August 1, 2006
Sorry for the slow start this morning. Our dog has been sick all night and we just dropped her off at the vet. I'll be back up and running shortly. UPDATE: Just to explain, we lost one of our dogs, Angel, while I was in the hospital. She was almost 15 years old and had been "losing it" for a few months, so her passing wasn't unexpected. That left us with Cory, the First Mate's retired guide dog, who has never exactly been a canine dynamo of energy, if you know what I mean. She's 12 now and even a bit slower these days, but over the last week she started getting lethargic even for her, and a couple of days ago stopped eating after vomiting a couple of times. We took her to the vet yesterday, where she gobbled up some treats, and everything else looked normal. We bought...
[Good questions from commenters -- see update below!] A group of conservative bloggers have worked on a developing a list of candidates in critical races this fall, not just for a show of support but also to allow our readers a single point where they could contribute to their campaigns. John Hawkins at Right Wing News began to organize this a couple of weeks ago, and we have selected a slate of Congressional and Senatorial races we think will get the most benefit from organized grassroots support on the Internet. We call this effort Rightroots, and our site, powered by ABCPac, launched this evening. The selection committee comprised the following bloggers: John Hawkins from Right Wing News Robert Bluey from Human Events Online Mary Katherine Ham from Townhall Erick Erickson from Redstate Patrick Hynes from Ankle Biting Pundits Lorie Byrd from Wizbang! We have selected fourteen Congressional races and four...
I return to the editorial page of the Examiner today with a piece on the double standard for Israel's prosecution of the war, as opposed to the lack of outrage over terrorist tactics and strategy. Borrowing a phrase from George Bush, I argue that this soft nihilism of low expectations -- which also snares the United States in its grip -- actually encourages terrorism: While the world holds Israel to this standard, things become curiously silent when it’s time to hold Hezbollah responsible for its conduct of war. Hardly a word has escaped from the U.N. or Europe on the 2,500 missiles that have rained down upon Israeli civilians, deliberately targeted by Hezbollah. Those attacks have displaced more than 300,000 civilians, a fact the global community and the mainstream media ignore. Those who argue that Israel has occasionally violated the Geneva Conventions in its attacks casually ignore the blatant violations...
Congress is about to send a pension-reform bill to the White House that forces employers to meet their funding obligations for employee pension plans. Unfortunately, HR 2830 exempts at least one key industry from meeting that requirement, and tosses some serious pork into the stew to boot. I explain this at the Heritage Foundation Policy Blog: Airlines employ hundreds of thousands of Americans and the risk to those pensions will require immediate action. This free pass allows the industry to continue its under-the-radar flight on pensions, which hides the instability of the industry’s economic position. Postponing action does not mean that the PBGC would not have to bail out these pension funds; if history is any judge, exemptions and postponements result in less compliance, not more. Not only does the bill contain these exemptions, putting the retirement of many Americans at risk, the Senate has played their usual pork-barrel games...
Mel Gibson has extended his apology in a statement released earlier today, and this time he explicity acknowledges the anti-Semitic rant that has plunged one of Hollywood's most bankable stars into so much hot water. Not only has he apologized to the Jewish community, he has asked them for help in determining the source of his bigoted words: There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark. I want to apologize specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I said to a law enforcement officer the night I was arrested on a DUI charge. ... The tenets of what I profess to believe necessitate that I exercise charity and tolerance as a way of life. Every human being is God's child, and if I wish to honor my God I have...
National Review's Michael Ledeen takes us on a trip in the Wayback Machine, but unlike the journeys of Peabody and his boy Sherman, Ledeen notices that we arrive back in the present: Certainly there is lots of bad news, most of which confirms what we already knew: The Western world hates Israel; the taboo on anti-Semitism is off; the Western world has been P.C.’ed to the edge of death; there is no stomach for fighting the war against Islamic fascism. Sounds like the Thirties to me. ... Then, too, the mounting power of what became the Axis was ignored. As my father often reminded me, a few months before Pearl Harbor, at a time when Nazi armies were long since on the march, the draft passed by a single vote. Apologists for Hitler and Mussolini were legion, and some of our leading intellectuals were saying that American democratic capitalism was...
Our first day of the Rightroots initiative has started off very well -- and has received quite a bit of notice. In less than a day, we have already raised almost $7,000 for the eighteen key candidates we have endorsed in our effort to hold both houses of Congress. Now we have been challenged by Rep. Jack Kingston, one of the most blogosphere-savvy Congressmen in office, to raise a goodly amount of money by the end of the week -- and he's ready to open up his own checkbook if we make it: FROM THE DESK OF CONGRESSMAN JACK KINGSTON Dear Friends, I commend the efforts of the Rightroots movement for providing a forum which seeks to help the Republican Party secure our majorities in the House and Senate, and might even push some competitive races over the finish line in November. I strongly believe that small donations from a...
The Israeli offensive has taken an interesting turn as the IDF unleashes its ground forces in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah may have felt sanguine about their chances of outlasting Israel thanks to the efforts of world leaders in handcuffing Ehud Olmert, but now the re-energized IDF has taken aim at Hezbollah's patron: Lebanese army and security officials said a major Israel Defense Forces operation was underway against suspected Hezbollah positions near Baalbek in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley late Tuesday. IDF troops thrust deep into the area, landing troops by helicopter in the Hezbollah heartland. Lebanese security sources said IDF soldiers had landed by helicopter near Baalbek as aircraft launched several strikes in the region. One Lebanese officer saying the Israel Air Force presence in the air above the ancient city was "unprecedented." ... "The extreme, unprecedented number of aircraft indicates the possibility that the Israelis are planning to land troops, but...
Daniel Freedman, who runs the excellent New York Sun blog It Shines For All, takes an interesting look at the disincentives for dictators to defeat Islamofascism in the American Spectator. Freedman reports that the real threat to Pakistan's military dictatorship comes not from Islamists but from Democrats, led by former PM Benazir Bhutto. However, Pervez Musharraf has plenty of motivation for painting the Islamist threat as the biggest threat -- and for making sure that he never quite beats them: THIS RESPONSE TO A PERCEIVED Islamist "threat" by the West is based on the premise that if the dictator falls, Islamists, rather than democrats, will take power. An apparent "threat" therefore ensures that the dictator won't be pressured to introduce reform and will be showered with aid. Take Egypt's Hosni Mubarak: He's backtracked on democracy reforms and imprisoned democracy activists. Yet he receives $1.7 billion a year in American aid....
August 2, 2006
The Israeli operation in Bekaa has met with success. In a commando raid far behind enemy lines, the IDF captured an unspecified number of Hezbollah operatives in a Baalbek hospital: Israel poured up to 10,000 armored troops into south Lebanon Tuesday, and separately sent commandos deep into the eastern Bekaa Valley where they raided a Hezbollah-run hospital and captured guerrillas during pitched battles, a major escalation of the three-week-old war. The Israeli military confirmed the attack on the ancient city of Baalbek, about 80 miles north of Israel. It said troops, ferried in by helicopter, captured an unspecified number guerrillas and all soldiers returned unharmed. The statement gave no other details. The Baalbek raid was the deepest ground attack on Lebanon since fighting began 21 days ago. Hezbollah denied that Israel captured anyone in Baalbek, telling the press that they had the commandos pinned down at the hospital. Perhaps that...
Today's Washington Post reports that the 9/11 Commission got so frustrated with inaccurate testimony from military and aviation officials regarding the immediate response on 9/11 that they considered referrals to the Department of Justice for perjury: Some staff members and commissioners of the Sept. 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon's initial story of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort to mislead the commission and the public rather than a reflection of the fog of events on that day, according to sources involved in the debate. Suspicion of wrongdoing ran so deep that the 10-member commission, in a secret meeting at the end of its tenure in summer 2004, debated referring the matter to the Justice Department for criminal investigation, according to several commission sources. Staff members and some commissioners thought that e-mails and other evidence provided enough probable cause to...
Eliana Johnson, once the proprietress of a clever blog called Yale Diva, has moved to the New York Sun as a reporter. She covered the appearance of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson at Columbia University yesterday, where Paulson tried to establish a new momentum for spending cuts and entitlement reform in his maiden speech. I'll cover this at the Heritage Foundation Policy Blog later today. Eliana has another blog connection: she is the daughter of my good friend Scott Johnson at Power Line, who proudly notes the tight style and straightforward reporting of the story. I had the pleasure to meet Eliana and all of Scott's family on a few occasions and am delighted at her new success. I'm particularly pleased that she works at one of the best newspapers in this new media age....
After their rocket attacks on Israel dwindled down to 10 yesterday, the commando raid on Baalbek has apparently infuriated Hezbollah into risking everything on a last-gasp series of volleys. A record number of missiles have flown over the border, and in one case hit near the West Bank town of Jenin: Hezbollah launched its deepest strikes yet into Israel on Wednesday, firing a record number of more than 160 rockets. An Israeli-American was killed as he fled for home by bicycle, and a stray rocket hit the West Bank for the first time. The intense rocket fire defied claims by Israeli leaders and generals that they have considerably weakened Hezbollah's military capabilities. It followed a two-day lull in Hezbollah rocket attacks, and came hours after Israeli commandos in Lebanon captured what Israel said were five Hezbollah guerrillas. Police said at least 21 people were wounded in Wednesday's attacks, which brought...
The Howard Dean experiment at the DNC appears to have created division, distrust, and chaos, as many of us predicted last year when Dean took the job. The Washington Post reports that party leaders have begun to craft back-channels to undermine Dean's authority, bringing their efforts for a national program for the midterms to a shambles: At a meeting last week, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) criticized Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean for not spending enough party resources on get-out-the-vote efforts in the most competitive House and Senate races, according to congressional aides who were briefed on the exchange. Pelosi -- echoing a complaint common among Democratic lawmakers and operatives -- has warned privately that Democrats are at risk of going into the November midterm elections with a voter-mobilization plan that is underfunded and inferior to the proven turnout machine run by national Republicans. The Senate and House...
Diana Irey has her work cut out for her if she wants to unseat longtime incumbent John Murtha in PA-12. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that she trails far behind Murtha in fundraising, although she still qualifies as the best-financed challenger in the state: While Republican challenger Diana Irey accelerated her fund-raising pace in the second quarter of the year, she still trailed far behind U.S. Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Johnstown, the veteran incumbent in the 12th Congressional District. Entering the final four months of the campaign, Mr. Murtha's campaign committee had a cash advantage of more than 10-to-1 over the Washington County commissioner. The Democrat entered July with $1,804,695, while Ms. Irey had $159,138, according to a digest of Federal Election Commission filings compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Murtha funds include money leftover from his last campaign. Mr. Murtha had raised a total of $2,452,426 during that election...
Two more of my posts have appeared at the Heritage Foundation Policy Blog today. The first takes a quick look at three amendments to the defense appropriation being debated in the Senate this week. Did you know that a memorial commission, a traveling exhibit on World War II, and a market research program will help us win the war on terror? Neither did I, but Senators Daniel Inouye and John Warner apparently think so. The second post takes a longer look at Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's maiden speech, delivered at Columbia University yesterday. Paulson gave some reason for optimism that the Bush administration might finally get serious about cutting the federal budget after five years of growth in both discretionary and entitlement spending. I say some optimism, because we have heard much of this rhetoric before, and neither Congress nor the White House has had much political will or desire...
I missed most of this today, but this kind of politicking embarrasses everyone associated with it: Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton visited Mount Aery Baptist Church in Bridgeport to announced their endorsement of challenger Ned Lamont in his campaign against Sen. Joseph Lieberman. A picture of Lieberman in 'blackface' on a Lamont supporter's blog drew criticism from both sides. ... This campaign has apparently hit a new low today with something offensive, and that is putting it mildly. The popular Huffington Post blog, which has strongly supported Lamont's candidacy, posted a picture today depicting President Clinton and Joe Lieberman in an Amos n Andy-type doctored picture obviously taken from the Waterbury rally last Monday. In the picture, Lieberman is drawn in blackface and Clinton is wearing dark sunglasses. Lamont's campaign manager Tom Swan condemned this, calling it very offensive and said he requested that it be removed. He also...
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has made clear that the war in Lebanon could be over in days, but only under conditions that ensure security for Israel on its northern border. With the UN debating various types of peacekeeping forces to replace Israel in Lebanon, Olmert insists that Israel would not accept another UNIFIL disaster: In an interview with The Times in Jerusalem, the Israeli Prime Minister, said that the conflict could be over as soon as the United Nations Security Council authorised an international force and the troops were in place. As he set out his vision for peace, the fighting intensified with 10,000 Israeli soldiers battling against Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon. The Shia Muslim militant group fired a record number of 213 rockets into Israel, with some penetrating the West Bank, the farthest that they have reached. Nevertheless, Mr Olmert seemed confident that the fighting could be...
The Northern Alliance Radio Network has broadcast for almost two and a half years here in the Twin Cities and around the world on our Internet stream, the first broadcast radio show by bloggers ever. We started as a three-hour show on Saturday afternoons with a rotating cast for every hour. When we got an extra hour earlier this year, we split the show into a more fixed format, with three bloggers in each two-hour segment, and ran from 11 am to 3 pm Central time each Saturday. Now we have an exciting change that we believe will attract even more listeners. The Patriot has allowed us to shift the show to a 9 am CT start, beginning this Saturday morning. Mitch Berg and I will take the first two hours, giving us a chance to start the day off for our listeners with our two-hour segment. Brian, Chad, and...
