have against Kerry? Or has Bush really fought to improve your way of life? I wrote later that his question was valid, and rather than point to a collection of earlier posts on various incidents, I think it would be more honest for me to put together a comprehensive argument for my position on this election. I will address this in two parts, just as Mark asked: why I oppose John Kerry, and why I support George Bush. Primarily, I don't trust John Kerry, and I never have. He's spent most of his Senate career carrying Ted Kennedy's water and regularly competes with Kennedy for the most liberal voting record -- a contest he won last year, according to the National Journal. He...
Unfortunately, some people believe that they have the prerogative to determine who can and cannot vote in today's election. In Milwaukee, thirty rental vans that were intended to help GOP voters get to the polls to exercise their franchise rights had their tires slashed, presumably in an attempt to keep Wisconsin from slipping away from John Kerry: The tires of at least 30 cars and vans rented by the Republican Party to carry voters to the polls were slashed, Milwaukee police said this morning. The discovery was made at 6:30 a.m., said Sgt. Mark Wroblewski. The rental cars were parked near a GOP office in the 7100 block of W. Capitol Dr. Wroblewski said "at least" 30 cars were disabled. At least one tire was slashed and in some cases, all four tires were cut. Detectives were on the scene, the sergeant said. Police had no suspects in custody as...
In one of the more unusual analyses of this presidential campaign, The Hill published a prediction of victory by George Bush in today's race. That may not sound unusual, but when the pundit making the prediction turns out to be John Kerry's chief pollster Mark Mellman, it raises a few eyebrows: First, we simply do not defeat an incumbent president in wartime. After wars surely, but never in their midst. Republicans have been spinning this fact for months, and they are correct. Democrats have spoken often and powerfully about the nations economic problems. But by historical standards, they are not that bad. The misery index is 7.8 today but was 20.5 when Jimmy Carter was defeated. Economic models of elections show Bush winning 52-58 percent of the vote. Nor does Mellman stop there. Much has been made about Bush's approval ratings and the "right direction/wrong direction" polling during this cycle,...
I went to vote first thing this morning. When we arrived at our polling place, the line snaked around the vestibule like a confused boa constrictor and went out the door, into the rain. At first I assumed we would be there for hours, but at 7 am precisely, the line began moving and kept going steadily. After 10 minutes, the First Mate and I finally made our way to the check-in station. One of the judges saw me providing sighted-guide to the FM (she's blind) and stopped us. "Are you going into the booth with her?" the poll worker asked me. "Yes," I replied, "I do this every year." "You have to have an election judge go with you," she told us. Now, I had no real objection to that -- after all, I'm not doing anything wrong and I don't have paranoia about people knowing how I voted....
Instead of updating the same post over and over, I'll post new thoughts as we go along in sepearate entries. Checking the election ticker on Fox and the CNN election website, and the early results are fairly promising, if unsurprising. CNN called Vermont for Kerry, not exactly a shocker, and Indiana, Knetucky, West Virginia, and Georgia for Bush as expected. The overall vote tabulated shows Bush up 15 points, but it's very, very early. So far, nothing's been called for Virginia, although Bush is up strong there with 5% of the vote counted. Expect that to get called next -- and Kerry's campaign insisted this weekend that they would carry Virginia....
CNN and Fox just called New Jersey for John Kerry with no precincts reporting, indicating that their exit polls must be rather strong. A good chunk of the northeastern Atlantic seaboard has been called for Kerry now, but that was expected. So far -- no surprises, although I'm surprised that so many of these have been called with no vote counts. Florida so far shows rather strongly for Bush, but Miami-Dade and Palm Beach haven't reported yet. Nor has any of the panhandle, either. At this point, with 18% of the precincts reporting, Bush has an 11-point lead, a good head start. No numbers yet on Ohio or Pennsylvania. UPDATE: South Carolina goes Bush, again no surprise. I'm not surprised by the caution being shown by Fox and CNN, but I am surprised at how quickly both have called a couple of states for Kerry without getting any vote counts...
Watching Fox News, I see that they called New Jersey for Kerry very quickly, before posting any results. However, with 2% reporting now, Bush holds a 1-point lead over Kerry. Fox and CNN must have called it based on their exit polling, but it looks like it's too close to call based on the results. Keep an eye on the Garden State. It may wind up becoming the Florida of 2004 -- called too soon......
Fox News has called Virginia for Bush with 45% precincts reporting....
Not all the festivities have to do with John Kerry or George Bush. In Oklahoma, the GOP candidate for Senate pulled out a tight race to hold the seat, after being accused of forced sterilizations: Conservative Tom Coburn on Tuesday defeated his Democratic opponent in one of the nation's tightest Senate races and will succeed retiring Don Nickles, also a Republican, NBC and ABC television networks projected. That's good news for the GOP, which had started to sweat this race over the past few weeks,...
Fox and CNN have both called the Oklahoma Senate race for Coburn. This was a hard fought, sometimes nasty race. OOPS: Ed and I did a double-post, so see below for his comments....
David Strom, our friend from the Taxpayers League, lets us know that allegations have been made that a suspicious number of voters being bused into the polling stations, with "massive vouching" going on. Minnesota allows registration with a registered voter vouching for the registrant instead of insisting on more positive ID. We'll stay on top of this, as local media seems to have responded to this story....
With slightly under half of all precincts reporting in Florida, Bush is still up, but the lead has settled down to seven points as Broward County started reporting. We still haven't heard from Miami-Dade or West Palm Beach, so keep checking back. Quite a bit of the Panhandle has yet to be heard from, too. Ohio, on the other hand, looks stronger. Cuyahoga has pretty much reported, and Bush has pulled ahead with 5% of the precincts reporting now. This looks better than it did earlier....
We're looking at the results from Minnesota as they begin reporting. Right now with 1.5% of the precincts in, Kerry leads Bush 52-47. However, almost all of the precincts reporting are from Hennepin County, with Minneapolis driving the liberal vote here. Hardly any outstate results have come in. It seems to me that Kerry should be up by considerably more that five points from these precincts -- possibly pointing to a Bush conversion. We'll know more when Ramsey County (Saint Paul) comes in....
Scott "Big Trunk" Johnson just joined us, and tells us that Bush/Cheney HQ was inundated with complaints about polling irregularities -- he promises us an update at the top of the hour. With a number of states reporting, the news starts looking pretty good. Wisconsin has 4% of their precincts reporting and Bush is up by 15. Bush also leads -- surprisingly -- in Michigan by seven points, even with Macomb County reporting in. Iowa hasn't begun reporting vote results yet, but if Bush hangs onto Wisconsin and Michigan, it's over. Ohio: Bush 52-47, 15% reporting. Hmmmm. UPDATE: AP shows Wisconsin a Bush "leaner" - with 8% reporting, Bush has a thirteen-point lead. This would be a tremendous capture from the Democrats......
The AP has updated its election map, and has put the following states in the Bush-leaning column: Wisconsin - Bush 56-43 (9% reporting) Michigan - Bush 55-43 (5%) Ohio - Bush 52-47 (24%) Colorado - Bush 56-43 (5%) Washington - No data reporting? Presumably, the AP has some exit polling for Washington that supports that decision, but that would be an unexpected and stunning result......
None of the networks will dare call this race anytime soon, but with 84% of its precincts reporting, Bush is maintaining his five-point lead. The key counties of Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach all have results coming in now, and the gap still appears significant. If Bush can hold onto Florida and Ohio and pick up Wisconsin, this race is over -- and if he takes Michigan too, it may be significant enough to force a concession from Kerry. PLEASE NOTE!!! -- We can be heard on our Internet stream now at this link, doing the breaks on the Hugh Hewitt show. Check us (and Hugh) out!...
Taking a look at the AP map, here are a few additions leaners toward Bush: Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. NM went to Gore last time out by a whisker, but with 27% reporting, Bush leads by 5. He's up by 10 in AZ with 47% reporting and 7 points in CO with 13% reporting. Expect to see Arizona get called for Bush in the next few minutes, affirming the GOP grip on John McCain's state. Keep watching Wisconsin and Michigan -- Bush continues his lead there, as well as in Ohio and Florida. In fact, he added a point to his leads in both states in the past few minutes. Momentum is starting to build, I think, for a significant win....
Taking a look around the Upper Midwest, we're seeing the presidential race tighten up in Minnesota. The suburbs and exurbs have finally started to report, and John Kerry's lead has dropped to 7.5%. We think that Kerry may have hit his high-water mark for Minnesota, although we're not sure how much of the Iron Range has reported, and he may have built up enough of a lead to withstand the more conservative suburban vote. Michigan shifted back to a Kerry leaner, but that's because the urban precincts of Wayne County have reported in. A flood of Kerry votes came in all at once from Detroit, so Kerry got a double-digit swing. Looking at the county map for Michigan, though, that's the only strong point for Kerry so far this election. Bush could reclaim that lead as more suburbs and exurbs come back to the table....
The vagaries of the random precinct reporting have moved the states of Wisconsin and Michigan to the Kerry leaners, according to the AP. With the urban precincts starting to report heavily, the votes originally swung significantly towards Kerry, but have gradually moved back towards the center. That puts all of the Upper Midwest as Kerry-leaners, at this point, which is where they went in 2000. Flash: ABC just called Florida for Bush. That puts us up to 235 or so electoral votes ... UPDATE: Wisconsin continues to push back towards Bush. Kerry now only has a 1% edge over Bush with 47% of precincts reporting. If Milwaukee and Madison have reported in, the state may go back to leaning Bush in the next hour......
... he's been re-elected with 271 electoral votes. Even if Bush loses Nevada and Alaska, he wins the election. And in my mind, we still look pretty good to win by a small margin in Wisconsin. The major urban areas have already reported most of their results (Milwaukee over 80% and Dane County -- Madison -- two-thirds complete). The suburban and rural vote still has yet to roll in, and that's where Bush's strength lies. Not only that, but Bush is making a bit of a comeback in Minnesota as our own suburb/exurb vote starts coming in. In the past hour, he's made up about 25,000 of his gap and now trails by a shade under six points. The race here in the North Star state looks like it will go on for a while....
