Al Qaeda targets nursery schools

In yet another reminder of the true nature of our enemy, the Telegraph news reports that the Spanish Al Qaeda cell planned to target an Anglo-Spanish nursery school. Apparently, this was the work of the same terrorist cell that Spanish voters surrendered to after the Madrid train bombings.

Militants behead Marine

The militants who captured Marine Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun have posted news of his murder by beheading, according to the AP.

The group's leader Abu Abdullah al-Hassan bin Mahmoud declared, "We would like to inform you that the Marine of Lebanese origin, Hassoun, has been slaughtered. You are going to see the video with your very eyes soon."

The group also claims it hold another "infidel hostage" but offers no details except that we will soon see a video of "the beheading of rotten heads."

Democrats Walk The Fantasy Plank With Platform

The Democrats have put together their platform for the 2004 election and have submitted it to the full platform committee for final approval next weekend in Miami. The Washington Post's Dan Balz was granted a look at the proposal, and in his report notes that the Democrats seem prepared to continue their assault on the truth right up to November 2nd:

The 16,000-word document skirts some potentially divisive issues within the party, particularly with regard to Iraq. A strong majority of Democrats believes it was a mistake for the president to launch the war in Iraq, but the platform says only, "People of good will disagree about whether America should have gone to war in Iraq."

With polls showing many Democrats want to bring U.S. forces home as quickly as possible, the draft platform declares, "We cannot allow a failed state in Iraq that inevitably would become a haven for terrorists and a destabilizing force in the Middle East."

While the platform calls for increasing the size of the U.S. military by 40,000 troops, it takes no position on whether more U.S. forces are needed in Iraq. Instead, the document says the United States must find support from other countries. "We must truly internationalize both politically and military; we cannot depend on a U.S.-only presence" in Iraq.

This breathtakingly stupid and erroneous statement fully represents the extent to which the fantasists have overtaken the Democrats in this election cycle. The Democrats apparently still refuse to recognize the contributions of the British, who have 10,000 troops still in Iraq; the Poles, who continue to maintain thousands of troops, some of whom found more evidence of WMD earlier this week; the Italians, who have suffered several battle casualties; and the South Koreans, which agreed to send 3,000 more troops for support roles despite the brutal beheading of one of its citizens.

As usual, the Me Party continues its America-First policies and trivializes our allies as "fraudulent," and then turns around and claims that they can conduct diplomacy better than the Bush administration. It's hard to see how that could possibly happen when they fail to recognize our friends and their sacrifice on behalf of the free world. Their official statement of policy is an offense to the dozens of nations who stand shoulder to shoulder with the US against Islamofascism, on the ground in Iraq in this phase of the war.

There's No One Here To Take Your Call Right Now

Kathryn Jean Lopez at the Corner links to an article on the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute that seems to be an object lesson in pointlessness. The Friday Fax reports that "radical feminists" in the pro-abortion group Catholics for Free Choice prayed to the Virgin Mary for legalized abortion:

Many participants at the meeting now taking place in Puerto Rico, called the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Ad Hoc Committee on Population and Development, were stunned on Monday when "Catholics" for a Free Choice (CFFC) and its Latin American counterpart, "Catolicas" por el Derecho a Decidir, released a prayer card of the Virgin Mary, with the words "The love of God and of Mary of Guadalupe is greater..For women's lives, safe and legal abortion" superimposed over the image of the Virgin Mary. The back of the card says, "Dear Mary of Guadalupe, we thank you because your love is greater, because you listen to us without judging, because you know our heart and you respect the intimacy of our decisions."

One observer told the Friday Fax "how insulting it is that CFFC, a rich American pro-abortion group, would attempt to use the Latin American people's strong devotion to the Virgin Mary to impose their abortion agenda here."

At the same press conference, CFFC released polling data that purports to show that Latin American Catholics overwhelmingly accept a broad reproductive rights agenda.

Using polling data underscores the hypocrisy of the CFFC, and truly demonstrates the sort of apostasy in which their members engaged. For those who aren't Catholic, what "pray to Mary" means to Catholics is the equivalent of asking your friends or family to pray for you, as we believe that in Christ, there is no death. What the CFFC did was to ask Mary to pray to God to provide legalized abortion, and then put that prayer on a card associating the Virgin Mother with baby-killing. On top of that, to justify themselves, they use polls to argue for the legitimacy of their policy on abortion, as if Jesus founded a democracy.

Let's take this from the top. Mary of Nazareth was a poor, young, single pregnant girl in a society where that status didn't just bring scorn, it could bring the death penalty for adultery; stoning women who engaged in sex outside of marriage (as would have been the natural conclusion of the elders in this case) was not uncommon, as later Scripture shows. Instead of running away or aborting the child, she gave birth to the Messiah, in our faith tradition.

How, exactly, does the CFFC (which professes belief in the above) expect Mary to somehow be sympathetic to women aborting their babies for the sake of convenience and/or economics? They don't answer that, except to say that Mary will "respect the intimacy of our decisions," a meaningless statement that could cover any range of human activity. They instead point to the (supposed) popularity of abortion among Latin American Catholics.

However, nothing in the Bible, in either Testament, shows God, Jesus, or anyone taking polls to determine laws and rules. God did not say unto Moses, "Go forth from this place and question 5% of the tribes of Israel to determine the level of support for honoring thy mother and thy father." Jesus didn't hold a plebescite in order to decide whether to eject the moneychangers from the temple. The Holy Spirit did not descend upon the Apostles at Pentecost in order to send them out into the world to conduct focus-group testing. Core matters of faith do not depend on popularity, and the Catholic Church has been solidly consistent for 2,000 years on the question of abortion: it considers abortion to be the equivalent of murder. If the CFFC thinks that the Catholic Church so badly misrepresents the experience of the Virgin Mary, why aren't they looking for a church that agrees with their viewpoint instead?

Catholicism, it should be remembered, is a voluntary association, just like any other religion. No one is forcing the people in the CFFC to remain Catholic, and for that matter, no one is forcing them out, either. But it continues to strike me as extremely odd that people who value abortion more than their church remain Catholic at all. Faith calls for sacrifice, and if the CFFC is so preoccupied with convenience and popularity, it seems that they have lost the message a long time ago.

Hugh's Back On Line .... Thanks To Listener!

Thanks to the extra efforts of Hugh Hewitt fan Richard Shuford, Hugh's site is back on line. Read my updated post for the explanation!

Post's Pincus Spinning Like A Top

Walter Pincus keeps spinning the news for the Washington Post any way possible to make sure that the liberal meme stays afloat, and today provides a clear example of his efforts. Under the headline "Chemicals Not Found in Iraq Warheads," readers find out this in the third paragraph that Pincus negates his own lede:

Sixteen rocket warheads found last week in south-central Iraq by Polish troops did not contain deadly chemicals, a coalition spokesman said yesterday, but U.S. and Polish officials agreed that insurgents loyal to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and foreign terrorist fighters are trying to buy such old weapons or purchase the services of Iraqi scientists who know how to make them.

The Coalition Press Information Center in Baghdad said in a statement yesterday that the 122-milimeter rocket rounds, which initially showed traces of sarin, "were all empty and tested negative for any type of chemicals." The statement came just hours after two senior Polish defense officials told reporters in Warsaw, based on preliminary reports, that the rocket rounds contained deadly sarin and that actions by the Polish unit in Iraq kept them from being purchased by militants fighting coalition forces.

Yesterday's coalition release also said that two other 122-milimeter rounds, found by the Poles on June 16 with help from an Iraqi informer, tested positive for small quantities of sarin but were "so deteriorated" that they would have had "limited to no impact if used by insurgents against coalition forces."

So after leading his article with the lack of chemical weapons in 16 shells, it takes Pincus and the Post two more paragraphs to inform readers that two shells did contain WMD. Although the chemicals had deteriorated, their discovery again demonstrates that Saddam did not destroy his chemical weapons stocks after the first Gulf War.

In fact, most of the rest of the article goes into detail about the fears of the Coalition that terrorists will either find more chemical weapons or the scientists that produced them, although without the proper facilities for manufacture, their expertise may just wind up being theoretical. The article spends so much time on this that it begs the question of why Pincus led with the unremarkable information that the Poles found sixteen conventional rockets instead, and why the Post's editors wrote such a misleading headline.

So Much For Sadr's Political Power

Moqtada al-Sadr tossed the dice again yesterday, apparently eschewing his previously-stated desire to enter Iraqi politics and calling again for armed resistance to the "occupation." The Washington Post reports that Sadr and his organization appears less coherent than ever:

Moqtada Sadr, the rebellious Shiite Muslim cleric, insisted Friday that the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq had not ended with the recent handover of limited political powers to an interim government, and called on his followers to continue resisting the large presence of foreign troops in the country.

"I want to draw your attention to the fact there was no transferring of authority," said Jabir Khafaji, a top Sadr lieutenant, reading from a letter from the cleric during Friday prayers at a mosque in the southern city of Kufa where Sadr commonly preaches. "What has changed is the name only."

Khafaji also demanded that the new Iraqi government defer to the Shiite religious leadership based in the neighboring holy city of Najaf. He asserted that the Mahdi Army, Sadr's black-clad militia group that was recently decimated in two months of battle with U.S. forces, was "the army of Iraq."

The Iraqis better hope that the Mahdi Army doesn't become the new armed service of Iraq, for two reasons. One, the leadership of the Mahdi insist on strict Shari'a law and have executed people without trial on several occasions -- which is one of the reasons the CPA felt it necessary to take on the Mahdis last March. The second, as reporter Scott Wilson alludes, is their sheer incompetence. The US had very effectively rolled up a lot of their organization, including several key lieutenants of Sadr, and the Mahdis lost big in every engagement they initiated with the Americans. The only reason they survived is that they hid in the mosques, which Americans were understandably reluctant to attack. However, if the Mahdis used that tactic against the Iranians or the Syrians, they would soon find the holy shrines to be nothing but a distant memory, along with the Mahdis themselves.

Iraqis want to move on and get their country back on their feet. The last thing they need right now is renewed fighting on the streets of Najaf and Baghdad. Sadr only offers a return to the past, while Iraqis look to the future. If Sadr wanted to turn his organization into a political party, he must be getting advice from the neo-Stalinist folks at International ANSWER, and I expect him now to be just as successful.

Every Little Bit Helps

Coalition forces discovered a car-bomb manufacturing center and captured a number of people connected to the operation during two raids in south Baghdad, the BBC reports:

A large cache of weapons and cash was also found at the unidentified site, a US military statement said. Bomb-making equipment, weapons and ammunition were found in raids at other locations - and 51 people have been taken in for questioning. ...

The US said the Baghdad raid uncovered vehicles loaded with explosives for use as car bombs. ... On another raid, US soldiers found "partially assembled improvised explosive devices, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, eight RPG [rocket propelled grenade] rounds, approximately 50 pounds of C-4 explosives, TNT, five blasting caps, one detonator and other various munitions".

Coalition forces think they captured most of the key people involved in this ring, including the financier, the bombmaker, and the triggerman. No one thinks that this is the only gang building and setting off carbombs in Baghdad, of course, but capturing one is good progress. It also comes coincidentally close to the handover of sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government, which suggests that Coalition forces may be getting better intelligence from Iraqi civilians now that they feel in charge of their own nation again.

LA Times Lacks A Research Department -- Or Even Google

The Los Angeles Times breaks the "big" story this morning that the American military engineered the destruction of the Saddam Hussein statue in the Baghdad square as the city fell into American hands, and used Iraqi civilians to make it look more spontaneous:

As the Iraqi regime was collapsing on April 9, 2003, Marines converged on Firdos Square in central Baghdad, site of an enormous statue of Saddam Hussein. It was a Marine colonel — not joyous Iraqi civilians, as was widely assumed from the TV images — who decided to topple the statue, the Army report said. And it was a quick-thinking Army psychological operations team that made it appear to be a spontaneous Iraqi undertaking.

After the colonel — who was not named in the report — selected the statue as a "target of opportunity," the psychological team used loudspeakers to encourage Iraqi civilians to assist, according to an account by a unit member. ...

Ultimately, a Marine recovery vehicle toppled the statue with a chain, but the effort appeared to be Iraqi-inspired because the psychological team had managed to pack the vehicle with cheering Iraqi children.

Yawn. Whatever reporter David Zucchino recalls, at the time the statue fell, media outlets widely reported the fact that Army soldiers and equipment pulled the colossus down, and in fact received criticism for it. It was considered a heavy-handed and clumsy attempt to win hearts and minds, and the faux pas of putting an American flag over Saddam's head was trumpeted as a clear indicator that the event was initiated by the Army.

Interestingly, Fred Kaplan of Slate happened to be in Firdos Square at the time, which Zucchino and the people who wrote that report cannot claim. His story, filed on April 9th, 2003, differs somewhat, and as Kaplan could never be confused as an apologist for the Bush administration, perhaps his narrative might be instructice:

As I write this, 100 or so Iraqis are gathered in Baghdad's Firdos Square, trying to tear down an enormous statue of Saddam Hussein. Three men have set up a ladder, climbed up the pillar, and draped a long rope, noose style, around the statue's neck. Now they have climbed down, and a few others, including one very beefy fellow, are swinging away at the pillar with a hammer. The task seems futile. The pillar is about 30 feet high and 6 feet or so in diameter. The statue stands about 30 feet on top of it. A couple of American Abrams tanks are loitering about; they could topple the thing in a minute, but they seem disinclined, for the moment—leaving the task, as they should, to the Iraqis. ...

The crowd is still milling around Firdos Square, but they have stopped trying to topple Saddam's monument. And now, here comes the American tank. The Iraqis are now tying a steel chain, no doubt U.S.-supplied, to the statue, and the Abrams M1 will serve as the toppler. Oh, no; it's getting worse. Marines are getting up on the statue to pull it down themselves. One of them has draped an American flag over Saddam's head. What a moron! The very picture of neo-colonialism, which will make front pages all over the Arab world. Now he's taking off the American flag. No doubt, someone from Centcom, watching CNN, phoned the officer on the scene to chew him out and remind him of the orders against such displays.

A big sigh. Is this scene a sad symbol of the Iraqi people's helplessness, after 30 years of brutal dictatorship, to master their own fate? Is this an equally sad symbol of America's inability to liberate without conquering? Will the Iraqis need outside forces to oust not merely Saddam but the figments of his rule? Will the Americans help them without too strong a stench of arrogance?

Yeah, it sure sounds like Kaplan was nothing but a tool of the American military/industrial complex that day, doesn't it? I'm sure that Zucchino characterizes the Army report accurately, and I'm just as sure that someone in the PsyOps department decided to inflate their resume. It's fairly obvious that the rope didn't work and the people in the square (which the BBC reported at the time as "dozens") had given up trying. After that, the Army decided to do it instead, to Kaplan's dismay. Perhaps they rounded up some children for the photo op, but even Kaplan reported that there were plenty of people already in the area for some good pictures.

Zucchino and the LA Times didn't even bother to research the claims in this internal analysis, which is why the Los Angeles area would be better served with a competing newspaper that does its homework rather than follow its ideological bent. It took me ten seconds to find a first-hand account by a reporter on the scene, and the first one I got easily demolishes the entire thesis of the Times' story. I'm not sure what they're teaching in J-school these days, but maybe they should add a semester of Google to their curriculum. Most reporters, at least at the LA Times, appear to be completely ignorant of it.

Kerry: The VP Is In The (E-)Mail

I guess if a politician puts people to sleep with the natural force of his personality, he'll try any gimmick to spice up his campaign. That's the only explanation that makes sense for John Kerry's latest folly:

Democrat John Kerry plans to announce his vice presidential running mate in an e-mail to the 1 million subscribers to his campaign Web site. But he didn't say when ...

Typically, a presidential candidate announces a running mate at a carefully crafted campaign event. But Kerry told KSTP, an ABC affiliate in Minneapolis, that his Web site would be the first vehicle.

"The folks who are going to learn first about my choice are going to be the people on JohnKerry.com," Kerry said. "They're the people who've helped carry this campaign. They're the folks who've been part of our effort across the nation. And they'll be the first to know what my decision is."

So let me (quit laughing and) get this straight ... In order to make the most momentous decision of his campaign, the one that is widely heralded as the first "presidential" decision of a nominee, the one that candidates expect to generate enormous publicity and goodwill --

-- he'll land it like a flaccid catfish in a million inboxes, right along with the penis-enlargement spam? No cameras. No sound bites. No endlessly repeating videos on cable news shows, and no cheering crowds. Just a blip on your Hotmail account, between the porn ads and the Nigerian who wants to give you lots of money for just borrowing your bank account for a few hours.