August 3, 2006
At least one world leader has given an honest assessment of why an immediate cease fire should occur in the Hezbollah-Israeli conflict, now entering its fourth week. Oddly enough -- or not -- that world leader runs Iran: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday the solution to the Middle East crisis was to destroy Israel, state-media reported. In a speech during an emergency meeting of Muslim leaders in Malaysia, Ahmadinejad also called for an immediate cease-fire to end the fighting between Israel and the Iranian-backed group Hizbullah. "Although the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime, at this stage an immediate cease-fire must be implemented," Ahmadinejad said, according to state-run television in a report posted on its Web site Thursday. Ahmadinejad made these comments at a hastily-arranged summit of Muslim nations in an attempt to get more support for Iran's proxy in Lebanon. He implored the other...
The world's most celebrated younger brother has apparently come down with a case of shyness. Four days after Fidel Castro handed the reins of power to his brother Raul, the relief dictator has yet to make an appearance to his subjects. Raul's absence has triggered a sense of unease on the island, and people have begun asking questions about the nature of power on the island for the first time in decades: In this island capital's long bus-stop lines and open markets, its offices and restaurants, the question keeps popping up: Where's Raúl? Raúl Castro has yet to appear in public since being named temporary president of Cuba late Monday. His absence is adding a layer of intrigue to the speculation-heavy ambience that has settled over this city. It was two days ago that the Cuban government announced that Fidel Castro -- who is recovering from intestinal surgery -- would...
Rep. John Murtha has demanded an immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq for months. Now he's demanding another stand-down, but this time he's telling Israel to declare defeat and go home: Pennsylvania's Rep. John Murtha said yesterday that he favored an immediate cease-fire in the fighting in Lebanon. ... Mr. Murtha, speaking yesterday at a Post-Gazette editorial board meeting, was asked if he favored a cease-fire in the campaign north of Israel's border. "I think so," he said. "I think it would be very difficult to justify continuing on." Referring to the Bush administration's position, he said: "You know, they say, 'Well, we want a long-term cease-fire.' It seems to me you start with a cease-fire, and then you try to work out the details long term. If you don't, and you continue to have heavy-handed military action -- and I support heavy-handed military action because it saves your...
One of the earliest on-line experiences for home computer users came from America On Line, known better now by its initials AOL. It started service in 1989 as an exclusively Apple service, but gained popularity by providing squeaky-clean content in a single user-friendly interface for computer neophtytes. It took several years before AOL allowed its users to access the wilds of the Internet, but eventually dominated that market as well. At its peak, AOL had over 26 million paid subscribers to its service. Unfortunately, those days have long since passed. With the broadband revolution, AOL's dial-up services are increasingly anachronistic, and their subscriber base has begun a steep decline. After losing close to 40%, AOL has decided on a new strategy -- giving itself away: Time Warner, the symbol of the early dotcom rise and fall, geared up for a last desperate throw of the dice yesterday. In an attempt...
According to the Washington Note, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has made Hillary Clinton an offer she will probably refuse. Reid, with his eyes on Clinton's negatives, has offered to step down from his leadership position in favor of Hillary -- as long as she pledges not to run for President in 2008: Some high level Democratic Party political insiders have shared with TWN details of a potential shift in vectors for several of the major political stars in that party. First of all, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, whom most give high marks for the manner in which he has stewarded the Dems in the Senate despite the absence of a clear Democratic Party chief, has sent private signals to Senator Hillary Clinton and other stalwarts of the party that he "would like to" step down from his post in early 2009. Reid has not stated definitively that he...
We just received a message from Jack Kingston regarding the challenge he issued on our Tueday launch. Rep. Kingston offered to donate $14,000 to the eighteen Rightroots candidates if we could raise $26,000 by midnight Friday. We've surpassed that with more than 36 hours to go! Rep. Kingston says: Way to go! I'm proud to be a member of this team. And I'll start cutting the checks! Now let's keep it going. George Soros hopes we'll stop. Let's be sure to disappoint him. -Jack Let's all keep cutting the checks -- and keep pushing hard for these critical races! UPDATE: I had the total wrong, as Jhn'1 in the comments notes -- Rep. Kingston donated a total of $14,000 to the candidates, not $100 each. Just when you think you know Jack ......
Cory: 1994 - 2006 For every tear we shed today, she brought us a thousand smiles. We will always have her in our hearts, and we pray that she will be somewhere where the sun always shines. UPDATE: Thank you all for your lovely comments and memories of your own beloved pets. I especially liked the Rainbow Bridge, which the veterinarian gave us as a memento when our other dog Angel had to be put down earlier this summer. I was in the hospital when that happened. It turned out that Cory had a bad case of peritonitis, which always comes as a secondary issue. It would have taken exploratory surgery to find the root cause, and the vet was pretty certain she wouldn't make it anyway -- and we would have had no good reason to think that she could have survived the underlying disease at her age....
Sacre bleu! The French just figured out exactly what kind of stabilization Iran has in mind for the Middle East. Just days after his jaw-dropping description of the radical Iranian mullahcracy as a "stabilizing force" in the region, the French Foreign Minister had to eat his words: Days after calling Iran a "stabilizing" force in the Middle East, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy issued a statement harshly criticizing Iran's call on Thursday to destroy Israel. "I totally condemn these words," Douste-Blazy said on France-Inter radio, in response to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statement Thursday that the solution to the current Middle East crisis was to destroy Israel. "Peace and security in Lebanon and its borders has to be preserved by the Lebanese government and people. Deployment of foreign forces is not acceptable in any shape unless it is just, based on UN rules and preserves the unity and territorial integrity...
The latest news on the diplomatic front of the Hezbollah-provoked war in southern Lebanon has the Europeans convincing Syria to pressure their terrorist proxies into accepting a cease-fire. According to Ynet News, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad has agreed to get Hezbollah to allow Israel to stop shooting at them: The European Union has enlisted Syria's help to end the fighting in Lebanon as Damascus pledged support to the Lebanese government's plan for a settlement. EU envoy and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said following talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad Thursday, Damascus agreed to play a constructive role in settling the conflict by pressing Hizbullah to accept a ceasefire. ... He said Syria backs Siniora's seven-point plan to end the conflict. "Hizbullah's present stance is unanimous with the government, and Premier Siniora represents all Lebanese parties, including Hizbullah.["] Syria has agreed to push Hezbollah into winning the conflict by...
Fidel Castro released a new statement to his island of adoring subjects [cough, cough] this evening. In deep appreciation for their concerns, he told Cubans to mind their own business about the state of his health: In a statement attributed to Fidel Castro that has only fuelled the rumours surrounding his health, the Cuban leader said that his medical condition was a "state secret" and that it would require the "passage of time" to assess his recovery. He added that he was feeling "fairly well", according to the words read on his behalf by a state television presenter. "I cannot invent good news, because that wouldn't be ethical. And if the news were bad, the only one to benefit is the enemy," he said in his statement. He couldn't invent his brother Raul, either, who didn't bother to make this statement on his big brother's behalf. No one knows where...
August 4, 2006
Bob Corker has won the GOP nomination in the Tennessee primary to see who will attempt to hold Bill Frist's seat in November. Corker took almost half of the vote, easily outpacing his two rivals, who have already conceded: Former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate on Thursday after a bitter primary campaign to decide the party's nominee to replace Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist. With 82 percent of precincts reporting, Corker had 190,490, or 48 percent of the vote, to Bryant's 136,993, or 35 percent. Hilleary had 64,758, or 16 percent. ... Corker will face Democratic U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. in November. Ford, who had no serious opposition in the Democratic primary, had 262,115 votes, or 80 percent, with 82 percent of precincts reporting. Ford, who hosted a Nashville fundraiser Thursday night with former President Clinton, would be the first black U.S. senator...
Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has told an interviewer that he wants German troops in any international force protecting the Jewish state. I'm really not kidding: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he would welcome German troops participating in an international force in southern Lebanon, according to a newspaper interview published Friday. ... Olmert said he told Merkel that Israel has "absolutely no problem with German soldiers in southern Lebanon." "Why should German soldiers shoot at Israel? They would be part of the force protecting Israel," Olmert was quoted as saying in the interview with the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung. "There is at the moment no nation that is behaving in a more friendly way toward Israel than Germany," he added. "If Germany can contribute to the security of the Israeli people, that would be a worthwhile task for your country. I would be very happy if Germany participated." So now we have...
John Dickerson in Slate takes Ned Lamont to task for feigning ignorance of the blogroots he cultivated in his run for Joe Lieberman's seat now that one of the blogroots leaders has embarrassed his campaign. While everyone understands that Jane Hamsher ran the minstrel-show photoshop of Lieberman on her own accord, Lamont clearly lied about knowing nothing of blogs and bloggers: "I don't know anything about the blogs," he said according to Dan Balz in the Washington Post. "I'm not responsible for those. I have no comment on them." Oh my. If Lamont wants to get to Washington, he's going to need to learn one of the most important senatorial clichés: "I'd like to revise and extend my remarks." He can't run from the bloggers. And he can't run from Hamsher, who has raised money for him, boosted him tirelessly, and even helped him shoot a video blog. He's their...
After Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's maiden speech focused on the critical need for entitlement reform, done on a bipartisan basis, we hoped that this would prompt a new dialog on correcting the bloated programs to stave off the impending finanical crisis they will cause. Today's Washington Post editorial scolds the Democrats for rejecting this promising start for Paulson: YOU MIGHT THINK that a call from the new Treasury secretary for reform of entitlements would get a respectful hearing from Democrats. If entitlement programs are not reformed, they will squeeze out other spending programs that Democrats care about; they will create a budget crunch that no responsible party could want. But some Democrats do not appear to understand this. Yesterday an e-mail sent out on behalf of Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, dismissed Henry M. Paulson Jr.'s comments on "privatizing" Social Security, adding that this policy has been "soundly rejected...
This week has provided some revelation about the honesty of Ned Lamont, whose primary run to unseat Joe Lieberman has captured the nation's attention. Earlier today I posted about his sudden case of amnesia when one of his key blogosphere supporters decided to use race-baiting to attack Lieberman on Lamont's behalf. Now it appears that Lamont used Wal-Mart, the liberal bete noir, as a punching bag without telling anyone that he owned a chunk of the retailer's stock: Connecticut millionaire businessman Ned Lamont, who sharply criticized the employment practices of Wal-Mart this week in his campaign to unseat Sen. Joe Lieberman in the Democrat primary, owns stock in the company, Senate records reveal. "This is about waking up Wal-Mart, and this is also about waking up corporate America," Mr. Lamont said Wednesday at a Bridgeport rally against the retail giant, hosted by many of the same liberal bloggers who have...
One of my favorite columnists, E.J. Dionne, asks an interesting question about the future of conservatism in today's Washington Post. It relates to the ongoing debate over whether conservatives should stay within the GOP or create an ideologically pure movement: Is conservatism finished? What might have seemed an absurd question less than two years ago is now one of the most important issues in American politics. The question is being asked -- mostly quietly but occasionally publicly -- by conservatives themselves as they survey the wreckage of their hopes, and as their champions in the Republican Party use any means necessary to survive this fall's elections. ... President Bush, his defenders say, has pioneered a new philosophical approach, sometimes known as "big-government conservatism." The most articulate defender of this position, the journalist Fred Barnes, argues that Bush's view is "Hamiltonian" as in Alexander, Thomas Jefferson's rival in the early republic....
Despite the coming disaster in entitlement spending, just the mention of entitlement reform brings yawns and not-so-surreptitious glances at watches. One of the reasons why the issue gets such low interest from the public is that the costs do not appear in financial reporting for the government. Thanks to the adherence to rules that the government forbids businesses to use, the budget deficit has been chronically and vastly underreported for decades. This practice goes back through administrations of both parties, and Congress under control of both as well. Remember how we balanced the budget and ran surpluses in the 1990s? Well, we didn't, and we didn't even come close. My new post at the Heritage Foundation Policy Blog discusses the problem in some detail. The discrepancy arises from the government's decision not to report retirement benefit commitments in the year made, but in the year paid. The SEC strictly forbids...
It appears that Democratic racism has spanned the nation from coast to coast. After a Ned Lamont campaign volunteer* posted a blackface picture of Joe Lieberman at the Huffington Post, the leader of the California state senate referred to conservatives demanding an end to illegal immigrations with a racial slur: The state Senate leader ridiculed some San Diego-area opponents of illegal immigration yesterday by describing them as “crackers,” often used as a disparaging term for poor, white people in the South. During a media briefing, Oakland Democrat Don Perata was asked about whether it was politically wise going into an election to push a bill that would give illegal immigrants the ability to obtain driver's licenses. “No. Let's face it. Immigration is a red-meat issue,” Perata said. “You've got all these crackers down in Southern Cal – ah, where is it, San Diego, taking on the governor. You know, even...
We have known for years that Iran has funded and sheltered Hezbollah, along with Syria, in an effort to undermine Israel's security. Up to today, Teheran couched that assistance in humanitarian terms, arguing that it wanted to promote the social activities of Hezbollah and its spiritual jihadism. According to Jane's, a respected military publication, Iran will send arms to the non-state militia: Iran will supply Hezbollah with surface-to-air missile systems in the coming months, boosting the guerrillas' defences against Israeli aircraft, according to a report by specialist magazine Jane's Defence Weekly, citing unnamed Western diplomatic sources. In a meeting, held late last month, the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militia called on Tehran to "accelerate and extend the scope of weapon shipments from Iran to the Islamic Resistance, particularly advanced missiles against ground and air targets." Hezbollah's representatives pressed for "an array of more advanced weaponry, including more advanced SAM (surface-to-air missile)...
