October 3, 2003
I have to admit, as an ex-pat Californian, even I was surprised by the success of the recall campaign. California politics has long been under thrall to a single party, and the budget meltdown over the past two years (as well as Gray Davis' lying about it during the last gubernatorial race) seemed heaven-sent for California Republicans. After all, California was the laboratory for the more radicalized elements of the Democrats, and it was turning into a quagmire. All that the Republicans had to do was to stay out of the way, and they were assured of significant gains in the next couple of election cycles. Well, as usual, California Republicans had to show that they are bested by no one in shooting themselves in the foot. After pushing through an almost-unprecedented recall of a governor, who incidentally is not accused of any special malfeasance except being an idiot and...
The fallout continues, or sort of. Arnold's back on the campaign trail, being greeted by cheering fans -- er, voters -- but after his apology and non-acknowledgement of the Hitler reference (from almost 30 years ago!), he's keeping his mouth shut. As a strategy, this is probably as much of a winner that he'll come up with at this point of the campaign. I wonder, though, if a third shoe is being prepared for the Sunday edition... Arnold may be under attack, but the LA Times appears to be suffering the damage . Susan Estrich gets her shots in from the editorial page of the LA Times itself: So this is the October surprise? The Los Angeles Times headline that Arnold Schwarzenegger groped and humiliated women? ... But none of these women, as The Times emphasizes, ever came forward to complain. The newspaper went looking for them, and then waited...
Here's another reason to hate the French, courtesy of Merde in France. Does anyone still think that if we had just tried harder to woo the French, we could have gotten their support?...
Power Line's Big Trunk has posted an e-mail he received from author Dr. Laurie Mylroie that explains more about the David Kay report. Go now and read the entire message, and while you're at it check out all of Power Line. It's a great blog. Also, they have an entry two posts below the Mylroie e-mail with a link to an article in the Sun, a British newspaper, on the Kay report....
Mickey Kaus continues to have fun with this story. Unfortunately, he's probably right about the transient nature of the bounce; it's likely a result of Ah-nold trying to "terminate" the scandal with a quick mea culpa, as well as the high level of disgust at the LA Times for spending several weeks specifically to dredge up this kind of crap. It's not that I don't think that the women are lying, although the fact that four of the six won't identify themselves, and all six never availed themselves of the legal system, does not give me confidence. Arnold himself acknowledged that he's done something, after all. And the incidents in the report are all ugly. But for crying out loud, after all the screeching the Times did over the Clinton sexual peccadiloes (that occured while he was in office, with staff underlings, on the public dime) being blown out of...
I can see PETA protesting this -- perhaps they'd prefer Cheney or Wolfowitz take a turn as a beefeater. Or, better yet, Bush could do the tasting to keep the mice safe....
October 4, 2003
President Bush surprises everyone with his deep, artistic side by writing poetry. This ought to silence those of his foes who dare to challenge his intellect, eh?...
Here's an AP update to all the Schwarzenonsense from the past 24 hours or so. According to an Austrian news source, California's leading candidate for Governer terminated a meeting of neo-Nazis when he was 17 years old, hunting them down and dispersing them. There's been five more women who've come forward with more groping stories, which Mickey Kaus covers in his latest entry....
Courtesy of Little Green Footballs -- today is the tenth anniversary of the battle in Mogadishu that became the focus of the film, Black Hawk Down. Particularly interesting are Osama bin Laden's comments from a 1997 interview with Robert Fisk....
Hindrocket blasts off at Minnesota Democrats on the Powerline blog. It certainly looks like Mike Hatch is flailing at anything to ruin Pawlenty. Maybe he's a protege of Gray Davis....
Once again, those darn Israelis have sabotaged peace again by having the arrogance to die in large numbers when a Palestinian freedom fighter blows herself up in a Haifa restaurant. You can check out the blogosphere reaction at Little Green Footballs (where it's about what you'd expect), Power Line, and Roger Simon....
