May 1, 2006
** Scroll down for updates -- script for blogroll in Update V! ** Our friends on the port side of the blogosphere have had quite a time tossing around funny little nicknames for those of us who support the war on terror and use our blogs to express our convictions about it. We've seen the names here at CQ in the comments section -- the term "chickenhawk" has appeared more than once, and others in the blogosphere have assigned us to a unit called the 101st Fighting Keyboardists. I've thought about that for a while, wondering what exactly about both epithets appear so fascinating to left-wing bloggers. As a middle-aged grandfather supporting a chronically ill wife, I have few options for doing my part in the war on terror. After 9/11, I spent weeks looking into different options for service while trying to balance my family obligations. Our family found...
Today's planned boycott and walkout on behalf of illegal immigrants garnered plenty of press in the past week, but some question just how many will actually risk exposure and the loss of their jobs. The Washington Post notes the divisions within the ranks of immigration activists and their trepidation at the bedfellows that have hitched a ride on this issue: Some local activists predicted that thousands of Washington area immigrants would participate in a national economic boycott today, but immigrant groups who have spoken out against the boycott said they fear that the immigration reform movement is being commandeered to promote political causes beyond immigration. The public tug of war, which continued in the Washington area yesterday on Spanish-language radio, could result in more limited participation in the region than is expected in Dallas and Los Angeles, where the organizers of last month's massive protests have been more unified in...
An editorial by a Saudi economics professor in today's Arab News points out the growing ties between the oil-rich Middle Eastern nation and the growing economic behemoth of the East, mainland China. Dr. Mohamed Ramady argues that while enetrgy will provide the Saudi entree to Beijing, the potential for Sino-Saudi relations goes much farther (via Newsbeat1): Between the pomp and ceremony of state visits and senior level meetings of Saudi and Chinese officials, there is indeed much to be pleased about concerning the blossoming relations between the world’s major oil producer, Saudi Arabia, and the emerging manufacturing superpower, China. It is no coincidence that President Hu Jintao of China came to Saudi Arabia straight after his state visit to the US in late April. The earlier state visit to China by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah had already set the stage for an emerging economic bond between...
We can now file the $100 gasoline rebate idea into the political remainder bin, as no one appears to want to buy this pandering as policy. While the Democrats have been careful not to directly oppose it -- they claim that it could form part of an overall response to high energy prices -- the GOP's base has busied itself ridiculing it, and rightly so: The Senate Republican plan to mail $100 checks to voters to ease the burden of high gasoline prices is eliciting more scorn than gratitude from the very people it was intended to help. Aides for several Republican senators reported a surge of calls and e-mail messages from constituents ridiculing the rebate as a paltry and transparent effort to pander to voters before the midterm elections in November. "The conservatives think it is socialist bunk, and the liberals think it is conservative trickery," said Don Stewart,...
One point I missed in my review of United 93 yesterday is one of the lesser-known complications of our actions in grounding air traffic on 9/11. In the movie as in real life, FAA operations manager makes the decision to ground all aircraft immediately, ordering every plane in American airspace to land at the nearest airport. Despite the fact that it will cost the airline industry billions (and later created a large federal bailout package), Sliney knows it's the right action to take, and every plane in America was on the ground by 12:06 PM on 9/11. One of the consequences of closing American airspace was the denial of landing rights to all inbound international flights. Sliney's decision made it necessary for those flights to return home, or if that could not be safely done, then to find somewhere else to land besides the US. Sliney had no idea if...
It appears that the nationwide strike by illegal immigrants and their supporters caused some headaches but little immediate economic impact, as outside of Denver, Chicago, and Los Angeles most demonstrations attracted significantly fewer numbers than earlier rallies. Despite numbering in the tens of millions, the demonstrations only mustered a few hundred thousand opponents to the get-tough approach taken by the House, forcing local employers to shut down but hardly causing a blip in the routine for most Americans: Police estimated 400,000 people marched through Chicago's business district and tens of thousands more rallied in New York and Los Angeles, where police stopped giving estimates at 60,000 as the crowd kept growing. An estimated 75,000 rallied in Denver, more than 15,000 in Houston and 30,000 more across Florida. Smaller rallies in cities from Pennsylvania and Connecticut to Arizona and South Dakota attracted hundreds not thousands. In Los Angeles, protesters wearing white...
I will be appearing on The World Tonight with Rob Breckenridge at Calgary's CHQR at 8:30 CT. Be sure to tune in -- we'll be discussing illegal immigration....
Joseph Shahda has translated yet another of the captured Iraqi government documents, and this one shows that Saddam Hussein's government produced banned nerve gas detectors in 2000. Shahda's discovery shows that Saddam never intended on stopping his WMD programs nor planned on complying with UN resolutions that supposedly "contained" Saddam (via Power Line): Beginning of Translation of page 5 of document CMPC-2003-016083 In the Name of God the Most Merciful The Most Compassionate TOP SECRET The Republic of Iraq The Presidency of the Republic The Military Industrialization Commission Number 2/4/44 Date 13/1/2001 To: THE PRESIDENTIAL SECRETARIAT Subject: Detection Equipment Your top Secret letter number AA’/128 on 10/12/2000, we would like to show the following: 1. On 10/12/2000 a laboratory test was done on the new equipment and the results of the test was similar to the required quality compared with the Russian equipments 2. On the light of the above...
May 2, 2006
The Vatican has undertaken a review of its teachings on condom use, as the conservative Pope Benedict reconciles the church's mission to protect life within the age of AIDS. The Pope requested a report from theologians about the doctrinal implications of condom usage within marriage when one partner carries HIV or has developed full-blown AIDS: Even at the Vatican, not all sacred beliefs are absolute: Thou shalt not kill, but war can be just. Now, behind the quiet walls, a clash is shaping up involving two poles of near certainty: the church's long-held ban on condoms and its advocacy of human life. The issue is AIDS. Church officials recently confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI had requested a report on whether it might be acceptable for Catholics to use condoms in one narrow circumstance: to protect life inside a marriage when one partner is infected with H.I.V. or is sick with...
A New York Times report shows that even a law-enforcement model for conducting the fight against terrorism will not satisfy some people. William Rashbaum reports on the testimony of a paid informer who reported conversations and activities at a Brooklyn mosque to New York detectives, which led to the unraveling of a plot to bomb the Herald Square subway station: The paid police informer who is the central witness at the trial of a Pakistani immigrant charged with plotting to blow up the Herald Square subway station testified yesterday that he collected a wide range of information on his visits to two city mosques, from the tenor of the sermons to how many people attended the services. The informer, Osama Eldawoody, 50, secretly recorded roughly two dozen conversations about the plot with the immigrant, Shahawar Matin Siraj, in the summer of 2004 — many of them incriminating. He was questioned...
When the Bush administration started off its second term by focusing its domestic agenda on entitlement reform, primarily on Social Security, it warned that the fiscal stability of these entitlements was eroding at a faster rate than predicted and pointed out the need for reform now, rather than waiting for the coming collapse. Democrats pounded the administration for its "scare tactics" and insisted that the programs had plenty of stability. Now the administration has released new numbers indicating that the erosion has picked up a little speed: The financial condition of Medicare and Social Security deteriorated in the last year, the Bush administration reported Monday, and it warned again that the programs were unsustainable in their current form. Medicare's hospital insurance trust fund, a widely watched gauge of the program's solvency, will run out of money in 2018, two years earlier than projected in last year's report, the trustees said....
After John McCain made a statement last week on the Don Imus Show that he would trade the First Amendment for "clean government", one would have expected the industry enabled by that portion of the Bill of Rights to speak out against such talk. Oddly, not one major newspaper addressed the issue until today, when the Washington Examiner takes the Senator to task for his minimization of free political speech: James Madison, the prime mover behind the U.S. Constitution, and his colleagues among the Founders rightly feared arrogant men like Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., so they limited the central government to a few, well-defined powers. As further protection, Madison and the first Congress approved the First Amendment to the Constitution to protect forever the right of every American to freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition. ... McCain incited a blogstorm Friday with this comment, which epitomizes political arrogance:...
Mitch Berg wrote a provocative post yesterday on the enduring popularity of immaturity: It's a good thing I have Cap'n Ed and King on the air with me on the NARN show. They are both very diligent in reminding me that when I slag on leftyblogs that there are exceptions to the rule; when I refer to leftybloggers who've been comedically outmaneuvered as "shrieking like a cagefull of poo-flinging monkeys", both were very conscientious about reminding me that there are exceptions. Josh Marshall, Matt Yglesias, Jeralynn Meritt, Flash - they tend to be able to separate the fever from the swamp. ... Sponge seems to assume that anyone involved in the "101st" thinks the joke is in any way analogous to miltiary service. ("Yes, ladies and gentlemen, a midwest call center manager/blogger is comparing a hastily put-together jpeg and internet list with actual military recruitment.") Sponge? Is that really what...
Sneakeasy's Joint joined the 101st Fighting Keyboarders and posted about his decision to join up -- which prompted a surprising e-mail from US Central Command: Hi, Kiril: I caught your post about the 101st Fighting Keyboardists. Good luck with the project! I’m not sure if you have been to the US Central Command website but we regularly post news, photos, audio and video from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. You (and your fellow bloggers) are welcome to use any materials you find on our site. If you’d like to receive the weekly electronic newsletter and monthly Coalition Bulletin, just ask. If you could add a link to CENTCOM, it’d be appreciated (I’m trying to spread the word about our site!). I’ve attached the CENTCOM logo, should you want to use it with the link. Thanks! SPC C. Flowers CENTCOM Public Affairs I have had some correspondence with SPC...
In a rather stunning political development, the Conservative Party has pulled ahead of Bloc Quebecois, according to a poll taken by La Presse. The reversal of years of decline in Tory fortunes comes as a shock to the separatists, who had almost reached majority support just a few months ago (via Newsbeat1): The Conservatives are rapidly gaining support in Quebec and are now more popular than the province's separatist party, according to a new poll published on Tuesday. The CROP poll for La Presse put the Conservatives at 34 percent in Quebec, up from the 25 percent the party won during the January 23 election. The separatist Bloc Quebecois, which a few months ago was flirting with 50 percent backing, dropped to 31 percent from 42 percent on January 23. The Conservatives, led by Stephen Harper, unexpectedly took 10 of Quebec's 75 seats in the election, helping them win a...
The May Day protests by activists for illegal immigrants have resulted in an utterly predictable backlash, according to the Washington Post. Voters have sent bricks to their Congressional representatives as donations for a border barrier, and even those who considered themselves liberals want the government to start rounding up illegals and send them packing: While a series of marches focused much of the nation's attention on the plight of illegal immigrants, scores of other Americans quietly seethed. Now, with the same full-throated cry expressed by those in the country illegally, they are shouting back. Congressional leaders in Washington have gotten bricks in the mail from a group that advocates building a border fence, states in the West and South have drawn up tough anti-immigrant laws, and ordinary citizens, such as Janis McDonald of Pennsylvania, who considers herself a liberal, are not mincing words in expressing their displeasure. "Send them back,"...
May 3, 2006
The effort to put an end to earmarks -- the technical term for pork-barrel projects in the federal budget -- hit a snag yesterday when the US Senate voted to keep such unrelated projects out of emergency spending legislation on hurricane relief and the Iraq war effort. In a related development, Robert Byrd vehemently opposed a modified versions of the line-item veto that he supported during the Clinton administration: The Senate voted Tuesday to protect home-state projects added by some of its most senior members to an Iraq war and hurricane relief funding bill as the tide turned against efforts by spending hawks to strip them out. ... The price tag of the bill, therefore, has grown to more than $108 billion, despite Bush's promise to veto any measure that exceeds his request of $92.2 billion for the war and hurricane relief and another $2.3 billion to combat avian flu....
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a man who became a billionaire through the free-market trading of private property, has decided that he likes having the ability to confiscate it from other people now that he's in office. He escalated his campaign to stop Congress and the New York legislature from imposing stricter limits on the use of eminent doman after the dreadful Kelo decision last year: Mayor Bloomberg is stepping up his campaign to prevent lawmakers in Albany and Washington from restricting the city's power to seize private property for redevelopment. In recent weeks, Mr. Bloomberg has traveled to Washington to meet with members of Congress on the issue. He also convened a group of 100 Manhattan-based political donors for a lunch at which he handed out a wallet card of priorities, including "Eminent Domain - Oppose legislation that would cripple affordable housing and responsible re-development (like Times Square)." Yesterday,...
An integral part of democracy and free elections is the responsibility one assumes for the government that results. If an electorate lifts idiots to power, then they need to experience the consequences of that choice, or otherwise they will keep electing idiots without regard to the results. Unfortunately, former Quartet envoy James Wolfensohn doesn't agree and insists that the West must bail out the Palestinians from the consequences of electing a terrorist group to govern them: JAMES WOLFENSOHN, the international envoy to the Middle East, has resigned and issued a warning of the dangers ahead if the West cuts everything but humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. Mr Wolfensohn, a former head of the World Bank, also cautioned that the UN, charities and humanitarian organisations will not be able to fill the gap if the Palestinian Authority collapses under financial pressure. Speaking in Washington after he ended his posting as envoy...