Oh, Lord, does Karl Rove get around or what?

Who are these idiots?

AFP is reporting that several members of the House of Representatives have asked the UN to send observers to "ensure free and fair elections in America."

That's right. Apparently nine representatives (the only one named is the ringleader, Florida representative Eddie Bernice Johnson) of our legislative body believe that the American election system is so flawed that we need the UN (the UN!!!) to babysit.

Representative Johnson explained, "This is the first step in making sure that history does not repeat itself." The history of what? A Republican being elected president? A Democrat losing?

Even if the US electoral system was as rudimentary and chaotic as that of a third world country, no rational lawmaker would believe the UN could offer any assistance whatsoever. This is just one of many preemptory moves by a certain political party to set up issues before they lose the November election. I can see it all in my mind: Kofi Annan making a fuss about how US elections are so unfair that the winner (Bush) isn't the legitimate leader of the free world, a Michael Moore "documentary" . . . .

I want to know who the other 8 nitwits are, and I'll post their names here when I find out.

UPDATE: I did a quick internet search on Eddie Bernice Johnson, and the AFP was wrong. She's from Texas, not Florida. And she's a Democrat.

Hugh Hewitt Hacked

Someone has hacked into the Lord High Commissioner's site and replaced the index file on his server. Fortunately, they didn't do much except insert a new file that your browser hits before his index file. For the time being, use this URL to access his site:

http://www.hughhewitt.com/index.htm

If you just use the domain name, you will get the hacked page, which is stunning in its lack of imagination. I will make sure to keep you informed as updates occur.

UPDATE: Hugh Hewitt fan Richard Shuford went the extra mile to get the problem fixed:

I called the iPowerWeb technical-support line 888-511-4678 (which is claimed to be answered 24 hours a day), and after about 8 minutes of being on hold, I got to talk to a human.

This support guy was able to restore the home page while I was still
on the line. I asked him to have a system administrator inspect the
webserver machine (one of hundreds that iPowerWeb operates) to make
sure that no underlying technical compromise lingers. Let's hope
that is the end of the story!

No, Richard, the end of the story is that Hugh's fans are the best in radio, and we can say that because a number of them locally listen to the Northern Alliance, and we know them pretty well. Thanks for your efforts -- you went above & beyond!

Deaniacs Threaten Floor Fight

Supporters of Howard Dean have launched a campaign to get their favorite candidate on the Democratic ticket as John Kerry's VP, and sent a message to the presumptive nominee -- pick our man or watch your unity festival dissolve into a floor fight:

The National Draft Dean for VP Committee has not contacted either Dean or Kerry about its efforts, but it expects to approach the former Vermont governor before Democrats gather in Boston for the convention July 26.

"Howard Dean shifts the dynamics of the race," said Michael Meurer, co-chairman of the draft committee, who argued that Dean on the ticket would stop progressives from voting for independent candidate Ralph Nader. Dean has shown up on few, if any, lists of serious contenders for the vice presidential nomination. Members of the draft committee say they believe their efforts to persuade Kerry through petitions to choose Dean will prove futile.

So they came up with the idea of forcing a vote at the convention. "We're gearing up for and we're resigned to a floor fight," Meurer said.

At least 300 delegates have to sign a petition to put such a question before the convention; organizers claim they've already got 350 firm commitments from delegates to sign on and indications of support from another 150.

Once again, the Deaniacs threaten to undo the Democrats. Howard Dean sounded a discouraging note, at least publicly. Dean said that he "trust[s] him to pick a vice-presidential nominee that will best serve the Democratic Party and the country," and that he fully supported whoever Kerry chooses. Dean has kept a low profile since flaming out at the beginning of the primaries, trying to allow Kerry to attract as much attention as possible; in other words, he shifted from maverick outsider to team player, up to now.

However, Kerry's inability to gain traction has clearly worried some Democrats, especially those who remember the Dean days somewhat more fondly now that time has passed. The top candidates for the VP slot do not promise much more magic on the stump, either; Edwards comes closest, but he's also the least experienced and has even less executive credentials than Kerry. Gephardt and Vilsack promise even less excitement at the convention than Kerry, while Hillary probably brings too much excitement -- for Bill, and the last thing Kerry needs at the moment is to get outshined by the Big Me. Deaniacs want that excitement, that good feeling back, and if they don't get it, they may wreck the nominating party and eliminate the big bounce Kerry needs coming out of it.

The problem for Kerry is that it puts him squarely in the middle once more. In order for the Senate's most liberal member to attract the important swing voters, Kerry has to select a centrist. However, picking a centrist will, as is obvious now, alienate the Deaniacs who energized the early primaries for the Democrats. Those voters may well wind up giving Nader a very long look, and at the least will be less than fully motivated for the remainder of the campaign season.

The other danger for the Kerry campaign will arise if they start believing their own press releases and operate from the assumption that Kerry actually is a centrist. If that is the case, then Dean may wind up on the ticket -- which will combine the least effective campaigners in the party on a ticket that will skew hard left, the wrong direction entirely. A Kerry ticket that runs further to the left with Dean will bring about another Mondale or McGovern fiasco. And with the Deaniacs threatening floor fights, we may wind up seeing not just 1972 but 1968 all over again.

Maybe the networks will change their mind and cover the conventions this year. Unless, of course, Katie Couric has a croquet match on NBC instead.

NBC News: Self-Promotion Tops Historic Events

NBC News still may be wiping the egg off of its face yesterday, when it declined to cover the most important war-crimes effort since Nuremberg in favor of ... Katie Couric's badminton match:

ABC and CNN managed to outhustle their competition yesterday morning and placed the only Western journalists, aside from a news pool reporter, inside the Baghdad courtroom where Saddam Hussein was listening to the charges he will face when he goes to trial as a war criminal.

No network was more red-faced than NBC, which passed up the chance to broadcast, at the same time as every other television news outlet, the first scenes of the former dictator in the courtroom. NBC chose instead to continue a taped interview with the movie star Robert Redford, followed by a live badminton match between Katie Couric, the anchor of the network's "Today" program, and competitors from the United States Olympic badminton team. ...

NBC had no news of the events in the courtroom until after 9 a.m. The network simply passed on the chance to broadcast the video coverage of Mr. Hussein's court appearance. ... Ms. Genelius said CBS gave a two-minute warning to all other television news outlets that the scenes of Mr. Hussein would be transmitted. Every news organization interrupted its other programming to air those scenes at 8:30 a.m., except NBC.

When you wonder at the editorial choices made by the folks at NBC News (which, obviously, includes MS-NBC and CNBC), look no further than this humiliating incident. People still talk about the Heidi Bowl more than 30 years after NBC Sports decided to cut away from a Jets-Raiders football game instead of simply delaying the start of a rerun of a children's movie, and viewers missed the Raiders' two touchdowns in the final two minutes to win.

Needless to say, the embarrassment of this decision will be much worse, especially since the programming involved is so inanely self-promotional. Even on a slow news day, what possible public interest could be in watching badminton, and especially involving the overexposed Couric? Even a speech extolling patriotism on the Senate floor by Robert Byrd would hold more entertainment value, and certainly more news value. Seeing one of the most brutal tyrants in recent history haled before a court of his former victims to answer charges of mass murder doesn't happen more than once or twice in a lifetime.

"We made a bad call," said Allison Gollust, the spokeswoman for NBC News. ... Ms. Gollust said the network had no explanation beyond, "We made a mistake."

So did your viewers. Fortunately, in the future you will have less of them.

It Depends -- Are We Trying A Celebrity?

Houston may have some problems filling a jury pool, but I didn't think that they were this desperate. Harris County has served a jury summons to Nathan Dale Campbell, who may be less than an ideal candidate for most courts:

Nathan Dale Campbell was first summoned to report for Harris County jury service Monday, but the date was then rescheduled to Aug. 30, said a staffer in the district clerk's office.

Campbell, 30, was acquitted in 1997 after a jury found he was legally insane when he attacked girlfriend Kristen West the previous year, blinding her in one eye and permanently damaging her sight in the other. Campbell received treatment as an inpatient at the Kerrville State Hospital.

The attack followed West's refusal of Campbell's marriage proposal. He said he thought her eyes were demons. ... [L]awyers say it's doubtful he'll be picked for a panel.

Houston residents will be pleased to note that Campbell is now out of the state hospital and living in the community, although they refuse to say which one. His legal status allows him to serve on a jury, and while it might be a long shot, stranger things have happened. I was around for two trials in LA where a jury couldn't convict even though the crime was videotaped, and a second one where the perp's blood was all over the place and still got acquitted. I'd venture to say that both trials had their share of, er, non-linear thinkers on the juries.

Poland: We Found WMD, Bought It Ahead Of Terrorists

More evidence that the WMD we believed existed in Iraq still waits to be discovered, this time from the Poles patrolling in southern Iraq. The AP and the BBC report that the head of Polish military intelligence revealed that Polish troops outbid terrorists for rockets laden with chemical weapons:

Terrorists may have been close to obtaining munitions containing the deadly nerve agent cyclosarin that Polish soldiers recovered last month in Iraq, the head of Poland's military intelligence said Friday. Polish troops had been searching for munitions as part of their regular mission in south-central Iraq when they were told by an informant in May that terrorists had made a bid to buy the chemical weapons, which date back to Saddam Hussein's war with Iran in the 1980s, Gen. Marek Dukaczewski told reporters in Warsaw.

"We were mortified by the information that terrorists were looking for these warheads and offered $5,000 apiece," Dukaczewski said. "An attack with such weapons would be hard to imagine. All of our activity was accelerated at appropriating these warheads."

The BBC report adds this:

The general said the ammunition had been buried in order to avoid it being discovered by UN weapons inspectors.

Poland purchased seventeen rockets and two mortar shells containing cyclosarin, a derivative of the notorious nerve agent that is five times more powerful than its more well-known cousin. The Poles say the weapons came from a storage bunker in their sector, although they refused to get more specific.

This development coincides with General Richard Meyers's statement during his interview last night with Hugh Hewitt (transcript here), where the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs affirmed Donald Rumsfeld's announcement that the number of chemical weapons found has increased:

Hewitt: General Myers, yesterday Secretary Rumsfeld said and Vice President Cheney said it the week before that more warheads containing saran or mustard gas have been discovered in Iraq. Have you seen those reports?

General Myers: Right. I think there were 16 or 17 warheads that were discovered and has been confirmed that they contained both saran, the nerve agent saran and mustard gas and now they are looking the shells to try and determine their age and perhaps where they originated. So, that work is ongoing and I expect further reporting on that.

(By the way, this was a terrific interview -- I listened to it twice last night, and you should read the entire transcript.)

It's now obvious that Saddam held onto his chemical weapons despite all claims that they had been destroyed after the first Gulf War, which demonstrates the folly of UNSCOM inspections. They had twelve years to find this stuff, since the Iraqis continually failed to prove that they destroyed them. Now we know why. Perhaps he manufactured nothing new since then, although I highly doubt that, but his standing inventory provided enough killing power to make Saddam a highly dangerous man.

How much WMD do we need to prove the point? One of these shells would be enough to kill most of the people in my town, and 17 of them would be more than enough to wipe out any American urban center. The Poles worried about their use in Baghdad, but I suspect that had the terrorists made the buy first, they had plans for the weapons in Tel Aviv or Washington, DC.

UPDATE: Sorry, guys, but Miles's prediction wins out. The two warheads that tested positive for cyclosarin had degraded to the point where they represented no grave threat, according to this statement which the AP quotes from "multinational forces" in Baghdad:

"Those 16 rounds were all empty and tested negative for any type of chemicals," it said.

Two other warheads found in mid-June were found to contain an insignificant amount of sarin gas. The armaments were left over from the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, the statement said.

"Due to the deteriorated state of the rounds and small quantity of remaining agent, these rounds were determined to have limited to no impact if used by insurgents against coalition forces."

No danger -- but also a demonstration that they continued to remain in Saddam's arsenal long after they were supposed to be destroyed.

Cosby Wasn't Just Speaking To Blacks

The news media was buzzing last night as Bill Cosby's caustic address to the Rainbow-PUSH Coalition conference sped around the country. Cosby, who has dropped his normally humorous approach of late and has taken to scolding and shaming audiences, told people that their problems were primarily of their own making, and to quit spouting excuses -- lessons that apply far more broadly than most analysts give Cosby credit. Like most outlets, the AP repeatedly emphasized the ethnicity of the attendees:

Bill Cosby went off on another tirade against the black community Thursday, telling a room full of activists that black children are running around not knowing how to read or write and "going nowhere." He also had harsh words for struggling black men, telling them: "Stop beating up your women because you can't find a job."

Cosby made headlines in May when he upbraided some poor blacks for their grammar and accused them of squandering opportunities the civil rights movement gave them. He shot back Thursday, saying his detractors were trying in vain to hide the black community's "dirty laundry."

"Let me tell you something, your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 every day, it's cursing and calling each other n------ as they're walking up and down the street," Cosby said during an appearance at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition & Citizenship Education Fund's annual conference.

"They think they're hip," the entertainer said. "They can't read; they can't write. They're laughing and giggling, and they're going nowhere."

And so on; Cosby gave plenty more examples of his point, which was that the degradation of culture began in the homes with the parents. Some of his examples were specifically aimed towards the black community, especially in his tirade against the use of the "n-word", which I find so foul that I refuse to use it even in quotes. Cosby apparently agrees, despite, or perhaps because of, its resurgent popularity:

Cosby lamented that the racial slurs once used by those who lynched blacks are now a favorite expression of black children. And he blamed parents.

"When you put on a record and that record is yelling `n----- this and n----- that' and you've got your little 6-year-old, 7-year-old sitting in the back seat of the car, those children hear that," he said.

I heard more of that part of his speech on the radio, and while I can't quite quote Cosby verbatim, he railed about the popularity of a word created by racists who spent decades stringing black Americans up in trees and burning them out of their homes. But beyond this specific point, Cosby could well have been addressing Nob Hill parents, or the PTA meeting at Beverly Hills High School, and on two levels.

The specific cultural degradations to which Cosby referred -- a lack of emphasis on child-rearing, the abdication of parental responsibilities, and the failure to hold children and teenagers accountable for their education, dress, speech, and behavior apply to all social and ethnic strata in American life today. Go to the mall and see how our sons and daughters dress in public today. The boys look like hoods, dressed in gangsta chic, where beltless pants droop sometimes below the buttocks and ludicrously large shirts overwhelm narrow shoulders. But the boys are only the secondary issue. Our daughters go to the mall dressed in the same outfits streetwalkers wore ten or fifteen years ago, covered in makeup and showing almost as much skin as at the beach. At the rehearsal for my goddaughter's confirmation, many of the girls showed up in that mode of dress -- in church. I'm not talking about 18- or 19-year olds; these were girls as young as 14, and the ones at the mall get younger than that.

Since when did American parents get so comfortable pimping their daughters out to society?

The verbal skills are not much of an improvement, either. Everything Cosby says about black youths and the English language applies to suburban white and Asian youth as well. Perhaps they all get it from the same source -- rap music and the hip-hop culture -- but in any event, it's not an ethnic issue now, if it ever really was. We are raising a generation of verbal illiterates, and I tell you that it's not an affectation. I interview dozens of people a year for jobs, and I hear more and more of what Cosby describes during these meetings. I sit back in wonder that the applicants haven't a clue as to the immediate disqualification that creates for customer-service positions.

People can continue to assume that parental abdication and the degradation of our youth is strictly a problem in the black community. A few will take Cosby's message and use it to bash African-Americans. Even Bill Cosby may have focused on the community closest to his heart in order to wake it up. But we all are deceiving ourselves if we think that his criticisms don't apply to our entire society.

The Kiss Of Death?

Kofi Annan's travels in the Sudan took him to a couple of interesting places yesterday, including a camp that disappeared and another where he gave promises that the world has heard before from UN mouthpieces:

There were only donkeys milling around in a soggy, trash-strewn lot on Thursday afternoon when the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, and his entourage arrived at what was supposed to be a crowded squatter camp here in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan.

Gone were the more than 1,000 residents of the Meshtel settlement. Gone as well were their makeshift dwellings. Hours before Mr. Annan's arrival, the local authorities had loaded the camp's inhabitants aboard trucks and moved them. ...

"Where are the people?" Mr. Annan was overheard asking a Sudanese official who was accompanying his tour of Darfur, the region in western Sudan where the government has been accused of unleashing armed militias on the local population to quell a rebel uprising.

