Yeah, I know that there would be a different reaction if this involved a female defendant and a male officer, but I still can’t help but have some small part of me think that this kid really lucked out. He got dinner, booze, pot, and lucky, and now as a result, he will probably wind up having the charges against him dropped or at least a very lenient sentence.
Category: Current Affairs
Steve Lopez again
Damn … I still don’t agree with him on everything, but you have to admit, he makes a pretty good point here. I just wish the Times covered Gray Davis like they covered Arnold. Then I wouldn’t have a gripe.
Israel attacks training camp in Syria, IDF says
This … is not good. No word on Syria’s reaction yet, although I doubt it will be very friendly.
Opening a Window on North Korea’s Horrors (washingtonpost.com)
North Korea: a horror show. Read the whole thing. (via Instapundit)
Third-year slump
I’m not sure if Hindrocket over at Power Line has had a chance to read this Fred Barnes article at OpinionJournal, but maybe it would make him feel a little bit better. The impression I get so far is that the Democrats are doing all the talking, and that’s accounting for the slipping numbers. As Barnes points out, that’s natural; it’s Presidential election season, with the first round of the primaries coming up in three or four months. When Dubya has a chance to focus on the election, the numbers will move back, probably significantly, unless something goes disastrously wrong in the war.
Did he sell Gray Davis a brain?
Okay, this is just a bit grim, don’t you think? I’d hate to think where all these parts eventually ended up. I do think it’s interesting that this guy was sentenced to a lot more prison time for selling dead body parts than most drunk drivers get sentenced for vehicular homicide — in fact, about six times more.
Oman stages first free elections – Oct. 4, 2003
This is more good news, and a good indicator that our campaign is bearing fruit in other areas. The only way we will ever be safe is to transform dictatorships and creaky monarchies into liberal democracies…
David Kay redux
A guest column by Andrew Apostalou puts it all into perspective. (Thanks to Roger Simon.)
From what I see, we may be the first nation to have such poisonous debate over a war we won, with minimal losses on both sides, and that resulted in liberating over 20 million people (not to mention removing a dangerous regional threat). Does anyone else find this as silly as I do? We knew he was a brutal dictator; we know now that he was actively avoiding compliance with UN resolutions and the terms of the truce that left him in power. At the same time, a significant amount of our overseas military was pinned down enforcing the terms of that truce, and our presence in Saudi Arabia was not helping matters. Eventually we would have to have left, with Saddam in power, which would only embolden other dictators and bin Laden wanna-bes.
The only option we had was to enforce the terms of the truce, regardless of what the UN Security Council says. In effect, we saved the UN from becoming the League of Nations, which also passed a lot of resolutions against dictators with absolutely no intention of enforcing them. In fact, the League’s embarrassing response to Italy over the Ethiopian conquest convinced Hitler that the Western democracies would never actively fight against him. Is that what we want to do again?
Israel Sabotages Peace Again
Once again, those darn Israelis have sabotaged peace again by having the arrogance to die in large numbers when a Palestinian freedom fighter blows herself up in a Haifa restaurant.
You can check out the blogosphere reaction at Little Green Footballs (where it’s about what you’d expect), Power Line, and Roger Simon.
Minnesota Politics: Down and Dirty
Hindrocket blasts off at Minnesota Democrats on the Powerline blog. It certainly looks like Mike Hatch is flailing at anything to ruin Pawlenty. Maybe he’s a protege of Gray Davis.