A jury declined to give Zacarias Moussaoui the death penalty for his refusal to tip federal officials about the 9/11 terrorist plot, even after they found him legally responsible for at least one death in connection to the attack. The jury unanimously chose the lesser sentence of life without the possibility of release in the only criminal trial resulting from the worst attack on American soil: A federal jury decided today that Sept. 11, 2001, conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui should be sentenced to life in prison, rejecting government arguments that he should be executed for his role in the deadliest terrorist strike on American soil. "America, you lost. I won!" Moussaoui yelled as he was escorted from the U.S. District courtroom in Alexandria after the verdict was read. He clapped his hands as he left. ... U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema is scheduled to formally sentence Moussaoui at 10 a.m....
I had the opportunity to take part in a conference call earlier this evening with several fine bloggers and Ken Cohen, Vice President of Public Affairs at ExxonMobil. As you might imagine, Mr. Cohen has a busy job these days fending off calls for federal investigations and explaining free-market economics to anyone who bothers to listen. The purpose of this conference call was to allow bloggers an opportunity to ask Big Oil questions about their issues and to get some perspective on the volatile energy market. Cohen started off with a very short statement, preferring to move quickly to a Q&A rather than a prepared presentation. He spoke of the lack of education most consumers have about the nature of the energy markets and the effects that politics and global tensions have on pricing. Oil is a commodity, just the same as oranges, pork bellies, and a range of other...
Continue reading "Talking Business And Politics With ExxonMobil" »
Mexico's Vicente Fox surprised legislators by reversing his public stance and refusing to sign a bill that would have decriminalized drug possession for personal use. Without mentioning fierce American criticism and a warning from the US government about the effect on "drug tourism", Fox sent the bill back to the Mexican Congress with instructions to keep criminal penalties in: Mexican President Vicente Fox refused to sign a drug decriminalization bill Wednesday, hours after U.S. officials warned the plan could encourage "drug tourism." Fox sent the measure back to Congress for changes, but his office did not mention the U.S. criticism. Fox will ask "Congress to make the needed corrections to make it absolutely clear in our country, the possession of drugs and their consumption are, and will continue to be, a criminal offense," according to a statement from the president's office. On Tuesday, Fox's spokesman had called the bill "an...
Captain's Quarters endorses the Online Integrity coalition: The Online Integrity Statement of Principles is simple: # Private persons are entitled to respect for their privacy regardless of their activities online. This includes respect for the non-public nature of their personal contact information, the inviolability of their homes, and the safety of their families. No information which might lead others to invade these spaces should be posted. The separateness of private persons’ professional lives should also be respected as much as is reasonable. # Public figures are entitled to respect for the non-public nature of their personal, non-professional contact information, and their privacy with regard to their homes and families. No information which might lead others to invade these spaces should be posted. # Persons seeking anonymity or pseudonymity online should have their wishes in this regard respected as much as is reasonable. Exceptions include cases of criminal, misleading, or intentionally...
The debate over the performance of Stephen Colbert has already lasted long past its expiration date, but Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen's shares his reaction to the performance. The reliably liberal Cohen correctly identifies Colbert for what he was at the White House Correspondents Dinner: ... Colbert was not just a failure as a comedian but rude. Rude is not the same as brash. It is not the same as brassy. It is not the same as gutsy or thinking outside the box. Rudeness means taking advantage of the other person's sense of decorum or tradition or civility that keeps that other person from striking back or, worse, rising in a huff and leaving. The other night, that person was George W. Bush. Why are you wasting my time with Colbert, I hear you ask. Because he is representative of what too often passes for political courage, not to mention...
May 4, 2006
The backlash against the immigration demonstrations continues as the strident language of activists has provoked some anger from the African-American community, which sees few parallels between their struggle as American citizens and the demands of illegal aliens for amnesty from prosecution and deportation. The New York Times reports that a broad swath of the Democratic Party's most important demographic component has grown increasingly hostile towards an amnesty on the basis of civil rights: In their demonstrations across the country, some Hispanic immigrants have compared the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s struggle to their own, singing "We Shall Overcome" and declaring a new civil rights movement to win citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants. Civil rights stalwarts like the Rev. Jesse Jackson; Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia; Julian Bond and the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery have hailed the recent protests as the natural progression of their movement in the...
First the Italians paid millions to get its hostages out of Iraq, and now Germany appears to have done the same, despite professing strong support for refusing to negotiate with terrorists. The Guardian (UK) and Der Spiegel both report that the German government paid "a large amount of money" for the recent release of two Germans held hostage by terrorists: Two German hostages kidnapped in Iraq arrived home yesterday as Iraq's ambassador to Germany claimed a "load of money" had been paid to secure their release. Alaa al-Hashimi, said the German government had handed over a "large amount" to the kidnappers of René Bräunlich and Thomas Nitzschke, who were freed on Tuesday after 99 days in captivity. "Regarding the payment of ransom, I don't know. But I assume it was a large amount of money," the ambassador told Germany's ARD public television station. The Iraqi government had no part in...
The admission of former Taliban ambassador-at-large Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi into a non-degree program at Yale has caused an eruption of anger at the storied Ivy League institution. Despite catcalls from the press and alumni, Yale has refused to reconsider its supposedly prestigious "get" in light of his service to a brutally oppressive regime. Now Hashemi has escalated the stakes for Yale and its detractors by applying for admission into a degree program, creating another tripwire for further controversy: A student at Yale University who was once a roving ambassador for the Taliban regime in Afghanistan has applied for admission to a degree-granting program, putting new pressure on university officials in an emotionally charged political debate over his presence at Yale. The student, Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, 27, began taking courses at Yale last summer in a nondegree program for untraditional students. After an article about his experience appeared in The New...
The French have apparently not let the ink dry on the jury submission from yesterday's sentencing recommendation in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial before starting to interfere with its implementation. Le Monde reports today that French officials have contacted the US in hopes of transferring Moussaoui to France in order to serve his sentence (h/t: CQ reader Leo T): Un éventuel transfèrement de Zacarias Moussaoui en France, contre qui un jury américain a requis la prison à perpétuité, pourrait être examiné dans le cadre de conventions judiciaires avec les Etats-Unis, a affirmé jeudi le ministère des Affaires étrangères français. "La France et les Etats-Unis d'Amérique sont liés par deux conventions sur le transfèrement des personnes condamnées, une convention bilatérale du 25 janvier 1983 et une convention du Conseil de l'Europe entrée en vigueur le 1er juillet 1985", a déclaré à la presse le porte-parole du Quai d'Orsay, Jean-Baptiste Mattéi. My high-school...
Word got out today that Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) crashed his car in the wee hours this morning. Despite suspicions on the part of the responding officer that Kennedy was intoxicated, other officers drove him home without ever conducting a field sobriety test or a Breathalyzer, causing an eruption of criticism about law enforcement in the capital: Rep. Patrick Kennedy crashed his car near the Capitol early Thursday, and a police official said he appeared intoxicated. Kennedy said he had had no alcohol before the accident. ... Kennedy appeared to be intoxicated when he crashed his car into a barrier on Capitol Hill early Thursday morning, said Louis P. Cannon, president of the Washington chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police. Cannon, who was not there, said the officers involved in the accident were instructed by an official "above the rank of patrolman" to take Kennedy home. No sobriety tests...
Well, this video has to be the funniest development in the war on terror -- not that there have been a lot of events competing for that honor. Al-Qaeda leader and terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi apparently cannot master the weapons he brandishes for chilling effect on his video statements: The U.S. military command Thursday released previously unseen images of a video purportedly posted by Al Qaeda in Iraq's leader, showing him decked out in American tennis shoes and unable to operate his machine gun. ... The video, discovered in a series of raids in April on purported Al Qaeda in Iraq safe houses in the Youssifiyah area, 12 miles southwest of Baghdad, gave a view of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi that the Jordanian-born militant chose not to show the world, said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, spokesman for the U.S. command. Al-Zarqawi is "very proud of the fact that he can...
Mark Tapscott notes in two posts that both Republicans and Democrats named chronic pork supporters to the conference committee reconciling the emergency spending legislation from both chambers of Congress: THE PRESIDING OFFICER: UNDER THE PREVIOUS ORDER, THE CHAIR APPOINTS THE FOLLOWING AS CONFEREES ON THE PART OF THE SENATE. THE CLERK: SENATORS COCHRAN, STEVENS, SPECTER, DOMENICI, BOND, McCONNELL, BURNS, SHELBY, GREGG, BENNETT, CRAIG, HUTCHISON, DeWINE, BROWNBACK, ALLARD, BYRD, INOUYE, LEAHY, HARKIN, MIKULSKI, REID, KOHL, MURRAY, DORGAN, FEINSTEIN, DURBIN, JOHNSON, AND LANDRIEU. Mark calls this a Porkers Hall of Fame, and then provides the data to back it up. It turns out that this group has individually voted to retain pork almost three times as often as they have voted for its elimination. Denny Hastert has declared the Senate version a dead letter in the House, balking at the $17 billion in increased spending it delivers, but he may wind up...
The Council on Foreign Relations has released a short primer on oil economics to its website. After our conference call with ExxonMobil's Ken Cohen yesterday, CQ readers had many questions about the data Cohen provided us. CFR, a think tank on foreign policy and economics that tends towards the center-left, may have more credibility on this topic for some readers than an oil-company executive. Lee Hudson Teslik explains the effects of global supply and demand: How does global oil supply affect the price of American gasoline? Given the extent to which the price of crude oil affects the price of gasoline, any fluctuation in the world's crude market can have a significant impact on the gasoline market. In 1960, many of the world's largest oil suppliers formed an organization through which they could coordinate production and ensure consistent supply, thereby providing stability in an otherwise very volatile market. This group,...
May 5, 2006
Denmark responded yesterday to the many attempts at intimidation directed at their country since the publication of the editorial cartoons portraying Mohammed, announcing that they plan to maintain their deployment in Iraq to defy the terrorists: Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said yesterday that the furor over cartoons of the prophet Muhammad had "strengthened our resolve for the long haul" and that Danish troops would remain in Iraq. In an interview with The Washington Times in his Copenhagen office, Mr. Rasmussen brushed off a Danish television report of plans to cut Denmark's 530-man deployment in Iraq by nearly one-fifth in July. "It is clearly our intention to stay in Iraq as long as we are requested by the Iraqi government, as long as our presence is based on a U.N. mandate, and as long as we believe we can make a positive difference on the ground," the center-right Danish...
The AP reports that the major reason for George Bush's erosion in the polls has been a loss of support among conservatives instead of the center. The poll reveals that conservatives help drive the "wrong direction" number in the political polls: Angry conservatives are driving the approval ratings of President Bush and the GOP-led Congress to dismal new lows, according to an AP-Ipsos poll that underscores why Republicans fear an Election Day massacre. Six months out, the intensity of opposition to Bush and Congress has risen sharply, along with the percentage of Americans who believe the nation is on the wrong track. ... • Just 33 percent of the public approves of Bush's job performance, the lowest of his presidency. That compares with 36 percent approval in early April. Forty-five percent of self-described conservatives now disapprove of the president. • Just one-fourth of the public approves of the job Congress...
Dick Cheney gave a speech yesterday that included pointed references to Russia, a nation that the administration once hailed as a key strategic partner but now acknowledges as a potential problem for the US. Cheney made clear that the US would no longer gloss over actions by Russian president Vladimir Putin to nationalize industries and suppress dissent, especially since Russia has proven itself obstructionist in addressing Iranian nuclear proliferation and corrupt in its previous dealings with Saddam Hussein: Vice President Dick Cheney today delivered the Bush administration's strongest rebuke of Russia to date, saying the Russian government "unfairly and improperly restricted" people's rights and suggesting that it sought to use the country's vast oil and gas resources as "tools of intimidation or blackmail." "In many areas of civil society — from religion and the news media, to advocacy groups and political parties — the government has unfairly and improperly restricted...
Earlier today I posted on the declining job-approval ratings for President Bush and Congress, slippage that Ipsos attributes to dissatisfaction among the GOP base. Fox News has a poll showing a five-point rebound in the last three weeks, but it still has Bush below 40% and a solid majority disapproving of his performance. It comes as no surprise to traditional Reagan or Goldwater conservatives that the key GOP base has become so restive, and I pointed out a few of the reasons why dissatisfaction runs so high for both the administration and Congress. More than a few of the disillusioned have insisted that they will not support GOP candidates this fall. They propose to either vote for third-party candidates or to stay home and vote with their silence. These sound like good solutions, but in a binary political system – which is what we have, whether we approve or not...
After only twenty months on the job, Porter Goss has resigned as head of the CIA, which at one time he considered the pinnacle of his career. What would make this longtime Congressional representative and one-time agency operative suddenly leave in the middle of revamping the intelligence agency? No one who's talking knows, and no one who knows is talking: CIA Director Porter J. Goss said today that he is "stepping aside" after less than two years on the job, ending a tumultuous tenure at an agency shaken by recent intelligence failures, internal turmoil and a massive reorganization that reduced its leadership role in the U.S. intelligence community. In an appearance with Goss at the White House, President Bush announced that the director "offered his resignation" this morning and that "I've accepted it." Neither the president nor Goss, who sat to Bush's right as he made the announcement in the...