Al Noor Muhammad Ibrahim, minister of social affairs for the state of North Darfur, explained that the camp on Mr. Annan's itinerary no longer existed. He said the government had relocated its residents the evening before, sometime after United Nations officials had paid a visit at 5 p.m. on Wednesday in preparation for a stop by Mr. Annan.

"It's not because the secretary general of the United Nations is here that we moved them," Mr. Ibrahim insisted as incredulous United Nations officials looked on.

Annan has toured the Darfur region of the Sudan in order to determine the treatment of refugees firsthand. Earlier reports of rape and sexual barter at the hands of the UN peacekeepers in the Congo have not kept Annan from instead investigating Sudanese atrocities occuring between the Islamists in the north and the ethnic mix of the people in the south. Annan has stopped short of calling the situation "genocide", even though tens of thousands of people are dying as they are driven off their land, and rape and sexual slavery have become common. Invoking the G-word requires the UN and its member states to take action, and action is anathema to Annan and his coterie of bureaucrats and sycophants.

As the Oil-For-Food program proved, no one gets rich taking action.

Later, after "inspecting" the Incredible Disappearing Camp (with, it should be noted, the Incredible Disappearing Refugees), Annan and his team inspected the Zam Zam refugee camp, which fortunately for all involved still existed. They checked out the well that the UN had installed at the camp and spoke to some of the refugees, despite attempted interference from Sudanese officials who wanted to monitor the conversations.

After much give and take, the authorities agreed but stood nearby as a woman described how 20 camp dwellers had been raped during the attacks on their villages.

Mr. Annan put his hand to his heart and said: "No one is going to force you to go home without security. As long as you're in this camp, we'll do everything we can to protect you."

The women, in unison, praised Allah.

The women of Zam Zam should be speaking to the women of Bunia, or the Muslims of Srebrenica, or the Serbs of Kosovo.

Chinese Continue Their Espionage

The government announced yesterday that it had arrested seven people for the illegal transfer of sensitive military technology and material to the People's Republic of China through contacts in Hong Kong. The Washington Post reports that the suspects sent systems like smart bombs and electronic warfare equipment to what the suspects had tried to pass off as an American-owned company:

Federal agents arrested seven people yesterday in two suburban New Jersey towns and charged them with exporting millions of dollars' worth of sensitive military technology and components to China. The arrests were the latest in a crackdown on what authorities believe is a clandestine network purchasing weapons technology across the United States for the communist power.

The men and women arrested yesterday are connected to two companies and are accused of sending the Chinese military several shipments of weapons systems, including radar, smart bombs, electronic warfare and communications equipment. According to the complaints, the items were routed through Hong Kong by various means, and the defendants tried to conceal their activities by identifying the receiver as a U.S. corporation. ...

Agents also seized $76,000 in cash during the arrests, at the homes and businesses of the defendants in Mount Laurel and Cherry Hill. All seven defendants made an initial court appearance in Camden, N.J., yesterday and were charged with one count each of conspiracy, wire fraud and violation of the Export Administration Act, which requires exporters of military items to register and obtain a license from the State Department. The charges carry a combined maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and $1.2 million in fines. Five of the suspects are naturalized U.S. citizens of Chinese origin, and two others, also Chinese, are permanent legal residents who risk deportation.

Color me surprised! We managed to let in more people who want to damage the security of the US, only at least this group did it the old-fashioned way rather than the modern method of killing civilians by the thousands. As far as I'm concerned, all seven of them should be deported if found guilty. Receiving naturalization gives no one the right to spy against their adopted country, and applying for citizenship just to get access to sensitive military technology to sell it to those who may use it against us should be grounds for revocation.

I find it interesting that the government has not yet charged them with espionage but instead with more techical felonies regarding technology transfers. As the Post notes, this is one set of arrests in a series of investigations regarding transfers of military secrets to the PRC. Is the State Department putting pressure on Homeland Security to dial down the charges in order to avoid embarrassing the Chinese government by revealing their extensive espionage efforts against America? After all, they appear to be the main customer, and since their military industry remains nationalized, no one can pretend the technology goes anywhere else. Could this be State's quid pro quo for putting pressure on North Korea?

Richardson: No Thanks

Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico publicly withdrew his name from consideration in the Kerry Veepstakes this evening, in a letter sent to Kerry's campaign office. Richardson, one of the most recognizable Hispanic officeholders in the nation, had originally promised to stay in office for his entire term as governor, he explained:

Richardson said he wants to keep a promise to the people of New Mexico to serve a full, four-year term and noted that Kerry has "numerous experienced and talented leaders" from which to choose a vice presidential candidate.

"It is with that knowledge and comfort that I must tell you that I respectfully remove myself from the selection process and withdraw my name from consideration for the vice presidential nomination," Richardson said.

I was just discussing Richardson's potential with the Elder and Saint Paul at Keegan's this evening, where the duo invited me to fill in on their regular Thursday trivia contests. (We tied for first, but only because we got robbed on a question about filibusters.) Richardson not only brings real centrist credentials, but also critical experience in foreign policy and federal government. Richardson is widely considered to be noncontroversial and intelligent, and his understated speaking style would have provided a nice counterpoint to Kerry's broad oratorical style. Plus, he would have brought executive experience to the ticket, something Kerry sorely lacks.

Why did Richardson take himself out? You could take his word that he wanted to complete his term, but his constituency would probably not have been all that unhappy to have their state represented in the national election. His tenure at the Energy Department may have had something to do with it, as the Wen Ho Lee investigation was conducted mostly under his watch, as well as the security problems at Los Alamos. I still think he would have easily overcome both issues and could have been formidable as a candidate, and would have been the easy choice to help Kerry capture the Hispanic vote.

Something tells me that he saw something he didn't like when he met with Kerry. This chance likely won't come around for Richardson in the future, as either Kerry will be running for re-election in 2008 or Hillary will be running to replace Bush then. Something also tells me, given Richardson's discretion and demeanor, that we'll never know for sure.

Long time, no blogging

Remember me, Ed's partner? Probably not, and I don't blame you since my posting has dwindled this summer. After a year in Asia, I will move back to the US in August, and I've been in a frenzy finishing up my work here. I plan to make up some lost blogging time over the long weekend, but it's rainy season here and the internet connection goes down when things get too wet. Please bear with me over the next few months as I make the transition back to the land of the waterproof internet!

Jordan Offers Troops To New Iraqi Government

In a blockbuster announcement that underscores the massive political victory that the handover of sovereignty represents to the US, Jordan's King Abdullah announced that Jordan would send troops to assist the new Iraqi government if asked:

Jordan's King Abdullah II said Thursday his country would be willing to send troops to Iraq, potentially becoming the first Arab state to do so. The statement marked a major shift in Jordan's position on Iraq. Abdullah had initially refused to send troops.

In an interview Thursday with the British Broadcasting Corp. television "Newsnight" program, he said the new Iraqi interim government had changes his mind.

"I presume that if the Iraqis ask us for help directly it would be very difficult for us to say no," he said. "Our message to the president or the prime minister is: Tell us what you want. Tell us how we can help, and you have 110 percent support from us."

Jordan allied with the US for political support for the Iraq War, causing hard feelings among some of its neighbors but boosting Anglo-American efforts in the region. Now that the Bush administration held the line on the transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqis, Abdullah now feels free to provide more material assistance, as it avoids directly aiding the US.

This announcement represents a stunning endorsement of Bush's decision to stand firm on sovereignty as well as underscore the legitimacy of its nature. Bush's critics have repeatedly charged that Iraqi sovereignty is nothing but a sham. Obviously, Abdullah disagrees to such an extent that he is willing to place his own armed services under Allawi's jurisdiction, something he refused to do with Americans in charge. I rather doubt that Jordan would countenance its troops under the command of Western, Christian commanders. Even under Allawi's command, Jordan risks a political backlash from extremist groups inside and outside of its borders for supporting the independent and representative government forming in the heart of Arabia.

Will this convince the doubters that the Bush strategy and diplomacy has been badly underestimated?

UPDATE: More from the BBC:

Praising the new Iraqi leaders, whom he described as "good, tough, courageous people" he urged them to call on the Jordanian people for support.

"The challenges... that face them on security are going to be their major problem and they are going to need everybody's help," he said.

Perhaps it's just that Abdullah has a better vantage point than International ANSWER and the rest of the naysayers ... or maybe he just has his eyes open.

Hey Diddle Diddle, The Moore Jumped Over The Shark

Over the past twenty-four hours, it's become obvious that the credibility of Michael Moore even among his natural allies has diminished to near zero. Last night Newsweek blew apart the central thesis of his paean to conspiracy-theory paranoia, Fahrenheit-9/11, by utterly refuting the notion that the Saudis had bought the entire Bush family in the 1990s. Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, no right-wing apologists, did that with simple research and understanding of the calendar.

Now today, two major opinion columnists on the Left have shredded Moore's tactics and conclusions even more vociferously than the deferential Isikoff and Hosenball. First, Richard Cohen writes of Moore's film in today's Washington Post (via Memeorandum):

I brought a notebook with me when I went to see Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" and in the dark made notes before I gave up, defeated by the utter stupidity of the movie. ... Moore's depiction of why Bush went to war is so silly and so incomprehensible that it is easily dismissed. As far as I can tell, it is a farrago of conspiracy theories. But nothing is said about multiple U.N. resolutions violated by Iraq or the depredations of Saddam Hussein. In fact, prewar Iraq is depicted as some sort of Arab folk festival -- lots of happy, smiling, indigenous people. Was there no footage of a Kurdish village that had been gassed? This is obscenity by omission.

Next, Ellen Goodman follows up with her own disapproval towards the Oscar-winning documentarian, whom the Academy may wish to avoid during the next voting cycle, titled "Limbaughing To The Left". (That's not a compliment, by the way, when coming from Goodman.)

But at some point, I also began to feel just a touch out of harmony. Not even this alto believes that the Iraq war was brought to us courtesy of the Bush-Saudi oil-money connection. Not even the rosiest pair of my retro-spectacles sees prewar Iraq as a happy valley where little children flew kites. ...

Moore described his movie as an "op-ed piece," not a documentary. Well, I know something about op-ed pieces. Over the long run, you don't get anywhere just whacking your audience upside the head; you try to change the mind within it. You don't just go for the gut. You try, gulp, reason.

Bear in mind that both columnists take plenty of opportunity to take shots at the Bush administration, although Goodman also writes about the lack of intelligent discourse between the right and the left in this country, which people should take time to read. Both Goodman and Cohen, especially Cohen, argue persuasively that not only will F-9/11 fail to convince anyone but the true ABB believers, its falsehoods and propaganda will repel the centrists.

If Tom Daschle, Tom Harkin, Barbara Boxer, and the other Democratic leaders who showed up for the premier and lavished praise on this film are reading the papers today, they have to feel cut off at the knees. After all, Michael Moore will make tons of money off of this film and continue to produce movies regardless of how F-9/11 plays out from here. But if Moore's lunacy sticks to the fools who jumped into his cesspool with both feet, their careers may be over sooner than they think, especially Daschle, who faces a strong challenge from John Thune in November.

QandO has a good roundup on Moore, and Instapundit notes a lot of blog reaction as well.

Benon Sevan Knew Of Bribery, Took No Action: Fox

Fox News reported yesterday that they have discovered documents that show Benon Sevan, the UN Oil-For-Food program chief, was notified of illegal bribes and kickbacks in a blunt and direct letter asking for his help in getting a refund. Sevan received a letter from the Russian oil corporation Lakia informing him that Iraq had reneged on an arrangement:

The Oct. 2, 2002, letter was blunt and direct. It accused the State Oil Marketing Organization (search) of "lying to us."

"It is necessary for us to ask the immediate reimbursement of the sum of $60,000 which was sent to you from us on your request for a so-called necessary advance payment," said the letter, written by Gazi Luguev, Lakia's president.

Upon receipt of this letter, Sevan should have immediately notified the UN Security Council of the corruption within the Iraqi agency handling OFF, and launched an investigation of other contractual engagements. Instead, he first went to Iraq to inform them of the letter's contents:

After getting the Lakia letter, Sevan wrote to Mohammed A. Aldouri, Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations.

"I am duty bound to bring the matter to the attention of the Security Council...prior to doing so, however, I should like to receive most urgently the views and comments of the Government of Iraq," Sevan wrote.

Aldouri issued a brief response that said Lakia's letter "contains information that is not correct" but it did not spell out the problems with the Lakia allegations.

Fox asks the right questions in its analysis:

Why did Sevan, who's been reluctant to publicly answer any questions about the beleaguered oil-for-food program, tell the Iraqi government about the bribe allegation against it before apparently telling the Security Council? Was he getting the facts straight, or was he, in effect, tipping off Saddam Hussein that questions might soon be asked?

Second, after Sevan eventually brought the matter to the Security Council's attention, why did it not provoke an investigation and changes in the program especially since rumors of corruption were already widespread?

I had heard about this document on Hugh Hewitt's show last night but am surprised at how little play it has received today. Could this be due to its source, Fox News, which now tops the ratings among cable-news programs? Or could it be that mainstream media outlets are making editorial decisions to protect the UN's image? Whatever the reason, the public has little clue how overt and indiscreet the corruption at Turtle Bay became as more and more people cashed in.

UPDATE: Well, color me myopic ... I looked around at Instapundit and didn't see a link back to this story. That's because Glenn linked to a more comprehensive article from Claudia Rosett, the star of UNSCAM reporters. Read the whole thing.

Well, I Used To Be, Anyway

Saddam Hussein made his first appearance in court yesterday, jauntily in some reports while coming across confused in others, to face charges of genocide and other assorted war crimes. The former dictator has lost weight and cleaned up since his capture, the AP notes, but has lost none of his arrogance:

A defiant Saddam Hussein rejected charges of war crimes and genocide against him in a court appearance Thursday, telling a judge "this is all theater, the real criminal is Bush," according to a reporter in an official media pool. ... "I am Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq," Saddam said, according to the CNN reporter.

In his first public appearance since he was captured seven months ago, Saddam refused to sign a list of charges against him and questioned the court's jurisdiction, according to a CNN reporter who was in the courtroom as part of a pool arrangement. He defended the invasion of Kuwait, saying Saddam said he invaded Kuwait "for the Iraqi people."

It will come as no surprise if Saddam attempts to hijack his trial to turn it into a showcase for his political viewpoints, to the extent they exist beyond his threadbare rationalizations for his personality cult. I doubt it would have much affect on the tribunal, as they had all been victimized by that cult in the past, but I don't think Saddam's terribly concerned about working towards an acquittal.

Hermann Goering used the Nuremberg tribunal as a means of projecting the Nazi political message to the world, expecting fully to be executed, and more importantly taking most of his fellow Nazis in the dock with him. Goering figured he had nothing to lose and surely had nothing to gain by trying any other strategy, and he was right. Only a few other primary Nuremberg defendants rebelled against Goering, notably Albert Speer, who saved his life by his calculated strategy of dispassionate self-incrimination, acknowledging his culpability up front while offering no excuses for it.

Expect Saddam to follow Goering's example. I doubt that there will be an Albert Speer in the entire Ba'athist bunch.

Homeland Security Sloppy With Wireless

CNN reports that the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security has completed an audit of internal security and found that its own wireless communications systems leave gaping holes into their networks:

Although charged with making the nation more secure, the Department of Homeland Security has not taken the steps needed to secure its own wireless communications, according to a report from the department's Inspector General. ...

In some tests, investigators detected Homeland Security wireless signals broadcasting beyond the perimeters of secure facilities. "We detected wireless signals ... in the parking lot, on public roads behind the facility, and in the surrounding residences," the report says. "These wireless signals create security vulnerabilities such as eavesdropping and denial of service attacks."

Investigators also detected wireless signals from surrounding residences and businesses within some Homeland Security facilities. "These signals can be used to monitor or gain access to DHS wireless networks and sensitive data," the report says.

Wireless networks are tricky; their signals do not necessarily respect boundaries such as walls and fences, and unless precisely calibrated and located, will allow access from unusual spots (and disappear in others). In some of my adventures with my laptop and wireless adapter, especially in hospitals and medical facilities, I have been surprised by how easily I have accessed network resources to get out to the Internet. I can't access the network file servers -- I'd have to know quite a bit more about the network, including internal IP addresses and logins -- but a more adept user might be more successful at gaining access.

Frankly, I'm a bit disappointed that the IT people at DHS haven't figured this out before now. I'm sure that their wireless networks are encrypted, or at least I would think CNN would have reported it if they weren't, but encryption does not ensure impregnability. DHS needs to address this weakness immediately.

