November 1, 2005
UN Demands Syrian Cooperation, Syria Refuses
Yesterday, the UN Security Council unanimously passed a watered-down resolution demanding full cooperation from Syria and its dictator, Bashar Assad, in the investigation into the assassination of Lebanese politician Rafik Hariri. The resolution gained Russian and Chinese support only when the sponsoring nations of the US, UK, and France removed the specific threat of economic sanctions: The Security Council voted unanimously on Monday to compel Syria to stop obstructing a United Nations investigation into the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri or face unspecified "further action." The 15-to-0 vote was a diplomatic shunning of Syria, which has found itself increasingly isolated since the publication 10 days ago of an initial report by the chief United Nations investigator in the case that identified high-ranking Syrian officials as suspects in the assassination. Among the votes was that of Algeria, the Arab representative on the Council. While the resolution that...
The Big Three On Alito
Four weeks ago, the editorial boards of three most influential liberal newspapers reviewed the Harriet Miers nomination to the Supreme Court with suspicion due to her lack of a track record on legal issues. Oddly, the LA Times came closest to mirroring the eventual conservative reaction while the New York Times and Washington Post took a more optimistic approach to the unusual choice, although all three wondered about the role that proximity played in Bush's selection. Today, however, Bush's choice of a clearly conservative jurist with originalist approach has removed all of the suspicion and doubt from the editorialists' minds. Unsurprisingly, the most definite reaction comes from the NYT, where they decry the "lost opportunity" by picking a "white man" instead of the "wrong woman": Whatever the answer, this nomination is yet another occasion to bemoan lost opportunities. Mr. Bush could have signaled that he was prepared to move on...
The Alito Smear: Italian=Mafioso
The anti-Alito gang has already come up with its first smear, and at least this time it doesn't hinge on speculation of the sexual orientation of a five-year-old son of the nominee. No, this time it relates to the ethnicity of the nominee himself, Samuel Alito, and his failure to win a conviction in one Mafia case seventeen years ago. The implication, which even Chris Matthews noted was "disgusting" and "amazingly bad politics", will claim that Alito somehow let one slip away for his paisan. From the first paragraph and then the second talking point, courtesy of Redstate: While serving as a U.S. Attorney, Alito failed to obtain a key conviction, releasing nearly two dozen mobsters back into society. ... U.S. Attorney Alito Failed to Obtain Conviction of 20 Mobsters, Saying “You Can’t Win Them All.” Federal law enforcement agencies sustained a major rebuff in their anti-mafia campaign with the...
Democrats Deny Open Government To American Electorate
In a move that has not occurred in twenty-five years, the Democrats shut the American public out of the Senate chamber and forced a secret session of the upper chamber this afternoon. Without warning, Harry Reid invoked Rule 21 and after an immediate second, chased out the press and Senate staffers, locked the doors -- and threw a tanrum over Joe Wilson: he US Senate held a rare secret session to discuss a scandal that led to the resignation of a top White House official last week and the intelligence used to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Opposition Democrats requested the closed door session saying it was necessary to allow for a full, open debate on alleged manipulation of prewar intelligence. This shows the emptiness of Democrats, both in head and heart. As Bill Frist said afterwards, the minority party proves it has nothing to contribute except cheap political...
First Mate Update, Day 5: Home Sweet Home
The First Mate is at home, resting comfortably after her bout with pneumonia. She's still hacking and coughing, but her meds should take care of that over the next couple of weeks. She has had an ongoing problem with lung infections since the pancreas transplant, as I mentioned earlier, and they want to do a study on the cultures they've collected to see if they can determine how to get her past them. She says to tell you all hello, and thank all of you for the prayers....
November 2, 2005
Gomery Report, Or Liberals Run Wild!
Yesterday's big news in Canada came not from Parliament barring doors, as did its American counterpart, but from the release of the long-awaited Gomery Report. Lengthy, detailed, and detached, its style appears more scholarly than accusatory, and almost seems designed to moderate calls for justice into points of mildly interesting historical review. The facts, however, completely the style. Gomery accuses people at the highest levels of the former Chrétien Liberal government of malfeasance, theft, money laundering, and more. Gomery identified Jean Pelletier, Chrétien's chief of staff, and minister Alfonse Gagliano as the highest-ranking members of the government personally tied to the corruption, and blames Chrétien himself for allowing the pair to run the entire scam right out of the Prime Minister's office: # The Prime Minister's Office, via Jean Pelletier, and then-minister of public works, Alfonso Gagliano, directed the awarding of contracts through the Sponsorship Program – bypassing normal departmental...
Germany Stumbles On Forming Government
Angela Merkel has stumbled badly coming out of the gate in forming a government from the Grand Coalition negotiated between the SPD and her CDU/CSU, as the Socialist element of the SPD has bolted from Gerhardt Shroeder's party. The turmoil cost her one key ally from the CSU, and now it appears that the country might have to face new elections in the spring: Germany's nascent government was in chaos yesterday after the would-be finance minister, a key ally of the future chancellor, Angela Merkel, turned his back on the administration. Edmund Stoiber, the governor of Bavaria, said he would prefer to stay in Germany's most prosperous state than risk his fortunes in Berlin. Mr Stoiber, who is the leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), junior partners in the conservative alliance led by Mrs Merkel, said his decision was influenced by uncertainty over the future of the Social Democrats...
Liberals Love Alito: LA Times
While conservative enthusiasm for Judge Samuel Alito has received widespread coverage from the Exempt Media this week, the assumption of the reverse has received universal and unquestioned acceptance. In the simplified world of mass media, the judiciary gets represented as a zero-sum game, and where the parties keep the stakes high in order to prevail. Interestingly, the Los Angeles Times breaks that mold first in a profile of some unexpected support for Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court -- from liberal legal activists: Samuel A. Alito Jr. was quickly branded a hard-core conservative after President Bush announced his nomination, but a surprising number of liberal-leaning judges and ex-clerks say they support his elevation to the Supreme Court. Those who have worked alongside him say he was neither an ideologue nor a judge with an agenda, conservative or otherwise. They caution against attaching a label to Alito. Kate Pringle, a New...
Anti-Filibuster Forces Add Strength As Bush Reaches Out To Moderates
Two stories out of Washington help explain the frustration felt by Harry Reid yesterday and his need to pull a splashy stunt to try to capture the press' attention away from the Alito nomination. The first, a Washington Post story, reports that the Bush administration has started expanding Judge Alito's Senatorial visits to moderates outside of the Judiciary Committee to feed the momentum that appears to have built for his confirmation: A day after President Bush nominated him to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Alito spent the day on Capitol Hill introducing himself to more lawmakers. He focused on Democratic senators representing Republican-leaning states as well as Republican members of a bipartisan coalition that headed off judicial filibusters this year. White House strategists assume that they will lose at least the 22 Senate Democrats who voted against confirmation of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. in September. But they...
Democrats: Racism OK For Liberals Opposing Conservatives
The Democrats in Maryland have decided that they like racism, especially racist stereotypes such as slave gibberish and minstrel-show caricatures of African-Americans, and have publicly come out in favor of their use in political campaigns. While such imagery would get a Republican immediately denounced as a hatemonger, Democrats feel free to use them as long as their targets are conservative African-Americans, such as Michael Steele: Black Democratic leaders in Maryland say that racially tinged attacks against Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele in his bid for the U.S. Senate are fair because he is a conservative Republican. Such attacks against the first black man to win a statewide election in Maryland include pelting him with Oreo cookies during a campaign appearance, calling him an "Uncle Tom" and depicting him as a black-faced minstrel on a liberal Web log. ... "There is a difference between pointing out the obvious and calling someone...
House Defeats Blogger Speech Bill
Despite the efforts of bloggers in promoting an exception to the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance rules for on-line punditry, the House has defeated the measure on a procedural vote. The lower chamber turned down the measure, already passed by the Senate, by failing to gather the needed two-thirds majority to overcome technical obstacles placed in its path by original BCRA sponsors Christopher Shays (R) and Marty Meehan (D): Online political expression should not be exempt from campaign finance law, the House decided Wednesday as lawmakers warned that the Internet has opened up a new loophole for uncontrolled spending on elections. The House voted 225-182 for a bill that would have excluded blogs, e-mails and other Internet communications from regulation by the Federal Election Commission. That was 47 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed under a procedure that limited debate time and allowed no amendments. The vote in effect clears the way...
The Palestinian Version, However, They're Fine With
Sometimes, it really appears that people have an unending capacity for unintentional satire. Take for example the Guardian (UK) on a new, non-lethal Israeli tactic against the Palestinians. The newspaper reports on the UN's disapproval of sonic attacks on Palestinian strongholds in Gaza during the engagements caused by Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel in recent weeks after the Israeli disengagement: Israel is deploying a terrifying new tactic against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip by letting loose deafening "sound bombs" that cause widespread fear, induce miscarriages and traumatise children. The removal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip opened the way for the military to use air force jets to create dozens of sonic booms by breaking the sound barrier at low altitude, sending shockwaves across the territory, often at night. Palestinians liken the sound to an earthquake or huge bomb. They describe the effect as being hit by a...
November 3, 2005
Muslims Try To Outdo Von Choltitz
As the Nazis started falling back in France, Hitler devised an insane plan to burn Paris to the ground before any possible withdrawal. He put General von Choltitz in charge of the city, who stalled Hitler for as long as possible before surrendering the city intact to invading Free French forces. The German general could have easily destroyed major parts of historical Paris, and nearly sacrificed both his life and those of his family in keeping the City of Light intact. What von Choltitz preserved, Paris' own Muslim population appears intent on destroying now. For a full week, night has brought riots and destruction to the City of Light, while the French government seems paralyzed and unsure about how to stop it. It started when French police investigated a robbery in an area known to law enforcement as a "no-go" area, one in which even police dare not intrude on...
Did Corruption Kill New Orleans?
New testimony suggests that the flawed levees holding back Lake Pontchartrain from the New Orleans basin may have failed not only due to design defects, but also from decades-old corner cutting during their construction. The New York Times reports that interviews with the workers themselves that built the levees suggest that the construction crews failed to build the levees even to the faulty design specifications, leaving them inadequately anchored for resistance to large storms: "These levees should have been expected to perform adequately at these levels if they had been designed and constructed properly," said the expert, Raymond Seed, a professor of civil engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. "Not just human error was involved," Professor Seed said. "There may have been malfeasance." Professor Seed, whose team was financed by the National Science Foundation, did not offer hard evidence to back up his accusation. But he said after the...
Lying Liars Love Joseph Wilson
Today's Wall Street Journal has a can't-miss editorial published in its open-to-all OpinionJournal website. It excoriates the "Clare Luce Democrats," those who have again appointed Joe Wilson their poster boy for the Bush-lied meme that went down to defeat in 2004 when their party used it as the only plank in their platform. Harry Reid took up that strategy himself when he led the Senate into secret session, the first time in 25 years Rule 21 had been used without agreement between the two parties: Harry Reid pulled the Senate into closed session Tuesday, claiming that "The Libby indictment provides a window into what this is really all about, how this Administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq." But the Minority Leader's statement was as demonstrably false as his stunt was transparently political. ... We are now seeing the spectacle of Bush-hating Democrats adopting...
Alito Smear #2: The Draft Dodger
CNN weighed in last night with an AP story that will probably crank up the anti-Alito smear artists on the Left for the next 24-48 hours -- the fact that Samuel Alito went into the Army Reserve rather than wait to get drafted. Faced with a low draft number, Alito chose to enlist as an officer instead and spent a few months on active duty before starting an eight-year career in the Reserves: Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito joined the Army Reserve while he was a college student because his lottery number had made it likely he would be drafted for the Vietnam War, college roommates said Wednesday. Alito was part of the Army's ROTC program during his years at Princeton -- 1968 to 1972 -- a period when the war in Southeast Asia escalated and more American men were drafted. ... With graduation looming, the student deferment gone and...
Secret Code In Budget Deficit Foretells Alien Invasion!
The irony proved too delicious to pass unnoticed. The National Press Foundation agreed to host a joint seminar on media coverage of the budget crisis, sponsored and initiated by the Heritage Foundation and the Brookings Institution in order to promote wider and more in-depth coverage of the expanding monetary gap. Journalists, policymakers, and one lowly blogger (yours truly) came as guests and speakers to discuss the causes of the budget crisis and why the media has so much trouble engaging public attention on it. However, when attendees and presenters alike arrived at the National Press Club, they found a separate event scheduled as a special luncheon, square in the middle of the budget-crisis seminar. Ambassador Joe Wilson would make an appearance and give a talk about his exploits in Niger and as a gadfly to the Bush administration. We received a first-hand practical lesson on attention spans when some of...
A Smarter Schedule, A Dumber AP
Despite calling the January 9th schedule for Samuel Alito's confirmation hearings with the Judiciary Committee a "bipartisan repudiation" of Bush's request for expedited hearings in December in the AP lead on the story, nothing in the rest of the article even remotely suggests that the schedule repudiates anything. In fact, the article by David Espo suggests that the Republicans may have thought through a better strategy than the White House, and that the White House may well have agreed with them. Here's what Espo wrote: The Republican-controlled Senate will begin hearings Jan. 9 on Judge Samuel Alito's appointment to the Supreme Court, leaders of the Judiciary Committee announced Thursday, a bipartisan repudiation of President Bush's call for a final confirmation vote before year's end. "It simply wasn't possible to accommodate the schedule that the White House wanted," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the committee chairman. He outlined a timetable that...
A Reply From One Republican Vote Against Free Speech
CQ reader Ed C used some personal connections to get a specific response from one of the Republicans that voted against the blogger exemption to the BCRA last night. Todd Platts represents Pennsylvania's CD-19, which includes York and Mechanicsburg, and normally provides a solid center-right vote for the Republicans. Platt's office gave Ed C this response to explain why the normally reliable GOP politician voted against free speech: I strongly support free speech on the Internet, just as I do on the airwaves and in the public square. Blogs and other Internet communications are an exciting and growing aspect of our democratic system. They provide a forum for debate and a low-cost means of promoting candidates and ideas. At the same time, without the application of any campaign finance restrictions to the Internet (as proposed by H.R. 1606), corporations and unions could improperly funnel undisclosed contributions of exceedingly large sums...
CQ Joins The Navy ....
... or at least CQ will join the Navy team in the Soldiers Angels new fundraising project, Project VALOUR-IT. This new project aims to purchase laptop computers for wounded veterans when they come home. Hopefully, we will get a new class of milbloggers when this gets completely rolled out. Here's the description from the site: Currently we are forming "libraries" of laptops equipped with the voice-controlled software for wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines at each major military medical center to check out during their stay. Copies of the voice-controlled software for use on home computers are also available to servicemembers who still need it as they leave the medical center. In special circumstances, a laptop may be provided to a soldier for his or her permanent use. Each fully equipped laptop will cost an estimated $685 (plus shipping), thanks to retailer discounts. Thus, the first two phases will require...
Shaffer Loses His Appeals
Earlier today, I received a message from Mark Zaid, attorney for Able Danger whistleblower Lt. Colonel Anthony Shaffer. The Defense Intelligence Agency has decided to proceed in revoking Col. Shaffer's clearance, a necessary component for his civilian job at the agency, and will likely terminate his employment. Zaid says: Ed, in record breaking speed that to me clearly denotes selective retaliatory attention, the DIA's SAB has affirmed the revocation of Tony's security clearance. Unfortunately DIA has seen fit to completely disregard our submissions, and Cong Weldon and Hunters' formal requests to refrain from acting against Tony. This was the final stage of the process. There are no more administrative appeals left with respect to the clearance. A response to the indefinite suspension will be filed tomorrow. I expect that Tony will receive a notice of termination also in record breaking speed. That will take effect no sooner than thirty days...
November 4, 2005
The French Cancer Metastasizes While The Media Diagnoses ADHD
The French riots continued for another night while the Chirac government vacillated on its response. Rather than show signs of petering out, the violence instead spread to nearby towns last night -- and the BBC still can barely bring itself to mention the word "Muslim" in its coverage of the violent uprising: The violence that has wracked Paris suburbs over the past week has spread to new areas and outside the capital for the first time. French youths set alight buildings and cars and buses in the eighth consecutive night of rioting. Cars were torched in the eastern city of Dijon, and sporadic unrest was reported in south and west France. The violence was triggered by the deaths of two teenagers of African origin. "Of African origin" means, of course, Muslim, a fact that somehow the BBC thinks remains a secret from its readers. If facts only contained themselves to...
Liberals Take Body Blow From Gomery
Now that the other Gomery Inquiry shoe has dropped on the Liberal Party, the Canadian electorate has begun to deliver its own verdict on the corruption that rose to the highest levels of government. Fresh polling by the Global National and Ipsos shows that the Liberals have lost seven points almost overnight and that their main rivals, the Tories of the CPC, have picked up four and now find themselves in a virtual dead heat (via Newsbeat1): While Federal NDP leader Jack Layton flirts with the possibility of pushing a Christmas election, an exclusive Global National/Ipsos Reid poll shows the Liberals taking a heavy beating in popularity, dropping seven per cent since the Gomery Report was released Tuesday. ... According to the poll national vote support for each major Federal party current sits at: • 31% for Paul Martin and the Liberals (-7 points) • 30% for Stephen Harper and...
Maryland Democrats Condemn Racism But Not Racists In Party
After the Washington Times exposed Maryland Democrats as willing participants in racist attacks on Michael Steele and other black conservatives, the embarrassment has caused a number of Democrats to publicly eschew such tactics. Unfortunately, they refuse to condemn the people in their party who practice such behavior on behalf of the party, putting them in the awkward position of condemning racism while excusing the racists: U.S. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin yesterday pledged not to use racially tinged attacks in his campaign for U.S. Senate but stopped short of repudiating fellow Maryland Democrats who have said such tactics are acceptable against Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele because he is a black conservative Republican. "I have never in my entire life brought race into what I do in life, and it is not going to come in now, at this stage," said Mr. Cardin, a 10-term congressman who could face Mr. Steele...
All Hands On Deck
Here's a little Friday night fun -- Aaron wants to poll the blogosphere to see which blogs get what cards in his new Deck O' Bloggers. I don't know which card would be appropriate card for a Captain -- maybe the Jack of Spades? Maybe my Buccaneer skin would get me a Diamonds face card. I'll wait and see if I get any votes for either. At any rate, it sounds like good clean blogosphere fun. Hugh as the King of Hearts? I would have guessed the Ace of (RF Moeller) Diamonds. As for the Queen of Hearts, does anyone know if Juice Newton blogs?...
Would You Like A Coup With That Leak?