While many still wonder what prompted the resignation of Porter Goss from his position as CIA Director, others have already started looking ahead to his eventual replacement. Goss has offered to remain in place while George Bush selects his successor, but the process will likely take place over the weekend. Sources within the White House have already warned the press to be ready for an announcement as early as Monday. The AP reports late this evening that the search will likely narrow to a handful of possibilities: Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden; Frances Fragos Townsend; David Shedd, Negroponte's chief of staff; and Mary Margaret Graham, Negroponte's deputy for intelligence collection. The common thread among four of the five are that they work for the current Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte. Only Townsend works outside of Negroponte's control, an interesting dynamic and one which may impact Congressional hearings down the...
May 6, 2006
According to news reports over the past day, it appears that Porter Goss got helped out the door rather than leaving on his own accord. According to CNN, General Michael Hayden will get the nod to replace Goss, but an article in the Los Angeles Times this morning says that Hayden and his boss, John Negroponte, had a critical role in creating the opening in the first place. Doyle McManus and Peter Spiegel report that Goss fell victim to efforts by Negroponte and Hayden to win a turf battle over the component intelligence agencies of the National Intelligence directorate: After a little more than a year in his newly created job, John D. Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, has won an initial battle to establish authority over the vast U.S. intelligence community — Porter J. Goss, who resisted Negroponte's moves to limit the autonomy of the CIA, is gone....
My friend John Hinderaker at Power Line feels that a confirmation-hearing spectacle for General Michael Hayden to succeed Porter Goss as CIA director would provide a boon for Republicans. He relishes the thought of Democrats attacking Hayden on the NSA surveillance program: To all of this I say: great! Hardly anything would give the Republican faithful a bigger boost than the spectacle of Senate Democrats attacking an Air Force general for trying to protect America against terrorism. Please, Democrats, please don't deny us this opportunity. And could we possibly schedule the hearing closer to November? I hope he's correct, if Hayden actually gets the nod. However, given the nature of Goss' departure and the hostility the NSA program has created among members of both parties in Congress, I suspect that any Hayden hearing will rapidly become a debacle. All one has to do is to review the committee that will...
Ever since prices began spiking at the gas pumps last year, people have demanded an investigation into why the costs of filling one's tank has skyrocketed. Conspiracy theories have abounded, especially in the blogosphere, complete with energy executives deliberately overbidding for crude oil and artificially holding down refinery capacity. Now, however, the New York Times has found the conspiracy in Washington DC, where they meet every day under a big dome and plot to run our lives and spend our money: Nine months after Congress passed major energy legislation, one provision affecting gasoline formulas is helping to drive the price of gas up much faster than the rising price of crude oil. And because the new gasoline recipe contains less energy, mileage per gallon is declining. On Friday, the 270th day after President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the law ended the requirement that gasoline sold in...
With all of the kerfuffle over the resignation of Porter Goss and the possible selection of General Michael Hayden as his successor, it gives us an opportunity to revisit an old CQ tradition -- the caption contest! Here we see Hayden conferring with his boss, DNI John Negroponte, oblivious to the suspicious pitcher of water sitting between them: What do you imagine is going on in this conversation? Leave your best caption in the comments section, which will remain open until The Sopranos airs on Sunday evening. As always, make sure you put your entries in our comments section -- NO e-mailed entries, please! E-mailed entries will be intercepted by the NSA and delivered to black helicopters in your neighborhoods awaiting Karl Rove's next command. Let the games begin!...
The French government, already on the ropes after the riots earlier this year, has suffered another blow to its credibility and now has the nation talking about its collapse. Dominique de Villepin may have to resign his position as Prime Minister in reaction to voter anger over an elite political class that has little contact with the electorate: A burgeoning political scandal of alleged dirty tricks involving the cabinet's two top ministers has tainted the entire French government, pushing it to the brink of paralysis and collapse in the final year of President Jacques Chirac's administration, according to government officials and political analysts. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin faces daily calls for his resignation. Flanked by somber-faced ministers, he told reporters at a packed news conference Thursday that the corruption investigation would "not deter me one second from my mission." What's known as the Clearstream scandal centers on whether Villepin...
The Northern Alliance Radio Network is already on the air, speaking with Ramesh Ponnuru regarding his book Party of Death with Brian and Chad from Fraters Libertas and John from Power Line. Mitch Berg and I will take over at 1 pm CT, discussing the Porter Goss resignation, Patrick Kennedy, the sentencing of Zacarias Moussaoui, Stephen Colbert, the emergency-spending bill that the Senate larded up with pork, and perhaps we can even squeeze in the Catholic review of its condom policy in the age of AIDS. We're also going to look at local issues, specifically the GOP convention in CD6 from which King Banaian will provide live reports, and the expansion of the sales-tax increase for the stadium project. Listen to us on AM 1280 The Patriot, and join the conversation at 651-289-4488!...
King Banaian and Andy Aplikowski report from the GOP convention in the Sixth Congressional District that Michele Bachmann has received 56% of the first-round ballots, coming close to the 60% needed for endorsement. Phil Krinkie, who had been considered a front-runner, only mustered 12% on the first vote and no one else got above 18%. The convention is about to hold its next vote, but one has to presume that the impulse for unity will push Bachmann over the top. She will likely face off against Patty Wetterling in November in the race to replace Mark Kennedy, who gave up his seat to run for the Senate. Stay tuned. UPDATE 2:52 CT: Michele Bachmann won on the third ballot....
Earlier today I wrote that the nomination of General Michael Hayden would present Democrats in the Senate a golden opportunity for mischief, and also noted that a few Republicans might be tempted as well. Tomorrow's Washington Post confirms the latter, as Arlen Specter told an interviewer that he planned to hold up Hayden's confirmation as leverage for a more complete briefing on the NSA surveillance program: Not only Democrats expect to use a Hayden nomination to revisit the legality of the surveillance, however. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who has held four hearings on the matter, said he may try to hold up Hayden's confirmation if the administration does not provide more information about the eavesdropping. He said he would try to persuade fellow senators to use the confirmation as "leverage." "I was briefed by General Hayden and I got virtually no meaningful information," Specter said in an...
May 7, 2006
Hamas faces a dangerous situation in the Gaza Strip, once its base of power, as Palestinians went on strike and staged demonstrations over their overdue paychecks. The ruling party in the Palestinian Authority has rapidly dissipated its mandate as its support for terrorism has isolated it from the nations that had been paying civil servant salaries in the territories: Hundreds of Palestinians staged strikes and demonstrations Saturday in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to demand payment of overdue salaries to government workers — the first public signs of discontent with the Hamas-led Cabinet's handling of a growing financial crisis. The unrest occurred ahead of a meeting in Gaza late Saturday between Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and moderate President Mahmoud Abbas. The two, involved in a power struggle since Hamas defeated Abbas' Fatah Party in January's legislative elections, failed to resolve their differences during four hours of talks...
The Democrats have announced their agenda if they succeed in taking back the House in November, and as predicted, it focuses on exactly what the Democrats have done for the past six years: hating Republicans. Rather than having much of a legislative agenda, the Democrats plan to run on the promise to launch endless investigations of Republicans and the administration: Democratic leaders, increasingly confident they will seize control of the House in November, are laying plans for a legislative blitz during their first week in power that would raise the minimum wage, roll back parts of the Republican prescription drug law, implement homeland security measures and reinstate lapsed budget deficit controls. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said in an interview last week that a Democratic House would launch a series of investigations of the Bush administration, beginning with the White House's first-term energy task force and probably including the...
In a strange, ironic twist, Israel saved Mahmoud Abbas from assassination at the hands of Hamas, the London Times reports this morning. The armed wing of the "political party" had planned on murdering Abbas on a visit to his office in Gaza before Israeli intelligence discovered the plot and stopped Abbas from walking into the trap: A HAMAS plot to assassinate Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has been thwarted after he was tipped off by Israeli intelligence. Hamas’s military wing, the Izza Din Al-Qassem, had planned to kill Abbas at his office in Gaza, intelligence sources said. Abbas, who became president of the Palestinian Authority last year after the death of Yasser Arafat, was formally warned of the danger by the Israelis and cancelled a planned visit to the territory. The murder plan is the clearest sign yet of the tensions inside the Palestinian Authority between Hamas, which swept to...
The nomination of General Michael Hayden to succeed Porter Goss as CIA Director generated some surprising opposition today by an influential Republican Congressman. Peter Hoekstra, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee and a reliable supporter of the war on terror, objects to military leadership at the CIA: A leading Republican came out against the front-runner for CIA director, Gen. Michael Hayden, saying Sunday the spy agency should not have military leadership during a turbulent time among intelligence agencies. ... Despite a distinguished career at the Defense Department, Hayden would be "the wrong person, the wrong place at the wrong time," said the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich. "There is ongoing tensions between this premier civilian intelligence agency and DOD as we speak," Hoekstra said. "And I think putting a general in charge — regardless of how good Mike is — ... is going to...
I often check my referral stats to check on the availability of the site as well as which sites send readers to CQ. Occasionally I see surprises in the logs, as I did just now. One intrepid Internet voyager came to CQ based on a Google search for "Playboy mate 2005". Google returns this post as its top match for that search. Well, welcome to CQ. I hope you get over your disappointment....
George Bush told a German interviewer today that he wants to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay but must await a Supreme Court decision on how to try the remaining detainees. Reuters reports from the transcript of the television station ARD that Bush insists that detainees will get their day in court: President George W. Bush said on Sunday he would like to close the U.S.-run prison at Guantanamo Bay -- a step urged by several foreign leaders -- but was awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on where suspects held there might be tried. ... Bush was asked by the German public television station ARD how the United States could restore its human-rights image following reports of prisoner abuse. "Of course Guantanamo is a delicate issue for people. I would like to close the camp and put the prisoners on trial," Bush said in comments to be broadcast on...
Newsweek's Eleanor Clift reports on the nascent Hillariphobia creeping through the ranks of Democrats as they begin to seriously consider their presidential prospects in 2008. Clift tries to sell the idea that Hillary Clinton somehow represents the Democratic version of Ronald Reagan, divisive yet full of courageous leadership that her party can ill afford to discard at this political juncture: The late great Jerry Garcia used to say the Grateful Dead were like black licorice. People who loved them loved them a lot. People who hated them really hated them. "Hillary Clinton is black licorice," says a Democratic strategist. "There's a huge upside, and there's a huge downside. And we don't know how it will balance out." When was the last time we had such a dominant front runner this early who raises such anxiety about electability? The answer is Ronald Reagan. It took a leap of imagination to believe...
Egyptian blogger and democracy activist Alaa has been arrested by Egyptian authorities, and worse. I'll let Sandmonkey say it in his own words: Alaa, blogger, co-founder of the egyptian blog aggregator Manalaa and democracy activist, got arrested today during a protest to support the Judiciary's branch fight for independence. He, and about 10 others, were rounded up in the street, beaten up and thrown in a police car. Amongst those who got arrested were at least 3 girls, and the police beat up at least another 2 girls as well. The way it worked, the police made sure to press the demonstartors close to the egyptian musem, where they cordoned them and wouldn't let them leave, while continiously hurling insults at them. The demonstartors tried to get the police to let them go for half an hour, but no avail. The Police cordon then opend where a group of plainly...
With The Sopranos about to start, it's time to announce the winners of the latest Caption Contest. Just to remind everyone, the subject was this photograph of John Negroponte and Michael Hayden conferring over a pitcher of water: Here are the winners: 1st place -- Keaukina: "It's a very important test-- you drink it all down, then they see if you leak..." 2nd place -- Hurricane567: Here we see DNI John Negroponte and Gen. Michael Hayden bracing themselves for Washington's 6th Annual Head Butt Days. 3rd place -- Bar Code King: "Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon... er, Minoxodil?" Honorable Mention #1 -- Billyoblog: "Oh, by the way, you're not related to anybody named Tom, are you ?" Honorable Mention #2 -- Liberal Goodman: "Let's try it again. First lean right together, then left TOGETHER." Comments will remain open to honor the winners, slander the judge, come up...
May 8, 2006
Former Senator Bob Kerrey has spent his time since retiring from politics as president of the New School University, formerly known as The New School for Social Research (which is the name of one of its subsidiary colleges now). The progressive institution has benefited from Kerrey's political connections, and when he arranged to have one of his former colleagues, now running for President, as a graduation keynote speaker, it seemed an impressive achievement. However, the progressive students and faculty at this progressive college have made it clear that they cannot abide a conservative appearing on their campus for a speech -- because John McCain isn't open-minded enough: Hundreds of New School students, staffers, and faculty members want the university to rescind its invitation to Senator McCain, who is set to receive an honorary degree and give the keynote speech at the graduation ceremony in two weeks. The campaign against the...
The news services are abuzz with the announcement from Teheran that Iran will end 25 years of silence between the Islamic Republic and the US. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will write a letter to George Bush in an attempt to ease tensions between the two nations: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is writing to U.S President George W. Bush in an attempt to ease mounting tensions between Tehran and the West, an Iranian official said on Monday. ... Government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham said a letter from Ahmadinejad to Bush would be delivered later on Monday to the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which represents U.S. interests in the Islamic Republic. "In this letter, he has given an analysis of the current world situation, of the root of existing problems and of new ways of getting out of the current delicate situation in the world," he told a weekly news conference. Ahmadinejad had said earlier...