Fox News just called Ohio for Bush!...
Fox News has called Ohio for George Bush, putting the president within four electoral votes of winning his re-election. According to Fox, the precincts left in Cuyahoga County won't have enough impact to change the direction of the vote in the Buckeye State. That puts George Bush at 266 electoral votes, meaning that New Mexico will put him over the top -- and Bush leads in NM by 4 points with 74% of their precincts reporting. So much for Ohio being a swing state! Hugh Hewitt, as you might imagine, is delighted......
The three big Upper Midwest states that the GOP thought might be pickups in 2004 have improved still further for George Bush. Despite having a hard time with the urban centers in each of these states, Bush trails by only one point in Wisconsin and Iowa and just two in Michigan. In each of these states, Bush trailed by double digits after the urban precincts filed their votes. The president has the momentum and hopefull will ride it to a victory in at least one of these states, and preferably all three....
November 3, 2004
NBC just gave Ohio and Alaska to George Bush, putting the President at 269 electoral votes, guaranteeing at least a tie, and the GOP-controlled House of Representatives would certainly put Bush back in the White House. If New Mexico goes Bush, which it looks like it will, that gives him 274 and a clear victory. UPDATE: Bush just edged ahead in Iowa with 87% reporting -- by a few hundred votes. I told you the momentum was with Bush! Let's hope he holds it....
Tom Daschle, who looked as though he was heading to defeat as soon as an hour ago, now has pulled ahead in his bid for re-election to his South Dakota Senate seat. CNN shows Daschle up by about three thousand. UPDATE: No -- I think they had miscalculated. Now it shows Thune up by 2% and 6,000 votes....
Fox and NBC have called Ohio for George Bush, and with 92% of the precincts reporting, Bush has a two-point lead. The other major networks have yet to call Ohio, but the reluctance has more to do with Florida 2000 than Ohio 2004. Kerry's bastion of support, Cuyahoga County, has reported 99% of its precincts now, and Bush is still up by 102,000 votes. Athens, where they've reported 2/3rds of their votes, split 2-1 for Kerry -- but if you work the math, there's only 6,000 possible upside there. There may be another 6,000 in Lucas, but after that it gets mighty thin. Kerry has run out of votes. Ohio should be in everyone's red column by this point....
I'm going to beat the major news outlets on this one -- as I predicted, Iowa has swung back solidly towards Bush, who now has a 12,000-vote lead with 94% of the precincts counted in our neighbor to the south. I think that we can safely say that Iowa is now in the Bush column, and adding in New Mexico, that gives Bush 281 electoral votes....
One of the wildcard states in this election was Nevada, and it appears that Nevadans relished that status. The gap right now is about 10,000 towards Bush with 65% of precincts reporting, and it looks likely that Bush can add Nevada to his column....
John Edwards just told Kerry supporters that the campaign would not issue any statements on the race until at least tomorrow night, and plan on vigorously pursuing the provisional ballots cast in Ohio. Right now the estimates on the number of such ballots range from 170,000 to 250,000. Even on the outside edge, that would require Kerry to win 187,501 ballots, opposed to 62,499 for Bush, to edge Bush by one. It's unlikely in the extreme that he will beat Bush 3-1 in the provos. It's just another way for the Kerry/Edwards campaign to demonstrate their classlessness. UPDATE: BamaBear makes a great point in the comments on an earlier point. The media won't call Ohio when Bush has a 125,000-vote lead with 97% of the precincts reporting -- but they just gave Michigan to Kerry, when he has an 89,000-vote lead with 78% of the precincts reporting? Can someone explain...
CQ reader and fellow insomniac Byron Matthews found this tally of provisional ballots for Ohio, showing that the total number of provos -- 76,027 -- comes up to just over half of Bush's lead in the state. This race is over. Even Democrats can do math. UPDATE: Maybe I can't -- Cuyahoga has nothing listed, meaning that they haven't counted there. I believe that the Democrats estimated 25,000 provos there. If that isn't the final tally, the Ohio Secretary of State will probably have the updated totals tomorrow. Mea culpa... UPDATE II: 3:28 AM CT -- Bush now leads by 171,000 votes in Ohio. My math is at least good enough to realize that 125,000 provos cannot outweigh that margin. Ohioans have spoken. Let's demand that John Kerry do the right thing and concede so that we can present a confident and united front, at home and especially abroad....
I have just a few more thoughts to share with everyone on this election. I started this blog about a year ago, and although I didn't conceive of it as an election project, it certainly became that. It has been my privilege and pleasure to share my thoughts and opinions with you, and my honor that so many of you have become regular readers. One aspect of this election that may have been lost in all this analysis is that we successfully held a national election in the middle of the war on terror -- and while we had a highly negative and immature discourse, no one shied away from speaking out, and we turned out in record numbers (at least it looks that way now), rather than cower under our beds. Democrat or Republican, Libertarian or Green, pat yourselves on the back. You just won a major battle against...
After a couple of hours, the new count of provisional ballots in Ohio appears that it will barely outstrip the margin of victory by George Bush over John Kerry. With 10 smaller counties left to report their provos, Ohio has 135,149, including 24,788 from Cuyahoga County. At the moment, the Ohio Secretary of State's website shows that Bush has a lead of 133,164 votes, with 99.9% of all precincts reporting. The gap between the two numbers is significant legally, if not for the overall result. Races in Ohio get automatically reviewed under two scenarios. First, by statute, if the margin of victory does not exceed 0.25% of the overall votes cast for that race, a recount is automatically undertaken. The gap for President is much broader than that -- 2.44%, making a recount unnecessary. The second regulatory threshold is if the margin fails to exceed the number of provisional ballots...
So much for the Guardian's Operation Clark County: Bush -- 34,444 (50.96%) Kerry -- 32,824 (48.56%) As the Professor would say ... Heh....
Both Fox and AP are reporting that Kerry called President Bush to concede. President Bush to make public announcement within the next couple of hours. UPDATE: Kerry will make public concession at 1:00 pm Eastern time. UPDATE: Kerry concession speech seems to be delayed by logistics. Stand by....
Here's a little treat for your victory party. (I saw this on The Corner yesterday but not able to post at the time.)...
I just woke up from my post-election exhaustive collapse to Fox News on the TV and CNN on my laptop announcing that John Kerry has decided to concede Ohio and the election to George Bush: Democratic Sen. John Kerry phoned President Bush on Wednesday to concede the presidential election, aides in both camps said. President Bush was to deliver a victory statement at 3 p.m. ET, Bush aides said. Sen. Kerry's aides said he was expected to make a concession speech at 1 p.m. ET at Faneuil Hall in Boston, Massachusetts. A Kerry adviser said the campaign had concluded that the too-close-to-call battleground state of Ohio was not going to come through for the Democrats. The adviser said there was no way to gain votes on Bush without an "exhaustive fight," something that would have "further divided this country." I am delighted that John Kerry finally came to this conclusion,...
I'm watching John Kerry prepare to make his concession speech on Fox News, and I'll live-blog it. I probably won't get the chance to do that with the President's speech because of some appointments... 12:55 CT: Teresa Heinz Kerry and her family have entered the Boston hall where Kerry will make his concession speech. She looks exhausted. I wonder if she might be relieved it's over... 12:56 - Kerry has just been announced and is taking the stage, broadly smiling ... 12:57 - Edwards will speak first, interestingly enough. He promises to continue to "fight for every vote", even though they're conceding. That seems to me to be a very ungracious thing to say -- as if the administration is suppressing the vote. Edwards just can't escape the urban-legend pimping ... 1:00 - Edwards gets more to the point, showering Kerry with praise and exhorting their supporters to stay involved....
I had to take the First Mate to the doctor's office for a flu shot (immune-depressed transplant patients are always at the top of the priority list), and I TiVo'd the President's victory speech. I caught part of it on the radio but wanted to watch the entire speech on its own before commenting. I noticed an odd reaction on my part when I saw Dick Cheney and George Bush on stage at the same time; three years of war have made me worry about an attack every time they make a joint appearance. At some point those worries will be behind us, but not yet. Cheney introduced Bush as Edwards did Kerry, but focused on the election and Bush rather than Edwards' approach, which seemed more aimed at keeping a spot warm in the 2008 primaries. The VP's speech also seemed shorter than that of his election counterpart, for...
Minnesota Senator Mark Dayton, who did his best Brave Sir Robin* impersonation last month when he "bravely ran away, away" from DC after a security briefing that caused no one else to leave town, has decided to make his triumphal re-entry now that George Bush won the election: Sen. Mark Dayton said Wednesday he is reopening his Senate office after closing it last month, citing terrorist threats. Dayton, D-Minn., said that the threats outlined in classified intelligence reports that prompted the closure covered activity only through Election Day. "The timeline for the heightened threat has passed in those reports," Dayton said in a conference call with reporters. "I will be opening the office effective next Monday." Dayton announced that he would release the declassified report next week so people can make up their own minds about his decision to run screeching for the hills. However, the report will not outweigh...
The votes are in ... the pundits have spoken ... the AARP has filed lawsuits in every state of the nation ... it all only means one thing -- the guest judge has picked the winners of the latest Captain's Caption Contest! The Anchoress would just like to thank everyone for their patience while waiting for the results: Try to keep the excitement under control, people! Here are the winners! Captain's Award (Dan Rather Field Reporting Award) - Famous Mort: (AP) "Kerry Energizes Crowd to 'Dangerous Levels'" by Nedra Pickler (MIAMI) Soon-to-be-President Kerry energized a standing-room-only crowd of rabid supporters that left his GOP competition feeling, well, flaccid, as polls show that Kerry leads lame duck Bushitler by a whopping 120% among likely voters and an astounding 200% among dead, incarcerated, or incarcerated and dead voters. Paramedics were called to the speech dozens of times to provide aid for Democratic...