A guest column by Andrew Apostalou puts it all into perspective. (Thanks to Roger Simon.) From what I see, we may be the first nation to have such poisonous debate over a war we won, with minimal losses on both sides, and that resulted in liberating over 20 million people (not to mention removing a dangerous regional threat). Does anyone else find this as silly as I do? We knew he was a brutal dictator; we know now that he was actively avoiding compliance with UN resolutions and the terms of the truce that left him in power. At the same time, a significant amount of our overseas military was pinned down enforcing the terms of that truce, and our presence in Saudi Arabia was not helping matters. Eventually we would have to have left, with Saddam in power, which would only embolden other dictators and bin Laden wanna-bes. The...
This is more good news, and a good indicator that our campaign is bearing fruit in other areas. The only way we will ever be safe is to transform dictatorships and creaky monarchies into liberal democracies......
Okay, this is just a bit grim, don't you think? I'd hate to think where all these parts eventually ended up. I do think it's interesting that this guy was sentenced to a lot more prison time for selling dead body parts than most drunk drivers get sentenced for vehicular homicide -- in fact, about six times more....
I'm not sure if Hindrocket over at Power Line has had a chance to read this Fred Barnes article at OpinionJournal, but maybe it would make him feel a little bit better. The impression I get so far is that the Democrats are doing all the talking, and that's accounting for the slipping numbers. As Barnes points out, that's natural; it's Presidential election season, with the first round of the primaries coming up in three or four months. When Dubya has a chance to focus on the election, the numbers will move back, probably significantly, unless something goes disastrously wrong in the war....
North Korea: a horror show. Read the whole thing. (via Instapundit)...
October 5, 2003
This ... is not good. No word on Syria's reaction yet, although I doubt it will be very friendly....
Damn ... I still don't agree with him on everything, but you have to admit, he makes a pretty good point here. I just wish the Times covered Gray Davis like they covered Arnold. Then I wouldn't have a gripe....
Yeah, I know that there would be a different reaction if this involved a female defendant and a male officer, but I still can't help but have some small part of me think that this kid really lucked out. He got dinner, booze, pot, and lucky, and now as a result, he will probably wind up having the charges against him dropped or at least a very lenient sentence....
Set your TiVos -- Mary Carey has an ad that will run on Monday night's "Tonight Show". Please submit any puns this inspires!!...
Frog eggs fall from the sky onto home in Berlin...
Idiots. Maybe the best course of action would be to cancel next year's homecoming. It's one thing (still bad) when economically and socially repressed groups riot; while you don't condone it in any way, and you prosecute those responsible, there's some understanding of the desperation involved. What do we have in Mankato? A bunch of spoiled, rich kids who decided to piss all over their surrounding neighborhoods, beat people up, and destroy property. Everyone involved should be expelled, tried, and thrown in jail for a few weeks. It's only at times like this that I wish we had a military draft....
Oh, man ... if you want to read why Gray is going down, just read this article from today's Times. Here's a great quote of the master at work: "We need immigrants to pick our food and put it on our tables," he said as the audience — middle-class Latinos, primarily — shifted uncomfortably. "We need immigrants to clean our hotels and office buildings and take care of the elderly." And: "That work is important.... Whether people are janitors or maids or busboys or cooks, it's all part of the experience we enjoy when we're at a restaurant or a hotel." If any of the Latinos in the studios of the Spanish-language station Univision felt patronized, they didn't say so. But the governor's words landed with a dull thud Monday night, creating one of many awkward moments as he fought for his political life in the final week of the...
Here's a great article by Daniel Weintraub about why the recall came to be, and why it will win. Money quote: Although Davis ridiculed the recall as sour grapes from sore losers and attacked it as a right-wing coup, he realized too late that it was much more than that. The movement might have begun on the far right, but it became a deep, almost cathartic expression of frustration on the part of voters who felt cheated in the 2002 election by the governor's meddling in the opposition party's primary, by two unsatisfactory candidates who ran uninspiring, negative campaigns, and by a political elite who seemed to relish leaving them out of the game. Couldn't have put it any better....
An interesting theory from Frater Libertas. Hmmmm .... Dittoheads should reserve judgment (not that I've ever been one; Rush irritates the snot out of me)....
October 6, 2003
Let's face it, Bud sucks anyway ... but I sure as hell won't be buying any of their beer now (third item). I wonder what all the anti-globalists and anti-corporate idiots who support Gray Davis, Algore, etc think about this corporate sponsorship. Could it be that, as opposed to Republicans who actively support businessmen and job creation, these guys spout off platitudes to hoodwink socialists while selling out to the corporate interests they supposedly oppose? True. True....