Democrats Discover Religion

One of the Republican strategies for this election is to energize the chuch base, one of their weak points in 2000 when a significant portion of the evangelical voters failed to come to the polls, mistrustful of George Bush's centrism. (One of the reasons Bush chose Cheney as his running mate was to shore up his conservative credentials.) The Washington Post reports that the Bush campaign has sent support material for their volunteers to get church congregations involved, sending up wailing and lamentations from Democrats that claim, among other things, that the outreach is "sinful":

The Bush-Cheney reelection campaign has sent a detailed plan of action to religious volunteers across the country asking them to turn over church directories to the campaign, distribute issue guides in their churches and persuade their pastors to hold voter registration drives.

Campaign officials said the instructions are part of an accelerating effort to mobilize President Bush's base of religious supporters. They said the suggested activities are intended to help churchgoers rally support for Bush without violating tax rules that prohibit churches from engaging in partisan activity. ...

The instruction sheet circulated by the Bush-Cheney campaign to religious volunteers lists 22 "duties" to be performed by specific dates. By July 31, for example, volunteers are to "send your Church Directory to your State Bush-Cheney '04 Headquarters or give [it] to a BC04 Field Rep" and "Talk to your Pastor about holding a Citizenship Sunday and Voter Registration Drive."

By Aug. 15, they are to "talk to your Church's seniors or 20-30 something group about Bush/Cheney '04" and "recruit 5 more people in your church to volunteer for the Bush Cheney campaign."

By Sept. 17, they are to host at least two campaign-related potluck dinners with church members, and in October they are to "finish calling all Pro-Bush members of your church," "finish distributing Voter Guides in your church" and place notices on church bulletin boards or in Sunday programs "about all Christian citizens needing to vote."

Because of the tax-exempt status of churches, they cannot participate in partisan politics. Churches as organizations can hold voter registration drives and sponsor debates, but are prohibited from endorsing a particular candidate or party. However, members of congregations can certainly politic with other members, call them on the phone, and encourage their pastors to do all they can within the tax laws to promote political activism amongst the parishioners. In the examples the Post cites, that's as far as the Bush campaign requests them to go.

That hasn't stopped the gnashing of teeth and rending of garments from the Democrats, however. Various Democratic activists warn the Post's readers of the Apocalypse of tax investigations if people take the Bush campaign's advice. The Kerry campaign warns that Republicans are "luring" churches into risking their tax-exempt status, while liberal activist group, America Coming Together, hints at even darker consequences:

"I think it is sinful of them to encourage pastors and churches to engage in partisan political activity and run the risk of losing their tax-exempt status," said Steve Rosenthal, chief executive officer of America Coming Together, a group working to defeat Bush.

If you recall, Rosenthal's group is the same one who sent convicted sex offenders to people's homes in order to register the residents as Democrats, a fact which the Post fails to mention in its overwrought coverage of this non-story. This is also the same party that has insisted for eight years that Vice President Al Gore did nothing illegal when he engaged in fund-raising at the Hsi Lai Buddhist temple in Los Angeles.

Of course, now the Democrats have become terribly concerned about the souls of the various churches that may come into contact with the Republican heathen, and don't hesitate to use terminology that would have them screaming "impending theocracy!" at the top of their lungs had Republicans used it instead. It's a thinly-veiled attempt to threaten churches with IRS complaints if their members organize for political activity on behalf of Republicans, a blatant act of intimidation that belies the fear Democrats have that the Republicans will wind up with the greater grass-roots effort this election cycle.

Even His Supporters Agree: Michael Moore Lies

Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, Newsweek reporters who regularly pen the magazine's Terror Watch column, reviews the major distortions of Michael Moore's new "documentary" Fahrenheit-9/11. Even though Isikoff and Hosenball express sympathy for Moore's efforts in building criticism of the Bush administration, they acknowledge that most of Moore's major criticisms are nothing but a tissue of lies. In a moment of journalistic understatement, the subtitle of their Newsweek article is "Some of the main points in ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ really aren’t very fair at all".

To start, F-9/11 makes the extraordinary claim that the Saudis have given the Bush family over $1.4 billion since the early 1990s, effectively buying them off in a sweetheart deal with the Carlyle Group and defense contractor BDM. Moore took the information from a book written by Craig Unger that is often referenced (incompletely) by conspiracy theorists on the Left, and Moore obviously did little research beyond this point. As Terror Watch notes, the Bushes had no connections to Carlyle or BDM at the time the deal Moore discusses was completed:

Moore derives the $1.4 billion figure from journalist Craig Unger’s book, “House of Bush, House of Saud.” Nearly 90 percent of that amount, $1.18 billion, comes from just one source: contracts in the early to mid-1990’s that the Saudi Arabian government awarded to a U.S. defense contractor, BDM, for training the country’s military and National Guard. What’s the significance of BDM? The firm at the time was owned by the Carlyle Group, the powerhouse private-equity firm whose Asian-affiliate advisory board has included the president’s father, George H.W. Bush.

Leave aside the tenuous six-degrees-of-separation nature of this “connection.” The main problem with this figure, according to Carlyle spokesman Chris Ullman, is that former president Bush didn’t join the Carlyle advisory board until April, 1998—five months after Carlyle had already sold BDM to another defense firm. True enough, the former president was paid for one speech to Carlyle and then made an overseas trip on the firm’s behalf the previous fall, right around the time BDM was sold. But Ullman insists any link between the former president’s relations with Carlyle and the Saudi contracts to BDM that were awarded years earlier is entirely bogus. “The figure is inaccurate and misleading,” said Ullman. “The movie clearly implies that the Saudis gave $1.4 billion to the Bushes and their friends. But most of it went to a Carlyle Group company before Bush even joined the firm. Bush had nothing to do with BDM.”

Moore's "war room", a group of paid consultants Moore uses to answer media challenges (some would say that they exist to intimidate legitimate criticism by Moore's open threat of legal action), shoots back that Bush served on the board of another Carlyle firm during that period of time and that Bush cronies James Baker and Richard Darman were principals with BDM as well. All true, Isikoff and Hosenball admit, but fatally out of context:

Like many similar entities, Carlyle boasts a roster of bipartisan Washington power figures. Its founding and still managing partner is Howard Rubenstein, a former top domestic policy advisor to Jimmy Carter. Among the firm’s senior advisors is Thomas “Mack” McLarty, Bill Clinton’s former White House chief of staff, and Arthur Levitt, Clinton’s former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. One of its other managing partners is William Cannard, Clinton’s chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Spokesman Ullman was the Clinton-era spokesman for the SEC.

As for the president’s own Carlyle link, his service on the Carterair board ended when he quit to run for Texas governor—a few months before the first of the Saudi contracts to the unrelated BDM firm was awarded. Moreover, says Ullman, Bush “didn’t invest in the [Carterair] deal and he didn’t profit from it.” (The firm was a big money loser and was even cited by the campaign of Ann Richards, Bush’s 1994 gubernatorial opponent, as evidence of what a lousy businessman he was.)

In fact, as Newsweek points out, once Bush was in office, his only action on any Carlyle-connected issue was to cancel the Crusader rocket artillery system in order to fulfill a campaign promise to convert the Army into a lighter, more mobile and responsive fighting force. Far from being in thrall to the Saudis, the Bushes (especially 43) have little connection at all to them. In fact, in reviewing their policy towards the Saudis and the royal family, it is merely the continuance of supporting their stability in return for the freer flow of oil -- which the American government has done for decades.

Ask yourself this: if the Saudis had Bush under their thumb, why would they have allowed him to attack Iraq, or even the Taliban? American armed intervention has destabilized the region to a greater degree than they have seen since the initial establishment of Israel, and al-Qaeda have been targeting the Saudi royal family ever since the first Gulf War because of their alliance with Washington. The increased instability does nothing to help the Saudis, and it forces them to reform where they would far prefer to maintain the status quo ante.

Instead of Bush controlling the Saudis, it's fairly obvious that the Saudis depend on American security and American markets to maintain their lifestyle, and have been forced to adapt to policies they otherwise would oppose. Chief among these is the public toleration of Israel. In private, and in their mosques, they preach quite a different sermon, which is another problem altogether. If the Saudis held the upper hand, they simply could change America's foreign policy with a call to the White House, or failing that, by embargoing the US. Why don't they? Because the US could find other resources, including domestic, to replace the supply, and the Saudis would suffer far more economic damage than we would in the long run.

Also, a number of people in the region lust after their oil resources, and while their security services might be enough to keep the peace domestically, their armed forces could not possibly stand up to a sustained attack. And it's not just the natural resources at question. The Saudis guard the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina, which would certainly be considered prizes beyond measure for Sunni and Shi'ite fanatics. Saddam himself was a pan-Arabist who dreamed of ruling a united Arabia comprising all of the territories in Southwest Asia, and the Sauds know that dream was not limited to Saddam alone.

Without the Saudis pulling the strings, Moore's bloviating conspiracy theories fall apart. Read the entire article; Newsweek does a good job of deconstructing the most lunatic of Moore's fantasies, including the Ted Rall-inspired rant about the Taliban and the Afghani oil pipeline.

Nader: It's The Yahoods, I Tell You

Ralph Nader took a stroll from gadfly status to full-blown moonbat in a speech given at a conference titled, "The Muslim Vote in 2004". In pandering to the Muslims, Nader asserted that all of the ills of Washington could be traced to one source:

"What has been happening over the years is a predictable routine of foreign visitation from the head of the Israeli government. The Israeli puppeteer travels to Washington. The Israeli puppeteer meets with the puppet in the White House, and then moves down Pennsylvania Avenue, and meets with the puppets in Congress. And then takes back billions of taxpayer dollars. It is time for the Washington puppet show to be replaced by the Washington peace show."

I could almost see Nader delivering this speech. "The [cough cough] Israeli puppeteer ..." The Democrats should love this. After making a number of bogus allegations of Nazihood towards the Bush administration, suddenly a champion of the people reveals himself as a raving anti-Semite. How many of them will stand up and call Nader a brownshirt? Don't hold your breath; while attacking Nader might convince a few of his supporters to bolt, likely it will only annoy leftists who already hate Israel and drive them further into Nader's camp.

Besides, as with the boy who cried "wolf" once too often, we've heard so many Nazi allegations this election cycle that the discovery of a truly foul example will most likely be overlooked until it's too late. (via Memeorandum)

They Just Keep Rolling In

In a boost for the Bush administration and the President's re-election bid, Reuters reports that economists estimate that the US has added another quarter-million jobs in June, pushing the total for the year past 1.4 million:

U.S. employment likely surged again in June, taking gains this year to some 1.4 million jobs and bolstering President George W. Bush's economic record ahead of the November election, analysts said onWednesday.

Economists believe 250,000 jobs were created this month, virtually matching May's jump of 248,000, though the unemployment rate probably will not budge from 5.6 percent because newly hopeful job-seekers are returning to the job market.

Not only is the economy producing new jobs at a fast clip, the newer jobs tend to be higher-paying as well, as they were in April and May according to analysts. The new jobs have also bolstered consumer confidence as the news seems to have finally sunk into the electorate:

The shift in political rhetoric from the "jobless recovery" lament of the Democrats to "nearly a million jobs in 100 days" of the Bush administration appears to have reached consumers, whose confidence levels hit the highest level in two years in June, according to a Conference Board report this week.

"They get the feeling that things have turned the corner and that's making them much more hopeful," said Joel Naroff, president and chief economist of Naroff Economic Advisors.

Not to mention that workers' compensation increased, too:

Friday's report is also expected to show a sixth straight monthly rise in hourly earnings, though the workweek will likely be unchanged at 33.8 hours, according to a Reuters survey of economists.

Longer hours and fatter paychecks are seen by experts as evidence the economy is on the threshold of even stronger job gains in the months ahead.

"The next step after increasing the length of the workweek, paying perhaps more overtime (or) hiring more temporary workers ... (is) hiring back some of the previously laid off workers or ramping up staffing in general," Reaser said.

So the Bush economic strategy has paid off, Iraq has its sovereignty back, we've so far avoided another terrorist attack in the US, Libya has disarmed, India and Pakistan have expanded diplomatic ties, and NATO has agreed to support both Iraqi and Afghan security forces to assist in establishing democracy in Southwest Asia. Somehow, I suspect that we've seen the high-water mark of the Kerry candidacy.

2Pac Or Not 2Pac? That's The Quizzle. Word.

Michelle Malkin, one of my favorite writers, notes the summer reading list from a Worcester school district now includes the poetry of hate incitement:

Have you checked your child's summer reading list? Beware: Some lame-brained school officials have decided to ditch the sonnets of Shakespeare for the tripe of Tupac. That's slain gangsta rapper Tupac Shakur -- the drug-dealing, baseball bat-wielding, cop-hating, Black Panthers-worshiping, convicted sexual abuser who made a fortune extolling the "thug life" before he was gunned down in Las Vegas eight years ago. ...

Frances Arena, manager of curriculum and professional development of the Worcester Public Schools, told me this week that Shakur's book will remain on the list for the foreseeable future because it "heightens awareness of character education" and, more importantly, because it's "popular with the kids."

If that's the standard, why not just drop the pretense of academic instruction and assign them comic books and romance novels?

Why bother with reading at all? My guess is that Shakur likely recorded most of this poetry on his rap recordings, which means that students only need to drop a CD into the player and close their eyes ... an unusual way to promote reading, if you ask me.

No, what this list indicates is that Worcester teachers have given up the idea of summer reading and are going through the motions, pandering to their students in a desperate attempt to either ingratiate themselves to the children or to look hip, neither of which will do anything but generate contempt from the students involved. Ever tried acting "cool" with your teenager? Teens want adults to act like adults and maintain standards. They may not like the work, but they respect the boundaries. They don't want gray-hairs invading teen turf and trying to be something they're not, and in that kids are just like everyone else.

While Shakespeare often wrote passages that have entered our collective consciousness almost without attribution, Michelle notes that Shakur falls somewhat short of this mark:

In riveting prose that presumably rivals Frost or Longfellow, Shakur brags that he is "more than u can handle" and "hotter than the wax from a candle." Edgar Allan Poe had Annabel Lee. Shakur had Renee ("u were the one 2 reach into my heart"), April ("I want 2 c u"), Elizabeth ("the seas of our friendship R calm"), Michelle ("u and I have perfect hearts"), Carmen ("I wanted u more than I wanted me"), Marquita ("u were pure woman 2 me"), Irene ("I knew from the First glance that u would be hard 2 4get"), and Jada.

Proclaiming his love "4 Jada," Shakur pays gallant literary tribute to the object of his desire: "u bring me 2 climax without sex."

Lord Byron, he wasn't.

2 bad 4 Worcester s2dents. On her blog, Michelle updates the mention of her Town Hall column with a dissenting e-mail that explains perfectly why teachers should be sticking to their standards instead of abandoning them to the near-illiteracy of Shakur's muse:

Dont hate the player hate the game that created these conditions which enable such artist like 2pac to reflect the times and eras of their time. Michelle here some advise next time you want to use a rapper as a scapegoat to justify your means think before making an ass out of your self.

If you haven't added Michelle to your blogroll yet, make sure you do. She's definitely a must-read on a daily basis. Besides, she reads Captain's Quarters -- how cool is that?

UPDATE: As Bill from the always-excellent blog INDC Journal notes in the comments, he has some personal reasons to oppose the glorification of violence in general, and the Shakur family in particular. I noted this post when Bill first wrote it, but it's timeless. Read the whole thing. And don't forget to drop some change in the tip jar for the family of Captain Eggers, who was killed in Iraq in the service of our nation.

Kosovo, The True Quagmire

While the Left continues to carp about the supposed "quagmire" of Iraq, where the US toppled a dictator and then set up the framework for an independent and representative government in less than 15 months, Alissa Rubin writes in today's Los Angeles Times that Kosovo continues to exist in limbo after five years of UN administration:

Svinjare was one of 30 towns and villages in Kosovo swept by violence March 17 and 18. Mobs, some armed with heavy weapons, damaged 730 houses in Kosovo — the vast majority owned by Serbs — and 35 religious sites, mostly Serbian Orthodox churches.

It was the worst violence since 1999, when hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians were displaced by Serbian security forces. Kosovo has been under United Nations control since North Atlantic Treaty Organization airstrikes drove out the Serbian forces. But the province remains part of Serbia and Montenegro, the successor state to Yugoslavia. ...