The Guardian reports that British television broadcaster Channel 4 has become so desperate for material that they have created a new "reality" TV show -- watching a human body decompose (via Drudge): Channel 4, no stranger to challenging broadcasting taboos, is about to cross another televisual rubicon by filming the decomposition of a human body. The broadcaster, which billed the show as a "unique scientific experiment", has in the past featured controversial documentaries showing the first images of aborted foetuses seen on British TV and, two years ago, Britain's first public autopsy for 170 years. ... The plan is to film the body decomposing, which could take several months, in London's Science Museum, though not in an area open to the public. So they plan to keep the decomposition outside of public view, but then broadcast the film of it across the British Isles? Laughably, the broadcaster defended the programming...
In the aftermath of the 2004 election debacle that saw the Democrats lose even more ground in Congress than two years ago, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi might have heeded John Kerry's call for unity and bipartisanship, putting aside the campaign rhetoric and divisiveness in order to find middle ground. After her reaction to the losses, it's clear that she didn't listen to Kerry's concession speech: A day after strengthening the Republican Party's majority in the House, Speaker Dennis Hastert called on Democrats to assist GOP efforts to fight the war on terror, create jobs and expand health insurance to more Americans. "I pledge to work with those Democrats who want to work with me to get good things done for the American people," Hastert said Wednesday. But House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California, stung by her party's losses on Election Day, seemed unlikely to accept the offer. "The Republicans...
Pity the poor UK Guardian, which tried valiantly to stick its nose into our election but wound up only irritating the very people it hoped to influence into voting for John Kerry. Now that George Bush has been re-elected for a second term, these die-hard leftists have reacted true to form -- they are immersing themselves in their own victimization: When, some time after midnight, news came through that the exit-polls for Virginia were too close to call - a sure sign, we'd been warned, that Bush was in trouble - there was exhilaration of an intensity not felt since Stephen Twigg unseated Portillo. We were going to win! The first email I received the following morning read: "F****d off, dejected, our hopes have been blown to shit." The next one read: "As REM once sang: 'It's the end of the world as we know it.' Only unlike REM, I...
November 4, 2004
In a sign that the mainstream media will not go gently into that good night, CNN's Netscape Network Election 2004 page included a picture of George and Laura Bush, smiling and waving for the camera, catching Bush mid-sentence. If you take a look at the properties of this picture (shown below), you'll find out what CNN thinks of President Bush. As of 12:41 am CT, the filename is asshole.jpg -- another example of the objectivity and fairness so evidenced by CNN. (Hat tip: CQ reader Jinx McHue)...
After twenty-four hours of solidly negative coverage of the exit polls that led many to believe that John Kerry would cruise to an easy victory, the pollsters themselves spoke out in their own defense. Today's Washington Post reports that the data fed to the networks -- and released without authorization to Internet sources such as Drudge -- carried a specific warning of its incomplete status: Results based on the first few rounds of interviewing are usually only approximations of the final vote. Printouts warn that estimates of each candidate's support are unreliable and not for on-air use. Those estimates are untrustworthy because people who vote earlier in the day tend to be different from those who vote in the middle of the day or the evening. For instance, the early national sample Tuesday that was 59 percent female probably reflected that more women vote in the day than the evening....
The re-election of George Bush has resonated around the globe as a message of American determination in our current foreign policy. That message has apparently been heard quite clearly in Pyongyang and may push North Korea back to the multilateral negotiations it disdained during the campaign: North Korea is likely to return to six-party talks on its nuclear programs now that the U.S. presidential election is over, Yonhap news agency quoted South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon as saying on Thursday. ... "With the U.S. election over, if the United States pursues an early resumption of the six-party talks, there is a chance that North Korea will respond to a resumption, considering it now has to continue dealing with the Bush administration," Ban reportedly told a closed-door meeting of parliament's foreign affairs committee. This confirms the handicap that the election placed on the Bush administration's attempts to force North Korea...
Two reports this morning focus on the reaction among the entertainment elite to George Bush's re-election this week to a second term as President. As one might imagine, the mood in Hollywood has taken a steeper dive than a Bennifer film in its second release week. The Washington Times' Stephanie Mansfield takes Hollywood's emotional temperature: For a rich and powerful demographic used to getting its way, Hollywood was downbeat yesterday as President Bush -- more heinous than a mid-February release date to so many celebrities and other bold-faced names -- made his gracious victory speech. ... Long decried as out of touch with "the real America," Hollywood woke up to its worst nightmare on Main Street. "This is definitely Kerry country," said Gabriel Snyder, senior writer for Variety, the industry bible. One can only imagine the despair of the Hollywood stars over the specter of glittery state dinners and policy...
Four years ago, under the prevailing winds of a booming global economy and the optimism generated by the collapse of the Iron Curtain, the European Union embarked on the Lisbon Strategy -- a plan to transform Europe into a single economy that would rival the US for global dominance. The Lisbon Strategy called for major reforms and investment into the EU's economic infrastructure, considered at the time to be ambitious but achievable. However, a new study conducted by a former Dutch premier has determined the Lisbon Strategy to be a failure, mostly due to the refusal of the EU's most prominent members to discipline themselves: Commissioned by EU leaders in March, the study is a mid-term review of the Lisbon Strategy -- the ambitious set of social and economic reforms agreed by European heads of state four years ago. Then, with the dot-com boom in full-swing, unemployment falling and growth...
The BBC reports that researchers working for the VA have determined that Gulf War veterans complaining of unexplained chronic illness have neural damage that indicates chronic, low-level exposure to sarin -- a possible explanation for Gulf War Syndrome: The New Scientist journal has reported a leak of a US inquiry into the ill-health of veterans of the 1991 war. The US Department of Veterans Affairs' Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses is due to publish its findings next week. But the magazine said researchers have found neural damage consistent with the nerve agent used by Saddam Hussein. The link is said to have been "crucial" to a change of heart by the US authorities over Gulf war syndrome. After over a decade of denying a single root cause, and a lack of evidence of such, the US government will finally concur that the Gulf War vets have a...
The MSM continues to insist ours is a nation divided and President Bush must therefore make concessions instead of rushing forward with his agenda. No time for an essay this morning, but this will suffice: Hat tip: Sean Hannity....
There is a difference between an enemy and an opponent, a distinction lost on more than a few people on both sides of our necessary and beneficial political divide. Osama bin Laden, Abu Masab al-Zarqawi, and Mullah Omar are our enemies; John Kerry and John Edwards were our political opponents, but first they are our fellow Americans. Today, the AP reports that Edwards' wife Elizabeth has been diagnosed with breast cancer: Spokesman David Ginsberg said Mrs. Edwards, 55, discovered a lump in her right breast while on a campaign trip last week. Her family doctor told her Friday that it appeared to be cancerous and advised her to see a specialist when she could. She put off the appointment until Wednesday so as not to miss campaign time. The Edwards family went straight to Massachusetts General Hospital from Boston's Faneuil Hall after Kerry and Edwards conceded on Wednesday. Mrs. Edwards...
Just when I thought I'd take an evening off from the blog, Power Line pulls me back in. Rocket Man notes some cartoonish logic and bitterness at Tompaine.com, where Greg Palast tells his readers that John Kerry really won Ohio. Any notion that he didn't apparently comes from a media conspiracy to cover up "spoilage": I know you don't want to hear it. You can't face one more hung chad. But I don't have a choice. As a journalist examining that messy sausage called American democracy, it's my job to tell you who got the most votes in the deciding states. Tuesday, in Ohio and New Mexico, it was John Kerry. Most voters in Ohio thought they were voting for Kerry. At 1:05 a.m. Wednesday morning, CNN's exit poll showed Kerry beating Bush among Ohio women by 53 percent to 47 percent. The exit polls were later combined withand therefore...
CNBC reports this evening that oil prices, which drove up inflation and dampened consumer confidence in the third quarter, has suddenly begun to drop significantly: Oil futures prices plunged by more than $2 a barrel Thursday, continuing a selloff that began last week amid rising U.S. supplies of crude and expectations of a surge in heating oil production before winter arrives. ... Light crude for December delivery fell by $2.06 to settle at $48.82 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the first time prices settled below $49 a barrel since Sept. 24. Oil prices have fallen $6.35, or 11.5 percent, since last Tuesday, when Nymex futures settled at $55.17 per barrel, matching the record settlement price first set Oct. 22. Does anyone else see something fishy here? After crude prices skyrocketed in the summer, we heard all sorts of explanations as to why. Most of them...
Reason's science editor Ronald Bailey bought his mother a pair of tickets to a Joan Baez concert as a birthday gift. Baez performed last night and, as one might expect, had quite a bit to say about the outcome. What Bailey didn't expect was the bizarre minstrel show that recalls Ted Danson's Friars Club debacle: However, the most remarkable and disturbing episode occurred halfway through the concert when Joan stopped singing and announced that she had "multiple personalities." One of her multiple personalities is that of a fifteen year old poor black girl named Alice from Turkey Scratch, Arkansas. Baez decided to share with us Alice's views on the election. Amazed and horrified I watched a rich, famous, extremely white folksinger perform what can only be described as bit of minstrelsyonly the painted on blackface was missing. Alice, the black teenager from Arkansas Baez was pretending to be, spoke in...
Rusty at My Pet Jawa noticed an anniversary that escaped my notice -- twenty-five years ago, Islamic revolutionaries in Iran commandeered our embassy in Teheran and took dozens of Americans hostage. This act of war went without effective response from the USA and set the stage for our present war against Islamist terrorism. Indeed, it informs our present muscular foreign policy so much that this could be considered an anniversary of the Bush Doctrine. Rusty writes: Like the English before us, America found itself in the position of standing between the Iranian revolutionaries and their vision of the global caliphate. The US became the 'Great Satan', the obstacle, the one nation with the power to stall the inevitable coming of Sharia law to all Muslim nations (and eventually beyond). So, the jihadis declared war on that day. Their war aims were simply stated and straightforward--weaken American resolve so that jihad...