[Vox Taciturn, who recently retired from blogging due to family obligations, happily takes me up on my offer to host his guest posts. Vox, a former member of the intelligence community, attempts to connect a few dots in today's post. -- Captain Ed] Anyone who isn't purposefully and willfully deluding themselves has seen the folly of Plame-gate: The alleged White House-driven plot to seek vengeance against “truth-telling” Joe Wilson. That Joe has been proven to be anything but a truth-teller is beside the point; the neo-cons attacked his wife, the mother of his children, and a dedicated public servant in covert status at the CIA. That a simple search of public information – something any reporter could have done, something the FBI Special Agents working for Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald surely did, and something any foreign intelligence service would have done had they decided to do business with CIA front Brewster...
November 5, 2005
Alito Smear #3: The Rock-Ribbed Racist's Candidate
Normally I page through most of the news stories in a day's media output, selecting a handful as interesting and "staging" them in a separate Firefox session before deciding which ones to analyze. Occasionally, however, I find one so offensive and remarkable that I drop everything and start immediately. Thus I came to Colbert King's screed in the Washington Post this morning on his opinion of judicial conservatism/originalism and its proponents. Titled "Credentials Are Fine, but Values Matter, Too," King pulls out the race card with no substantiation whatsoever: Thus sayeth the high priests of far-right conservatism: To be worthy of appointment to the Supreme Court, a nominee must be scholarly, a great intellect and a possessor of sterling conservative credentials. In addition, the nominee should come equipped with a well-established constitutional philosophy, experience in constitutional law and the ability to divine what the Constitution means through analysis of its...
Paris Riots Spread Across France
The rioting that spent a week penned up in immigrant ghettoes around Paris finall broke out across France last night, with the torching of almost a thousand cars overnight. Government indecision and inaction appears to have emboldened the disaffected in France, transforming the riots from an isolated act to a movement with serious implications for the stability of the center of the EU: Widespread riots across impoverished areas of France took a malevolent turn in a ninth night of violence, with youths torching an ambulance and stoning medical workers coming to the aid of a sick person. Authorities arrested more than 250 people, an unprecedented sweep since the beginning of the unrest. Bands of youths also burned a nursery school, warehouses and nearly 900 cars overnight as the violence spread from the restive Paris suburbs to towns around France. The U.S. warned Americans against taking trains to the airport through...
Gray Lady Doesn't Like Democracy
The New York Times editorial board should consider putting its own essays behind the $50 sanity firewall, playing to its elitist core audience rather than the broader sphere of readers that engage in the political process. Today's editorial on referenda exposes Pinch's crew as the worst kind of elitists -- those who believe that American voters cannot be trusted with a democracy at all, but should instead rely on their betters to instruct them on how to behave: Government by referendum should come with a warning: vote yes at your own risk. Measures placed on the ballot by citizen initiatives are by their nature missing the devil of the details. The questions are designed to be brief, often to the point of being misleading or confusing. When the list is interminable, as it is in some states this year, the overwhelmed voter might be best advised to just say no....
Warren Beatty, Stalker
Warren Beatty and his wife Annette Bening have attempted to shadow Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger through his last several appearances in support of his referenda in California's upcoming special election. Up to now, everyone assumed Beatty had finally decided to pull the trigger and run for governor next year, starting his long-rumored political career after seeing his movie career dry up over the past decade. However, Beatty announced today that he will not run for office next year, creating a lot of confusion among Californians about why he keeps following the Governator everywhere: Actors Warren Beatty and wife Annette Bening tried to crash a campaign appearance Saturday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as the governor sought to drum up last-minute support for a group of statewide ballot measures. ... Beatty planned to shadow Schwarzenegger throughout the day as the governor campaigned. He has been repeatedly mentioned as a possible challenger to Schwarzenegger,...
November 6, 2005
The Shock Of Taking Political Stands In Business
Newsweek covers a story that has percolated a while in the blogs and at a lower profile in the media recently -- the backlash against the American Girls line of dolls produced by Mattel. Designed to provide a more wholesome image than the whore-image Bratz line and a more realistic image than mechanically impossible Barbie dolls, American Girls has had phenomenal success, especially among families that consider themselves more sensitive to self-image issues. Primarily, the AmGirl market focused on more socially conservative families. Unfortunately, AmGirl made the mistake of going overtly political by donating a $50K to Girls, Inc, which used to be known as The Girls Clubs, and promoting its charitable outreach. Girls, Inc explicitly promotes the upholding of Roe v Wade and homosexual rights on its website, which AmGirl devotees soon learned. Now AmGirl and GirlsInc executives proclaim themselves "shocked" that the partnership has created such a controversy:...
Crossing The Von Choltitz Line
Violent riots in France have spread throughout the nation and now have crossed into Paris proper after remaining on the outskirts for ten days. The police have not yet shown any ability to contain the rioting, nor has the government come up with much of a strategy to oppose the escalation of the arson and protest. Last night's violence generated the most destruction yet, including a the loss of a police station to firebombers: Saturday night's rioting was the most destructive so far as 1,300 vehicles were set alight and 349 people arrested, despite an enhanced police presence. So far more than 800 people have been arrested and 3,500 vehicles torched, mainly in the working-class, high-immigration outer suburbs of Paris where unemployment is as high as 20 percent. Cars were burned out in the historic centre of Paris for the first time on Saturday night. In the normally quiet Normandy...
You Have To Break A Few Humans To Prevent An Omelette
Dafydd at Big Lizards notes this Robert Novak column blurb about an exchange regarding ecoterrorism at the US Senate last week. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) interrogated ecological activist Dr. Jerry Vlasak about the aims of the radical environmental movement. Novak has the key, chilling exchange that reveals the utter lack of perspective that produces ecoterrorists: Dr. Jerry Vlasak of North American Animal Liberation was quoted as saying at an animal rights convention: "I don't think you'd have to kill, assassinate too many. I think for five lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, 2 million, or 10 million non-human lives." Questioned by Inhofe whether he was "advocating the murder of individuals," Vlasak replied: "I made that statement, and I stand by that statement." That, however, gives only part of the story. Americans for Medical Progress has more of the transcript, which oddly does not appear readily...
Filibuster Momentum Dying Out
The political momentum of a Democratic filibuster appears to have dissipated over the weekend after a momentary corrective earlier this week. Last weekend, two key GOP members of the Gang of 14 asserted that they would not only support the confirmation of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court but that they would also vote for the Byrd option eliminating filibusters on judicial nominations if the Democrats attempted to block a full Senate vote. By mid-week, the Gang had officially returned to wait-and-see mode instead, but comments today by two of the most combative members of the Democratic caucus make it clear that a filibuster has become a dead issue: "My instinct is we should commit" to an up-or-down vote by the full Senate, said [Senator Joe] Biden, a member of the Judiciary Committee. "I think the probability is that will happen. "I think that judgment won't be made ... until...
Movie Review: Shopgirl
Now that the FM's health has improved somewhat, I thought it would be a good time to go see a movie. One of the more difficult choices, though, is whether any movie really generates enough interest to spend the time and money on seeing it in the theaters. Most of the time, they appear to rehash the same ground that other films have already covered. One film, however, looked unusual enough to get us into the theater -- Shopgirl, based on a novella written by one of its stars, Steve Martin, whose work I have always enjoyed. ** Some Spoilers -- Beware ** Clair Danes stars as Mirabelle, a clerk at Saks working the glove counter who moved to Los Angeles to pursue an art career and find love. At the beginning of the film, neither appear to have shown much promise. She meets Jeremy, played by Jason Schwartzman, a...
November 7, 2005
From Riot To Revolution?
On the eleventh night of spreading and intensifying violence, French rioters shifted tactics as the French finally began to respond. Last night, the mainly Muslim rioters fired on French police, wounding 30 and transforming the unrest into something more overt: Last night about 30 police were reported injured by buckshot in Grigny, south of Paris. Youths seized a bus in Saint-Etienne and set it alight. In Rouen a burning car was pushed against a police station while cars were burned in Nantes, Rennes and Orleans. Mr Chirac, speaking after an emergency security meeting at the Elysée Palace, said: "The last word must go to the law." He warned the rioters that they would be brought to justice, but also sought to show understanding for the plight of youth in poor suburban areas. The law, however, appears incapable of answering. With riots breaking out all over the country and seemingly led...
The Soft (And Quiet) Landing Of Gas Prices
One of the major media stories over the past two months has been the explosion of gasoline prices. Starting with the Iraq War but exacerbated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, gasoline prices have more than doubled over the past three years and have blown by the $2/gallon and $3/gallon milestones in record time. The media used gas pricing as a baseball bat on George Bush's energy policies and foreign policy. However, since the rebuilding efforts began after the twin hurricanes in the Gulf, prices have steadily fallen, but the media hasn't done much reporting on their decline. USA Today provides one exception: Retail gas prices plunged an average of 23 cents nationwide in the past two weeks, marking a return to pre-Hurricane Katrina levels, according to a survey. The weighted average price for all three grades declined to $2.45 a gallon on Friday, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the semimonthly...
A Lifetime Perspective On Alito
The New York Times' Janny Scott offers a surprise for Gray Lady readers and gives a fair, in-depth look at Samuel Alito in today's edition. She delves into the personal history of Alito and discerns that his conservatism has much more to do with his nature and little to do with ideology. Scott also finds that his brilliance has won over many supporters across the ideological spectrum, most of whom warn that Alito will likely have his own ideas on how to judge cases other than any strict ideological approach: Throughout his life - at Yale Law School, as a government lawyer, as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals - Judge Alito has earned respect, even friendship, across the political spectrum. Some who describe themselves as liberals say they admire what they call Judge Alito's meticulousness and fair-mindedness - traits he appears to have come by early...
LA Times Analysis: Alito Not An Ideologue
One of the remarkable political stories this weekend was the lessening forces of the winds surrounding Hurricane Alito. Two leading Democrats in the Senate signaled that they will not filibuster Alito, and one -- Ted Kennedy -- said that he might even vote for Alito's confirmation. While some saw this as a ploy to lull Republicans into overconfidence, the Senators may have already done their research and determined, like the Los Angeles Times, that Alito's record shows a careful and thoughtful jurist that cannot easily be pigeonholed into a specific category: Although liberal activists are portraying Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. as a right-wing extremist, his 15 years' worth of legal opinions do not promise fealty to any ideology. Though many of his rulings favor business or prosecutors, they are often narrow — and a sizable number cut the other way. Accordingly, Democrats in the Senate are cautious, and there...
French Riots Come After Multiple Warnings Of Islamist Attacks
The riots in France have little connection to the Islamist terrorist offensive against the West, if the American media coverage gives any indication. However, alert CQ reader Mr. Michael points out that both American and French media sources warned of coordinated Islamist action against France in the weeks before the riot. Agence France Presse even had a quote from the maligned Nicolas Sarkozy noting the imminent nature of the threat in its 9/27 dispatch: An Algerian Islamist organisation, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), has issued a call for action against France which it describes as "enemy number one", intelligence officials said Tuesday. "The only way to teach France to behave is jihad and the Islamic martyr," the group's leader Abu Mossab Abdelwadoud, also own as Abdelmalek Dourkdal, was quoted as saying in an Internet message earlier this month. "France is our enemy number one, the enemy of...
A Visit From Royalty
In case CQ readers might wonder why I haven't posted anything tonight, I had the good fortune to get a visit from royalty. Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, you say? Nay, knave! Due to travel and the FM's illness, we missed the Little Admiral and her Halloween costume this year. Her daddy surprised us and brought her over tonight. She loves this outfit and insisted on having her wand and purse for the pictures. It's hard to believe, but the royal visit, complete with a half-hour Disney Princess videotape and a coloring book session, beats blogging by a mile....
November 8, 2005
Curfews Don't Stop Rioting
The riots in France continued for a twelfth straight night as the French have turned to a two-pronged plan of curfews and offers of new social programs to stop the violent uprising that has originated from primarily Muslim neighborhoods. The new curfew laws come under the authority of a state of emergency called by the French cabinet and grant broad powers to the police to conduct raids on suspected weapons caches: After a 12th night of violence, Nicolas Sarkozy, the Interior Minister, said state of emergency laws would be used to quell the disturbances. "We will now be able to act in a preventative manner to avoid these incidents," Mr Sarkozy said. "We will monitor, bit by bit, the evolution of events." Among other powers, police will be able to conduct raids if they suspect weapons are being stockpiled, Mr Sarkozy said. He did not say where or how curfews...
The Ramadan Offensive?
The Islamists appear to have coordinated a worldwide attack plan for Ramadan celebrations this year. While France burns in riots originating out of mainly Muslim ghettoes, Australia barely escaped a large-scale attack on its transportation systems yesterday, making over a dozen arrests just after the passage of a new anti-terrorist law that made the detentions possible: Police arrested 17 terror suspects in Australia's two biggest cities Tuesday in raids authorities said foiled a plot to carry out a catastrophic terror attack. A radical Muslim cleric known for praising Osama bin Laden was charged with masterminding the plot. More than 500 police backed up by helicopters were involved in raids across Sydney and Melbourne, arresting eight men in Sydney and nine in Melbourne and seizing chemicals, weapons, computers and backpacks. ... "The members of the Sydney group have been gathering chemicals of a kind that were used in the London Underground...
Demographics Are Destiny
The above title actually came from the lips of David Walker, who used the phrase to show the eventual time bomb of Medicare on the American financial system. However, it could have also headlined Michael Gurfinkiel's article in today's New York Sun regarding the ongoing uprising in France. Despite the collective silence by the Exempt Media on the ethnic and religious components of the riots that have engulfed the French, the fact remains that the areas where the violence originated and where it still flourishes find themselves with a common demographic component: It is one thing to know in theory that France has undergone major ethnic changes over the past 30 years and another thing altogether to confront a mass ethnic insurgency. The figures are inescapable. There are about 60 million inhabitants in continental France, plus 2 million citizens in the overseas territories (essentially the French West Indies and La...
CQ Media Notes
I will be appearing on the Lars Larson show at 6:30 PM CT to discuss the French riots. Lars has tried to make arrangements to have me on the show for a long time now, and it finally looks like it worked out for tonight - and I'm delighted to join him. I hope CQ readers will be able to listen in ... more later. UPDATE: I had a great time talking with Lars -- he and his producers run a very tight, professional ship, and Lars gave me plenty of time to talk through my points. If any CQ readers had a chance to catch the segment, let me know what you think about it....
Another Set Of Able Danger Documents To Surface?
Another shoe may drop in the Able Danger story tomorrow, when Rep. Curt Weldon plans on holding a press conference to announce new developments in the case. Weldon's office released a statement today announcing the media event tomorrow at 12:30 PM ET, which can also be found on his website, I believe. Weldon's invitation promises the following: The latest findings include: information Able Danger provided to defense officials about terrorist activity in the Port of Aden prior to the terrorist attack on the USS Cole back in October 2000; a discovery of another Able Danger member who confirms a set of Able Danger data not accounted for by the Pentagon; recent statements by the 9-11 Commission about Able Danger; and the latest efforts by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to smear Able Danger member Lt. Col. Shaffer who broke the silence about the Pentagon's efforts to track al-Qaeda worldwide prior...
Tories Refuse To Play NDP Games
The Conservative leader, Stephen Harper, drew a line in the sand today and dared Jack Layton to finally push the Martin executive over it. Harper told Canadian journalists that he would not allow the NDP to use the Tories as a "bargaining chip" to extort a better deal on health care from the Liberals and PM Paul Martin, while Layton continued to stall on whether he would support an explicit no-confidence vote early in the next session of Parliament: During Tuesday's speech — a campaign-style address which focused mainly on Liberal shortcomings and the findings of the Gomery inquiry into the sponsorship scandal — Mr. Harper noted that his party had tried to defeat the Liberals in the spring. He said that effort was born out of concern over revelations at the Gomery commission but was ultimately unsuccessful because the NDP struck a deal with the Liberals. Right now, he...
French Violence Escalates Despite Bribes, Curfew
The French will have to go back to the drawing board after their attempt to halt the riots have come up far short of their goal. Instead of reducing the violence, the rioters instead changed tactics yet again and attacked the subway system in Lyon with gasoline bombs: France declared a state of emergency Tuesday to quell the country's worst unrest since the student uprisings of 1968 that toppled a government, and the prime minister said the nation faced a "moment of truth" over its failure to integrate Arab and African immigrants and their children. Rioters ignored the extraordinary security measures, which began Wednesday, as they looted and burned two superstores, set fire to a newspaper office and paralyzed France's second largest city's subway system with a gasoline bomb. ... Officials were forced to shut down the southern city of Lyon's subway system after a gasoline bomb exploded in a...
November 9, 2005
A Good Night For Democrats
Democrats executed a near-sweep in state elections last night, winning every contest except the mayor's race in New York City, where liberal GOP incumbent Michael Bloomberg's re-election has been a foregone conclusion for weeks. In the single bright spot for Republicans, Bloomberg won a fourth straight GOP victory in NYC (Rudy Giuliani also served two terms) and broke Giuliani's record margin of victory by beating the hapless Fernando Ferrer by 20 points. Other than that lone accomplishment, the Republicans took it on the chin. As expected, the New Jersey governor's race went to Jon Corzine, but not before his ex-wife got a chance to take a couple of below-the-belt shots at Corzine at the last moment. Despite some polling showing GOP candidate Doug Forrester pulling into a dead heat, Corzine sailed to an easy 11-point victory over Forrester. At best, the Republicans had only a longshot chance in New Jersey,...
NoKos Restarting Construction On New Reactor
The North Koreans appear to have started working on their once-abandoned reactor site, and have said that they could complete the 50-megawatt reactor within two years. This new development belies the agreement reached two months ago, when Pyongyang announced its intention to stop all pursuit of plutonium development: North Korea has said it plans to finish building a 50-megawatt nuclear reactor in as little as two years, allowing it to produce enough weapons-grade plutonium for 10 weapons annually, according to the first public report of an unofficial U.S. delegation that visited Pyongyang in August. The new reactor would represent a tenfold leap in North Korea's ability to produce fuel for nuclear weapons, which could give it significant leverage in talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear programs. North Korea tentatively agreed in September to "abandon" its programs, but the talks -- which resume today in Beijing -- must still resolve how...
Let's Talk About Leaks
After watching the Democrats go nuts for the better part of weeks after their much-ballyhooed "Fitzmas" fizzled out with one indictment for perjury and obstruction of justice, the Republicans have decided to climb aboard the anti-leak bandwagon. Congressional leaders have now demanded investigations into the leak of an actual CIA operation to the Washington Post, which promises more subpoenas for reporters and plenty of headlines for a CIA that has been increasingly exposed as a political player for the Democrats during the Bush administration: House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee noted that the leak, which said the CIA-run prisons are used to interrogate terror suspects, could threaten national security. "If accurate, such an egregious disclosure could have long-term and far-reaching damaging and dangerous consequences, and will imperil our efforts to protect the American people and our homeland from terrorist attacks," they...