The incidents have precipitated a review by the United Nations of its policies in the province, which have done little so far to create either jobs or an effective police force despite millions of dollars spent. The March violence showed that neither the local police nor the international police, brought by the U.N. from member countries, were able to maintain control. In most cases, authorities helped Serbs evacuate their homes but then stood by while ethnic Albanian mobs set the houses ablaze.

Five years after international armed intervention and UN administration, Kosovo doesn't even have an effective police force, and no one wants to speculate on its "final status". This past March, as ethnic violence flared up again and Albanians attacked Serb homes, businesses and churches (a reversal of 1999's violence), UN 'peacekeeping' forces essentially stood by and allowed mobs to continue their destruction. Even though Serbia-Montenegro has sovereignty over Kosovo, for now, the UN will not allow them to exercise any political authority, but the UN provides little of its own. It's a landscape of (mostly) quiet anarchy.

When people demand UN command over places like Iraq, Kosovo provides the ready-made rebuttal. The UN continues to display its arrogant incompetence while Kosovars of all ethnicities pay the price for its aimlessness and lack of urgency. The US should demand an end to the Kosovo occupation and a final determination of its status, or pull out of the Balkans altogether and put the entire mess back into the hands of the EU. Since France wants to let the Afghans hang fire rather than send security forces to support their attempt at democracy, they should have plenty of assets to use in resolving this centuries-old civil war on Europe's back porch.

Kerry Campaign "Incompetent": Boston Mayor

The Boston Herald got an exclusive interview with a hopping-mad Mayor Thomas Menino after a series of provocations from the John Kerry campaign left him questioning the competency of Kerry and his staff. Menino launched several attacks during his interview with David Guarino and Noelle Straub:

Mayor Thomas M. Menino unloaded a searing attack on fellow Democrat John F. Kerry yesterday, calling his presidential campaign ``small-minded'' and ``incompetent'' - laying bare a years-old rift weeks before the city plays host to Kerry's FleetCenter coronation. Menino, in an exclusive Herald interview, let loose on the hometown senator two days after Kerry snubbed him by siding with union picketers outside a U.S. Conference of Mayors event. ...

Menino said he was enraged to see a local newspaper item saying he hung up on Kerry Sunday. The mayor yesterday said Kerry's campaign floated the story, which he called untrue.

"I wasn't angry with him, that's a rumor they're spreading," Menino said. "They are trying to balance out their decision by saying the mayor's angry. I had no harsh words with them."

Menino called the alleged leak "the failure of the campaign to communicate with the public," adding, "They are trying to find scapegoats for their incompetency."

Just how incompetent is the Kerry campaign? Over the last 72 hours, they've managed to alienate the Democratic mayor of the city where their big party will take place in a few weeks, promising to provide further embarrassing publicity as Menino retaliates for being shown up by Kerry to benefit his push with labor unions -- a constituency that should already be sewn up by the Democrats anyway. Now the campaign has angered many of the mayors attending the conference, even the Democrats, and given Governor Mitt Romney an opportunity to rescue Menino and generate supportive statements from the mayor in return.

It appears that they aren't learning from their mistakes, either. The Kerry campaign reacted by suggesting that the mayor may not be completely mentally healthy:

But, in a move that might only intensify the public war of words, the Kerry campaign responded by suggesting Menino made the comments because of the "pressure" he's under as convention host. ...

"Maybe they should use some of their energies to get their message across to the American people instead of trying to destroy the integrity of someone who is on their team, to try to discredit someone on their team," Menino said. "They have better things to do."

Sounds like Menino may not be terribly fond of his party's nominee, and the Herald suggests that displeasure could manifest itself in November by having his political machine sandbag a bit during the run-up to the election. Based on the reaction of a few of the other mayors at the conference, Kerry may have similar problems in West Haven and especially Miami, where every vote will be precious to either candidate. Mayors are the front line of any election, and deliberately antagonizing them is not just incompetent, it's almost deliberately self-destructive. (via Drudge)

Allawi: Saddam "Natural Partner" of Al-Qaeda, Terrorism

New Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi told a skeptical Tom Brokaw in an interview yesterday that Saddam Hussein maintained connections to al-Qaeda that began in the Sudan, and more broadly, that Saddam's reign provided a "natural partner" to terrorism:

Brokaw: I know that you and others like you are grateful for the liberation of Iraq. But can’t you understand why many Americans feel that so many young men and women have died here for purposes other than protecting the United States?

Allawi: We know that this is an extension to what has happened in New York. And — the war have been taken out to Iraq by the same terrorists. Saddam was a potential friend and partner and natural ally of terrorism.

Brokaw: Prime minister, I’m surprised that you would make the connection between 9/11 and the war in Iraq. The 9/11 commission in America says there is no evidence of a collaborative relationship between Saddam Hussein and those terrorists of al-Qaida.

Allawi: No. I believe very strongly that Saddam had relations with al-Qaida. And these relations started in Sudan. We know Saddam had relationships with a lot of terrorists and international terrorism. Now, whether he is directly connected to the September — atrocities or not, I can’t — vouch for this. But definitely I know he has connections with extremism and terrorists.

Allawi at least demonstrates much more intelligence than the empty suit Brokaw has become, parroting this liberal-media urban legend. The 9/11 Commission never said any such thing, as both commission co-chairs vigorously protested after the release of their staff report. It stated that the commission could find no evidence of Iraqi collaboration in the 9/11 attacks, not that there was no evidence of collaboration between Iraq and al-Qaeda. In fact, plenty of evidence has already been made public of such cooperation, as I blogged not long ago.

Iraqis are fortunate to have an intelligent and independent man such as Allawi at the head of their interim government. Too bad we can't say the same thing for NBC News.

AQ Suspect Licensed To Haul Hazardous Materials

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports this morning that Mohamad Elzahabi, arrested for suspected connections to al-Qaeda and terrorist-related activities, received licenses to drive school buses and transport hazardous materials:

The FBI identified Mohamad Elzahabi as a suspected terrorist well before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and more than 2½ years before his arrest last week, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.

Yet officials of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said they had no clue that Elzahabi was suspected of having Al-Qaida connections when he applied for, and in early 2002 received, a commercial driver's license to drive a school bus and to haul hazardous materials.

Before the Minneapolis man got final approval for the commercial license, the FBI ran Elzahabi's name through a database and cleared him on Jan. 18, 2002, said Pat McCormack, interim director of the department's Division of Driver and Vehicle Licensing.

This demonstrates that mush work needs to be done to our information infrastructure if we are to prevent another 9/11, or worse. Timothy McVeigh proved how much damage a truckful of hazardous materials can do, and they didn't bother with a license and had to use farm fertilizers. With a license, Elzahabi could have accessed much more powerful and deadly ingredients for an attack, such as gasoline for an explosion or chlorine for a gas cloud that could have killed thousands.

Even now, Minnesota won't affirm whether a similar application would get stopped before final approval:

Public Safety Department spokesman Kevin Smith said "there were numbers of different lists, which finally in the past year have been ... streamlined into one list" of possible or suspected terrorists. He declined to discuss the Elzahabi case but said that if a person named on a terrorism watch list applied for a similar license today, his name would show up in a computer match.

Perhaps it's time to make sure the system works, before we have to create another post-attack commission to point out flaws after thousands of Americans lie dead in the streets. You know, it's just a thought.

Grateful Iraqis Say "Thank You, America"

Fifteen new Iraqi and Iraqi-American civilian groups have banded together to take out a full-page advertisement in USA Today thanking America and Americans for freeing Iraq from its bloodthirsty tyrant:

Following the formal handover of sovereignty to Baghdad, 15 Iraqi and Iraqi-American groups have issued an open letter to the American people, thanking them for the sacrifices they endured to liberate their country.

The letter will be delivered to President Bush at the White House today and published in a full page ad in USA Today.

"Just as we mourn for the victims of Saddam's regime, we also grieve for the Americans and Iraqis who were killed or injured during the liberation or by terrorists determined to hold us back," the letter reads. "We will honor those who have sacrificed for our freedom by building a new Iraq that lives in peace with the nations of the world, without fear of war, torture chambers or terrorism." ...

The letter was organized by the Iraq-America Friendship Alliance, or IAFA, a new coalition of Iraqi and American organizations and individuals "committed to fostering goodwill between the two nations, supporting Iraq's reconstruction and movement toward democracy and telling the untold story from Iraq."

The IAFA plans to spur goodwill exchanges between Iraq and the US and currently sponsors the speaking tour of the seven men who received prosthetic replacements for the hands chopped off during Saddam's reign of terror.

CQ Prediction: Kerry Gains In Polling This Week

The AP notes that the John Kerry campaign will return to its most successful campaign strategy this week, although only briefly:

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is taking a two-day break from campaigning and will spend the time at his wife's country estate preparing for his party's national convention next month.

Kidding aside, the AP also notes that Kerry met with "potential running mate" Gov. Janet Napolitano from Arizona, who introduced him to the National Council of La Raza, a mainstream Latino interest group. I confess I haven't heard much about Napolitano as a running mate, but that choice makes more sense, at least superficially, than John Edwards and could be far more damaging to the Republicans. NCLR shows no information on Napolitano -- one would presume a Latino governor would get at least a mention on their website, so I'd presume Napolitano is Italian rather than Hispanic.

Napolitano has been Attorney General in Arizona and won the Governor's office in 2002. She ran on a platform that ruled out tax increases, supported environmental issues, full-time preschool and kindergarten -- in short, a moderate. Reading her biography, it also appears she's unmarried, which may dent her positives just a bit. However, the selection of a female sitting governor from a battleground state may be better than adding another senator, and an inexperienced one at that, from a state Bush likely wins either way.

Unfortunately, her old campaign web site, gojanet.org, now hosts a penis-enlargement advertisement, which demonstrates that she still has a bit more to learn about campaigning. (Rule #1 for political campaigns: never let go of your domain names.)

Philly Corruption Investigation Nets Mayor's Crony

A Philadelphia federal grand jury delivered an indictment yesterday from an ongoing investigation into corruption in city government, charging Philly's former treasurer, a powerful attorney allied with Mayor John Street, and ten others with graft:

A federal grand jury in Philadelphia on Tuesday indicted the city's former treasurer and a powerful lawyer with close connections to Mayor John Street as part of a wide-ranging investigation into municipal corruption.

The indictment, which names 12 defendants, charges the former treasurer, Corey Kemp, with accepting payments, gifts and other benefits from the lawyer, Ronald A. White, in exchange for directing city business worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to Mr. White's law firm and other companies linked to him. ...

Mr. Street, who was elected to a second term in November, was not charged. But the indictment asserts that he instructed his staff to award city business to Mr. White or any firms he recommended whenever they appeared qualified for the work. It also accused Mr. Street of telling aides to provide Mr. White, who has been a fund-raiser for Mr. Street since he was on the City Council, "inside information" on city agencies.

Last year, when Street ran for re-election, news of the FBI investigation into corruption broke when electronic bugs were discovered in the mayor's office. At that point in the election, as the Times' James Dao notes, Street only led Republican Sam Katz by one point in the polls. However, rather than be abashed by the federal graft probe, Street proclaimed his martyrdom to a Republican plot to destroy Democratic mayors -- and the Philly electorate returned him to office by a sixteen-point margin.

Now, of course, the chickens have come home to roost. The indictments by a federal grand jury demonstrate that far from being an evil GOP conspiracy, Mayor Street's administration has resembled Tammany Hall more than anything the Founding Fathers proposed more than 200 years ago in Street's city:

The indictment asserts that Mr. Kemp directed $633,594 in bond counsel fees to Mr. White. He also helped Commerce Bank/Philadelphia, which had hired Mr. White, win city business, including a $30 million line of credit, the indictment charges. And it says he urged that a "paramour" of Mr. White receive printing work worth more than $308,000.

In exchange, Mr. White gave Mr. Kemp $10,000, tickets and transportation to the Super Bowl game and N.B.A. All-Star events, a $10,350 deck for his house, numerous free meals and the promise of a secret partnership in a proposed racetrack-casino.

Mr. White often emphasized the importance to their criminal enterprise of getting Mr. Street re-elected, the indictment says. "It gives us four more years to do our thing," he told Mr. Kemp, according to a recorded conversation cited in the indictment.

A grand-jury indictment is not a conviction, but it holds more significance than charges filed by a district attorney. A panel of citizens hear testimony and review evidence, and only return indictments if they believe that the evidence supports a reasonable basis for prosecution. Unless the FBI rounded up the Republican National Committee as its grand jury, the allegations that the Bush administration targeted Street for his party affiliation, rather than the graft party over which he appears to have presided, have been exposed as completely false.

Republican "Outsourcing" A Scam: RNC Complaint

The Republican National Committe has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, claiming that a Texas non-profit falsely represented itself as a Republican organization in order to embarrass the GOP with its use of a call center in India for contribution collections:

The Republican National Committee filed a complaint Tuesday accusing a Texas group of posing as a GOP organization to raise money by phone using an Indian telemarketing firm and through fund-raising mailings.

The fund-raising telephone calls prompted false, widespread rumors that the RNC was outsourcing its donor phone calls to India, the committee's complaint to the Federal Election Commission says.

The complaint accuses The Republican Victory Committee, based in Irving, Texas, of impersonating the Republican Party and fraudulently raising money by telling prospective donors it was being solicited by the GOP for use by Republican candidates.

Jody Novacek, whom the GOP accuses of running this scam, insists that the RVC is a "Republican-leaning" organization -- whatever that means -- and that the money was going to be used for grass-roots efforts. However, RVC represented itself as an agent for specific candidates at the behest of the Republicans. Novacek seems to be changing her story, at least in the AP's report of the story.

If true, it may just wind up being another scam without any other intent than separating people from their money. However, in today's political climate, it wouldn't surprise me if RVC wound up having connections to people who purposely tried to discredit the GOP by using the Indian call center. The coordination between this setup and one of the main economic themes of the Democrats this year sounds way too good to be a simple coincidence. Even back in 1992, the anti-capitalist hit movie Sneakers finishes up by hinting that the protagonists use their hacking abilities to bankrupt the Republican Party in what supposedly constitutes a happy ending for the Left. After watching the embrace of the lunatic fringe (Michael Moore, et al) by Democrats in this election cycle, this moderate mischief doesn't seem beyond the true believers.

NYT: Captured Muslim Marine A Deserter

The New York Times reports tonight that Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, captured by Islamofascist terrorists in Iraq, had deserted his post and naively trusted his captors to sneak him out of the country and into Lebanon:

The American marine who is being threatened by his kidnappers with beheading had deserted the military because he was emotionally traumatized, and was abducted by his captors while trying to make his way home to his native Lebanon, a Marine officer said Tuesday.

The officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he believed that Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun was betrayed by Iraqis he befriended on his base and ended up in the hands of Islamic extremists. The officer said Corporal Hassoun, a 24-year-old Marine linguist who was born in Lebanon, was shaken up after he saw one of his sergeants blown apart by a mortar shell.

"It was very disturbing to him," the officer said. "He wanted to go home and quit the game, but since he was relatively early in his deployment, that was not going to happen anytime soon. So he talked to some folks on base he befriended, because they were all fellow Muslims, and they helped sneak him off. Once off, instead of helping him get home, they turned him over to the bad guys."

While this news should not affect our efforts to get Hassoun freed from his captors, it should serve as an object lesson to others stationed in Iraq, especially American Muslims. The locals may seem friendly, and many of them probably are, but many people in that area of the world want to see you dead. On the whole, Marines and soldiers will improve their health by staying close to other Marines and soldiers and not accepting offers to sneak out of the country.

I suspect this will be part of the daily briefing at Coalition bases this week, if it isn't already.

Brazilian Berserkers

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that Brazilian protestors assaulted Minnesota lawmakers visiting Rio de Janeiro last week to discuss and debate the upcoming American presidential election:

Anti-American protesters throwing eggs, water and flour chased Minnesota House Majority Leader Erik Paulsen and another U.S. legislator from a Rio de Janeiro university campus last week, according to the two lawmakers and Brazilian news accounts. ... An account in the Brazilian newspaper, O Dia, reported that a crowd of 100 surrounded the two U.S. dignitaries in a school auditorium, chanted anti-American slogans and pelted them as they tried to leave.

According to O Dia, some of the protesters threatened to hold the two legislators hostage and decapitate them in the manner of prisoners in Iraq. Mendoza said Monday that she and Paulsen also were threatened with envelopes addressed to them and marked "anthrax."