November 5, 2004
The stone golem of the 2000 election was the hanging chad, and this time around it looks like exit polling. Two reports out today continue the post-mortems on the National Election Pool, one discounting allegations of conspiracy theories and the other boosting them. First, Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times has reviewed a clandestine copy of the pollsters' final report on the debacle, proving yet again that the NEP has major security issues. The pollsters blame sampling difficulties and the infidelity of its clients for the problems: The report, written by Joe Lenski and Warren Mitofsky and obtained by The New York Times, details systemic glitches that skewed the data in ways of which several news organizations, who paid tens of thousands of dollars for the service, were not aware. In some cases, the report said, survey takers could not get close enough to the polls to collect adequate...
Remarks made yesterday by Senator Arlen Specter, who is in line to become the new Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, have disturbed conservatives and offered hope to abortion advocates. Here is a portion of the transcript via NRO: JORDAN: Senator, you didn't talk about the Judiciary Committee, it is something you are expected to Chair this January. With 3 Supreme Court Justices rumored to retire soon, starting with Rehnquist, how do you see this unfolding in the next couple of months and what part do you intend to play on it? SPECTER: You know my approach is cautious with respect to the Judiciary Committee. I am in line, Senator Hatch is barred now by term limits and Senate Rules so that I am next in line. There has to be a vote of the Committee and I have already started to talk to some of my fellow committee members. I am...
It's Friday, so it must be time for another Captain's Caption Contest! Now that the election is over, the surprising results have caused some of our "friends" overseas to rethink their positions regarding George Bush and the US. This group of stalwart supporters of all things American put their heads together today to determine their new strategy: What did Jacques Chirac say to Luis Zapatero, Josep Borrell, and Jose Manuel Barroso? You tell me -- enter your best caption into the comments on this post! NO e-mailed entries, please! E-mailed entries will be entered onto provisional ballots and destroyed surreptitiously by Karl Rove's evil minions. The contest will end on Sunday, November 7th at 8 pm CT, when our guest judge will select the winners. Let the games begin!...
The AP notes that the final tallies in Iowa and New Mexico show that George Bush took the former blue states from Democrats as expected, indicating that the Democrats have increasingly isolated themselves to the two coasts in the past several elections: The Democrats' defeat in Iowa reflects a larger problem for them in the Midwest and across the political map. Along with Wisconsin and Minnesota, Iowa and its seven electoral votes are part of the once-Democratic Upper Midwest that is growing more conservative with each presidential election. Kerry won Minnesota by just 3 percentage points, Wisconsin by a single point. In addition, Michigan and Pennsylvania went Democratic by 3 percentage points or less and Bush won Ohio despite its economic miseries. The close electoral vote masks the problem Democrats face in traditionally friendly territory. Iowa hadn't gone for a Republican in 20 years, and that time only during the...
I'll be leaving shortly to visit family in Southern California. I plan on blogging a bit while I'm there, but the productivity may be down somewhat. It'll give me a chance to recuperate from the bruising campaign and recharge the batteries for the next four years. Tonight the Northern Alliance gang will fill in for Hugh Hewitt, so be sure to tune in!...
November 6, 2004
While I was in flight, Michael Moore apparently issued his long-awaited response to the election results, having watched his efforts to smear George Bush and run him out of office come to naught. He exhorts his fans to keep from slitting their wrists by giving them 17 reasons to live on. This, of course, matches the hysterical tone of the rest of the Left today, who have either decided to kill themselves or move to Canada, when they're not busy claiming that vast conspiracies have stolen the election from them. Memo to Democrats: in order to support democracy, you have to accept its results, even when your side loses. If you can't do that without threatening to move away, kill yourselves, or commit violence, then you don't believe in democracy at all. You only want democracy as a cover to impose your beliefs on others, even when the majority disagree...
Arlen Specter stuck his foot squarely in his mouth just hours after winning election in Pennsylvania, suggesting in his comments to the press that under his presumed leadership of the Senate Judiciary Committee, George Bush should take care not to nominate anyone except middle-of-the-road candidates. The uproar from the conservative base has threatened to derail Specter's ascension to the chair and has caused the GOP's Senate contingent to wonder at the best option for response: Republican lawmakers and top Senate aides, speaking privately for the most part, said the uproar from the right was becoming an impediment for Mr. Specter, a Pennsylvania lawmaker who has coveted the chairmanship. They said while it was likely he would still get the post, it was no longer a certainty. "He is not out of the woods,'' said one Senate aide who is closely monitoring developments on the Judiciary Committee, echoing a sentiment expressed...
A report on CNS News seems to be getting a lot of attention this morning, which states that liberal bloggers think that George Bush's re-election is "more depressing" than 9/11. After reading that incendiary headline, I took a look at the article and found out that the headline is quite misleading: Bloggers on the liberal Democratic Underground website have overwhelmingly labeled Nov. 3, 2004, the day after Election Day, "more depressing" than Sept. 11, 2001 in a poll of online members. Seventy-two percent of poll takers said they believed the day Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) conceded defeat in the presidential election was more tragic than the day more than 3,000 Americans were killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and on a hijacked plane that crashed in a Pennsylvania field. So what happened is that the nutcases at DU put...
Kofi Annan sought to protect the terrorists who continue their bloody grip on Fallujah by writing a letter to the governments of Iraq, Britain, and the US demanding a cessation of hostilities. The three governments reacted with scorn to the notion that Iraq should somehow live with terrorists setting up their own city-state within Iraqi borders, allowing them to maintain a base of operations with which to terrorize the entire country: In letters dated Oct. 31 and addressed to President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and interim Iraqi leader Ayad Allawi, Annan said using military force against insurgents in the city would further alienate Sunni Muslims already feeling left out of a political process orchestrated largely by Washington. "I wish to share with you my increasing concern at the prospect of an escalation in violence, which I fear could be very disruptive for Iraq's political transition," Annan wrote to...
The AP's Lolita Baldor and Jennifer Peter analyze the future prospects of John Kerry now that his bid for the presidency has ended, and they see big things ahead for the Massachusetts Senator: Like many presidential candidates before him, John Kerry must now decide what to do with the rest of his political life. While he relaxed at his Boston home on Friday, elsewhere friends, colleagues and presidential historians said they didn't see the Democrat fading into political obscurity like the last Massachusetts politician who ran and lost, Michael Dukakis in 1988. Instead, they said he would probably take the road less traveled by recent senators who tried and failed to take the White House, and remain a strong voice in Congress on issues he cared about. Like what? The AP continues its ignorance of Kerry's Senate record even past the election. In 20 years as a senator, Kerry got...
Iran has defied the EU-3 yet again, concluding the latest round of talks without an agreement to end uranium enrichment and stiffarming the international community: Talks between Iran and three European Union heavyweights ended on Saturday without an agreement on Tehran's nuclear program, a source close to the negotiations said. Iran was seeking a compromise in the talks with France, Germany and Britain to avoid a dispute over its nuclear program being referred to the United Nations Security Council and avert the risk of sanctions. The EU trio wants Iran to stop enriching uranium. "At the end of difficult talks, the two parties made considerable progress toward a provisional agreement on a common approach on these issues," the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement. But a source close to the negotiations said: "Nothing is settled ... The discussions were difficult, very difficult. The Iranians struggled hard." "Everyone has to...
Despite President Bush's election victory, destructive attacks on the GOP continue. Last night, a mob vandalized the North Carolina Republican headquarters. According to the AP (emphasis mine): A police officer reported Friday night that about 100 people wearing masks and gloves were walking down a street near the headquarters, police Capt. D.S. Overman said. Officers investigating that report found a second group "vandalizing and damaging" the GOP headquarters, said police Maj. D.R. Lane. The vandalism was a "planned and orchestrated event," police spokesman Jim Sughrue said. "This is not a political statement," Sughrue said. "A political statement is what we made Tuesday. This is a crime." The officers found several spent fireworks, poster boards with slogans and spray-painted expletives on the walls. At least two windows were broken and police said it appeared that the vandals tried to put incendiary devices inside the building. This is yet another example of...
November 7, 2004
After a series of bombings that killed dozens of people yesterday, the Iraqis declared a country-wide emergency, excluding Kurdistan. The measure placed the country into an equivalent status of martial law while the Allawi government continued its efforts to negotiate with the terrorists of Fallujah: Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi declared martial law on Sunday and said a U.S.-led military offensive against the rebel-held city of Falluja could not be delayed much longer. ... Allawi was doing all he could to find a peaceful solution, his spokesman Thair al-Naqib said. "He still hopes that it may be possible to avoid a major military confrontation in Falluja ... He is, however, not optimistic," Naqib said. The Americans say they are only awaiting the word from Allawi, who returned from Europe on Saturday, to attack. Why does Allawi hesitate? First, the battle of Fallujah will certainly be bloody, more bloody than...
AP religion analyst Brian Murphy reports that tensions are rising between mainstream European society and the growing Muslim community in its midst, especially after the brutal murder of Theo Van Gogh, the Dutch filmmaker who criticized Islamic practices with regards to women. More Muslim threats against Dutch politicians followed the murder, and Europeans are beginning to ask themselves whether Muslims can ever be assimilated into their communities: But those big issues fade on the streets of many European centers. Here even in places like tolerant Amsterdam it's often expressed as a gnawing feeling that militant factions in Islamic immigrant communities are gaining ground and chipping away at values such as free speech and secular politics. "There is a general feeling that a social collision is becoming inevitable," said Jan Rath, co-director of the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies at the University of Amsterdam. "People think it's been...