Falluja-sur-Seine
My new Daily Standard column discusses the ongoing violence in France, which escalated yet again on its 13th straight night well past the notion of localized riots. With over 300 French towns targeted by well-coordinated tactical attacks, the "disaffected youths" meme can only find acceptance among the media and the French government. The media has gone so far as to ignore its own reporting in assuring us that Islamists have nothing to do with the French uprising: Various media reports have described the coordination of activities and evasive tactics via cell phones, web pages, and instant messaging. French police have discovered at least one bomb-making facility in the riot zone near Paris and suspect that more exist elsewhere. Despite this rather sophisticated infrastructure of support for the riots and the warnings just prior to the outbreak of the riots they themselves published, the Washington Post's editorial page--and most of the...
AQ Targets Amman, Kills Muslims (Updated!)
A series of three bombs exploded almost simultaneously at American-owned hotels in Amman, Jordan today, killing over 50 people. Given the nature of the attack -- multiple bombs, suicide-based attacks, targeting the tourist industry -- experts believe that al-Qaeda staged the terrorist attack, probably Abu Musab al-Zarqawi from across the border in Iraq: Suicide bombers carried out nearly simultaneous attacks on three U.S.-based hotels in the Jordanian capital Wednesday night, killing at least 57 people and wounding 115 in what appeared to be an al-Qaida assault on an Arab kingdom with close ties to the United States. The explosions hit the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn hotels just before 9 p.m. One of the blasts took place inside a wedding hall where 300 guests were celebrating. Black smoke rose into the night, and wounded victims stumbled from the hotels. ... A U.S. counterterrorism official, who spoke on condition...
The End Of A Strange Interlude
One of the strangest chapters in the modern mainstream media came to a close today with the resignation or termination of Judith Miller from the New York Times. No one will be sure which actually happened, because in an extension of the he said/she said dynamic that has highlighted their relationship, neither Miller nor NYT executive editor Bill Keller can agree on reality. Here's the Paper of Record on the end of the relationship: The New York Times and Judith Miller, a veteran reporter for the paper, reached an agreement yesterday that ended her 28-year career at the newspaper and capped more than two weeks of negotiations. Ms. Miller went to jail this summer rather than reveal a confidential source in the C.I.A. leak case. But her release from jail 85 days later, after she agreed to testify before a grand jury, and persistent questions about her actions roiled long-simmering...
November 10, 2005
French Riots Abating Or Adopting New Tactics?
The media reports today indicate that the two-week-long French uprising has started to decline in intensity based on the number of cars torched, a strange echo of wartime calculations of casualties. The violence continued in the larger towns and cities, however, and the tactics have changed: France's worst civil unrest in decades abated a day after the government toughened its stance by imposing emergency measures and ordering deportations of foreigners convicted of taking part in the riots that have raged for two weeks. Over the past two nights, there was a notable decline in the number of car burnings — a barometer of the intensity of the unrest, police said Thursday. ... Hamon said the rioting, which had spread throughout France, now appeared to be concentrated in certain cities, including Toulouse, Lille, Lyon, Strasbourg and Marseille. And the AP finally mentions the "M" word: But the fact that such extraordinary...
Promise Them Santa Claus, But Give Them Paul Martin
Paul Martin pulled out Santa Claus as a reason to avoid a no-confidence motion this month in the Commons and to save his shaky grip on power for at least another two months. Meanwhile, the NDP and the Tories came closer to agreeing on a strategy that will guarantee an election in the winter that should closely follow the release of the second Gomery report: Mr. Martin said he didn't understand the current rush for an election. Mr. Martin has promised to call an election within 30 days of the release of the final report from Judge Gomery on the sponsorship scandal. That report is due in February. He also said Canadians don't want a Christmas election. "You know, they want to see Santa Claus, they don't want to see politicians," Mr. Martin said. ... Conservative Leader Stephen Harper told reporters on Wednesday it was now clear that any agreement...
Will The DoJ Probe The CIA For CYA?
A joint call for Congressional investigations into a rash of recent CIA leaks by Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist may get pre-empted by a criminal probe at the Department of Justice, Jonathan Allen reports for The Hill today: Rank-and-file members of the House and Senate intelligence committees said they were in the dark yesterday about the timing and logistics of a possible joint investigation into alleged leaks from the Central Intelligence Agency, and there were strong indications that congressional action could be preempted by a potential Justice Department probe. ... The Washington Post reported last week that the CIA has been operating secret prison camps in foreign countries to interrogate detainees. Many lawmakers said they could neither confirm nor deny the existence of such “black sites.” At least two lawmakers, including the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said yesterday that the intelligence panels should defer...
Weldon Covers Able Danger Details On Busy News Day
As I reported on Tuesday night, Curt Weldon held a press conference to keep the spotlight on Able Danger. His timing, as AJ Strata notes, left a little to be desired; the testimony of oil executives guaranteed the better part of media attention would be diverted, and the later bombing in Amman would soon supercede everything else. AJ has a great review of the conference. It garnered little media coverage, in any event, and what little it did tended to repeat what we already know. Weldon once again asserted that Able Danger gave the Pentagon two week's notice on the USS Cole bombing, as reported in the Myrtle Beach Sun: Citing information provided to him by Navy Capt. Scott Philpott, the former manager of the Able Danger project, Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., said that two weeks before the Oct. 12, 2000, attack - and then again two days before -...
Haaretz Fails As A Source
One would suspect that of all news sources that would have some sensitivity to urban legends regarding secret Jewish conspiracies, Haaretz might be primary among them. Unfortunately as bloggers discovered today, they apparently aren't. They started what will surely become an urban legend of advance Jewish knowledge of the Amman bombing, even with al-Qaeda claiming responsibility today, by falsely claiming initially that Jordanian intelligence evacuated Israelis from the targeted hotels minutes before the bombs went off in yesterday's attack. Haaretz posts a "correction" at the link they used to spread what turned out to be an unsubstantiated rumor, but don't bother to apologize for it. Instead, Yoav Stern reports on the false rumor as if Haaretz debunked it themselves: There is no truth to reports that Israelis staying at the Radisson SAS hotel in Amman on Wednesday were evacuated by Jordanian security forces before the bombing that took place there....
Alito's Conflict Of Disinterest And The Blogocon That Settled Nothing
For the past two days, the Samuel Alito nomination to the Supreme Court has made small news by actually finding a controversy that involves a factual issue. During his confirmation to the appellate court in 1990, Alito apparently promised to avoid presiding over cases involving the brokerage house Smith Barney, the investment firm Vanguard, and his sister's law firm because of his personal and financial connections to each. Years later, Alito failed to recuse himself from a case involving the first two parties, and Democrats now want to argue that Alito cannot be trusted now with a seat on the Supreme Court. Based on the urging of Judiciary Committee chair Arlen Specter, Alito responded in writing to the committee: Alito said a 1990 questionnaire he filled out for the panel covered his plans for "initial service" as a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "I respectfully submit...
November 11, 2005
American Media Quit The French Riots Story
If an American consumer read today's newspapers, he would assume that the riots in France have ended. None of the major newspapers that had covered the uprising have any specific updates today on the story, despite the continued overnight violence and an increase in the oddball metric of burnt cars in Paris. Other than an a long-overdue address to the nation by Jacques Chirac and an analysis that repeats the same line the press has taken since the beginning of the crisis, nothing would inform readers that the streets of France remained ablaze last night. Reuters carries the more factual update: Police went onto high alert in Paris on Friday as France began a holiday weekend likely to test a downward trend in two weeks of violence by youngsters angered by conditions in rundown suburbs. The country's worst unrest in four decades has receded since President Jacques Chirac's government adopted...
No One Pops The Bubbly At The Federalist Society
The New York Times reports on the mood at the Federalist Society, the gathering of conservative attorneys that found itself having to defend its existence twice this year as the White House inadvertently fed a media bias against them as extremists. Despite the confirmation of one well-regarded conservative jurist to the Supreme Court and the nomination of another, David Kilpatrick describes a rather guarded sense of accomplishment by the conservatives at the heart of the movement to return the court from its direction as a superlegislature: These might seem the best of times for the Federalist Society, the conservative lawyers' group established two decades ago to counter what its founders considered the liberal bent of law schools, bar associations and the federal courts. ... But at the convention, among the 1,500 scholars, advocates and judges, a number of whom had been on the shortlist for the Supreme Court, the mood...
He's Ba-aaaaack ....
SCENE 157. A graveyard at dusk. Slo-mo with handheld. Howard DEAN walks through the gates of a cemetery, a handful of posies in his hand. He looks nervously to either side of the fog-shrouded graveyard, seeing no one. He continues until he stops at a headstone, where wreaths of fog clear away enough for the audience to read KARL ROVE, 1999-2005. Shaking his head, DEAN places the posies on the grave just in front of the headstone -- CUE SHRIEKING MUSIC -- when a gray hand shoots out of the fresh earth and grips DEAN'S arm. A panicking DEAN cannot get any air to scream and cannot pull away. His efforts only seem to assist the corpse from its grave as more of the arm breaks clear of the surface. Just when it looks like the head must appear, DEAN finally screams -- SCENE 158: DEAN'S Bedroom. DEAN: Yeee-aaaaaaaargh! MRS...
CQ Thanks American Veterans For Their Sacrifice
CQ flies the flag that defied the terrorists at the Pentagon on September 12, 2001. Thank you to all who serve or have served our nation by laying your lives on the line for our freedom and safety. This flag now hangs in the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington DC. Special thanks to our fathers: * Edward T Morrissey Sr, Army, Korean War - 1951-53 (now Admiral Emeritus at CQ!) * Paul Flesch, USMC, World War II (1944-45), Korean War (50-52?), deceased 1991 And a happy belated birthday to the men and women of the Marine Corps, which celebrated its 230th anniversary yesterday. Semper Fi!...
Bush Goes Back To Offense On Veterans Day
After months of crescendoing criticism over the intelligence which led to the war, George Bush has finally heard enough. Regardless of whether his relative silence on the subject of pre-war intelligence came from a desire to allow Patrick Fitzgerald a nonpartisan environment in which to investigate the Plame leak or a desire to look forward and not ahead, clearly his political enemies -- not just opponents, but very obviously political enemies -- wanted to do neither. More than 30 months after the fall of Saddam, Bush today reminded the nation that the intelligence from which he operated had not much changed from 1998 when Congress and President Clinton used it to justify an ineffective attack on Saddam Hussein and to declare regime change the official policy of the United States. In fact, the only significant change that did occur was the circumstances in which Bush had to consider the intelligence:...
French Media: We'd Rather Publish The Lies
Yesterday's Guardian (UK) published an interview with Jean-Claude Dassier, a TV news executive who admits that the French media has colluded in presenting a skewed version of the suburban uprisings that continue even tonight. Dassier told an Amsterdam conference of news broadcasters that he would rather lie about the riots than allow the truth to promote a right-wing agenda: Jean-Claude Dassier, the director general of the rolling news service LCI, said the prominence given to the rioters on international news networks had been "excessive" and could even be fanning the flames of the violence. Mr Dassier said his own channel, which is owned by the private broadcaster TF1, recently decided not to show footage of burning cars. "Politics in France is heading to the right and I don't want rightwing politicians back in second, or even first place because we showed burning cars on television," Mr Dassier told an audience...
November 12, 2005
Post: George Bush Homer Gets Roger Maris Treatment
Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus "analyze" the President's speech last night and try to rebut some of the details, claiming that "asterisks dot" the argument throughout the speech. Already used in the comments here in CQ, Milbank and Pincus -- the latter especially lacking any credibility after his depantsing by Joe Wilson's misinformation campaign -- still can't deny the overall truth of Bush's speech and the despicable hypocrisy at the center of the Democratic Party's campaign to smear him as a liar: The administration's overarching point is true: Intelligence agencies overwhelmingly believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and very few members of Congress from either party were skeptical about this belief before the war began in 2003. Indeed, top lawmakers in both parties were emphatic and certain in their public statements. Milbank and Pincus argue that Bush had access to more information than Congress did, such as...
Dean Flopping At DNC
A party chairman has two main functions, interrelated but not the same: building the voter base and raising funds. In the former role, the chair has to reach outside the base to bring in new voters while maintaining good relations with the people already inside the tent. The latter role gets measured more in opposition to what the other major party accomplishes during the same period. In both tasks, it looks like the Howard Dean experiment has failed. Dean has spent most of the past year playing to a radical base with statements like "I hate Republicans and everything they stand for," instead of working with liberal Republicans and center-minded independents that eschew that kind of hatred politics. Today, the Washington Post reports that Dean -- whom the DNC selected for his prodigious fundraising ability in the last presidential primary season -- has allowed another huge funding gap between the...
French Riots Gain Steam Again Over The Weekend
Although no one would know this by reading American newspapers, which now follow the French lead and refuse to report on the ongoing uprising, but the riots in France once again started to rise in intensity, even by the odd metric given by police. The BBC reports that over 500 cars got torched last night despite a heavier police presence that resulted from intelligence that points to a massive demonstration sometime this weekend: A ban on all public meetings likely to provoke disturbances has come into effect in the French capital. The move - imposed under new emergency measures - started at 0900 GMT and will remain in force until Sunday morning. ... Rioting that erupted two weeks ago is now less intense across France, but unrest continued on Friday night, as more than 500 cars were set on fire. Two police officers were wounded and 206 people were detained...
Will Steele Split The Black Vote In Maryland?
The candidacy of Michael Steele for the Maryland Senate seat vacated by Paul Sarbanes has some Democrats worried about a split in their most loyal constituency -- the African-American vote. Steele became the first black candidate to win statewide office when he ran for Lieutenant Governor, and now his run for Sarbane's seat may have Maryland voters in a quandry: Black Maryland Democratic leaders say Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele's run for the U.S. Senate could put them at odds with black voters who would question their endorsing a white candidate, such as U.S. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, over the black Republican. "I think at that point I'd be saying that I am endorsing the Democratic ticket," said Delegate Obie Patterson, Prince George's County Democrat and former chairman of the General Assembly's black caucus. "It would be a much more difficult task to rally the troops to get out and...
Riots Move To The City
The BBC reports that riots have moved out of the darkness and into the city center in Lyon this afternoon. A show of force by police in the hours before a curfew was due to be imposed did not get its intended dampening effect: Police in the French city of Lyon have fired tear gas to break up groups of youths who hurled stones and bins hours before a curfew was due to begin. Police on the city's famous Place Bellecour square made two arrests in what state news agency AFP says is the first rioting in a major city centre. ... The trouble in Lyon began at about 1700 (1600 GMT) on Place Bellecour where a large number of riot police were on duty as a preventative measure. About 50 youths attacked stalls and damaged vehicles, witnesses were quoted as saying by Reuters news agency. Tonight might show an...
Riders Of The Mark!
Hugh says he's a Numenorean. For my part I am ... Rohirrim To which race of Middle Earth do you belong? brought to you by Quizilla I'm guessing Mitch is a Wild Man of the Plains. John Hinderaker would be a Dwarf, I'm almost positive ......
AP Misses Story On French Media Coverage Of Riots
The AP has a report out this afternoon regarding the supposedly cautious approach of the French media on reporting the riots. Elaine Ganley notices the toned-down news coverage of the social unrest and violence, but misses at least one large part of the reason why the French media have started to play down the story: At least two television stations scaled back broadcasting images of flaming vehicles — a mainstay of coverage — to avoid stoking violence. Some channels decided not to provide daily police figures on the number of cars burned overnight, in the thousands since troubles began Oct. 27. Is it self-censorship? Or a sense of responsibility? Television stations that are holding back deny any influence from police, who insist publicity for the riots has fueled "copycat" violence. Instead, the stations say they don't want to play into the hands of rampaging youths seeking coverage of what they...
Al Qaeda And Bomber's Remorse
The Scotsman reports that al-Qaeda finds itself on the political defensive after the bombings of three hotels in Amman, Jordan touched off massive anti-Islamist demonstrations. AQ supposedly has found itself surprised by the hostility of the Jordanians after bombing three of its hotels in its relatively peaceful capital: AFTER years of al-Qaeda terror attacks in which thousands have been killed, many of them Muslims - the people they wish to recruit - voices of dissent are starting to be heard in the Middle East. As moderate Muslims dare to protest at daily death tolls, even the prospect of one of Osama bin Laden's most feared cohorts, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, being handed over is being discussed. ... At first al-Qaeda announced that "a group of our best lions" had carried out the attacks to punish Jordan for supporting "the Jews and Crusaders". Then late at night it posted a second statement...
November 13, 2005
French Riots Continue Despite Ban On Assemblies
Despite a heavy police presence, the suspension of the right to assemble, and a curfew for nighttime hours, the French still found a way to riot overnight. While the major event police feared did not materialize, the show of force did not deter the rioters from torching hundreds more cars: Violence has continued in deprived city areas of France with a tally of at least 374 cars burnt out and 212 arrests despite an official ban on public meetings in an attempt to curb riots that have rocked the nation. In a 17th night of disturbances two police officers were injured Sunday, with one hospitalized after being hit by a metal object in the Paris suburb of La Courneuve. Incidents involving the burning of cars also spread overnight to several towns in neighbouring Belgium. ... Police said the situation in racially-mixed suburbs throughout France had been calmer than on previous...
Shelby Cleared By Ethics Committee
The National Journal reports today that Senator Richard Shelby will be cleared of charges that he leaked classified material, bringing an end to a 15-month investigation. The leak concerned a translation of an Arabic-language intercept that preceded 9/11: The Senate Ethics Committee informed Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., late on Friday that after a 15-month inquiry into allegations that he had leaked sensitive national security information to the news media, that it had insufficient evidence that he had done anything wrong, and would not pursue the matter further, National Journal has learned. The Senate Ethics Committee inquiry commenced as a result of a referral from the Department of Justice to the committee on July 20, 2004, in which the department said that there existed what sources described as "credible and specific information" that Shelby might have leaked classified information to the press, and then possibly made false statements to federal investigators...
The Counter-Offensive Turns Into A Team Sport
The pushback against the ridiculous "Bush lied!" campaign taken up by Democrats in 2005 after they lost an entire electoral cycle on it in 2004 has broadened out past the White House to even the President's fair-weather friends in the GOP. Glenn Reynolds points to this exchange on Face The Nation, the CBS entry on the Sunday morning talking-head shows. Bob Schieffer tried to twist Bush's words into a complaint about criticism of war policy, and John McCain would not allow him to get away with it: SCHIEFFER: President Bush accused his critics of rewriting history last week. Sen. McCAIN: Yeah. SCHIEFFER: And in--he said in doing so, the criticisms they were making of his war policy was endangering our troops in Iraq. Do you believe it is unpatriotic to criticize the Iraq policy? Sen. McCAIN: No, I think it's a very legitimate aspect of American life to criticize and...