I propose a boycott of all Brazilian imports until their government makes a formal apology for the treatment of American legislators in their country. Had something like this happened in the US to visiting dignitaries, our media would react with towering indignation and national debates about the lack of American tolerance would dominate the news. Apparently, in Brazil, this must be a common practice for dealing with people who hold differing opinions, as this happened last week and not a word has been spoken about this until now. The Brazilian governmemt failed to supply proper security for our envoys and have not followed up with any expression of regret for the behavior of their citizens, although the university has apologized to them.

One way to pressure them would be to back off from pushing for debt relief for Brazil. I have no desire to see a country full of out-of-control nutcases get paid for their socialistic insanity and complete lack of manners.

Hillary, The Truth-Teller

It appears that the Clintons have worked their magic once again -- bringing the fractious Right together with just a few unusually honest words from Senator Hillary Clinton while appearing in California, promoting Bill's new book:

Headlining an appearance with other Democratic women senators on behalf of Sen. Barbara Boxer, who is up for re-election this year, Hillary Clinton told several hundred supporters – some of whom had ponied up as much as $10,000 to attend – to expect to lose some of the tax cuts passed by President Bush if Democrats win the White House and control of Congress.

"Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you," Sen. Clinton said. "We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."

Beautiful. If anyone ever had any doubts about the arrogance of the Left, all you need to do is read that quote. Senator Clinton defines your money as something given to you. After all, we're not talking government grants -- she's referring to income earned by taxpayers that the government isn't taking away.

Remember this when Democrats talk about supporting the middle class. What they mean is that they see the middle class as a vast welfare class that the government grants the privilege of keeping part of what they earn, as everything rightfully belongs to the state anyway. The percentage is a mere detail.

For a better demonstration of this dynamic in a real-life scenario, check out James Lileks. (via QandO)

Kerry Crosses Picket Line In Chicago

In what appears to be yet another flip-flop, John Kerry reportedly crossed a picket line in Chicago to speak at a Rainbow-PUSH meeting, Instapundit reports this evening:

Northwestern Univ. Law Professor James Lindgren sends this email:

As the New York Times reported yesterday, John Kerry refused to cross a picket line on Monday in Boston to speak to the National Conference of Mayors. He was quoted as saying on Sunday night: "'I don't cross picket lines,' he said. 'I never have.'"

Yet this morning (Tuesday) in Chicago Kerry spoke at the annual meeting of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow-PUSH Coalition, which was being very actively picketed by a labor group, Voices of Morality (VOM). VOM is leading a labor discrimination protest against Daimler-Chrysler (the signs that the picketers were holding looked very much like ones in pictures on the VOM website). Jackson and the PUSH conference were being targeted because, according to a local Chicago ABC TV news report, Jackson has ties to Daimler-Chrysler. The reporter referred to the PUSH coalition conference as one on "labor," but neither the official text of the Kerry speech nor the PUSH website lists that as the topic of the conference, though of course PUSH is best known nationally for its labor activities--picketing corporations and negotiating financial deals with them.

Sure enough, Chicago's ABC station confirms the professor's report in an exclusive story on its website:

While Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry addressed education during a speech at Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, critics of Daimler-Chrysler picketed outside the building.

Reverend Jackson is trying to help Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry connect with African American voters and this year's Rainbow PUSH conference provided a perfect venue. But Kerry's appearance this morning was overshadowed by a crowd of black activists. They're angry at Jackson for allowing an allegedly racist auto company to underwrite a portion of the [Rainbow-PUSH] conference.

"The black vote is not for sale. The black vote is not for sale," chanted the demonstrators.

Nearly a hundred African American demonstrators protested outside the Rainbow-PUSH convention. They accuse the Reverend Jesse Jackson of selling out the black community by allowing automotive giant Daimler Chrysler help underwrite the cost of the convention. The carmaker is accused in a lawsuit of subjecting black buyers to racially discriminatory sales policies and making derogatory racial comments about African Americans.

It appears from the story that not only did the pickets exist, but that the demonstration was large enough even for a Senator to notice. It also calls into question Kerry's association with Jesse Jackson's organization, which has raised eyebrows in the past for its arm-twisting -- some would say extortionate -- practices in getting money out of corporations, not to mention the disposition of the cash afterwards.

John Kerry, of course, had this to say on Sunday evening:

Later Sunday night, after attending Mass and receiving communion at St. Vincent's Waterfront Chapel overlooking Boston Harbor, Mr. Kerry was asked how he would respond to the mayor. "I don't cross picket lines," he said. "I never have."

The question of the day for Kerry: Which is it, Senator? Do you cross picket lines or not? Perhaps he wouldn't cross picket lines before he would.

Speaking Of Irrelevancy, How 'Bout That Dead Guy For President?

Nominating conventions for political parties usually include a certain level of regional silliness; delegates wear outrageous outfits and cover themselves with buttons, shirts, and hats that represent their home state as much as their favored candidate. Delegate counts usually are coupled with sloganeering such as, "The great state of Texas, home of the Alamo and the world's largest spitoon, casts its 78 votes for John Doe!" It's all in fun, and the relentlessly upbeat messages contribute to the carnival atmosphere in which everyone wants to participate.

Given all of that, the Greens certainly know how to take the party out of the Party:

Major-party convention halls usually ring with unabashed pride and self-promotion as vote announcers remind everyone that "the great state of [fill-in-the-blank]" is home to this sainted man or that unparalleled mountain range.

At the Greens' convention, though, the spin was a little different. Delegates were told, for example, that "the great state of Indiana" extends "from the shores of polluted Lake Michigan in the north to the clear-cut banks of the Ohio River in the south, with many other sins in between."

Before casting its votes, New York trumpeted itself as "home of Wall Street and unbridled corporate greed."

No wonder these people can't win an election. Who goes running out to the polls to vote for the buzz-killer? And if you think that's bad, you haven't heard about the crowd-pleasing announcement from the great state of Minnesota at the convention:

And the great state of Minnesota? It is, delegate Kellie Burriss of Minneapolis intoned, "the land of 10,000 lakes and the Boundary Waters -- as well as the home of the Prairie Island nuclear power plant."

The reference to nuclear power drew a chorus of boos from the Greens, but that changed to loud, sustained cheers when Burriss read out the state's votes, which included "one vote for Eugene Debs," cast by delegate Wade Hannon of Moorhead, a teacher and counselor.

The Debs vote received a second ovation when the chairman repeated the vote for the record. Why haven't you seen Debs on the stump? He's been dead for 78 years, that's why. Debs ran for President five times as a Socialist between 1908 and his death in 1926, including once from federal prison on espionage charges. In his first foray, the Strib notes, he toured the country from a train he dubbed the "Red Special".

So the Greens, who continually chafe at the lack of respect they get, give ovations when casting votes for long-dead Socialists. I'd say the two-party system appears safe for the near future.

Is Quid Pro Quo Latin For Gephardt's Out?

The other shoe dropped in the kerfuffle over John Kerry's refusal to cross the ersatz picket line outside of the Mayors' Conference Sunday. Today, the police union announced that it has dropped plans to picket the Democratic National Convention next month due to Kerry's sop to the union this weekend:

Boston's main police union abandoned yesterday their threat to picket at the site of next month's Democratic National Convention, handing Senator John F. Kerry a major victory on the day he honored the union's picket line by not making a speech before a US Conference of Mayors meeting in Boston. ...

The shift in the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association's picketing strategy would allow Kerry and thousands of convention delegates and members of the media to enter the FleetCenter unimpeded, despite the city's ongoing labor woes. But Kerry's cancellation drew sharp criticism from both Democratic and Republican mayors, who angrily accused the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of caving in to a local union that is making unreasonable demands.

Kerry pandered for the labor vote, without a doubt, and manuevered his fellow Democrat, Mayor Thomas Menino, into the fire by showing him up instead of supporting him and the other mayors. The immediate announcement makes the quid pro quo rather transparent, and should further incense Menino that Kerry tried to build his labor cred on his back.

The Globe includes more denunciations of Kerry's actions by the mayors who wound up crossing the picket line only to be shown up by the Democratic nominee, and they aren't pulling any punches:

Kerry's cancellation and an earlier snub by Senator Kennedy dominated the news coming out of the four-day conference, which wrapped up yesterday. As the gathering proceeded, Kerry's move drew heated denunciations from several mayors.

Mayor Manny Diaz of Miami called Kerry's cancellation "a slap in the face of the nation's mayors" and added that Kerry allowed a local labor dispute to scare him from an opportunity to discuss urban issues with a crucial audience.

"I am thoroughly disappointed in his decision, thoroughly disappointed," Diaz said.

Mayor Douglas Palmer of Trenton, N.J., president of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors, pointedly noted that Kerry will need the support of local leaders, especially in swing states, in his bid for the presidency.

"We are really where the rubber meets the road," he said. "We're very disappointed and angry that Senator Kerry didn't come to address the mayors."

One reason I'm posting separately on this story rather than updating my earlier post is that I think Kerry's actions in being so ostentatiously pro-labor may mean that Rep. Dick Gephardt is out as Kerry's running mate. If Kerry picks Gephardt, then he has no worries among labor; unions love Gephardt, the primary old-fashioned labor pol in national politics. If Kerry is leaning towards another candidate, like John Edwards or someone else with a similar lack of credentials, then Kerry has to overtly demonstrate his brotherhood with the rank and file, especially given his wealthy origins and current status. I think Dick may wind up sitting out this election, too.

UPDATE: More confirmation that Gephardt can cozy up to the TV this November instead of heading to the stump:

Missouri favorite son Dick Gephardt is not the favorite vice presidential candidate of several rank-and-file state Democratic leaders looking to deliver its 11 electoral votes to John Kerry.

Asked which prospective running mate would help Kerry win the battleground state, eight of 11 county chairmen and chairwomen selected at random by The Associated Press chose Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. Gephardt and Edwards are among those Kerry is reported to be considering. ... "Gephardt just doesn't have the get-up-and-go that Edwards has," said Irma Brannum of Poplar Bluff, the Butler County party chairwoman. "Edwards is the exciting one," said St. Charles County chairman Joe Koester.

If Gephardt can't excite the Show-Me State, he's not likely to help much anywhere else, either.

Iranians: Maybe They Just Dig Photography

CNN reports that the US has expelled two members of the Iranian security detail at the UN for suspected espionage, and their activities certainly call into question the Islamic Republic's intentions towards the West:

The United States has expelled two Iranian security guards at the Iranian Mission to the United Nations for conduct unbecoming to their status, according to a U.S. official.

The two were seen taking pictures of New York City and transportation systems, the official said.

It was the third occasion that they were spotted videotaping and taking photographs, the official said.

The pair was expelled over the weekend, but one assumes that after three sightseeing tours, they have the film they need to further their mission, whatever that may be. The official who sourced the story refused to name the landmarks involved, and in New York, the possibilities are almost unlimited.

It recalls the information gathered after the 9/11 attacks that revealed the terrorists' activities in videotaping their intended targets as well as other potential attack sites. Of course, the terrorists weren't diplomatic personnel from Iran, either. Now that we've tightened our visa process (to whatever degree that's been successful), perhaps this is how al-Qaeda will operate -- through diplomatic assignments in order to infiltrate the US unmolested. If true, the expulsion puts Iran at the top of the list of high-focus countries in the war on terror.

Of course, the Republican National Convention takes place in New York at the end of August...

UPDATE: More information from the AP:

The guards were taking photos of infrastructure, modes of transportation and New York City landmarks, a U.S. official said Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. They were the third set of Iranian guards caught taking pictures.

"The other ones were warned. This was the third time, and this time we kicked them out," the U.S. official said.

The two Iranians, who did not have diplomatic passports, left the United States in the last few days, the official said. ... According to the U.S. official, the first photographing incident took place in June 2002, the second in November 2003, and the third occurred recently, the official said.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in November that two Iranian citizens were questioned while taking video images of the subway tracks on the No. 7 line in Queens.

Counterterrorism is an unusual place to put in a "three strikes and you're out" rule, isn't it? After the first incident, we should have demanded the videotape back, and perhaps we did, but any further incidents should have resulted in immediate expulsion. After all, as the AP notes, it's not as though it would risk our diplomatic relationship with the Iranian mullahcracy, because we have none to damage.

Taking pictures of infrastructure and transportation appears to be more of a preparation for an attack on the ability to keep people alive in the city rather than just a showy (but deadly) attack on a building complex. Again, when would such systems be taxed to their limits? In August, when thousands of Republicans come to the Big Apple to nominate Bush for re-election, with the nation focused on the convention. I wouldn't be surprised if something similar has been happening in Boston, either, especially since two of the four 9/11 flights took off from Logan Airport and AQ terrorists continue to operate out of Beantown.

Comment Moderation Enabled

As I wrote this weekend, I have upgraded to Movable Type 3.0 for a number of reasons, but one of the main reasons was to enable comment moderation to combat spam. A significant amount of my blog time has been spent in updating my MT-Blacklist profile and in deleting comment spam attacks as they come in different forms. I'd much rather spend my time writing and responding to real comments and e-mails from CQ's readers. In order to accomplish this, I need your help in maintaining some semblance of order around here.

Movable Type 3.0 integrates with Typekey, a validation service that allows blogs to identify commenters and allow them automatic, immediate posting of comments. It's free and only requires a username and a valid e-mail address, and you can even specify that the e-mail address does not get passed to the blog when you comment. I get no other information about you, and while Typekey builds a user profile for you, you decide how much, if any, of the profile to fill out. One Typekey registration is all you need for all MT blogs, not just Captain's Quarters, and as more bloggers move to v3.0, you will see comment moderation more often than not.

So what's the benefit? I can ban abusive users immediately, and spammers can't access my comments at all. Most CQ readers know that I never ban people for disagreeing with me -- heck, I love debate, and some of my best readers hardly ever agree with what I write. I only get rid of the crap that gets dropped on here from people pushing their porn sites, or Viagra, or home financing options. No one's paying me to carry their advertising, and I resent it as much as I find most of their products and services distasteful. I recently had a rash of some extremely vile r*pe and inc*st spams posted on my site. My family reads this blog, for Pete's sake!

For the next couple of weeks, I will have light comment moderation enabled, and after that, I may have to restrict the site to Typekey-enabled commenters only, if that doesn't stop the spam deluge. I'm not trying to inconvenience people, but the waste of time and bandwidth has become too much for me to ignore. If you have questions or comments, feel free to post them here or e-mail me for clarification. I appreciate your help!

Please remember: Typekey-enabled commenters automatically have their comments approved!

UPDATE: I put the link for the registration page instead of Typekey's home page, which oddly doesn't provide that link themselves. Corrie in Itasca notified me of the problem -- thanks!

Romney Steps In Where Kerry Fears To Tread

In a misstep that may demonstrate a critical lack of courage in the face of adversity, John Kerry left his political support twisting in the wind yesterday when he abandoned Boston Mayor Thomas Menino due to the presence of police pickets. While not technically on strike, Kerry nonetheless opted -- after failing to reach a diplomatic solution to the impasse -- to snub the Mayors' Conference led by his campaign co-chair Menino. Massachussetts Governor Mitt Romney took the opportunity to speak in his absence, demonstrating an executive persona that Romney hinted Kerry lacks:

First, John Kerry, the putative Democratic presidential nominee, decided Sunday not to attend the annual meeting of the nation's mayors here, refusing to cross a picket line of police union members feuding with Boston's mayor. Then, on Monday, Boston's mayor, Thomas M. Menino, who is not only a Democrat but also the host of the Democratic National Convention here in July, welcomed a stand-in for Mr. Kerry: Mitt Romney, the Republican governor of Massachusetts.

Mr. Romney, not generally considered a friend to Democrats, seized the opportunity to praise Mr. Menino and needle Mr. Kerry.

"I wanted to indicate my support of Mayor Menino," Mr. Romney said. "He's a man of courage and integrity," he added, saying, "In the executive responsibility, you put first the people and not the pickets." ...

"A mayor, a governor and a president have a responsibility to make tough decisions and balance budgets. A senator doesn't, and that's a big difference. Senators don't have to balance budgets. Senators don't have to make those kinds of trade-offs. That's what the mayor has to do, and that's why I want to be here for him."

Of course, one of the knocks on John Kerry is that he lacks executive experience, a common charge against any candidate who has served primarily as a legislator. This perception is one of the reasons no one has been elected President straight from Congress since 1960, when Kerry's idol John F. Kennedy edged out Richard Nixon. Certainly, it has been and will be one of the Bush campaign's themes in the coming election, especially given the lack of legislative accomplishment from Kerry's 19-year tenure in the Senate.