The Marines have finally been given the green light for the assault on Fallujah. From Fox News: U.S. forces stormed into western districts of Fallujah (search) early Monday, seizing the main city hospital and securing two key bridges over the Euphrates River (search) in what appeared to be the first stage of the long-expected assault on the insurgent stronghold. An AC-130 gunship (search) raked the city with 40 mm cannon fire as explosions from U.S. artillery lit up the night sky. Intermittent artillery fire blasted southern neighborhoods of Fallujah, and orange fireballs from high explosive airbursts could be seen above the rooftops. U.S. officials said the toughest fight was yet to come when American forces enter the main part of the city on the east bank of the river, including the Jolan neighborhood where insurgent defenses are believed the strongest....
November 8, 2004
Many analysts have made a second career out of postulating how George Bush managed to beat John Kerry in the presidential election. Most of the speculation has centered on anti-gay marriage initiatives in eleven states, even though a thorough analysis of voting between 2000 and 2004 show a slight decrease in support for Bush in comparison. The one person given credit as the architect for the victory, Karl Rove, insists that the real reason is much more prosaic: Tactically, Kerry's decision to vote for the $87 billion in funding for troops and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then deciding in October 2003 to vote against it, was a bonanza for the president's campaign, "the gift that kept on giving," Rove said. Kerry's record in general and his shifting support for the war in Iraq caused the most problems for him among voters, Rove insisted. Exit polling has been widely...
The New York Times performs a post-mortem on the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act as implemented in the 2004 election cycle, and while Glen Justice never mentions the word "failure" in his analysis, the data more than suggests that verdict: The McCain-Feingold law, which did more to change how American political campaigns are financed than any legislation since the 1970's, got its first real-world test in this year's election. And now its critics are more emphatic than ever in arguing that the law has fallen short of its goals, and even some supporters are calling for revisions. ... The major advocacy groups at work in this year's elections, called 527 groups after the section in the tax code that created them, raised more than $350 million, according to PoliticalMoneyLine, which tracks campaign finance. While it is axiomatic in politics that each race will cost more than the last, and while...
I took a peek at the headlines this morning, while I'm wrapping up my vacation in Southern California, and the one story that really caught my eye was Howard Kurtz's piece on post-election analysis by the media. If you listen to the talking heads on TV, you hear all sorts of notions about why George Bush beat John Kerry: gay marriage, evangelicals, Michael Moore, red-America brain death, and so on. Kurtz analyzes the analysts in his own somewhat cynical style: The Democrats were clueless on moral values. John Kerry was a lousy candidate. A northerner can't win anymore. The Bush team was better at manipulating the press. No one trusts the Democrats on national security. The gay marriage issue badly hurt the party. The Democrats need to move right, or left, or south, or undergo a personality transplant, or change the Constitution so Bill Clinton can run again. ... The...
I'm brushing off the long-abandoned DeanWatch category, as it appears the Democrats are about to reinforce their cluelessness by replacing three-time loser Terry McAuliffe with the darling of the International ANSWER set, former Vermont governor Howard Dean: Former presidential candidate Howard Dean is considering a bid to become chairman of the national Democratic Party. "He told me he was thinking about it," Steve Grossman, himself a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said Monday. Grossman was a Dean backer during the former Vermont governor's failed presidential bid. Dean, who was in Albany, N.Y., Monday night to give a speech, said he hasn't decided about the top party job, noting he'd received thousands of e-mails urging him to try for it. He said he's still uncertain about his future. "It's a lot easier to run for president when you don't know what you're getting into," he said. "I will stay...
The Washington Post's Mike Allen reports that John Kerry is "fired up" and plans to be an activist when he returns to the Senate in the next session. In fact, he's giving the impression that he wants to give the presidency another shot in 2008: Democrat John F. Kerry plans to use his Senate seat and long lists of supporters to remain a major voice in American politics despite losing the presidential race last Tuesday, and he is assessing the feasibility of trying again in 2008, friends and aides said yesterday. Kerry will attend a post-election lame-duck Senate session that begins next week and has said he is "fired up" to play a highly visible role, the friends and aides said. If so, it would be the first time in twenty years. His previous visibility remained limited to six bills in twenty years and the Iran-Contra investigation from over seventeen...
November 9, 2004
As Yasser Arafat lies dying, a conclusion that appears less in doubt each day, the AP reports that the search has begun for millions -- possibly billions -- of dollars that the PLO leader may have stashed away during his forty-year reign as Palestinian leader: In his four decades as Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat has run a murky financial empire that includes far-flung PLO investments in airlines, banana plantations and high-tech companies, and money hidden in bank accounts across the globe. ... Forbes magazine ranked him No. 6 on its 2003 list of the richest "kings, queens and despots," estimating he was worth at least $300 million. Shalom Harari, a former top Israeli intelligence official, said Arafat may have stashed away up to $700 million, part of it for an emergency such as a new exile, especially with Israel threatening to expel him. Two names frequently come up in connection...
The Sun (UK) reports in its typically urgent prose that Spanish PM Jose Zapatero has declared that the EU will become the dominant power in the world within 20 years, and pledged Spanish partnership with France and Germany to create the new hyperpower: Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero brazenly declared the ultimate aim was to challenge America. He declared: Europe must believe that it can be in 20 years the most important world power. We want to arrange the European future at the side of France and Germany. Spain sees itself with France and Germany as never before. ... Zapatero was quizzed by German magazine Der Spiegel about the EUs continuing need for US troops to deal with crises in the Balkans under the Nato umbrella. He said: Naturally it will still last some time, until we develop a closed defence policy. That can happen only after the agreement on a...
CNN's Carlos Watson takes an unusual tack for the mainstream media, analyzing George Bush and his history and determining him to be a political genius: Whether you are a Democrat, a Republican or an independent, it is hard not to look at President Bush's re-election victory last week and conclude that he is probably one of the three or four most talented politicians of the last half of a century. Why do I write that? Think about it. In 10 short years, George Walker Bush has won not just one but three high-profile political races that most able politicians would have lost. In 1994, with no real previous political experience, he beat a popular incumbent governor in the nation's second most populous state. Six years later, he beat a sitting vice president during a time of peace and prosperity. And last week, with a mediocre economy, an unpopular war and...
Just when I thought it was impossible for Democrats to sink any lower in their post-election tantrums -- after all, it's hard to top secession as a political strategy for the arrested-development set -- now they have their very own psychological disorder, according to the Boca Raton News: The Boca Raton News reported Tuesday that Palm Beach, Florida trauma specialist Douglas Schooler alone has already treated 15 clients and friends with intense hypnotherapy since the Democratic candidate conceded on November 3. "I had one friend tell me he's never been so depressed and angry in his life," Schooler said. "I observed patients threatening to leave the country or staring listlessly into space. They were emotionally paralyzed, shocked and devastated," he told the daily. "We're calling it 'post-election selection trauma' and we're working to develop a counseling program for it," said Rob Gordon, the Boca Raton-based executive director of the American...
Sorry for the delay in the caption contest -- I will announce the winners later tonight. My vacation caused a miscommunication on this edition, which is why I still haven't announced the winners. Thanks for your patience and the gentle but pointed reminders you've sent today ......
This isn't the most pleasant article to read the day after flying in from Southern California, but it's good to keep in mind for future travel plans. Just make sure you take your own bottled water on your next flight while traveling domestically: New water quality inspections on airliners were initiated Tuesday by the Environmental Protection Agency in response to the discovery of coliform bacteria in the drinking water of one in every eight planes it tested. ... In August and September, the EPA tested drinking water aboard 158 randomly selected domestic and international passenger aircraft and found that 12.6 percent did not meet federal standards. Twenty of the planes that were tested which ranged from small commuter aircraft and jumbo jets tested positive for total coliform bacteria, signaling the possible presence of other harmful bacteria. Two planes tested positive for E. coli bacteria, which can cause gastrointestinal...
The Marines are steadily and successfully killing terrorists and breaking things in Fallujah. The AP reports: Faced with overwhelming force, resistance in Fallujah did not appear as fierce as expected, though the top U.S. commander in Iraq (news - web sites) said he still expected "several more days of tough urban fighting" as insurgents fell back toward the southern end of the city, perhaps for a last stand. Some U.S. military officers estimated they controlled about a third of the city. Commanders said they had not fully secured the northern half of Fallujah but were well on their way as American and Iraqi troops searched for insurgents. The commander on the ground, Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, believes al-Zarqawi escaped Fallujah before the assault. This is unfortunate, but Im certain there is still a Hellfire missile with his name on it. The Marines are advancing rapidly toward victory. Of course the...
Je le regrette le jeux sont fait -- as Jacques Chirac is certainly saying now that the last Captain's Caption Contest has closed out and the winners are about to be announced. In fact, Jacqui -- do you mind if I call you Jacqui, mon ami? -- appears to be eagerly debating the wonderful entries CQ readers submitted for this week's contest: Sacre bleu! Voila, maintenant ... le winners: Captain's Award (Leap of Faith) - Nathan: "Well, his French isn't all bad. He does know how to pronounce 'Lambeau'." You Have The Conn #1 (Death Imitates Art) - ff1047: Trust me, it'll be just like "Weekend at Bernies", we can pull this off. For christs sake, the Democrats propped up a dead body as a candidate, we can prop up a dead terrorist as a "leader". You Have The Conn #2 (The Untold Story) - Brian Wohlgemuth: Luis Zapatero stands...
Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Don Evans resigned today, the first cabinet-level departures after George Bush's re-election. Ashcroft plans on staying until a successor is named, while the plans of longtime Bush confidante Evans were less clear. CNN has the details: In the first signs of a second-term shakeup for the Bush administration, Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Don Evans have resigned, the White House announced Tuesday evening. Ashcroft's resignation will become effective upon confirmation of a successor, Justice Department officials said. There were no immediate details on when Evans' resignation would take effect. Ashcroft, a former senator and two-term governor of Missouri, has garnered criticism during his nearly four years as attorney general on issues like the Patriot Act, which backers say helps the government in its fight against terrorism and critics say infringes on civil liberties. I probably have a different view of Ashcroft's...