The Second Annual Notre Dame Pilgrimage
With the Fighting Irish playing like national contenders again in the first season of the Charlie Weis era, the timing couldn't be better for the First Mate and I to make our second trip to see Touchdown Jesus, the Golden Dome, and the Notre Dame football team play on their home field. Last year, we made our way to our very first visit to South Bend by car, and we took 3 hours getting through the center of Chicago. Thanks to my brilliant navigation, I turned an eight-hour trip into a twelve-hour grueling marathon. This year, I received tickets to the Syracuse game for next Saturday from loyal (and generous!) CQ reader TJ B. Thanks to his generosity, I will be able to invite my father, the Admiral Emeritus, along for the trip, although he and his wife will fly in from SoCal rather than drive. I decided to drive...
Jay's Bogus Journey?
A number of CQ readers caught something significant that I missed earlier in the quote from Jay Rockefeller. In trying to attack George Bush and fend off Chris Wallace, Rockefeller tells Wallace that he went out to Arab leaders to conduct his own foreign policy: SEN. ROCKEFELLER: No. The – I mean, this question is asked a thousand times and I'll be happy to answer it a thousand times. I took a trip by myself in January of 2002 to Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria, and I told each of the heads of state that it was my view that George Bush had already made up his mind to go to war against Iraq – that that was a predetermined set course which had taken shape shortly after 9/11. Now, what the hell was Rockefeller doing revealing his analysis of American foreign policy and the direction of war strategy to...
Canadians Will Get A Christmas Campaign
Events have moved quickly this weekend in Ottawa. The Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois finally reached an agreement with the NDP to force elections out of Paul Martin and the Liberals by demanding a January 20th poll. The Liberals, apparently believing that the three parties were bluffing about putting up a no-confidence vote that would create an unpopular holiday-season election, refused to come to that agreement -- and the Tory/NDP/BQ coalition have shown their hand: The Liberals rejected an ultimatum posed by the opposition parties Sunday that would either see the Prime Minister agree to an election call in January or face a non-confidence motion that could topple his government next week. Liberal House Leader Tony Valeri told reporters Sunday evening in Toronto the government would not agree to call an election in January. ... Mr. Valeri challenged the opposition parties to put forth a non-confidence motion if they no longer...
November 14, 2005
France To Extend Emergency Powers Amid Continued Rioting
France went through yet another night of rioting, pressing on towards three weeks worth of violence, without question coming from its heavily Muslim immigrant areas. While the world press largely downplays the uprising as a "youth" rally, the French government will ask for a three-month extension of government by fiat as a result of their inability to end the revolt: The French cabinet is to ask parliament to extend a state of emergency aimed at tackling unrest in impoverished suburbs by three months. The laws, which allow local councils to impose curfews and ban gatherings, were introduced last Wednesday for 12 days. Parliament is expected to approve an extension of the laws, which officials say have helped curb the rioting. There were scattered incidents overnight. So far, it seems that the curfews have kept the bandwagoneers off the streets, as well as any citizens that might oppose the hardcore, organized...
Norman Podhoretz Article At OpinionJournal
The Norman Podhoretz article that appears to have inspired the GOP to finally fight back against the ridiculous and intellectually dishonest "Bush lied!" Democrat campaign now appears at the Wall Street Journal's free opinion site, OpinionJournal.com. Podhoretz takes the main thrust of a counterargument that has rumbled around the blogosphere in simpler forms and uses the data to stage a devastating rhetorical rebuttal to those Democrats who used the same intelligence in 1998 and 2002 to make themselves look tough. Podhoretz begins: Among the many distortions, misrepresentations and outright falsifications that have emerged from the debate over Iraq, one in particular stands out above all others. This is the charge that George W. Bush misled us into an immoral or unnecessary war in Iraq by telling a series of lies that have now been definitively exposed. What makes this charge so special is the amazing success it has enjoyed in...
Why Isn't This Man Smiling?
Perhaps because he watched last night as his beloved Cleveland Browns took a pasting from the Pittsburgh Steelers on national TV, 34-21, in a game that never even looked close, and certainly not as close as the final score indicates. Instead of facing the Steelers' daunting and nearly-unbeaten QB, Big Ben Roethlisberger, they got beat by Charlie Batch and Turnover Tommy Maddox. Instead of facing the powerful running-back duo of Willie Parker and Jerome Bettis, the Browns faced Duce Staley, just coming back from a long-term injury, and Verron Haynes. The result of the second- and third-string Steelers against the browns' first squad? 159 yards rushing, 382 overall yards in offense, and no turnovers -- although Maddox came close twice. I suppose Hugh watched Rome instead last night -- it was a great episode, too. I think I'd take the 13th over the Browns, too, even with the points, especially...
Game On Again
Just when the anti-Alito forces began to cast their nets elsewhere in hope of landing an issue, it looks like abortion may come back to the center of the debate. The Washington Times reports that Alito's application to join the Reagan administration explicitly states an opposition to abortion and Roe v Wade, creating the opening Democrats need to open that line of questioning at his confirmation hearing: Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, wrote that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion" in a 1985 document obtained by The Washington Times. "I personally believe very strongly" in this legal position, Mr. Alito wrote on his application to become deputy assistant to Attorney General Edwin I. Meese III. The document, which is likely to inflame liberals who oppose Judge Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court, is among many that the White House will release...
Liberals Still Playing Monty Hall
In a stunning display of sheer cynicism, the Liberals have now decided to offer a budget bill with a number of tax cuts in order to dare the three opposition parties to torpedo it for their no-confidence motion. Martin, who last avoided a no-confidence loss by coughing up $5 billion for NDP programs last spring, all of a sudden has more cash to spare for Canadians as long as they keep him in power: The federal government unveiled $39-billion in tax cuts and spending Monday in a mini-budget whose life expectancy could be measured in days as opposition parties threaten to force an election within a week. The document, released by Finance Minister Ralph Goodale, also includes a heavy emphasis on reducing Canadians' anxiety about their economic future by investing billions in post-secondary education and work training programs while making cuts to corporate taxes. ... "It's about people living fulfilling...
November 15, 2005
The Jimmy Carter Of France
Jacques Chirac finally addressed the French people about the riots that have extended into their 19th evening. Looking wan and tired, Chirac gave a speech with a familiar ring to it, at least among those Americans who have not blocked the memory of the Jimmy Carter era like the trauma that it was: President Jacques Chirac, addressing his country for the first time since unrest broke out, said that he had asked Parliament to extend a national state of emergency to February and that he would set up a program that would provide jobs and training for 50,000 youths by 2007. The president, stressing respect for the law and the need to recognize the diversity of French society, acknowledged that the past two weeks had been proof of a "profound malaise" in the country, calling it a "crisis of identity." That, of course, recalls the infamous "malaise" speech by Carter,...
Germans Also Return To The Seventies
When competing coalitions join together in a parliamentary system to form an executive, they necessarily jettison parts of the two platforms in order to form a single policy plan that can get support from most of the members of all factions. Usually this means getting rid of the more innovative notions and sticking with less controversial ideas. Unfortunately, the new German government led by Angela Merkel wants to provide the exception that tests the rule. As the London Times reports, the Germans now will attempt to spend their way out of a deficit by taxing their way to economic growth -- a daring plan, given its remarkable failure every time it's been tried in the past: Germany in the past three years has been the world’s most depressed economy, with the weakest growth in economic activity and consumption. The coalition partners — representing, as they do, the opposite ends of...
Senate GOP Plays Smart Tactics, Not Surrender (Updated)
Several CQ readers point out this article in today's New York Times, angry at what appears to be yet another Republican surrender to the Democrats on the national stage. The GOP has introduced a measure that will require the White House to publicly lay out a victory in Iraq and some sort of plan for the phased withdrawal of troops afterwards: In a sign of increasing unease among Congressional Republicans over the war in Iraq, the Senate is to consider on Tuesday a Republican proposal that calls for Iraqi forces to take the lead next year in securing the nation and for the Bush administration to lay out its strategy for ending the war. ... The proposal on the Iraq war, from Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, and Senator John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, would require the administration to provide extensive new...
On Second Thought ...
I've been giving the matter of the Warner amendment considerable thought this afternoon, after reading a number of CQ commenters at lunch and listening to Hugh Hewitt in the way home. While I still think that the idea of getting Bush out in front on the war has its merits, one part of this has me convinced now that it was the wrong way to go about it. They waited until Bush left the country to do it. Now that, frankly, I missed when I first started writing this morning. If the Senate GOP wanted to send a message to the White House, the leadership should have had the courtesy to wait until the current occupant was home. Bush left for an important trip to China, where he especially needs to appear to be in charge of events back home. The GOP move could have waited for Bush to return,...
Not One Dime Adopts Its First Candidate
The National Republican Senatorial Committee wants to discourage conservative Republicans from having an option to the liberal Lincoln Chaffee, who has not only helped form the Gang of 14 which arrogated power from the majority on judicial nominations but also has attacked the Iraq War and George Bush for waging it. Even among RINOs, Linc Chaffee stands out as the extreme edge of a big-tent approach. Now, for some reason, the NRSC wants Rhode Islanders to stick with a Senator that more often than not betrays the GOP, going so far as to actively campaign against a conservative with the temerity to challenge Chaffee in the primary: Liberal Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee refused to support President Bush in the last election, opposed the GOP tax cuts and was the only Republican to vote against the use of military force in Iraq, a war he has likened to Vietnam. So why,...
Administration Official Told Bob Woodward About Plame's CIA Role Before Leak: Post
Tomorrow's Washington Post has a stunning new development in the Valerie Plame story, one that could unravel most of the investigation conducted by Patrick Fitzgerald. The paper reveals that its most celebrated reporter, Bob Woodward, learned of Valerie Plame and her employment at the agency from an unnamed administration official a month before Robert Novak revealed it in his column -- and it wasn't Karl Rove or Scooter Libby: Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward testified under oath Monday in the CIA leak case that a senior administration official told him about CIA operative Valerie Plame and her position at the agency nearly a month before her identity was disclosed. In a more than two-hour deposition, Woodward told Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald that the official casually told him in mid-June 2003 that Plame worked as a CIA analyst on weapons of mass destruction, and that he did not...
November 16, 2005
Internet Dodges Dictators One More Time
American management of the Internet dodged another challenge at a UN-sponsored summit on information systems. The attendees voted to continue American oversight through ICANN of the Internet, avoiding a protracted legal and political battle over freedom of speech and a number of other issues: Negotiators from more than 100 countries agreed late Tuesday to leave the United States in charge of the Internet's addressing system, averting a U.S.-EU showdown at this week's U.N. technology summit. U.S. officials said early Wednesday that instead of transferring management of the system to an international body such as the United Nations, an international forum would be created to address concerns. The forum, however, would have no binding authority. U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce Michael Gallagher said the deal means the United States will leave day-to-day management to the private sector, through a quasi-independent organization called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or...
Alito Application Causes Twitters Instead Of Tidal Waves
To the assumable frustration of partisan interests intent on blocking his confirmation to the Supreme Court, the discovery of a cover letter on an application to Ed Meese for a job as his deputy has not done the damage Samuel Alito's opponents hoped it would: Seeking to tamp down a political uproar over a 1985 document in which he denounced racial quotas and said the Constitution did not protect the right to abortion, Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. told senators on Tuesday that the sentiments were simply the views of "an advocate seeking a job." The document, an application for a promotion within the Reagan administration, could complicate Judge Alito's nomination for the Supreme Court, opening him up to questions during his confirmation hearings about his personal views on the politically sensitive issues of abortion and civil rights. Other nominees have been able to dodge such questions, but both Republicans...
US Exports Its Southern Border Solution To Gaza
The Palestinians and the Israelis reached an agreement on the control of the Gaza border with Egypt yesterday, thanks to American pressure on both parties -- on Israelis to capitulate, and on Palestinians to not laugh with merriment over the final arrangements: Israel and the Palestinians settled Tuesday on the final details of a border agreement for Gaza that gives the Palestinians almost unfettered control of their border with Egypt. In the works for weeks, the U.S.-mediated agreement followed marathon negotiations Monday night that included Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Rice delayed a planned trip to Asia to ensure the two sides signed the deal, U.S. Embassy spokesman Stewart Tuttle said. She had said she would not leave without an accord. ... European Union representatives on the ground will monitor compliance, as will a joint Israeli-Palestinian-European control room, according to the agreement. Goods coming into Gaza from its revamped border...
Liberals Tanking In New Polling
On the cusp of a no-confidence motion, the Liberal Party faces an increasingly hostile political environment, a new poll by SES research indicates. The Liberals have lost ground across the entire nation, both in total and within each region, with most of the gains going to the NDP (via Newsbeat1). They now lead the Conservatives by only a six-point margin, down by half in three weeks (Oct 27 poll in parentheses): Liberal: 34% (40%) CPC: 28% (28%) NDP: 20% (15%) BQ: 14% (12%) Even in the east, where the Liberals enjoyed a majority three weeks ago, their numbers have slipped dramatically: Liberal: 43% (57%) CPC: 35% (26%) NDP: 17% (14%) BQ: N/A (N/A) Looks like an excellent time to hold an election, if these numbers and trends continue to hold up....
Jay Rockefeller And The Run Of Logan's Writ
My new Daily Standard column comes out today, and I wrote about the stunning admission from ranking Senate Intelligence Committee Democrat Jay Rockefeller that he discussed American terror-war strategy with terrorist sponsor Bashar Assad. While the column does not call for a charge of treason, it does ask how Rockefeller can possibly avoid an indictment for a violation of the Logan Act: If Rockefeller discussed war plans with Assad while the United States had begun military operations against global terrorist organizations, which Assad has been known to fund, surely it is a major breach of the senator's duties? The Logan Act, a piece of rarely enforced legislation, may be pertinent[.] I wrote this article before reading Bill Bennett's column in National Review. I would go farther than Bennett suggests; at the least, I think the full Senate should consider expulsion just on the basis of his admission. In going to...
November 17, 2005
Bush Takes The High Road With Senate GOP Caucus
George Bush has decided to look at the Warner Amendment in much the way I first analyzed the situation, hailing the overall process that eliminated any call for a timetable to withdraw from Iraq. Speaking from Kyoto on his tour of Asia, Bush expressed his satisfaction with the defeat of the competing Democratic amendment that demanded a withdrawal schedule and told the press that the Warner approach sounded reasonable: President Bush said yesterday that it was "a positive step" for the Senate to defeat a Democrat-led effort to establish a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. "The Senate, in a bipartisan fashion, rejected an amendment that would have taken our troops out of Iraq before the mission was complete," Mr. Bush said during a press conference in Kyoto with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. "To me, that was a positive step by the United States Senate." Mr. Bush rejected a...
Louis Freeh: Let's Get Hearings On Able Danger
The former head of the FBI writes a recap of the Able Danger story that serves as a good entrée for those who may have missed all or part of the issue. Louis Freeh, who served as head of the agency for most of the Clinton administration, wants better explanations made public from the 9/11 Commission -- a group that he correctly describes as bureaucrats somewhat besotted by their fanciful treatment by the media: It was interesting to hear from the 9/11 Commission again on Tuesday. This self-perpetuating and privately funded group of lobbyists and lawyers has recently opined on hurricanes, nuclear weapons, the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel and even the New York subway system. Now it offers yet another "report card" on the progress of the FBI and CIA in the war against terrorism, along with its "back-seat" take and some further unsolicited narrative about how things ought to be...
Haven't Heard About Abramoff In A While?
If the name Jack Abramoff hasn't come up in quite a while, it shouldn't surprise anyone. After having had a turn as the favorite Democratic bogeyman on Republican corruption, the issue inexplicably slid off the radar as the Democrats instead talked more generically about the "culture of corruption." Now we know why -- it turns out that Abramoff took much more of an equal-opportunity approach to spreading the wealth on Capitol Hill than Democrats initially let on: Nearly three dozen members of Congress, including leaders from both parties, pressed the government to block a Louisiana Indian tribe from opening a casino while the lawmakers collected large donations from rival tribes and their lobbyist, Jack Abramoff. Many intervened with letters to Interior Secretary Gale Norton within days of receiving money from tribes represented by Abramoff or using the lobbyist's restaurant for fundraising, an Associated Press review of campaign records, IRS records...
Hitting The Road
The time has come to roll, ladies and gentlemen! The second annual pilgrimage to the Golden Dome is on its way. We will leave the house in a few minutes to start heading towards South Bend and our weekend at Notre Dame. Blogging will be light today, but this time our hotel has Internet access -- so I will be able to do some blogging over the next few days. Many thanks to those who offered better route options than trans-urban Chicago ... we'll try Joliet instead and see how we do. Shake down the thunder! UPDATE, 4:58 - Made it to Michigan City after about nine hours on the road, including an hour outside of Rockford for lunch. We're a bit stiff and it took us about an hour to get the energy to unpack and get settled, but now we're thinking about finding a bite to eat. The...
Democrats Keep Shifting Towards Surrender
Rep. John Murtha pushed the national argument on the Iraq War further towards the International ANSWER/MoveOn agenda this afternoon by demanding an immediate start of an American retreat from Iraq, declaring that American soldiers do not have the capability to defeat terrorists. He based his conclusion not on the facts on the ground, but apparently his experience in Viet Nam, which he tossed around like a West Point degree all afternoon long: One of Congress' most hawkish and influential Democrats called Thursday for an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, sparking bitter and personal salvos from both sides in a growing Capitol Hill uproar over President Bush's war policies. "It's time to bring them home," said Rep. John Murtha (news, bio, voting record), a decorated Vietnam combat veteran, choking back tears during remarks to reporters. "Our military has accomplished its mission and done its duty." The comments by the Pennsylvania lawmaker,...
Tories To Jump The Gun?
Despite having reached an agreement with Jack Layton and the NDP to wait for November 28th to attempt a no-confidence motion, Conservatives may try to push the Martin government out next week if Liberals try to pass any tax-relief legislation through the Commons: The electoral gamesmanship on Parliament Hill has taken yet another turn, with Conservative Deputy Leader Peter MacKay hinting his party could try to bring down the minority Liberals a week earlier than previously anticipated. ... Conservative Leader Stephen Harper made it clear Wednesday he was setting his sights on Nov. 28 as the date to bring down the government, sparking an election campaign that would run through Christmas. On Thursday, however, Liberal House leader Tony Valeri signalled that he could call for votes next week on a series of motions to implement tax cuts and other measures arising from Finance Minister Ralph Goodale's recent mini-budget. Layton wants...