I just took a look at the Rightroots page, and we have had an excellent start to our effort! In just four days we have raised almost $35,000 for the eighteen candidates supported by the Rightroots initiative. The money has been spread around, too. Fourteen of the eighteen have received over $1,000 so far. Diana Irey has been the most popular candidate, pulling in more than $6,500 already. Considering that she had just $160K on hand at the end of June, the money will definitely come in handy. Her opponent, John Murtha, had $1.8 million in his campaign chest, although an amount almost equal to Irey's fund came with no disclosure. Does Murtha have contributors he wants to hide from his constituents? Another early Rightroots favorite is Michele Bachmann, running for Rep. Mark Kennedy's seat in MN-06 (Kennedy, another Rightroots candidate, is running for Minnesota's open Senate seat). We will...
August 5, 2006
Floyd Landis got fired from the cycling team Phonak and the Tour de France director indicated that his win would be invalidated as Landis' B sample came back as positive for doping. The second test confirmed the finding of the first, which found unnaturally high levels of testosterone after the 17th stage, when Landis came from behind in spectacular fashion to put himself in position for victory: Floyd Landis is set to lose his Tour de France title and faces a two-year ban after returning a positive B sample for excessive levels of testosterone. The American's Phonak team dismissed Landis on Saturday when it was confirmed he produced levels more than twice the legal limit after stage 17. Landis, 30, has said the high levels detected were a "natural occurrence". ... The official decision to strip Landis of the victory rests with the International Cycling Union (UCI), but Tour de...
Israeli naval commandos raided the Mediterranean port of Tyre early Saturday, destroying a missile-launch site and capturing Hezbollah terrorists, including senior members. The operation comes after Israel destroyed the last major road link to Syria, cutting off escape and resupply routes for the beleagured terrorists in Lebanon: The operation, which was conducted based on military intelligence, targeted terrorists that were responsible for firing long-range rockets at Israel, including those that reached Hadera on Friday. The commandos entered an apartment building in a crowded residential area in northern Tyre, where they engaged with Hizbullah operatives, including three senior members. When the elite unit left the apartment, they were fired upon from several directions. IAF aircrafts and drones covered the force and cleared an exit for it. Seven Lebanese were killed in the operation. Head of Naval intelligence told Army Radio that an aerial assault on the building was avoided since it...
Despite complaints made public by 9/11 Commission members and staff this week, the Department of Defense did not knowingly lie in testimony to the panel, according to the Inspector General. The New York Times reports this morning that the IG's report blames the inaccuracies on poor record-keeping: The Defense Department’s watchdog agency said Friday that it had no evidence that senior Pentagon commanders intentionally provided false testimony to the Sept. 11 commission about the military’s actions on the morning of the 2001 terrorist attacks. The agency, the Pentagon’s office of inspector general, said the Defense Department’s initial inaccurate accounts could be attributed largely to poor record-keeping. The Pentagon initially suggested that the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the military’s domestic air-defense operation, had reacted quickly to reports of the hijackings and had been prepared to intercept and possibly shoot down one of the hijacked planes. The Sept. 11 commission, which...
Talk about a New Dawn Coming! The Northern Alliance Radio Network airs today at its new time, 9 am CT, with Mitch Berg from Shot in the Dark and me starting off the festivities. Brian and Chad from Fraters Libertas and John from Power Line take the second shift in their normal start time of 11 am. King Banaian is still in Mongolia -- no, seriously! -- and will join us next week. Today we will be talking with Steven Vincent's widow on the first anniversary of the author's death in Iraq. We will also speak with state senator Michele Bachmann, currently campaigning for Congress and a recent endorsee of the Rightroots initiative. You can tune us in at AM 1280 The Patriot, or catch our Internet stream at their website or at Townhall. Give us a call at 651-289-4488 to join the conversation -- and don't forget to start...
After five full days of the Rightroots initiative, we have raised more money than we thought possible. We're up to $35K, and most of our candidates have over $1,000 in contributions already. Today we spoke with Michele Bachmann, one of the Rightroots candidates, along with Rep. Phil English from Pennsylvania, a key member of the Ways and Means Committee. The two are campaigning in Michele's district today and took a half-hour to talk with us about the election as well as key issues facing Congress now and in the next session. I have podcasted the interview in two segments: Segment 1 Segment 2 Be sure to listen to the whole interview, and hit the contribution page at Rightroots for Michele and the other fine candidates!...
France and the US have reached accord on the wording of a UN cease-fire proposal for the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict. It calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities by Hezbollah, which started the conflict, and allows Israel to respond if Hezbollah does not comply: The United States and France agreed Saturday on a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that calls for a "full cessation" of fighting between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, but would allow Israel to defend itself if attacked. The draft, obtained by The Associated Press, "calls for a full cessation of hostilities based upon, in particular, the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations." That language would be a major victory for Israel, which has insisted it must have the right to respond if Hezbollah launches missiles against it. France and many other nations had demanded an...
Hezbollah's war continues to inspire some unprecedented politics in the Middle East, this time in Wahhabi Saudi Arabia. An influential cleric who helped inspire Osama bin Laden's war on the West has issued a fatwa demanding that Saudis oppose the 'devil' in this conflict -- but if you think that means the yahoud, you'd be mistaken: A top Saudi Sunni cleric, whose ideas inspired Osama bin Laden, issued a religious edict Saturday disavowing the Shi'ite guerrilla group Hizbullah, evidence that a rift remained among Muslims over the fighting in Lebanon. Hizbullah, which translates as "the party of God," is actually "the party of the devil," said Sheik Safar al-Hawali, whose radical views made the al-Qaida leader one of his followers in the past. "Don't pray for Hizbullah," he said in the fatwa posted on his Web site. The edict, which reflects the historical stand of strict Wahhabi doctrine viewing Shi'ite...
Forget about all the dangers of the early space program and the issues of being the first septuagenarian to ride the Space Shuttle -- it turns out that Ohio freeways will really get you. Space pioneer, decorated Marine, and Senator John Glenn and his wife suffered minor injuries in a traffic accident early this morning: Former senator and astronaut John Glenn and his wife were taken to a hospital with minor injures after being involved in a car accident, police said. Glenn, 85, and his wife, Annie, 86, were in fair condition early Saturday morning at Grant Medical Center, a nursing supervisor said. The driver of the other car, Amy Myers of suburban New Albany, said she was driving east late Friday night when Glenn, who was headed west, tried to turn left onto a highway ramp. Myers, who was not injured, said her car hit the front of his....
Don't look now, but the one Republican incumbent in the Senate that the media has given up for dead may just be making a comeback. Real Clear Politics notes a new Pennsylvania poll that shows Rick Santorum has erased a double-digit deficit to Bob Casey and may have the momentum back on his side: Santorum started closing the gap in late spring, those polls found, and seems to have momentum. An April Morning Call/Muhlenberg College survey showed Casey 8 percentage points ahead. Keystone had Casey up 16 points in February, and then 6 points in May. To be sure, two other statewide polls still show the race to be a blowout. June surveys by Quinnipiac College and Rasmussen Reports both put Casey ahead by double digits. But experts and the candidates themselves have long said they expected the race to tighten. And behind the horserace numbers, the latest Morning Call/Muhlenberg...
More information and less confirmation keep coming out of Cuba. The government in Havana keeps insisting that the Castro brothers still control the island, and the Castro brothers keep failing to appear: With Fidel Castro still nowhere to be seen, military reservists, retired officers and decommissioned soldiers are under orders to check in daily at military posts. Burly men who appear to be plainclothes security agents are stationed along a stretch of waterfront that saw rare anti-government riots in 1994. There are more police and army reservists throughout the capital, and dissidents said the military was telling citizens in eastern provinces that they could use force against those criticizing the government. Repelling an invasion from the United States has been a constant theme in state media since Castro announced Tuesday that he undergoing intestinal surgery and temporarily handing power to his brother Raul. ... Cubans said that their friends and...
The London Times reports that the Iranians bought uranium from Tanzania and attempted to smuggle it into the country, disguised as another non-radioactive commodity. However, as a UN report indicates, Tanzanian customs officials discovered the ruse and stopped the transport: IRAN is seeking to import large consignments of bomb-making uranium from the African mining area that produced the Hiroshima bomb, an investigation has revealed. A United Nations report, dated July 18, said there was “no doubt” that a huge shipment of smuggled uranium 238, uncovered by customs officials in Tanzania, was transported from the Lubumbashi mines in the Congo. Tanzanian customs officials told The Sunday Times it was destined for the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, and was stopped on October 22 last year during a routine check. The disclosure will heighten western fears about the extent of Iran’s presumed nuclear weapons programme and the strategic implications of Iran’s continuing...
Charles Johnson at LGF demolishes Reuters for publishing a laughably doctored photo of Beirut, attempting to make it look like the Israelis bombed the city indiscriminately. Readers do not need any particular expertise in photography or digital editing to spot this phony -- smoke patterns get exactly duplicated over and over again. Even buildings get duplicated in this amateurish attempt to manipulate images for political purposes. And guess who gets the credit for the photography? Adnan Hajj -- the same photographer who documented the Qana attack that now looks more and more to have been a phony story as well. This isn't just one reporter and a producer going nuts at a network news division. This shows that Reuters has either complete incompetents as editors or that the entire British wire service has chosen one particular side in this war. Check all the links in Charles' post, and try to...
August 6, 2006
In a refreshing change for a global media outlet, Reuters did not claim to have received the infamously doctored photograph of Beirut from Lucy Ramirez at a Texas rodeo, but instead admitted that the image had been manufactured. They have also started disciplinary procedures against Adnan Hajj, the hack that has generated other questionable war-scene photography: A Reuters photograph of smoke rising from buildings in Beirut has been withdrawn after coming under attack by American web logs. The blogs accused Reuters of distorting the photograph to include more smoke and damage. The photograph showed two very heavy plumes of black smoke billowing from buildings in Beirut after an Air Force attack on the Lebanese capital. Reuters has since withdrawn the photograph from its website, along a message admitting that the image was distorted, and an apology to editors. In the message, Reuters said that "photo editing software was improperly used...
It looks as if Israel has a plan to win the diplomatic war, and Lebanon's Hezbollah-backed politicians are determined to let them do it. After the US and France agreed on a cease-fire proposal for the UN Security Council, many thought that the resolution allowed Hezbollah too much leeway to regroup and rearm. Israel, however, quickly embraced the proposal -- and Hezbollah jumped at the bait: Senior government officials in Israel expressed satisfaction at the draft of the UN Security Council resolution on Lebanon Saturday night, saying it safeguarded a number of key Israeli interests - foremost that the IDF would remain in south Lebanon until an international force arrives. The US and France agreed on a draft Saturday that calls for a full cessation of the fighting but preserves Israel's right to respond if attacked. The Security Council was scheduled to debate the resolution later Saturday in New York,...
We have been granted a unique opportunity this morning to see the problem with double standards in diplomacy and journalism in war, especially a war that involves Israel and terrorists. Earlier we recounted the utter idiocy of Reuters in allowing a badly-doctored photograph of Beirut to go out over their wires (all hail Charles Johnson). Now USA Today gives us a report on Hezbollah attacks this morning that shows more than one double standard at work: Hezbollah guerrillas unleashed their deadliest barrage of rockets yet into northern Israel, killing 11 people, while Israeli bombardment killed 17 people in southern Lebanon as fighting only intensified despite a draft U.N. cease-fire resolution. ... Hezbollah fired a volley of 80 rockets at several Israeli towns, with one of them making a direct hit on a crowd of people at the entrance of the communal farm of Kfar Giladi. USA Today actually avoids a...
Breaking news -- must credit Adnan Hajj! The reclusive relief pitcher for Fidel Castro has finally made a public appearance. He's seen in this Adnan Hajj photograph, bravely defying the West and standing with his revolutionary brothers in Beirut: You can see Raul there in the bottom right quadrant, peeking out from behind the buildings of Beirut. The Cuban people will thrill with pride to see Dear Placeholder fighting against the imperialists. He's bigger than they remembered, too ......
Robert Kagan assesses the Joe Lieberman issue in today's Washington Post as an attack on principles, specifically the courage to refrain from recanting to gain popularity. Lieberman's sin has not been a divergent voting record from his party; he has consistently voted with the mainstream of his caucus. Lieberman simply would not change his mind on the wisdom of deposing Saddam Hussein, despite the rise of the anti-war radical Left: Lieberman stands condemned today because he didn't recant. He didn't say he was wrong. He didn't turn on his former allies and condemn them. He didn't claim to be the victim of a hoax. He didn't try to pretend that he never supported the war in the first place. He didn't claim to be led into support for the war by a group of writers and intellectuals whom he can now denounce. He didn't go through a public show of...
US News has an interesting article on the unforeseen political backlash against the gay-rights movement for their pursuit of public policy via lawsuit. It looks like the constant demand for judicial imposition of public policy has finally lost legitimacy with the American public, regardless of the cause: For advocates of same-sex marriage, the outlook is dark, that early enthusiasm tempered by a wave of anti-gay-marriage voter initiatives and a string of courtroom losses. And more court decisions and initiatives expected this year could result in devastating setbacks. "We may face a reality by the end of this year that is so radically different ... that we may have to completely rethink and rework how we're going to move forward," says Ed Murray, a gay Washington State representative. Jordan Lorence of the conservative Alliance Defense Fund is more blunt: "One side is clearly prevailing, and one is losing." The losses may...
A few notes on status here at CQ ... After my back surgery, I have been on medical disability and not able to do much but sit and blog. That may sound like heaven to some -- and it has been fun -- but it gets wearisome when you have few other choices. That comes to an end tomorrow. I will return to my job for the first time in eight weeks, and I'm glad to be getting back to normal. In fact, I got a nice phone call from one of my peers to tell me how much he looked forward to having me back in the office. Of course, this means my productivity will return to normal levels, somewhere between 4-6 posts a day most days. I've had fun posting 12-15 times a day during the week, but unfortunately I can't match that pace under normal conditions. It's...
Reuters took a necessary first step in rectifying the insult they gave their customers by publishing the crassly doctored photos supplied by Adnan Hajj. The wire service terminated his employment earlier today: Reuters, the global news and information agency, told a freelance Lebanese photographer on Sunday it would not use any more of his pictures after he doctored an image of the aftermath of an Israeli air strike on Beirut. The photograph by Adnan Hajj, which was published on news Web sites on Saturday, showed thick black smoke rising above buildings in the Lebanese capital after an Israeli air raid in the war with the Shi'ite Islamic group Hizbollah, now in its fourth week. Reuters withdrew the doctored image on Sunday and replaced it with the unaltered photograph after several news blogs said it had been manipulated using Photoshop software to show more smoke. ... "The photographer has denied deliberately...
August 7, 2006
Arnold Schwarzenegger has managed to split the Hollywood lockstep support for the Democratic Party. According to the Guardian (UK), the Governator has convinced Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg to support his Republican re-election to office: Arnie, it seems, has friends in high places. Some leading Hollywood liberals - the mythic entity said to prowl the hills of Los Angeles dispensing money and influence - are siding with the Republican governor. While Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg have pledged their support for Mr Schwarzenegger in his bid to be re-elected in November, Democrats are hoping that as long as they can count on Barbra Streisand and Warren Beatty, all may not be lost. Mr Schwarzenegger has always promised to do away with the partisanship of modern politics. The latest defections from the Democrats suggest he may be succeeding with those of director Spielberg and his DreamWorks studio co-founder, Katzenberg, a significant...
Israel has decided not to hold territory in southern Lebanon all the way to the Litani. Instead, the IDF will try to clear a tighter security zone unless diplomatic developments allow for new strategies: After completing the creation of a security zone in southern Lebanon and with diplomatic pressure mounting, the IDF, senior defense officials revealed Sunday, did not plan to move ground troops northwards towards the Litani River - a line initially named as the IDF's final destination in this current ground incursion. ... While the IDF initially had planned to send troops north to the Litani River - a line from which officials said it would be easier to prevent rocket attacks - high-ranking military sources told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that due to the mounting diplomatic pressure the plan had been deferred for the time being. An incursion up to the Litani - some 30 km...
With the UN pressing Iran for an answer to its incentive package in return for their surrender of their nuclear-weapons program, Iran threatened to use the "oil weapon" if the world applies sanctions to the Islamic Republic. However, as the London Times points out, that move alone would effectively be a self-imposed sanctions regime: IRAN yesterday rejected a United Nations demand that it halt uranium enrichment work, vowing instead to expand its controversial nuclear programme and threatening to block oil exports to the West if sanctions are imposed. In a blunt response to international concern about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Ali Larijani, the chief negotiator on atomic issues, said that Tehran was ready for a showdown with world powers when the matter was taken up by the UN Security Council this month. “We will expand nuclear technology at whatever stage it may be necessary and all of Iran’s nuclear technology including...
Marty Peretz of the New Republic tells OpinionJournal that he's seen the Connecticut political movement before, and it looks a lot like 1972 all over again. The singleminded and simpleminded peace platform has returned to plague the Democrats once again, and this time the party has no Scoop Jacksons left to rescue the party from its radical-Left activists: I was there, a partisan, as a graduate student at the beginning, in 1962, when the eminent Harvard historian H. Stuart Hughes (grandson of Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes) ran for the U.S. Senate as an independent against George Cabot Lodge and the victor, Ted Kennedy, a trio of what in the Ivies is, somewhat derisively, called "legacies." Hughes's platform fixed on President John F. Kennedy's belligerent policy towards Cuba, which had been crystallized in the "Bay of Pigs" fiasco. The campaign ended, however, with Hughes winning a dreary 1% of the...
Cubans have had a dizzying week, and now they must feel like schoolchildren with an ever-increasing number of substitute teachers. The Cuban Communist Party assured Cubans that Fidel and Raul are just hunky dory even while refusing to discuss the health of the former or the location of the latter, and instead focused on a visit by Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega and a statement by Elian Gonzales: Cuba's propaganda mill was in overdrive yesterday, with former Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega visiting Havana and Elian Gonzalez wishing a speedy recovery to "my dear grandpa Fidel." Communist Party officials were passing the word that President Fidel Castro was out of intensive care and recovering nicely, though there was still no official statement on his condition, which has been called a state secret. A week after Mr. Castro temporarily ceded power during emergency surgery to his younger brother, Raul Castro still had not appeared...
Republicans have grumbled about the performance of Congress and the White House for the last two years and have threatened to stay home for the mid-terms to deliver a statement about their dissatisfaction. They argue that only a loss of power in Congress will get recalcitrant GOP politicians to listen to their complaints. However, such a move could have far-reaching consequences, as Byron York notes in today's National Review column: There’s a word you won’t find in the text of Democratic Rep. John Conyers’s new “investigative report” on the Bush administration, “The Constitution in Crisis: The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, and Coverups in the Iraq War, and Illegal Domestic Surveillance.” And the word is…impeachment. Yet the 350-page “Constitution in Crisis,” released last week, is, more than anything else, a detailed road map for the impeachment of George W. Bush, ready for use should Democrats win control...
Lebanon's Saniora government reversed itself twice today on the war. First, after accusing Israel of killing 40 Lebanese civilians in an air strike last night, Fuad Saniora had to cut the number down ... by thirty-nine ... and still couldn't get it right: Late Monday evening IAF fighters struck targets in a Hizbullah-controlled neighborhood of Beirut. Security officials at the scene reported at least five dead and 20 others wounded. Earlier in the day, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said only one person had died in an earlier Israeli air raid on the southern village of Houla, reversing his earlier claim that 40 were killed there. Saniora reportedly broke into tears during opening remarks appealing to Arab League foreign ministers for help, saying that 40 had died in Houla. A security official later said there were about 30 people trapped and the death toll was not known. The efforts of...
In case anyone out there wants to invest five million dollars in Captain's Quarters, we'd certainly be open to negotiations: A group led by venture capital firm Softbank is investing $5 million in the Huffington Post, an online news site and political blog owned by the pundit Arianna Huffington, The Post has learned. The investment comes a little over a year after the launch of the Huffington Post - which then was billed as a celebrity-filled blog but has since evolved in to its own news brand. An announcement of the investment could come as soon as today. In addition to Softbank, venture capitalist Alan Patricof is also investing in the site, as well as some of the initial investors. Huffington and former Time Warner executive Ken Lerer founded the site. CQ's third anniversary is rapidly approaching, and while we don't do quite the traffic at HuffPost, we don't do...
The Reuters story keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. Take a look at the progression of Adnan Hajj photographs posted by John at Power Line. The images all purport to show the aftermath of attacks on Qasmiya Bridge near the major Lebanese city of Tyre. However, the sequence shows odd states of repair after supposed devastation, and in some cases look like entirely different sites. What has become apparent that Reuters has no editorial process for reviewing the photographs they get from their photojournalist stringers. The wire service relies on the photographer for the captioning, and it looks like they just act as an uncritical conduit between the photographer and the newspapers Reuters services. After discovering more than one questionable photograph, Reuters has withdrawn all of Hajj's photos -- but they still have not explained how their supposedly professional editorial checks failed to detect these obvious problems with Hajj and his...
August 8, 2006
Kofi Annan continues the Turtle Bay tradition of double standards when it comes to fighting terrorists. Annan, responding to Arab League complaints, said that the bombing in Qana could show a pattern of war crimes by Israelis against civilians -- without mentioning the deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians by Hezbollah rocket launchers: Israel's air raid on in the Lebanese town of Qana, which killed 28 people, may be part of a larger pattern of violations of international law in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report Monday. In that light, Annan said that the July 30 attack was sufficiently serious to merit a more comprehensive investigation. The attack should be seen "in the broader context of what could be, based on preliminary information available to the United Nations ... a pattern of violations of international law, including international humanitarian law and international human...
The propaganda coming out of Cuba seems more suited to a Saturday Night Live skit than a modern nation-state. The Guardian (UK) reports that Cuban authorities have engaged in a bout of self-congratulation over their supposedly successful transition of power to someone who has yet to make a public appearance: Members of the Cuban government claimed yesterday that a "peaceful succession" had taken place in the wake of Fidel Castro's illness, and predictions of chaos had been proved wrong. The claim came as the US government denied it had any plans for military intervention on the island. "A peaceful succession has taken place in Cuba," said Roberto Fernández Retamar, a well-known writer and veteran member of the council of state, at a news conference in Havana, according to Reuters. He was thought to be referring to Raul Castro's temporary assumption of power. Other senior government figures also said the transition...
Embattled Ohio Republican Bob Ney has withdrawn from his re-election bid even after easily winning the primary nomination. His ties to Jack Abramoff effectively torpedoed his chances, and with two weeks to go before a filing deadline would have closed off any chance to replace him on the ballot, Ney decided to retire instead: Representative Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican entangled in the corruption scandal centered on the former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, announced Monday that he would abandon his bid for re-election. The Justice Department has signaled for months that criminal charges against Mr. Ney, and possibly other Republican members of Congress and aides who were close to Mr. Abramoff, were only a matter of time. “Ultimately this decision came down to my family,” Mr. Ney said in a statement announcing his decision not to seek a seventh term. “I must think of them first, and I can no longer...
Today, Connecticut voters go to the polls to for their primary, an election that has received national attention due to Ned Lamont's challenge to incumbent Joe Lieberman. Lieberman, who has a solidly Democratic voting record in his long tenure, got targeted by anti-war activists due to his friendly relationship with George Bush and his ongoing support of the war in Iraq. E.J. Dionne casts this as a preview for the midterm elections, but then argues that Democrats really aren't targeting moderates: Republican supporters of Bush and the war are claiming that a Lamont victory would signal a dovish takeover of the Democratic Party by activists organized by anti-Bush bloggers -- and would show that there is no room left in Democratic ranks for moderates. The most over-the-top version of this argument came from William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard. "What drives so many Democrats crazy about Lieberman is not...
Stop me if you've heard this one before. Eleven foreign students from a Muslim nation get off a plane in New York, walk down the street, and turn into a national security problem (via Flopping Aces): U.S. authorities are searching for 11 Egyptian men who arrived in the United States last month but failed to turn up at Montana State University for a scheduled academic program. According to the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, the men were among a larger group of students who arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York from Cairo on July 29 with valid visas. FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko said there is no threat associated with the men. A law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the men are between 18 and 22 years old. Now we have eleven young Muslims from a country known for...
While the nation focuses its attention on the Connecticut primary, another key election will take place in Georgia, although it apparently caught the Los Angeles Times by surprise. Calling the race an "unforeseen struggle", the Times recounts the efforts of Cynthia McKinney to overcome a huge popularity deficit and her own paranoid conspiracy theories to retain her Congressional seat. The article by Jennie Jarvie wants to blame white people for McKinney's woes, but if readers get far enough into the article, we find that black people have had enough of McKinney as well: Indeed, the outspoken McKinney, an African American Democrat whose campaign slogan is "Backbone in politics," is struggling to be reelected to the House after a significant number of voters in the northern, predominantly white areas of her suburban Atlanta district voted against her in last month's primary. McKinney, 51, who had earlier been expected to win a...
I'll be a guest on Rob Breckenridge's The World Tonight, airing on CHQR in Calgary, at 9 pm CT this evening. Rob and I will talk about the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict as well as the primaries in Connecticut and Georgia. If you're in Calgary, tune us in at 770 AM, but listeners can also catch the Internet stream at the radio station. Rob has a lively but respectful show, and it's always a delight to get an invitation. Be sure to tune in!...
I'll be keeping an eye on both spotlighted primaries, in Connecticut and Georgia, as the evening rolls along. It won't be a live-blog as much as an occasionally updated post on how the evening progresses. 7:45 - The first result that one can actually access comes from Georgia. Hank Johnson, who has advertised on my blog in the last few weeks, appears to have opened up a wide lead on Cynthia McKinney. With 10% of precincts reporting, he's leading 75%-25%. This looks like the laugher I predicted, although that gap appears closer to a Robin Williams-scale laugher. Joe Lieberman trails Ned Lamont in Connecticut 60%-40% with 4% of precincts reporting, according to some sources, but it's hard to tell. The CT Secretary of State didn't buy enough bandwidth to keep the site running. Sounds like what happened to Lieberman's campaign site. 7:53 - Lieberman narrows the gap! ... to 13...