Jill Stewart, who wrote an article on Gray Davis that I linked a couple of days ago, puts the Times story in perspective at the LA Daily News. Main thrust: After my story ran, I waited for the Times to publish its story. It never did. When I spoke to a reporter involved, he said editors at the Times were against attacking a major political figure using anonymous sources. Just what they did last week to Schwarzenegger. Be sure to read the whole thing....
October 7, 2003
Bob Graham drops out of presidential race; polls show no one knew he was in it to begin with....
Daniel Weintraub has a hilarious bit on last minute campaigning by Gray Davis and his supporters. This, of course, could only take place in San Francisco: As [Mayor Willie] Brown spoke, a man with an oversized Arnold Schwarzenegger mask strapped to his face, money in his hands and a large blue E symbolizing Enron pursued a woman dressed in pink around the plaza, groping her between faux slaps in the face. And here's something that will make Davis sleep easier: Charles Duff, 24, a student at San Francisco State University, sat with his back to the rally. I asked him what he thought of the recall. “Crazy,” he said. “It’s crazy.” What’s crazy about it? I asked him. “The idea that you can take out a guy and have all these people running to replace him.” So you’re going to vote against the recall? “When’s the election?” he asked before...
If anything should finally underscore the fact that the LA Times has become a Democratic Party shill, this ought to do it. Bill Bradley at the LA Weekly (as mentioned before, no friend to conservatives) reveals a pre-publication leak of the Ah-nuld hit piece to the Davis campaign, who took the ball and ran with it with suspicious "alacrity". More: [T]he paper Monday backed off its previous contention that none of the women in subsequent stories came forward at the urging of Schwarzenegger’s opponents in the wake of the Weekly’s revelation that Jodie Evans, who pushed one of the women to come forward, is not merely the peace activist described by the Times but also a former close colleague of Governor Davis and longtime friend of chief Democratic hit man Bob Mulholland. This is, of course, what the LA Weekly has reported before, and is finally getting out to the...
Chris Muir captures my own ambivalence perfectly....
Here's where I part company with the Right, and my annoying libertarian streak comes out. AndrewSullivan covers this topic in great detail, as he should; he's got a much larger stake in this than I do. (Full disclosure: I'm hetero, married, Catholic, pro-life, anti-death penalty.) He covers a USA Today poll showing the public is evenly split over this topic. And here's my take on this. Marriage, in my faith, is considered a sacrament between a man and a woman which exists for the glory of God and the perpetuation of God's primary creation, etc etc etc. That is my faith, and I subscribe to that view. However, the Church is perfectly free to set those rules for itself and its members, and it's perfectly free to tell members who don't comply to take a hike. Most Christian denominations view marriage in a similar, but not exact, way. Civil marriages...
Here's a good interim report on Recall Day in California from the Post. The post I'm reading is from 2:30 PM, and it looks like a heavy turnout in California. Terry Neal points out that there's been some efforts to educate voters on the punch-card ballot process, but I voted in California for almost 20 years and I can tell you that every ballot I every used was punch-card, and most of those were of the notorious butterfly configuration. Californians aren't as stupid as Democrats would have you believe Floridians are. There's an interesting point in one of Neal's earlier dispatches (10/6 11:10 PM): Davis, the final speaker, was introduced by his wife, Sharon Davis, who alluded to the allegations against Schwarzenegger. "My husband has never been accused of anything worse than being dull," she said. Maybe Sharon hasn't read this yet....
No link -- I'm watching Fox News, and Brit Hume used the phrase "possible landslide" for the recall. Interesting. They're predicting Ah-nuld the winner, based on exit polling. 69% of voters opposed giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Oops!...
Maybe the ACLU can explain why this is undemocratic: The secretary of state said that turnout by late afternoon was running on target at about 60%, according to department official Terri Carbaugh. That turnout is consistent with earlier predictions that the rate would fall roughly between the 70.94% turnout in the last presidential election and the 50.6% turnout in the gubernatorial election last November. The high turnout indicates that "voters are highly attentive and highly engaged," Carbaugh said....