November 18, 2005
Senior French Aide To Annan Confesses Saddam Bribery
The London Telegraph reports this morning that a senior French diplomat has confessed to accepting money from Saddam Hussein in exchange for his access to and influence with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The former UN ambassador for France claims that the allocations given to him through Tariq Aziz came in recognition of his "work for the Iraqi people", but nonetheless acknowledges its illegality: One of France's most distinguished diplomats has confessed to an investigating judge that he accepted oil allocations from Saddam Hussein, it emerged yesterday. Jean-Bernard Mérimée is thought to be the first senior figure to admit his role in the oil-for-food scandal, a United Nations humanitarian aid scheme hijacked by Saddam to buy influence. The Frenchman, who holds the title "ambassador for life", told authorities that he regretted taking payments amounting to $156,000 (then worth about £108,000) in 2002. The money was used to renovate a holiday home...
Air America Settles Lawsuit
Air America has managed to get one scandal behind it even as it continues battling through other legal problems. The liberal radio netlet has settled its $1.5 million lawsuit with Multicultural Radio, who sued AAR for unpaid leased air time in two of the largest markets in the US in its initial launch period: Air America Radio has reached agreement on terms that would settle a lawsuit brought by Multicultural Radio Broadcasting, according to representatives from both companies. The terms of the settlement were undisclosed, and a formal agreement had yet to be signed. The settlement would terminate a lawsuit filed with the New York Supreme Court in May, in which Multicultural was seeking more than $1.5 million in damages from the liberal radio network. The complaint said that Multicultural aimed to recover debts that were amassed by Air America soon after its launch in April 2004, and the cost...
NAACP Leader Switches Parties
Doug at Considerettes notes an interesting political story that should shake up South Florida politics, especially for those who want to toss race cards around during election season. Scott Maxwell at the Orlando Sentinel reports that the head of the NAACP for Florida's Orange County has responded to GOP outreach efforts by changing his party affiliation to Republican: "I've thought about this for two years," [Derrick] Wallace said Tuesday afternoon, just a few hours after returning from the elections office. "This is not a decision I made yesterday." It is, however, a decision that rang out like a shot among political circles. Republican Party leader Lew Oliver described himself as "extraordinarily pleased," while Democratic leader Tim Shea said he was disappointed. Wallace, a construction-company exec, was candid about the fact that his business life was a big part of his decision to change. "It's purely a business decision. Ninety percent...
What Could Be More American Than A Vote?
Man, I take a vacation and the place falls apart. I'm watching C-SPAN right now, looking at a procedural vote to allow a motion on withdrawing American troops from Iraq, as demanded by Rep. John Murtha yesterday. With two minutes left, it looks like the Democrats will successfully block the motion, keeping Congress from taking a vote and making the Democrats go on record about troop disposition. Instead of stupid suggestions about amendments to bills constituting no-confidence motions, the Democrats have been given a chance to vote on a real no-confidence motion. Unsurprisingly, they are running away like cowards. In fact, time just ran out on the vote and the procedural motion may have just passed, but only just. It looks like they're holding the vote open a few more minutes ... 8:44 CT - It's been 203-203 for the last couple of minutes -- which would, I believe, equate...
November 19, 2005
Woodward Apologetics 101
The Washington Post, suddenly finding itself in much the same position as the New York Times in the Plame Flameout, goes on defense in today's editorial. Facing the scorn of other journalists for supposedly protecting a conservative rather than a liberal leaker, the Post defends Bob Woodward's actions and reminds journalists about the point of protecting sources: The longtime Post reporter disclosed this week that, while conducting research for a book, he received information from an administration official about Ms. Plame before her identity was revealed by Robert D. Novak in a July 2003 column. That information was potentially relevant to Fitzgerald's investigation and to a news story that has been extensively covered in this and other papers. Mr. Woodward said he told one Post reporter at the time what he had learned but did not disclose the source. Mr. Woodward recently testified to the prosecutor, with the source's permission...
Try To Forget The Two Bombers Who Showed Up Uninvited
Maybe Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has the capacity for embarrassment after all. When thousands of Jordanians erupted in anger at the slaughter of two families celebrating a wedding, it clearly showed that the terrorist mastermind had made a huge error in judgment. Yesterday, Zarqawi attempted to mitigate the PR disaster he created among Muslims by releasing a tape insisting that he never meant to target wedding celebrants, even as the mother of bride passed away from her severe injuries: In the past, al-Zarqawi has defended Muslim civilian casualties in attacks by his suicide bombers in Iraq, saying they were justified because the attacks are part of a "jihad" against U.S. occupiers and their Iraqi allies. "God ordered us to attack the infidels by all means ... even if armed infidels and unintended victims — women and children — are killed together," he said in an audiotape released in May. But he...
Iranians Admit Getting Blueprint For Nuclear Warhead
It looks like Iran had plans for the top of that new Shahab-3 rocket they have recently tested -- the one that can pitch a warhead over 1200 miles. According to the Guardian (UK), the Iranians now admit they received plans for a nuclear warhead from the AQ Khan network: International suspicion of Iran's nuclear programme heightened yesterday when it was revealed that Tehran had obtained a blueprint showing how to build the core of a nuclear warhead. Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told diplomats that his inspectors had recently obtained documents from Tehran showing that the Iranians had been given various instructions on processing uranium hexafluoride gas and casting and enriching uranium. These had been obtained via the black market in nuclear technology headed by the disgraced Pakistani scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan. ... United Nations inspectors had long suspected that the Khan network had helped...
Game Day
I'm completely exhausted from my wonderful day at the nation's most storied college football stadium. After a cold and blustery day yesterday, Game Day turned out to give us beautiful weather, at least for most of the game: sunny, mid-50s, and light wind. The weather had kept us from touring the campus yesterday, but we got a chance to show the Admiral Emeritus the Golden Dome and other highlights today. After a strange first quarter where Holy Cross appeared to be wearing the Irish football uniforms, allowing the 1-7 Syracuse Orange to gather a 3-0 lead, the Irish finally showed and wound up winning a critical victory for the BCS-enabling win. The Irish topped the Orangemen, 34-10. Anyway, too tired to continue tonight. Thanks to CQ reader TJB for the kind gift of the tickets -- the FM, Admiral Emeritus, his wife, and myself enjoyed the day tremendously. UPDATE: I...
November 20, 2005
Fixations
I will be traveling today, so blogging will be non-existent until this evening. However, I want to address this one issue, since it has appeared more repeatedly here than most other blogs.] Some bloggers seem to have a fixation on Michelle Malkin. Most readers appreciate her writing and intellect, but others seem more obsessed with her relationship with her husband than in her actual writing. I suspect that some of the obsession that two CQ commenters repeatedly exhibit have more to do with her status as an attractive Asian-American woman. Since I am fortunate enough to count Michelle as one of my friends, I know that Michelle works hard and writes her own material, but in the interest of open-forum debate, I've let those commenters continue to ankle-bite Michelle with snarky comments, misgynist innuendo, and unfounded allegations of intellectual fakery. Enough. Michelle answers these critics on her blog today, in...
November 21, 2005
Aftermath
So yesterday, after getting up, I realized that sometime during the night I had contracted the flu. I could barely keep anything down -- and I had to drive 500 miles to get home. (I also had laryngitis, but I think that came from the screaming.) By the time we made it home, I had a fever and chills, and I slept from around 5 pm until ... oh, now.I can't talk, can't eat much, and still feel a bit dizzy, but I can sit up and do some reading and writing. Ironically, the First Mate did just fine on the trip. Go figure!...
November 22, 2005
Liberals Refuse Compromise On Election
Instead of the expected no-confidence vote on an appropriation bill yesterday, the three Canadian opposition parties in Parliament joined to pass a bill urging February elections, offering one last opportunity to compromise on the fate of the government. Despite easily losing the vote, PM Paul Martin refused to agree to the conditions of the non-binding bill: Oposition parties easily overpowered the government 167-129 Monday night in a vote on a non-binding motion calling for a Feb. 13 election. The Liberals dismissed the opposition motion as a publicity stunt and prepared furiously for the more decisive showdown ahead. Instead of working within the offered compromise, which would allow the Commons to continue working on the tax breaks promised by the Liberals and the spending bills needed to make all of the Ottawa politicians look good, the Liberals insist on making all such legislation hostage to the no-confidence vote. "Canadians will be...
Halloween Continues At Columbia
It sounds like the natural progression from the toga parties popularized by Animal House, with more than a hint of 21st-century libertinism. The Ivy-League fad of "naked parties" has spread to Columbia University, despite having restrictive policies regarding sexual behavior on campus. Parents sending their children to this very expensive school may not find the cost savings on clothing all that comforting: "Compadres," the e-mail states, "join us in refusing to comply with a culture that tells us to hide our body, to be ashamed of its scents, secretions, curves, and hair, to conceal those parts that have been dealt sexual connotations. We're gonna f-- this bondage we call clothing and party like the savages we really are." Following in the footsteps of their exhibitionist peers at Brown and Yale, Columbia undergraduates are staging parties with one basic ground rule - all guests must part with their clothes upon arrival....
Did Murtha Urge Retreat From Somalia?
Newsmax reported yesterday that Rep. John Murtha, the former Marine who sent Washington into a firestorm last week with a demand to withdraw American forces from Iraq, has a history of demanding retreats. They claim that Murtha himself took credit for the withdrawal of American forces from Somalia following the "Black Hawk Down" incident, a withdrawal that allegedly inspired al-Qaeda's leaders to pursue active attacks on American assets around the world: After terrorists attacked U.S. troops in Mogadishu, Somalia 12 years ago, anti-Iraq war Democrat, Rep. John Murtha urged then-President Clinton to begin a complete pullout of U.S. troops from the region. Clinton took the advice and ordered the withdrawal - a decision that Osama bin Laden would later credit with emboldening his terrorist fighters and encouraging him to mount further attacks against the U.S. ... Two weeks later, after 18 U.S. Rangers were killed in the battle of Mogadishu,...
Murtha On The Record On Somalia
Earlier today, I posted about John Murtha's stance on Somalia based on a Newsmax article. Various CQ readers have had an opportunity to research the subject further, and have discovered several references to the cut-and-run position Murtha urged on the Clinton adminstration -- advice it took, and helped to create the paper-tiger reputation that led to a decade of escalating attacks on the United States. These remarks come not from Newsmax but from Nexis searches of mainline press and from the Congressional Record itself. Let me be clear on one point. In 1993, many people espoused the cut-and-run position from Somalia, among them Curt Weldon, one of the most vociferous hawks on Iraq. In fact, it does not stretch the imagination at all to call that position one of the more bipartisan efforts in the 103rd Congress. The difference is that in the eight years between our run from Somalia...
Meanwhile, At The Real Quagmire ...
While Congress debates on the supposed quagmire of Iraq and the lengthy time it has taken to establish a democracy, word comes out of the Balkans that the Americans have finally pushed the Bosnians to normalize their own political system -- after ten years of military occupation separating the three ethnic factions that have threatened to rip each other's throats apart. The Serbs, Muslims, and Croats of Bosnia will dump their ethnically-based tripartite executive in favor of a true parliamentary system, much like the one Americans helped Iraqis establish in less than a quarter of the time spent in Bosnia: A pact reached in Washington under heavy American pressure aimed to overhaul the creaking constitutional machinery that ended the 42-month war in November 1995, but left the country partitioned and dysfunctional. At ceremonies in Washington to mark a decade since the Dayton accords ending the war were sealed, leaders of...
2005 Wizbang Weblog Awards Accepting Nominations
Kevin at Wizbang has once again dedicated a huge amount of his time and resources to host the 2005 Weblog Awards. He is now accepting nominations for the splendid variety of categories. Last year, CQ won the Best Conservative Weblog award, a surprise considering the competition involved. Make sure you get your nominations in early, and then return often to vote for your favorite blogs in their categories. Kevin does a wonderful job in keeping the results honest, and the competition fun. It's also a great opportunity to find new blogs and bloggers. Keep checking in at Wizbang on the progress!...
November 23, 2005
Bolton To UN: Clean Up Or We Go Our Own Way
John Bolton finally delivered the explicit message for which George Bush went to the lengths of a recess nomination to ensure at the United Nations yesterday. The messsage? Either Turtle Bay needs to reform itself and clean out the corruption, or the United States starts looking for other institutions through which to engage its diplomacy: "Americans are a very practical people, and they don't view the U.N. through theological lenses," Bolton told reporters outside the General Assembly hall. "They look at it as a competitor in the marketplace for global problem-solving, and if it's successful at solving problems, they'll be inclined to use it. If it's not successful at solving problems, they'll say, 'Are there other institutions?' . . . that's why making the U.N. stronger and more effective is a reform priority for us: Because if it's a more agile, effective organization, it is more likely to be a...
The Innocence Project's Single Guilty Secret
The Innocence Project has a number of groups that use DNA and cold-case techniques to prove the innocence of death-row inmates and lifers. They have freed scores of prisoners over the years through the use of scientific re-examination of the physical evidence of the crimes. Most of the people freed won compensation from the states which wrongfully convicted them of their charges, allowing the released to come back into society. Of 163 people released because of the Innocence Project, only two have faced new charges of serious felonious behavior after his release, and one cost a young woman her life. Consider the strange case of Steve Avery: Two years ago, Mr. Avery emerged from prison after lawyers from one of those organizations, the Wisconsin Innocence Project at the University of Wisconsin Law School, proved that Mr. Avery had spent 18 years in prison for a sexual assault he did not...
As The Iraqis Stand Up ...
The Washington Post reports that soon after the last round of Iraqi elections concludes, American commanders in Iraq plan to drop three of the 18 brigades deployed in Iraq, in favor of the burgeoning Iraqi security forces. One brigade would transfer to neighboring Kuwait as a rapid-reaction force, and the other two brigades would simply never arrive to relieve two slated to return to the United States in the first quarter of 2006: Barring any major surprises in Iraq, the Pentagon tentatively plans to reduce the number of U.S. forces there early next year by as many as three combat brigades, from 18 now, but to keep at least one brigade "on call" in Kuwait in case more troops are needed quickly, several senior military officers said. Pentagon authorities also have set a series of "decision points" during 2006 to consider further force cuts that, under a "moderately optimistic" scenario,...
The Axe, Poised
While the Liberal government spent the day trying to pass as much legislation as possible while it still holds the reins, the three Canadian opposition parties unveiled the no-confidence motion that will dethrone Paul Martin and the Grits. The motion, which appears certain to pass tomorrow, will take down a minority government on a pure no-confidence motion for the first time in over a century: The minority Liberal government will be slapped with a rare and ignominious distinction Thursday when its opponents table a non-confidence motion that will all but certainly trigger an election campaign within days. The Liberals would be the first minority government in at least a century to collapse on a stand-alone motion of censure, said a leading constitutional expert. The Opposition Conservatives had prepared a long, stinging condemnation that alluded to corruption, scandal and gross abuse of public funds. But various sources said opposition parties have...
The Turkey-In-The-Straw Poll?
Hugh Hewitt has a Thanksgiving straw poll starting on his blog tonight, taking over for Patrick Ruffini now that Patrick has taken his official role for the Republican Party. Hugh's added a few twists of his own, of course, as he will! Use the link on this post to check out the selections, and we can see how CQ readers see the various GOP presidential elections. Also, don't forget about the 2005 Weblog Awards at Wizbang -- and feel free to nominate CQ for any of the many categories in which we might qualify ......
72 Virgins Not Enough?
One of the more interesting aspects of this Islamofascist war on the West concerns the fanatical way in which their lunatics willingly commit suicide just to kill others, especially non-combatants. That tactic appears very popular among the hoi polloi of the Islamists, but the leadership apparently doesn't buy into the whole "72 virgins" incentive they shovel out to their minions. The Israelis discovered this tonight when a key Islamic Jihad leader surrendered to them earlier: A top Islamic Jihad militant surrendered to Israeli soldiers early Thursday, witnesses said, after a daylong siege during which army bulldozers knocked down the four-story house where he was hiding. Dozens of troops surrounded the building in the town of Jenin in the hunt for Iyad Abu Rob. Witnesses said Abu Rob, a senior commander of Islamic Jihad in the northern West Bank, emerged from the wrecked house after midnight and was taken away by...
November 24, 2005
Turkeys Coming Home To Roost
The Canadian Parliament has taken up the no-confidence motion that threatens to topple the Martin executive and the Liberal grip on power after months of breath-holding following the Adscam investigation. The debate swings from banal to enlightening; the Liberals have attacked the Tories as unpatriotic for working with Bloc Quebecois, and the opposition parties have attacked the Grits for all sorts of policy differences -- a mistake, given the obvious target of corruption which should remain a focus. Jack Layton started well, but sounds more like MoveOn; anti-Americanism and attacks on George Bush peppering his speech. One great response to the catcalls coming from the Grit bench: "They will have their chance to explain themselves to the Canadian people soon enough." He committed the NDP to the no-confidence motion, however, saying "Enough is enough." I expect a vote later this morning, or perhaps in the afternoon. Keep an eye on...
Happy Thanksgiving To CQ Readers!
I may do some blogging today as I'm still recovering from the flu, and will probably have a bit of time to myself. The FM has cooked up a small turkey dinner for the two of us, but I'm sending her to the Minnesota family for a couple of hours to get a break from taking care of me. She's cooking up some delicious food, and I can't wait for my Thanksgiving supper later on. I thought I'd share a bit about giving thanks -- nothing profound, but maybe a small metaphor for grace on an appropriate day for it. Yesterday, as I drove to work, I followed a truck just a shade to closely; not so much so to be dangerous per se, but enough to where I couldn't easily see a traffic light as we both approached an intersection. By the time I could see the light, it...
WaPo Misrepresents Murtha As 'Hawk'
The Washington Post does a poor job on its most recent portrait of Jack Murtha, painting him as a "hawk" who only recently converted to a withdraw position on Iraq. From the headline ("The About-Face of Hawkish Democrat Murtha") through the first several paragraphs of the Shailagh Murray article featured on Page 2, it purports to show Murtha as a Democrat who supported Bush's position on Iraq until two weeks ago, when in truth Murtha has a long track record of pressing for precipitous withdrawals on military engagements going back to Somalia, and even Murray reports late in her article that Murtha's latest position doesn't represent any "about-face" at all. Here's what Post readers will see if they only take in the first three paragraphs: Of all the Democrats calling for an end to the Iraq war, Rep. John P. Murtha is an anomaly. Unlike Sens. John F. Kerry (Mass.)...
Richardson Balks With Phony Draft
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has received plenty of media attention for his centrist politics and his national appeal as a possible alternative to Hillary Clinton for the 2008 Presidential campaign. That may now be over for the former college pitcher, who has long claimed to have been drafted by the Kansas City Athletics as part of his biography. He now admits that the claim was a lie: For nearly four decades, Richardson, often mentioned as a possible Democratic presidential candidate, has maintained he was drafted by the Kansas City Athletics. The claim was included in a brief biography released when Richardson successfully ran for Congress in 1982. A White House news release in 1997 mentioned it when he was about to be named U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. And several news organizations, including The Associated Press, have reported it as fact over the years. But an investigation by...