As I predicted, the close race has encouraged Joe Lieberman to go for the rematch against Ned Lamont. He conceded defeat in the primary, but vowed to run as an independent in the November general election: Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman (news, bio, voting record) conceded defeat on Tuesday in the Democrat primary to a challenger who attacked the former vice presidential nominee's support for the Iraq war and accused him of being too close to President George W. Bush. In a speech to supporters, the three-term senator also said he will file to run as an independent candidate in the autumn election. Had Lamont beaten Lieberman decisively tonight, Lieberman may have concluded that an independent run would waste time and money. As late as a week ago, Lamont looked to be cruising to such a victory. However, a botched response to a grotesque blackface picture of Lieberman by a prominent...
August 9, 2006
The latest folly of defense lawyers in appealing a conviction comes to us via the New York Times. The attorneys for convicted murderer Phillip Elmore argue that a Columbus, Ohio jury rushed to convict him because the judge did not allow them to take cigarette breaks while deliberating: Lawyers for a man convicted of beating a former girlfriend to death with a lead pipe argued before the Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday that their client should be spared the death penalty, partly because jurors were not allowed to smoke while deliberating. “A capital trial is supposed to be a considered process,” said Keith A. Yeazel, one of the lawyers. “Jurors shouldn’t be trying to speed up the process so they can go outside and smoke a Kool cigarette.” Of course, the appeal ignores the strong evidence that led to Elmore's conviction on the more serious of the charges jurors selected....
Many of us in the blogosphere have argued that the coverage of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict has shown bias, and in the case of Reuters, outright fraud. The media has not defended itself much in the wake of the wire-service scandal, and now a veteran correspondent from NBC tells Florida residents that the media has indeed stopped providing rational coverage: As a veteran journalist who has been in countless war zones around the world (especially the Middle East) as an NBC network correspondent, it pains me to see what passes for accurate coverage in the early stages of a conflict like the one between Israel and Hezbollah. Because almost none of the American television networks have a vast stable of experienced reporters any longer who understand the region, they employ the old "parachute them in" philosophy, i.e. dispatching perfectly good -- and frequently very young -- journalists, few of whom have...
The attack and abduction by Hezbollah that triggered the current war has united the Israeli Right and Left, resulting in an unprecedented mandate for the government to press forward with massive military action. Criticism of the government has mostly focused on getting the government to commit more resources to the fight, not for an end to action: As Israel’s war with Hezbollah finishes a fourth difficult week, domestic criticism of its prosecution is growing. Yet there is a paradoxical effect as well: the harder the war has been, the more the public wants it to proceed. The criticism is not that the war is going on, but that it is going poorly. The public wants the army to hit Hezbollah harder, so it will not threaten Israel again. And while Israelis are upset with how Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has run the war, they seem to agree with what he...
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora takes to the pages of the Washington Post to convince Americans of the evil that Israel commits in the current war. It is a remarkable document, utterly free of any hint of Hezbollah's responsibility for committing an act of war against Israel, their consistent and deliberate targeting of Israeli citizens from Lebanese territory, or Siniora's failure to disarm Hezbollah or to even bother to attempt it. Instead, Siniora wants us to conclude that Lebanon's harboring of Hezbollah has no bearing on the current conflict: A military solution to Israel's savage war on Lebanon and the Lebanese people is both morally unacceptable and totally unrealistic. We in Lebanon call upon the international community and citizens everywhere to support my country's sovereignty and end this folly now. We also insist that Israel be made to respect international humanitarian law, including the provisions of the Geneva Conventions, which...
The lack of progress on appropriations in Congress before the summer break portends a tough fall for porkbusters. The Senate will have to combine appropriations into a single omnibus bill, which will invite amendments and earmarks galore: Fiscal conservatives in Congress fear the Senate's failure to get a handle on appropriation bills will lead to a pork-barrel spending spree this fall, undermining repeated promises for fiscal reform. The Senate left for summer recess after completing one of 12 spending bills needed to keep government agencies operating next year, all but assuring the need for an omnibus package, which are typically laden with pet projects never discussed or voted on. "When you have senators ... who have traditionally used these bills to bring home more than their fair share of the bacon -- and are used to doing that -- without some action by the Senate leadership, this omnibus is sure...
The uncertainty in Cuba has once again put the 47-year dictatorship of Fidel Castro under the microscope. While no one has yet to hear directly from either the Commandante or his brother Raul, other voices from Cuba have begun to emerge, putting lie to the fantasy that Castro has created a worker's paradise. Today's Examiner tells the story of "Eduardo", who spent years in prison deliberately exposed to toxins because he expressed a desire to leave Cuba: One of the jobs at the camp was to put parathion on crops. I knew parathion, an insecticide, entered the bloodstream through the skin, mouth and nose causing poisoning, blackouts, and death. We were made to spread the parathion with our bare hands, breathing in the powder as we worked. Every day the guards pointed guns in my face, hit me and shouted “traitor,” “vermin” and “parasite.” They told me I would not...
Robert Bate writes about his experiences when federal spending practices come to light in today's Washington Post. Bate recalls his experiences with USAID on a malaria-eradication program that had seen 93% -- almost 19 out of every 20 dollars in the program -- dissipate in administrative and consultinf fees. As I posted today at the Heritage Foundation Policy Blog, this not only demonstrates the need for the kind of easily-accessible website that can provide the kind of oversight that cured USAID of pork overload, but it also shows why federal contracts have to be included in the data. Be sure to read the entire post and Bate's excellent article....
Joe Lieberman filed his paperwork for an independent run at re-election after losing the primary last night, as expected. Predictably, his colleagues in the Democratic Party have endorsed the winner, Ned Lamont, as they have little choice but to support the party process. Many pundits have argued that this augurs a 1972-style collapse for the Democrats -- but that may overstate the situation more than just a little: Top Democrats on Capitol Hill abandoned Sen. Joe Lieberman one by one Wednesday and threw their support to Ned Lamont, the anti-war challenger who defeated him in the primary. But Lieberman said his conscience demands that he run as an independent in November. "I think it would be irresponsible and inconsistent with my principles if I were to just walk off the field," Lieberman said in an interview with The Associated Press a day after his loss to the political newcomer in...
Israeli television reports that ten Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers were among Hezbollah's dead in fighting today, identified as such by documents on the corpses. If confirmed, the deployment of Iranian military forces would allow Israel to treat Iran as a combatant in the war (hat tip: CQ readers Thomas and Marcie): Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard have been found among Hizbollah guerrillas slain by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, Israel's Channel 10 television reported on Wednesday citing diplomatic sources. It said the Iranians were identified by documents found on their bodies, but gave no further details on how many were discovered or when. Neither the Israeli military nor Hizbollah representatives in Beirut had immediate comment on the report. Iran, like fellow Hizbollah patron Syria, insists its support for the Shi'ite guerrilla group is purely moral. This will complicate the global communiy's efforts to appease Teheran on the various peace proposals....
Der Spiegel reports on the assistance given to Iran by the Russians in developing a uranium-enrichment program despite Moscow's public opposition to its development. The introduction of Russian laser technology allows the Iranians to enrich uranium more efficiently and with less energy, moving them that much closer to production of weapons-grade material: Despite claims to the contrary, leaders in Tehran are apparently still pushing forward with research into uranium enrichment with the aid of laser technology. A Russian engineer recently told SPIEGEL that Iran has received help from his countrymen with a program that uses a laser system to divide heavy isotopes. The engineer, who works for an institute near Moscow and helps develop nucleaar reactors, claims that Iranians have since 2004 sought and secured technical aid from Russia for their domestic "laser system for the division of heavy isotopes" program. The laser technique would have important advantages for Iran....
August 10, 2006
The New York Times reports that some Democrats fear they will lose the chance to unseat three House Republicans in Connecticut if Lieberman insists on his independent bid for re-election. The internecine war breaking out among Nutmeg State Democrats may bring out enough moderates to keep the seats in the hands of the GOP: Senator Joseph I. Lieberman’s defeat on Tuesday in the Connecticut Democratic primary quickly spilled over into the battle for the House on Wednesday. Leaders of both parties said the Senate fight could influence three races in Connecticut considered crucial in controlling the House. Republicans said a general election matchup in which Mr. Lieberman ran as an independent against Ned Lamont, the winner of the primary, could hinder Democrats in their efforts to unseat three incumbent representatives who are top Democratic targets. Democrats disputed that and said the high-intensity Senate fight could help the Democratic challengers for...
You know, we're going to miss Cynthia McKinney when she finally leaves the national stage. Her self-absorption and paranoid conspiracy theories entertained us as often as they appalled us. Fortunately, the soon-to-be former Congresswoman has generously bestowed large measures of both after her constituents firmly gave her the boot in a runoff election on Tuesday. For a woman who regularly makes herself the center of attention, she certainly knows how to spread blame everywhere else: Ms. McKinney and her supporters contend that Republicans mounted a campaign to vote her out of office, as they did four years ago when crossover voting helped elect her Democratic challenger, Denise Majette. “We aren’t going to tolerate any more stolen elections,” Ms. McKinney said in her concession speech, though crossover voting is legal in Georgia. “This is just like 2002,” said Nina Winfrey, 62, a resident of Rockdale County and a “die-hard Cynthia fan”...
The John Kline campaign here in MN-02 cried foul as a volunteer for opponent Coleen Rowley attempted to make an illegal cash donation at the Congressman's district office. David Bailey claimed he just wanted to get on Kline's mailing list to keep abreast of his record, but that hardly requires a wad of cash ... at least not for Republicans: Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., accused Democratic challenger Coleen Rowley Wednesday of using a "double-agent" to attempt to make an illegal campaign contribution and infiltrate his re-election campaign. Rowley's campaign denied the allegations of wrongdoing, which were contained in new campaign literature as well as a letter addressed to Rowley. ... The new complaint was made in a letter to Rowley from Kline volunteer Diana Bratlie, who charges that a would-be Kline campaign donor on Feb. 27 was David Bailey, now Rowley's director of "earned" (news) media. According to Bratlie, Bailey...
British officials of MI-6 have taken twenty-one suspects into custody and have closed Heathrow Airport to inbound traffic as part of a sweep that stopped a massive terrorist attack. The UK went to its highest terror alert as they unraveled what appears to be a home-grown plot: A plot to blow up planes in flight from the UK to the US and commit "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" has been disrupted, Scotland Yard has said. It is thought the plan was to detonate explosive devices smuggled in hand luggage on to as many as 10 aircraft. Police were searching premises with 21 people in custody after arrests in the London area and West Midlands. ... According to BBC sources the "principal characters" suspected of being involved in the plot were British-born. BBC home affairs correspondent Andy Tighe said police sources had told him they had found "interesting items" which...
Two officials from a new counterintelligence agency whose budget included earmarks from corrupt Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham have abruptly resigned, the Washington Post reports this morning. David Burtt and Joseph Hefferon suddenly resigned from Counterintelligence Field Activity while investigations into pork progressed at the Pentagon and Department of Justice: David A. Burtt II, director of the Counterintelligence Field Activity, the Defense Department's newest intelligence agency whose contracts based on congressional earmarks are under investigation by the Pentagon and federal prosecutors, told his staff yesterday that he and his deputy director will resign at the end of the month. ... Joseph Hefferon "has also decided to retire, after over 31 years of federal service," according to Burtt's message. A Pentagon spokesman yesterday confirmed they were leaving and said it was "a personal decision that they both made together." ... Last March, as a result of the continuing federal investigations arising out...
Val Prieto reviews the developments and the talk around the campfire in the Cuban expatriate community as Dear Placeholder still has not made a public appearance on behalf of his ailing brother. Rumors of continuing oppression continue to come from Cuba, and the notion of a transfer of power to Raul Castro appears increasingly unlikely. He's staying on top of this story, so be sure to keep checking back at Babalublog....
One of the benefits of spending most of the day unable to post -- besides actually getting work done at the office -- is that I can spend a little time gaining perspective on the events of the day. Today that means reviewing the coverage of the foiled plot by Islamists in the UK to bomb a series of commercial flights, an operation that could have killed almost as many people as al-Qaeda did on 9/11. The discovery of the plot and the arrests of the terrorists should have been a cause for celebration -- but instead, people decided to spend the day taking partisan swipes at each other. Almost no one appeared immune from this impulse. George Bush gave a short and to-the-point statement regarding the necessity of fighting terrorism and managed to avoid partisanship, instead focusing on working together to achieve security. Even before that, though, it seemed...
Efforts to reach a compromise in the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict hit a snag tonight when Lebanon rejected French forces as a component of any peacekeeping contingent in the south. Even with the French backpedaling furiously to placate the Arab League, the Siniora government refused to allow France to exercise its mandate: A new obstacle was raised in the approval of the proposed cease-fire agreement between Israel and Lebanon on Thursday night, when the latter was refusing to allow French forces to enforce its mandate by force, if necessary, as allowed by the UN's chapter VII regulations. Israel Radio reported that attempts were being made to convince Lebanon to agree to the proposal. If both Lebanon and Israel agree to the proposal, it is expected to brought before the UN Security Council for ratification within 24 hours. The irony comes in layers with this development. The Arab League wanted an immediate cease-fire...
August 11, 2006
In the initial reaction to the successful investigation that prevented a massive terrorist attack on the United Kingdom's air industry, people have begun to search for some favored hobby horses. Some point to a Time Magazine article describing the takedown of the terrorist plot , which includes the nature of the assistance America lent to the counterterrorist effort: Britain's MI-5 intelligence service and Scotland Yard had been tracking the plot for several months, but only in the past two weeks had the plotters' planning begun to crystallize, senior U.S. officials tell TIME. In the two or three days before the arrests, the cell was going operational, and authorities were pressed into action. MI5 and Scotland Yard agents tracked the plotters from the ground, while a knowledgeable American official says U.S. intelligence provided London authorities with intercepts of the group's communications. Most of the suspects are second or third generation British...