This didn't take long. Wesley Clark's presidential campaign is already in disarray: Wesley K. Clark's campaign manager quit yesterday in a dispute over the direction of the Democratic presidential bid, exposing a rift between the former general's Washington-based advisers and his three-week-old Arkansas campaign team. Donnie Fowler told associates he was leaving over widespread concerns that supporters who used the Internet to draft Clark into the race are not being taken seriously by top campaign advisers. Fowler also complained that the campaign's message and methods are focused too much on Washington, not key states and the burgeoning power of the Internet, said two associates who spoke on condition of anonymity. Keep in mind that this organization is only three weeks old, at least officially. If he can't avoid this kind of chaos in his own organization in that period of time, what does that say for his ability to manage...
With 13% of precincts reporting, CNN reports that the recall is winning by 12%, and Arnold leads Cruz Bustamante by a margin of almost 2-1. I wouldn't get too complacent yet, but this is looking pretty darn good for the Terminator -- excuse me, the Governator....
October 8, 2003
With 94% of all precincts reporting, the results are clear -- Californians spoke clearly for a sea change in state government. Recall: 54% Yes, 46% No Part B: Schwarzenegger 48%, Bustamante 33%, McClintock 14% This means that in a statewide election, where Democrats have a registration lead of at least 10 percentage points, 62% voted Republican and only a third voted for the only major Democratic choice. Granted, Republicans may have been more motivated to go to the polls, but that excuse only flies if the overall turnout was low; instead, it was a record high for a non-presidential election. The state Legislature has to be very, very nervous now. Wait for the elections next year -- we'll see how pissed off the electorate is and will remain....
... even if they couldn't leave with a vestige of class and grace. (via California Insider) This type of insult-based dirty campaigning explains why Gray Davis' approval ratings are below Richard Nixon's post-resignation ratings. Good riddance. Take Cruz with you....
Another good point made by Chris Muirabout the Big Lie of dissent-crushing in America these days. I get so tired of people screaming in the streets and all over television that the Bush administration is forcing them to stay silent, without any sense of irony whatsoever. Quick way to see if you live in a free society: If you call the leader of your country a Nazi, which happens in a fascist state? 1: You're arrested and spend 20 years in a prison or mental facility; 2. You get put on TV and Hollywood sends you cash. If you're too dense to pick Option 1, perhaps you aren't qualified to speak to any other issues....
It looks like a ten-point margin of victory for the recall, and Arnold took 46.4% of the second part, against 31% for Bustamante and 12.8% for McClintock (99% of all precincts reporting now). This means that slightly under 60% in a record turnout voted Republican against a lone Democrat. Also, since Proposition 54 went down in flames (64% no), you can't chalk it up to a conservative turnout. If anything, Prop 54 turns out to be the bellwether, the control group if you will, on who voted in this election. The 7.7 million people who voted were completely representative of Californians statewide, and they enthusiastically rejected Gray Davis and the Democrats. Unless Arnold [that's Governor Arnold to you, ex-pat boy!] screws up, this is trouble for the Democratic visegrip on California politics....
Roger Simon is right about this title and article; Steve Lopez takes a cheap shot (specifically about the Fuhrer part of it). Otherwise, bitter as it may be, it's still a pretty good article. I'm happier about the outcome than Lopez, but he is right in that the situation that created the recall in the first place -- gridlock, Gray Davis in office, mandated spending -- was created by California voters in the first place. Gray Davis only made it a hell of a lot worse than it had to be....
The Euro took another baby step towards oblivion by ignoring France's economic violations of its underlying agreements. Isn't this the same country that insisted that countries could not act unilaterally in defiance of the community of nations? Sweden's looking smarter and smarter every day....
Just three weeks into his campaign, and Wesley Clark is already self-destructing. First his campaign manager quits after three weeks on the job, and now it looks like the General is breaking federal election laws: Under the laws governing the financing of presidential campaigns, candidates cannot be paid by corporations, labor unions, individuals or even universities for campaign-related events. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) considers such paid political appearances akin to a financial contribution to a candidate. Clark is getting paid as much as $30,000 for speeches, according to people familiar with his arrangement. He has two more scheduled for next week. Clark, like any other candidate, would likely be permitted to deliver the paid speeches only if they did not "expressly" cover his campaign or his political opponents, the experts said. But in his speeches, Clark has talked about his campaign positions and criticized President Bush's policies. At DePauw,...