November 25, 2005
Mexican Military Invades US, Steals Drug-Running Truck From Border Patrol
In a disturbing incident that has received little national attention, the US Border Patrol found itself in retreat on US soil after interdicting a dump truck full of marijuana on US Interstate 10 last week. The truck made a run for the border but got stuck on a riverbed. While the Border Patrol started to unload the estimated three tons of weed, a larger armed group apparently comprised at least in part by the Mexican military forced the Border Patrol away from the vehicle and bulldozed it back into Mexico: The incident began when Border Patrol agents tried to stop the dump truck on Interstate 10, sheriff's officials said. The truck fled to Mexico in the Neely's Crossing area. The truck got stuck in the riverbed, and the driver took off running. Agents "started to retrieve the bundles (of marijuana) when the armed subjects appeared," said Agent Ramiro Cordero, a...
The Great Liberal Giveaway, Interrupted
It's no secret that PM Paul Martin played Monty Hall most of this year to keep his minority Liberal government from falling after the exposure of Adscam. A 5$ billion deal for the NDP last spring kept Jack Layton temporarily on Martin's good side, and lately the Liberals have tried using the same tactic with the Canadian electorate at large. Scott Deveau at the G&M takes a look at the largesse offered by the Grits in a panicked attempt to stave off a no-confidence motion this session: With an election pending, the government has given new meaning to term Liberal spending. It all started with the mini-budget released Nov. 14, which promised wide-ranging tax cuts and spending across most sectors. In addition to another Air India inquiry and reforms to income trusts, there have been so many spending promises it's been hard to keep track. The G&M list takes a...
Jemaah Islamiyah Went To Plan B In Bali
Indonesian and Australian security forces now believe that Jemaah Islamiyah bombed the resort hotels in Bali as a backup plan to their original target: the memorials for the 2002 attacks. JI planner Azahari Husin originally planned to use a suicide bomber to kill the high-level dignitaries attending the event, as well as the families of the original victims, in a sick twist to an already demented story: Southeast Asian extremist network Jemaah Islamiyah planned to bomb a memorial service in Indonesia for those killed in the 2002 Bali attacks but was deterred by high security, a report said Friday. The Islamic militants instead chose to attack tourist spots on the Indonesian resort island two weeks ahead of the anniversary, carrying out three suicide bombings on restaurants popular with westerners on October 1 and killing 23 people, the Australian newspaper said. Citing intelligence sources in Indonesia, the paper said that master...
Another Katrina Media Myth Bites The Bullet
Yesterday's Los Angeles Times reports that another myth of the Katrina hurrican and its aftermath has been exposed. The infamous "snipers on the bridge" incident that supposedly kept relief contractors from rescuing helpless victims turns out to have been a media-fueled urban legend, according to witnesses. The "five or six" snipers taken out by the police department turns out to be two, and one of those was a mentally-handicapped man whose only venture out of his house in years apparently came out of desperation for food: Even in the desperate days after Hurricane Katrina, the news flash seemed particularly sensational: Police had caught eight snipers on a bridge shooting at relief contractors. In the gun battle that followed, officers shot to death five or six of the marauders. Exhausted and emotionally drained police cheered the news that their comrades had stopped the snipers and suffered no losses, said an account...
November 26, 2005
Forgettable Moments In German Marketing
When a country finds itself demoralized, usually someone in the government thinks that a blend of Norman Vincent Peale and Madison Avenue will rejuvenate the nation -- rather than actually fixing the problems. Britain tried it in the 1960s with the "I'm Backing Britain" campaign. Gerald Ford laughably tried to stop inflation by getting people to stop buying goods to "Whip Inflation Now", and handed out those silly WIN buttons. These efforts usually show nothing more offensive than a desire to avoid the painful process of fixing problems that popular but destructive policies have wrought. Leave it to Germany to inadvertently add offense to stupidity. With their social net strangling their economy and facing a raft of hard choices, someone thought spending £20 million on an ad campaign to boost German self-confidence. However, no one thought to do any research on the slogan selected -- Du Bist Deutschland (You Are...
Liberals Fall Into Folly
With a no-confidence motion all but assured of passage on Monday, the Liberals had a choice as to how they would conduct their last days at the reins of power. They could demonstrate a steady and confident hand on the till, governing responsibly until the last possible moment -- or they could turn the Commons into an Ottawa bazaar in which every bill that could suck up to some small constituency gets tabled despite the fact that it will not survive to a vote. To their shame, the Martin-led Liberals chose the latter course, one that has even the notoriously biased media and punditry scratching their heads: With possibly 72 hours left in the life of their minority government, the Paul Martin Liberals introduced legislation Friday meant to crack down on gun violence and ban the bulk export of prescription drugs to the United States. The timing of both measures,...
Biden, Democrats Ask The Wrong Question
Senator Joe Biden writes an op-ed for today's Washington Post that gets the entire war on terror fundamentally wrong -- and demonstrates why the Democrats have entirely failed to provide any leadership on Iraq and the wider war. Along the way, Biden slices off half-truths out of context to argue for the worst possible spin on Iraq, and ignores the tremendous progress that has been made by Coalition forces in developing Iraq into a democracy. First, Biden postulates that the primary issue of a military deployment is when it will end: The question most Americans want answered about Iraq is this: When will our troops come home? We already know the likely answer. In 2006, they will begin to leave in large numbers. By the end of the year, we will have redeployed about 50,000. In 2007, a significant number of the remaining 100,000 will follow. A small force will...
Northern Alliance Radio Today
We'll be on the air today on AM 1280 The Patriot from noon to 3 pm CT in the Twin Cities. If you're not blessed with a residence in the Minneapolis metro area -- temperature 20 degrees today -- you can listen to our Internet stream at the above link. No special guests today, but we'd love to have you join us by calling 651-289-4488. Topics will probably include: * Iraq War and timetables * The Biden op-ed * Canada and the imminent fall of the Liberals * Travel * Du Bist Deutschland! * Political Thanksgiving! * Other topics as you call in! Give those cell phones and their free weekend minutes some exercise today -- we'd love to hear from you!...
November 27, 2005
What's Iranian For 'Cпасибо'?
The Russians may soon rethink their defense of the Islamic Republic of Iran against the West if this report from the Sunday Telegraph gets confirmed, although it should surprise no one paying any attention to the global war on terror. According to Con Coughlin, the Iranian government has secretly trained Chechen rebels to conduct more effective terror strikes against Russian targets while Moscow continues to argue on Teheran's behalf for their nuclear ambitions: Teams of Chechen fighters are being trained at the Revolutionary Guards' Imam Ali training camp, located close to Tajrish Square in Teheran, according to Western intelligence reports. In addition to receiving training in the latest terror techniques, the Chechen volunteers undergo ideological and political instruction by hardline Iranian mullahs at Qom. ... Moscow has offered a face-saving formula to prevent Iran from being reported to the United Nations Security Council for its failure to co-operate fully with...
The Next Alito Smear: Racist, Sexist By Association
In the next phase of the effort to derail any nominee promulgated by the Bush administration to the Supreme Court, various leftist groups have seized on one entry on a 1985 résumé submitted for an opening in the Reagan administration by Samuel Alito. The New York Times reports on the twisted logic of PFAW in using this entry to paint Alito as a racist and a sexist for the actions of a Princeton alumni group, Concerned Alumni of Princeton: The group's members at the time included Samuel A. Alito Jr., now President Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court, although there is no evidence that he played an active or prominent role. The group had been founded in 1972, the year that Judge Alito graduated, by alumni upset that Princeton had recently begun admitting women. It published a magazine, Prospect, which persistently accused the administration of taking a permissive approach to...
Intelligence Agencies Multiplying Out Of Control
In yet another example of how the 9/11 Commission got its facts and its recommendations completely wrong, the Washington Post reports this morning that the Pentagon has expanded its domestic intelligence surveillance -- mainly by creating even more agencies and bureaucracies in competition with other resources already in place. Now, Walter Pincus doesn't write the article with that point in mind; he wants to frighten people with the thought that Bush has become Big Brother, or wants to allow Don Rumsfeld to do so: The Defense Department has expanded its programs aimed at gathering and analyzing intelligence within the United States, creating new agencies, adding personnel and seeking additional legal authority for domestic security activities in the post-9/11 world. The moves have taken place on several fronts. The White House is considering expanding the power of a little-known Pentagon agency called the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, which was created...
Kadima: Bold Move Or Hubristic Folly?
Ariel Sharon's surprise move to bolt from the political party he founded thirty years ago to start another just before a new round of elections has many puzzled. How did the Likud's most powerful politician get so disillusioned with his own creation that he could not reform it from within? More importantly, will his new creation, Kadima (Hebrew for Forward) capture enough of the Israeli center to keep Sharon in power to implement his version of the two-state peace plan in the West Bank? Newsweek has a background piece that explains some of the motivation behind the move, but sheds little light on the political implications of Sharon's rejection of hard-liners in what used to be his own party: When Sharon pondered last week whether to leave Likud, the party he helped establish 30 years ago, the former arch-hawk canvassed the opinions of his closest advisers but shared his own...
Irish Survive Inspired Stanford To Qualify For BCS
Rally, sons of Notre Dame ... The Fighting Irish finished their first season under Charlie Weis with a spirited comeback in the final minutes against Stanford to run their record to 9-2 and qualify for a BCS berth for the first time in years. The Irish put an exclamation point on an unexpectedly successful maiden season under Weis as the Golden Domers announced their return to national prominence: Darius Walker ran 6 yards for the winning touchdown with 55 seconds remaining and took a direct snap to run in for the 2-point conversion, and the sixth-ranked Fighting Irish became all but assured of playing in one the four marquee bowl games with a 38-31 victory over Stanford on Saturday night. Brady Quinn passed for 432 yards and three touchdowns but also threw two interceptions, and Notre Dame survived a wild final few minutes for its fifth straight victory since a...
The Secrets Of Hollywood
Four years after 9/11 and almost three years after America deposed one of the most vicious and genocidal tyrants of the 20th century, Hollywood finally has decided to make a movie about the Iraq War that actually depicts the US forces as the protagonists. Does this news come from the American media? No, we get to find out about it from the UK, and Michelle Malkin: ANGERED by negative portrayals of the conflict in Iraq, Bruce Willis, the Hollywood star, is to make a pro-war film in which American soldiers will be depicted as brave fighters for freedom and democracy. It will be based on the exploits of the heavily decorated members of Deuce Four, the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry, which has spent the past year battling insurgents in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul. ... He is expected to base the film on the writings of the independent blogger...
Have The Tories Surpassed The Liberals?
Election polling by the Canadian media has shown a consistent lag of six to ten points between the Liberals and the Conservatives over the past several months. Many CQ readers and I have noted the small sample sizes used in these polls and some other independent efforts that have cast some doubt on those results. Now CQ reader Mark C. in Canada has found a substantial polling effort by Robbins Research, on behalf of a "US Corporation", that shows the Tories pulling into a dead heat with the Grits on one of the largest sample sizes used in political polling: A representative sample of 18,443 Canadians between November 11th and 16th, 2005. This survey features a margin of error of 2.15%, 19 times out of 20 @ 98% competency. This poll was paid for by a U.S. company doing business in Canada. Question #1 At this moment which of the...
Another Item For Which To Give Thanks
The Cindy Sheehan Traveling Road Show appears to have lost its steam, according to multiple sources this weekend. The protest camp shut itself down outside the Bush ranch in Crawford, TX this afternoon after drawing less than 200 protestors over the holidays -- probably fewer people than Bush invited to the ranch for Thanksgiving dinner. The protestors won't return for Christmas but promise to come back at Easter: Dozens of war protesters packed up their tents and left their campsite in a field near President Bush's ranch Sunday, vowing to return during Easter for a third vigil if U.S. troops are still in Iraq. The weeklong protest, which coincided with Bush's Thanksgiving holiday visit to his ranch, drew about 200 people. It was a continuation of the August demonstration led by California mother Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey died in Iraq last year during combat. Power Line has a picture...
Bush To Finally Address Immigration
In need of some momentum in Congress for legislative traction, George Bush has finally decided to start addressing illegal immigration and the porous southern border of the United States. After seeing almost his entire legislative agenda stalled out between the Iraq war debates and two Supreme Court nominations, Bush needs to apply a push to get some successes from Congress early in the next session: President Bush will make stops in Arizona and Texas this week to address an issue that has divided some members of his own Republican Party -- illegal immigration. ... A senior administration official said that the president, in a speech on immigration, will focus on three areas: border security, enforcement and a temporary worker program. The official said the president will talk about "additional resources and the use of technology to secure the border," and will discuss it in terms of national security and the...
November 28, 2005
The Tyrant's Tirade
The trial of Saddam Hussein continued this morning, as most of his trials have gone thus far -- with an opening tirade from the deposed genocidal tyrant to get the trial off to a start. Saddam complained about not having a pen, being guarded by foreigners, and a broken elevator as his latest contribution to his trial for mass murder, continuing to demonstrate that he still doesn't quite grasp the stakes involved: He was similarly argumentative on Monday, complaining about the fact that he had to climb four floors to the courtroom because the elevator was broken. He also objected to being escorted up the stairs by "foreign guards". In a series of heated exchanges with the chief judge he also complained about the fact that his guards had taken his pen away, rendering him unable to sign the necessary court papers: "I will alert them to the problem," Judge...
Ahmadinejad Creating Rifts In Iranian Hard Line
The AP reports that the Guardian Council's fair-haired boy, newly-"elected" President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has created dissension among the ruling elite of Iran. His purges and radical foreign policy has disturbed even the conservatives of the Iranian parliament, who have now denied him his choices for the important position of oil minister three times as a signal to stop operating as a loose cannon. It does not appear that Ahmadinejad will get the message: Iranian moderates say the president has harmed his country by isolating it internationally, and now Ahmadinejad's friends are lining up against him. He suffered a humiliating defeat last week when his choice for oil minister was rejected for a third time, an unprecedented failure for an Iranian president. While parliament is dominated by Ahmadinejad's conservative allies, the president's isolationist stance and his failure to consult on Cabinet appointments have annoyed lawmakers. They warn they will not approve...
Insider Trading In Liberal Management?
The Canadian opposition wants an independent investigation into the Finance Ministry after a spike in trading for trusts occurred just as the government was expected to announce new policies governing trusts and their tax liabilities. The call for investigations came from both the Conservatives and the NDP: As federal politicians prepare to hit the campaign trail, the Conservatives and NDP are calling for investigations of alleged insider trading arising from tax policy announcements by Finance Minister Ralph Goodale. The Tories said Sunday they are writing to the Ontario Securities Commission to demand an inquiry, while the New Democrats want the matter turned over to the RCMP. At issue are events last Wednesday, when there was a spike in trading in income trust units amid speculation that Mr. Goodale was going to change the tax rules that applied to them. In fact, he left the trust rules unchanged. But he did...
The Missing Element Of Blame For Ignorance On Iraq
The Washington Post carries an interesting argument from Michael O'Hanlon from the Brookings Institute on the divergence of military and civilian opinion on the war in Iraq, a separation that he calls dangerous in the long run for American political discourse. O'Hanlon acknowledges that the support for the war in Iraq among military personnel goes far beyond the normal top-level cheeriness down to at least the mid-level officer corps, and wonders why that doesn't translate to better civilian support: In recent months a civil-military divide has emerged in the United States over the war in Iraq. Unlike much of the Iraq debate between Democrats and Republicans, it is over the present and the future rather than the past. Increasingly, civilians worry that the war is being lost, or at least not won. But the military appears as confident as ever of ultimate victory. This difference of opinion does not amount...
We'd Like To Welcome The BBC To The Party
The BBC has just caught up with the political events north of the border. The British news service just noticed that a no-confidence motion will get a vote late this afternoon or early this evening -- after having been tabled on Thursday: Canada's Prime Minister, Paul Martin, faces a no-confidence motion in parliament which his minority Liberal government is widely tipped to lose. It is expected that an election would then be called in early 2006. Monday's no-confidence motion was introduced by three opposition parties last week, after Mr Martin rejected an ultimatum demanding a poll in February. The motion claims the Liberal party - which Mr Martin has led since 2003 - no longer has the moral authority to lead. The government has been dogged by allegations of irregularities over contracts awarded by a previous Liberal administration. Mr Martin is not implicated in the scandal, but the opposition says...
'This Government Has Lost The Moral Authority To Govern'
The Canadian Parliament approved a historic no-confidence motion against the Liberal executive in Ottawa this afternoon, dissolving the government and forcing elections weeks after the Gomery Inquiry issued its first comprehensive report on the Liberal corruption in the Sponsorship Program: The short-lived 38th Parliament met its demise on Monday night, setting the stage for one of the longest election campaigns in two decades, as the Liberal government was defeated in a no-confidence vote at the hands of all three opposition parties and the country was launched into official election mode. The Liberals lost the vote in the House of Commons 133 to 171, beginning a series of events that will propel voters toward the ballot boxes, likely on Jan. 23. I'm listening to the aftermath on CPAC, where the Liberal apologist wants to tell Canada that Adscam involved "a few Liberals", but that "no one believes that it involved the...
Prayers Needed For Hostage
One of the Brits kidnapped in Iraq this weekend is a family friend of a local blogger, Ben at Hammerswing75: Mr. Kember is a good friend of my parents and a longtime member of my Granny's church, Harrow Baptist. I remember seeing him a few years ago when I was stopped by in England to visit my Gran. We were at the church and he came over for some conversation. "I remember when you were this tall", putting his hand down by his knees. He is an extremely nice man who went out of his way to be friendly. His wife Pat, who possesses an equally wonderful character, must be in absolute shock. My parents have asked for my prayers. There will be many. I, in turn, am asking for yours. I hope that there will be many. Let's take a moment and pray for the hostages, and pray for...
Trackback Problems At CQ
Just an FYI -- the trackbacks apparently have been blocked by the hosting service for CQ. This happens occasionally as the circumstances arise. I've asked them to look into the problem. In the meantime, feel free to post a link in the comments to your post on the related topic. I'll update this post as the situation develops. UPDATE: Trackbacks are re-enabled, but Hosting Matters says I need to upgrade to MT 3.2 to avoid the spam attacks. That's why they disabled my TB system in the first place, and they may have to again if it continues. I'll work on the upgrade ASAP....
November 29, 2005
Lieberman Says Iraq Going Well As Army Continues Growth
Despite the recent shrieks of hysteria coming from the Democratic caucus in Congress, one of their most respected members says that the American-led Coalition has Iraq in "pretty good shape" and expects that troop drawdowns can begin late next year or early 2007 as long as progress continues. Senator Joe Lieberman took the opportunity to actually travel through Iraq, and his recommendation follows the administration's plan to key troop withdrawals based on the buildup of the Iraqi army, and not on calendar due dates as suggested by Joe Biden last week: Senator Lieberman of Connecticut, fresh from a two-day visit to Iraq over the Thanksgiving holiday, said yesterday he was hopeful American forces could begin a "significant" withdrawal by the end of next year or in 2007. "The country is now in reach of going from Saddam Hussein to self-government and, I'd add, self-protection," the Democrat said in a conference...