The government can prosecute anyone connected with the release of classified information, even if the suspects hold no clearance, a federal judge ruled in the AIPAC case. While the ruling primarily affects the lobbyists involved in the espionage investigation, it has far-reaching implications for others, particularly reporters: In a momentous expansion of the government's authority to regulate public disclosure of national security information, a federal court ruled that even private citizens who do not hold security clearances can be prosecuted for unauthorized receipt and disclosure of classified information. The ruling (pdf) by Judge T.S. Ellis, III, denied a motion to dismiss the case of two former employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) who were charged under the Espionage Act with illegally receiving and transmitting classified information. ... The Judge ruled that any First Amendment concerns regarding freedom of speech involving national defense information can be superseded by...
In a morose column in today's Jerusalem Post, Doron Almong gives his analysis of the situation along the Blue Line and in Gaza and deduces that only ground forces will create security for Israel. The destabilizing nature of the missile capacities of Hezbollah and Hamas and their refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist makes it impossible to protect Israeli citizens any other way: At first, in June 2006, Sderot became hostage to the dozens of Kassam rockets fired at it from Gaza, making the lives of its people intolerable. Then, from July 12, the North fell hostage to the thousands of Katyusha and other rockets being fired at it. The North has become a war zone. Hizbullah was and remains the inspiration for the Palestinian organizations, their role model and hero. More than anything else, the Palestinian terror organizations would like an upgrade of their rocket capability to bring...
A British Muslim's concern about an acquaintance in the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings in London led authorities to uncover the massive plot against the UK's airline industry, the Washington Post reports this morning. The tip led investigators to Pakistan and back, and perhaps to the US: It all began with a tip: In the aftermath of the July 7, 2005, suicide bombings on London's transit system, British authorities received a call from a worried member of the Muslim community, reporting general suspicions about an acquaintance. From that vague but vital piece of information, according to a senior European intelligence official, British authorities opened the investigation into what they said turned out to be a well-coordinated and long-planned plot to bomb multiple transatlantic flights heading toward the United States -- an assault designed to rival the scope and lethality of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings. ... A law enforcement bulletin...
Two editorials in Washington newspapers show the difference between serious thinking and silly whining in the aftermath of the bombing plot discovery in Britain yesterday. While the Washington Examiner argues that some profiling should be considered along with the massive inconvenience to all travelers with the new security rules placed in effect yesterday, the Washington Post complains about first-class passengers paying for expedited service. The Examiner wonders when American airports will get serious regarding the specific threats we face: A key to their ability to crack the conspiracy was the ability to sneak and peek — that is, to enter suspected plotters’ homes covertly to gather information. U.S. law enforcement officials are not permitted to carry out such operations, except as provided under Section 213 of the Patriot Act. The ACLU is doing everything in its power to hamper or otherwise force the repeal of part or all of that...
If the netroots plan on riding Ned Lamont all the way to the Senate floor, the independent campaign of Joe Lieberman has an unpleasant surprise waiting for them. According to a new Rasmussen poll, Lieberman has a lead over Lamont in a three-way race. Lieberman also has better favorability ratings than Lamont by a significant margin. Their previous survey, taken shortly before the election, showed the two men tied in a three-way race. Rasmussen will have the specific numbers out shortly (at this link), but the trends have reversed themselves in the last days of the primaries -- and Connecticut voters have changed their minds about Lamont. We saw this in the close finish between the two men. Polling had indicated that Lamont had opened a substantial gap on Lieberman; in the end, it came to less than four points. The Lamont campaign stumbled badly in the last hours on...
It appears that Ehud Olmert has accepted in principle the cease-fire proposal offered by the US and France, who apparently recovered somewhat from the swoon it experienced over Arab criticism of the original proposal. The UN Security Council meets shortly to debate the offer and vote on its adoption, and it is expected to pass without opposition. Some have hailed this as a breakthrough, while others see it as an unmitigated disaster. The truth is that the proposal gives both sides something while attempting to find what everyone understands will be the eventual outcome of any protracted war, given the reluctance of Israel to attempt another twenty-year occupation of Lebanon. And it holds an ace in the hole for Israel, which many seem to have missed. Let's look at the resolution itself, covered in detail by the Jerusalem Post and also by The Corner. The points adopted in this proposal...
Southern California has a population density almost unrivalled in America. It serves as the home of the entertainment industry, which has far-reaching cultural and political influence. Immigration issues have brought local activists on both sides to national prominence. The region produces power brokers that have global impact. It makes sense, then, that the Los Angeles Times would produce a list of the area's most powerful people for its West Magazine publication. And perhaps considering the fragile economic conditions at Southern California's biggest newspaper, a little sucking up to the brass comes as no surprise. Listed third in the "Other 90" section (sorted alphabetically) is Dean Baquet, the new boss of the writers who drafted the list: Yeah, we know what some will say: How self-serving to put your boss on the list. But Baquet, who won a Pulitzer Prize in Chicago and served as the New York Times' national editor...
The saga of Ned Lamont and his clueless campaign continues this evening, as his top aide prepares an apology to a town that voted heavily for Joe Lieberman. After the election results came into campaign headquarters, Tom Swan referred to Waterbury in particularly unpleasant terms: Democrat Ned Lamont's campaign manager said he would apologize to the mayor of Waterbury for describing the city that backed his opponent, Sen. Joe Lieberman, as a place "where the forces of slime meet the forces of evil." Tom Swan said the comment made Tuesday, after the city voted heavily for Lieberman in the Democratic Senate primary, was in the context of a broader discussion of state politics in which former Mayor Philip A. Giordano was the "slime" and former Gov. John G. Rowland was the "evil." Doesn't this sound like a Lamont excuse? After all, Swan's boss was the one who said that he...
August 12, 2006
Neither Israel nor Lebanon acted urgently to ratify the UN Security Council cease-fire resolution, putting off consideration from both Cabinets until Sunday. Israel used the time to push forward on its military goals, trying to accomplish as much as possible before the cease-fire comes into effect: Israel staged wide-ranging airstrikes and sent commandos into the Hezbollah heartland Saturday while the U.N. raced to begin enforcing its new cease-fire blueprint and stop combat. Airstrikes killed at least 19 people, including 15 in one Lebanese village. Israel also blasted a highway near Lebanon's last open border crossing to Syria as it kept up its full-scale campaign against Hezbollah militants. Long columns of Israeli tanks, troops and armored personnel carriers streamed over the border. Some people may ask why Israel bothers to do this, considering it has already agreed to the cease-fire, at least provisionally until its Cabinet meets. The answer is found...
Paul Mirengoff, a true gentleman and a friend, responds to my criticism that he unfairly criticized George Bush for agreeing to the Security Council resolution, rightly noting that I did not explain myself in much detail. Paul politely restates his case and attempts to interpret my thin line of argument. In fairness, I'll provide a better explanation and hope that makes for a better argument. The overriding question of how to end the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict is to understand Israel's goals and realistic expectations of military action in Lebanon. Many argue that Israel should destroy Hezbollah and kill all the terrorists in Lebanon, and that the military effort should not cease short of this goal.. Anything less would be a defeat for Israel and a victory for the terrorists, who will use this to celebrate a triumph over the IDF. That argument serves as a satifactory emotional position, but it ignores...
The continuing disappearance of the Castro Boys would have put them on milk cartons in any other region, but Cuba continues to insist that all is well and that we stop looking behind the green curtain. Granma, the regime's media mouthpiece, even reports that Fidel has returned to work on a part-time basis from his hospital room, walking and talking and recovering nicely, even though Cuba has yet to show any footage of its Commandante and his little brother still hasn't made a public appearance since having presidential powers transferred to him almost two weeks ago. So what kind of man is Raul, anyway, besides apparently suffering from almost-terminal shyness? CQ reader Matt C refers us to an explanation and history of Dear Placeholder in The Week Magazine. The leader of Cuban's armed forces comes across as a complete creation of his brother, a man who learned cruelty at the...
American troops captured 60 suspect al-Qaeda terrorists in Baghdad today in the first big test of the new security plan for the Iraqi capital. The cell specialized in bomb-making and had planned attacks in the near future, according to CENTCOM: A statement by the U.S. military said the arrests in Baghdad were made Friday in Arab Jabour, a southern neighborhood of the capital and a stronghold of Sunni insurgents. The 60 detained men are believed associated with a senior Iraqi al-Qaida leader in a cell that "specializes in bomb making," the statement said. "The group has been reported to be planning and conducting training for future attacks," it said. "Multiple forms of credible intelligence led the assault force to the location, later determined to be a funeral gathering, where the suspects were detained." Women and children at the funeral were separated from the men and the arrests were made without...
Now that the left wing of the Democratic Party has kneecapped Joe Lieberman, a staunch liberal but a hawk on Iraq, some have accused the conservatives of the GOP of committing a similar mistake with Lincoln Chafee, the liberal Senator from Rhode Island. The fiscal conservatives at the Club for Growth have supported Chafee's primary opponent Steven Laffey in a bit to unseat the incumbent, and it appears that Chafee may be in danger of losing his re-election bid before November: Fresh off their first victory over a Republican incumbent, GOP conservatives seeking party purity on taxes and spending are focused on ousting moderate Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island. The Club for Growth and its 36,000 members spent around $1 million to help challenger Tim Walberg unseat first-term Rep. Joe Schwarz in Michigan's Republican primary on Tuesday. The win came despite Schwarz's support from President Bush and the...
Hassan Nasrallah has made a less-than-enthusiastic endorsement of the UN Security Council cease-fire resolution, promising to argue for modifications in the Lebanese Cabinet meeting taking place in hours to formulate an answer to Turtle Bay. Nasrallah objects to the arms embargo placed on Hezbollah, and vows to continue his "jihadic" responsibilities towards Israel: Hizbullah Leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday that if a UN-endorsed agreement were reached that would end the hostilities, then his organization would abide by it. In a televised speech on Hizbullah-run al-Manar television, he said that he would allow for the deployment of the Lebanese army, augmented by UNIFIL forces, to deploy in southern Lebanon. Still, he said he had some reservations against the resolution, but noted he would bring those up at the Lebanese cabinet meeting that would be convened on Saturday evening. His strongest reservation was against the arms embargo that the cease-fire...
Mitch and I will be broadcasting from the Dakota County Fair today in our return to the 1-3 pm CT time slot on the Northern Alliance Radio Network. Brian, Chad, and John will be broadcasting from the air-conditioned bunker at their normal time of 11 am - 1 pm CT, but then again, they won't get food on sticks! King, meanwhile, is taking today off to cook up his new show which starts next week at 3 pm, when Michael Broadkorb joins him for NARN 3 - The Revenge Of The Sith. (Did I get that title right?) Be sure to come out to the fair to see us today, and bring plenty of food on sticks. Mitch can never get enough. UPDATE: We had a great time at the fair. It's much more relaxed than the state fair, which we will do on both weekends, four shows in all....
The revelation of the massive terrorist plot on British airlines shows that Islamofascist terror has once again centered in Pakistan, and that the Pakistani government may or may not be up to the task of confronting it. The ISI cooperated in this instance, but Western intelligence has little faith that they will remain consistent in this effort: U.S. and European officials described Pakistan yesterday as the hub of a plot to down transatlantic flights, saying the young British men allegedly behind the planned attacks drew financial and logistical support from sponsors operating in Karachi and Lahore. At least 17 suspects in British custody for the aviation plot have family ties to Pakistan, and several had traveled there in recent months to seek instructions and confer with unknown conspirators, intelligence officials said yesterday, discussing several elements of the investigation on the condition of anonymity. Pakistan's government, portraying itself as a reliable...
The New York Times' public editor, Byron Calame, publishes a startling admision from Bill Keller regarding the publication delay of the most explosive story in his short reign as managing editor. Earlier, when Keller told people that the NSA surveillance story got delayed from December 2004 based on requests from the White House, speculation circulated that the story had actually gotten shelved before the presidential election. Now Calame confirms that Keller lied about the publication history of the Lichtblau/Risen effort: THE NEW YORK TIMES’S Dec. 16 article that disclosed the Bush administration’s warrantless eavesdropping has led to an important public debate about the once-secret program. And the decision to write about the program in the face of White House pressure deserved even more praise than I gave it in a January column, which focused on the paper’s inadequate explanation of why it had “delayed publication for a year.” The article,...
August 13, 2006
The Scotsman reports on the continuing absence of the Castro brothers in Cuba, noting the increasing unease felt by the island's residents at the lack of clear leadership for the first time in the lives of most Cubans. They'e not talking too openly about the situation yet, thanks to efforts by the secret police to spot anyone who may view this as a moment of opportunity: Some Cubans, fed up with the hardships endured under Castro, and particularly since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, have found timid grounds for optimism in the handover, hoping for economic if not political change. ... Officials have said Castro is recovering and would be back running the country within weeks or months. Reports last night said he was "walking, talking and receiving briefings." But there is anxiety about the fact that neither Fidel Castro, who turns 80 today, nor Raul Castro,...