The BBC reports that the United Nations still has not stopped its aid workers and peacekeepers from turning female refugees into prostitutes in order to secure food and water. Some of the victims are as young as eight years old, and the problem is widespread, according to Save The Children: Young girls in Liberia are still being sexually exploited by aid workers and peacekeepers despite pledges to stamp out such abuse, Save the Children says. Girls as young as eight are being forced to have sex in exchange for food by workers for local and international agencies, according to its report. The agency says such abuse is becoming more common as people displaced by the civil war return to their villages. This behavior was first revealed four years ago, and two years ago the scope of the problem became common knowledge, thanks to a series of reports in the British...
Jimmy Carter, writing in the International Herald-Tribune, demonstrates the knack for foreign relations that got us the Iranian hostage crisis and limited him to a single, embarrassing term in office. He argues that the suspension of foreign aid to the Palestinians not only hurts innocent citizens but damages prospects for peace by failing to fund terrorists: Innocent Palestinian people are being treated like animals, with the presumption that they are guilty of some crime. Because they voted for candidates who are members of Hamas, the United States government has become the driving force behind an apparently effective scheme of depriving the general public of income, access to the outside world and the necessities of life. Overwhelmingly, these are school teachers, nurses, social workers, police officers, farm families, shopkeepers, and their employees and families who are just hoping for a better life. Public opinion polls conducted after the January parliamentary election...
The Washington Examiner exhorts George Bush to take an unprecedented step for this administration and veto any emergency spending plan that includes $20 billion in pork. The editorial argues that the White House must establish its authority in spending now or lose it for the rest of the term: President Bush has frequently portrayed many of his most controversial actions as necessary to protect executive branch prerogatives against usurpations of power by Congress. So it is especially curious that Bush has yet to use the most potent weapon the Founders gave occupants of the Oval Office against Congress: the veto. If Bush is truly serious about protecting the powers and prerogatives of his office, he will set aside his veto reservations and slam-dunk the emergency funding bill if it comes to his desk in anything remotely resembling the form in which the Senate passed it last week. Bush originally asked...
Hillary Clinton may have owe a few explanations for the company she kept on her path to the Senate and her presumed presidential bid in 2008. The explanation for John Burgess and International Profit Associates will make for an interesting read, as the company's owner -- a convicted thief and john of an underage prostitute -- has emerged as one of Hillary's most prominent contributors: John R. Burgess makes for an improbable courtier of presidents, or of a senator who might become one. A disbarred New York lawyer with a criminal record for attempted larceny and patronizing a 16-year-old prostitute, Mr. Burgess owns International Profit Associates, a management consulting company in Illinois. Federal authorities are pressing a sexual harassment suit against the company on behalf of 113 former female employees. The Illinois attorney general is investigating accusations of deceptive marketing tactics, officials say, and the company has been the subject...
Please see Update III below -- the identification in the London Times was incorrect. The London Times reports on the final days of Atwar Bahjat, an Iraqi woman viciously murdered by terrorists of one type or another for her courage in reporting on events in her native Samarra. Bahjat, a television reporter for al-Arabiya television, had built a following for her work in covering the violence in Iraq until kidnappers abducted her while a group of Samarrans did nothing to assist her. Bahjat's body was found later along with those of her cameraman and sound man, and the presumption was that she had been shot to death. Not so. In fact, Bhajat experienced the worst of the terrorist depravity in he final moments, made clear when a video recording of her execution was sent to her family: First she was stripped to the waist, a humiliation for any woman but...
CENTCOM announced today that they had captured al-Qaeda correspondence in Iraq that discusses the state of the insurgency, especially around Baghdad but also around the entire country. Far from optimistic, the documents captured in an April 16th raid reveal frustration and desperation, as the terrorists acknowledge the superior position of American and free Iraqi forces and their ability to quickly adapt to new tactics. In these passages, the AQ terrorist author -- described as a person "of significance" due to the extensive analysis applied -- often refers to the elected Iraqi government as the "Shi'ites": A glance at the reality of Baghdad in light of the latest events (sectarian turmoil) 1. It has been proven that the Shiites have a power and influence in Baghdad that cannot be taken lightly, particularly when the power of the Ministries of Interior and Defense is given to them, compared with the power of...
Neil Cavuto interviewed Senator Dianne Feinstein about the nomination of General Michael Hayden as the replacement of Porter Goss at the CIA. Far from hostile to the appointment, Feinstein praised Hayden as a "superb choice" for the Director position. She claimed than anyone familiar with the intelligence community would have listed Hayden as one of the three top picks for the position, and that while she would not commit to any vote before a thorough hearing, at the moment she was "inclined" to support Hayden's nomination. Here is a rough transcript of the interview: DF: ... Good to be here, Neil, but I think you have that a little bit wrong. I haven't been blasting that choice at all. As a matter of fact, I think that he is a very competent intelligence professional, which I think the CIA needs at this particular point in time. The only problem with...
May 9, 2006
The letter hailed as a potential breakthrough in the Iranian nuclear impasse turned out to contain no new initiatives towards a resolution to the crisis, according to various news reports quoting Condoleezza Rice and a number of unnamed sources within the administration. In fact, it never mentioned Iran's nuclear program directly, instead attempting to give George Bush a perspective on history from an Islamist perspective. The New York Times reports that the letter didn't make much of an impression: The letter, described in Tehran as the first direct communication from an Iranian leader to an American president since 1979, was said by the spokesman to analyze "the roots of the problems" with the West. But American officials said it was a meandering screed that proposed no solutions to the nuclear issue. ... American officials said the letter, which was not released, was 16 pages in Persian and 18 pages in...
The US and Cuba have had a pact in place for almost thirty years dividing the Florida Straits between the two nations for ownership of the oil and natural gas underneath the ocean. Up to now, Cuba has been unable to drill for the resources, and the US has been unwilling to do so. Now, with energy prices skyrocketing due to rising demand, Cuba has leased its field to China and India. Both will begin drilling within sight of the US, giving Cuba much-needed hard currency while demonstrating the lack of US resolve in mustering its own resources: With only modest energy needs and no ability of its own to drill, Cuba has negotiated lease agreements with China and other energy-hungry countries to extract resources for themselves and for Cuba. Cuba's drilling plans have been in place for several years, but now that China, India and others are involved and...
The New York Sun reports that although the nomination of General Michael Hayden to be director of the CIA has aroused some complaints, few Democrats have openly and directly opposed his appointment. David Donadio writes that a retirement from the Air Force might be enough to get a relatively painless confirmation: Although committee members were hesitant about expressing their support for General Hayden yesterday, few Democrats offered serious reservations to his nomination, and several Republicans expressed wholehearted support. There was a widespread feeling, however, that General Hayden might smooth his passage through the committee if he were to resign from the military. "General Hayden is more than qualified for the position of CIA director," Senator Bond, a Republican of Missouri, said. "The job of CIA director is to track down and stop terrorists. That's exactly what General Hayden has been doing. His exemplary military background and his recent assignment running...
Two items from prominent opinion journalists point to a meltdown in the Democratic base even as they close in on a vulnerable GOP in midterm elections. Jonah Goldberg and Richard Cohen have one thing in common: irrational e-mail. However, while the conservative Goldberg received one ludicrous rant regarding the Jewish conspiracy to control oil, Cohen received thousands of hysterically angry e-mails denouncing him as an administration stooge -- for writing that Stephen Colbert bombed at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Cohen responds in amazement in today's column, "Digital Lynch Mob": It seemed that most of my correspondents had been egged on to write me by various blogs. In response, they smartly assembled into a digital lynch mob and went roaring after me. If I did not like Colbert, I must like Bush. If I write for The Post, I must be a mainstream media warmonger. If I was over a...
A quick update on the status of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists: we have now grown to a membership of over 300 bloggers, with a number of reader pledges as well. The blogroll contains men and women from the military, including active-duty, reserve, retired, and their families. In fact, the list has grown so long that I may have to limit the display to the 100 most-recently updated blogs. For those who wish to join, please either drop a comment on this post or send me an e-mail. The Fighting Keebees, as one of our members called it, is strictly a volunteer organization. We just ask that you support the troops and support civilian control over foreign policy and the military, and have a really good sense of humor. It's all in fun and meant to irritate all the right people. Speaking of which, this blogger certainly has his knickers in...
The German magazine Der Speigel interviewed an expert on Iran regarding the letter from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to George Bush and its purpose. Wahied Wahdat-Hagh tells Der Spiegel that far from an act of potential conciliation, the Iranian president sent the letter as an act of defiance -- and warns that Ahmadinejad is not bluffing in this crisis: SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Wahdat-Hagh, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote a letter to US President George W. Bush. In the letter, he once again questions Israel's right to exist, accuses the US of lying about Iraq and insists on his country's right to use nuclear technology. What message is Ahmadinejad trying to communicate? Wahdat-Hagh: The purpose is to show strength. It's Ahmadinejad's way of saying: "We are powerful! You are a cowboy! Islam, though, is the true democracy and your system will collapse." Former Iranian President Khatami used to give interviews to CNN. But...
Government bureaucracies serve at least one benign purpose in democracies -- they should ensure that citizens will get impartial treatment when it comes to services and contracts. Unfortunately that system failed according to one of the men supposedly in charge of a good-sized section of one, and now the Bush administration has to answer why its HUD Secretary steered contracts according to the political preferences of their recipients: Once the color barrier has been broken, minority contractors seeking government work may need to overcome the Bush barrier. That's the message U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson seemed to send during an April 28 talk in Dallas. Jackson, a former president and CEO of the Dallas Housing Authority, was among the featured speakers at a forum sponsored by the Real Estate Executive Council, a national minority real estate consortium. After discussing the huge strides the agency has made in...
May 10, 2006
With a roaring economy and 4.7% unemployment fueled by a recovery launched by George Bush's tax cuts, one would suppose that extending these reductions would be almost assumed in Congress, or at least by the Republicans that enacted them in the first place. However, in a measure of how rudderless the GOP caucus has become, party leaders finally reached an agreement on extending the cuts while Democrats objected to its costs: House and Senate Republican negotiators reached a final agreement yesterday on a five-year, nearly $70 billion tax package that would extend President Bush's deep cuts to tax rates on dividends and capital gains, while sparing about 15 million middle-income Americans from the alternative minimum tax. Republican leaders hope to pass the agreement swiftly. House consideration is scheduled for tonight, with the Senate likely to send the measure to the White House for the president's signature by the end of...
The United Nations validated every argument yesterday about the efficacy of its so-called reform when it announced that Cuba, China, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Azerbaijan would sit on its Human Rights Council: Six nations with poor human rights records were among those elected to the new Human Rights Council on Tuesday, although notorious violators that had belonged to the predecessor Human Rights Commission did not succeed in winning places in the new group. China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan, countries cited by human rights groups as not deserving membership, were among the 47 nations elected to the council. But in a move hailed by the same groups, both Iran and Venezuela failed to attract the needed votes. ... Nations running for the council had to meet more demanding standards than in the past. The previous commission was long a public embarrassment to the United Nations because countries...
Israel has set a deadline for the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority to recognize Israel's right to exist and agree to negotiate for a permanent settlement and the two-state solution. Otherwise, Israel's new prime minister warns, Israel will set the final borders unilaterally: Israel will give the Palestinians until the end of the year to prove they are willing to negotiate a final peace deal, and will unilaterally set its final borders by 2008 if they don't, Israel's justice minister said Wednesday. The statement by Justice Minister Haim Ramon, a close associate of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's, was the first by an Israeli official to set a deadline for the Hamas-led Palestinian government to disarm and recognize the Jewish state. ... "Through the end of this year, 2006, there will be honest attempts to talk to the other side," Ramon told Israel's Army Radio. "If it becomes clear by the end of...
I have started reading John Podhoretz' new look at the next presidential election and Hillary Clinton's chances to reach the White House, and it's an excellent read so far. Can She Be Stopped? argues that the Democratic nomination is Hillary's to lose, unless the Republicans can get their act together in a manner which has clearly escaped them this year. John also analyzes the deep divisions within both parties and how Hillary can exploit them. John also lays out a plan for the GOP to follow in order to corner Hillary and dent her electoral prospects -- and then names the one salvation from a second Clinton administration. When I've finished, I'll write a full review, but so far Can She Be Stopped? is a great read. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the 2008 elections....
Earlier this evening, I had a chance to chat with Dr. Peter Schramm, the director of the Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs and the center's blog No Left Turns. I first met Peter last month at the Heritage Foundation Resource Bank meeting, but only got the chance to introduce myself as I was leaving the Broadmoor for the airport. Peter had just received the Henry Salvatori Prize for American Citizenship, and we heard the moving story of his declaration that he was born an American -- just in the wrong place. We had an engaging and (I believe) entertaining conversation regarding blogging, the upcoming elections, the inroads that the GOP hope to make in the African-American community, and most of all the Al-Qaeda documents that show the Zarqawi network in complete disarray. I believe the podcast will get hosted at this link when Peter has it ready for publication. I...
After telling a Dallas audience that he had killed a deal with a contractor because of his political affiliation, HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson found himself in the middle of a firestorm of criticism. After several House and Senate members called for an investigation into Jackson's contract awards practices at HUD and demanded his resignation, Jackson now denies he ever denied any contract on the basis of politics. In a press release at the HUD website, Jackson does his best Emily Litella impression by essentially saying, "Never mind": I deeply regret the anecdotal remarks I made at a recent Texas small business forum and would like to reassure the public that all HUD contracts are awarded solely on a stringent merit-based process. During my tenure, no contract has ever been awarded, rejected, or rescinded due to the personal or political beliefs of the recipient. In other words, Jackson wants to have...
A Scotsman who hacked into US military and government computers in the wake of 9/11, causing damage and creating a security scare while America tried to defend itself from terrorism, has lost a battle in avoiding extradition from the UK. Gary McKinnon faces 70 years in a US prison for what the Department of Justice calls the "biggest military hack of all time": A SCOTS-born computer hacker who has been accused of the "biggest military hack" ever detected should be extradited to the United States to face trial, where he could face up to 70 years in jail, a judge has ruled. Gary McKinnon, 40, who said he had hacked into NASA and US military systems to check for material on UFOs, has six weeks to submit evidence to John Reid, the Home Secretary, who will make the final decision. McKinnon was arrested last June following charges by US prosecutors...
The German magazine Der Spiegel reports on the launch of a new television series, Popetown, that pokes fun at the Vatican and Catholics in general. German Catholics have protested the series, but Der Spiegel goes hyperbolic when it states that the controversy provides a companion piece to the Prophet cartoon madness: A new MTV pilot cartoon making fun of the pope has stirred up religious outrage in Germany. Can one really show the pope hopping through the Vatican halls on a cross-shaped pogo stick? Prepare for the sequel to the Muhammad caricature controversy. ... The controversy generated by "Popetown" is reminiscent of the outrage sparked across the Muslim world by the publication of a series of cartoon drawings of the prophet Muhammad. The publication of the cartoons in a Danish newspaper last autumn, and the decision by a number of other European papers to reprint them, led to European consulates...
The Iraqi News Agency reported last week that the military captured a high-ranking member of the al-Qaeda network in Karbala. The description given of this former Saddam Hussein army commander sounds familiar: High-ranking leader of terrorist organization Al Qaeda was detained today in Iraqi province of Karbala during military operation, Iraqi news agency INA reports. Abdel Fatih Isa, a.k.a. Abu Aisha, was arrested in a private home where he had been hiding for a long time. The arrest was made after a few houses in the town had been searched through. The terrorist is among the chief organizers of terrorist acts in capital Baghdad. According to military sources Abu Aisha was an officer from the Iraqi army during Saddam Hussein’s rule, the agency notes. I thought that the description of an AQ commander spending most of his time hiding sounded familiar. In the captured AQ document that Centcom released this...
May 11, 2006
Fatah and Hamas have proposed a platform which would bring both factions into the government and allow for meaningful talks with Israel on a two-state solution, the AP reports this morning. Leaders of both groups imprisoned by Israel for terrorism conducted the delicate negotiations, and the product has been embraced by Mahmoud Abbas on behalf of Fatah, while the Hamas leadership in the West Bank and Gaza study it: After months of tensions, senior members of the rival Hamas and Fatah factions have forged a joint platform, including acceptance of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. However, it was unclear whether Hamas, particularly the group's hardline leaders abroad, will back the program, which would signal a major softening of positions. Until now, Hamas has balked at the West's demands that it renounce violence, recognize Israel and accept existing peace agreements. ... "This document is very important....
The Washington Post draws the correct conclusion of the low approval ratings for George Bush and his administration by reporting on the discontent among conservatives that have sunk his presidency to near-historic lows. Although Bush has not reached the nadir seen by two other wartime presidents (Nixon and Truman both descended to 23%), the loss of conservative support has dealt a body blow to presidential influence in this midterm election: Disaffection over spending and immigration have caused conservatives to take flight from President Bush and the Republican Congress at a rapid pace in recent weeks, sending Bush's approval ratings to record lows and presenting a new threat to the GOP's 12-year reign on Capitol Hill, according to White House officials, lawmakers and new polling data. Bush and Congress have suffered a decline in support from almost every part of the conservative coalition over the past year, a trend that has...
Condoleezza Rice announced another delay on consideration of the Iranian portfolio by the UN Security Council, with the US agreeing to allow the EU to present another proposal to Iran intended to provide them with positive motivations to drop their nuclear program: The US Secretary of State has said that efforts to pursue a tough UN Security Council resolution on Iran's nuclear programme will be delayed. Condoleezza Rice said European countries would resume diplomatic efforts to persuade Tehran to change its position. ... "We agreed...we would wait for a couple of weeks, while the Europeans design an offer to the Iranians that would make clear that they have a choice that would allow them to have a civil nuclear programme if that is indeed what they want," she said. Speaking on American television, Ms Rice said the EU3 wanted to show Iran that it had two options. It could either...
The new Iraqi government has decided to remove the confusion of having various security forces for different ministries operating in the greater Baghdad area and consolidate all such units into one cohesive force. The concern over confusion between actual government forces and the sectarian militias has crescendoed with the recent violence in the capital, and a unified command would resolve those issues immediately: Senior Iraqi leaders are preparing a major restructuring of the capital's security brigades that would place all police officers and paramilitary soldiers under a single commander and in one uniform, in hopes of curtailing the sectarian chaos that is ravaging the city. The reorganization calls for a substantially reduced presence of American soldiers on the capital's streets, although not necessarily in their numbers nationwide. The plan, disclosed Wednesday in interviews with senior Iraqi leaders, would substantially alter Baghdad's landscape, now permeated by tens of thousands of police...
Today the blogosphere has focused on the supposedly new revelation by USA Today reporters that the National Security Agency has built a database of telephone records from the exchanges of most (not all) major phone providers in the United States. The NSA collected basic information on origination and destination on millions of phone calls, both domestic and international, creating a database of call records that data miners can exploit to determine calling patterns when intelligence and law-enforcement agencies suspect a phone of being used for terrorist purposes: The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY. The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of...
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad got more headlines tonight by hinting that he would accept indirect negotiations with the United States on the nuclear program pursued by Iran, but only when the US quits issuing threats. The AP reports that the Iranian president also relied on the normal anti-Israeli diatribe when addressing his Indonesian hosts: Iran's president said Thursday he was ready to hold talks over his country's nuclear program, but he warned that efforts to force Tehran to the negotiating table with threats could backfire. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also launched a scathing attack on Israel and told more than 1,000 cheering Muslim students in the Indonesian capital that the West was being hypocritical in pressing Iran to stop its uranium enrichment program. ... Asked what it would take to begin talks to resolve the standoff, Ahmadinejad told the station Iran was "ready to engage in dialogue with anybody." "But if someone points...
Nancy Pelosi has backpedaled on her coy remarks about the possibility of impeaching George Bush if the Democrats win control of the House in November. She told the Washington Post last week that "you never know where [investigations] lead to," when asked about impeachment with her demand for numerous Congressional investigations into the Bush administration. When that touched off a roar of protest from Republicans and even some Democrats anxious to avoid rallying conservatives to the polls in the midterms, Pelosi meekly changed course: Seeking to choke off a Republican rallying cry, the House's top Democrat has told colleagues that the party will not seek to impeach President Bush even if it gains control of the House in November's elections, her office said last night. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) told her caucus members during their weekly closed meeting Wednesday "that impeachment is off the table; she is not interested...
May 12, 2006
The Senate reached a compromise on the immigration-reform bill that will allow for Republican amendments and soon create a conference committee to hash out a compromise on the effort for reform. Key to the final version will be the members from both houses to the conference committee, and at least one opponent of amnesty from the Senate will be included: Senate leaders reached a deal yesterday on reviving a broad immigration bill that could provide millions of illegal immigrants a chance to become American citizens and said they will try to pass it before Memorial Day. The agreement brokered by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) breaks a political stalemate that has lingered for weeks while immigrants and their supporters held rallies, boycotts and protests to push for action. ... Key to the agreement is who will be negotiating a compromise with the...
The Washington Examiner spells out conservative angst in its latest editorial, "Conservatives Won't Be Fooled Again". The Examiner notes the increasing disconnect between the administration and the conservative agenda, and warns Karl Rove that base-inflaming rhetoric will not work in these elections absent a concrete return to conservative principles in government: Bush won two presidential elections thanks in large part to conservatives to whom he appealed as the true heir to the Reagan Revolution. But the Gipper wouldn’t recognize Bush’s version of “conservative” government: Federal spending and debt have exploded. Ditto the unfunded liabilities of major entitlement programs. Federal regulation has been vastly expanded in education and health care. As National Taxpayers Union President Dr. John E. Berthoud told The Examiner, “You can’t tax like Reagan while spending like Dean.” Even worse, Bush’s refusal to veto pork-barrel spending has compromised the efficacy of his tax cuts. Indeed, “limited government” never...
A British court insisted that nine hijackers from Afghanistan should receive asylum rather than deportation for their takeover of a flight in order to escape the Taliban. The High Court even penalized the Home Office for its insistence on prosecuting the deportation: Nine Afghan asylum seekers who hijacked a plane at gunpoint to get to Britain should have been admitted to the country as genuine refugees and allowed to live and work here freely, the High Court ruled yesterday. In a decision that astonished and dismayed MPs, the Home Office was accused of abusing its powers by failing to give the nine formal permission to enter Britain, in breach of their human rights. ... The judge ordered the Home Office to pay legal costs on an indemnity basis - the highest level possible - to signify his "disquiet and concern". So far, the whole affair, including legal fees, asylum processing...
Many CQ readers know that the First Mate and I volunteer our time at Twin Cities Marriage Encounter, a non-profit that holds weekend retreats for married and engaged couples to work on communication in their relationships in a non-denominational Christian approach. The organization does not provide counseling or advice, but instead assists couples with communication techniques that help resolve conflict and increase commitment between spouses. While we discuss religion and Christian thought on marriage, the weekends are open to all faiths. We have seen the good results that Marriage Encounter provides. While it doesn't solve all problems, Marriage Encounter has strengthened thousands of marriages and helped numerous young couples prepare for marriage in a realistic and positive manner. Many of the couples that have an encounter weekend come back to lead weekends for other couples. We believe that by strengthening marriages, we help to support the basic unit of human...
The IAEA announced preliminary results of tests made on residue found at an Iranian military site that indicates Iran has weapons-grade enriched uranium (also here), not just the low-level enrichment they announced earlier. The report undermines the explanation given earlier by Iran when similar residue was found at a civilian facility: The U.N. atomic agency found traces of highly enriched uranium at an Iranian site linked to the country's defense ministry, diplomats said Friday, adding to concerns that Tehran was hiding activities aimed at making nuclear arms. The diplomats, who demanded anonymity in exchange for revealing the confidential information, said the findings were preliminary and still had to be confirmed through other lab tests. But they said the density of enrichment appeared to be close to or above the level used to make nuclear warheads. Still, they said, further analysis could show that the traces match others established to have...
I have written extensively on the malaise and disaffection rising in conservative ranks, a trend reflected in declining approval ratings for both George Bush and Congress. I wrote yesterday that movement conservatives may be washing their hands of the Bush administration, frustrated by its big-government approach and its vacillation on border security. Some took this as an indication that I have joined an effort to convince conservatives to sit on their hands this November -- in other words, to boycott the midterm elections in order to teach the GOP a lesson. Nothing could be further from the truth. As I wrote a week ago, we have no particular requirement to keep our voices silent when any of our elected representatives enact bad policy or fail to act in what we see as the best interests of the nation. In fact, we have a duty to do so when we can...
May 13, 2006
After my post yesterday on the responsibility of making a meaningful choice in the November election, quite a few commenters made a point about refusing to choose between the "lesser of two evils". I want to address that thought and start a new comment thread for your reaction. The phrase "lesser of two evils" gets a lot of use in politics, but it gets taken too literally in order to make an excuse for inaction. In the literal sense, it almost never applies anyway. Not many political figures in American history have been downright evil. We have had incompetents, malcontents, benighted fools, the hopelessly naive, and Jimmy Carter, but thankfully only a handful of outright crooks and genuinely evil men and women. The odds of having two choices in an election where both are evil are very, very slim. Perhaps if David Duke ran against Tom Metzger for Congress, that...
The New York Post has adapted my lengthy post about the NSA phone-call database into a column for today's edition titled "Sacrificing Here". I argue that both sides have a point about the program, but that the sacrifice is not only limited and reasonable for the war effort, but that it's practically been the only one we've been asked to make: Ba[s]ically, the NSA is building a powerful tool for determining the behavior of people inside the United States (and outside, as well). Is such a tool reasonable under the circumstances we face now? That's ultimately a political question, not a legal one - and the answer depends on whether people see a greater danger in terrorists or their government. In my opinion, the effort is reasonable and limited. The calls themselves go unmonitored, and the records contain no billing information or even names in their raw form. With the...
Richard Falkenrath, the former deputy Homeland Security advisor to the President and now a fellow at the center-left Brookings Institute, writes a passionate defense of the NSA phone-call database in today's Washington Post. He also pushes back against the notion that the involvement of General Michael Hayden in the two controversial NSA surveillance programs disqualify him to lead the CIA. In fact, as Falkenrath explains, it underscores his potential value at Langley: The potential value of such anonymized domestic telephone records is best understood through a hypothetical example. Suppose a telephone associated with Mohamed Atta had called a domestic telephone number A. And then suppose that A had called domestic telephone number B. And then suppose that B had called C. And then suppose that domestic telephone number C had called a telephone number associated with Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The most effective...
One of the more humorous and yet revealing corrections seen in a major newspaper appeared in yesterday's New York Times, as my friends at Power Line point out: An article and a picture caption yesterday about the funeral of Sgt. Jose Gomez of Queens, who was killed on April 20 in Iraq, referred incorrectly to the Army representative who comforted his mother. She was a sergeant first class an enlisted woman, not an officer. The article also misstated the name of a service medal that a general presented to Sergeant Gomez's mother. It is a Purple Heart, not a Purple Star. This contains two highly embarrassing mistakes for any publication that considers itself authoritative on military issues and news. As John Hinderaker points out, the Purple Heart may well be the most recognized military decoration, and one of our oldest. George Washington created the award as a way of...
With George Bush announcing a major national address on Monday night regarding immoigration policy, many wonder whether he has any new initiatives to announce or whether he will simply re-emphasize the themes that have so far failed to resonate with the restive GOP base. The Washington Post reports that one new initiative may have National Guard troops deploy in greater numbers to the southern border, reinforcing the DHS' Border Patrol: President Bush will push next week for a broad overhaul of the nation's immigration laws and plans to tighten security on the borders, possibly with a wider deployment of the National Guard, White House officials said yesterday. The officials said Bush will use a prime-time television address Monday to outline his plans and then visit the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday to highlight the problem of illegal immigration. Officials say he is considering substantially increasing the presence of National Guard troops,...
The Northern Alliance Radio Network is already on the air, with Brian and Chad from Fraters Libertas and John from Power Line. Mitch Berg, King Banaian, and I will take over at 1 pm CT, discussing the pressing issues of the day, including the latest on the NSA story, the immigration debate, and much much more. Listen to us on AM 1280 The Patriot, and join the conversation at 651-289-4488! UPDATE: King says to tune in or the dog gets it....
McQ at QandO has this priceless CNN report of the miraculous healing power of the Las Vegas Police Department: A wheelchair-bound Los Angeles woman, who has repeatedly filed lawsuits over access for the disabled, got up and ran after police arrested her for fraud, authorities said Thursday. Laura Lee Medley, 35, had sued in at least four California cities over injuries she claimed she sustained while trying to navigate her wheelchair before she was suspected of fraud. Medley, who claimed to be paralyzed from a drunk driving accident, was tracked to Las Vegas where police there took her into custody and then, when she complained of medical issues, to a local hospital, Long Beach prosecutor Belinda Mayes said. ... Medley sprinted through the hospital corridors but was quickly apprehended by police and booked pending extradition to San Bernardino, California, where she is facing charges of filing false documents, attempted grand...
May 14, 2006
With Mark Kennedy polling within the margin of error against Amy Klobuchar for Mark Dayton's open Senate seat, the Congressman wants to start differentiating himself from the Hennepin County District Attorney. He got his wish yesterday when he pledged to refuse his Congressional salary while campaigning, a promise that Klobuchar's campaign scornfully refused to match: U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy said Friday that he would not accept his congressional pay on days he misses votes in Washington because of his U.S. Senate campaign. Kennedy, the Republican candidate for the seat being vacated by Democrat Mark Dayton, was one of only nine U.S. House members not to miss any congressional votes in 2005. But Kennedy said the demands of the Senate race could force a few missed votes this year. ... Klobuchar's campaign manager, Ben Goldfarb, criticized Kennedy's move as a "phony gimmick" and said the campaign wouldn't respond further. He did...
The Stormont will meet for the first time in four years Monday, restarting the bitterness-plagued home rule project in Northern Ireland. In what appears to be an unintentionally symbolic start, no business will be conducted for the first week. Instead, the assembly will spend its time trying to generate enough consensus to form an executive, a goal that the Stormont appears unlikely to achieve: The Northern Ireland Assembly will sit on Monday for the first time since it was suspended in 2002 following allegations of a republican spy ring operating at the parliamentary buildings in Belfast. The London and Dublin governments are hoping the province's Catholic and Protestant political parties can resolve their differences between now and November 24 to restore the power-sharing administration. But the 108 members of what critics say is a "powerless" legislature will not be deluged in paperwork when they return to the Stormont debating chamber...
A short report by Dan Balz in today's Washington Post gives a warning to the Republicans about the likely battle over immigration should Congress fail to pass reform legislation in this session. Democratic centrists plan to argue that the Bush administration has failed to enforce existing immigration laws in an effort to peel hard-line immigration conservatives away from the GOP: A new analysis by the centrist Democratic group Third Way concludes that the administration has failed to enforce existing laws and that the president should be held accountable for those failures in the political debate now raging in Washington. "The report shows that the administration, despite their tough talk, is failing at border security and enforcing the employer sanctions provision," New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said. "It makes them vulnerable in what is their biggest and strongest argument -- that they are enforcing the law against illegal workers and are...
The New York Times has an interesting report on an effort by the US military to develop alternate fuel sources for the Air Force. The branch spends almost $5 billion a year on fuel and has the most vulnerability to price swings. Developing a safe and effective alternative could allow the military to decrease its dependence on crude oil, and one of the leading candidates for its replacement can be found in abundance in the US: When an F-16 lights up its afterburners, it consumes nearly 28 gallons of fuel per minute. No wonder, then, that of all the fuel the United States government uses each year, the Air Force accounts for more than half. The Air Force may not be in any danger of suffering inconveniences from scarce or expensive fuel, but it has begun looking for a way to power its jets on something besides conventional fuel. In...
Joseph Shahda has uncovered another document of interest from the files of intelligence captured by US forces during the fall of Saddam Hussein. This document addresses a still-controversial topic -- the mobile laboratories cited by Colin Powell as one of Saddam's WMD capabilities and discovered during the 2003 invasion. Later investigators determined these trailers to be hydrogen-gas production facilities although some experts still dispute that conclusion. The document translated by Shahda does not provide many details itself, but does show that the project for which the labs were built attracted high-level interest for equipment supposedly only suitable for meteorological research: Beginning of the translation of page 1 In the name of God the Most Merciful the Most Compassionate Presidency of the Republic Military Industrialization Commission Ibn Rushd General Company Number 10025611018 Date 11/11/2002 To: Military Industrialization Commission/Department of Projects Subject: Investment Plan for the year 2003 In regards from the...
Ruth Marcus looks at an issue for mothers in the workplace that often gets little coverage from the media. With media conglomerates aiming for prized demographics, usually any discussion of workplace challenges for mothers revolve around high-powered executives hitting glass ceilings as they attempt to balance family and career concerns. For most working women, that dilemma would represent a slice of heaven, for more often they worry about keeping their jobs at all when family emergencies hit: As the author, law professor Joan C. Williams, writes, "The media tend to cover work/family conflict as the story of professional mothers 'opting out' of fast-track careers" -- an "overly autobiographical approach" that, however unintentionally, misrepresents the full nature of the problem and skews the discussion of potential solutions. Guilty as charged. Williams studied almost 100 union arbitrations that, she writes, "provide a unique window into how work and family responsibilities clash in...
I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing intrepid independent journalist Michael Yon, back in the US after another tour of Iraq and a short stint in Afghanistan. I had hoped to catch Michael a couple of weeks ago, but the timing never worked out quite right -- and we almost missed each other tonight by accident when we had some confusion due to time zone differences. Fortunately, we made our connection and we spoke for about a half-hour earlier this evening. I've podcasted our interview in three parts. In section 1, Michael and I discuss his impressions of Afghanistan. Michael only spent about a fortnight in Afghanistan, operating completely on his own, without embedding among US or Western forces. He had little good news for us about his limited experience there. The nation still operates on a tribal basis, only now the poppy harvest has hit record numbers, which fuels...
May 15, 2006
Two major polls attempted to take the temperature of the American electorate in the immediate aftermath of the revelation of NSA data-mining through billions of phone call records. The Washington Post reported that 63% of all Americans did not mind that the telephone carriers, excepting Qwest, had voluntarily given those records to the NSA. Almost in the same time frame, a USA Today/Gallup poll showed a bare majority against it -- but even that poll had contradictory internal information: A majority of Americans disapprove of a massive Pentagon database containing the records of billions of phone calls made by ordinary citizens, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. About two-thirds are concerned that the program may signal other, not-yet-disclosed efforts to gather information on the general public. The survey of 809 adults Friday and Saturday shows a nation wrestling with the balance between fighting terrorism and protecting civil liberties. By 51%-43%,...
The trial of Saddam Hussein resumes today, but before the proceedings started the court charged Saddam with even more crimes stemming from his efforts against the Iraqi Shi'a in Dujail. Saddam refused to enter a plea on charges that he tortured and killed hundreds of men, women, and children in punishment for the aborted Shi'ite uprising: Saddam Hussein refused to enter a plea at his trial on Monday after he was formally charged with ordering the killing and torture of hundreds of Shi'ite villagers, telling the judge he was still Iraq's president. The detailed charges read out by Judge Raouf Abdel Rahman stemmed from the killing of 148 Shi'ites after an attempt on Saddam's life in 1982 in the village of Dujail. The ousted president was accused of ordering the killing and torture of hundreds in the village, including women and children, and that he sent helicopters and planes to...
One constant in the immigration protests this year has been the ability of the activists to sabotage their own position. With the White House and the Senate poised to deliver most of their agenda, they overreacted to the House proposal and staged a number of demonstrations that proved so provocative that it undermined their allies in both places. Many of these protests specifically targeted George Bush, although he opposed the House bill and had worked for normalization for years. Now, with President Bush about to make a prime-time Oval Office speech intended to rescue his immigration reform plan, the same activists are about to do it again, planning a loud and angry response to tonight's speech: As President Bush prepares to address the nation tonight about immigration, a newly formed network of groups that organized demonstrations for illegal immigrants is conference calling, brainstorming and consolidating its forces so that it...
The White House has released excerpts from the speech which George Bush will give tonight, and it looks like Bush may try to play his cards as broadly as possible. For the optimists, his speech contains something for everyone -- border security, normalization, ID cards, prosecution of employers, and so on. For those who have adopted a more glass-half-empty approach -- understandable, given the lack of action thus far -- the attempt to find a consensus will look like more of a capitulation and will probably leave them unconvinced. Bush will start out by reminding the nation of the steps he has already taken to secure the border, but admit that it has not been enough to do the job properly: Since I became President, we have increased funding for border security by 66 percent, and expanded the Border Patrol from about 9,000 to 12,000 agents. . . .we have...
I will have a busy evening tonight. First I plan to live-blog the immigration speech if possible this evening, depending on dialysis schedules. Afterwards, I will appear on The World Tonight with Rob Breckenridge on Calgary's CHQR talk radio station. If you're not in Calgary and can't tune in 770 AM, be sure to listen on the stream at CHQR's website. After that, Mark Tapscott, Stephen Bainbridge, and I will conduct a round table on the immigration speech and conservative disaffectation in general, and what options conservatives have to re-energize the movement. I will podcast that later this evening -- and we're hoping that Michelle Malkin may join us, although she will undoubtedly be in high demand. I believe I may be outnumbered, and it should make for a lively round-table discussion!...
I apologize; circumstances kept me from live-blogging the speech, but I did hear the entire event along with having read the speech just before its delivery. My initial reaction? President Bush tried reaching for the center -- a position he has occupied on this issue all along. He tried a one-from-column-A, two-from-column-B approach that probably will leave all sides more or less dissatisfied. His declaration that catch-and-release would end was the most welcome news in the entire speech. He delivered that well and sounded forceful and presidential, but most people will wonder why this practice didn't end on September 12, 2001. His tone remained measured and firm and he insisted that Congress pass a comprehensive plan that includes both tight security and normalization. How will that sell? Predictably. Tom Tancredo and Peter King, both House Republicans, tore the speech apart. Immigration activists Raul Hinojosa and Cecilia Munoz, the latter with...
Earlier today I arranged to conduct a round-table discussion on George Bush's immigration speech as well as the conservative rebellion that threatens the Republican Party's dominance in Congress in the upcoming mid-term elections. Unfortunately, two of our potential conferees could not make it, Michelle Malkin because of her commitments to Fox News tonight, and Stephen Bainbridge because of technical difficulties that he tried mightily to overcome but could not. Fortunately for me and for the CQ community, Mark Tapscott and I had a great one-on-one conversation instead. Besides being an outstanding blogger, Mark had spent years at the Heritage Foundation integrating bloggers into their efforts to great effect, and now serves as editorial page editor for the Washington Examiner. Mark has been fighting for the conservative movement for decades, and he has a unique perspective on the crossroads conservatives face, ironically because of their electoral successes. We first talked about...
Unfortunately, while Bush underwhelmed the conservative movement on immigration tonight, certain conservatives busied themselves by embarrassing us much more than Bush could ever have. Vox Day, whose provocative writing I normally enjoy, has lost all sense of perspective in his latest effort at World Net Daily. He suggests that we learn a lesson from the Nazis in dealing with illegal immigrants in our midst: And he will be lying, again, just as he lied when he said: "Massive deportation of the people here is unrealistic – it's just not going to work." Not only will it work, but one can easily estimate how long it would take. If it took the Germans less than four years to rid themselves of 6 million Jews, many of whom spoke German and were fully integrated into German society, it couldn't possibly take more than eight years to deport 12 million illegal aliens, many...
May 16, 2006
A new poll by Ipsos-Reid delivers more bad news to the Liberals in Canada. One of their pet projects, the national gun registry, now has a clear majority across the nation declaring that the program doesn't work, is badly organized, and should be eliminated -- and they blame the Liberals for the mess: A new Ipsos Reid survey for CanWest/Global News reports that most Canadians (54%) feel the “gun registry is badly organized, isn’t working properly, and should be scrapped” – a level of opinion essentially unchanged from what was recorded nearly four years, and two Prime Ministers ago (53% expressed this opinion in a December 2002 Ipsos Reid survey). And, if the Auditor General of Canada produced a report that indicated that there had been widespread mismanagement and waste within the gun registry itself: * 56% say they would most blame “the former Liberal Government and elected politicians who...
Lorie Byrd has left Polipundit over a dispute in the editorial policy of the group blog: The fact is that I believe this is the last time I will be blogging at Polipundit. I received a lengthy email from Polipundit tonight alerting us to an editorial policy change that included the following: "From now on, every blogger at PoliPundit.com will either agree with me completely on the immigration issue, or not blog at PoliPundit.com." I would provide additional context, but Polipundit has asked that the contents of our emails not be disclosed publicly and I think that is a fair request. There has been plenty written in the posts over the past week alone to let readers figure out what happened. Polipundit ended a later email with this: "It's over. The group-blogging experiment was nice while it lasted, but we have different priorities now. It's time to go our own...
Kweisi Mfume has trailed fellow Democratic candidate Benjamin Cardin for the nomination to replace Senator Paul Sarbanes in November's midterm election since both candidates declared for the race, and Mfume now believes that the party has deliberately favored Cardin. The former NAACP gave an angry interview to the Washington Times in which he hinted that the Democrats may wind up sacrificing his support if he loses: Maryland U.S. Senate candidate Kweisi Mfume said yesterday that Democrats risk losing the senatorial election because "old-line party bosses" are undermining his campaign and alienating black voters. Mr. Mfume also would not say whether he would endorse Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, the front-runner for the Democratic Senate nomination, if he should lose to the lawmaker in the September primary. "I can say that there will be people who will feel disaffected [if I am not the nominee]," Mr. Mfume told editors and reporters at...
In a surprising result from the Star-Tribune's Minnesota Poll, the GOP has surpassed the Democrats in party affiliation by standing firm while voters abandon the DFL. The Minnesota Poll shows that 29% of all Minnesota adults self-identify as Republicans, while the Democrats lost six points since last year, dropping to 25%: A new Minnesota Poll shows that Minnesota's political landscape is almost equally divided between Republican and Democratic voters. In the poll, conducted last week, 29 percent identified themselves as Republicans, exactly the same percentage as a year ago, despite President Bush's record-low approval ratings and the conventional wisdom that Republicans are likely to suffer net losses in this fall's election. Those who identified themselves as Democrats stood at 25 percent, close enough to be considered even, given the margin of sampling error, but down from 31 percent a year ago. Given that this poll does not have a reputation...
George Bush tried to reassure conservatives and others concerned about the lack of action on border security that the administration takes those concerns seriously. In his speech, he laid out specifics intended to bolster support for his comprehensive immigration reform policies that would reassure people that the border would get effective attention. The two chief proposals comprised the deployment of National Guard troops to support the Border Patrol and the establishment of a fence in high-traffic areas and a system of barriers and electronic surveillance in others. However, within hours of the speech, holes began to appear in both elements. The New York Times reports that the governors of the border states that would have to authorize the deployment of the National Guard did not get consulted on the plan ahead of time: Among the most important voices will be those of the governors of the four states abutting the...
Senator Orrin Hatch answered charges surrounding the NSA surveillance programs by revealing that at least two FISA judges have been kept informed of at least the NSA phone call database. The revelation answers critics of the Bush administration's efforts to use datamining to detect terrorist sleeper cells: Two judges on the secretive court that approves warrants for intelligence surveillance were told of the broad monitoring programs that have raised recent controversy, a Republican senator said Tuesday, connecting a court to knowledge of the collecting of millions of phone records for the first time. ... Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said that at least two of the chief judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had been informed since 2001 of White House-approved National Security Agency monitoring operations. "None raised any objections, as far as I know," said Hatch, a member of a special Intelligence Committee panel appointed to oversee the NSA's work....
May 17, 2006
The Pentagon authorized the release of video and stills taken from a security camera that captures the attack on 9/11 by the hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, after a FOIA lawsuit by Judicial Watch. The released images do not show all that much more than what we saw on television in the aftermath of the attacks, which disappointed those who hoped the new footage would stamp out the various paranoid conspiracy theories about the attacks. Two bloggers have posted screencaps of the video and noticed something odd. Both Allahpundit at Hot Air and Kevin at Wizbang! remark on the smoke trail evident in the right-hand side of the frame in the moments before the attack. A few commenters (not the bloggers themselves) say this is evidence that the attack was a missile and not a fully-loaded 767, and offer by way of further proof the long-standing assertion that the...
The repressive government of China continued its battle against on-line efforts at democratization and intellectual freedom yesterday by jailing a blogger for twelve years. Yang Tianshui provoked the regime's ire by posting essays to his website supporting free elections and calling for a velvet revolution: CHINA sentenced a veteran dissident writer to 12 years in jail for subversion yesterday, after he posted essays on the internet supporting a movement by exiles to hold free elections. The sentence on Yang Tianshui, 45, is one of the harshest to be handed down to a political dissident since the trials that came after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on students demanding greater democracy. It underscores the determination of the ruling Communist Party to brook no opposition and to maintain a tight grip on the internet. Yang is one of several writers and dissidents to be tried over the content of internet postings. He...
The New York Sun reports on a new initiative by tax activist Grover Norquist to rein in spending -- rule changes in both the House and Senate that limit the tenure on appropriations committees. Norquist wants to have more fresh faces each session in order to combat the descent of otherwise rational politicians into a spendthrift groupthink: Grover Norquist, president of the advocacy group Americans for Tax Reform, is advancing a new approach to fighting government corruption: term limits for members of congressional appropriations committees. Speaking to The New York Sun yesterday, Mr. Norquist claimed that members of appropriations committees developed a sort of groupthink over time, and regardless of their partisan affiliations, eventually began thinking like appropriators. ... Mr. Norquist has recently traveled with Rep. Tom Feeney, a Republican of Florida, who supports the idea and will help introduce it into the House. "We'll do it after the next...
Over the past week, many of us have written on the frustration felt by conservatives (especially fiscal conservatives) over the past few years. Some believe that the only manner in which to serve notice on the GOP that it cannot take conservative votes for granted is a massive walkout, a boycott of the 2006 midterms and perhaps even the 2008 presidential elections. Others, such as myself, believe that conservatives will marginalize themselves by doing so and will prove themselves incapable of being reliable partners in any kind of ruling coalition. Today we have an example of what can be accomplished through active engagement rather than disengagement. In Pennsylvania, primary voters have unseated the two Republican leaders in the state Senate that gave the body an unpopular pay raise, joining thirteen of their incumbent House colleagues in getting the boot: Angry taxpayers on Tuesday tossed out the two Republican Senate leaders...
The Senate continued to follow George Bush in a relentless effort to the center on immigration today, passing amendments that fund a border fence, lock out illegals with one felony or three misdemeanor convictions, and provide for guest-worker and citizenship programs. The amendments make it more likely that the House will compromise in conference to deliver the comprehensive reform plan that Bush has demanded, although James Sensenbrenner has announced his opposition already: The Senate agreed to give millions of illegal immigrants a shot at U.S. citizenship and backed construction of 370 miles of triple-layered fencing along the Mexican border Wednesday, but prospects of election-year legislation clearing Congress were clouded by a withering attack against President Bush by a prominent House Republican. "Regardless of what the president says, what he is proposing is amnesty," said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and the lawmaker who would lead...
Over the past couple of weeks, many conservative bloggers have debated the future of the conservative movement and the potential electoral strategies that we feel will most benefit the cause. Over the course of that time, the bloggers have appeared to separate us into two camps: Geraghtyites (from Jim Geraghty at TKS) and Tapscottians (from Mark Tapscott at the Washington Examiner and Tapscott's Copy Desk). While I fall rather squarely into the realist Geraghty camp, I must say a few words in Mark's defense. First, I think people have misinterpreted Mark's position. What people call Tapscottian really follows more closely to the writings of Stephen Bainbridge. The professor has already announced his intention to withdraw his support from the GOP this fall and potentially in 2008 as a protest against their performance on a range of issues over the past few years. I don't agree with Stephen, but he's entitled...
May 18, 2006
Congressman John Conyers redefines disingenuity in today's Washington Post by proclaiming Republicans dishonest when they say that he wants to impeach the President. All he wants, he says, is some answers from the Bush administration: As Republicans have become increasingly nervous about whether they will be able to maintain control of the House in the midterm elections, they have resorted to the straw-man strategy of identifying a parade of horrors to come if Democrats gain the majority. Among these is the assertion that I, as the new chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, would immediately begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush. I will not do that. I readily admit that I have been quite vigorous, if not relentless, in questioning the administration. The allegations I have raised are grave, serious, well known, and based on reliable media reports and the accounts of former administration officials. ... So, rather than seeking...
The New York Times recognized the Pennsylvania Earthquake which removed at least thirteen Republican incumbents in Tuesday's primaries from a state legislature that rejected conservative values. Jason DeParle reports that conservatives nationwide have taken heart from this victory, and even includes a mention of CQ: A revolt among Pennsylvania conservatives gained national attention on Wednesday after challengers toppled at least 12 state lawmakers they deemed insufficiently committed to small government and fiscal restraint. Among those losing their positions in a Republican primary on Tuesday were the two State Senate leaders, Robert C. Jubelirer and David J. Brightbill, who had 56 years of incumbency between them and vastly outspent their upstart rivals. Facing a tire salesman with little political experience, Mr. Brightbill, the majority leader, outspent his opponent nearly 20 to 1 and still captured just 37 percent of the vote. ... The results drew cheers from conservatives nationally, many of...
After decades of incompetence on the Rio Grande, the Bush administration aims to expand the effort to secure the southern border by engaging the private sector for real solutions. The New York Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security has sent out RFPs to the three main defese prime contractors for the building of physical and "virtual" barriers to deploy on the Mexican border: The quick fix may involve sending in the National Guard. But to really patch up the broken border, President Bush is preparing to turn to a familiar administration partner: the nation's giant military contractors. Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman, three of the largest, are among the companies that said they would submit bids within two weeks for a multibillion-dollar federal contract to build what the administration calls a "virtual fence" along the nation's land borders. Using some of the same high-priced, high-tech tools these...
Rep. John Murtha has decided to skip the investigation and leapt directly to conclusions regarding allegations that US Marines shot and tossed grenades at Iraqi civilians in revenge for an ambush suffered by their unit in Haditha: Rep. John Murtha, an influential Pennsylvania lawmaker and outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, said today Marines had “killed innocent civilians in cold blood” after allegedly responding to a roadside bomb ambush that killed a Marine during a patrol in Haditha, Iraq, Nov. 19. The incident is still under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and Multi-National Forces Iraq. The Marine Corps originally claimed that a convoy from the Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, hit a roadside bomb that killed Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, 20, of El Paso, Texas, and the ensuing firefight killed 15 Iraqi civilians — casualties the Corps at first claimed were killed in...
For those of you who have shared my frustration on trackbacks at CQ for the past several months, I have some excellent news. Thanks to two volunteers, we have resolved the issues that have strangled trackback pings, at least for the time being. Richard and Tim from Hyscience and FreedomsZone got as frustrated as the rest of us earlier this week and asked me if they could help me solve the problem. I gratefully accepted their assistance, and between the three of us and Hosting Matters, we found out that the problem was a sustained and pernicious series of spambots that had throttled the background process. Tim made some internal adjustments to shield the process from the spammers, and we saw the trackbacks start working almost immediately. You should start seeing your trackbacks on my posts from now on, and if you do, be sure to thank Richard and Tim....
We conservatives have spent a lot of time talking about the disillusionment that we have experienced with the current Republican leadership, especially in Congress, but also with the administration on several issues including immigration. However, according to the NBC affiliate in San Diego, Border Patrol agents have experienced much more disillusionment than we can claim as the failure to prosecute illegal aliens has demoralized the force: An internal document obtained by The Associated Press shows the vast majority of people caught smuggling immigrants across the border near San Diego are never prosecuted for the offense, demoralizing the Border Patrol agents making the arrests. The report says, "It is very difficult to keep agents' morale up when the laws they were told to uphold are being watered-down or not prosecuted." The report offers a stark assessment of the situation at a Border Patrol station responsible for guarding 13 miles of mountainous...