Alito Hates Foreigners!
Wow, talk about divine providence -- on the day after George Bush moved immigration reform and border control to the top of his agenda, the Washington Post managed to write about a memo from Reagan-era deliberations that Jo Becker and Amy Goldstein claim shows some sort of animus against foreigners. Headlined by a statement that Alito opposed rights for foreigners, the Becker/Goldstein report reviews Alito's recommendation to accept fingerprint cards from refugees living in Canada: As a senior lawyer in the Reagan Justice Department, Samuel A. Alito Jr. argued that immigrants who enter the United States illegally and foreigners living outside their countries are not entitled to the constitutional rights afforded to Americans. In an opinion that offers insight into the Supreme Court nominee's view of an area of law that has gained new significance with the Bush administration's policies to combat terrorism, Alito gave his approval to an FBI...
Liberals Lose Ground In Power Base
The Globe and Mail report on new polling that they have conducted at the cusp of the no-confidence motion. While the polling sample is much smaller than the previous Robbins survey and not media independent -- an important point in Canada -- the polling reports on geographical breakdowns. This shows a major shift in one of the strongholds of Liberal politics and reveals a surprising weakness in the coming election: Paul Martin's Liberals enter an election campaign six percentage points ahead of the Conservatives, but losing ground in Ontario and facing an increased desire for a change of government, a new poll shows. Canadians, especially Ontarians, are less likely than they were six months ago to see Conservative Leader Stephen Harper as a scary figure with a "hidden agenda," according to a Strategic Counsel survey conducted for The Globe and Mail and CTV. But the Ontarians have not embraced Mr....
Abramoff Client Heading Investigation
Democrats have tried painting Jack Abramoff's sleazy and allegedly criminal lobbying efforts as a strictly Republican scandal for the last several months, tying Abramoff chiefly to Tom DeLay. However, as the investigation into Abramoff continues, more and more ties to Democrats have emerged, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. Now it appears that the ranking Senate Democrat on the committee that has taken the lead in investigating Abramoff has more than a oversight connection to Abramoff himself: New evidence is emerging that the top Democrat on the Senate committee currently investigating Jack Abramoff got political money arranged by the lobbyist back in 2002 shortly after the lawmaker took action favorable to Abramoff's tribal clients. A lawyer for the Louisiana Coushatta Indians told The Associated Press that Abramoff instructed the tribe to send $5,000 to Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record)'s political group just three weeks after the North Dakota...
The Return From Upgrade Hell
I'm reworking my weekly column for the Daily Standard on Canada tonight, which will appear a little later this week, and the renewed trackback function drove me to a new level of insanity ... and to upgrade to Movable Type 3.2, which supposedly controls the spam attacks much better than previous versions with the MT-Blacklist plugin. What I thought would be a 30-minute quick update turned into a three-hour ordeal, the last of which took the site down intermittently, especially if you tried to post comments. It should be back up and running now, but blogging will probably be over for the evening. If you get a chance, take a look at my friend Scott Johnson's latest column at DS, "Second Time's A Charm", about Mary Mapes and her attempt to rehabilitate herself after the Memogate debacle. So far, it's a complete flop, and few things are more fun than...
November 30, 2005
Catholic Church To Shun The Limbo
No, the Mass has not gotten so liberal that celebrants or the congregation do the popular party dance on the way to the Eucharist, although some might believe that the Church wouldn't necessarily think that a bad idea if it got people to fulfill their holy obligations more frequently. The Vatican has studied the religious concept of limbo for decades now in an attempt to either minimize it or eliminate it altogether, and the Globe & Mail reports that a blue-ribbon commission of theologians first formed by John Paul the Great on the question will recommend that Pope Benedict banish limbo from Catholic teachings: In Latin, it means "the lip," and for centuries devout Roman Catholics have tried to avoid thinking about its full meaning: the edge of hell, where those who have died without baptism -- notably babies -- are sent for eternity. Now it seems that limbo, a...
Sharon's Gamble May Steal The Center
Ariel Sharon's breathtaking gamble on leaving the political party that he himself founded decades earlier may have paid off. It appears that Shimon Peres, recently booted from his leadership post in the Labor party, may join Sharon in Kadima and take a large swath of his followers along with him. The two moves threaten to completely rewrite Israeli politics and shove what had been the two largest political parties into the extremist wings of the Israeli electoral culture: Speculation mounted Tuesday that Shimon Peres, the longtime pillar of Israel's Labor Party, plans to break ranks and join Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new centrist movement. The departure of Peres, 82, from Labor, which Sharon allies speculated could come Wednesday, would continue a broad realignment of Israel's political parties prompted by Sharon's decision to withdraw Jewish settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip earlier this year. ... Peres's ally, Dalia Itzik, a...
Air Marshal Reserves Too Expensive: Congress
After approving a program to cross-train customs and immigration agents as reserve air marshals for deployment during heightened alerts, Congress quietly abandoned the program over a year ago as a "waste of resources," the GAO revealed yesterday: The plan was first disclosed in September 2003 by Tom Ridge, then Homeland Security secretary. Ridge announced that the air marshals would be combined with immigration and customs agents in the same agency so agents in both could be cross-trained and used for aviation security. The move would allow more than 5,000 armed federal law enforcement agents to be deployed on commercial aircraft, he said. "This realignment offers a sweeping gain of additional armed law enforcement officials who will be able to provide a 'surge capacity' during increased threat periods or in the event of a terrorist attack," Ridge said at the time. By October 2004, Homeland Security had cross-trained some immigration and...
The Value That Keeps Shifting
Anne Applebaum writes an op-ed in today's Washington Post defending the use and protection of anonymous resources in reporting and punditry, with the somewhat-ironic title "The Value of Anonymity." In her essay, she rightly notes the role that these sources provide in getting to the real data behind the PR smokescreens erected by bureaucrats of all stripes: Some of us will get the balance wrong -- there are bad and corrupt journalists, just as there are bad and corrupt members of any other profession -- and some of us will make mistakes. But the alternative to a relatively open, relatively comfortable relationship between the press and the government isn't exactly attractive. Earlier this week the owner of a Jordanian newspaper visited The Post. He described his efforts to open up the press in his country, to ease laws that restrict what topics the press is allowed to address, and to...
Quick Link-Love For The Evening
I'm busy trying to fix some issues with the Trackbacks -- I understand they're still not working properly, although comments seem to be okay -- and get some other work done. Instead of trying to force a couple of posts, I'm going to recommend some better ones from the cream of the blogosphere tonight, and hope for a bit of time for late-night blogging later. First up is the still-mysterious case of the Oklahoma University suicide bomber. Mark Tapscott, who's covering the FBI investigation, has some interesting developments about whether or not they will be able to put their heads together to get to the bottom of this case. Michelle Malkin has a trove of documents on the case for amateur sleuths to peruse as part of her own coverage on the case. Don't miss her take on Janeane Garofalo, who used to actually be funny ... before a house...
Read My Lips: No New Timetables
George Bush made his case clear today in a largely uneventful speech at Annapolis today simply by repeated the same plan he has enumerated for the American public for over two years. Bush told the midshipmen at the Naval Academy that the war in Iraq can and would be won before we consider pulling out any of our troops, and that the only timetable for redeployment will be the success of the mission ... period: President Bush gave an unflinching defense of his war strategy on Wednesday, refusing to set a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawals and asserting that once-shaky Iraqi troops are proving increasingly capable. Democrats dismissed his words as a stay-the-course speech with no real strategy for success. Bush recalled that some Iraqi security forces once ran from battle, and he said their performance "is still uneven in some parts." But he also said improvements have been made...
About
Ed Morrissey has blogged at Captain's Quarters since 2003, and has a daily radio show at BlogTalkRadio, where he serves as Political Director. Called "Captain Ed" by his readers, Ed is a father and grandfather living in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, a native Californian who moved to the North Star State because of the weather.
My Other Blog
The Crows Nest
Read My Lips: No New Timetables
George Bush made his case clear today in a largely uneventful speech at Annapolis today simply by repeated the same plan he has enumerated for the American public for over two years. Bush told the midshipmen at the Naval Academy that the war in Iraq can and would be won before we consider pulling out any of our troops, and that the only timetable for redeployment will be the success of the mission ... period:
President Bush gave an unflinching defense of his war strategy on Wednesday, refusing to set a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawals and asserting that once-shaky Iraqi troops are proving increasingly capable. Democrats dismissed his words as a stay-the-course speech with no real strategy for success.Bush recalled that some Iraqi security forces once ran from battle, and he said their performance "is still uneven in some parts." But he also said improvements have been made in training and Iraqi units are growing more independent and controlling more territory.
"This will take time and patience," said Bush, who is under intense political pressure as U.S. military deaths in the war rise beyond 2,100 and his popularity sits at the lowest point of his presidency.
Bush's speech at the U.S. Naval Academy, the first of at least three he'll give between now and the Dec. 15 Iraqi elections, did not outline a new strategy for the nearly three-year-old war. Rather, it was intended as a comprehensive answer to mounting criticism and questions. Billed as a major address, it brought together in a single package the administration's arguments for the war and assertions of progress on military, economic and political tracks.
He also released a book on the Iraq war strategy for those who just haven't paid any attention over the past two years. Bush and the White House should have just subtitled it "FOR THOSE WHO STILL THINK THAT THE US MILITARY DEPLOYS HALFWAY AROUND THE WORLD WITHOUT A PLAN FOR SUCCESS".
Quick Link-Love For The Evening
I'm busy trying to fix some issues with the Trackbacks -- I understand they're still not working properly, although comments seem to be okay -- and get some other work done. Instead of trying to force a couple of posts, I'm going to recommend some better ones from the cream of the blogosphere tonight, and hope for a bit of time for late-night blogging later.
First up is the still-mysterious case of the Oklahoma University suicide bomber. Mark Tapscott, who's covering the FBI investigation, has some interesting developments about whether or not they will be able to put their heads together to get to the bottom of this case.
Michelle Malkin has a trove of documents on the case for amateur sleuths to peruse as part of her own coverage on the case. Don't miss her take on Janeane Garofalo, who used to actually be funny ... before a house fell on her sister.
Kate at Small Dead Animals takes a look at more evidence that the mainstream media still has no real understanding of blogs. Dozens of commenters appear to agree.
Jon Henke, one of the best in the blogosphere, shreds John Kerry and the White Flag Democrats in the aftermath of the Bush speech. No sooner does Kerry claim that no one in their caucus is talking about artificial dates for withdrawal from Iraq than his own party leader, Nancy Pelosi, demands all troops be withdrawn within six months. I guess the White Flag Democrats were opposed to dates before and after they were for them, huh? (Dafydd notices the same thing.)
The lovely Charmaine Yoest goes to Washington, takes some pictures, and gets to be on TV. I gotta take that tour the next time.
NZ Bear hears Democratic presidential hopeful Russ Feingold on NPR, who apparently isn't terribly impressed by elections and democracy. And he wants to win the top job in which country?
Hopefully, I'll have more later on!
The Value That Keeps Shifting
Anne Applebaum writes an op-ed in today's Washington Post defending the use and protection of anonymous resources in reporting and punditry, with the somewhat-ironic title "The Value of Anonymity." In her essay, she rightly notes the role that these sources provide in getting to the real data behind the PR smokescreens erected by bureaucrats of all stripes:
Some of us will get the balance wrong -- there are bad and corrupt journalists, just as there are bad and corrupt members of any other profession -- and some of us will make mistakes. But the alternative to a relatively open, relatively comfortable relationship between the press and the government isn't exactly attractive. Earlier this week the owner of a Jordanian newspaper visited The Post. He described his efforts to open up the press in his country, to ease laws that restrict what topics the press is allowed to address, and to create a newspaper independent of government financing and influence. But ultimately, he said, the legal system wasn't his worst problem. Far more troubling was the fact that Jordanian government officials "feel no obligation" to say anything to the press, on or off the record, at all. In Jordan, there are no anonymous sources with whom members of the press are entangled, no lower-level officials who can help shed light on events -- and as a result, it's hard for the press to be relevant to politics. Is that really the system we'd like to adopt in this country, too?
No, but problems erupt when the press decides to assign that value based on the politics of the source itself. For instance, when anonymous sources decided to tell the Washington Post that the CIA ran detention centers in Eastern Europe for interrogating terrorists, that source apparently needs the utmost in journalistic protection -- even though it revealed an ongoing and extremely sensitive wartime operation that could cost American lives by the thousands, if compromised. On the other hand, when a columnist revealed that the wife of a prominent public critic of the Administration worked for the CIA and had arranged for her husband to travel on the agency's dime to discredit the administration with what the Senate later determined was misinformation, that source somehow deserves no protection whatsoever, and any journalist who protects him/her achieves instant pariah status. Just ask Judith Miller.
We'd love to agree with Anne about the value of anonymous sources, if the value didn't keep changing based on whether the source's truths hurts or helps politicians with which the media elite support or oppose. Until then, Anne, color us somewhat cynical on such pronouncements of reportorial courage.
Air Marshal Reserves Too Expensive: Congress
After approving a program to cross-train customs and immigration agents as reserve air marshals for deployment during heightened alerts, Congress quietly abandoned the program over a year ago as a "waste of resources," the GAO revealed yesterday:
The plan was first disclosed in September 2003 by Tom Ridge, then Homeland Security secretary.Ridge announced that the air marshals would be combined with immigration and customs agents in the same agency so agents in both could be cross-trained and used for aviation security. The move would allow more than 5,000 armed federal law enforcement agents to be deployed on commercial aircraft, he said.
"This realignment offers a sweeping gain of additional armed law enforcement officials who will be able to provide a 'surge capacity' during increased threat periods or in the event of a terrorist attack," Ridge said at the time.
By October 2004, Homeland Security had cross-trained some immigration and customs agents, but stopped because of congressional concerns that it was "an ineffective use of resources," the report said.
Eight months ago, air marshals warned the US that they did not have the numbers to provide the comprehensive protection that we had anticipated would be demanded in the aftermath of 9/11. While this article rightly states that the exact number of air marshals remains confidential, the air marshals themselves have repeatedly claimed that they do not have the numbers to meet their current, normal-condition mandate. During an emergency or a heightened alert, we have no reserve on which to call to ensure passenger safety on high-risk flights.
We need Congress to rethink its priorities on air security. Americans took back to air travel on the premise, after 9/11, that we had better levels of security both before boarding and while in flight. The four-year history of the federal Air Marshal service has instead brought mismanagement, politically-correct silliness, dress-code irrelevancies, and now the revelation that no reserves exist if specific threats arise against the American air transportation system. We found out how valuable this system is to the American economy in the aftermath of the worst terrorist attack in history. Surely Congress can burn a few more Bridges to Nowhere to fund the air marshal service and the system of reserves necessary to prevent another such incident.
Sharon's Gamble May Steal The Center
Ariel Sharon's breathtaking gamble on leaving the political party that he himself founded decades earlier may have paid off. It appears that Shimon Peres, recently booted from his leadership post in the Labor party, may join Sharon in Kadima and take a large swath of his followers along with him. The two moves threaten to completely rewrite Israeli politics and shove what had been the two largest political parties into the extremist wings of the Israeli electoral culture:
Speculation mounted Tuesday that Shimon Peres, the longtime pillar of Israel's Labor Party, plans to break ranks and join Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new centrist movement.The departure of Peres, 82, from Labor, which Sharon allies speculated could come Wednesday, would continue a broad realignment of Israel's political parties prompted by Sharon's decision to withdraw Jewish settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip earlier this year. ...
Peres's ally, Dalia Itzik, a member of Labor's 21-person parliamentary bloc, announced that she would join Sharon. She is the second Labor member of parliament to do so after Haim Ramon, who announced his decision last week.
"It looks like a package deal," Eitan Cabel, the Labor Party's secretary general, told Israel's Army Radio. "We spoke about their remaining and not defecting to another party. But apparently things were already sealed, and the talks with us were nothing but a smoke screen."
Perhaps Sharon had this already in the works when he announced the launch of Kadima, but either way, it shows the demand for a more centrist representation in Israel while the question of the Palestinians remain open. In his manner, Sharon has taken a page from Bill Clinton and especially Tony Blair in building a so-called Third Way, this time in Israeli politics. Most Israelis want to see peace and would trade land for it, but only if that can assure an end to the constant state of war that the occupation has created. Now with Peres and his followers backing Sharon and joining with him to push his policies and strategems, the centrists have a home for themselves.
Peres had little choice and so a move to Kadima makes a lot of sense. He had just lost control of Labor to a far-left, hard-line union supporter who backs the two-state solution but also wide-ranging social spending. Sharon, on the other hand, had largely beaten back a challenge for Likud supremacy from Benjamin Netanyahu. In one or two move, Sharon has now created a political structure in Israel where both Netanyahu and Amir Peretz get left alone at the extremes while Kadima can define the center of Israeli politics. The union of the two old titans of Israeli government will provide an instant legitimacy that could well sway a majority to support Kadima in the upcoming elections.
If Kadima cannot form a majority government, however, look for Labor to fill the gap -- and they will want to exact some revenge on the Peres group when they do.
Catholic Church To Shun The Limbo
No, the Mass has not gotten so liberal that celebrants or the congregation do the popular party dance on the way to the Eucharist, although some might believe that the Church wouldn't necessarily think that a bad idea if it got people to fulfill their holy obligations more frequently. The Vatican has studied the religious concept of limbo for decades now in an attempt to either minimize it or eliminate it altogether, and the Globe & Mail reports that a blue-ribbon commission of theologians first formed by John Paul the Great on the question will recommend that Pope Benedict banish limbo from Catholic teachings:
In Latin, it means "the lip," and for centuries devout Roman Catholics have tried to avoid thinking about its full meaning: the edge of hell, where those who have died without baptism -- notably babies -- are sent for eternity.Now it seems that limbo, a place invented in the Middle Ages that soon became a well-known part of the architecture of the cosmos, is about to be struck from the theological blueprints as part of the Vatican's lengthy renovation of its heavenly layout.
Its place, alongside such well-known medieval additions as the gates of heaven, the nine circles of hell, purgatory and the heavenly vestibule, has become increasingly shaky, and yesterday, the Italian media reported that an international commission of high-ranking theologians intends to advise Pope Benedict to banish the notion of limbo from all teachings of the Catholic catechism.
One of the reasons that limbo has been in, well, limbo is because the concept presents a stumbling block to Christian unity, especially for those who practice from a literal form of sola scriptura. After the Church could catch its breath when it emerged from four centuries of martydom and oppression, theologians presented many questions about the nature of the faith which challenged the thinking of Church elders. Among them: what happened to unbaptized babies at death? Instead of just leaving such questions up to God, distraught parents and theoretical thinkers wanted answers, and limbo came into being.