However, just because the perception exists doesn't mean that Kerry had to feed it, and he did exactly that by deciding to leave his fellow Democrat holding the bag. After all, Menino crossed the picket line, as did the other attending mayors, most of whom are Democrats, and few of whom appreciated being shown up by Kerry. The Post notes a few of the reactions from the conference:

"Some of the mayors here are disappointed, frustrated, angered by Kerry not showing up," [Menino] said. "It's all about respect of the mayors, and there was no respect of the mayors." While Mr. Menino said he was not about to withdraw support from his party's candidate, he added, "John Kerry will have to live by this decision." ...

Several mayors at the conference expressed frustration and resentment toward Mr. Kerry.

Mayor Rich Borer Jr. of West Haven, Conn., a Democrat, said he believed that Mr. Kerry should have attended and might even have been able to mediate an agreement between the city and the union. "It makes it a little more difficult for me as a man to sit there and say Kerry is the guy when he didn't show up," Mr. Borer said.

Mayors represent the front line of party politics. They know the local players, understand the subtleties at the precinct level, and can tap the right people to turn out voters. Snubbing them may not push them to endorse Bush, but it makes them less enthusiastic about supporting Kerry. Kerry just made all of the mayors out to be anti-labor simply by their presence at the conference and shined the national spotlight on them in doing so. Especially in regards to Boston and Menino, Kerry may live to regret that as the nominating convention approaches; Menino may just leave him with another opportunity to respect the picket line more than his supporters, and this time Menino can shine that spotlight right back on Kerry.

Voting Themselves Into Irrelevancy

Extending the debate into the monochromatic nature of the John Kerry campaign, today's Washington Post again details complaints from the African-American community about the lack of access to the Democratic nominee and the paucity of its representation within his organization. At the same time, the Post inadvertently notes the reasons why Kerry feels little pressure to change:

Although the Massachusetts senator has many black supporters, civil rights leaders and academics are grumbling about his absence from black communities and a lack of top black officials in his campaign.

"You pick up the paper . . . and you see a picture where he's surrounded by all whites," Ronald Walters, a University of Maryland political scientist who helped run two presidential campaigns, said of Kerry. "That's sensitive to black Democrats. It raises questions about the lack of blacks and Hispanics in his inner circle."

Nine out of 10 black Americans voted for former vice president Al Gore in 2000, following a decades-long trend of crucial support for Democrats. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that Kerry has similar support among black Americans, but Walters and others said he must do more to make sure they vote.

Over 90% of the black vote went to Al Gore in 2000 ... and he lost anyway, and that in a race where evangelicals stayed home in droves, an unlikely event this time around. Unfortunately for African-Americans, 2000 proved one thing: Republicans can win without them and Democrats can lose even when they have almost complete support from them. Lockstep, or bloc, voting has made their constituency somewhat irrelevant at the national level, although that is certainly not true at state and local levels. That lesson has mostly been lost on African-American community leadership, and so they continue to concentrate their efforts on a party that doesn't even go through the motions anymore to include them at high levels of power. In contrast, although the Bush administration received little of their support, Bush has named blacks to prominent positions within his Cabinet, yet receives little credit for doing so.

In pressuring their community to focus solely on the Democratic party, they have thrown away their options to play on both sides of the aisle. While Republicans would love to have an opportunity to attract more support especially from middle-class blacks who might appreciate the laissez-faire economic policies of the GOP, they traditionally receive little response for outreach efforts. Take the assertion towards the end of the article that Jesse Jackson makes of being "shut out" of the government:

More than ever, Jackson said, black Americans are primed to vote against a sitting president. "Bush has a closed-door policy on civil rights and labor," he said. "He has not met with the NAACP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the Congressional Black Caucus, except for once, or organized labor. We don't have access to our government."

Jackson lied. George Bush met with the NAACP -- he spoke at their meeting in 2000 during his first campaign for president. In return, they produced a series of ads tying him to the dragging-death lynching of James Byrd, a particularly egregious campaign commercial that even some NAACP members questioned, especially since Texas enthusiastically prosecuted the murderers responsible and sentenced them to death. Now that the NAACP burned its bridges with Bush, Jackson complains that Bush doesn't want to walk across the smoking wreckage.

All they proved was that the NAACP and the political class of the African-American community have no intention of ever working with the GOP. Why, then, does John Kerry need to parcel out key positions to them when he can make more effective use of patronage with other constituencies? Until moderates within the black electorate take back control from the Jacksons and Kweisi Mfumes, Democrats will continue to ignore them and Republicans will focus elsewhere.

UPDATE: Jim Miller has more thoughts, and some historical analysis that may surprise you. It surprised me a bit.

Two Tales Of One Poll

The CBS/New York Times poll results have been reported on the web sites of both news organizations, but from the divergent treatment given on each, a reader could be forgiven for thinking that they're discussing two completely different stories. First, the CBS article focuses on the main story, which is that even CBS/NYT's flawed polling shows a sharp increase in support for George Bush from a month ago:

Despite concerns about his handling of Iraq, and an overall approval rating of 42%, George W. Bush is still running neck and neck with Democrat John Kerry as the choice of registered voters. Growing public optimism about the nation’s economy has helped lift support for the President.

Kerry is the choice of 45% of registered voters, Bush the choice of 44%. This is a sharp turnaround for the Bush campaign in the span of just one month; in May, Kerry had opened up a wide 8-point lead over Bush. The race has been close since April.

CBS only reports the results of a two-way race, not including Nader, but at least they get around to showing the Bush rebound in the second paragraph. They also note the sharp increase in voters who say that the economy is getting better over the May results, arguing that the expanding economy will lift Bush as it becomes more widely recognized by the electorate. As job growth and GDP expansion continues, Kerry will continue to see an erosion in his support.

On the other hand, Adam Nagourney and Janet Elder take the glass-half-empty approach at the Gray Lady. The article takes its time getting to the status of the race while they discuss Bush's approval ratings, in several iterations, ad nauseum. They wait until the eleventh paragraph to discuss the actual head-to-head results as well as the three-way results (where Bush leads by a point), and only mention the May results in the thirteenth paragraph, only hinting at the significant Bush rebound:

Nationwide, Mr. Kerry has the support of 45 percent of registered voters, with Mr. Bush supported by 44 percent. When Ralph Nader, who is running as an independent, is included, he draws 5 percent, leaving 42 percent for Mr. Kerry and 43 percent for Mr. Bush. ...

The tight race indicated by the poll reflects how aides to both Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry have described the overall state of play for weeks. But other polls have, at times, shown Mr. Kerry or Mr. Bush bumping ahead. A CBS News poll taken last month found Mr. Kerry with a lead of 49 percent to 41 percent over Mr. Bush.

New York readers apparently cannot handle poll results in the same manner as CBS' nationwide audience, or at least that's the impression that Nagourney and Elder give in their treatment of the Times' own poll.

C'est Un Jerk, N'est-Ce Pas?

The Telegraph notes that Jacques Chirac went out of his way to antagonize George Bush at the NATO summit yesterday, lashing out in personal terms after hearing that Bush endorsed Turkey's application to join the EU:

President Jacques Chirac shattered the carefully contrived show of transatlantic amity at the Nato summit yesterday when he made an unprecedented attack on President George W Bush for meddling in the European Union's business by supporting Turkey's membership. ... yesterday the French president lost any such reserve when he told Mr Bush that EU affairs were none of his business.

Stung by Mr Bush's call for the EU to give Turkey a firm date for accession, Mr Chirac responded: "He not only went too far but he has gone into a domain which is not his own. He has nothing to say on this subject. It is as if I were to tell the United States how it should conduct its relations with Mexico."

Pardonnez-nous? Was it not Monsieur Chirac who repeatedly lectured President Bush on how to defend the United States during the war on terror? Has it not been the French, and their German sidekicks, who have obstructed American diplomacy in an effort to keep the Oil-For-Food money flowing from Saddam Hussein? Maintenant, the French President once again wants to instruct heads of state when they should take the opportunity to remain silent. However, I suspect that Bush will make sure that he reminds Chirac that America is not Eastern Europe, and we do not hold French controls on diplomacy in high regard. (For that matter, neither does Eastern Europe, but that's another story in France's fantasy of world-power status.)

The Telegraph recounts other examples of Chirac's gall, demonstrating that if diplomacy between France and its allies seem a bit strained, the only constant in the equation is Chirac himself:

The comments will rank alongside his other recent broadsides: his rebuke to Tony Blair in October 2002, when he called the Prime Minister "very rude", and his patronising response in February 2003 to eastern European candidate countries that supported America's policy in Iraq, telling them they had "missed a good chance to keep quiet".

And yet this is the man that John Kerry wants to placate most of all. He may be the only one who actually can do it; they seem to have the same people skills.

Iraqis Rejoice

After the surprise handover of sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government took place today two days ahead of schedule, a move some Americans stretched into an expression of desperation, Iraqis would not countenance such cynicism. The AP reports that callers flooded the first independent talk-radio station in Iraq with expressions of joy and pride in their first opportunity for legitimate self-government in 35 years:

The callers clogged Radio Dijla's telephone lines to congratulate interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, urging him to be strong, while warning insurgents against continued violence.

"I send my congratulations to all Iraqis and every Iraqi home," a woman who identified herself as Um Yassin gushed, her voice choked with emotion. "I want to tell Dr. Allawi to be bold, to be strong. We need him to build up the army because we need them at a time like this."

Her message was echoed by dozens on the day Prime Minister Allawi was given a letter transferring sovereignty back to the citizens of Iraq after about 14 months of coalition administration.

But in the midst of adulation for the new government, callers urged that all must be vigilant for insurgents seeking to sow more chaos in a country plagued by violence since Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime was toppled.

"I send all the Iraqi people my blessings," said Ali, a caller from Baghdad. "But I warn these terrorists, all the Iraqis will rise up and strike them with steel."

Wow ... that doesn't sound like a nation that doesn't want to be free, that wants to be one with al-Qaeda and live in an Islamofascist theocracy. It sounds like a people who want to be free and who want to be rid of the Saddam remnants and foreign thugs who keep slaughtering their fellow citizens. In short, it sounds like a country that's ready to fight for its liberty.

Sounds like we handed over sovereignty right on time.

More Good News In South Asia

Despite predictions of a continent-wide conflagration sparked by the war on Islamofascist terror, prospects for peace in the region have become strengthened with renewed vigor in Pakistani-Indian diplomatic efforts. Today, both countries announced new agreements on missile testing and expansion of diplomatic ties:

India and Pakistan made progress toward ending five decades of enmity by agreeing Monday to notify each other before missile tests, open new consulates and try to end a deadly dispute over the Himalayan enclave of Kashmir.

"Both sides are committed, both sides are determined, both sides have the goodwill," Pakistani Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar told New Delhi TV after six hours of talks with his Indian counterpart, Foreign Secretary Shashank, who uses only one name. ...

The agreements by Khokhar and Shashank were part of a process begun last year with the goal of a summit this year by the leaders of India and Pakistan to resolve conflicting claims to Kashmir. The South Asian neighbors have fought two full-scale wars and a 1999 border clash over the Himalayan enclave.

Khokhar brought an invitation from Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for new Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has pledged to remain on the peace path paved by ousted Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, whose Hindu-nationalist party lost elections last month.

Normalizing diplomatic relations between the two South Asian nuclear powers has been a foreign-relations goal of the present administration, which has worked diligently behind the scenes to push the two once-bitter enemies to the negotiating table. After 9/11 and Pervez Musharraf's conversion to anti-Islamofascism, the US has been especially keen on resolving the long-standing disputes over Kashmir and other border issues in order to have both countries concentrate on the broader threat of al-Qaeda and other Islamofascist threats in the region. No doubt, if Pakistan and India can reach a peaceful accommodation, that results in a diplomatically isolated Iran, which would then have Western-friendly nations virtually surrounding it.

The governments of India and Pakistan have worked hard to build a more peaceful relationship, but some credit must also go to the Bush administration. I rather doubt that our own mainstream media will give it to them.

UPDATE: Miles Davis, the ever-polite opposition on my blog (along with other well-mannered readers such as Arne Langsetmo and Adaplant, and even Linda sometimes, when she disagrees!), challenges me to find evidence of the Bush Administration's efforts in this regard. Fair enough -- I should have done more homework when I posted. With just a few minutes to do this -- I have an appointment tonight -- here are a few examples:

* Powell goes to New Delhi and Islamabad to smooth tensions and restart peace negotiations (10/01, Guardian)

* Powell takes another trip to both capitals in 2003 (Pakistan Times, 4/03)

* Powell tries to use subtlety rather than impose mediation to bridge the Pakistani-Indian gap (India Digest, 1/04)

* Strategic reasons why the Bush Administration has taken a much broader interest than previous administrations in South Asia (Asia Times, 1/02)

* Powell convinces Pakistan to rein in India-targeted terrorism (The Hindu, 10/01)

* Powell urges new talks between India and Pakistan (CBC, 7/02)

There are plenty more examples, but in Googling Powell India Pakistan, what one notices is the lack of reporting on these efforts by the American media. Don't you wonder why that would be?

Saudis Bolster Security, Move To Protect Foreign Workers

The London Telegraph notes that the Saudis have changed their tune on security concerns, especially as Western civilians have begun to leave due to a lack of confidence in Saudi security:

Saudi Arabia has agreed to improve security and to accept help from foreign troops in checkpoint controls after an unprecedented meeting between alarmed expatriates, western ambassadors and the Saudi foreign minister.

The four-hour meeting, originally suggested by British Ambassador Sherard Cowper-Cole, assembled 40 expatriate employees and the ambassadors of the G8 countries plus 11 other nations in an ornate conference hall overlooking the Red Sea in the hope of stemming the flow of foreign workers fleeing attacks by extreme Islamists.

James Oberwetter, the American ambassador, said Saudi Arabia had agreed to accept foreign assistance in improving the training of security forces at checkpoints, whose often lax appearance has seriously undermined the confidence of expatriates in the police.

Checkpoints set up outside the diplomatic quarter in Riyadh, currently the most sensitive area of the city, are often manned by seven or eight paramilitary troops, two of whom may be checking the contents of car boots while four others sit in the shade of a large khaki beach umbrella sipping tea [emph mine -- CE].

While having the civilian workers who keep Saudi oil flowing run for the hills gives the terrorists a real sense of victory, one cannot blame the workers themselves for making that decision, especially if Saudi security openly gives the impression the Telegraph details. After having a Westerner beheaded by terrorist freaks, I'd hardly feel safe putting my safety in the hands of those who consider their iced tea a higher priority than looking for al-Qaeda operatives at checkpoints. And if, by chance, I happened to be an AQ operative, the sight of security staff focusing on their drinks rather than on the checkpoint would encourage me to think that they may not be on my side, but they're certainly not against me, either.

Saudi Arabia has been fiercely protective of its territory, unwilling to assimilate foreign armies even to protect itself. When the American armies stationed themselves in the kingdom to launch Desert Shield and then Desert Storm, a number of rules had to be promulgated to separate American soldiers, especially females, from the general Saudi populace. Such separation could occur in that case as the main thrust of the deployment was to dislodge Iraq from Kuwait and prevent Saddam from attacking the Saudi oil fields.

However, this new security issue will require foreign troops in much closer proximity to civilian areas, and that may wind up fueling the fire that produced al-Qaeda in the first place. The Saudis obviously understand this, and so their decision to allow the deployment to shore up confidence in their security apparatus speaks volumes about how far the royal family has come in understanding the stakes in the war on al-Qaeda. Prince Saud's statement addressed several aspects of this, as the Telegraph notes:

Prince Saud said the kingdom would agree to foreign help in the training of its urban security forces. "We have a duty to reassure its foreign guests on matters of safety, and a duty as part of its national covenant to protect them."

He also appeared to concede a change in the law under which only Saudi civilians are allowed to carry weapons, as long as they are over 18 and have a permit. Foreigners, like Saudis, "have a right to carry a weapon if they are authorised to do so", Prince Saud said.

Allowing foreigners, especially infidels, to carry firearms in the cradle of Islam shows how serious they are. It also puts AQ on notice that the next Westerner they attempt to hijack may come equipped to handle the situation, requiring them to have a larger -- and more detectable -- presence during their operations in the future.

Caption Contest Winners!

The entries have been judged ... the names have been selected ... and John Kerry has begun his happy dance ...

It must mean that MDatek, this week's guest judge, has readied the winner's list for this week's Captain's Caption Contest! And apparently MDatek is a big Minnesota Vikings fan, which means he's unstable and unpredictable -- so let's see how that plays out, shall we?