Hamas made good on its threat to field its own armed force in Gaza, defying Mahmoud Abbas and his presidential veto of their militia. Abbas responded by sending his own Fatah forces into the streets, setting the stage for a gang war: The Hamas-led Palestinian government on Wednesday deployed a new security force in the Gaza Strip, a direct challenge to the authority of President Mahmoud Abbas, who last month vetoed the creation of the force. Mr. Abbas, who has been traveling in Europe this week, responded Wednesday night by ordering a large number of members of the security forces under his command to be placed on the streets in Gaza, Reuters reported. In another sign of Palestinian infighting, a Hamas militant was killed in a drive-by shooting near Gaza City, the second such killing of a Hamas member in two days. No one claimed responsibility, though Hamas and Mr....
Our friends in Canada the pleasure of hosting Australian PM John Howard, who spoke to a joint session of the Canadian Parliament and gave high praise to America and its role in world affairs. Parliamentarians gave Howard a rousing reception as he reminded his audience of the importance of an engaged US: “Australia, as you know, is an unapologetic friend and ally of the United States,” Mr. Howard told a Commons chamber that's heard all-too-frequent criticism of Washington in recent years. Fresh from a visit to the White House, Mr. Howard told a chamber packed with Tory MPs, staffers, lobbyists and party functionaries — but noticeably light on Liberal Opposition MPs — that the U.S. “has been a remarkable power for good in the world. “And the decency and hope that the power and purpose that the United States represent in the world is something we should deeply appreciate,” Mr....
One of the interesting aspects of the immigration debate is how much of it gets influenced by electoral politics, even in subtle ways. Take, for instance, the defeat of the Kyl amendment that would have ensured that the temporary guest workers that came to the US remained ... temporary. The Senate tabled the amendment (in the US, this means defeating it) by a vote of 58-35. A number of Republicans voted to kill the Kyl amendment, including Minnesota's Norm Coleman, a disappointing performance. Other notables are Chuck Hagel, Richard Lugar, Sam Brownback, and Ted Stevens. Practically the entire contingent of the GOP faction in the Gang of 14 voted to kill the amendment except for Lindsay Graham, who managed to miss this vote. More interesting, however, are the Democrats who voted to support Kyl's amendment. They were Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, and Ben Nelson...
May 19, 2006
Charles Krauthammer wonders why border security has been dismissed as a concern only to conservatives in the current debate over immigration reform. It's a question that organized labor might want answered as well: Bush's enforcement provisions were advertised as an attempt to appease conservatives. This is odd. Are conservatives the only ones who think that unlimited, unregulated immigration is a detriment to the republic? Do liberals really believe in a de facto policy that depresses the wages of the poorest and most desperate Americans, African Americans most prominently among them? Do liberals believe that the number, social class, education level, background and country of origin of immigrants -- the kinds of decisions every democratic country makes for itself -- should be taken out of the hands of the American citizenry and left to the immigrants themselves and, in particular, to those most willing to break the very immigration regulations the...
Hamas took two hits today in its bid to spread its terrorism throughout the Middle East. The combined effects of losing almost a million dollars in cash and the provoked hostility of the Jordanian government threaten to put the terrorist group into a political death spiral. First, the Fatah police have relieved a Hamas envoy of his cash as he attempted to enter Gaza: Palestinian border police have confiscated more than $800,000 (£427,000) from a Hamas official trying to enter the Gaza Strip from Egypt. The Hamas-led government says it is hard to transfer cash to Palestinian territory as banks fear US sanctions for dealing with the militant group. ... A European Union observer at the crossing identified the Hamas official as spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, a well known figure in the Arabic media. "Sami Abu Zuhri did not declare the money. The Palestinian security and customs officials found it...
A federal grand jury returned an indictment alleging fraud, corruption, and kickbacks at one of the most prominent legal firms in the class-action lawsuit industry. Milberg Weiss also has two of its partners under personal indictment for a criminal racketeering conspiracy, and the feds want over $200 million in restitution: The future of one of the country's leading class-action law firms, Milberg Weiss, is in grave doubt after a federal grand jury returned a criminal indictment yesterday accusing the firm of engaging in a secret, 25-year-long conspiracy to kick back attorneys fees to investors who served as named plaintiffs in more than 150 lawsuits brought against publicly-traded American companies. Two top Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schlman LLP partners, David Bershad and Steven Schulman, were charged personally with criminal racketeering conspiracy. In addition, prosecutors are demanding that the firm forfeit $216.1 million, the sum Milberg Weiss earned in cases allegedly tainted...
Conflicting reports have clouded the story, but Canada's National Post reported in two different articles that Iran has passed legislation requiring non-Muslims to wear colored ribbons in order to identify infidels in their midst. The law, reminiscent of the notorious Nuremberg laws that forced Jews to wear a yellow Star of David (among other oppressive regulations), will allow Muslims to keep themselves pure by avoiding the touch of an infidel: The law mandates the government to make sure that all Iranians wear "standard Islamic garments" designed to remove ethnic and class distinctions reflected in clothing, and to eliminate "the influence of the infidel" on the way Iranians, especially, the young dress. It also envisages separate dress codes for religious minorities, Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, who will have to adopt distinct colour schemes to make them identifiable in public. The new codes would enable Muslims to easily recognize non-Muslims so that...
Blogging will be light tonight as I will be attending a Veteran Appreciation Dinner sponsored by AM 1280 The Patriot, featuring Col. Oliver North as the guest speaker. Amendment X from The Savage Republican invited me as his guest, for which I'm grateful indeed. I will update you on the dinner when I return. UPDATE: I just got back from the event, which was entertaining. Unlike some other events by the station, this one was more intimate; the price was higher and they deliberately kept the room small to ensure that everyone had a chance to talk with the guest of honor. I spoke with John Fund and a few of the attendees, and the feedback on the format was so positive that they may continue to use it in future events. I would assume that when they present Salem Radio hosts, they will stick with the bigger venues. (Hey,...
May 20, 2006
Iraq officially launched its first popularly elected government this morning after its National Assembly swore in the ministers of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Cabinet. Two key security posts remain unfilled while negotiations continue, but the governance of Iraq has now passed to a permanent set of democratic institutions for the first time: Iraq's new government of national unity was sworn in before a special session of parliament on Saturday, three years after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The new ministers took the oath of office after parliament approved the Cabinet presented by incoming Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. ... The session began more than two hours late because of last-minute haggling, finally opening with readings from the Quran. The 37-member Cabinet is made up of members from all of Iraq's religious, sectarian and ethnic groups. It took months of negotiations to form after the Dec. 15 elections and is Iraq's first...
A report released to the AP last night will inform Congress of what readers of CQ and Michelle Malkin have known for eighteen months -- that the management of the Federal Air Marshal Service has repeatedly undermined the mission through robotic insistence on dress codes and travel policies that do everything except tape a "Kill Me First" sign on the backs of supposedly covert agents. The House Judiciary Committee has finally addressed the complaints of air marshals who have watched in utter frustration while FAMS places every obstacle they can find between the agents and their mission: A report to be taken up by Congress next week is harshly critical of the Federal Air Marshal Service, concluding that more steps need to be taken to preserve the anonymity of the marshals. The draft report by the House Judiciary Committee, a copy of which was provided to The Associated Press on...
Germans thrilled at the prospect of hosting this year's World Cup have had their enthusiasm dimmed by the business deal made with Budweiser. In the nation that defines beer purity, the sponsorship of the American beer behemoth has set German teeth grinding: IT IS brown-gold and alcoholic but, then, in the scathing verdict of German beer fans, so is paint thinner. The Germans are furious that Budweiser will be the official tipple for the World Cup, which starts next month. The American lager has secured a near-monopoly of beer sales inside World Cup stadiums and within a 500m radius of the grounds, supplanting more than 1,270 domestic breweries. And what most upsets the fans is that Budweiser — advertised as the “King of Beers” in the US — fails to meet the ancient German standards for purity, which stipulate that beer can be brewed only from malt, hops and water....
Why is it that the same people who claim to stand for diversity and the dignity of the individual manage to deride their political opponents in the most bigoted and degrading terms? I understand that many people do not find Michelle Malkin to their taste. Michelle is fearless, passionate, and unrelenting when covering stories or writing columns. She writes in an aggressive and provocative style which attracts certain readers and repels others. I put myself foursquare in the former group, but others can and do fall into the latter, and that's fine. Michelle can take the criticism, just as we all do. However, what we find is that Michelle's critics continuously reveal themselves as immature, chauvinistic, and sexually frustrated. Like clockwork, when she started v-blogging, a blogger had to make a reference to it as some sort of pornography, only this time the blogger is Alex Pareene, one of the...
May 21, 2006
Ray Nagin managed to win re-election as mayor of New Orleans despite his record of incompetent decisions in the immediate run-up and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina after one of the most polite campaigns the city has ever seen. Nagin, who described himself as "humbled" often in his campaigning, will lead the city in its rebuilding efforts after the worst American natural disaster in decades: C. Ray Nagin, the unpredictable mayor who charted a sometimes erratic course for his city through Hurricane Katrina and after, won a narrow re-election victory here Saturday. Mr. Nagin, who will now lead the city through four crucial rebuilding years, fended off a strong challenge from Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, the scion of one of Louisiana's leading political families, in a vote that see-sawed all night. With all of the city's 442 precincts reporting, Mr. Nagin had 52 percent of the vote, while Mr. Landrieu received...
Faced with spiraling deficits and a moribund economy, Germany has once again decided that the government provides the answer to financial stress. The Bundestag passed the largest tax increase in post-war history and targeted the tax on retail transactions: Parliament passed Germany's largest postwar tax hike on Friday. The country's value-added tax (VAT) will rise from 16 to 19 percent in January to help cut the deficit. But there are worries it will hit the already weak growth of the world's third largest economy. Hoping to control a spiralling budget deficit, Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, on Friday passed the biggest tax increase in the country's postwar history. The new package calls for a 3 percentage point jump in the value added tax -- from 16 to 19 percent. Proponents want to raise about $25.5 billion more per year starting in 2007, but critics say the hike will...
After 9/11, the Saudis publicly acknowledged that their education system promoted radicalism in Islam and indoctrinated hatred among their children from the earliest days of their schooling. The Saudis promised to reform their system, spending millions of dollars on expensive advertising campaigns in the US to paint themselves as friends to America and the West and promoting an image of reform and moderation. President Bush held hands (in the Arabic tradition) with a Saudi prince in order to help promote that image of friendship. Did they actually reform that system? According to the Washington Post, nothing changed in the slightest: A 2004 Saudi royal study group recognized the need for reform after finding that the kingdom's religious studies curriculum "encourages violence toward others, and misguides the pupils into believing that in order to safeguard their own religion, they must violently repress and even physically eliminate the 'other.' " Since then,...
The Able Danger blog has news from a FOIA request filed by Scott Malone of NavySeals.com and Christopher Law of PublicEdCenter.org that has produced an interesting response from the Pentagon. When they demanded the release of all information regarding the Able Danger project, the DoD rejected the request after a bit of bureaucratic misdirection. However, they acknowledged the existence of over 9500 pages of documentation -- apparently the same paperwork that they told Congress no longer existed: In two possibly related developments in the past week, the Pentagon denied access to almost 10,000 pages of classified documents relating to a top-secret intelligence program senior officials have three times previously testified were destroyed or unable to be located. And the attorneys for the secret team members who disclosed the existence of the data-mining counter-terrorism program, called ABLE DANGER, have argued in a new court filing that they be “cleared” to review...
Video killed the radio star, the song tells us, and it holds its dangers for politicians on the take as well. The AP reports that the FBI has video of Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) taking bribes, the latest in a series of setbacks to Democratic attempts to paint corruption as a one-party problem: A congressman under investigation for bribery was caught on videotape accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with the lawmaker also were recorded, according to a court document released Sunday. Agents later found the cash hidden in his freezer. At one audiotaped meeting, Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., chuckles about writing in code to keep secret what the government contends was his corrupt role in getting his children a cut of a communications company's deal for work in Africa. As Jefferson and the informant passed notes about what percentage the lawmaker's family might receive,...
May 22, 2006
The trial of Saddam Hussein resumed this morning, with fireworks launched from the start. The presiding judge had a defense attorney bodily thrown out of the courtroom after readmitting her moments before, and Saddam earned himself a sharp rebuke after proclaiming the court beneath him: The squabble began when chief judge informed defense lawyer Bushra Khalil that she would be allowed to return to the court after being removed from a session in April for arguing with the judge. But when she tried to make a statement, he quickly cut her off, saying, "Sit down." "I just want to say one word," she said, but Abdel-Rahman yelled at guards to take her away. Khalil pulled off her judicial robe and threw it on the floor in anger, then tried to push the guards who were grabbing her hands, shouting, "Get away from me." As she was pulled out of the...
Mahmoud Abbas met yesterday with Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni in Egypt to find some manner in which to restart peace talks as the Palestinian protostate came closer to civil war. Abbas also announced that he would begin talks with Hamas to calm the tensions in Gaza after the ruling party attempted two assassinations on government officials from Fatah: MAHMOUD ABBAS, the Palestinian President, met Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister, yesterday in the first high-level contact between the two sides since Hamas, the Islamist group, won the Palestinian elections in January. The meeting, in Egypt, came amid increased tensions in Gaza, where assassination attempts on two Palestinian security officials prompted Mr Abbas to warn against civil war between his secular Fatah and its Islamist rival. ... Mr Abbas said that he would begin talks with Hamas this week. “We have to look for a solution,” he said, warning that...