The New York Times reports on a disturbing suggestion from the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine that urges the government to allow testing of pharmaceuticals on prisoners. The idea is hardly new, but that is part of the problem. The practice came to a screeching halt in the mid-70s as abuses came to light: Until the early 1970’s, about 90 percent of all pharmaceutical products were tested on prison inmates, federal officials say. But such research diminished sharply in 1974 after revelations of abuse at prisons like Holmesburg here, where inmates were paid hundreds of dollars a month to test items as varied as dandruff treatments and dioxin, and where they were exposed to radioactive, hallucinogenic and carcinogenic chemicals. In addition to addressing the abuses at Holmesburg, the regulations were a reaction to revelations in 1972 surrounding what the government called the Tuskegee Study of Untreated...
It does not appear that the UN Security Council cease-fire resolution created much controversy in Israeli politics. Ehud Olmert's Cabinet unanimously agreed to adopt it, with only one abstention: The cabinet approved the UN cease-fire deal after a stormy debate Sunday, clearing a key hurdle to ending the monthlong Mideast war, the government said. The 24-0 vote, with one abstention, came a day after the Lebanese government approved the agreement, and Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave his grudging consent. The truce was to take effect on Monday morning, but the potential for new flareups remained high. ... Addressing reporters after the vote, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said the cease-fire deal approved would bring about a "change in the rules of the game" between Israel and Lebanon. "The decision is good for Israel. I am not naive. I live in the Middle East and I know that not every decision in...
The Times of London reports that one of the men rounded up in the collapse of the airliner plot this week is the head of al-Qaeda in the UK. The Times does not identify him by name, but apparently MI-5 knows him well: SECURITY sources believe that a man arrested in last week’s anti- terror raids in Britain is Al-Qaeda’s leader in this country. Home Office officials say that one of those arrested is suspected not only of masterminding the foiled plot to bring down up to nine transatlantic airliners, but also of involvement in other planned atrocities over the past few years. They believe that he was instrumental in sending the ringleader of at least one previous British terror plot for training at a camp in Pakistan last year. He is described by counter-terrorist officials at MI5 as the senior figure in a British terror network involving Kashmiri, north...
The cease-fire agreement appears to have created a crisis in Lebanon's government, as a Cabinet meeting of Siniora's government has been abruptly cancelled. The Cabinet was supposed to vote on a plan to deploy their army into southern Lebanon and to displace Hezbollah. That has now been indefinitely delayed -- which means that Israel is not bound by the agreement to stop fighting: A critical Lebanese Cabinet meeting set for Sunday to discuss implementation of the cease-fire between Israel and Hizbullah was postponed, a move that was likely to delay the dispatch of the Lebanese army to the south and an end of the fighting. A top aide to Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said the meeting had been indefinitely postponed but would give no reason. Published reports said the Cabinet, which approved the cease-fire unanimously Saturday night, had been sharply divided over demands in the cease-fire agreement that Hizbullah surrender...
First, the good news: The blogosphere now has a bona-fide head of state as one of its members. The bad news: it's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I'm serious. He even has RSS feeds, although you'd have to read Farsi to take advantage of them. He even has this soulful picture on the website, appearing to be in deep consideration of ... what? Eradicating Jews? Nuking New York? The taste of pork chops? Hard to say. Readers who click on the small American flag icon get treated to this personal entry: In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate Oh Almighty God, please, we beg you to send us our Guardian- who You have promised us- soon and appoint us as His close companions. During the era that nobility was a prestige and living in a city was perfection, I was born in a poor family in a remote village...
I guess that crying on television and writing op-eds about the desperate hope for peace cannot motivate Fuad Siniora and his Cabinet to take the concrete action that would deliver it. The BBC reports that the Siniora government has rejected the UN demand to disarm Hezbollah, and the terrorist group has blocked the deployment of the Lebanese Army to the south: Crucial Lebanese cabinet talks on disarming Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon under a UN-brokered ceasefire have been put off. A truce between Israel and Hezbollah is due to come into force at 0500 GMT. The postponement, amid reported divisions, seriously complicates the establishment of a stable ceasefire, the BBC's Nick Childs in Beirut says. ... [T]he issue of Hezbollah's disarmament and its military presence in southern Lebanon continues to cause major tensions within the fragile government, our correspondent reports. He says that without a meeting and an agreed plan,...
When I first heard that Oliver Stone planned on making a film about 9/11, I admit that I had misgivings -- big misgivings. Not only did I worry about his predilection for conspiracy theories and bad history, but also about his style of filmmaking -- showy, pretentious, egotistical, and distracting. His previous full-length cinematic efforts, Alexander and Any Given Sunday, provided excellent examples of Stone at or near his worst, and the subject of 9/11 had plenty of potential for further mischief. Fortunately, Stone put all of the nonsense away for World Trade Center. He allows to the story of John McGloughlin and Will Jimeno, two Port Authority police officers, tell itself. Stone gives his best directorial effort since Wall Street, keeping the trick photography and weird editing on the workbence and instead gives us a taut, touching, and strangely spiritual film. McGloughlin and Jimeno go into the towers in...
August 14, 2006
Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff told news interviewers yesterday that the terror plot uncovered in Britain this week had no American connections, but that the investigation would still continue to pursue leads if they led in our direction. He also cautioned against complacency and assured Americans that the plot's exposure had not provided a distraction for his department: There is no evidence that terrorists were working within the United States as part of a plot to detonate explosives on airliners, but U.S. officials remain vigilant after last week's arrests in Britain and Pakistan, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday. Appearing on several Sunday-morning television talk shows, Chertoff warned that it is clear in the wake of the foiled terrorism operation that enemies of the United States "still want to carry out spectacular plots" and have been developing innovative ways to skirt security. "As we speak right now, we have...
Fuad Siniora's collapse yesterday humiliated his armed forces, the Times of London reports, and demonstrated the illusive grasp of power that the official government holds in Lebanon. The consensus in his Cabinet to accept the cease-fire collapsed when it came time to deploy the army into southern Lebanon: TODAY was supposed to be the day when the muchmaligned army of Lebanon took control of its borders and policed the UN ceasefire. Instead, its military commanders were left humiliated and its troops stranded as Hezbollah told them not to try to disarm its fighters. The first infantry units were preparing to head south yesterday when Hezbollah demonstrated who exercised the real control by announcing that it had no intention of surrendering a single weapon. General Michel Sleiman, the commander-in-chief of the Lebanese Army, and his lieutenants had been invited to join in Cabinet meetings to finalise plans to deploy their 15,000-strong...
British officials have begun questioning a Muslim couple arrested in the terror-plot roundup this week about their plans to exploit their six-month-old baby in order to sneak explosives on board an international flight. Abdula Ahmed Ali and his wife Cossor intended on using baby bottles to sneak liquid components of a bomb onto an airplane, allowing their infant to become the world's youngest suicide bomber: Scotland Yard police are quizzing Abdula Ahmed Ali, 25, and his 23-year-old wife Cossor over suspicions they were to use their baby's bottle to hide a liquid bomb. The theory is one of the reasons security chiefs are now insisting mothers taste babies' milk at check-in desks before allowing them to take bottles aboard flights. ... Police in England have reportedly recovered bottles containing peroxide, including some with false bottoms, from a recycling centre close to the homes of some of the arrested suspects. It...
Hugo Chavez may want to take his mind off of the US and his lips off of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's posterior. His chief rival has just escaped from a military prison, and it looks like he had some help: A senior Venezuelan opposition leader has escaped from a military prison, the country's attorney general has said. Carlos Ortega was sentenced to almost 16 years in jail last year after being convicted of inciting unrest during a strike that began in late 2002. He escaped along with three military officers and may have been aided by some authorities, Venezuela's attorney general said. Ortega failed to get asylum from Costa Rica last year and got arrested for his role in a union action that threatened Chavez' rule. Chavez had Ortega jailed, ostensibly for his own safety, although Ortega obviously disagreed with that assessment. And he wasn't the only one, either. An escape from...
Penn State University has an excellent academic reputation, but it may need to teach a course on common sense in this age of terrorism. A woman transferring from PSU to a Chicago college attempted to save money on her move by mailing her leftover sugar and flour to her new address. Unfortunately, she didn't package the foodstuffs very well, and the leaking white powder set off hazmat alerts: A woman who sent flour and sugar through the mail set off a major hazardous materials response in Pennsylvania when one of her packages leaked, police said. About 80 police officers and firefighters were sent to the State College post office because of what appeared to be a menacing powder. The woman, whose name was not released, told police she was transferring from Penn State to a school in Chicago and was trying to save money by not replacing her flour and...
Michigan authorities have detained three Texans of Arabic ancestry while they investigate their unusual interest in the Mackinac Bridge and disposable cell phones. A Wal-Mart employee tipped police when the three bought 80 of the phones, and when police caught up to them, they had over a thousand of the untraceable phones in their possession: If the hundreds of prepaid cellular telephones found in the minivan seemed odd, the pictures of the Mackinac Bridge were downright troubling to Tuscola County law enforcement officials who have charged three Texas men with terrorism-related crimes. The phones plus photographs and videos of the 5-mile-long bridge led authorities to believe that the men -- two brothers and a cousin, all of Middle Eastern heritage -- were targeting the iconic structure linking the Upper and Lower peninsulas, according to a law enforcement official familiar with details of the case. While the bridge pictures might have...
Today is the feast day of my favorite saint (yes, I know, Catholic alert!), Father Maximilian Kolbe. The patron saint of journalists, families, and prisoners died in Auschwitz in 1941, taking the place of another selected for death. His amazing story is told at the Auschwitz web site: In order to discourage escapes, Auschwitz had a rule that if a man escaped, ten men would be killed in retaliation. In July 1941 a man from Kolbe's bunker escaped. The dreadful irony of the story is that the escaped prisoner was later found drowned in a camp latrine, so the terrible reprisals had been exercised without cause. But the remaining men of the bunker were led out. 'The fugitive has not been found!' the commandant Karl Fritsch screamed. 'You will all pay for this. Ten of you will be locked in the starvation bunker without food or water until they die.'...
Over at the Heritage Foundation Policy Blog, I posted about a quiet effort by the White House to find some bipartisan ground for entitlement reform. This seems remarkable, considering the timing of the feelers. During August, most members of Congress have returned home to tend to their re-election efforts. That hardly seems the most propitious time for those facing election battles to do some long-term thinking, but the Bush administration apparently wants to prepare for a big effort after the midterms have concluded. Read the whole post, and keep an eye out for any other signs of random fiscal responsibility. I'd love to think that we would bring that species back from near-extinction, but color me skeptical, at least until November. Unfortunately, and this reflects on us more than the politicians, very few have ever been elected on the promise to cut off entitlements....
August 15, 2006
Zogby International has published another poll in which Americans prove they watch way too much television. The worst example comes on the difference between knowing the members of the Supreme Court and knowing the members of Snow White's diminutive court: Three quarters of Americans can correctly identify two of Snow White's seven dwarfs while only a quarter can name two Supreme Court Justices, according to a poll on pop culture released on Monday. According to the poll by Zogby International, commissioned by the makers of a new online game on pop culture called "Gold Rush," 57 percent of Americans could identify J.K. Rowling's fictional boy wizard as Harry Potter, while only 50 percent could name the British prime minister, Tony Blair. ... Respondents were far more familiar with the Three Stooges -- Larry, Curly and Moe -- than the three branches of the U.S. government -- judicial, executive and legislative....
The struggle to keep a landmark San Diego cross on public land took a new turn on Monday, as George Bush signed a bill making the land under the monument federal territory. That removes one particular legal threat to the 29-foot-tall cross, long visible for miles to Southern Californians, but brings up new challenges on the federal level: President Bush on Monday signed a law transferring a 29-foot-tall Latin cross high on a hill in San Diego to the federal government, stepping into a long-running dispute over the separation of church and state. Mr. Bush, in the latest unusual action designed to save the Mount Soledad cross, in the La Jolla district, sided firmly with cross supporters who acknowledge that it is the pre-eminent symbol of Christianity but contend that it forms part of a secular war memorial. An atheist, Philip K. Paulson, has fought the cross, built in 1954,...
Rick Moran tipped me to this story from the Jerusalem Post which indicates that Lebanon may blow the cease fire within hours of its implementation. Despite the clear language in the agreement that not only calls for the implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1559 to disarm Hezbollah but also to ensure that the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL have the only arms in the sub-Litani region, Beirut now says that Hezbollah can keep their weapons -- as long as the weapons stay concealed: Hizbullah will not hand over its weapons to the Lebanese government but rather refrain from exhibiting them publicly, according to a new compromise that is reportedly brewing between Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Seniora and Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The UN cease-fire resolution specifically demands the demilitarization of the area south of the Litani river. The resolution was approved by the Lebanese cabinet. In a televised address on...
German authorities are investigating a possible link between the captured terrorists of the recent airliner plot and a key figure in the Hamburg cell who worked with Mohammed Atta on the 9/11 attacks. Said Bahaji, a computer expert who helped plan 9/11, may have provided the same assistance to these suspected al-Qaeda terrorists: German authorities are investigating contacts between a Briton being questioned over the alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airlines and a key figure in the September 11, 2001, terrorist cell. Intelligence sources said that, at Britain’s request, they were examining possible links between the suspect and Said Bahaji, the computer expert in the Hamburg cell that planned the suicide hijackings in 2001. Bahaji shared an apartment in Hamburg with Mohamed Atta, the lead hijacker, and Ramzi Binalshibh, the planner of 9/11. He fled Germany for Pakistan a week before the attacks in New York and Washington and...