Captain's Award (Randy Moss Lateral to Moe Williams - Touchdown!) -- Scotty:

The presumptive democratic nominee, who suspects himself of having a hernia, distracts the audience with his right hand while self-admisitering himself a quick turn-and-cough exam with his left.

You Have The Conn #1 (Brad Johnson touchdown pass to.... Brad Johnson?) -- Jon Henke:

So, what you're telling me is...you put your right hand in...and then you put your right hand out? And that's what it's all about? My god, now there's a song with some nuance!"

You Have The Conn #2 (Michael Bennett rushes for a touchdown of 60 yds or greater in 3 consecutive games) -- the pseudonymous Ben Zeen:

Wait, is that... is that John McCain? (bats eyelashes) Hi John! Over here! Over here! (to man next to him) He looked at me! Did you see?! Did you see! He looked right at me! ... damn pants.

You Have The Conn #3 (The 2003 Vikings spoil the home opener in the newly renovated Lambeau Field) -- Filthy McNasty:

"Yes, I DID just get a manicure this morning. Why do you ask?"

Report To Sick Bay (Pearson pushed off!) -- JPearson:

"Hey, imagine running into Dr. Elders here at the VFW hall. I wonder if she can tell me why it hurts so bad right here when I pee?"

Thanks to everyone who entered, and congratulations to the winners! Remember, here at CQ, everyone's a winner -- just some of us have higher winning percentages than others. Comments on this post will remain open, as usual, in order for the winners to gloat, the others to disparage MDatek's intellect and/or my parentage, and for any other entries submitted just for the sheer enjoyment of amazing your friends and confounding your enemies.

Send me a photograph or an e-mail with a link to a great picture you think should be the subject of our next Caption Contest, and let me know if you'd like to be the guest judge! I'll have another picture for Friday -- so be sure to come back then for the next contest.

Oh, Those Tunnels, And That Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade

The London Telegraph reports that Israeli security forces found several Palestinian terrorist leaders in a tunnel last night and killed them when they refused to surrender, during an operation launched after an attack on a military post earlier:

Israel's most wanted man and six other Palestinian militants have been killed in a raid by paratroopers who found the men huddled in a secret tunnel beneath a house in the old city of Nablus. Among the dead was Nayef Abu Sharkh, 40, the commander of the militant group the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank. Local leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and four other gunmen were also killed.

They found the militants' hideout on Saturday after seeing a fugitive from an earlier encounter in Nablus slip into the house, military officials said.

After the men in the tunnel ignored orders to surrender, the paratroopers lobbed hand grenades and fired automatic weapons through openings at both ends and detonated charges.

Sharkh, as the Telegraph reports, has been at the top of Israel's most-wanted list for a long time, and his involvement with Arafat's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades demonstrates the official links that the Palestinian Authority has to terrorists that target Israeli citizens. Their choice of hiding place also underscores what Israel has said all along about tunnels being built by terrorists in order to evade capture and hide and transit weaponry.

The Palestinians, predictably, swarmed the streets promising revenge, but since none of their leadership have shown the slightest inclination to allow the Jewish state to exist, that threat holds no special fear for Israelis; it simply means that the Palestinians will continue to do business as usual. It's just that they have seven less terrorists with which to do so. Until the Palestinians demonstrate concrete examples of commitment to a two-state solution that guarantees the right of Israel to exist, without playing demographic games like the ludicrous "right of return" into Israel proper, then negotiations are pointless.

Kerry: The Failed Diplomat

John Kerry has made George Bush's supposedly failed diplomacy his major campaign theme this election cycle. Kerry's has trumpeted his long involvement in foreign relations as his main qualification for the Presidency. Now comes word that Kerry's personal diplomacy couldn't resolve a simple contract dispute between two of his own supporters, forcing him to cancel a campaign appearance:

Caught in a labor dispute between his hometown mayor and the city's police and firefighters' unions, Senator John Kerry sided Sunday with the unions. Mr. Kerry had planned to give a speech here on Monday morning to the United States Conference of Mayors.

But members of the city's largest police union, who have been working without a contract for two years, along with the firefighters, who are also in contract talks, have been picketing Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the host of the conference, wherever he goes, and were set to do so Monday at the hotel where Mr. Kerry was scheduled to speak.

With each side hoping to press Mr. Kerry to embarrass the other, his schedule remained up in the air for more than 24 hours as he debated whether to antagonize a crucial Democratic supporter or a union local and its - not to mention his - allies in organized labor, a core Democratic constituency.

By 8 p.m. Sunday, despite what one participant described as "tedious" efforts to broker a solution, Mr. Kerry's aides gave up hope that a deal could be reached to get the unions to suspend their picketing long enough for Mr. Kerry to attend the conference without having to cross the line.

This is but a preview, of course, of what will happen at the convention if the union action isn't stopped by then, but that's not really the story here. For one thing, the union has indicated that it will probably refrain from picketing the convention, as the union's legislative agent, James Barry, said in response to the question: "If John Kerry respects our picket line tomorrow, I think we respect John Kerry." The temptation may be too much to resist, though, as the police have been working for two years without a contract and will never have such leverage over the mayor again.

Speaking of the mayor, Thomas Menino serves as John Kerry's co-chair for his Massachussetts re-election campaign, and he did not sound very happy about his leader's decision yesterday. Earlier, he told reporters that leadership was about making decisions, and it looks like Menino may have hinted that Republican descriptions of Kerry as weak and vacillating may not be far off the mark:

For an ally, though, Mr. Menino also had some pointed words for Mr. Kerry, whose Republican opponents portray him as vacillating and indecisive, when he seemed to dare Mr. Kerry to rebuff a labor union.

"As a candidate, it's about making decisions," Mr. Menino said of Mr. Kerry, repeating a line he used often this weekend. "He has to make that decision. I'm not going to make that decision for him. There's 250 mayors who walked through the lines. Mayors make those decisions every day of the year."

Kerry's inability to negotiate a temporary truce between two of his own supporters, as I said earlier, belies his self-promoted reputation for diplomacy. If Kerry can't find common ground between a Democratic mayor serving on his campaign and a police union which endorsed him for President, how can anyone expect him to negotiate agreements between, say, France and the US on security matters? Pakistan and India? Hell, what about Nancy Pelosi and Denny Hastert?

It appears that Kerry's talent for negotiation has been greatly exaggerated, which makes sense when you look at his legislative record. As has been noted before, Kerry has initiated a relatively paltry number of bills during his nineteen-year tenure in the Senate. This poor track record either shows a lack of interest in the actual work of legislation, or it demonstrates an inability to contruct the necessary coalitions across party lines to push legislation through.

Kerry may continue to vaunt his diplomacy, but for the moment, he's not even fooling Thomas Menino. Why should he be able to fool anyone else?

UPDATE: Welcome to BOTW readers -- hope you take a look around and come back often!

UPDATE II: The association of mayors didn't go without trenchant political commentary -- Governor Mitt Romney subbed for John Kerry, in a last-minute upgrade replacement:

An ally of President Bush, Romney has campaigned in recent weeks for the president's re-election but has stayed out of the dispute between the police union and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, a Democrat. The governor said he would speak to the group as a show of support for Menino.

"A mayor, a governor and a president have a responsibility for making tough decisions and balancing budgets. Senators don't," Romney said. "You always want to support labor and the efforts of labor ... but our first responsibility is to the people." ...

Menino said the unions are undermining Kerry and that he was disappointed with Kerry's decision. "I would think that he would come and talk to the mayors who are making a difference in America every day, who are on the front lines of the issues that face working people," Menino said.

John Kerry -- he even disappoints his campaign co-chairs.

Zarqawi Captured?

The US military is investigating reports that the chief terrorist in Iraq, the al-Qaeda connected Abu al-Zarqawi, may already be in custody, according to Reuters:

The U.S. military said on Monday it was checking unconfirmed reports that al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been captured in Iraq. The Jordanian-born Zarqawi, who Washington says is its number one enemy in Iraq, is accused of masterminding a string of suicide bombings and of the execution of an American and a South Korean hostage.

The reports suggested that Zarqawi had been captured near the town of Hilla, south of Baghdad and in the Polish military area of responsibility.

"We are working on that issue," a U.S. military official said.

A Polish spokesman added: "I cannot confirm that information... When the operation is ongoing at the moment I cannot make any comment."

Wouldn't that be a red-letter day? Capturing Zarqawi and a successful transfer of sovereignty at the same time. If true, Zarqawi's capture will make it easier for the Iraqi government to get a grip on security; even those terrorists not directly affiliated with Zarqawi may rethink the insurrection, such as it is. It would also knock out a key link between Osama bin Laden and the Iraqi terrorist groups operating in the country now.

We'll keep our fingers crossed. (via Memeorandum)

UPDATE: Reuters giveth, and Reuters denieth:

The U.S. military denied reports Monday that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant who Washington says is allied to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, had been captured in Iraq.

"It's not true, the reports are not true," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the U.S. military in Iraq, told Reuters. "We've heard the reports about it, but they are not true."

Too bad. Maybe next time.

Iraq Now Sovereign After Early Handover

The Coalition Provisional Authority turned over sovereignty to Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the interim Iraqi government two days earlier than expected, in what the Washington Post describes as a "hastily arranged ceremony" at 10:26 Baghdad time this morning:

The United States transferred political authority to an interim Iraqi government in a high-security but low-key surprise ceremony on Monday morning that was held inside the U.S.-controlled Green Zone two days before the planned June 30 handover date because of fears of insurgent attacks.

At the hastily arranged ceremony, U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer handed over a signed document in a blue portfolio conveying political authority to the chief judge of Iraq's highest court.

The transfer of power occurred in the office of Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, at 10:26 a.m. local time (2:26 a.m. EDT) before a handful of Iraqi and U.S. officials and journalists. "You are ready now for sovereignty and we think it's an important part of our obligation as temporary custodians to hand it over," Bremer said.

"I have confidence that the Iraqi government is ready to meet the challenges." Bremer also gave Allawi a letter from President Bush asking for formal diplomatic ties with the interim government.

This was Bush's answer to Abu al-Zarqawi and the rest of the terrorists and Ba'athist remnants who set off a series of bombings across Iraq last week, murdering scores of Iraqi civilians and police and attempted to derail the transfer to Iraqi civilian control. Actually, I would not be surprised in the least if this turned out to be not a "hastily arranged" occurrence but a well-planned effort to elude terrorists. I rather suspect that June 28 has been the target date all along.

Of course, the Post's coverage leaves something to be desired. The story includes a silly reference to CPA administrator Paul Bremer as "viceroy" without the scare quotes, as though that were his official title. The Post attempts to evoke the memories of colonialism even as sovereignty is transferred to Iraqis less than 15 months after the fall of Saddam and ahead of an already-ambitious schedule. One wonders if the news media might resent the quick transfer as they also appeared to have been shut out of the event.

Brownshirts?

The echoes of Al Gore's comments have barely faded when he seems to have been proved right by the wrong side, according to Las Vegas' KLAS-TV. Chris Saldana reports that a moviegoer attending Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 was assaulted when he expressed a differing opinion (via Drudge):

The highly anticipated film, Fahrenheit 9/11, came with more than just controversy at one Las Vegas movie theatre. Moviegoer, Richard Streeter, was one of the many who made his way to a theatre to see what the hype was about. After viewing the film, he was greeted outside the theatre by members of the Las Vegas MoveOn.org.

The group was handing out leaflets on the importance of the film. Streeter voiced his view on the movie, "I made the comment, apples and oranges -- Kerry, Bush -- one's no better than the other. You really ain't got much of a choice. This guy comes up to me and says, 'Oh yeah?' " Streeter was then spat on by the same man.

He attempted to call police to report the incident when he was told not to, "A guy standing next to him said why don't you drop it. I said, 'No, I'm calling the police. I'm exercising my right as a citizen, I've been assaulted.' "

But the horror kept on growing for Streeter as he walked to his car on the phone with police, "This guy turns, and totally by surprise takes his hand and bam! It was a big guy. Shoved me onto the ground, I hit my head." A police report has been filed.

The only side trying to stifle dissent and shut down debate, as always, is the Left, either through political correctness or through flat-out assault. Yes, I understand it involved two jerks and that one cannot paint the entire Left with a broad brush on that basis alone, but when you have people like Al Gore -- party leaders -- standing up and calling their opposition "brownshirts" and "Nazis", this is what results. The failure of the Democrats to repudiate Gore's remarks, and the embrace of Moore's fantasies by people like Tom Daschle and Terry McAuliffe, are emblematic of an entire party going over the edge into insanity. And when challenged, the insane often respond violently.

Taking The Afternoon Off

I'll be taking some time off this afternoon and early evening; the family has all returned to California and the First Mate and I will take a drive in the country. She's doing pretty well right now, although she has had some complications with her bladder and a hematoma at her dialysis shunt site since its removal. I want to get her out of the house and give her some relaxation time. I'll return to blogging later tonight.

In the meantime, I'll direct you to two very different but excellent blogs. Check out Highly Moody, a terrific, fun, and well-designed blog by my friend Mel, who is currently trying to unknot some of the Comments problems I'm having with the new MT 3.0 installation. After that, check out INDC Journal, another great blog whose proprietor, Bill, is currently raising funds for the family of a soldier killed in action in Iraq.

More later. Enjoy your day.

Captain's Caption Contest #16!

It's Friday, so it must be time for the Captain's Caption Contest! Out here in Minnesoooooota, the weather is terrific, the weekend's coming up, and the Northern Alliance Radio Network will be on the air tomorrow -- it's enough to make you dance in the aisles ...

Well, maybe that's the Safety Dance.

Anyway, put your best caption entries in the comments section -- NO e-mail, please! (E-mailed entries will be sealed in an empty French wine bottle and placed under the rear tires of Barbra Streisand's hybrid limousine.) The contest will remain open until 8 pm Sunday, June 27th*, at which point the comments will be closed and longtime reader MDatek will pick the winners.

Remember, enter as often as you want, no purchase necessary, winners need not be present to win, and bribes are freely accepted. Let the games begin!

* - Note that the contests will finish on the weekend from now on.

BUMP 6/26: Wow, what a bunch of great responses! Our guest judge will have to make some tough choices...

BUMP 6/27: Just a few hours left! Make sure you read the post below before submitting your comments. The screen will not necessarily update with your comment immediately, but it will display once I've approved it. ...

COMMENTS CLOSED: Going to the judges!

The New Upgrade: Why I Did It & How It Affects You

As I mentioned in my previous post, I upgraded Captain's Quarters underlying program, Movable Type, from its original version (2.661) to the new 3.0 version. Most of the changes will be transparent to you, thanks to the outstanding programming of CQ's designer, Mel from Moxie Design Studios.

Unlike 2.661, 3.0 actually costs money, although I got a discount thanks to a donation I had made earlier to MT. So why do it? The main reason is that the author interface is more elegant, and especially that the folks at MT improved the Java scripts to work within Mozilla. Until now, I've used IE to do most of my authoring, and while I have no particular problem with Microsoft -- I love their Office applications -- the security holes in IE and their mail clients drive me batty.

The other reason, and the one that affects you the most, is that CQ has been bombarded by comment spam lately, and the new MT program does a much better job of blocking it. I had been using MT-Blacklist, a terrific program that sets up a defense against comment spam, but I'd rather use something a bit more robust. MT 3.0 requires comment approval or prior registration before posting. You can preregister for all MT blogs at Typekey, a free service from MT. Once you register and log in, any comments you make on CQ or other MT 3.0 blogs will automatically post. It's painless and MT promises not to spam you in return, and it will allow me to focus on blogging rather than continually updating my Blacklist files to combat the bastards who keep clogging up my comments. Seriously -- it has been a huge problem in both my time and bandwidth.

Let me know if you experience any problems, and I will try to get comments approved as quickly as I can for those who have not yet registered with Typekey. I hope you continue to enjoy Captain's Quarters!

UPDATE: Right now, it appears that the Typekey interface isn't working as planned. Any comments entered are being held, but you're not seeing the notification of that, and so far I can't preapprove anyone. As soon as that's fixed, I will be going through all of my regular commenters to approve you ahead of time. (Yes, Miles, Adaplant, and Arne, you'll be approved -- I swear it's not a vast right-wing conspiracy!)

Cross Your Fingers And Rub The Rabbit's Foot ...

... because I'll be upgrading the blog to Movable Type 3.0 today. Longtime CQ readers know what a Captain Ed-quartebacked upgrade means ... usually, a blog that resembles Picasso on peyote.

UPDATE: Upgrade successful! However, there are a few changes, which I will write in another post.