Limbo, it should be pointed out, differs from purgatory, another difficult but more scriptural-based concept of Roman Catholocism. Purgatory refers to the process of purification that has to take place between the death of a sinner and their entry into heaven. Misunderstood as a particular place in space and time, purgatory would at first appear to be an unmentioned third possible destination for the dead, but the Church teaches that all souls who enter heaven must necessarily experience purgatory to be cleansed of sinful impulses before final acceptance into the presence of the Lord. When I taught confirmation classes, I used to explain it to the teenagers as an extra rinse cycle in the washing machine ... which may explain why I don't teach confirmation classes any longer.
Purgatory as a concept would have also explained what happens to the unbaptized, and done so with much more elegance than the notion of limbo. I suspect that if limbo gets the heave-ho it deserves, the Church will probably emphasize purgatory as the merciful process that it is and the path of the unbaptized to reach heaven when judged deserving by the Lord -- who, after all, makes the rules and the choices without consulting any of us on our opinion anyway.
The Return From Upgrade Hell
I'm reworking my weekly column for the Daily Standard on Canada tonight, which will appear a little later this week, and the renewed trackback function drove me to a new level of insanity ... and to upgrade to Movable Type 3.2, which supposedly controls the spam attacks much better than previous versions with the MT-Blacklist plugin. What I thought would be a 30-minute quick update turned into a three-hour ordeal, the last of which took the site down intermittently, especially if you tried to post comments. It should be back up and running now, but blogging will probably be over for the evening.
If you get a chance, take a look at my friend Scott Johnson's latest column at DS, "Second Time's A Charm", about Mary Mapes and her attempt to rehabilitate herself after the Memogate debacle. So far, it's a complete flop, and few things are more fun than watching the delightful way Scott shoots the fish in the barrel:
WHAT IS CERTAINLY ILLUMINATING is the degree to which Truth and Duty makes plain the level of malice Mapes has for the president. Although she offers herself as an impartial journalist searching for truth, her tract seethes with Bush hatred. Mapes suggests that Bush's "success in skewing the public perception of his military service was a prelude to his success in shaping public opinion around the reasons for the war in Iraq, the treatment of detainees, the need for a tax cut, and every political battle he has fought and won in his White House years." She refers to "the Bush campaign's aggressive pattern of sliming anyone and everyone who raised questions about the president." She describes Karl Rove as Bush's "über-adviser" and bizarrely credits him with masterminding "the Republican attack against the [60 Minutes II] story." Given her claims of the documents' authenticity, she absolves Rove of fabricating and planting the documents--"not that I believe Rove isn't capable of that kind of dirty trick."It is a shame that those reviewers favorable to Mapes's book appear not to have read the Thornburgh-Boccardi report, which is full of information that discredits the segment in its entirety, belies Mapes's book, and establishes far beyond reasonable doubt that the documents on which Mapes staked her career are fraudulent.
Who better to deconstruct Mapes than the man who disassembled her work and put the blogosphere on par with the national media?
Abramoff Client Heading Investigation
Democrats have tried painting Jack Abramoff's sleazy and allegedly criminal lobbying efforts as a strictly Republican scandal for the last several months, tying Abramoff chiefly to Tom DeLay. However, as the investigation into Abramoff continues, more and more ties to Democrats have emerged, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. Now it appears that the ranking Senate Democrat on the committee that has taken the lead in investigating Abramoff has more than a oversight connection to Abramoff himself:
New evidence is emerging that the top Democrat on the Senate committee currently investigating Jack Abramoff got political money arranged by the lobbyist back in 2002 shortly after the lawmaker took action favorable to Abramoff's tribal clients.A lawyer for the Louisiana Coushatta Indians told The Associated Press that Abramoff instructed the tribe to send $5,000 to Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record)'s political group just three weeks after the North Dakota Democrat urged fellow senators to fund a tribal school program Abramoff's clients wanted to use.
The check was one of about five dozen the Coushattas listed in a tribal ledger as being issued on March 6, 2002, to various lawmakers' campaigns and political causes at the instruction of Abramoff, tribal attorney Jimmy Fairchild said Monday.
So now Byron Dorgan is the fox in the henhouse, passing judgment on Abramoff after passing his checks along to the bank. Believe me, I'm delighted to see anyone crooked get his just desserts; as far as I'm concerned, men like Randy Cunningham should do a couple of tours at Club Fed if they use their positions of trust to sell out for bribes and kickbacks. Anyone who did so with Abramoff should bunk up with Cunningham at the first oppportunity. However, let's quit pretending that Abramoff represents some sort of Republican "culture of corruption" and instead acknowledge that the sleaze has a much more ecumenical stench than the Democrats want to acknowledge. Otherwise, they'd be better served by keeping their mouths shut.
Liberals Lose Ground In Power Base
The Globe and Mail report on new polling that they have conducted at the cusp of the no-confidence motion. While the polling sample is much smaller than the previous Robbins survey and not media independent -- an important point in Canada -- the polling reports on geographical breakdowns. This shows a major shift in one of the strongholds of Liberal politics and reveals a surprising weakness in the coming election:
Paul Martin's Liberals enter an election campaign six percentage points ahead of the Conservatives, but losing ground in Ontario and facing an increased desire for a change of government, a new poll shows.Canadians, especially Ontarians, are less likely than they were six months ago to see Conservative Leader Stephen Harper as a scary figure with a "hidden agenda," according to a Strategic Counsel survey conducted for The Globe and Mail and CTV. But the Ontarians have not embraced Mr. Harper's party, rating the Liberals as better at managing most issues.
"For whatever vulnerabilities the Liberals have had, the Conservatives have not been able to establish themselves as a government-in-waiting," said pollster Allan Gregg, chairman of the Strategic Counsel.
The poll, conducted between Thursday and Sunday, found that 35 per cent of Canadians would vote Liberal if an election were held today, compared with 29 per cent for the Conservatives and 17 per cent for the NDP. The survey of 1,500 Canadians has a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. ...
But in seat-rich Ontario, the Conservatives, who trailed the Liberals by 13 percentage points three weeks ago, are now only five points behind. The Liberals have 40-per-cent support in the province, the Tories 35 per cent and the NDP 20 per cent. The view that Mr. Harper has a "hidden agenda" — an oft-repeated Liberal allegation — has declined in Ontario by 10 percentage points since May.
The Robbins poll used a sample size twelve times greater than the SC poll, and it showed that nationally the Liberals had dropped into a dead heat with the Tories; in fact, the Tories "led" by a tenth of a point in the Robbins survey. Head to head, Harper beat Martin by more than a two-to-one margin in the more extensive poll.
The media will not likely highlight those results any time soon. However, the loss of strength in Ontario demonstrates that the Robbins survey may be far more accurate in showing the political momentum in Canada at the moment. If the Liberals only have a five-point advantage in the new SC poll in Ontario, they aren't terribly likely to have a six-point national advantage at all.
In other words, take close looks at the polling data offered by the Canadian media over the next few weeks, especially in Ontario. As those numbers narrow, the national election should shift even further to the Conservatives. If the Tories run a dead heat in their power base, it would equate to Democrats only narrowly beating Republicans in California and New England. It's a leading indicator that they will have lost most everywhere else.
Alito Hates Foreigners!
Wow, talk about divine providence -- on the day after George Bush moved immigration reform and border control to the top of his agenda, the Washington Post managed to write about a memo from Reagan-era deliberations that Jo Becker and Amy Goldstein claim shows some sort of animus against foreigners. Headlined by a statement that Alito opposed rights for foreigners, the Becker/Goldstein report reviews Alito's recommendation to accept fingerprint cards from refugees living in Canada:
As a senior lawyer in the Reagan Justice Department, Samuel A. Alito Jr. argued that immigrants who enter the United States illegally and foreigners living outside their countries are not entitled to the constitutional rights afforded to Americans.In an opinion that offers insight into the Supreme Court nominee's view of an area of law that has gained new significance with the Bush administration's policies to combat terrorism, Alito gave his approval to an FBI effort in the 1980s to collect from Canadian authorities fingerprint cards of Iranian and Afghan refugees living in that country.
The program to collect background information was constitutional, Alito wrote in a January 1986 memo to the FBI director. And because the refugees were nonresident immigrants of a third country, he reasoned, the FBI could disregard court decisions that prohibited it from spreading "stigmatizing" information about citizens.
So this memo has little to do with "foreigner's rights" as the headline states, and more to do with the kind of information sharing that we so badly lacked leading up to 9/11. In this case, as clumsily presented by the ever-biased Becker/Goldstein team that turned in one hack job after another on John Roberts, Canada apparently offered to share its fingerprint cards that it had taken from Iranians and Afghanis that fled to our northern neighbor in the 1980s. Given the nature of the conflicts occurring at that time, and the kind of people who might feel motivated to flee to North America, this data might have proven invaluable had we taken Islamofascist terrorism seriously during the 1990s.
Canadian authorities had no problems with getting the fingerprints in the first place. Why should sharing the data with our ally risen to a Constitutional issue at all? This kind of hypersensitivity shown by success administrations led to the Gorelick wall and the foolish and arbitrary limits on cooperation between intelligence and law-enforcement assets that kneecapped our counterterrorism efforts until after 9/11. Yet the Becker/Goldstein article says nothing about this context, instead focusing on Alito's supposedly "broad and aggressive" view of the law.
Well, if that's so, we need more jurists like Alito on the Supreme Court to put an end to this politically-correct nonsense that left us blind and deaf to external threats such as the al-Qaeda plots that killed 3,000 Americans. The idea that we should sniff at fingerprint cards collected legally by an ally (with no indications of torture) because they possibly might have been challenged had they been collected in the United States is, we now know, feel-good dippiness at its worst and most self-destructive. The people who argue this point against Alito should be made to answer for the Gorelick wall and the shackling of our counterterrorism efforts over the past two decades.
UPDATE: Fixed bad link; thanks to Eric.
Lieberman Says Iraq Going Well As Army Continues Growth
Despite the recent shrieks of hysteria coming from the Democratic caucus in Congress, one of their most respected members says that the American-led Coalition has Iraq in "pretty good shape" and expects that troop drawdowns can begin late next year or early 2007 as long as progress continues. Senator Joe Lieberman took the opportunity to actually travel through Iraq, and his recommendation follows the administration's plan to key troop withdrawals based on the buildup of the Iraqi army, and not on calendar due dates as suggested by Joe Biden last week:
Senator Lieberman of Connecticut, fresh from a two-day visit to Iraq over the Thanksgiving holiday, said yesterday he was hopeful American forces could begin a "significant" withdrawal by the end of next year or in 2007."The country is now in reach of going from Saddam Hussein to self-government and, I'd add, self-protection," the Democrat said in a conference call with reporters. "That would be a remarkable transformation." ...
Mr. Lieberman has visited Iraq four times in 17 months. He said there are signs life is returning to normal, including a profusion of cell phones and satellite TV dishes on rooftops.
"About two-thirds of the country is in really pretty good shape," he said, noting most attacks are in the so-called "Sunni Triangle" region. "Overall, I came back encouraged."
That will come as quite a shock to the Chicken Little Democrats who spent most of November 18th predicting falling skies if Americans stayed in Iraq any longer. It also comes as a surprise to most of the American media, who failed to report the conference call to their readers. The New York Times and the Washington Post all skip over this story for their print editions today, although both the Times and the Post does have the AP wire story based on the NY Sun article in its web edition.
It also appears that they skipped over more good news about the status of the Iraqi army, coming from the CENTCOM spokesman in Washington. Since a Congressional briefing in September which analyzed almost three dozen Iraqi battalions as Level 2 -- able to lead operations with only logistical support from Americans -- that number has now increased by ten battalions, five more than just four weeks ago:
Lt. Col. Fred Wellman, a spokesman in Baghdad for the U.S. command that is responsible for the training and equipping of Iraqi security forces, said approximately 130 Iraqi army and special police battalions are fighting the insurgency, of which about 45 are rated as "in the lead," with varying degrees of reliance on U.S. support.The exact numbers are classified as secret, but the 45 figure is about five higher than the number given on Nov. 7 at a briefing by Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, who previously led the training mission. It is about 10 higher than the figure Gen. Petraeus offered at a Pentagon briefing on Oct. 5.
As another measure of progress, Col. Wellman said about 33 Iraqi security battalions are now in charge of their own "battle space," including parts of Baghdad. That figure was at 24 in late October. Col. Wellman said it stood at three in March.
Also, American forces have pulled out of 30 "forward operating bases" inside Iraq, of which 16 have been transferred to Iraqi security forces. The most recent and widely publicized was a large base near Tikrit, which U.S. forces had used as a division headquarters since shortly after the fall of Baghdad in April 2003.
This progress shows that the notion of only 1,000 Iraqi troops able to operate independently is malarkey, a deliberate misrepresentation by Joe Biden. No matter how much we may draw down forces in Iraq, we intend to stick around the area to offer logistical support, just the same as we do with our NATO allies. The measure of the training in Iraq -- in which we have built the army from the ground up -- is to have them capable of taking command of territory, holding it, and enforcing the constitutional law set by civilian authority. The "clear-hold-build" strategy for places like Ramadi and Falluja has shown increasing success in denying territory for insurgents, turning them into rootless bands of terrorists rather than any real security threat.
This process dictates the troop reductions we want to see from Iraq, reductions that will allow us the flexibility to redeploy to other hot spots of terrorist activity as we find them. Calendar-based commitments for withdrawal as demanded by the Democrats last week and the week before focus on politics rather than ensuring successful missions; this approach puts the mission first, and the data shows that the mission has become increasingly successful.
Trackback Problems At CQ
Just an FYI -- the trackbacks apparently have been blocked by the hosting service for CQ. This happens occasionally as the circumstances arise. I've asked them to look into the problem. In the meantime, feel free to post a link in the comments to your post on the related topic. I'll update this post as the situation develops.
UPDATE: Trackbacks are re-enabled, but Hosting Matters says I need to upgrade to MT 3.2 to avoid the spam attacks. That's why they disabled my TB system in the first place, and they may have to again if it continues. I'll work on the upgrade ASAP.
Prayers Needed For Hostage
One of the Brits kidnapped in Iraq this weekend is a family friend of a local blogger, Ben at Hammerswing75:
Mr. Kember is a good friend of my parents and a longtime member of my Granny's church, Harrow Baptist. I remember seeing him a few years ago when I was stopped by in England to visit my Gran. We were at the church and he came over for some conversation. "I remember when you were this tall", putting his hand down by his knees. He is an extremely nice man who went out of his way to be friendly. His wife Pat, who possesses an equally wonderful character, must be in absolute shock.My parents have asked for my prayers. There will be many. I, in turn, am asking for yours. I hope that there will be many.
Let's take a moment and pray for the hostages, and pray for those who serve the people of Iraq that they remain safe tonight as well.
'This Government Has Lost The Moral Authority To Govern'
The Canadian Parliament approved a historic no-confidence motion against the Liberal executive in Ottawa this afternoon, dissolving the government and forcing elections weeks after the Gomery Inquiry issued its first comprehensive report on the Liberal corruption in the Sponsorship Program:
The short-lived 38th Parliament met its demise on Monday night, setting the stage for one of the longest election campaigns in two decades, as the Liberal government was defeated in a no-confidence vote at the hands of all three opposition parties and the country was launched into official election mode.The Liberals lost the vote in the House of Commons 133 to 171, beginning a series of events that will propel voters toward the ballot boxes, likely on Jan. 23.
I'm listening to the aftermath on CPAC, where the Liberal apologist wants to tell Canada that Adscam involved "a few Liberals", but that "no one believes that it involved the party as a whole". That apparently will be the line that the Liberals take in this election, along with a scolding tone about all of the great work that the Commons could be doing instead of holding another election seventeen months after the last one.
Well, that's why elections get held -- so that the Liberals can make that argument now that the country knows about the extent of the corruption. If they want to offer up the notion that just a few Liberals involved themselves in the money-laundering and featherbedding that went on in Adscam, I expect that the Tories and BQ will quote extensively from the Gomery report to remind voters of the extent of the corruption, including all of the money that flowed back into the Liberal Party through the government contracts given to cronies of Jean Chretien.
More to come ...
UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers, and thanks to Glenn for the link. I noticed earlier today that the CBC website didn't even have a headline on their front page about the upcoming no-confidence motion, but now they have the ubiquitous Really Cool Graphic:
I wonder if that's the title for their coverage, or the name of a boring waterfall in Ottawa. The CBC doesn't offer a lot more about the vote, but they do have Paul Martin calling the Tories "Neo-Conservatives". What does that mean -- that Stephen Harper wants to invade Iraq to establish seeds of democracy in the Middle East? Or perhaps Martin thinks it just sounds scary. If that's an example of how Martin will campaign over the next six to eight weeks, the Liberals may want to rethink the leadership while they still have a chance.
We'd Like To Welcome The BBC To The Party
The BBC has just caught up with the political events north of the border. The British news service just noticed that a no-confidence motion will get a vote late this afternoon or early this evening -- after having been tabled on Thursday:
Canada's Prime Minister, Paul Martin, faces a no-confidence motion in parliament which his minority Liberal government is widely tipped to lose.It is expected that an election would then be called in early 2006.
Monday's no-confidence motion was introduced by three opposition parties last week, after Mr Martin rejected an ultimatum demanding a poll in February.
The motion claims the Liberal party - which Mr Martin has led since 2003 - no longer has the moral authority to lead.
The government has been dogged by allegations of irregularities over contracts awarded by a previous Liberal administration.
Mr Martin is not implicated in the scandal, but the opposition says his government is tainted and should be forced out of office.
A couple of points to consider, on my lunch break at Culver's where they offer free wi-fi access (and pretty darned good chili and cole slaw): first, it's stretching the point to say that Martin hasn't been implicated in Adscam. He didn't get directly tied to the money laundering, but the Sponsorship Programme scandal occurred while he served as Finance Minister. Since millions of dollars disappeared while he had responsibility for the Canadian federal budget, he certainly has ties to the scandal; he might just not have to face criminal charges. Maybe.
Also, to call the Adscam money-laundering and political kickback scheme "irregularities" equates somewhat to calling Watergate a dispute over fair use of recordings. The Gomery inquiry established real crimes, crimes that will require prosecution. The BBC penchant for understatement misrepresents the entire push for the no-confidence motion.
Lastly, I'm trying not to be too hard on the BBC. At least they finally noticed that a major world government will collapse today. The American media still hasn't noticed it. I'll be posting on this later today, when I get home and watch the vote. Somehow, I keep expecting Martin to pull another rabbit out of his hat and dodge the bullet. Perhaps he might prorogue Parliament before allowing the vote to take place ...
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