E.J. Dionne presents an intriguing look into Democratic Party politics at the mid-terms, and relates a story of disunity and disarray. Unfortunately, though, Dionne misses the bigger problem with the Democrats, focusing on self-image rather than the real issue: The Democratic Party has a self-image problem. Talk to Democrats at every level about the strong position the party is in for this fall's elections and the conversation inevitably ends with a variation of: "Yeah, if we don't blow it." Karl Rove's greatest victory is how much he has spooked Democrats about themselves. This, in turn, leads to a problem among political elites and, especially, fundraisers: While Republicans believe in their party and in the cause of building its organization from bottom to top, Democratic sympathizers tend to focus on favorite causes and favorite candidates, notably in presidential years. The reference to Karl Rove reveals much about the root problem with...
The Sunlight Foundation unveils its new Exposing Earmarks website today, in conjunction with the Club for Growth, Citizens Against Government Waste, The Heritage Foundation, and many in the blogosphere, including Instapundit, Porkbusters and Human Events Online. The Examiner announces the launch in today's edition: Congress is considering a bill — the Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations measure — that presently contains 1,867 earmarks worth more than a half-billion tax dollars and averaging nearly $268,000 each. Many are for things that sound like worthy causes such as "hospital facilities and equipment," yet none of the sponsoring congressmen put their names on their earmarks. That's why The Examiner newspapers have joined with the Sunlight Foundation, Porkbusters.org, and Citizens Against Government Waste in posting the database of earmarks in the Labor-HHS appropriations and inviting readers to help identify the congressmen behind each earmark. Organizations like The Heritage Foundation, National Taxpayers Union and...
A newly-translated document from the archives of Saddam Hussein’s ISI indicates that the regime kept some kind of weapons in Baghdad that made Saddam's elite Special Republican Guards nervous enough to keep hidden -- in a residential area. Document CMPC-2003-000788 contains a memo from Major Sa’ad Ahmed Taha al-Wis, an intelligence officer in the Special Republican Guard to the Special Security Organization dated May 14, 2001, regarding the proximity of weapons caches to residential units at the SRG base. These facilities became the point of contention between UNSCOM and the Saddam regime in 1997 and precipitated the collapse of the weapons inspections, as the UN suspected that Saddam hid his WMD with the SRG. The SRG and SSO existed to handle the most sensitive programs in Iraq, including the protection of Saddam Hussein but also the protection of the regime’s secret programs. Taha’s memo complains that the fence surrounding the...
I've been a fan of Senator George Allen for the past couple of years, and I have repeatedly referred to him as someone who could put a good face on conservatism in the upcoming melee for the presidential nomination. Having served one term each as governor and in the US Senate, his long experience on the national stage and as an executive gives him a leg up on most of his competition. Unfortunately, his mouth has pretty much wiped it all out, and I think Senator Allen can probably stick a fork in his hopes for the time being: At a campaign rally in southwest Virginia on Friday, Allen repeatedly called a volunteer for Democrat James Webb "macaca." During the speech in Breaks, near the Kentucky border, Allen began by saying that he was "going to run this campaign on positive, constructive ideas" and then pointed at S.R. Sidarth in...
Israel has warned the UN and Lebanon that any solution that allows Hezbollah to retain any weapons will result in a resumption of hostilities. Kofi Annan's earlier reaction to the reported deal between Fuad Siniora and Hassan Nasrallah that amounted to a "don't show, don't tell" policy angered Israelis and probably scotched the notion of a cease-fire in the short term: The IDF will have to resume operations in Lebanon if the expanded United Nations force being assembled does not fulfill its obligation to dismantle Hizbullah, an official in the Prime Minister's Office warned on Tuesday. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah reportedly reached a deal allowing Hizbullah to keep its weapons but refrain from exhibiting them in public. Israeli officials called the arrangement a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which passed over the weekend and was approved on Sunday by the cabinet. "The...
August 16, 2006
Americans have earned their skepticism about the promises of politicians during campaigns, usually treating them with several grains of salt when made. That reflects not only the disinclination of politicians to fulfill them, but also the grandiose nature of the promises they make. Campaign promises have to make headlines and tend towards the fantastic. However, Benjamin Cardin has offered a promise that makes others look positively banal: With a month to go before primary voters head to the polls to choose Senate nominees, Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin kicked off yesterday a weeklong effort to highlight his congressional record and vision on health care by making the mother of all campaign promises - to cure cancer. Cardin, a Democrat from Baltimore County, gathered with cancer survivors and doctors in Lutherville to detail his efforts to expand cancer screening and his plans to fight the disease. "We are going to lick cancer...
According to the Guardian, Pakistani intelligence agents used torture to break Rashid Rauf, one of the plotters involved in the plot to attack transatlantic flights and kill thousands of travelers. Not surprisingly, the newspaper decries the use of this intelligence by Western forces and accuses the British and Americans of outsourcing torture in order to keep our hands clean: Reports from Pakistan suggest that much of the intelligence that led to the raids came from that country and that some of it may have been obtained in ways entirely unacceptable here. In particular Rashid Rauf, a British citizen said to be a prime source of information leading to last week's arrests, has been held without access to full consular or legal assistance. Disturbing reports in Pakistani papers that he had "broken" under interrogation have been echoed by local human rights bodies. The Guardian has quoted one, Asma Jehangir, of the...
New Jersey Attorney General Zulima Farber resigned last night after a state ethics panel harshly criticized her for interfering with the citation of a friend at a traffic stop. Farber had a state trooper drive her to where officers had stopped her friend because of a seat-belt infraction and subsequently found him to have a suspended driver's license, putting undue pressure on the officers: On May 26, Ms. Farber received a call from her companion, Hamlet E. Goore, saying that he had been stopped at a seat-belt enforcement checkpoint in Fairview, in Bergen County, and the police determined that he had a suspended license and an expired registration. Ms. Farber was taken to Fairview in her state car, driven by a trooper. But she has said she did not intercede in any way and did not speak to any police officers. She did acknowledge, however, that Mr. Goore had told...
The death toll in Iraq continues to rise, as civilian deaths hit a new high in July, mostly in Baghdad and the Sunni triangle. By any measure, the war in Iraq has shifted dangerously, and the strategies employed to this point have failed to bring security to Iraq's capital: July appears to have been the deadliest month of the war for Iraqi civilians, according to figures from the Health Ministry and the Baghdad morgue, reinforcing criticism that the Baghdad security plan started in June by the new government has failed. An average of more than 110 Iraqis were killed each day in July, according to the figures. The total number of civilian deaths that month, 3,438, is a 9 percent increase over the tally in June and nearly double the toll in January. The rising numbers suggested that sectarian violence is spiraling out of control, and seemed to bolster an...
Condoleezza Rice takes to the pages of the Washington Post in an effort to explain to Americans why the US pressed for the cease-fire agreement adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council. Rice insists that UNSCR 1701 delivers the construct for a lasting peace, if fully implemented. That, however, is the problem, which even Rice acknowledges: The agreement we reached last week is a good first step, but it is only a first step. Though we hope that it will lead to a permanent cease-fire, no one should expect an immediate stop to all acts of violence. This is a fragile cease-fire, and all parties must work to strengthen it. Our diplomacy has helped end a war. Now comes the long, hard work to secure the peace. Looking ahead, our most pressing challenge is to help the hundreds of thousands of displaced people within Lebanon to return to their homes...
If Hezbollah supposed victory served to embolden its sponsors, then perhaps Iran has not received the memo. Reversing its public stance this summer, Iran has agreed to discuss ending its uranium enrichment as the deadline on the West's offer approaches: Iran is ready to discuss the suspension of its uranium enrichment programme as demanded by Western powers, the country's foreign minister has said. Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference that Iran was ready to talk but still regarded any suspension of its programme as "illogical". A package of incentives has been offered to Iran by six world powers in return for a halt to its programme. Tehran has said it will respond to the offer by 22 August. "We are ready to discuss all the issues, including the suspension. There is no logic behind the suspension of Iran's activities. We are ready to explain this to them," Mr Mottaki said....
The CQ laptop has once again gone overboard. The Sony Vaio I bought over a year ago suddenly died this evening -- just as I was about to put up a killer post, too. It looks like the power supply burnt out; the computer suddenly lost power, and it will not power up at all, either with our without the battery. What's more frustrating is that I had to stay home from work today, thanks to a minor surgical procedure on my finger, and I took most of the time napping and recuperating. I wish I'd spent the time keeping up with my e-mail and news. Unfortunately, that puts a bit of a crimp in my style. I can get e-mail on my backup machine, but all the e-mail I received from around 5 pm and earlier is now unaccessible to me. I can still surf and post, but my...
When I returned home after my minor surgery today, the story of the transatlantic flight dominated the news. I could not blog on it at the time due to the condition of my hand, and I recalled thinking that might not be a bad thing. I suspected that the news reports would turn out to be overblown, and I was right: Two fighter jets were scrambled Wednesday to escort a London-to-Washington flight to an emergency landing in Boston after a disturbance in which passengers said a woman in a jogging suit paced up and down the aisle, peppering her incoherent mutterings with the word "Pakistan." The federal official for Boston's Logan International Airport said there was no indication of terrorism, but passengers said they were unnerved by the woman and by the military response, just a week after authorities in London said they foiled a terror plot to blow up...
At least a few celebrities in Hollywood have decided to support the war on terror and call terrorists what they are, according to an advertisement a number of them took out in the Los Angeles Times. Tomorrow's edition will carry a full-page ad denouncing terrorism and supporting democracy, carrying some notable signatures: "We the undersigned are pained and devastated by the civilian casualties in Israel and Lebanon caused by terrorist actions initiated by terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah and Hamas," the ad reads. "If we do not succeed in stopping terrorism around the world, chaos will rule and innocent people will continue to die. "We need to support democratic societies and stop terrorism at all costs." ... The actors listed included: Michael Douglas, Dennis Hopper, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Danny De Vito, Don Johnson, James Woods, Kelly Preston, Patricia Heaton and William Hurt. Directors Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Michael Mann,...
August 17, 2006
A Lebanese general sits in jail today after committing a terrible crime -- having tea with an Israeli. During the military operation, the IDF captured his barracks and held Adnan Daoud and 350 of his men prisoner, but apparently did so rather informally. A videotape taken during the event shows Daoud drinking tea with the soldiers as both sides acted cordially: A Lebanese general was ordered arrested Wednesday for appearing in a videotape drinking tea with IDF soldiers who had occupied his south Lebanon barracks during their incursion of the country. Adnan Daoud was summoned and ordered held for questioning, Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat said in a statement. Daoud is commanding officer of the 1,000-strong joint police-army force that had positions in southern Lebanon and was based in Marjayoun. IDF troops seized the barracks there last week and held him and 350 soldiers for a day before allowing them to...
Pakistani sources indentify al-Qaeda's #3 man as the originator of the plot to attack airliners in Britain in perhaps the largest-scale plot since 9/11. Abu Faraj al-Libbi personally directed the terror conspiracy and used Rashid Rauf as the main liaison between AQ leadership and the British cell: Abu Faraj al-Libbi, who after Osama bin Laden and the Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahiri, is suspected of being al-Qaida's third in command, has been named by Pakistani security sources as the main planner of the alleged plot, according to Dawn, a daily newspaper. He has also been accused of being in a plot to assassinate Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, and was arrested last year and turned over to the US. A security official said: "There was a mastermind, there was a planner, and there were the executioners." He claimed the al-Qaida link to the alleged plot in Britain had been established and that it...
Fatah and Hamas have opened talks on forming a unity government in the West Bank and Gaza. This follows an abortive attempt at the same goal earlier this year, when Hamas got desperate to end the global embargo on aid once they assumed power: MAHMOUD ABBAS, the Palestinian President, and Ismail Haniyeh, the Prime Minister of the Hamas-led administration, agreed yesterday to discuss forming a government of national unity after meeting in Gaza. Similar negotiations last February with the President’s Fatah faction foundered when Hamas refused to accept earlier peace deals with Israel which would have implied recognition of the state. Hamas went on to form its own Government, which sparked an economic embargo by the international community. This follows the demands made by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails that the various groups unite in one government, which could then work towards the end of occupation -- as defined by...
The Democrats have finally found a unifying theme for the mid-term elections, one that appears to unite all ends of the political spectrum in their party. Instead of fighting a war on terrorism, though, they have decided to fight a war against Wal-Mart. Claiming that attacking a retailer with the lowest prices somehow champions the poor, Democrats of all strips have enlisted in the latest cause: Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, a likely Democratic presidential candidate in 2008, delivered a 15-minute, blistering attack to warm applause from Democrats and union organizers here on Wednesday. But Mr. Biden’s main target was not Republicans in Washington, or even his prospective presidential rivals. It was Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer. Yes, not Islamofascist terrorists, not oppressive dictatorships, not drug cartels nor organized crime -- Wal-Mart. Among Democrats, Mr. Biden is not alone. Across Iowa this week and across much of...
Taking a page from Israeli security forces, the US has started using a technique for screening at airports that focuses on the people rather than the methodology to stop terrorism. Although currently only an experimental program, the technological escalation of the British sky plot will pressure the Transportation Security Administration into deploying this across all airports: As the man approached the airport security checkpoint here on Wednesday, he kept picking up and putting down his backpack, touching his fingers to his chin, rubbing some object in his hands and finally reaching for his pack of cigarettes, even though smoking was not allowed. Two Transportation Security Administration officers stood nearby, nearly motionless and silent, gazing straight at him. Then, with a nod, they moved in, chatting briefly with the man, and then swiftly pulled him aside for an intense search. Another airline passenger had just made the acquaintance of the transportation...