November 10, 2004
Nicholas Kristof would probably conclude that the cause of rainy days can and should be laid at the feet of the Bush Administration, based on his hysterical rant today about the freedom of the press. Kristof blames a rash of judges holding reporters in contempt for their secrecy on George Bush, not because any of the judges are Bush appointees (they're not), but because he sets an example of -- get this -- secrecy! Paging China! Help us! Urge the U.S. government to respect freedom of the press! It does sound topsy-turvy, doesn't it? Generally, it's China and Zimbabwe that are throwing journalists in prison, while the U.S. denounces the repression over there. But now similar abuses are about to unfold within the United States, part of an alarming new pattern of assault on American freedom of the press. In the last few months, three different U.S. federal judges, each...
Arizona voters passed a referendum last week that requires people to demonstrate their citizenship when registering to vote, produce ID when actually voting, and identify themselves as citizens or legal residents when receiving government services, despite the opposition of leading state politicians of both parties. Despite being outspent 5-1 along with all of the opposition, Arizonans sent a message on immigration to Washington by voting in favor, 56-44, and other states now may copy Arizona's effort: Initiative proponents, arguing that illegal immigration in Arizona is out of control, said Proposition 200's passage on Nov. 2 was a crucial first step in reducing a glut of illegal immigration and sends messages to government officials in both Washington and Mexico that illegal immigration will not be condoned. The initiative -- opposed by key elected officials in Arizona, including Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano and Republican Sen. John McCain; several Hispanic advocacy groups; labor...
An anti-union watchdog group has filed a complaint against the largest government workers union in the country, alleging that the group illegally spent millions of dollars in dues on partisan political campaigns: An anti-union group is urging the Federal Election Commission to investigate one of the largest unions in the country, claiming the Service Employees International Union unlawfully spent workers' dues to elect Democrats in last week's election. The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation said Wednesday that SEIU gave millions of dollars from members' dues to a partisan political group, America Coming Together, which in turn spent the money illegally to finance political campaigns through the Democratic National Committee. Using dues, which get extorted from workers in closed shops, for political purposes has been banned for at least the last two years. Unions have to raise money through PACs or 527s with voluntary donations in order to contribute...
In response to the continuing post-mortems on the presidential election, various women's groups noted that George Bush made significant inroads with women. Exit polling showed that John Kerry only narrowly edged Bush in this demographic, 51-48, while Al Gore had claimed an 11-point gap in 2000. The groups blamed John Kerry and claimed he took them for granted: Leaders of several women's groups said Tuesday that Democrat John Kerry fell short in his bid for the White House because he didn't make a more direct appeal for support from women voters. ... "There was an assumption women would be behind the Kerry campaign," said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women. The Bush campaign referred to the liberation of Afghan and Iraqi women to appeal to women voters, said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority. But "Kerry never drew a very strong contrast with Bush" on women's...
Today is the 229th birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Our brave men and women have guarded this nation since before it officially existed and have been the vanguard of American power and service to the world. Few are foolish enough to doubt their courage, their intrepidity, and their determination, and for those a quick introduction to any Marine past or present suffices to educate them. I am honored to have Marines as friends and family, including one uncle on my mother's side who fought in Viet Nam, and my father-in-law, a Marine pilot in WWII and Korea who is now deceased -- but still a Marine. Through the centuries, the Coprs (and all of our armed forces) have distinguished themselves with their honor, courage, and dedication to this nation and the pursuit of freedom and liberty nationwide. Congratulations, Marines! In your honor, I'm posting the Marines' Hymn, which...
The AP reports that Iraqi armed forces have found the houses where terrorists led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi beheaded their hostages, a grisly confirmation of the necessity of cleaning up Fallujah: Iraqi troops have found "hostage slaughterhouses" in Fallujah where foreign captives were held and killed, the commander of Iraqi forces in the city said Wednesday. Troops found CDs and documents of people taken captive in houses in the northern part of Fallujah, Maj. Gen. Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassem Mohan told reporters. ... "We have found hostage slaughterhouses in Fallujah that were used by these people and the black clothing that they used to wear to identify themselves, hundreds of CDs and whole records with names of hostages," the general said at a military camp near Fallujah. If nothing else, we've now confirmed that the ghouls that perform these beheadings stationed themselves in the so-called City of Mosques, and that...
George Bush made the first Cabinet-level selection of his second term, nominating Alberto Gonzalez, Jr for Attorney General. Gonzalez will replace John Ashcroft, who resigned on Election Day. Unfortunately, given Gonzalez' history, I suspect that Gonzalez will also replace Ashcroft as a lightning rod: In tapping Gonzales for the post, Bush picked a fellow Texan who has stirred controversy himself for his role in memos condoning the possible torture of terrorist suspects and arguing that prisoners captured in Afghanistan are not protected by the Geneva Conventions. But the soft-spoken lawyer also has been described as a relative moderate whose conservative credentials are sometimes viewed with suspicion by Bush's more rightist supporters. Gonzalez didn't write the first memo mentioned, nor did he endorse it, but the Post reported that the Justice Department consulted heavily with the White House before drafting it. Both cases give ammunition to partisans in Congress for attempting...
The world's first celebrity terrorist died peacefully today, a fate that he denied thousands of others during his murderous life: Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, 75, the leader who passionately sought a homeland for his people but was seen by many Israelis as a ruthless terrorist and a roadblock to peace, died early Thursday in Paris. Arafat had been sick with an unknown illness that had been variously described as the flu, a stomach virus or gallstones. He flew to Paris nearly two weeks ago seeking medical treatment and was hospitalized with what Palestinian officials said was a blood disorder. He had been on a respirator since slipping into a coma November 3. A hospital spokesman said he died at 3:30 a.m. Thursday (9:30 p.m. Wednesday ET). For all the crimes he committed and people he terrorized, the most ironic legacy Arafat left was the utter poverty and degradation he...
November 11, 2004
Two days after John Kerry lost to George Bush, three of his teen supporters got into a dispute with a Bush-supporting schoolmate at their Minnesota Zoo School of Environmental Studies, and after some juvenile taunting, the budding Democrats beat the other teen with a baseball bat: Three high school students, one allegedly armed with a bat, were charged with attacking a pro-President Bush classmate after he reportedly said only gays would support Sen. John Kerry. ... The alleged assailants have all been charged: one with felony assault because he allegedly went to his car to get a bat during the assault, prosecutors said one with misdemeanor assault and one with disorderly conduct. In fact, both sides called the other "gay" for their political views, which still managed to outstrip the maturity level in some of the public debate from this election. Perhaps Lawrence O'Donnell counseled these young Democrats....
Today is Veteran's Day, when we honor the sacrifice of our men and women who served and are serving to defend and protect our nation and spread liberty around the world. When I got up this morning, I wondered how I would celebrate veterans like my father, my uncles, and many friends and co-workers and the many who have served among CQ's readership. Fortunately for me, CQ reader Bob S. forwarded another e-mail from his neice's husband, a major in the Marine Corps currently stationed in Iraq. Not only does he speak eloquently regarding the Corps' birthday yesterday, but he reminds us of the spirit and sacrifice of the US fighting men and women in all branches of the service. Camp Victory, Iraq 10 November 2004 A Thought from Iraq Traditions & Reality In 1921, then-Commandant of the Marine Corps John A. Lejeune, initiated the now storied tradition of...
The death of uberterrorist Yasser Arafat, the man who masterminded hundreds of attacks on civilians and inspired thousands of Islamic lunatics, provides a moment of clarity and insight into the leaders of our time. While heads of state should exercise judicious diplomacy in their official reactions in order to reach out to the Palestinians that Arafat victimized almost as badly as he did everyone else, the extent of their remarks provide an interesting look at the values of so-called friends. For instance, Bush gave a carefully-crafted statement which avoided even speaking about Arafat or his deadly legacy. Instead, Bush wisely focused on the future: The death of Yasser Arafat is a significant moment in Palestinian history. We express our condolences to the Palestinian people. For the Palestinian people, we hope that the future will bring peace and the fulfillment of their aspirations for an independent, democratic Palestine that is at...
In another demonstration of the need for action, a US Marine Corps contingent freed four hostages taken by terrorists in Fallujah during their efforts to eliminate the Islamofascist and Ba'ath remnants in the city: US-led troops involved in fighting against insurgents in the Iraqi city of Falluja have found four imprisoned men believed to be Iraqi hostages. Three of the men were contractors working for the US military, a US marines spokesman said, and the fourth said he was a taxi driver. All of the men had been beaten and starved and were wearing handcuffs. ... They were found blindfolded, handcuffed and in a locked room. In the same building, marines found surface-to-air missiles, night-vision equipment, black uniforms, computers and a weapons cache. They also retrieved what they called anti-coalition propaganda and videotapes showing torture of hostages and weapons training. In a moment of farce, the BBC reports that this...
CQ reader Jeff Miller has alterted us to Glenn Reynolds' post on sarin gas in Fallujah. According to NPR's Anne Garrels, a reporter embedded with a Marine unit in Fallujah, the Marines found a suitcase filled with cannisters labeled "sarin nerve gas." You can listen to her report here. No word yet on how many cannisters were found or the origin of said weapons. Looks like some of Saddam's "nonexistent" WMDs didn't make it to Syria after all. (Hmm . . perhaps they did leave the country but have been imported back.) I'm not surprised the terrorists had a nerve agent. I'm only confounded by the fact they didn't either use the weapons against the Marines or take them with while fleeing the city. Must have been in a real rush to get out of there. Or they have more stashed away somewhere. In the immortal words of Matt Drudge:...
From USA Today: Many ABC affiliates around the country have announced that they won't take part in the network's Veterans Day airing of Saving Private Ryan, saying the acclaimed film's violence and language could draw sanctions from the Federal Communications Commission. The decisions mark a twist in the conflict over the aggressive stand the FCC has taken against obscenity and profanity since Janet Jackson flashed the world during the last Super Bowl halftime show. Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning movie aired on ABC with relatively little controversy in 2001 and 2002, but station owners including several in large markets are unnerved that airing it Thursday could bring federal punishment. The film includes a violent depiction of the D-Day invasion and profanity. "It would clearly have been our preference to run the movie. We think it's a patriotic, artistic tribute to our fighting forces," Ray Cole, president of Citadel Communications, told...
To no one's great shock, Jimmy Carter decided to wax eloquent about the world's premier terrorist at his passing. Carter continues his unbroken streak of poor judgment in his remarks on Yasser Arafat, his fellow Nobel laureate who incidentally murdered a whole lot of people, Americans included: Former US President Jimmy Carter called Yasser Arafat "a powerful human symbol and forceful advocate" who united Palestinians in their pursuit of a homeland. "Yasser Arafat's death marks the end of an era and will no doubt be painfully felt by Palestinians throughout the Middle East and elsewhere in the world," Carter said. "He was the father of the modern Palestinian nationalist movement. A powerful human symbol and forceful advocate, Palestinians united behind him in their pursuit of a homeland," he said in a statement distributed by his Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center. To hold up Arafat as a "powerful human symbol" after all...
Jackie Spinner at the Washington Post hosted a live-chat Q&A on the war in Iraq and journalists' efforts to cover the action. Spinner joined the chatroom live from an Army outpost near Fallujah, and the very first question asked about the benefits of embedding reporters within military units as opposed to freelancing in a war zone: Q - Is it preferrable to report from an embedded military unit, or do you prefer to roam about the city without their protection? I presume the quality of reporting is better if you aren't chained to a branch of the military, but it certainly seems much more dangerous to move about Iraq without their security. ... A - Unfortunately, it is impossible to roam about the city without protection. The only way we can cover this offensive for now is with the military. I should note that the insurgents offered embed spots to...
My 10 year high school reunion is this weekend, so I'll be packing and driving back to Arkansas tonight. My parents only have dial-up (the horror!) so posting will be light for me this weekend....
The AP reports that terrorists trapped in Fallujah tried to break through an American cordon to the south of the city to escape. The failed attack is another bid to take the pressure off of the Islamofascists and Saddam holdouts, as their brethren in Iraq desperately attacked all around the country to distract the Americans: Insurgents tried to break through the U.S. cordon surrounding Fallujah on Thursday as American forces launched an offensive against concentrations of militants in the south of the city. Some 600 insurgents, 18 U.S. troops and five Iraqi soldiers have been killed in the four-day assault, the U.S. military said. In an apparent bid to relieve pressure on their trapped allies, insurgents mounted major attacks in Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city 220 miles to the north. Guerrillas assaulted nine police stations, overwhelming several, and battled U.S. and Iraqi troops around bridges across the Tigris River in the...
You can scratch recently retired diplomat Robert Blackwill from the list of potential Cabinet appointees in the second Bush term. Condoleezza Rice herself scolded the architect of Bush's Iraq policy after he verbally and physically abused a female staffer, according to the Washington Post: Robert D. Blackwill, who resigned last week as the White House's top official on Iraq policy, was recently scolded by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice after Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told her that Blackwill appeared to have verbally abused and physically hurt a female embassy staffer during a visit to Kuwait in September, administration officials said. The incident took place as Blackwill was rushing to return home after a visit to Baghdad to join a campaign swing planned by President Bush. As six officials describe the incident, he arrived at the Air France counter at the Kuwait airport and learned he was not on...
November 12, 2004
It's probably too late to change the conventional wisdom on the presidential election now, but a Pew Research Center analysis of exit polling and their own new survey throws cold water on the notion that "moral values" provided the primary motivation for voters. Even for those who did prioritize morality first, it doesn't reflexively relate to conservative outlook: When "moral values" was included in poll questions, it was named more often than any other issue. But when voters were just asked to name the issue most important in their vote for president without being given a list of answers moral values trailed the war in Iraq and the economy, according to the Pew survey. "The advantage of the open-ended question is it tells you what's at the top of mind for voters what they're thinking," said Cliff Zukin, a veteran pollster and professor of public policy at...
It's Friday, so it must be time for another Captain's Caption Contest! With all of the hullabaloo surrounding Senator Arlen Specter's comments last week and the efforts being made to derail his ascension to the chair of the Judiciary Committee, you'd expect that he and George Bush would barely be on speaking terms. On the other hand, the two GOP stalwarts still have enough in common to work together ... or so it seems. What do you suppose this conversation was like? You tell me -- enter your best caption into the comments on this post! NO e-mailed entries, please! E-mailed entries will be sequestered in Ramallah for two years, and afterwards get slobbered on by Jacques Chirac. The contest will end on Sunday, November 14th at 8 pm CT, when our guest judge will select the winners. Let the games begin!...
The AP reports that a deal supposedly hammered out by the EU is collapsing due to Iran's renuncuiation of the agreement: A deal committing Iran to suspend activities that Washington says are part of a nuclear arms program was close to collapse Friday, with diplomats suggesting that Tehran had reneged on an agreement reached with European negotiators just days ago. ... The deal leaves open the exact length of the suspension but says it will be in effect at least as long as it takes for the two sides to negotiate a deal on European technical and financial aid, including help in the development of Iranian nuclear energy for power generation. But on Friday the diplomats told The Associated Press that Iranian officials had presented British, French and German envoys in Tehran with a version of the agreement that was unacceptable to the three European powers. Well, color me shocked...
The New York Times reports on the flurry of post-election conspiracy theories and, somewhat conveniently, leaves the blame at the doorstep of the blogosphere. Tom Zeller notes the proliferation of assertions that the 2004 Presidential election was somehow stolen from John Kerry in Florida and Ohio and determines that the paranoia springs from freedom of speech: In the space of seven days, an online market of dark ideas surrounding last week's presidential election took root and multiplied. But while the widely read universe of Web logs was often blamed for the swift propagation of faulty analyses, the blogosphere, as it has come to be known, spread the rumors so fast that experts were soon able to debunk them, rather than allowing them to linger and feed conspiracy theories. Within days of the first rumors of a stolen election, in fact, the most popular theories were being proved wrong - though...
Tonight, the Northern Alliance Radio Network fills in for Hugh Hewitt, who has the evening off. Make sure you tune in to hear Mitch, King, myself, and the other members of the NARN gang hijack Hugh's show from 5 pm - 8 pm CT tonight. If Hugh isn't on the air in your neighborhood, you can get the show on the Internet; check out Hugh's site for more details. Of course, tomorrow we will be on the air in the Twin Cities and on the Internet in our regular time period, 12-3 CT. Be sure to catch us then as well!...
Former Bush 41 advisor Brent Scowcroft published an opinion piece in today's Washington Post that should remind us all that American cluelessness in Middle East policymaking has a rich bipartisan history. Scowcroft's advice to George Bush in his second term explains why 43 famously bypassed his father's counsel in favor of prayer. The first red flag for me popped up when Scowcroft writes that our new aim in securing peace in the Middle East requires us to "reach out" to Europe in generating a new policy: But American resolve will not suffice without the willing engagement of other states, especially those of Europe and the region itself. Our appeal to the Europeans, with whom our differences over the Middle East have been significant, must be based on reaching out to them on the Palestinian peace process and Iran, and soliciting their help on Iraq. Unfortunately, what Scowcroft wants us to...
November 13, 2004
Government exists to protect its citizens, and free societies give up a certain level of their liberty in order to enable their government to fulfill its mandate. The definition of protection varies, but the concept is the same; in America, we traditionally limit government to national defense and a certain level of social support for the neediest, while countries like France and Germany define protection in their cradle-to-grave social systems. But the one definition on which we all agree is the guarding of our lives and our ability to exercise our freedom. When government fails in this primary obligation, the social contract breaks down and people take action themselves for their own security -- and the chaos that results creates a further distortion in society. Vigilante justice becomes the tyranny of the strong and the law, which exists to ensure liberty and equal treatment for all, no longer functions as...
Baseball has decided to postpone looking at instant replay after major-league GMs split on continuing its review: Upon further review, baseball will hold off on taking a look at instant replay. After watching umpires reverse almost every missed call in the postseason, major league general managers split 15-15 Thursday on whether to keep exploring the subject. "Based on that vote, it's unlikely we'll do anything substantive in the next year to pursue instant replay," MLB executive vice president Sandy Alderson said. In the past twenty years, baseball games have bloated from an average running time of two hours to well over three hours now. I used to be embarrassed for Los Angeles fans who ducked out after the sixth inning, but now if you have kids you can't keep them up past that time for a night game. Increased advertising time, needed to pay the skyrocketing salaries of the players,...
I got this e-mail yesterday from CQ reader and commenter LoveMyMarine, a Marine Corps wife who works on behalf of her husband and his comrades in arms. She lets us know how we can help support our troops in the field, especially the Marines that just celebrated the Corps' 229th birthday by battling to eliminate the terrorists in Fallujah. Our six year old started a banner that states simply, "THANK YOU MARINES". We were at the VRE station on Nov 10th (Marine Corps Birthday) and at the Vietnam Wall Nov 11th asking people to sign the banner, which I will be sending to Iraq along with the Christmas Care Packages for 1st Marine Division. I wonder if I could please ask you to post a link to two other worthwhile grassroots organizations? Wounded Warriors got a plug on Bill O' Reilly, but as I called to remind them, they forgot...
Vice President Dick Cheney experienced "shortness of breath" and was taken to a hospital this morning, the AP reports: "On the recommendation of his doctors, the vice president is going to George Washington University Hospital for some tests," spokesman Ken Lisaius said. "He experienced some shortness of breath Saturday morning and has had a bad cold, which could be the cause for the shortness of breath." President Bush was notified, Lisaius said. Besides wishing the best for Dick Cheney and his family on a personal level, the incapacitation of the VP would be a tough blow for the Bush Administration. Cheney provides a philosophical focus and operational expertise to the war on terror, and losing those talents even for a short time will be tough to overcome....
November 14, 2004
The Scotsman reviews the legacy of poverty that the so-called hero of the Palestinian people has left his erstwhile countrymen. Yasser Arafat managed to siphon off most of the incoming aid to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, perhaps as much as three billion pounds, and even his overindulged and Machiavellian wife may not know where Arafat stashed it: IN THE poverty-stricken West Bank and Gaza, thousands languish in refugee camps. Outside Yasser Arafats former headquarters in Ramallah children beg in the streets. The late leader himself was also said to have lived frugally, but his fortune, skimmed from foreign aid and taxes and salted away in a network of secret bank accounts, has been estimated at up to 3bn. Among his officials, there was always the fear that if something happened to Arafat, no one would know where all the money was, such was the culture of mismanagement and...
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist declined to actively support Arlen Specter, telling Fox News Sunday that Specter had to agree to back all of George Bush's judiciary nominees if he expected to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee: A Republican senator who has questioned whether an abortion opponent could win approval to the U.S. Supreme Court must agree to back President Bush's nominees if he is to head the committee acting on those nominations, the Senate's Republican leader said. Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, in line to become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has yet to make a persuasive case that he should head the panel, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said on "Fox News Sunday." This issue had quieted down somewhat over the past few days, and it looked like Specter might settle into the chairmanship chastened but safely. This looks like a moderate escalation in the battle...
The EU-3 appears to have won a major diplomatic concession from Iran as the Islamic Republic has agreed to halt its uranium enrichment program, which the UN confirmed separately: Iran has given the United Nations a written promise to fully suspend uranium enrichment, diplomats said on Sunday, in an apparent bid to dispel suspicions that Tehran wants to build a nuclear bomb. The move also would appear to blunt an American drive to take Iran before the United Nations for the imposition of sanctions. By issuing the written commitment to the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency the International Atomic Energy Agency Iran dropped demands for modification of a tentative deal worked out on Nov. 7 with European negotiators, agreeing instead to continue a freeze on enrichment and to suspend related activities, diplomats told The Associated Press. "Basically it's a full suspension," said one of the diplomats, speaking on...
Time Magazine reports that al-Qaeda has worked on plans to smuggle nuclear weapons out of Europe and into the US through Mexico, putting border security and immigration back to the center of war strategy: A key al-Qaeda operative seized in Pakistan recently offered an alarming account of the group's potential plans to target the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction, senior U.S. security officials tell TIME. Sharif al-Masri, an Egyptian who was captured in late August near Pakistan's border with Iran and Afghanistan, has told his interrogators of "al-Qaeda's interest in moving nuclear materials from Europe to either the U.S. or Mexico," according to a report circulating among U.S. government officials. Masri also said al-Qaeda has considered plans to "smuggle nuclear materials to Mexico, then operatives would carry material into the U.S.," according to the report, parts of which were read to TIME. Masri says his family, seeking refuge from...
Both Hugh Hewitt and myself have taken a lot of heat for our position on the Arlen Specter kerfuffle. Our readers keep reminding us of Specter's track record over six terms in the Senate as a center-left gadfly in GOP ranks. I don't want to speak for Hugh -- he can speak well enough on his own -- but I am well aware of Specter's track record, and it's not as germane as people think. In the first place, Specter's record on judicial nominations is nowhere near as bad as people like to make out. He took part in the original Borking, and Robert Bork has understandably made Specter's ascension to the chair of the Judiciary Committee a personal crusade. However, during the past term Specter supported every one of Bush's nominees -- every one. And if he blew it with Bork, he had the credibility to attack Anita Hill...
With the death of uberterrorist Yasser Arafat, the Palestinians have the opportunity to shake off the years of corrupt strongman rule and attempt to follow the Afghanis into a functional democracy. So far, as the Telegraph reports, the Palestinians have not jumped out to an auspicious start: Fears that the struggle to find a new Palestinian leader could bring bloodshed and instability were confirmed last night when the PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas was caught in a gun battle during a visit to Gaza. Two people were killed and 10 wounded when fighting broke out as militiamen opposed to the visit confronted the bodyguards of Mr Abbas, who was yesterday named as the dominant Fatah faction's candidate for the "presidency". The Palestinians have shown no predilection for democracy or due process of law -- they've ruled and been ruled by the gun for decades. Arafat never held another presidential election after...
November 15, 2004
Using the brutal murder of Theo Van Gogh in the Netherlands and a Buddhist worker in Thailand, the AP reports that Islam has increasingly become unmoored from the wider world, and that even Muslims now concede that extremists have hijacked the Religion of Peace to excuse their murder sprees: "The fault lines are growing," said Fawaz Gerges, a professor of Middle Eastern and International Affairs at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y. "It's not just between the Muslims and non-Muslims. It's also within Islam itself. It's a battle between moderate Muslims and extremist forces that threaten to hijack Islam." The most recent hot spots zigzag around the atlas from Liberia in West Africa to the Netherlands to Southeast Asia. They join a growing roster of places already feeling the strains of religious conflict and terrorism along the edges of the Islamic world regions as diverse as Chechnya, Nigeria,...
The New York Times's Robin Toner analyzes the political realignment taking place in the South and concludes that the nation has become more polarized since Democrats have lost ground in their traditional center of power. However, Toner uses contradictory racial arguments and ironically engages in a bigoted fallacy about Republicans to reach her conclusion: In the new Congress, only 4 of the 22 senators from the 11 states of the old Confederacy will be Democrats, the lowest number since Reconstruction; as recently as 1990, 15 of those Southern senators were Democrats. In the House, the Democrats suffered smaller but still significant losses in Texas, where a Republican redistricting plan took down a group of veteran lawmakers, including the paradigmatic Southern conservative: Representative Charles W. Stenholm, a 13-term deficit hawk and longtime leader of the Blue Dog Democrats, a group of centrists in the House. This moment has been a long...
James Carville, one of the leading voices for Democrats over the past 12 years, displayed the kind of class and inclusiveness that Democrats accuse Republicans of lacking on yesterday's Meet the Press. Bill at INDC Journal points out this exchange with Tim Russert on air: MR. RUSSERT: George Bush have a mandate? MR. CARVILLE: The only politician in America I know with a mandate is Jim McGreevey, Tim. MS. MATALIN: Oh, gee. MR. CARVILLE: No, of course he does. I mean, he's going to... MR. RUSSERT: Who's running this guy's material, Mary? This... MS. MATALIN: Oh, I'm not. I'm not getting up anymore. Can you imagine the outcry if Karl Rove -- or hell, even Mary Matalin -- had made fun of James McGreevy's sexual orientation on national TV? ACT-UP would already have pickets outside Capitol Hill demanding someone get fired, and the New York Times would be clucking its...
Since the mainstream media has decided that Afghanistan, without gunfire and kidnappings, is rather boring, Arthur Chrenkoff has continued his efforts to inform Americans about the excellent progress being made in the former Taliban tyranny. His work appears in both OpinionJournal and in his own blog. It's impossible to excerpt and too important to miss; be sure to read the entire article....
As expected, Secretary of State Colin Powell has submitted his resignation and will leave the Bush Administration in January, CNN reports this morning. No one seriously expected Powell to stick around through a second Bush term, and some speculation has him taking over the World Bank. Now, Washington and the media have already begun the guessing game surrounding the open position. The AP offers John Danforth as the leading candidate: Most of the speculation on a successor has centered on U.N. Ambassador John Danforth, a Republican and former U.S. senator from Missouri, and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. I'd expect Rice to get the nod over Powell, but Danforth is an intriguing selection. He probably would sail through the confirmation process, while a Rice nomination might provide yet another platform for Democrats to demagogue on Iraq. Of course, now that the election is over, denying them that platform is less...
Less than six months after the release of the final report from the 9/11 Commission, new CIA Director Porter Goss promises to deliver what the panel recommended and the Democrats demanded -- a shake-up of the intelligence community that received such harsh criticism for its overreliance on technology and closemindedness. Now that Goss has actually taken action, however, Democrats have been howling about the "purge" at Langley. Today, though, Goss picked up important political support for the housecleaning from the one Republican that every Democrat hailed during the election cycle: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) yesterday supported CIA Director Porter J. Goss's shake-up of the intelligence agency, which he described as "dysfunctional" and not providing President Bush with the information needed to conduct the war on terrorism. Reacting to stories about potential resignations of CIA officials in response to actions taken by Goss and his staff, McCain, appearing on ABC's "This...
The Senate Committee on Government Affairs has discovered that corruption in the UN Oil-For-Food program put over twenty-one billion dollars into Saddam Hussein's hands, more than double the previous estimates, which already boggled the mind: Saddam Hussein's regime made more than $21.3 billion in illegal revenue by subverting the U.N. oil-for-food program more than double previous estimates, according to congressional investigators. "This is like an onion we just keep uncovering more layers and more layers," said Sen. Norm Coleman (news, bio, voting record), R-Minn., whose Senate Committee on Government Affairs received the new information at hearing Monday. New figures on Iraq's alleged surcharges, kickbacks and oil-smuggling are based on troves of new documents obtained by the committee's investigative panel, Coleman told reporters before the hearing. The documents illustrate how Iraqi officials, foreign companies and sometimes politicians allegedly contrived to allow the Iraqi government vast illicit gains. The findings...
Sun Microsystems announced today that its long-awaited new version of its Solaris operating system would be priced to compete strongly against Microsoft Windows. In fact, in contrast to the expensive XP, Sun plans to offer its operating system for free: After investing roughly $500 million and spending years of development time on its next-generation operating system, Sun Microsystems Inc. on Monday will announce an aggressive price for the software - free. ... "Hewlett Packard sells a printer at a low price and makes a lot of money on printer cartridges. Gillette gives you the razor and makes a lot of money on the blades," said Scott McNealy, Sun's chief executive. "There are different ways to drive market penetration." Solaris 10 will be unveiled Monday at an event in San Jose, though it won't be formally released until the end of January. It will work on more than 270 computer platforms...
ABC reports President Bush will nominate Condoleezza Rice to rep