Comparing California voters to unruly toddlers, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune spouts off again on a subject about which they know little. Most parents have witnessed a version of the Toys "R" Us scene in which a child, caught up in the frenzy of toy overload, cries out, "Mommy, I want it, and I want it now!" California politics, always a raucous affair, has become over the last 30 years more shrill, impatient and petulant, more of a toy-store experience. This may be a funny metaphor but sells voters short. California didn't get rid of Gray because of shiny, cool Arnold: they got rid of Gray because Gray has repeatedly sold out Californians to his contributors, and Californians got tired of it. Or perhaps the Strib never bothered to research sweetheart deals like the Oracle contract. Voters in the largest state knew what they didn't want -- more Gray Davis, whom they...
October 9, 2003
California Democrats are mighty grouchy today. It's like waking up with a huge hangover, I guess. (via California Insider) Aides to Sen. John Vasconcellos confirmed the liberal San Jose Democrat called Republican Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger "a boob," said voters "made a mistake," and announced that when the Legislature reconvenes in January, "I'm not sure I'll go back... If people want this actor to govern ... they don't need or deserve me." Which just goes to show you that Arnold really does get results. Is this what the Democrats has picked as a new strategy? Picking up their ball and going home? Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, said he will introduce legislation he dubbed "Arnold's Law" to increase the penalty for sexual battery in the workplace. At least that has some wit to it. In what would be a pointed show of dissatisfaction, some Democrats may boycott Schwarzenegger's State of the...
Arnold the Governator has picked his transition team, and it's certainly unusual. There will be 65 people from such diverse viewpoints as Mayor Willie Brown, the former King of the Assembly (I'm not kidding about that), Bill Simon Jr, Susan Estrich, and Rep. David Dreier, a well-connected Republican with close ties to the Bush administration: Today, he characterized the transition team that he will head as widely varied, made up of people who are both "very liberal and very conservative." "I will tell you this will be a somewhat unusual group," Dreier said. "The reason I'm so convinced we can have a diverse group is the strength of Arnold Schwarzenegger. He's in a position where he will get a wide range of recommendations from people throughout the state and from around the country." Arnold obviously wants to project an inclusive, healing image for his new administration, and I'm sure Willie...
Seldom do you see a major news outlet sell itself out so completely, but the recall seems to have unhinged the editors of the Los Angeles Times. I read the Times on the Internet, as you will see if you scroll through my archives, but I do so with the knowledge that this newspaper has almost no credibility in its news coverage. Consider the following: The Los Angeles Times said it "corroborated" its stories that Schwarzenegger groped or humiliated more than a dozen women over a nearly 30-year period. But in no case did an eyewitness substantiate for the Times any of the tales despite the fact that the alleged incidents took place while hundreds of crew members on movie sets were present. As for the important "second source" news organizations often require on sensitive stories, the Times usually used a friend or relative who heard about the incidents afterward...
October 10, 2003
Power Line features an excellent essay on
the history of the Liberty Bell, and how the historically ignorant are misrepresenting it in its new setting.
I'm more a fan of green, myself ......
Lawyers, as officers of the court, are expected to play by the rules. One or two slips is forgivable, but six times should have resulted in a contempt charge. Kobe's lawyers knew that they weren't supposed to identify the alleged victim by name during the hearing. It looks like this will be going to trial soon. Let's hope the judge gets more control over the court. Kobe's going to have enough problems as it is; if he's really innocent, he won't want a OJ-style circus that will undercut the validity of an acquittal with the general public....
Despite the results of the recall, letting foreign-born citizens run for President is a bad idea. As the descendent of immigrants -- I am third-generation on my mother's side -- I do not see the need or the benefit of a foreign-born citizen filling the role of head of state. The Washington Post editorializes: The nation has profited from the service of naturalized citizens in sensitive posts such as secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and American public life is rife with people whose commitment to this country is one of choice, rather than birth. In every other sphere, American law welcomes such citizens and acknowledges parity between them and the native-born. Yes, I agree, although Kissinger's loyalties were often questioned during and after his tenure. Look at the vitriol thrown at American-born Jews in the Bush administration, such as Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle....